Welcome to the weekly update from the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity! Here, we give you a wrap-up of the latest developments and notable news as we continue our state-focused fight to abolish the unjust rule.
This week, Atlanta activists unite to stop Cop City; a Brooklyn community redefines public safety; a new survey reveals the toll of police violence on Black mental health; and more!
FEATURED STORY
AP News: Atlanta Organizers Unveil Plan to Stop ‘Cop City’ at the Ballot Box
“‘The people need to have a voice in whether or not there is a Cop City,’ community organizer Kamau Franklin said during a news conference. ‘The City Council has failed over and over again to listen to the masses of people in Atlanta….What (the council members) want is what the Atlanta Police Foundation wants, which is to continue to militarize police and to attack our movements and criminalize our people. We don’t want that.’”
Read more here.
NEW YORK
In April, the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville tried something new: letting community members, not the NYPD, respond to low-level crimes for close to a week. The results were quite promising. “While [residents] know that we do need police, it’s possible that we can police ourselves,” said resident and activist Nyron Campbell.
Read more here.
New York Mayor Eric Adams revived the NYPD’s anti-crime units—rebranded as “neighborhood safety teams”—with the promise that they would serve communities honorably. A new report reveals these units are making unconstitutional stops targeting Black and Hispanic New Yorkers.
Read more here.
The Legal Aid Society has denounced New York’s Department of Corrections after it said it will no longer notify the media when a person dies while incarcerated—a move the Society warns will “keep outside eyes away from the catastrophe that is the city’s jail system and the harm it inflicts daily on New Yorkers trapped inside its deadly walls.”
Read more here.
ILLINOIS
Chicago cop Jeffrey Kriv has faced a “remarkable” number of misconduct complaints—92—since joining the force in 1996. But he’s never faced real accountability. It took Kriv’s sketchy testimony as a private citizen over traffic tickets to expose his troubling on-duty history.
Read more here.
ADDITIONAL NEWS
The Seattle Times: The Toll of Police Violence on Black People’s Mental Health
“Three years have passed since the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. But while the widespread protests against police violence in the United States have quieted, the pain Black people experience when a police officer injures or kills a Black person persists.”
Read more here.
Truthout: CDC Report Recognizes Police-Perpetrated Killing as Major Cause of Violent Death
“The CDC data from 2020 aligns with independent analyses showing that police kill an average of 1,000 people each year. Mapping Police Violence reports that around 1,200 people were killed by police in 2022, the highest annual number of deaths recorded over the past decade.”
Read more here.
Law & Crime: Arizona Seeks Qualified Immunity for Placing Kids in Foster Home that Ran Child Sex Abuse Rings
TW: sex abuse
“Trever Frodsham sued multiple state agencies and officials for placing his siblings and him in foster care with…David Frodsham, a prolific sex abuser who is now serving a 17-year prison sentence.…In November, Trever moved for partial summary judgment, and Arizona argued that it and its caseworkers are entitled to qualified immunity.”
Read more here.
CBS News Minnesota: Study: Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Police Misconduct in Minnesota
“If we’re going to make any police reforms, we need to know the scope of the problem and what is happening. I hope this report begins a conversation and leads to the mandating of uniform reporting and data gathering on payouts for police misconduct, both in Minnesota and nationwide.”
Watch here.
CT Insider: After Sweeping Reforms, Number of CT Police Officers Facing Decertification for Misconduct Soars
“The surge in decertification requests followed a sweeping round of accountability reforms state lawmakers passed in the 2020 Police Accountability Act, which strengthened rules regulating officers and expanded the scenarios under which officers could lose their license.”
Read more here.
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