Civil Rights Movements & the Law

A study published in February 2018 by the American Journal of Public Health was conducted to update previous examinations of racial/ethnic disparities in the use of lethal force by law enforcement in the United States. Join HeinOnline as we take a deeper dive into this hot topic.

This ACLU research report, “The Other Epidemic: Fatal Police Shootings in the Time of COVID-19,” examines whether circumstances surrounding the public health crisis — unprecedented societal isolation

The Globe collected 10 years worth of public records from the Boston Police Department and created this database. Records include an internal investigations log, discipline, awards, case summaries, arbitration and civil service decisions, and payroll. The database covers 3,095 internal affairs cases involving 7,500 total allegations and data regarding 1,553 officers. One case may contain multiple allegations and multiple officers. The BPD records have holes. Pending cases do not include officers’ names and neither do some completed cases. In all, about 1,840 charges belong to officers whose identity was not released. Some officers in the database are no longer on the force, and some may have changed rank. The data spans January 2010 to August 2020.

Conversations about police reform in lawmaking and legal scholarship typically take a narrow view of the multiple, complex roles that policing plays in American society, focusing primarily on their techniques of crime control. This Article breaks from that tendency, engaging police reform from a sociological perspective that focuses instead on the noncriminal functions of policing. In particular, it examines the role of policing in the daily maintenance of racial residential segregation, one of the central strategies of American racial inequality. Unlike previous work that touches on these issues, this Article argues that police reformers and police leaders should adopt an anti-segregation approach to policing. It also offers legal frameworks and policy prescriptions that flow from an anti-segregation ethic in police governance.

As protests draw attention to killings of African-Americans, advocates are demanding more coverage of violent policing in Latino communities.

The repeal of a controversial law means previously secret allegations of misconduct have now been made public

In a three year span, Latinos in California represented 46% of deadly police shootings – second to the rates for African Americans

Virginia's attorney general has directed his civil rights office to investigate a possible "pattern of misconduct" by police in the town of Windsor after officers drew their guns and used pepper spray on a Black uniformed U.S. Army officer during a traffic stop.

Officers and officials also donated to fundraisers for far-right activists and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans

PHOENIX (AP) — The Tucson, Arizona, police chief on Wednesday offered his resignation two months after a 27-year-old man died while handcuffed and placed face-down, resulting in the resignation of three officers the chief said had violated department policy...

$1.7 billion budget passed 6-1, with Lane Santa Cruz voting against it.

On the spectre of anti-black violence, and raising sons.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Dallas’ Rick Carlisle now starts every interview session by reading from a calendar that highlights something that happened on that day in the country’s racial history...

An off-duty police officer took two women to the ground outside a Tucson restaurant, kneeling on the neck of one. His colleagues investigating the incident made a troubling choice about

Protests over the US police killings of Black people have spread across the US, and worldwide.

Without the proper context, it is impossible to understand the mushroom cloud of uprisings that are exploding across the country in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others.

Trio of former Minneapolis officers found guilty of violating the civil rights of Floyd, murdered by Derek Chauvin in May 2020

Police in Kenosha told armed vigilantes, “We appreciate you guys. We really do.” Then one of them killed two protesters.

Bullets crashed through the walls of Brandy Earthman’s house on Minneapolis’ north side one evening this summer. The shots sheared through the door of the living room where her children were playing. One severed a bone in her 19-year-old son’s arm.

Two sheriff’s deputies in South Carolina were fired on Monday over their involvement in the case of the death of a Black man who had died after he was forcibly…

Our latest coverage of protests against racism and police violence around the world following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020.

The murder of George Floyd mobilized the Movement for Black Lives and inspired a national reckoning with police violence and impunity.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis County’s prosecutor announced Thursday that he will not charge the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a dramatic decision that could reopen old wounds amid a renewed and intense national conversation about racial injustice and the police treatment of people of color...

SEATTLE (AP) — An Oregon police officer lost his job and then returned to work after fatally shooting an unarmed Black man in the back...

Filed as part of a motion to dismiss charges against one of the officers, the transcripts also appear to show an officer expressing concern about Floyd's well-being in the moments before his death.

Killing of James Garcia in Arizona renews questions about systemic problems at one of country’s deadliest police departments

Some officers involved in fatal shootings reportedly marked those incidents with backyard barbecues and were initiated into a "secretive clique."

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s pledge to discipline officers who commit violence does nothing to address NYPD’s culture of rewarding bad behavior.

How NYPD officers continue to use chokeholds — which can be deadly and are explicitly prohibited by the department — on civilians, while officers with substantiated claims of abuse go without any meaningful punishment.