On the Day of Mehserle’s Sentencing: A Feminist Vow
This was originally posted at Kloncke and reposted here with permission. *** [Today, former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was sentenced to 2 years in prison, with 146 days already served, for the involuntary manslaughter of Oscar Grant. The Grant case marked the first time in California's history that a peace officer was tried for [...]
...read moreIs it a crime to be poor?
That’s what Barbara Ehrenreich asks in her latest New York Times op/ed, and the answer is a pretty resounding “yes.” Low-income people — and especially low-income people of color — are routinely targeted by police as communities continue to criminalize actions associated with the poor (sleeping on the street, receiving free food, walking into public [...]
...read moreWhen the Outside Looks Like The Inside
A few years back, my co-blogger quadmoniker worked for New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, which is supposed to act as a watchdog group for the city’s police department. If a citizen wanted to file a complaint against a police officer, she would do so with the CCRB, who would then dispatch an investigator [...]
...read moreHenry Louis Gates Jr. arrested
African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr, who teaches at Harvard, was arrested last week by Cambridge police investigating a break-in. Police officers apparently came to his house to question him, and he had trouble unlocking his door, which resulted in some sort of altercation: He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous [...]
...read moreNYC woman allegedly punched and grabbed by misogynist cop
Chrissie Brodigan was getting off the subway with her sick pug when a cop tried to issue her a ticket. According to Brodigan, the situation quickly turned ugly; she became upset, and in response the cop reportedly said, “If you’re going to act like a woman I’m going to treat you like a woman” (a [...]
...read moreOfficer Mehserle Will Stand Trial for Oscar Grant’s Murder
Good news: Former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle was ordered Thursday to stand trial for murder by a judge who told him he didn’t believe the explanation defense attorneys gave for his killing of an unarmed passenger. After listening to seven days of testimony, Judge C. Don Clay concluded that Mehserle hadn’t gotten his stun [...]
...read moreBoy Scouts teaches kids to run the new police state
Feministe commenter Tom Foolery sent me this article, with the comment that, “I feel like the reporter here could’ve asked some harder questions. Like “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING?!” For example.” That pretty much sums up my reaction, too. From the article: Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican [...]
...read moreCop-killers, policing, crime and justice: Talking about Lovelle Mixon
Samhita caught some heat last week for writing about Lovelle Mixon, the Oakland man who murdered four police officers. Now she follows up with a post fleshing out her thoughts, and it’s well worth reading. For a lot of us who are raised white and middle-class, police officers are protectors and sometimes heroes. They’re people [...]
...read moreJustice for the Women of Atenco
From an Amnesty International email that just landed in my inbox: Last month, the Mexican Supreme Court confirmed that women in San Salvador Atenco suffered major physical and sexual abuse at the hands of police officers. But even with the affirmation of the highest court in Mexico, the women in Atenco are still waiting for [...]
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Sheriff Arpaio Under Investigation By U.S. Justice Department
Almost a week ago, I shared a petition that demanded an investigation in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s reign of terror in Maricopa County, Arizona. I am now both absolutely thrilled and admittedly really shocked to share the news that an investigation is now underway! The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil-rights investigation of the Maricopa [...]
...read morePetition to Investigate Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Reign of Terror
Feministe has posted before about Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County (which contains Phoenix, AZ). This is the man who has reinstated chain gangs, refused to feed inmates anything except bologna sandwiches, set up tent cities as a way to combat prison over-crowding, refused to transport female inmates for abortions they planned to [...]
...read moreNYPD accused of raping intoxicated woman
Following in the wake of the beating of a 15-year-old girl by county cops in Washington state, and adding to the growing mountain of police brutality against women I am even more disheartened to hear about another set of accusations of police violence. This time, two male cops escorted a drunk woman to her home [...]
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