California sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a teenager with autism who was holding a gardening tool over the weekend, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and a family attorney said.

"From "one of the most interesting sociologists of his generation" and a former cop, the story of three departments and their struggle to change aggressive police culture and achieve what Americans want: fair, humane, and effective policing"--;Currently, only 14-percent of Americans believe that "policing works pretty well as it is." Gross takes readers inside three police departments whose chiefs signed on to replace aggressive culture with models focused on equity before the law, social responsibility, racial reconciliation, and the preservation of life. In doing so, he opens a window onto what the police could be if we took seriously the change of creating a more just America. -- adapted from jacket

"An unforgettable and stirring memoir in the vein of Free Cyntoia, Just Mercy, and The Sum of Us that both inspires and upends our understanding about the future of policing in the United States. In 2012, nineteen-year-old Leon Ford was shot five times by a Pittsburgh police officer as he was racially profiled during a case of mistaken identity. When he woke up in the hospital, he was faced with two life-changing realities: he was a new father, and he was paralyzed from the waist down. Now, Ford reveals how he faced these new truths and discovered the power of forgiveness and letting go of his hatred. He explains how his harrowing experience inspired his lifelong commitment to social activism. In the wake of countless similar shootings across the country over the years, he has dedicated himself to bridging the gap between the police and the communities they are supposed to serve. With his compassionate voice, Ford not only offers fresh, counterintuitive advice for social change but also demonstrates how together, we can end police brutality and heal as a country. As he once said, "Lead with love. Start compassionate conversations even with individuals and systems that have caused you pain. I know from experience that you can make your pain purposeful.""--

Six white former police officers in Mississippi who called themselves the “Goon Squad” have pleaded guilty to raiding a home on false drug charges and torturing two Black men while yelling racist slurs at them, and then trying to cover it up. We speak with Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker about how, on January 24, six deputies in Braxton, Mississippi, raided the home they were staying in and attacked them, and how they are speaking out to demand justice. Meanwhile, the deputies have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019, in which two of the men died. We also speak with civil rights attorney Malik Shabazz, who is representing Jenkins and Parker in a federal lawsuit against the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. Shabazz asserts that the majority-white Rankin County, which is 20 miles away from majority-Black Jackson, Mississippi, is “infested with white supremacists” who “have decided 'Rankin County is for whites'” and seek to enforce it through state-sanctioned violence and torture, overseen and covered up by Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey. “We demand that Bryan Bailey step down,” says Shabazz. Parker adds, “We want justice for everyone that has gone through this with Rankin County.”

Tou Thao is the last former Minneapolis police officer convicted in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.

"The barbed debate over racial justice is exploding this week on Capitol Hill, as Democrats in both chambers are charging ahead with a host of proposals to empower minorities amid the national clash over police bias, brutality and the future of law enforcement."

"President Joe Biden and two of his top cabinet members on Wednesday promised U.S. economic and criminal justice reforms that would benefit Black communities at a conference organized by longtime activist Al Sharpton."

"The city of Minneapolis and its police department are willfully subverting our state's Government Data Practices Act by withholding public data about disciplinary action taken against police for serious misconduct according to a new lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Minnesota in state court Thursday."

"This book explores how scientific evidence on the human mind might help to explain why racial equality is so elusive"--;"Implicit Racial Bias: A Social Science Overview Justin D. Levinson, Danielle M. Young & Laurie A. Rudman A little after 2 a.m. on the first day of 2009, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART") Officer Johannes Mehserle arrived at the Fruitvale BART station after receiving reports of a fight on a train. Upon arrival at the station, he was directed by another officer to arrest Oscar Grant, who, along with other fight suspects, was sitting by the wall of the station. As Mehserle, who was joined by other officers, prepared to arrest Grant, Grant began to stand up, and Mehserle forced him to the ground face first. Another officer stood over Grant and uttered, "Bitch-ass n-." As Mehserle prepared to handcuff Grant, some eyewitnesses testified that Grant resisted by keeping his hands under his torso. Although Grant was laying face down and was physically restrained by another police officer at the time of his alleged resistance, Mehserle removed his department issued handgun from its holster and shot Grant in the back from point blank range. Grant died later that morning"--

On December 4, 1969, attorney Jeff Haas was in a police lockup in Chicago, interviewing Fred Hampton's fiance. She described how the police pulled her from the room as Fred lay unconscious on their bed. She heard one officer say, "He's still alive." She then heard two shots. A second officer said, "He's good and dead now." She looked at Jeff and asked, "What can you do?" Fifty years later, Haas finds that there is still an urgent need for the revolutionary systemic changes Hampton was organizing to accomplish. With a new prologue discussing what has changed-and what has not-The Assassination of Fred Hampton remains Haas's personal account of how he and People's Law Office partner Flint Taylor pursued Hampton's assassins, ultimately prevailing over unlimited government resources and FBI conspiracy. Not only a story of justice delivered, the book puts Hampton in the spotlight as a dynamic community leader and an inspiration for those in the ongoing fight against injustice and police brutality.

"An actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide. Police brutality trials, white supremacist rallies, Black Lives Matter protests. Race is the story behind many of the issues that make headlines every day. But to talk about race itself--to examine the way it shapes our society, visibly and invisibly--can feel frightening and overwhelming, and even dangerous. In [this book], Ijeoma Oluo offers a clarifying discussion of the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on the issues that divide us. Positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans, and answers the questions readers don't dare ask, like 'What is cultural appropriation?' 'Why do I keep being told to check my privilege?' and 'If I don't support affirmative action, does that make me racist?' With language that's bold, prescient, funny, and finely tuned, Oluo offers hope for a better way by showing what's possible when connections are made across the divide."

In an eerie echo of the 2016 presidential campaign, President Trump has denied that the brutal murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin

Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it’s an old story. Why? Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for? Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.

In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America. Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy--from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans--has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair--and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

"The great American racial wound is periodically hidden from our view, covered over by civil rights legislation, by the economic success of a few people of color who are held up as evidence of its suture, and by the widespread denial of its existence by white Americans. Now, as the number of Black men and boys shot down by the police or by armed white citizens mounts, as anti-immigration rhetoric increases in stridency and Band-Aid solutions by “progressives” are offered in response, as income inequality deepens, the scab is torn away. Structural inequality seems more entrenched than ever and the denial of white Americans both more inexplicable and more intractable. However, the evidence of ongoing racism seems insufficient either to convince white Americans that racism is both real and matters or to compel them to address racism in any systemic way."

"New Policy Limits Circumstances in Which Federal Law Enforcement Can Use Chokeholds and 'No-Knock' Entries"