When carrying out their duties to protect the public, there are limits to what police officers can do. Claims of police brutality often happen when officers go beyond their authority. Police brutality and misconduct is defined as more than using undue force against a suspect, such as striking or kicking them. Legal claims arising from…
Recent high-profile cases of police shootings of African Americans have raised widespread concerns and questions about the extent of racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings. In the past few years, a number of different studies have been done to see if the belief that so many Americans have about a racial disparity were true. While…
It can be frustrating and even scary for someone to face criminal charges for a crime they didn’t commit. To get convinced based on false testimony from police is even scarier. Any defendant surely knows that since law enforcement is assigned to protect and safeguard the community, the police automatically maintain a high degree of…
With support for gay marriage at record high levels in the United States, it would seem like the LGBTQ community has entered the social mainstream and become more widely accepted, so that gays and lesbians have less reason to worry about violence directed against them. But there’s a painful irony here in studies indicating that…
We’ve seen it on TV so many times. An argument starts between a police officer and a potential suspect, and bystanders with cell phone cameras quickly begin filming everything that occurs between the officer and the person they’re questioning. Depending on what happens next, those videos could end up on the evening news. In recent…
Americans are endowed with two things: liberty and rights, two words found in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Our civil liberties protect us from government actions that can infringe on rights like free speech or freedom of assembly. Our civil rights, on the other hand, are actions by the government to…
Earlier this year, Florida police officer Nouman Raja was tried in court and convicted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black motorist, Corey Jones. This conviction was welcomed by the grieving family and activists supporting them, as criminal charges against police officers rarely result in a guilty verdict. How often are police officers…
