Delays Abound In Prosecution Of Austin Police Detective For 2013 Shooting Of Larry Jackson
Two years ago, Austin Police Det. Charles Kleinert shot and killed Larry Jackson, Jr., an unarmed black man, under a bridge near one of the city’s many greenbelt trails. His death was the savage culmination of a wild chase through the city that ultimately led to Kleinert’s early retirement and indictment for manslaughter.
Activists Demand Sandra Bland Investigation With 750,000 Petition Signatures
On August 26, activists delivered 260,000 signatures to the Justice Department, demanding a federal investigation of Sandra Bland’s suspicious death in a Texas jail. Although officials ruled her death a suicide, many suspect she was murdered and, regardless of her official cause of death, her needless arrest during a traffic stop directly led to her demise.
Protest Song of the Week: ’28 Hours’
For this week’s protest song, Alec Hall submitted a piece created as a comment on the criminalization of black bodies in the United States and how black life is often erased from American culture and society. The 11-minute string quartet composition, “28 Hours,” is the first reader-submitted protest song featured here at Shadowproof.
Darrien Hunt: Killed By Utah Cops For Anime Cosplay While Black
In September 2014, police in Saratoga Springs, Utah, shot Hunt several times in the back and side after a 911 caller reported a black male with a samurai sword. Hunt was dressed as an anime character and holding a toy or blunt replica sword commonly used by cosplayers, but Utah is an open carry state, so Hunt could legally carry a real sword there.
Pennsylvania Cops Body Slam Man Singing “Beach Boys” Music
Carlos Miller, over at Photography Is Not A Crime, offered more details on this incident, which apparently took place in Allentown, Pennsylvania: “A 61-year-old man happily singing a Beach Boys song in front of a crowded restaurant in Pennsylvania was violently body slammed by a cop before he was carted off to jail Friday.”
14 Cops Pin Down One-Legged Homeless Man For Waving Crutch (VIDEO)
Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks: “We got way too low a bar for the cops in the country when we look at something like that and say, ‘Thank God we didn’t kill him.’”
‘We Charge Genocide’: Systematic Murder & Oppression Of Blacks Continues In US
Genocide is a word which may bring to mind images of large-scale ethnic cleansing and mass graves like those created by German Nazis or Bosnian Serbs. Some acts of genocide, however, are slower, more subtle, and a good deal more insidious, like the acts the United States continues to carry out against its black- and brown-skinned population.