Month: May 2020

A video of a New York City Police Department van driving into a group of protesters has ignited questions about the NYPD’s response to the demonstrations, and whether the city’s leadership — specifically Mayor Bill de Blasio — has the ability and will to hold the police force accountable.

Protests over the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, engulfed New York City for another night on Saturday, and some turned in violent, with reports of both protester and police aggression. But the police response to some of the demonstrations has drawn outrage from activists and …

Local officials have ordered curfews in dozens of cities and counties across the nation in response to demonstrations spurred by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by police during an arrest in Minneapolis last week.

These protests have grown in size and intensity in the days following Floyd’s killing; although they have largely been peaceful, some looting, property damage, and a number of deaths led officials in at least 39 cities and counties across 21 states to institute curfews. But some criminologists have reservations about curfews, particularly given the scarcity of research about their effectiveness …

While the nation continues to protest the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis and in cities around the country, President Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday afternoon to stoke old grievances: Instead of a message of unity or leadership, or attempting to deescalate the protests, he instead lashed out at the media, antifa, anarchists, and Democratic mayors and governors.

The president praised the Minnesota National Guard, who he said “shut down quickly” “anarchists and ANTIFA” at protests in Minneapolis. It was a clear attempt to paint the uprisings in multiple cities as acts of …

The protests that have risen up in nearly every city in the United States over the past week were sparked by the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by now-fired police officers in Minneapolis. Even though one former officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder, protests have continued night after night because they are not just about that single killing but what it represents: rampant police brutality that seems to have no consequences.

In fact, a recent analysis by advocacy group Mapping Police Violence found that 99 percent of police killings from 2014 to 2019 did …

Nationwide protests over police violence after the death of George Floyd continued to escalate Saturday night. At least 25 cities imposed curfews to try to keep protests, some of which became violent, off the streets. States called up their National Guards. In cities around the country, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas. Some protesters threw glass bottles, stones, and bricks.

Floyd died in Minneapolis on Monday after a police officer, who was charged with murder on Friday, pinned Floyd’s neck to the ground with his knee for nearly 9 minutes while Floyd pleaded for air. Across the country, Floyd’s …

Protests over the police killing of George Floyd, and the larger problem of racial prejudice in American criminal justice, spread across the country on Friday night and into the weekend.

Demonstrators turned out in Minneapolis and in Atlanta. They rallied in Los Angeles and New York City and in Louisville, Kentucky, where 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was recently shot and killed in her own apartment.

A man was shot in Detroit during protests there, according to the Detroit Free Press. The National Guard is being deployed in Minneapolis and Louisville after incidents of …

Governors and mayors in states across the country where protests flared Friday night say a small number of demonstrators, and in some cases out-of-state agitators, are responsible for escalating the events with violence and property damage.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the protesters “are coming in largely from outside of the city, from outside of the region, to prey on everything we have built over the last several decades.”

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said every person who was arrested in the city Friday night was from out of state. “We don’t know these folks,” he said.

“Last night is …

The death of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man killed by police during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests across the country. It has reignited a centuries-long conversation around racism in America and the horrendous ways black people are often treated by police. And it came amid a pandemic that is disproportionately impacting people of color.

On Monday, May 25, Floyd, who had recently lost his job as a restaurant bouncer due to coronavirus-related closures, died after being pinned down under a police officer’s knee for nearly nine minutes. That officer, Derek Chauvin, ignored Floyd’s …

Late Friday night, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision establishing that states still have some power to regulate how many people are allowed to gather in churches during a deadly pandemic.

The case, South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, began on May 11, when a California church sought a lower court order allowing it to hold in-person services, despite a state order requiring places of worship to hold services online to avoid spreading the coronavirus. While the case was pending before the Supreme Court, however, California relaxed its order to allow such in-person services, …

The video is horrific.

George Floyd lies on the ground, facing the back end of a police SUV, as three cops kneel on his body. One of them, Derek Chauvin, has his knee on Floyd’s neck as the helpless man begs for his life.

“I can’t breathe, man. Please understand. Please, man.”

It’s a sadly familiar scene, and quite like one that played out in 1976 after Los Angeles police officers pulled over Adolph Lyons for a broken taillight.

Like Floyd, Lyons was black. The officers met him with guns drawn and ordered him to face the car, …