Free Republic

'It’s unreal how he was treated just because he’s a little bit more tan than I am....' Marc Wilson / PHOTO: Bulloch County Sheriff's Office (Ben Sellers, Headline USA) As desperately trailing Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams scrambles for a winning message to avoid yet another defeat at the hands of Gov. Brian Kemp, activists are using a road-rage killing as a rallying cry to attack the state’s self-defense laws. On Aug. 31, William “Marc” Wilson, a 21-year-old biracial black man, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of 17-year-old Haley Hutcheson. Wilson claimed that a pickup truck...

... over allegations of domestic violence, indecent exposure Minnesota state Rep. John Thompson (D) launched his political career after a police officer shot and killed his friend Philando Castile during a July 2016 traffic stop. Thompson pledged to reform policing in the state and was elected this past November. Now, less than a year later, state Republican and Democratic officials, including Gov. Tim Walz (D), are calling for Thompson’s ouster after his own recent traffic stop led to new revelations about his past. Since the stop, police reports have surfaced showing that, years ago, Thompson was accused of choking and...

On Sunday afternoon, a veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members will announce their commitment to disbanding the city’s embattled police department, which has endured relentless criticism in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, on May 25. “We’re here because we hear you. We are here today because George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis Police. We are here because here in Minneapolis and in cities across the United States it is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety is not keeping our communities safe,” Minneapolis City Council President Lisa...

Who am I? I am a Black man who happens to be the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. I am George Floyd…I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice. Just like most of the Black Airmen and so many others in our ranks…I am outraged at watching another Black man die on television before our very eyes. What happens all too often in this country to Black men who are subjected to police brutality that ends in death…could happen to me. As shocking as that may sound to some of...

For years, Shaun King has risen as one of the more high-profile activists of his era and that in turn has led to a growing number of critics from all sides who believed his efforts were questionable. Amid a chorus of dissent, King has released what he has deemed is an independent review of his finances and fundraising efforts to prove that he has not taken any monies for himself or family. The report was published via Medium and features the research work of Tamika Mallory, Co-Chair of The Women’s March and Co-Founder of Justice League NYC and civil rights...

A jury has acquitted the girlfriend of Philando Castile of serious charges in an assault on a woman last year. Jurors on Friday acquitted 28-year-old Diamond Reynolds of felony second-degree and third-degree assault. Reynolds was convicted of misdemeanor fifth-degree assault, a count that was added at the end of her weeklong trial.

That's how Philando Castile, who was killed by a police officer during a 2016 traffic stop, used to help kids who couldn't afford lunch. The school nutrition supervisor would dip into his pocket and pay the bill. Now a charity run in his name has multiplied his mission by thousands, wiping out the lunch debt of every student at all 56 schools in Minnesota's St. Paul Public Schools, where Castile worked. "That means that no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt," according to a post at the...

At least two orange street signs reading "Warning: Twin Cities police easily startled" were seen in the Twin Cities Sunday. Joe Morino brought an incredulous friend to see the orange street sign he just spotted in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. The official-looking metal sign read: “WARNING: TWIN CITIES POLICE EASILY STARTLED.” It featured a graphic silhouette of a police officer, a gun in each raised hand, shooting in both directions. “There’s a side of truth to the sign,” Morino said after snapping a picture of it. “That tells you there is something wrong with the system.” The sign, which...

The Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standard and Training on Thursday voted down a proposal by Gov. Mark Dayton to name a training fund in honor of Philando Castile. The board vote came just before 11 a.m. Thursday. The governor had requested a new $12 million fund aimed at training police for work in diverse communities be named for Castile, who was shot and killed by then-St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez last July. The request immediately drew the ire of many in the law enforcement community, who have said that since Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter, Dayton's request felt...

PHOENIX (AP) — Gun-friendly Arizona is trying to avoid deadly encounters between police and people behind the wheel by teaching armed drivers how they should handle themselves when they are pulled over. Arizona, which allows residents to carry weapons without permits, recently changed its rule book for the road in a bid to avoid confrontations such as the one that killed Philando Castile. The Minnesota man, who had a gun permit, was fatally shot during a 2016 traffic stop after telling an officer he was armed. Arizona is among a small number of states instructing drivers on what to expect...

The family of an Australian woman shot to death by Minneapolis police has hired an attorney who represented the family of Philando Castile. MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The family of an Australian woman shot to death by a Minneapolis police officer has hired an attorney who represented the family of black motorist Philando Castile, who was also slain by a Minnesota police officer. Minneapolis attorney Bob Bennett confirmed Thursday to The Associated Press that he was representing the family of Justine Damond, who died Saturday night shortly after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind...

Somali immigrant cop Mohamed Noor, who shot Jessica Damond, was 'highly celebrated' by Minneapolis mayor in 2015 The Somali-born Minnesota police officer alleged to have shot and killed an unarmed Australian woman on Saturday had been lauded by Minneapolis’ mayor and feted by the local community when he joined the force in 2015. “I want to take a moment to recognize Officer Mohamed Noor, the newest Somali officer in the Minneapolis Police Department,” Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote in a Facebook post when Noor began serving the city. “Officer Noor has been assigned to the 5th Precinct, where his arrival has...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — WCCO has just learned the name of the Minneapolis officer involved in the shooting as Mohammed Noor. His attorney Tom Plunkett confirmed Noor fired his weapon, killing Justine Damond.

An Australian woman who was living in Minnesota and engaged to be married next month was shot dead by police — after she called 911 to report a disturbance behind her house. [cut] Three sources with knowledge of the incident said that when they arrived, the officers pulled around back and were immediately confronted by Damond, who was in her pajamas. As she attempted to speak to the cop in the driver’s seat, the other officer apparently unholstered his gun and started blasting — striking her through the driver’s side door, the sources said.

Jeronimo 'The Cowardly HispanicCop' Yanez, Acquitted Of Mvrd3r Of Black passenger Philando Castile!

I have to write about Philando Castile, the 32-year-old black man who was shot and killed by a Minnesota police officer last July. I have to compose myself, sit at this laptop and write something profound about another black life taken by a police officer, another officer found not guilty for killing a black person.

St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez has been found not guilty of all counts in the fatal shooting of Philando Castile. After 27 hours of deliberation spanning five days, the jury of seven men and five women, including two people of color, reached its verdict shortly after 2 p.m. Friday. It was read in court at 2:45 p.m. Castile’s family angrily stormed out as soon as the verdicts were read. After the first not guilty verdict was read for the manslaughter charge, defense attorney Earl Gray leaned over and squeezed Yanez’s shoulders.

A former Black Lives Matter activist is making stunning accusations against fellow agitators in an unprompted YouTube video.Trey Turner, who says he protested police killings in St. Paul, Minnesota, created a video to expose what he learned while he was active with the group.Turner said he joined Black Lives Matter after the shooting of Jamar Clark last March, and that he was a part of the “4th Precinct shutdown.” He said he joined because activists insisted the movement was peaceful and “didn’t hate whites.” According to Turner, he was an active participant in the protests at the governor’s mansion after...

When Philando Castile was shot by a Minnesota police officer, his girlfriend broadcast his final moments live on Facebook. But experts say the footage from a squad car camera was probably a bigger factor in prosecutors’ decision to charge the officer with manslaughter. And that footage, which has not been made public, is still no guarantee that Jeronimo Yanez will be convicted, as other police shootings have shown. “There have been cases that had video that resulted in either an acquittal or a hung jury, so sometimes the video may raise more questions,” said Philip Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling...

St. Paul police arrested at least 46 people Tuesday near the Governor’s Residence on Summit Avenue in a day marked by tense standoffs and groups of protesters being driven to jail in buses. The location has been the focal point of protests for 20 days, beginning just after a St. Anthony police officer fatally shot Philando Castile in Falcon Heights the night of July 6. Police shut down Summit Avenue in front of the residence for about a week and a half and then reopened it, but protesters closed it down again Sunday night. On Tuesday morning police made an...