By Scott Lemieux The Week He probably would have gotten away with it. That’s the sobering reality of the video of South Carolina police officer Michael Slager shooting Walter L. Scott as he ran away, not posing the slightest threat to the officer. The utter indifference to human life evident in the video, shot by…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A long-awaited report on Ferguson found numerous constitutional violations that called for new oversight, retraining of employees and abandoning the current approach to policing. The New York Times reports that the Justice Department criticized Ferguson police for routinely making unlawful searches, hurling racial insults and treating anyone as a criminal for…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department is preparing to release a highly critical report of police in Ferguson, accusing them of making discriminatory traffic stops and creating an environment that bred animosity among African Americans, The New York Times reports. The report, which could be released as early as this week, says Ferguson police…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The federal investigation into the shooting death three years ago of Trayvon Martin has ended without hate-crime charges against the gunman, George Zimmerman, The New York Times reports. The Justice Department closed the civil rights investigation. The family is devastated, said Benjamin L. Crump, the lawyer for Martin’s family. “This…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI has wrapped up its long-anticipated investigation into the police shooting of unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, a U.S. official told the Associated Press. It’s not yet clear whether the Justice Department will pursue a federal civil rights case against former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. But legal experts and…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI team handling the civil rights investigation into the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man killed by a white NYPD officer, has plenty of experience with long-term probes and public corruption cases. CNN reports that the New York-based agents are taking a “free look” into the July death…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI’s investigation into the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York City will take several months and only recently got off the ground, ABC News reports. The federal government hasn’t set a timeline for the probe, which will be watched nationwide as protests continue to spring up after a…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Soon after a grand jury declined to indict a white New York City cop in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who was selling cigarettes, the Justice Department will conduct its own civil rights investigation. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press conference today that…
