Police

From the New York Daily News editorial board: Andrew Yang may be a quick study, but all the cramming he’s done since jumping into the mayor’s race can’t make up for years of inattention to New York politics and policies, best evidenced by the fact that he has never bothered to vote in a local election. The mayoralty is not …

Matt Tracy reports at Gay City News: Less than a week after Heritage of Pride (HOP), or NYC Pride, announced a ban on police contingents through 2025, the organization’s members voted on May 20 to allow the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) to march armed and in uniform — but HOP’s executive board subsequently stepped in and set their own …

Gothamist reports: In late March of last year, as the pandemic was raging in New York City, Karen Ramirez, a 39-year-old police officer, began wearing a mask to work at the NYPD’s headquarters. The professional consequences, she alleges, were swift. Police leaders — including three sergeants and a lieutenant — “made fun of and retaliated against” her over the health …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: The district attorney for Pasquotank County will not bring criminal charges against sheriff’s deputies who shot and killed Andrew Brown Jr. in Elizabeth City, a move likely to increase tension and protest over police violence. Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble [photo] announced the news while discussing the state’s investigation at a press conference …

Yesterday NYC Pride announced that police groups are banned from participating in parades and festivals through 2025. From the Gay Officers Action League: The Gay Officers Action League (“GOAL”) is disheartened by the decision to ban our group from participating in New York City Pride. Heritage of Pride (NYC Pride) has long been a valued partner of our organization and …

The New York Times reports: New York City’s annual Pride celebration, which began 51 years ago as a defiant commemoration of an anti-police uprising and has evolved into a city-sanctioned equality jamboree, will take steps to reduce the presence of law enforcement at its events. Starting this year, police and corrections officers will also not be allowed to participate as …

The New York Daily News reports: Ex-cop Robert Smith was busted Tuesday along with current NYPD officers Robert Hassett and Heather Busch on charges of collecting thousands of dollars in crooked payoffs for steering cars damaged in wrecks to a specific tow-truck business. But the allegedly corrupt Smith, in shocking Brooklyn Federal Court documents, was outed as a racist who …

The Associated Press reports: A federal grand jury has indicted the four former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest and death, accusing them of violating the Black man’s constitutional rights as he was restrained face-down on the pavement and gasping for air, according to indictments unsealed Friday. The three-count indictment names Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and …

NBC News reports: Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin filed an appeal for a new trial Tuesday after being convicted last month of murdering George Floyd. Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, filed the request alleging that Chauvin’s ability to have a fair trial was affected by pretrial publicity. The motion alleges that the court abused its discretion by denying the requests …

The New York Daily News reports: The NYPD’s robot dog has been hounded out of service. The police department will return Digidog to robotics manufacturer Boston Dynamics after months of backlash and mockery that compared the four-legged bot to a dystopian sci-fi surveillance nightmare. John Miller, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, confirmed Wednesday the NYPD had cancelled …

The Associated Press reports: The Justice Department is opening a sweeping probe into policing in Louisville, Kentucky over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police during a raid at her home, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday. It’s the second such sweeping probe into a law enforcement agency by the Biden administration in …

Gothamist reports: Days after a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd, city and state officials plan to introduce a similar bills that would prevent police officers who’ve been fired or disciplined from joining any other department in the state. New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson made the announcement at the National …

Yahoo News reports: The crowdfunding site GiveSendGo has set up a fundraiser for a Virginia officer after he was fired for donating to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense fund. Lieutenant William Kelly was fired from the Norfolk, Va., Police Department after it was revealed that he used GiveSendGo to donate $25 to Rittenhouse. “Regardless of how you feel regarding Kyle Rittenhouse, the …

Baltimore’s CBS News affiliate reports: Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said Friday that they will review in-custody death reports from former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler, just days after Fowler testified that former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin did not kill George Floyd. “We agree that it is appropriate for independent experts to review reports issued by the Office …

ABC News reports: Late last year, as a team of Minnesota state prosecutors was preparing for the trial that would ultimately convict former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd, they received a series of videos depicting Chauvin’s handling of another case three years earlier that by their own description shocked them. The videos, from Sept. 4, 2017, …

The Fall River Herald-News reports: The Fall River Police Department posted and then deleted a post on Facebook appearing to criticize George Floyd, a Black man whose death at the hands of a police officer sparked massive protests last year and whose killer was convicted of murder yesterday. The post was a screenshot of a tweet that read, “Chauvin immediately …

The New York Times reports: Derek Chauvin is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in Minnesota’s only maximum-security prison after he was convicted of murdering George Floyd and led out of a courtroom in handcuffs, according to authorities. Mr. Chauvin, 45, the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Mr. Floyd’s neck for more than nine …

Politico reports: A Capitol Police official radioed units outside of the building on the morning of Jan. 6 and told them only to scout for anti-Trump troublemakers — not pro-Trump protesters, according to the findings of an internal investigation revealed at a public hearing by Rep. Zoe Lofgren. Lofgren (D-Calif.) revealed the finding while she questioned Capitol Police Inspector General …

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Justice will conduct a sweeping investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a “pattern and practice” of illegal conduct, according to a source familiar with the inquiry. The investigation, coming one day after ex-officer Derek Chauvin’s murder and manslaughter conviction, will seek to establish whether the state’s largest police department …

Norfolk’s NBC News affiliate reports: A high-ranking Norfolk Police officer who was found donating to the defense fund of Kyle Rittenhouse has been fired from the police department. Kyle Rittenhouse is the man charged with the murder of two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August. According to the Guardian newspaper on Friday, Sgt. William Kelly, who served …