Police

In what’s being hailed as a major victory for those looking to halt construction of a police training facility in a forest near Atlanta, a federal judge in Georgia ruled Thursday that a ban on non-Atlanta residents collecting signatures for a potential ballot measure is unconstitutional.

After her child “Tortuguita” was killed by Georgia State Patrol in January of this year while defending Atlanta’s South River Forest, Belkis Terán, a Venezuelan native now living in Panama, quickly took up the cause that they died fighting for.

In this episode, a collaboration with Futuro Investigates, Latino USA’s Maria Hinojosa follows this young survivor and her family in their journey to healing.

Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes investigative journalist Jonah Owen Lamb from the San Francisco Standard to discuss a wild story out of San Jose, California, where the head of the police union was charged with smuggling fentanyl into the country.

The plan to build the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed “Cop City,” has seen people of all backgrounds unite and organize against it, including Atlanta’s Black residents, various religious organizations, Indigenous people, climate activists, college students, and families affected by police violence.

The family of 16-year-old Susana Morales, who went missing while walking home in July 2022, is seeking justice after her body was discovered in early February by police in Gwinnett County, Georgia and the later arrest of a former police officer as a suspect.

A police officer frequently provided Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio with internal information about law enforcement operations in the weeks before other members of his far-right extremist group stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to messages shown Wednesday at the trial of Tarrio and four associates.

Police departments need to do a better job of vetting, training, and supporting officers, so that citizens may regain a healthy respect for those in uniform.

Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela speaks with Lourdes Rosado of LatinoJustice PRLDEF about the latest shocking example of police violence in Memphis and why the death of Tyre Nichols should be met with an equal measure of outrage by Black and Latino communities.

This week’s wrap-up comes to you from the cozy confines of quarantine, as senior editor Hector Luis Alamo has managed to catch COVID for only the second time this year.

“This story still stings, but I’ll tell it anyway.”

In the last 12 years, Puerto Rico police officers or former police officers have killed at least 10 women. More than 800 officers have been arrested for violence against their partners and 1,111 administrative complaints have been filed against them.

When reports of a shooting at Jefferson High School in San Antonio sent the school into lockdown on September 20, fearful parents attempting to enter the school clashed with police officers outside. After Parkland and Uvalde, parents have every right to distrust the police.

Former San Antonio police officer James Brennand, 25, has been charged in the shooting of Erik Cantu, 17, in a McDonald’s parking lot on October 2. The charges — two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant— are felonies and could increase if Cantu doesn’t survive his injuries.

Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week’s attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, “Please send the police now,” as officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, authorities said Friday.

Almost all Latinos believe investments in schools, jobs, and housing make their communities safer rather than simply funding police departments, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by Mijente and other groups.

Some National Civilian Police commanders in El Salvador have been pressuring their officers to meet daily arrest quotas as part of the government’s crackdown on street gangs that have yielded more than 10,000 arrests, a police union said Tuesday.

The Chicago Police officers involved in last year’s shooting deaths of 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez will not face criminal charges, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said on Tuesday.

While using certain crime statistics as a rationale to “re-fund the police” is dishonest, so is the notion that Democrats are taking anything away from law enforcement. Under President Biden, police have received billions in funding with little to no accountability or transparency.

A caravan of vehicles drove through Minneapolis demanding justice in the death of Amir Locke, the 22-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by Minneapolis police as officers served a no-knock search warrant.

As we enter the third year of pandemic life, it is all too easy to forget about the other predicament at our doorsteps: the humanitarian crisis in the U.S.-Mexico border.