Tag: police brutality

A short history of black women and police violence

Just after midnight on March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, an EMT in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot and killed by police officers who raided her home.

The officers had entered her home without warning as part of a drug raid. The suspect they were seeking was not a resident of the home – and no drugs were ever found.

But when they came through the door unexpectedly, and in plain clothes, police officers were met with gunfire from Taylor’s boyfriend, who was startled by the presence of intruders. In only a matter of minutes, Taylor was dead – shot eight times by police officers. Continue reading.

Senate at logjam over changing ‘qualified immunity’ for police

The Hill logoQualified immunity is emerging as a key sticking point in the congressional debate over reforming the police.

The legal doctrine, which can protect police officers from civil lawsuits, is facing fresh national scrutiny in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in the custody of Minneapolis police.

But what, if anything, to do to change it is creating deep divisions in Congress, just as lawmakers are trying to find a larger deal. Continue reading.

Senate GOP shifts on police reform

The Hill logoSenate Republicans are signaling a sharp shift on police reform, raising the chances that federal legislation could actually clear Congress and reach President Trump’s desk.

Just a week ago, it seemed likely that a legislative package would pass the House but run into a dam in the Senate, where Republicans seemed more focused on retaining their majority and bolstering an economy tanked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet the dark political clouds hovering over the White House and the Senate’s GOP majority coupled with a dramatic swing in polling showing a majority of Americans believe African Americans are the victims of excessive force by police have changed the political winds. Continue reading.

As Trump Calls Protesters ‘Terrorists,’ Tear Gas Clears a Path for His Walk to a Church

New York Times logoIn a Rose Garden speech shaded with anger, President Trump threatened to send the American military to states where governors could not bring under control the protests over police brutality.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday angrily denounced the demonstrators who have used violence to call attention to the deaths of black men killed by the police as “organizers” of terrorism, and threatened to send the American military to states where governors could not bring the protests under control.

“If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents,” Mr. Trump said in brief remarks in the Rose Garden, “then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”

As the president began speaking, the police used tear gas and flash grenades to clear out the crowd that had gathered across the street in Lafayette Square so Mr. Trump could walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church afterward and pose for photographs while holding a Bible outside the boarded-up church. Continue reading.