San Francisco Chronicle/Otis R. Taylor, Jr. Last week, the city of Vallejo agreed to pay $5.7 million to the family of Ronell Foster. According to the city attorney’s office, the settlement is the largest for a civil rights violation in the city’s history, but Paula McGowan, Foster’s mother, isn’t in the…
San Francisco Chronicle/Bob Egelko A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed the family of a Pittsburg man to sue the city and its police over a fatal struggle in which an officer choked the man and two officers knelt on his back until he lost consciousness. … [In July, 2016, officers…
Fresno Bee/Robert Rodriguez The family of Gerald Johnson, a 55-year-old Fresno man shot and killed by police in March, has filed a wrongful death claim against the City of Fresno. The claim, filed on Monday, alleges police used excessive force when trying to convince Johnson to get out of a broken-down…
KQED News/Sukey Lewis A federal appeals court in San Francisco is considering whether six Pittsburg police officers can be held liable for killing a man during a violent arrest in 2016. At the center of the officers’ appeal is a legal doctrine called qualified immunity that broadly shields public officials…
Cara Bayles/Law 360 Wednesday, the Minnesota attorney general charged four former Minneapolis police officers for their roles in the murder of George Floyd, the black man whose death has sparked days of worldwide protests. Derek Chauvin, the officer filmed pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck while he begged for his life,…
Buffalo, New York, police recently shoved Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old man who was protesting the murder of George Floyd, knocking Mr. Gugino to the ground and causing a head injury that immediately began to bleed and required hospitalization. Then a gang of officers callously walked past Mr. Gugino as he…
Today, in response to community uprising over Minneapolis police officers’ murder of George Floyd by restraint asphyxia, Donald Trump tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Mr. Trump is promoting the use of deadly force in response to property crimes, which is blatantly unconstitutional. The United States Constitution prohibits…
This was George Floyd’s plea last night to Minneapolis Police Officers as they held him face down, with one knee on his torso and one knee on his neck. News reports show the officers held Mr. Floyd down for over eight minutes, keeping an officer’s knee pressing on his torso…
“That’s the kind of aggressive-ass policing I’m talking about!” That’s what one Vacaville officer said on camera, when he didn’t realize his camera was on, after his sergeant had shot and killed a mentally ill man whose car they had just chased and forced to crash. We handled that case…
Washington Post: “Trump Lambastes His Critics as He Considers How Else to Target His Perceived Enemies Over Impeachment” → This week, Donald Trump has said he will start on a retaliation campaign against people who testified under oath in the House of Representatives’ impeachment hearing. His early targets include United…