News and issues concerning the police, the courts, and the corrections system.
5,805 workers at an Amazon facility in Alabama will decide whether they wish to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. If they vote yes, they would be the first Amazon warehouse in the United States to unionize.
read morePervis Payne, a Black man who was convicted for murder 33 years ago, will be executed in December, despite DNA evidence that could prove his innocence (CNN). While the execution of an intellectually disabled person is unconstitutional, the court didn’t recognize Payne’s disability at the time of his trial (Tennessean). The Innocence Project, a legal organization that works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, is trying to stop Payne’s execution. As of today, “375 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who served time on death row” (The Innocence Project).
read moreIt happened. Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court Monday evening (NPR). Judge Barrett, who is 48 years old, is likely to serve on the court for decades, solidifying a 6-3 conservative majority. It also gives her immediate power in several upcoming hearings this November that disproportionately impacts the livelihood of communities of color. This is the first time a Supreme Court nominee has been confirmed without a single vote from a major minority party since December 1869 (WSJ). Now that it’s official, inquiries on whether or not Biden, if confirmed, could expand the court, have snowballed into comprehensive calls for action.
read moreThe Texas Rangers law enforcement agency is mythologized in popular media as moral defenders of the law, ignoring a long history of violence.
read morePolice face criticism for their use of ketamine in the arrest of individuals they mislabel as “aggressive” following the death of Elijah McClain.
read moreThe impact of the “war on drugs” campaign in the ’70s and ’80s continues to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people today.
read moreFacial recognition software is increasingly becoming integrated into society and policing despite coded racial bias.
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