Tag: police violence

Tulsa motel guard’s deadly encounter with guest raises issues of race, private-security oversight

Washington Post logoThe former sheriff’s sergeant was charged with manslaughter after the fatal shooting of a black father of three. State officials say they lack authority to review allegations of racial discrimination in granting security-guard licenses.

Carlos Carson was crossing the parking lot of the Tulsa motel where he had stayed the night when a shower of pepper spray hit him in the face, seemingly out of nowhere.

Overnight, the 36-year-old’s car had been vandalized, and he had exchanged words over the damage with the motel’s manager and later its armed private security guard, Christopher Straight. Carson was in the process of booking another night on June 6.

But as Carson walked outside the motel, a cup of coffee in his hand, Straight instigated an incident that police would later call an unprovoked attack, one that places the role of armed security guards — especially those with a checkered past in law enforcement — in the middle of the nation’s current conversation over police reform. Continue reading.

FBI launched database on police use of force last year, but only 40 percent of police participated

Washington Post logoFBI hoped to begin publishing partial data last year, but nothing has been released yet

On Tuesday, President Trump signed an executive order calling for, among other things, the establishment of a database on police use of force. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans included a similar provision in their own reform bill. But the FBI already has such a database — and so far a majority of police are not participating in it.

The FBI launched that program, the National Use-of-Force Data Collection project, last year. Now, with another wave of protests against police brutality gripping the country, many police agencies have not responded to the voluntary call for information about their officers — only 40 percent submitted their data for 2019, the FBI said. And the database has yet to be published. The first report is planned for this summer.

In his executive order on police reform issued Tuesday, President Trump called for “a database to coordinate the sharing of information” among law enforcement agencies on “instances of excessive use of force related to law enforcement matters,” and said the attorney general “shall regularly and periodically make available to the public aggregated and anonymized data from the database.” It was not immediately clear if the FBI’s use-of-force project will be the vehicle for that order. Continue reading.

Officer who shot Rayshard Brooks charged with murder

Axios logoThe Fulton County district attorney announced at a press conference on Wednesday that former officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta last week, will be charged with 11 counts, including felony murder and aggravated assault.

The big picture: Rolfe fatally shot Brooks in a Wendy’s parking lot after a struggle, setting off another wave of protests that had taken place since the killing of George Floyd. Officer Devin Brosnan, who was also present during the incident, faces three charges, including aggravated assault.

  • Prosecutors say they reviewed eight videos related to the incident. As Brooks struggled from his injuries, officers stood on his shoulder, and kicked him while he lay on the ground. Continue reading.

Senate GOP unveils policing reform bill that would discourage, but not ban, tactics such as chokeholds and no-knock warrants

Washington Post logoSenate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a policing reform bill that would discourage, but not ban, tactics such as chokeholds and no-knock warrants, offering a competing approach to legislation being advanced by House Democrats that includes more directives from Washington.

The Republican proposal, which Senate leaders said would be considered on the floor next week, veers away from mandating certain policing practices, as the Democratic plan does.

Instead, it encourages thousands of local police and law enforcement agencies to curtail practices such as chokeholds and certain no-knock warrants by withholding federal funding to departments that allow the tactics or do not submit reports related to them. Continue reading.

Parties collide over police reform

The Hill logoThe partisan battle over police reform hits a critical juncture on Wednesday, when House Democrats will tee up their sweeping reform package for a floor vote and Senate Republicans unveil a similar but likely less far-reaching alternative.

Both parties are facing heavy pressure to revamp the nation’s law enforcement culture after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody last month. And the competing proposals are each designed to assuage the historic public outcry that’s followed, as marchers have taken to the streets in cities across the country to demand an end to racial profiling and police brutality.

While the goals are the same, however, the partisan approaches are not. And to reach an agreement, the sides have plenty of work to do under the glaring spotlight of public scrutiny and the reluctant gaze of a president who’s been wary to police the police. Continue reading.

Protester shoved by Buffalo police is unable to walk, attorney says

The Hill logoMartin Gugino, the 75-year-old activist who Buffalo, N.Y., police knocked to the ground and hospitalized, is unable to walk after his injury, his attorney said Tuesday.

“I am not at liberty to elaborate at this time other than to confirm that his skull was fractured. While he is not able to walk yet, we were able to have a short conversation before he became too tired. He is appreciative of all of the concern about him but he is still focused on the issues rather than himself,” Kelly Zarcone told CNN in a statement.

Zarcone had previously said Gugino has a fractured skull after the confrontation. Video of the incident shows two officers shoving Gugino back and leaving him on the sidewalk bleeding and motionless after he fell to the group. Continue reading.

Officials familiar with Lafayette Square confrontation challenge Trump administration claim of what drove aggressive expulsion of protesters

Washington Post logoDuring the nearly two weeks since authorities charged at peaceful protesters to push them from D.C. streets — about 30 minutes before President Trump walked through the area for a photo op — his aides, the attorney general and federal law enforcement officials have sought to shield the president from political fallout with a simple defense: one scene, they say, had nothing to do with the other.

The notion that the street-clearing offensive around Lafayette Square was already planned, and separate from Trump’s decision to visit a nearby church, has emerged as the administration’s central explanation for scenes of federal officers shoving protesters with shields and firing pepper balls, chemical grenades and smoke bombs at retreating crowds on June 1.

“This was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd. It was an operation to move the perimeter one block,” Attorney General William P. Barr told CBS News last week. Continue reading.

“SNL” Alum Jay Pharoah Says LAPD Officers Pulled Guns On Him While He Was Walking And Kneeled On His Neck

“I could have easily been Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd.”

Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah said in an Instagram post Friday that he was recently stopped by LAPD officers with guns drawn and cuffed while one of them put a knee to his neck.

Pharoah revealed the encounter along with security video of the incident, showing four officers stopping the comedian and ordering him to the ground with guns drawn.

“As he’s looking at me I’m thinking that he’s making a mistake,” Pharoah said in the post. “I’m looking at him, and I’m looking past me because I’m like, whoever they’re about to get, it’s about to get terrible. No, he was coming to get me.” Continue reading.

George Floyd died after officers didn’t step in. These police say they did — and paid a price.

Washington Post logoBUFFALO — When video of Buffalo police officers shoving and then walking past a bleeding, unmoving protester went viral, former Buffalo police officer Cariol Horne thought back to 2006 when, she says, a white colleague choked a handcuffed black man.

Horne says she told him to stop, then yanked the bigger officer’s arm away. According to the Buffalo News, the colleague accused her of jumping on him while he struggled for control. No one filmed the moment; other officers were there, according to news reports, but none backed her story during an independent arbitration, and Horne was fired.

“I always say that if I had to do it again, I would,” she told The Washington Post. Continue reading.

How Police Unions Became Such Powerful Opponents to Reform Efforts

New York Times logoHalf a decade after a spate of officer-involved deaths inspired widespread protest, many police unions are digging in to defend members.

Over the past five years, as demands for reform have mounted in the aftermath of police violence in cities like Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore and now Minneapolis, police unions have emerged as one of the most significant roadblocks to change. The greater the political pressure for reform, the more defiant the unions often are in resisting it — with few city officials, including liberal leaders, able to overcome their opposition.

They aggressively protect the rights of members accused of misconduct, often in arbitration hearings that they have battled to keep behind closed doors. And they have also been remarkably effective at fending off broader change, using their political clout and influence to derail efforts to increase accountability.

While rates of union membership have dropped by half nationally since the early 1980s, to 10 percent, higher membership rates among police unions give them resources they can spend on campaigns and litigation to block reform. A single New York City police union has spent more than $1 million on state and local races since 2014. Continue reading.