Michael Brown’s family reaches settlement in wrongful-death lawsuit

Michael Brown
Michael Brown

source: CBS News
published: 20 June 2017

A federal judge on Tuesday approved a settlement in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the parents of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old whose fatal shooting by a white police officer nearly three years ago in Ferguson, Missouri, set off months of protests.

Financial details of the settlement approved Tuesday by U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber were not disclosed. Anthony Gray, the attorney for Brown’s parents, declined comment, as did Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III.

Michael Brown Sr. and Lezley McSpadden sued the city, former Police Chief Tom Jackson and former police officer Darren Wilson in 2015.

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Philando Castile’s skin color ended up being a death sentence

Philando Castile
Philando Castile

source: Democracy Now!
published: 19 June 2017

Black Lives Matter protests are continuing in the Twin Cities after a Minnesota police officer was acquitted Friday in the killing of Philando Castile, an African-American man who was shot five times during a traffic stop last year.

His girlfriend filmed the aftermath and streamed it live on Facebook. We speak to civil rights lawyer Nekima Levy-Pounds, the former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, who is now running for mayor of Minneapolis.

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Can Ramarley Graham’s family get justice for his death?

Ramarley Graham
Ramarley Graham

source: NYMag.com
published: 14 June 2017

At the close of the last century, the New York City Police Department switched from full-metal-jacket bullets to hollow points. It was a move meant to spare lives — in theory, anyway.

The old bullets had a tendency to pass through their targets and endanger bystanders, while hollow points expand after impact, inflicting greater damage to internal organs but also increasing the likelihood that the bullet will slow to a halt inside the body.

And so, on February 2, 2012, when Officer Richard Haste shot 18-year-old Ramarley Graham — who was unarmed, standing in his own bathroom — the hollow-point bullet did just that.

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