Race

Racial Profiling on Florida Roadways

The numbers speak for themselves.

  • Black motorists were stopped and cited for seat belt offenses four times more often than white motorists by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office in 2011 — almost double the statewide racial disparity for that year.
  • In 2014, Black motorists were stopped and cited for seat belt offensesthree times more often than white motorists by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, 2.8 times more often than white motorists by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, and 1.9 times more oftenthan white motorists by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. (The 2014 statewide racial disparity was 1.9.)

Via New Evidence of Racial Profiling on Florida Roadways @ American Civil Liberties Union.

Culture of Misconduct

CHICAGO — A South Side police commander and his officers tortured black suspects into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit. Another rogue unit shook down drug dealers on the West Side for drugs and money. A different group of officers accepted payments from drug dealers to warn them of police raids.And for years, whenever Chicago officers did something wrong, their colleagues covered for them.

Via Chicago police misconduct has frayed relations with blacks @ WRAL.com

8X

Black men have been killed by police in California at eight times the rate of other residents over the past decade, according to records released under the first in a series of new state initiatives to disclose data on the use of deadly force by law enforcement.Statistics published by the California attorney general, Kamala Harris, stated that about 19% of almost 1,000 homicides by law enforcement recorded between 2005 and 2014 were against African American men, who made up only about 3% of the state’s population.

Via California police killings database reveals ‘clear racial disparities’ @ The Guardian.

Dylann Roof as Exception

“Though Dylann Roof’s case is in its earliest stages, he is likely to face the death penalty for shooting a group of churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. earlier this summer. Governor Nikki Haley is pushing for the punishment, and a famed capital defense attorney, David Bruck, has been hired to represent Roof in both local and…

After Cameras, Still Injuries & Deaths

Hearing Sandra Bland verbally abused by Texas state trooper Brian Encinia on 10 July for answering honestly when the officer asks her, “Are you OK?” is a new experience, his voice rising in cartoonish rage when this black woman (quite rightfully fearful of his threatened abuse) will not submit to him. Also new are the horrors of hearing him threaten Bland that “I am going to light you up!” with a taser, and the cringe-inducing terror of hearing the black woman’s piercing screams offscreen that “you’re about to break my wrist! Can you stop?!”

Via Cameras aren’t stopping police misconduct. Exhibit A: Sandra Bland.

Black cops vanishing in Philadelphia

“In Philadelphia, where 44 percent of the population is black, where the mayor and police commissioner are black and where the NAACP this week is holding its annual convention – the Police Department is curiously fading to white. Since 2008, the year Mayor Nutter took office and appointed Charles Ramsey to lead the department, 1,229…

Overuse of Federal sentencing enhancements against black defendants

“Data also indicate that mandatory minimums and enhancements like the 851 have been disproportionately used against black defendants. While research shows that illicit drug use and distribution is generally proportionate to the racial makeup of the nation’s population, black people are overrepresented as drug defendants in federal courts, constituting 30 percent of all those sentenced…

Bicycling While Black

“The Tampa Bay Times’ recent disclosure that police are targeting Blacks who ride bicycles — including children as young as three years old — for dramatically high rates of stops and searches is the latest piece in the nationwide debate about racial profiling that has followed the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter…