Day: June 1, 2020

“Contact tracing” has become the term du jour in the coronavirus era, as it’s largely seen as one of our best, time-tested tools to contain the spread of the virus and safely reopen the country. But it’s also controversial, especially with the rollout of digital contact tracing tools, some of which were created by data-greedy tech companies. Privacy advocates have feared that the public health crisis could give rise to surveillance methods that are applied to other areas long after the pandemic has passed. Some are stoking those fears.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety raised alarm bells last …

On Friday, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder of George Floyd, a black man who died after Chauvin pinned his neck with his knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Chauvin was also charged with the lesser crime of second-degree manslaughter.

It is possible, though unlikely, that Chauvin could face federal charges in the future.

The four-day turnaround from Chauvin’s act of brutality to his arrest is fairly swift. By comparison, Freddie Gray suffered fatal injuries while in Baltimore police custody on April 12, 2015, and he died a week later. …

A man was shot and killed in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday night after police officers and National Guard troops began firing into a crowd.

Residents have taken to the streets of Louisville, like thousands of Americans around the country, to protest the killings of black people at the hands of police — specifically, George Floyd, who was pinned in the neck by a Minneapolis police officer, and Breonna Taylor, who was shot in her Louisville apartment in March by officers who were looking for someone else. At many protests across America, police have attacked protesters, beating them with batons, …