‘Hillsborough survivors have always been there for us.. and we’re here for them’

Football On The Fieldsource: Liverpool Echo 
published: 24 September 2014

For many witnesses, notably the survivors, the Hillsborough inquests have been or will be a very tough and traumatic process played out in the public eye, but it’s a process that couldn’t proceed without their crucial contributions.

We have previously written about the value of the touching tributes family members presented at the start of the hearings in Warrington. These poignant testimonies were packed with emotion and difficult for family members to give, but individuals who were at Hillsborough being called to share their painful memories and, potentially, be cross-examined by several barristers takes things to another level.

Continue reading

After Ferguson, new focus on race and policing

Police SWAT Armor Suitsource: Voice of America
published: 15 September 2014

Last month’s fatal shooting of an unarmed African American teen by a white police officer after a street confrontation in Ferguson, Missouri, has drawn a new focus on other such cases throughout the U.S., amid protests and demands by civil rights leaders for investigation of racial bias in aggressive policing.

Barely a week after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, police in nearby St. Louis shot and killed Kajieme Powell, a mentally disturbed 25-year-old black man who held a small steak knife. Two police officers fired within 15 seconds of arriving at the scene where Powell was walking around, seemingly aimlessly, with his hands at his side.

Continue reading

Handcuffed black youth shot himself to death, says Coroner

Victor White
Victor White

source: NBC News.com
published: 25 August 2014

A coroner’s report obtained exclusively by NBC News directly contradicts the police version of how a 22-year-old black man died in the back seat of a Louisiana police cruiser earlier this year, but still says the man, whose hands were cuffed behind his back, shot himself.

In a press release issued March 3, the day he died, the Louisiana State Police said Victor White III apparently shot himself in an Iberia Parish police car. According to the police statement, White had his hands cuffed behind his back when he shot himself in the back.

Continue reading