police misconduct
Who’s on the guest list for the State of the Union speech?
WASHINGTON — While members of Congress may not be able to speak during the State of the Union address, they often get their message across through the guests they bring. This year is no exception. Lawmakers through their invitees attempted to signal their approval or disapproval of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, or […]
To be a Black man in America
The summer after the world witnessed the brutal beating of Rodney King, I and a group of friends made our way to a nightclub in the southern part of Dade County, Florida. We had recently returned to America after having spent months in Saudi Arabia, not knowing if we would ever see our families again or if we would be confronted with some lingering illness resulting from our service to our country.
Gov. Cooper should demand immediate explanation from South Carolina regarding racially-tinged traffic stop
What is this, 2022 or 1962? That’s a question a lot of people are asking today after reading news reports on the actions of South Carolina law enforcement officials last Friday. This is from a report from WTVD ABC 11 television: Eighteen Shaw University students were stopped and searched while riding to an economic conference […]
‘Defund the police’ slogan and anti-cop violence debated at U.S. Senate hearing
Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and law enforcement witnesses at a Tuesday hearing blamed recent violence against officers on anti-police rhetoric, while Democrats distanced themselves from the “defund the police” slogan and said an oversupply of guns made law enforcement jobs more dangerous. Republicans on the panel raised complaints about general attitudes toward […]
George Floyd’s NC family members are working to keep his memory and the struggle for social reform alive
Two years after his death, efforts to raise funds for a memorial center in Raleigh continue A neighbor remarked last week that the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas had quickly pushed the grocery store killings in Buffalo, New York off the front pages of most newspapers. He concluded that the mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo, which resulted in 10 deaths, has already been forgotten...
NC just enacted ambitious criminal justice reform legislation. Here’s what it does.
Gov. Roy Cooper signed a comprehensive criminal justice reform package (Senate Bill 300) into law last Thursday. The law became effective immediately. The bill, originally sponsored by Republicans with input from Democrats, gained bipartisan support – though not universal acclaim.
Veteran Virginia journalist on new race-based traffic stop statistics: “Do you believe us now?”
“Do you believe us now?” That’s what Black people are saying across Virginia about the way people of color are stopped, sweated and searched by law-enforcement officers in the state. Often based on racial profiling. Often due to nothing more than a whim. First came the now-viral video of two Windsor patrol officers and their […]
Gene Nichol provides a helpful refresher course on NC’s restrictive body cam law
A lot of North Carolinians have been wondering lately (with much justification) what the deal is with police body camera recordings. If the recordings are made by public employees and paid for with public tax dollars, why in the heck can’t the public see what the videos show? It’s ours, after all. And don’t virtually […]
County judge refuses to release body camera footage of Andrew Brown Jr. killing
A judge in Pasquotank County has denied a petition from several media outlets to release to the public the body camera footage related to the shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. Brown was shot dead by Pasquotank County sheriff deputies when they were serving a warrant on April 21. Superior Court Judge Jeff Foster said that […]
Steps we must take to begin to stop the killing
There’s no doubt that serving as a law enforcement officer in most parts of modern America is an extremely difficult and often thankless job, or that most of those who serve are good people doing fine work. Unfortunately, this doesn’t change the fact that our nation is mired in a terrible vicious cycle right now in which people of color – usually, but not always, young men – are being repeatedly and wrongfully killed or terrorized by white cops.
Andrew Brown was just one the many people of color shot by U.S. police in the past two months
Multiple news agencies are reporting today that radio traffic from Wednesday’s Elizabeth City police shooting of Andrew Brown, Jr. indicates Brown was killed after being shot in the back. This is from WRAL.com: Radio traffic from Broadcastify.com indicates that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot in the back Wednesday as deputies tried to serve him drug-related […]
PW exclusive: NC minister who counseled George Floyd’s family discusses the Chauvin verdict
Rev. Gregory Drumwright, who was in the courtroom Tuesday, has hope and continuing concern about the relationship between law enforcement and Black Americans The minutes leading to Judge Peter Cahill’s reading of the jury verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin were filled with anxiety, angst and uncertainty, says Rev. Gregory Drumwright, a Greensboro minister who has provided pastoral care to George Floyd’s family the past several months.