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…
Police officers put their lives on the line every day for the safety of the public. But they’re also people who sometimes make mistakes, just like the rest of us. Unlike the general public, though, they often don’t face the same legal consequences for breaking the law that most citizens would. Research done over five…
Over the past few years, there have been a number of cases in which law enforcement officers seem to have gotten off scot-free’ in situations where seemingly innocent people have been physically harmed. One example is the 2004 case of Malaika Brooks. While driving her son to school, the pregnant Brooks was pulled over by…
