Six takeaways from Reuters investigation of police violence and ‘qualified immunity’
Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Freddie Gray. Their names are seared into Americans’ memories, egregious examples of lethal police violence that stirred protests and prompted big payouts to the victims’ families.
When cops kill, redress is rare – except in famous cases
The 2014 shooting death of black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted angry protests and trained a national spotlight on a perceived lack of police accountability for violent encounters with the public.
A united front takes aim at police immunity from lawsuits
The diverse opponents of qualified immunity have thrown their weight behind at least five appeals now awaiting the Supreme Court’s attention, each considered a potential means of removing or softening the doctrine.
How Reuters analyzed court data on qualified immunity
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has repeatedly criticized her fellow justices for creating, as she put it in a 2018 dissent, an “absolute shield” for police officers accused of excessive force. So Reuters reporters decided to test her words.
One person dead after being struck by plane landing at airport in Austin, Texas
A person was killed late Thursday after being struck by a plane landing at an airport in Austin, Texas, officials said.
Michigan, California move to reopen factories as U.S. jobless ranks grow
Michigan and California, two U.S. manufacturing powerhouses, acted on Thursday to allow factories to reopen from coronavirus lockdowns over the next few days, as millions more Americans joined the ranks of workers left jobless by the pandemic.
White Georgia man, son charged with murder in shooting of unarmed black man
A white former police officer and his son were arrested on Thursday in Georgia and charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man, an incident that touched off a furor in the community and among civil rights activists nationwide.
Georgia father, son arrested on murder charges in shooting of unarmed black man
A former white police officer and his son were arrested on Thursday in Georgia and charged with murder in the death of an unarmed black man in an incident that has touched off a furor in the community and among civil rights activists nationwide.
U.S. moves to drop case against Trump ex-adviser Flynn, who admitted lying to FBI
The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday abruptly asked a judge to drop criminal charges against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn following mounting pressure from the Republican president and his political allies on the righ…
Whistleblower offers window into HHS’s flawed COVID-19 response
A new whistleblower complaint has drawn attention for its allegations that the Trump administration retaliated against a scientist who sent early coronavirus warnings. The case also provides an insider account of the dysfunction critics say paralyzed t…
