Rodney King

Gregg Reese  |   OW Staff Writer
Oct 27 2011

Investigations into deputy misconduct escalate

“I have never experienced any facility exhibiting the volume and repetitive patterns of violence, misfeasance, and malfeasance impacting the Los Angeles County jail system.” —retired FBI special agent Thomas Parker, who supervised the governmental inquiry into the Rodney King beating.

Gregg Reese  |   OW Staff Writer
Jan 27 2011

Homicide rate drops in Los Angeles County and most of nation

“This achievement is particularly noteworthy given the state of the economy.” —Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

News that homicide rates in the City of Los Angeles have plummeted to 297 for the 2010 year (314 had been recorded in 2009), down from as many as 1,000-plus in 1992, generated a round of backslapping and congratulations by law enforcement and civil servants alike, followed by conjecture about how this downturn was achieved, and whether these developments would continue.

Gregg Reese  |   OW Staff Writer
Dec 9 2010

Echoes federal concerns

“LAPD presently engages in no systematic, proactive effort to identify whether biased policing is a problem or to identify and correct the behavior of individual officers who show significant racial disparities in their stops and post-stop actions.” —Jessica Price, on behalf of the ACLU of Southern California

Earl Ofari Hutchinson  |   OW Contributing Columnist
May 21 2009

The killing of Marcus Smith

In the past year, the Inglewood police department has been hit with a federal probe, a grueling investigation by the Office of Independent Review, probes by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, the implementation of intense and lengthy new training and retraining procedures for Inglewood officers, a vigilant and proactive police commission review, and an internal affairs investigation of officer involved shootings. Yet Marcus Smith, a thirty one year old African American, was still gunned down by an Inglewood police officer.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.