How the System Treats Cops Differently: The Essential Guide
Eric Garner and Mike Brown are dead, and the men who killed them walked free. Why?
Unarmed People of Color Killed by Police, 1999-2014
On Wednesday, after the announcement that NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo would not be indicted for killing Eric Garner, the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund Twitter posted a series of tweets naming 76 men and women who were killed in police custody since the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo in New York. Starting with the most…
Seattle Cop Who Punched a Handcuffed Woman in the Face Won't Be Charged
A Seattle cop who broke a handcuffed woman's eye socket when he punched her in the face "acted professionally," local prosecutors say.
Jon Stewart Wants to Know What the Fuck Rand Paul Is Talking About
On the second day of his scathing coverage of a grand jury's decision not to indict the cop who choked Eric Garner to death, Jon Stewart remained mostly serious, but some of the things people are saying about the case were too dumb and wrong not to mock. And by "people," I mean Rand Paul.
Can You Breathe? Reflections on Non-Indictments, Activism and Black Life
There isn't enough ink to express our pain. Day after day, month after month, year after year, the pain of being black in America, and across the globe, is apparent. Yesterday I read the headlines and tweets that told me NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the cop that killed Eric Garner, would not be indicted. Daniel…
Cop Allegedly Shot a Female Driver Who Dared to Honk at Him
A Texas cop is facing charges after he allegedly shot a female driver in a road rage incident earlier this month.
Surveillance Video Shows Moments Before Police Killed Black Cosplayer
While America waited for a grand jury to decide whether to indict a police officer in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., a Utah County Attorney ruled the police shooting of another young black man "justified."
Autopsy: Cops Shot Black Anime Cosplayer Four Times in the Back
A state autopsy confirmed that police shot Darrien Hunt, a 22-year-old black man who was carrying a replica samurai sword as part of an anime costume, six times. Four of those shots hit him from behind.
Cop Caught on Video Threatening to "Beat the Shit out of" Teen
A Philadelphia police officer will face disciplinary action after he was caught on video threatening to "beat the shit out of" a teenage boy for "looking him in his fucking eye."
NYPD Harassment Stories: Living in a State of Fear
It's been ten months under Bill de Blasio's leadership and little change has come to New York City. With his first year in office nearing an end, the everyday reality for many of the city's residents remains inescapable: police harassment and brutality have become a constant, and conditions only seem to be worsening.…
NYPD Harassment Stories: Do Cops Unfairly Target the Homeless?
What is our responsibility to the homeless? That might seem too big a question, but it is something I wrestle with occasionally. It's impossible to avoid the less fortunate men and women who populate our streets—the father forced to seek charity from strangers on subway cars so he can feed his family or the woman…
N.C. Cops Pepper Spray Black Teen Inside His Own Home
A black teenager in Fuquay-Varina, N.C. was pepper sprayed by police inside his own home earlier this week after neighbors reported him as a burglar.
Pregnant Woman: NYPD Beat My Belly With a Baton
New details have emerged in the case of Sandra Amezquita's rough arrest last Saturday that was in part captured on video. In the video, an NYPD officer slams Amezquita, who is pregnant, belly-first into the ground. She and her attorney now say cops beat her belly with a baton.
NYPD Investigating This Police Rumble in Brooklyn
Animal NY reports that the NYPD's Internal Affairs department is investigating this video of a large group of New York City cops slamming several bystanders to the ground in Sunset Park, Brooklyn last weekend.
NYPD Harassment Stories: Feeling Helpless When an Officer Hits on You
Amid the police terror that has swept the nation these last few months, there has been a missing facet from the conversation: the fact that women are brutalized by cops just as severely as men. For every John Crawford and Ezell Ford there is an Ersula Ore or a Marlene Pinnock (you can view the footage of Pinnock's…
Victim Says NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Turned Into a Violent Pile-On
The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating a stop-and-frisk that allegedly turned into a violent pile-on when the suspect dared to ask the officers why they were investigating him.
Man Tased By Police While Picking Up Kids: "The Problem Is I'm Black"
In January, a St. Paul, Minn., father was tased and arrested by police while waiting in a public seating area to pick his kids up from school. His video of the disturbing encounter just surfaced this week—in the description on YouTube, he says the phone he used to record it was confiscated until months after the…
Video Shows Florida Cop Aiming Gun at Black Men Who Won't Stop Filming
With police brutality at the forefront of the national conversation, a Florida police chief took to the YouTube comments section Tuesday to defend the actions of an officer caught on video pointing his weapon into a car full of black men who refused to stop filming the cops.
NYPD Harassment Stories: Stopped for Walking With a Black Guy
Given the substantial media attention surrounding the recent killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner by law enforcement, it can be hard to remember that not all police officers are bad. But the opposite proves just as true, however unpleasant the reality: not all police officers are good. In fact, a recent study…
What I've Learned from Two Years Collecting Data on Police Killings
A few days ago, Deadspin’s Kyle Wagner began to compile a list of all police-involved shootings in the U.S. He’s not the only one to undertake such a project: D. Brian Burghart, editor of the Reno News & Review, has been attempting a crowdsourced national database of deadly police violence. We asked Brian to write…
