#police-violence

#police-violence

Colleges and universities hold huge influence in their communities. They can mediate differences and foster healthy debate. Indeed, several institutions have established schools of civic life that would, presumably, raise the alarm when constitutional rights are being violated. Academic research influences policy and informs public conversations. Scholars can put this violence into context and help remind us that this is not OK.

When George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, the nation's immediate reaction was one of horror. That included Republican commentators, who expressed their shock at the slow murder of Floyd by suffocation, agreeing his treatment was both brutal and excessive. President Donald Trump called Floyd's killing "sickening" and "revolting." There were stray voices who immediately blamed Floyd for his own murder-a preview of the position the MAGA commentariat would eventually adopt-but at least in the beginning, Republicans in power reacted to a heinous murder caught on camera with disapproval.

Like other more militant Black leaders and organizers during the racial upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brown decried heavy-handed policing in Black communities. He once stated that violence was as American as cherry pie. Violence is a part of America's culture, he said during a 1967 news conference. America taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression, if necessary. We will be free by any means necessary.

Wooden stakes bearing pictures of young men were driven into the yellow sands of Copacabana beach this week, opposite Rio de Janeiro's swanky hotels on Avenida Atlantica where 300 mayors and their entourages were staying during the C40 World Mayors Summit. Smiling up at the mayors in their hotel suites were photographs of four officers killed in what was the deadliest police raid in Brazilian history, just a few days before the summit.

Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has said his government will seek an independent investigation into what he called a disastrous police massacre that left at least 121 people dead. Four officers and at least 117 others were killed when police launched a major assault on two of Rio's largest clusters of favelas, the Complexo do Alemao and the Complexo da Penha, early last Tuesday to execute 100 arrest warrants.

Twenty years ago, a tragic event changed the direction of my life. Three teenagers from the banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois, north of Paris, were returning from a football game one afternoon in late October 2005 when they were chased by police. Zyed Benna, Bouna Traore and Muhittin Altun had done nothing wrong (an inquiry later confirmed this) but were so disoriented by fear of the police, they hid in an electricity substation.

Jean Villanueva's father is a bus ticket collector in Lima, working on one of those vehicles that move amid honking horns and fear. He is one of the targets of the mafias that collect extortion fees from ticket checkers and drivers people who, like so many others, leave home every day without knowing if they will return. Pessimism and weariness are spreading in Peru, but Villanueva, a 29-year-old accountant, prefers not to wait for the country to change on its own.

At least 1,000 anti-government protesters have marched in Madagascar's capital to demand that the president resign, as police used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. The demonstration on Thursday comes in the third week of the most significant unrest to hit the Indian Ocean island nation in years. Organised by Gen Z Madagascar, which describes itself as a peaceful, civic movement,

Karki a widely respected figure known for her hardline stand against corruption had been nominated by a group who said they represented the self-described gen Z protesters who brought down the government earlier this week. Tens of thousands of protesters, the majority of them below the age of 30, took to the streets on Monday to voice their opposition to a clumsily enforced ban on social media sites as well as bigger issues of corruption and nepotism among Nepal's political elite.

Tear gas filled the air and stun grenades echoed around the campus as the University of Novi Sad in northern Serbia descended into chaos on Friday night after police charged at citizens who had been peacefully protesting in front of the Faculty of Philosophy. "First, a unit of riot police burst out of the park, from the dark, rushed into the crowd and started hitting people with batons," Norbert Sinkovic, a teaching assistant at the faculty, told DW.

Demonstrations had begun peacefully, but turned violent against the nation's elite paramilitary police unit after footage showed one of its teams running over 21-year-old delivery driver Affan Kurniawan late on Thursday. Protests have since spread from the capital, Jakarta, to other major cities, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya in Java, and Medan in North Sumatra province, in the worst unrest since Prabowo took power.

Affan Kurniawan was killed on Thursday after an armoured police vehicle ran into him outside Indonesia's House of Representatives, as riot police were dispersing crowds who had gathered to demand higher wages, lower taxes and the removal of allowances for politicians. Motorcycle taxi drivers gathered outside Jakarta Mobile Brigade Corps headquarters on Friday to protest against Kurniawan's death, and students urged protesters to rally later outside police headquarters in the capital city.

Tensions in Serbia are high. Each day, there are new reports of police violence and arrests against demonstrators, along with accusations that the Western Balkan country's government is hiring criminal gangs to attack its own population. Anti-corruption protests have been ongoing since 16 people were killed when a railway station canopy collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad in November 2024. The demonstrations began peacefully, but in recent days, violence has escalated in the capital Belgrade and beyond.

Families gather to demand justice for Jalani Lovett, a man who died in solitary confinement in L.A. County jail. They seek accountability from Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Enes Hocaogullari, a 23-year-old LGBTQ+ advocate, stressed in his speech that youth are fed up and are ready to take to the streets to reclaim their freedoms.