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Tag: Police

The First Amendment Hasn’t Stopped Police From Harassing Copwatchers
In this March 27, 2016 photograph, two members of the Peaceful Streets Project film a police officer in the Rundberg area of Austin, Texas. (Facebook / Peaceful Streets Project)
April 23, 2016
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The First Amendment Hasn’t Stopped Police From Harassing Copwatchers

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and Truthout

At a protest in downtown Denver, on April 29, 2015, a police officer stole Jessica Benn’s smartphone.

Benn had been filming her husband, Jesse, from the safety of the sidewalk as police arrested him. That was enough for her to be targeted and to have her property illegally seized.

“An officer just stepped up to me and grabbed it right out of my hand,” she told Truthout. “Right behind him was an officer in SWAT gear who then took me and pushed me up against a bus with a baton across my neck and held me there.”

Benn grew increasingly alarmed as the officer ignored her questions.

“It was very chaotic, people were yelling and getting arrested all around us, and the nature of the arrests were very violent. So at that point I was concerned about my safety and I told this officer that I was pregnant and could he please not hurt my stomach.”

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Leak Reveals Denver Police Use Undercover ‘Shadow Teams’ To Target Protest Leaders
In this November 12, 2011 photograph, a row of riot police block a path in Denver's Lincoln Park during the eviction of Occupy Denver. (Flickr / Daniel Holton)
February 4, 2016
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Leak Reveals Denver Police Use Undercover ‘Shadow Teams’ To Target Protest Leaders

Posted in Journalism, MintPress News, and Occupy Wall Street

A leaked police manual reveals how Denver police respond to marches and other forms of protest, including their use of undercover “platoons” of officers to pick out leaders for later arrest.

On Jan. 19, Unicorn Riot, an independent media collective with several members in the state, published a heavily redacted version of the 2011 edition of the “Denver Police Department Crowd Management Manual” obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request. Days later, an anonymous source sent them an unredacted copy of the 2008 edition of the manual. The two editions appear to have few differences and the policies described in both versions match the behavior of police toward protests, according to activists and journalists interviewed by MintPress News.

“This manual has been a tremendous help to our reporting in terms of understanding the police apparatus that is deployed at protests,” representatives of Unicorn Riot told MintPress by email.

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The Color Of Terrorism: Who Gets Charged And Why?
Two hijabi women hold signs expressing solidarity with the victims of the Charleston Shooting at a June 18, 2015 vigil in Washington, D.C. (Flickr / Stephen Melkisethian)
December 8, 2015
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The Color Of Terrorism: Who Gets Charged And Why?

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

What constitutes terrorism? Recent mass shootings in the United States, including those in San Bernardino, California, and Colorado Springs, have renewed a debate about how to define these disturbing and deadly incidents.

One part of the argument hinges on how journalists refer to these crimes in the media, with some, such as Jack Jenkins, arguing that Robert Louis Dear, the shooter who killed three people and wounded nine at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in November, is clearly a terrorist. By contrast, Kevin Gosztola observes that the term terrorism is essentially meaningless due to misuse.

Beyond how the media discusses mass killings, another factor is when and how courts decide to bring terrorism charges against a suspect. On Nov. 30, a Colorado court charged Dear with first-degree murder, but it could take weeks or months longer before Dear could face additional charges, including terrorism, amid an ongoing federal investigation. At the same time, the shooting in San Bernardino is already being treated as terrorism by federal investigators.

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Can Being White Save You From A Fatal Police Shooting?
Police drive a militarized armored vehicle to a Black Lives Matter protest in Baltimore. April 29, 2015. (Flickr / Arash Azizzada)
December 1, 2015
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Can Being White Save You From A Fatal Police Shooting?

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Last week, a white man was captured alive after a five-hour shootout with police at a Planned Parenthood clinic that claimed the lives of three and injured nine. Coming just days after the one-year anniversary of Tamir Rice’s death, and amid a number of high-profile police brutality protests, the violent incident has renewed a debate about race and policing in the United States.

On Friday, Robert Lewis Dear barricaded himself inside the health clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he engaged in an ongoing fire-fight with police before being captured alive. Among the victims were a university police officer, a mother of two, and an Iraq War veteran with two children. At least five of the other injured victims were police officers.

Earlier that week, activists took the streets in Cleveland to mark one year since the death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy, who was killed by police while playing in a park with a toy gun. It is legal to openly carry firearms in Ohio, yet video footage of the shooting shows police opening fire on the boy within just two seconds of their arrival in the park. Police were slow to provide medical attention to the boy, even detaining his sister when she tried to provide medical aid. He died the next day.

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Activists Occupy The Minneapolis Police Department After Shooting Of Jamar Clark
Protesters rally with a #Justice4Jamar sign in Minneapolis, Minnesota after the county attorney declined to charge the police that killed Jamar Clark. March 30, 2015. (Flickr / Fibonacci Blue)
November 17, 2015
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Activists Occupy The Minneapolis Police Department After Shooting Of Jamar Clark

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

After the weekend shooting of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, protesters camped overnight in a local police station, saying that they won’t leave until they receive justice.

Jamar Clark is on life support after the shooting, which took place early Sunday morning at the intersection of James and Plymouth Aves. in North Minneapolis. Numerous eyewitnesses at the scene, some of whom can be seen shouting on in a YouTube video uploaded on Sunday, claim that Clark was handcuffed at the time of the incident, though police deny that this was the case:

Like many other major cities, Minneapolis police have paid out millions in lawsuits over police conduct in recent years. In October, the city settled a lawsuit for $122,000 regarding a 2012 incident in which police allegedly assaulted a black man over a gun he was legally permitted to carry.

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Over $1 Trillion Spent Since Nixon Began The War On Drugs
Richard Nixon's presidential portrait. December 24, 1971. (Wikimedia Commons / White House)
November 12, 2015
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Over $1 Trillion Spent Since Nixon Began The War On Drugs

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The “war on drugs” costs Americans a staggering amount of money every year that it persists. Despite the billions they receive, federal, state and local law enforcement have a proven inability to stem the flow of drugs on the nation’s streets.

Since Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in June 1971, the cost of that “war” had soared to over $1 trillion by 2010. Over $51 billion is spent annually to fight the drug war in the United States, according to Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting more humane drug policies.

It’s also taken a massive toll on human lives. In 2013, at least 2.2 million people were incarcerated in the U.S., withsome estimates reaching 2.4 million, making the U.S. home to the world’s largest prison population. A vast number of those prisoners are victims of the war on drugs, reported Alejandro Crawford in U.S. News and World Report in March:

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