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Articles on Police shootings

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A crowd marches on Dundas Street in Toronto in July 2013, along the streetcar line where Sammy Yatim, 18, was shot nine times and killed by Const. James Forcillo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu

Sammy Yatim inquest: Speaking for the dead, or a Toronto police marketing campaign?

What do coroner’s inquests do, what don’t they do, and why are they often dominated by police perspectives rather than the community’s or the victim’s?
A special constable with the Kawartha Lakes Police Services stands at a road block in Kawartha Lakes, Ont. in November 2020, following the death of an 18-month-old boy during a police pursuit. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives

Jameson Shapiro shooting trial: Why police trials perform a vital public service

A criminal trial is a venue where not only individual police officers accused of crimes are put under public scrutiny, but so too are the training and tactics that officer received.
RowVaughn Wells, in gray jacket, mother of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers, is with friends and family members at the conclusion of a candlelight vigil for Tyre, in Memphis, Tenn., on Jan. 26, 2023. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Pain of police killings ripples outward to traumatize Black people and communities across US

Evidence shows that many Black Americans experience police killings of unarmed Black people – even those they do not know – as traumatic events, causing acute physical and emotional distress.
People learn racism from the culture that surrounds them and media they consume, but that doesn’t need to be the end of the story. Gavriil Grigorov\TASS via Getty Images

American society teaches everyone to be racist – but you can rewrite subconscious stereotypes

If you’re American – regardless of the color of your skin – racism structures how you think. Changing the system should change these implicit biases.
Sending in the feds to quell unrest often increases conflict on the ground, as it did this summer in Portland, Ore. Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Federal agents sent to Kenosha, but history shows militarized policing in cities can escalate violence and trigger conflict

Kenosha is the latest US city to see federal agents patrolling its protests. History suggests that supplanting the local police with a militarized national force rarely works out well.
A portrait of George Floyd hangs on a street light pole as police officers stand guard at the Third Police Precinct during a face off with a group of protesters on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery deaths: Racism causes life-threatening conditions for black men every day

Police killings of black men gain widespread attention, but black men’s life-and-death issues are ignored on a daily basis, a physician who studies health gaps explains.
Darren Spencer at a memorial for his childhood friend Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old father of a teenage son, fatally shot by police in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, April 5, 2018. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

To stop police shootings of people with mental health disabilities, I asked them what cops – and everyone – could do to help

Police are almost always the first responders in cases of mental health crisis. Too often these encounters turn bad, even deadly. But police were never meant to be in charge of US mental health care.
Activists rallied in New York City in July 2016 to protest police-involved shootings. a katz/Shutterstock.com

Police are more likely to kill men and women of color

According to a new study, about 52 of every 100,000 men and boys, and about 3 of every 100,000 women and girls, are killed by police in the US.
A memorial display with a drawing of Antwon Rose II sits in front of the Allegheny County courthouse. Police officer Michael Rosfeld shot Rose three times as he fled a car after a traffic stop. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Our database of police officers who shoot citizens reveals who shot citizens

A new project looks at the race of on-duty police officers and civilians involved in 917 fatal shootings in 2015.
Protesters on the University of Cincinnati campus. AP Photo/John Minchillo

A new look at racial disparities in police use of deadly force

Does it make sense to compare the percentage of black Americans shot by police to the percentage of black Americans in the population? A new analysis suggests a different way of looking at the data.

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