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Why Black Lives Matter is going global
Posted on July 19, 2016 1 Comment
The three-year-old Black Lives Matter movement has always been considered an American phenomenon. After all, no other country has the number of deaths by gun violence or the number of police shootings that we do in the United States. But the movement has resonated in several countries across the world, both in solidarity with those […]
First step in fixing Chicago police: Acknowledge racism
Posted on April 13, 2016 Leave a Comment
Chicago is one of many big cities facing a lack of faith in its police force. The reasons for this are myriad, neighborhood by neighborhood. Now a new task force report says bluntly that the department must face its racist history. Although the entire report is not yet released, an 18-page executive summary calls the […]
FAIR COPS: A revolutionary approach to Chicago police reform
Posted on December 3, 2015 1 Comment
Chicago doesn’t need another commission to figure out what’s wrong with city policing. What it needs is a truly independent review agency. In the wake of the video showing Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times — released 13 months after the October 2014 killing and only after a lawsuit […]
Laquan’s killing wasn’t cop’s first go-round with misconduct
Posted on November 25, 2015 Leave a Comment
When Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald 16 times, it was one more step in the 14-year veteran officer’s history with the Chicago Police Department. Van Dyke was charged with misconduct 20 times, 18 of which were apparently carried through to a disciplinary hearing. In every case, he got off, including the […]
Black Lives Matter offers 10-point plan to curb police killing
Posted on August 21, 2015 4 Comments
The Black Lives Matter movement has finally announced what many have been waiting for — a specific national platform aiming to curb police violence and reform the criminal justice system. The complete policy outline is detailed at a new website called Campaign Zero. Here are some of the specifics from the site: More than 1,000 people […]
Chicago’s dubious honor: Most police fatal shootings
Posted on July 27, 2015 Leave a Comment
Its “second-city” moniker notwithstanding, this is not a No. 1 rating a city should be proud of: Chicago leads the nation in the most fatal shootings by police in the last five years. According to figures from the Better Government Association, Chicago police shot and killed 70 people in the last five years — the […]
Dear media in Baltimore: Take police leaks with grain of salt
Posted on May 1, 2015 1 Comment
In a stunning turn of events, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has announced that the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African-American man who died in police custody on April 19, has been ruled a homicide, and that six police offers face a range of charges, from false imprisonment to assault to manslaughter to second-degree […]
We all need to study underlying causes of Baltimore violence
Posted on April 29, 2015 Leave a Comment
If you live in or near a city, as the majority of Americans do these days, you’re probably not surprised at reports of violence, whether they’re committed by citizens, police, or both. Certainly the events in Baltimore are different — it’s not the norm for teenagers to leave school and start looting or setting fire […]
GOP has selective memory when police are killed
Posted on December 24, 2014 1 Comment
Remember Jerad and Amanda Miller? In June of 2014, they were among the Tea Party, anti-government followers of scofflaw and tax cheat Cliven Bundy on his Nevada ranch, who refused to pay his cattle grazing fees. The Millers, who had an online history on social media of white supremacy and militia movements, decided to start […]
NYC police officers killed; GOP exploits. What else is new?
Posted on December 22, 2014 Leave a Comment
Well, that didn’t take long. Within hours of two New York City police officers being shot as they sat in a squad car, Republicans started blaming — President Obama and other Democrats. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had several felony convictions and a history of mental illness, shot Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu as they sat in […]
