California Lawmakers Pass Bill Aimed At Curbing Deadly Police Shooting

The California State Senate passed a bill to raise the standard for law enforcement’s use of deadly force, with the goal of reducing fatal police shootings. It replaces the “current vague standard” that officers can use deadly force “whenever reasonable” with a stricter standard allowing for deadly force “only when necessary.”

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This police robot could make traffic stops safer

A California man has built a robot that he hopes will take some of the danger out of traffic stops — those anxiety-provoking and potentially deadly encounters between police officers and motorists that play out on American roads more than 50,000 times a day. Such encounters lead to many injuries and deaths each year — particularly among black motorists, who are more likely than their white counterparts to experience violence from police.

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A Black Officer, a White Woman, a Rare Murder Conviction.

In this week’s edition of Race/Related from the New York Times, journalist John Eligon brings us the news out of Minneapolis, where police officer Mohamed Noor has been found guilty by a racially diverse jury for the shooting and killing of Justine Ruszczyk. Despite the relief that the justice system can actually hold its law enforcement officers accountable, some have found the circumstances of the verdict a bit ironic: the officer convicted is a black, Somali, Muslim man, and his victim was a white woman. With the tables of race turned in this case from the usual story (white cop shoots, kills black man), there are those who question whether the guilty verdict in this case can be chalked up to justice or hypocrisy. At the end of the day, all we can do is let the facts of the case speak for themselves – regardless of whose skin is what color – and let justice be served to all under the law, even those whose duty it is to enforce it.

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Study Finds Racial Bias In Police Traffic Stops And Searches

Black drivers were about 20 percent more likely than whites to be pulled over, according to an analysis of nearly 100 million cases. By Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, Huffington Postpolice A large-scale study of traffic stops across the U.S. found significant black-versus-white disparities in how often drivers were stopped and searched by police, as well as evidence of…

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Louisiana police issue statement regarding officers’ blackface pictures

By Brianna Rhodes, thegrio.com A Louisiana police department is the latest culprit tied to a blackface yearbook scandal this month. According to NBC News, an old photo has circulated revealing two white Baton Rouge officers, Lt. Don Stone and Capt. Frankie Caruso,  wearing paint on their face and body appearing to be Black. The picture, which is over twenty-years-old, has caused the…

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White Woman Calls Police On Black Man Watching His Son’s Soccer Game

A white woman who called the police on a black man cheering on his son at a soccer game in Florida has earned the nickname “Golfcart Gail.” It is the latest incident in which a white woman has called the police on a black person despite there having been no apparent crime. Photographs of the ordeal were uploaded to Facebook by another parent at the match.

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A Sandra Bland Documentary Is Coming to HBO

HBO revealed their fall lineup of documentaries, including Say Her Name, a documentary about Sandra Bland’s life. The documentary will be told through various clips of her mother and sisters and clips from her video blogs.

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