Young people are changing the world. Widespread, seemingly intractable injustice has spurred Black kids across the country to envision new possibilities and to create tools to make them possible.

by Fay Wells for The Washington Post

On Sept. 6, I locked myself out of my apartment in Santa Monica, Calif. I was in a rush to get to my weekly soccer game, so I decided to go enjoy the game and deal with the lock afterward.

by Anna Gibson

According to a recent article in the New Yorker, Kalief Browder’s mother was sitting in her living room last Saturday at around 12:30pm when she heard a loud thump on the side of the house. She had no idea where the sound came from, until she saw the body of her son hanging from a second story window outside their home.

Dallas-Fort Worth's local Fox News affiliate is reporting that Eric Casebolt, the McKinney police officer—who was captured on video cussing at Black teenagers, pushing 15-year-old Dajerria Becton's face into the ground while kneeling on her back, and pulling a gun on a group of teens who attempted to come to her aid—has resigned from the McKinney Police Department.

On Monday, a judge found Dante Servin not guilty on charges of shooting and killing Rekia Boyd.

According to The Chicago Sun Times, Judge Dennis Porter granted the defense a motion for a directed verdict allowing Servin to bypass having to put on a defense.

Servin had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and reckless discharge of a firearm — but Porter, in issuing his verdict, said Servin’s conduct was “beyond reckless” in the March 2012 shooting of Rekia Boyd. Therefore, “it would be improper to allow the trial to continue given the total failure” to prove recklessness, which was key to all three charges. “The evidence does not support the charges on which the defendant is being tried.”

Porter seemed to know his decision would be controversial.The officer’s decision to discharge his firearm, Porter said, “was an intentional act.”

“This is not a place for emotion,” he said before reading his verdict. “This is a place for reasoned decisions.”

Servin, an off-duty Chicago Police detective, fatally shot Boyd, 22, in March 2012. He also injured her friend Antonio Cross after confronting them and two others during a gathering held at a local park.




Boyd died after one of the five bullets from Servin’s unregistered handgun pierced the left side of her head. Servin has maintained that shot only because he felt threatened when he confronted the group about the noise.

Boyd’s mother, Angela Helton, received a $4.5 million settlement with the city.

Rekia's brother, Martinez Sutton, spoke of the verdict outside the court.

by Tom Jackman and Justin Jouvenal, The Washington Post

A mentally ill woman who died after a stun gun was used on her at the Fairfax County jail in February was restrained with handcuffs behind her back, leg shackles and a mask when a sheriff’s deputy shocked her four times, incident reports obtained by The Washington Post show.

An Arizona State University police officer quit after a video of him slamming a professor to the ground for jaywalking went viral and drew national attention.

Kenya Harris, who was an expecting mother in 2011, has filed a suit against the Albany Police Department in Georgia, alleging that a physical altercation between her and an officer lead to her miscarriage.

A Seattle woman who suffered a broken eye socket after a police officer punched her in the face while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car filed a $1m claim against the city, alleging assault and arrest without probable cause. The incident was captured by a patrol-car dashboard camera.

by Patrick Michels for the Texas Observer

by Michelle Y. Talbert

Last weekend, we learned that Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, was killed by Cleveland police while holding a toy gun—in a state that ironically has an “open carry” weapons law. It is impossible that this is our reality: 12-year-old Black boys die playing with toys, but grown white men who shoot up movie theaters get taken alive. What is even more disheartening is the way many people use black-on-black crime as a way of justifying this violence and the disregard for black lives.

by Brittany Dawson

Two years ago, my twin sister was diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, depression, multiple personality disorder, and others—all of which induce anxiety, paranoia, and psychosis. It was only when I saw my sister’s suffering during my sophomore year of college that I realized the taboo surrounding mental illness, the inherent shame that accompanies it, and how we continue to fail the mentally ill.

The Associated Press

Three women testified Monday that an Oklahoma City police officer sexually assaulted them while he was on duty, including one woman who said he sexually assaulted her while she was high on drugs and handcuffed to a hospital bed.

"I just gasped," the 23-year-old woman testified at a preliminary hearing for Daniel Holtzclaw. The Associated Press does not identify people who have made allegations of sexual assault. "I just really can't believe it because it's the police."

by Brandon Blackwell

A 37-year-old bipolar and schizophrenic woman died after police slammed her to the pavement outside her family's home, her brother said.

Tanesha Anderson was pronounced dead at Cleveland Clinic early Thursday after an altercation with officers nearly two hours earlier outside her home on the 1300 block of Ansel Road.

Daniel Holtzclaw, the Oklahoma City police officer accused of sexually assaulting women while on duty, is facing more charges.

by Nana Aduba-Amoah

A Tallahassee police officer has been suspended and placed on paid administrative leave after using a stun gun to tase a 61-year-old black woman for resisting arrest on Tuesday.

Actress Danièle Watts was wrongfully detained under the suspicion that she was a prostitute after being affectionate with her boyfriend in Studio City, California.