police brutality

A Ferguson cop who arrested journalists inside a McDonald's during the protests had allegedly hogtied a 12-year-old child in the kid's own driveway while he was getting the mail. Because if there's one thing the media loves more than a police officer unlawfully detaining reporters, it's the violation of a child's basic human rights.

As the Justice Department probes the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Missouri, history suggests there's no guarantee of a criminal prosecution, let alone a conviction. Federal authorities investigating possible civil rights violations in the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson must meet a difficult standard of proof, a challenge that has complicated the path to prosecution in past police shootings.

There are new disclosures on the police shooting of John Crawford, a young unarmed black man who was shot and killed in an Ohio Walmart while holding a BB gun that they sell in the store. The family and their lawyer have seen the store surveillance tape and it turns out, he was indeed, just shopping. However, police refuse to release the video to the public because transparency is not an element of justice in this country.

Peter Callahan was caught between two police lines in the West Florissant section of Ferguson, Missouri, on Sunday night, when something fiery hot singed his leg. A nearby protester's shirt briefly caught fire. Callahan, a Washington D.C.-based journalist, deduced that he had been hit by a flash-bang device. "I was also at Occupy Wall Street," he said. "This is a lot worse."

"Reasonable perception": It's the standard by which a cop's use of force is judged. And more often than not, the courts – and jurors – are on the police's side. This doesn't bode well for justice for Michael Brown and his family.

President Obama delivers a statement about the situations in Iraq and Ferguson, Missouri. Full video on the flip.

I first met Alex Nieto at my friend’s college graduation party. He was polite and laid back, and he told me how he wanted to make a difference in youth’s lives, to move them away from a life of violence. A practicing Buddhist, he had aspirations to become a youth probation officer. The next time I heard anything about Alex was on the news. He had been killed by the San Francisco Police Department because he was perceived as a threat.

A Denver sheriff's deputy who was caught on camera brutally slamming an inmate's head into a glass wall will be suspended pending an investigation. The inmate, Anthony Waller, who is black, was called "boy" by the deputy, Brady Lovingier during the vicious attack.

In the debate over the use of tasers one of the claims made by taser proponents is that the use of tasers saves police departments money because their people are less likely to be injured, and that as a consequence they save money on their workers' comp premiums. However, a report just completed by the Vermont chapter of the ACLU demonstrates that Vermont's taxpayers are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the improper police deployment of tasers.

The Albuquerque mayor said late Sunday that a more than 10-hour protest over recent police shootings has turned from peaceful into "mayhem," as officers in riot gear clashed with protesters who blocked traffic, tried to get on freeways and shouted anti-police slogans. Richard Berry said one officer was injured, rocks were thrown and at one point protesters trapped police in a vehicle and tried to break the windows, the Albuquerque Journal reported.