When Your Rape Doesn’t Count
Something about the knock at the front door made Mary-Scott Hunter think a neighbor was in trouble. She had just arrived home from her job at a corporate training company, and she was mulling over an earlier fight with her girlfriend, but the sound jolted her out of it: five loud, fast raps. She could…
Michael Bloomberg Apologizes for “Stop and Frisk” Just a Few Months After Defending It
Thibault Camus/AP Since leaving office in 2013, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has consistently backed his police department’s “stop and frisk” program in which black and Latino people were nine times more likely to be stopped by police than white people, all in an effort to reduce crime. As recently as January of this…
Fort Worth Police Officer Fatally Shoots Black Woman in Her Own Home
RiverNorthPhotography/Getty Images The Fort Worth police department is scrambling to explain how and why an officer shot and killed a woman in her own home over the weekend. Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black woman, was declared dead early Saturday morning. The police received an “open structure” call around 2:30 a.m. from a neighbor who was concerned…
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders Are Leading the Democratic Candidates on Criminal Justice Reform
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren greet each other at the Democratic Presidential Debate in Detroit in July.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images On Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled her plan to reform the criminal justice system, just two days after Sen. Bernie Sanders revealed his own. Both presidential candidates are proposing similar changes that would have been…
California Just Passed New Limits on Police Use of Force. Not Everyone Is Happy With the Compromise.
California Gov. Gavin NewsomAssemblymember Shirley Weber/Facebook California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law one of the country’s most substantive police use-of-force bills on Monday. The legislation nominally attempts to narrow the parameters for when officers are allowed to use deadly force on the job—marking a significant turning point for the state, which is the country’s…
Attorney General William Barr Slams Progressive Prosecutors as “Dangerous”
Attorney General William Barr speaks during a tour of a federal prison on July 8 in Edgefield, South Carolina.John Bazemore/AP In a speech to law enforcement officers on Monday, Attorney General William Barr condemned a wave of progressive-minded district attorneys who have been elected in cities like Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago on pledges to reduce the…