Arguably the most prominent debate about inequality in the justice system has been the killing of black men by police officers who are often white. Aided by the ubiquity of smartphones used to document these shootings and the growing prominence of movements like Black Lives Matter, the issue has been thrust into the spotlight in recent years. But despite a glaring lack of data, the issue had likely been a problem long before it received so much public attention. While police shootings have rightly become an issue, racial disparities persist in areas of the justice system that often go unnoticed. A notable example of this is justifiable homicides.

In a new analysis from The Marshall Project, researchers found that both the race of the victim and killer are associated with large differences in the rate at which killings are ruled justified. “When a white person kills a black man in America, the killer often faces no legal consequences,” write authors Anna Flag and Daniel Lathrop. They found that although about 2 percent of all homicides committed by civilians were ruled justifiable between 1980 and 2014, 17 percent of homicides involving a white person killing a black man were deemed justifiable homicides. That rate stands out when you compare it to other circumstances; the authors find:

In comparison, when Hispanics killed black men, about 5.5 percent of cases were called justifiable. When whites killed Hispanics, it was 3.1 percent. When blacks killed whites, the figure was just 0.8 percent. When black males were killed by other blacks, the figure was about 2 percent, the same as the overall rate.

It is important to note that in most homicides, the killer and the victim are the same race, and few involve people who are strangers. But although this research covers a fairly small percentage of all homicides, the scale of the racial differences are quite notable.

The analysis, which used data for more than 400,000 homicides between 1980 and 2014, provides a detailed picture of when killings are ruled justified. While the FBI collects data for several different violent and property crimes, it offers expanded data for homicides allowing for several additional layers of analysis. The expanded data includes details about the victim and killer–including age, race, ethnicity, and sex–as well as the circumstances of the crime, like whether a weapon was involved and how the police classified the incident.

There are large racial disparities in the overall number of justifiable homicides, and those differences persist when you filter the data down to a variety of circumstances. Regardless of the relationship of the victim and the killer, differences in age, whether a weapon was used, or the police department reporting the incident, the disparities persist. Flag and Lathrop note,

Even after adjusting for the ages of the killer and victim, their relationship and the weapon used, the likelihood of a white-on-black-male case being called justifiable was still 4.7 times higher than in other cases.

U.S. law generally grants people the right to use lethal force when they fear their lives or the lives of others are in danger, while the specific details of self-defense laws are left up to the states. Much of the research on justifiable homicides has focused on what are known as Stand Your Ground laws, which typically expand a person’s right to use lethal force to a wider range of circumstances. These laws became particularly controversial in 2012 when George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager. In fact, the police decided against arresting Zimmerman in the immediate aftermath of the shooting because he claimed that he acted in self-defense, which is likely a result of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.

A study published earlier this week in JAMA Internal Medicine found that both justifiable homicides and the total number of murders increased significantly after Florida passed its Stand Your Ground law in 2005. According to the researchers, the total increase in murders–up about 22 percent in the 10 years since the law was passed–exceeded what is attributable to the increase in justifiable homicides alone. The authors note that in the six years before the state enacted its Stand Your Ground Law, justifiable homicides accounted for 3.4 percent of all homicides. That percentage increased to 8.7 percent between 2006 and 2015, a 75 percent increase.

Another study of justifiable homicides from 2013, which focused on the consequences of state Stand Your Ground laws, found racial disparities that are similar to those found by the Marshall Project. In his analysis of the FBI’s expanded homicide data, John Roman at the Urban Institute concluded that not only are there are large racial differences in justifiable homicide rulings, but Stand Your Ground laws actually increase those disparities.

There are important limitations in the FBI data that prevent broad conclusions about the potential role of racial prejudice in these findings, however. One notable example is that while the FBI collects a lot of supplemental information about these homicides, police departments do not provide data on the location of the incidents. If the location–an important piece of the context in self defense claims–is systematically different in cases where a white person kills a black man, the disparity could be attributed to that. Put another way, the facts of a homicide that occurred in someone’s home may be quite different from one that occurred on the street. Because we cannot know all of these crucial details about each case, we can’t conclude that racial bias, either on the part of the police or a jury, is responsible for the difference. Additionally, there can be notable gaps in the available data because it is voluntarily reported by the police and does not always reflect the final result of a case. The authors note that while a jury ultimately acquitted George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin, Martin’s death was classified as “other” in FBI data rather than as a justifiable homicide.

While we cannot know for sure whether prejudice is responsible for the racial discrepancies, there are a number of ways that such bias could come into play. From prosecutorial discretion over whether a case even goes to trial, to the inherent subjectivity involved in determining whether a person is in danger, overt and implicit bias certainly could play a role in these rulings.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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People in Oregon who are arrested while in the possession of small amounts of drugs will no longer face felony charges. Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed HB 2355 into law on Tuesday, reducing the classification of possession of certain quantities of drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Individuals convicted of the misdemeanor now face up to one year in prison. Prior to this move, those same individuals faced up to five years in prison for possession of any amount of cocaine and methamphetamine, and up to 10 years for heroin and MDMA, according to the Huffington Post.

Per the new law, individuals may be charged with a misdemeanor if they are found to be in the possession of less than two grams of cocaine or methamphetamine, less than one gram of heroin, less than 40 pills of oxycodone, less than one gram or five pills of MDMA (also known as ecstasy), or less than 40 units of LSD. Individuals possessing larger amounts of those drugs can still face felony charges.

The law also contains a provision to combat profiling of people “based solely on the individual’s real or perceived age, race, ethnicity, color, national origin, language, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religion, homelessness or disability.”

In 2014, California became the first state to defelonize minor drug crimes after voters approved Proposition 47. The ballot measure also included the reclassification of other felonies such as certain theft and fraud charges as misdemeanors.

In recent years, the U.S. federal government has begun to rethink sentences for some drug-related crimes. CBS reported in 2016 that more than 26,000 federal drug offenders had received shortened prison terms as a result of sentencing guidelines changes that the U.S. Sentencing Commission approved in 2014. The reevaluation of drug penalties is not just occurring in the U.S., but has become a global effort. Countries are working to lessen the power of organized crime and promote rehabilitative treatments for drug users.

Changes to federal drug policies in the U.S. may be slow to progress under Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But states like Oregon could play a significant role in ending the “war on drugs” through drug defelonization and rehabilitating drug users rather than imposing harsh penalties on them.

Marcus Dieterle

Marcus is an editorial intern at Law Street. He is a rising senior at Towson University where he is double majoring in mass communication (with a concentration in journalism and new media) and political science. When he isn’t in the newsroom, you can probably find him reading on the train, practicing his Portuguese, or eating too much pasta. Contact Marcus at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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For nervous fliers, having a cocktail or two to ease nerves on a flight isn’t unheard of. But apparently the United Kingdom has recently seen a dramatic uptick in the number of drunk passengers arrested for acting inappropriately in the air. The number of passengers arrested for being drunk or disorderly on flights or in airports has increased by 50 percent over the past year. And it’s causing a big problem for members of the cabin crew–roughly half have reported having to deal with a disruptive passenger over the same time period.

A BBC investigation surveyed 18 of the 20 UK police forces that serve major airports. They report arresting 387 passengers over the past year, up from 255 the year before that. Many cabin crew members reported that they were subjected to physical abuse from disorderly passengers. A woman who used to work in a Virgin cabin crew, Ally Murphy, told the BBC reporters about her experience, saying: “People just see us as barmaids in the sky.” She described being assaulted by passengers, stating:

I was pulled into an upper-class bed by a passenger who was feeling particularly lucky I guess. They would touch your breasts, or they’d touch your bum or your legs, or I mean I’ve had hands going up my skirt before.

It’s rage inducing, and you shouldn’t have to deal with that.

I guess I never reported it to the police because sadly, and this is completely wrong and only really occurring to me now, you kind of just accept it as part of the job. And it shouldn’t be.

Drunken fliers can potentially endanger their fellow passengers; Murphy also described a passenger trying to open an emergency door.

But in the U.S., incidents of unruly passengers actually seem to be decreasing. According to the FAA there’s been a steady decline in incidents voluntarily reported by airlines over the past few years–there were 147 in 2014, 105 in 2015, and 97 in 2016. So far, 22 incidents have been reported in 2017. But, those numbers, as well as the incidents reported in the UK, need to be taken with a grain of salt. There are surely drunk passengers who don’t alert suspicion, as well as “unruly” passengers who haven’t imbibed at all. And there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that some Americans like having a few on flights as well. A recent Vice op-ed authored by an anonymous flight attendant reported seeing plenty of drunk passengers, including those who experienced negative interactions between alcohol and calming drugs.

So, wherever you’re flying, don’t be a drunken jerk. It can be dangerous for you, other passengers, and the cabin crew.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman who urged her boyfriend to commit suicide through text messages, was sentenced to two and half years in prison on Thursday. However, the now 20-year-old Carter won’t serve any time until her appeals are finished. If Carter still has to serve prison time after those appeals, she will only serve 15 months in prison at first, with the balance of that sentence suspended until August 1, 2022.

In June, Bristol County Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz found Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, 18-year-old Conrad Roy III. Carter, who was 17 at the time, repeatedly texted her boyfriend as he contemplated suicide. Initially, she urged Roy to seek medical help for his suicidal thoughts and discouraged him from harming himself. However, a couple weeks later, Carter began urging Roy to kill himself and actually discussed how to use carbon monoxide.

On the day of his suicide, when Roy expressed that he was scared to go through with it, Carter “told him to get back in” the truck. Roy was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in July 2014 after he filled his truck with the toxic gas. When delivering his verdict back in June, Moniz said that “instructing Mr. Roy to get back in the truck constituted wanton and reckless conduct,” ABC News reported.

According to Buzzfeed, Moniz ordered Carter to abstain from any contact with Roy’s family and her friends who testified against her. He also ordered Carter not to try to profit off of the case, such as through movie or book deals, as part of her sentence.

Roy’s family members read statements in court before Moniz delivered his sentence.

“She exploited my son’s weaknesses and used him as a pawn in her own well-being,” Roy’s father said, according to Buzzfeed.

Marcus Dieterle

Marcus is an editorial intern at Law Street. He is a rising senior at Towson University where he is double majoring in mass communication (with a concentration in journalism and new media) and political science. When he isn’t in the newsroom, you can probably find him reading on the train, practicing his Portuguese, or eating too much pasta. Contact Marcus at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Sophie Hall was out with a group of friends at a night club in London in early April. It was 1 a.m. and they were still having fun before she noticed a fight breaking out next to her. Then she became overwhelmed by the smell of petrol and her face felt like it was on fire. The next thing she could remember was being stripped of her clothes and transported to the hospital for treatment for an acid attack.

Sophie was one of twenty people who were victims of the acid attack at the Mangle nightclub. The attack was not an isolated incident, but part of the larger epidemic of gang- and drug-related acid attacks that have increased in London in recent years.

According to data from the London police released in March, acid attacks from 2015-2016 increased by 74 percent. There has been a 30 percent rise in England overall. The problem has gotten so serious that London police officers have been issued acid treatment kits to allow officers to give immediate on-scene treatment to victims.

Acid attack epidemics are nothing new for the city. During the Victorian era it was common for women to throw corrosive acid on men who had “crossed them in love” as revenge. However, in the UK today most corrosive acid attacks involve men. Gang wars are believed to be the primary cause.

There are a variety of reasons why acid attacks may be popular for gang members. For example, there’s the relative cheapness of purchasing and concealing the substance. A liter of 95 percent sulfuric acid only costs £6.50 (about $8.50) and can be easily concealed from police. Furthermore the rise in acid attacks also coincides with efforts by lawmakers to deter possession of knives and guns.

Simon Harding, a Criminologist at Middlesex University, believes that the frequency of acid attacks has risen because they’re more difficult to prosecute and see more lenient repercussions, pointing out: “If you throw [acid] in someone’s face, it’s going to affect their eyes and eyesight so you have a high chance of getting away with it.” He went on to say: “Acid is likely to attract a ‘[Grievous Bodily Harm] with intent’ charge while using a knife is more likely to lead to the attacker being charged with attempted murder.”

In recent weeks, acid was used to target food delivery workers for popular services such as UberEats and Deliveroo. Jabed Hussain, 32, was one of five delivery bikers who were attacked during a 90-minute acid attack spree on July 16 in East London. In response, Hussain and other busy drivers blocked a central street in London during rush hour to protest the lack of safety. Hussain told reporters: “I’m just shocked, using acid to steal a bike? What’s a bike worth? My life is worth more than that.”

Representatives from the British government are currently meeting with police officers and the office of Home Secretary to discuss banning some kinds of acid, but have encountered difficulties because variations of the chemical are found in household goods. One MP, Stephen Timms, has recommended making it illegal to carry such noxious chemicals without justification. Violating that law would lead to penalties more on par with people caught with guns or knives. But while it may deter the number of acid attacks, it could inspire criminals to search for new, more dangerous weapons to use.

James Levinson

James Levinson is an Editorial intern at Law Street Media and a native of the greater New York City Region. He is currently a rising junior at George Washington University where he is pursuing a B.A in Political Communications and Economics. Contact James at staff@LawStreetMedia.com

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From a Pennsylvania prison’s mistreatment of mentally ill prisoners to prisons in Tennessee offering inmates 30 days off their sentences in exchange for undergoing birth control procedures, the United States prison system has a demonstrated history of subjecting inmates to substandard conditions. With a criminal justice system that has touted the “tough on crime” mantra, U.S. prisons have largely failed to rehabilitate inmates and prepare them for re-entry into society.

The U.S. has one of the highest recidivism rates in the world with 76.6 percent of prisoners rearrested within five years of their release. At 20 percent, Norway has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world. In an effort to curb some of the issues within their state’s criminal justice system, prison officials in North Dakota took a page out of Norway’s book to make prisons more humane. Leann Bertsch, director of North Dakota’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and one of her deputies, Karianne Jackson, ventured to Norway’s Halden and Bastøy prisons in 2015 to study how the inmates are treated.

Halden Prison is a maximum-security facility about 60 miles south of Oslo, Norway’s capital. Yet Halden stands in stark contrast to the high-security prisons found in the U.S. Halden, which Time named “The World’s Most Humane Prison,” houses its prisoners in private rooms that look more like college dorm rooms than the stereotypical prison cell or common sleeping area. The prison is outfitted with colorful interior decor, athletic facilities, a recording studio, and outdoor trails and seating areas, according to Time.

The Halden and Bastøy prisons were both featured in Michael Moore’s 2015 documentary film “Where to Invade Next.” At Bastøy, prisoners dress in regular clothes, stay in private rooms with their own key, and even work in a kitchen which–as Moore points out–is equipped with sharp knives. Yet it’s this culture of compassion, trust, and humanity that keeps Bastøy running. And if you weren’t yet convinced that Halden is about as close to paradise as prisons get, its orientation video features the prison guards singing a rendition of “We Are The World.”

After returning from Norway, Bertsch and Jackson took the lessons they learned at Halden and Bastøy and began implementing them at North Dakota’s Missouri River Correctional Center, nicknamed “The Farm.” At The Farm, prisoners are now housed in communal rooms with eight to 16 men, according to Mother Jones. They’re not the “interior design magazine” level of stylish that Bertsch and Jackson visited in the Norway prisons, but they’re certainly an improvement on traditional prison sleeping quarters. Plus, if an inmate is close to his release date and has proven good behavior, he can obtain a private room which shares a bathroom with only one other room.

Before Bertsch and Jackson’s trip, the state penitentiary’s administrative segregation unit was rampant with rules that placed prisoners in solitary confinement instead of addressing their behavior in a constructive manner. Now, only inmates who endanger somebody will end up in solitary, and the maximum time they can be held there has been shortened. Prisoners who have been isolated for long periods of time undergo behavioral therapy before they re-join the general prison population, giving them time to acclimate, according to Mother Jones. Another change was an effort to foster stronger relationships among guards and prisoners. Guards in the segregation unit are required to have at least two conversations with each inmate under their supervision per shift. Prisoners gather in sweat lodges and play handball outside on the court to build their relationships with one another, and seek on-site and off-site jobs to further their employment prospects once they are released.

If North Dakota, as a red state, can start taking steps to reform its prison system in a way that is actually beneficial to its inmates, then surely the rest of the country can too, right? Well, it might not be so easy. Shortly after being confirmed as Attorney General, Jeff Sessions doubled down on the use of private prisons despite several officials’ statements that private prisons put profits before the lives of inmates.

Likewise, the U.S. prison system has become increasingly overcrowded which is, in part, the result of convictions for nonviolent drug offenders instead of providing those individuals with treatment. That “tough on drugs” stance is likely to continue under Sessions. Sessions praised the anti-drug campaign Drug Abuse Resistance Education, more often referred to as DARE, at a DARE training conference in Texas on July 11, despite an abundance of research that has shown the program has been ineffective and may have even had a negative impact on substance abuse.

Providing substance abuse treatment instead of prison sentences to drug offenders would be in line with similar programs in Norway and could be a step toward reducing prison overcrowding, but it’s certainly not a magic bullet. The U.S. prison system also needs to focus on ways of rehabilitating violent offenders, reducing exorbitant sentences, and address the racial biases within the criminal justice system that disproportionately and negatively impact people of color.

Marcus Dieterle

Marcus is an editorial intern at Law Street. He is a rising senior at Towson University where he is double majoring in mass communication (with a concentration in journalism and new media) and political science. When he isn’t in the newsroom, you can probably find him reading on the train, practicing his Portuguese, or eating too much pasta. Contact Marcus at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Prisoners in White County, Tennessee can now receive a credit for 30 days off their sentences if they voluntarily undergo a birth control procedure.

General Sessions Judge Sam Benningfield signed the standing order instituting the program on May 15. Since then, at least 32 women and 38 men have volunteered for the procedure. Female prisoners receive a Nexplanon arm implant, which works for up to three years. Male prisoners receive a vasectomy. The Tennessee Department of Health conducts both procedures free of charge for the inmates.

Judge Benningfield decided to sign the order after speaking with the Department of Health. He says his hope is that the program will end the vicious cycle of drug-addicted ex-cons giving birth to children they cannot support and who might one day become drug users and criminals themselves. “I hope to encourage them to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out, not to be burdened with children,” he said in an interview with Nashville’s News Channel 5. “I understand it won’t be entirely successful, but if you reach two or three people, maybe that’s two or three kids not being born under the influence of drugs. I see it as a win-win.”

Not everyone agrees. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a statement on Wednesday calling the program “unconstitutional:”

Offering a so-called ‘choice’ between jail time and coerced contraception or sterilization is unconstitutional. Such a choice violates the fundamental constitutional right to reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity by interfering with the intimate decision of whether and when to have a child, imposing an intrusive medical procedure on individuals who are not in a position to reject it. Judges play an important role in our community – overseeing individuals’ childbearing capacity should not be part of that role.

There is also dissent closer to home. Tennessee’s District Attorney Bryant Dunaway has instructed his staff not to make arrangements regarding the program. “Those decisions are personal in nature and I think that’s just something the court system should not encourage or mandate,” he told local news station WTKR.

So far, 32 female volunteers have received their implants. The male volunteers are still waiting for their procedures to begin.

Delaney Cruickshank

Delaney Cruickshank is a Staff Writer at Law Street Media and a Maryland native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in History with minors in Creative Writing and British Studies from the College of Charleston. Contact Delaney at DCruickshank@LawStreetMedia.com.

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The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has failed to provide adequate treatment to prisoners with mental illnesses, according to a July 12 report from the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General. Among the OIG’s criticisms are the BOP’s failure to properly track and limit the length of time prisoners spend in “restrictive housing,” and prisons’ inadequate documentation of inmates’ mental illness resulting in inappropriate mental health treatment or no treatment at all. The report highlighted issues with multiple facilities for their mistreatment of mentally ill inmates, but singled out the U.S. Penitentiary (USP) in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in particular.

The report said the BOP’s failure to document inmates’ mental health diagnoses leaves many cases of mental illness underreported. According to a DOJ survey that was conducted between February 2011-May 2012–which the recent DOJ report was based on–14 percent of state and federal prisoners and 26 percent of jail inmates reported experiencing serious psychological distress (SPD) in the past 30 days. Thirty-seven percent and 44 percent respectively had been told by a mental health professional they had a mental disorder. However, according to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, only 3 percent of BOP sentenced inmates were being treated regularly for mental illness as of 2015. “Without an accurate count of all inmates with mental illness, the BOP is unable to ensure that it is providing appropriate mental health care for its inmates,” Horowitz said in a video message.

According to the DOJ report, the BOP claimed that “the Bureau does not recognize the term solitary confinement. Therefore, the Bureau does not have a definition or a reference to provide.” The BOP also does not clearly define “restrictive housing” or “extended placement.” However, the OIG found that inmates, including those with mental illness, were confined to single-occupant cells, isolated from other inmates, and had little human contact at multiple facilities. At the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Security Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado, the OIG observed two inmates at the Restrictive Housing Unit (RHU) when they were each confined to single-occupant cells for over 22 hours per day.

Additionally, BOP does not limit how long an inmate can be held in restrictive housing–during individual periods or cumulatively over multiple periods of confinement. The OIG’s sample of inmates with mental illness showed that those inmates had been placed in the ADX for an average of about 69 months. One mentally ill inmate had spent 19 years in an ADX cell before they were transferred to a residential mental health treatment program. That time spent in isolation can be psychologically harmful to prisoners, increase the likelihood of recidivism, and make it more difficult for inmates to re-integrate into society after being released, according to the report.

In May 2014, the BOP adopted a new mental health policy to improve the treatment of inmates with mental illness, including those being held in RHUs. However, after that policy was implemented, the BOP exhibited a 30 percent reduction in the number of inmates receiving regular mental health treatment. Inmates are classified based on Mental Health Care Levels (MHCL) 1-4. MHCL 1, the lowest classification, represents “no significant level of functional impairment associated with a mental illness” and requires no regular mental health intervention. MHCL 4, the highest classification, represents that an “inmate may require inpatient psychiatric care and acute care in a psychiatric hospital.” The policy was meant to increase the number of inmates designated as MHCL 2-4 through proper diagnoses. Due to a lack of staffing and resources, the policy “raised the bar” for determining whether an inmate would receive mental health treatment. Without those upper tier diagnoses, many inmates went without the care they needed, according to the report.

One inmate who arrived at a Special Management Unit (SMU) was diagnosed with three mental disorders and was prescribed medications. The inmate’s psychologist removed him from his medications after claiming the patient was faking his mental illness. “Despite the litany of diagnoses and psychiatric medications [the inmate’s] contacts with psychology staff indicate a clear history of malingering and feigning symptoms to change conditions of his confinement,” the psychologist wrote in their notes. Two of the inmate’s three mental disorders were classified as “no longer current.” One year after arriving at the SMU, the inmate was transferred out for mental health reasons.

The American Correctional Association recommends that single-occupant, restrictive housing cells should be a minimum of 80 square feet with at least 35 square feet of unencumbered space. An unknown number of cells at USP Lewisburg did not meet that standard, according to the report. The BOP said that some cells were only 58.5 square feet. Additionally, the report said USP Lewisburg lacked air conditioning and instead relied on ceiling fans, according to the report. “This is especially troubling since psychotropic medications can hinder the body’s ability to sweat,” the report said. “These conditions can make inmates who take psychotropic medications more prone to heat stroke and heat-related illnesses.”

The DOJ acknowledged that the BOP has taken steps to improve these conditions for mentally ill inmates, such as diverting inmates with serious mental illness from traditional RHUs to residential mental health treatment programs and other alternative programs. However, the DOJ maintained that there are still numerous issues with the BOP system, such as high staffing needs and lack of measurement of programs’ effectiveness.

USP Lewisburg is currently involved in a lawsuit, filed on June 9, in which the prison has been accused of providing poor treatment to mentally ill inmates, such as cutting off medications and swapping crossword puzzles for counseling sessions, according to NPR. One of the plaintiffs in McCreary v. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is Jusamuel Rodriguez McCreary, a Lewisburg inmate who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, mood disorder, psycho-social, and environmental problems, ADHD, and antisocial personality disorder. McCreary attempted suicide on multiple occasions and is now being held in an ADX cell at Lewisburg. He has not left his cell since May 16 and has to yell through his cell door for his weekly, two-minute “therapy” sessions, according to the lawsuit. With the findings from the DOJ’s report, it’s unclear yet exactly how many more cases like McCreary’s there are. But for inmates with mental illness to receive proper health care, big changes must come to the U.S. prison system.

Marcus Dieterle

Marcus is an editorial intern at Law Street. He is a rising senior at Towson University where he is double majoring in mass communication (with a concentration in journalism and new media) and political science. When he isn’t in the newsroom, you can probably find him reading on the train, practicing his Portuguese, or eating too much pasta. Contact Marcus at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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On Saturday evening, a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota called 911 to report what she believed might be a sexual assault taking place in an alley close to her home. But when police arrived, an officer fatally shot her. Police have not explained what happened and the officers’ body cameras were turned off at the time. The woman, Justine Damond, was originally from Australia and lived in Minneapolis with her fiancé Don Damond.

Don Damond’s son, Zach, called Justine his best friend in a video posted on Facebook. He said that she called the police because she thought something bad was happening to someone else. “And then the next thing I know they take my best friend’s life,” he said. “I’m so done with all this violence. It’s so much bullsh*t. America sucks.”

Minneapolis Police said the shooting was not captured by the officers’ dashboard cameras and no one seems to know why the body cameras were turned off. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety is investigating the incident, but the investigation is only in its early stages. On Monday night, the county medical examiner said that the cause of death was a gunshot to the abdomen.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the officer who shot Justine Damond is named Mohamed Noor. Three sources who spoke to the Star Tribune said that Justine Damond was outside in her pajamas talking to the officer in the driver’s seat of the police car, when Noor, who was sitting in the passenger seat, suddenly drew his weapon and shot her. No weapon was found at the scene.

Justine Damond planned to marry Don Damond next month. Her maiden name was Justine Ruszczyk, but she went as Justine Damond. She reportedly held dual citizenship in both the United States and Australia, as her father is a U.S. citizen.

On Sunday night, neighbors and others held a vigil at the scene of the shooting.

Vigil crowd swelled to 200 strong, all praying for Justine – the woman neighbors identified as who a MPD officer killed last night. @WCCO pic.twitter.com/uVOM61gRhD

— Jeff Wagner (@Jeff_Wagner4) July 16, 2017

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that it has been assisting Justine Damond’s family in Sydney and released a statement on behalf of her family members. “This is a very difficult time for our family. We are trying to come to terms with this tragedy and to understand why this has happened,” it said.

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges demanded answers from the police on Sunday. “As mayor of our city, a wife, and a grandmother, I am heartsick and deeply disturbed by what occurred last night,” she said. “There are still many questions about what took place, and while the investigation is still in its early stages, I am asking the BCA to release as much information, as quickly as they are able to.”

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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On Thursday night, the main person of interest in the investigation into the four men who disappeared in Pennsylvania last week confessed that he killed all of them. Cosmo DiNardo, 20, admitted to the murders in exchange for the district attorney’s agreement to not pursue a death sentence, one of his lawyers said.

The confession came one day after investigators found human remains in a “common grave” on DiNardo’s parents’ property, which the police had spent days searching. The remains were identified as belonging to Dean Finocchiaro, 19. Thanks to cadaver dogs, the grave could be found despite being 12.5 feet deep. The bodies of the remaining men were later identified in the same grave.

Early Friday morning, a second man was arrested, 20-year-old Sean Kratz. Both men face charges of criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and robbery.

Video of defense attorney Paul Lang’s statement that Cosmo DiNardo confessed to his involvement with the murder of four Bucks County men. pic.twitter.com/3mcdXPfSx0

— James Boyle (@jamesboylejr) July 13, 2017

The Killer Knew the Victims

Police suspected early on that all the men knew each other. Jimi Patrick, 19, was the first to disappear, and was last seen on July 5. He reportedly graduated from the same small high school as DiNardo did, just one year later. Finocchiaro was last seen on the evening of July 7, as was Thomas Meo, 21, and Mark Sturgis, 22. Meo and Sturgis were longtime friends who both worked for Sturgis’ father.

Finocchiaro and DiNardo were both members of a Facebook group for people buying and selling terrain vehicles, and text messages in a group chat showed that they knew each other. A friend of Meo and Sturgis, Eric Beitz, said that DiNardo had been hanging out with them recently and that he talked about “weird things like killing people and having people killed.” Apparently DiNardo also sold guns. Sturgis’ father said he had heard his son and Meo mention Finocchiaro in the past.

History of Mental Illness

Cosmo DiNardo was well known to law enforcement and had had 30 contacts with law enforcement in just six years. He suffers from mental illness and spent time at a mental institution last summer where he was involuntarily committed. It is unknown for what specifically, but a prosecutor described him as schizophrenic.

On Monday, Dinardo was arrested for an unrelated charge of possessing a firearm despite suffering from a mental illness. The incident involving the firearm reportedly happened in February, but the district attorney authorized police to refile the charges last month. His father then paid 10 percent of his $1 million bail.

Missing Pennsylvania man’s cellphone signal led police to Cosmo DiNardo’s farm where human remains were found: https://t.co/sLbCqNEuGQ pic.twitter.com/WjjN3ZKJvg

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 14, 2017

The Crime

Police early on focused on DiNardo as a person of interest in the case of the missing men, after a signal from Finocchiaro’s cellphone was traced to DiNardo’s family farm. On Wednesday, DiNardo was arrested for trying to sell Meo’s car for $500 to a friend, who called the police.

The car was found on another property owned by the DiNardos, but was still officially registered to Meo. Meo’s diabetic kit was still in the car, which according to family members, he didn’t go anywhere without. After that, DiNardo’s bail was set at $5 million. On Wednesday, cadaver dogs led police to the grave.

DiNardo told investigators he promised to sell the men marijuana, but then he decided to kill them and keep their money. He shot and killed Patrick on July 5, and used a backhoe to dig a hole in which to bury the body.

On July 7, DiNardo and Kratz met with Finocchiaro, also involving marijuana sales. Kratz shot Finocchario, and DiNardo placed him in a metal tank.

Later that same day, DiNardo shot Sturgis and Meo and placed them in the same tank as Finocchiaro. The next day, DiNardo and Kratz dug a deep hole using the backhoe and buried the whole tank. There are sure to be more details to come as investigators continue their search and press the men.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Two Arrested For Murders of Four Missing Pennsylvania Men appeared first on Law Street.

South Carolina recently passed a law that requires police officers in the state to undergo training to better recognize when a mental illness, not malicious intent, is behind a person’s actions. The legislation, passed unanimously by both chambers and signed by the governor in May, applies to all 16,000 officers, including corrections officers, in South Carolina.

Training in “mental health or addictive disorders,” as the law terms the newly required subjects, is already standard practice for 59 accredited police agencies in South Carolina. But for the remaining 240 or so agencies, the course will be added to the 40 hours of re-training officers complete every three years for recertification.

Supporters of the new training requirements say officers need to be equipped to deal with people whose actions can be ascribed to illness, not ill intent.

“Someone may be acting in a strange way,” said State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, “and officers need to understand it’s not just out of meanness but someone has an issue going on and they need help — not necessarily jail, but a hospital.”

The legislation does not define the exact number of training hours officers are required to commit to mental health, nor does it outline what the course would include. Instead, the law says the course must be approved by the Criminal Justice Academy, which is working with the National Alliance on Mental Health to hammer out the details.

In its most recent training catalogue, the academy offers a course titled, “Law Enforcement Awareness for the Mentally Ill.” According to the course description, it will “help the first responder as well as the seasoned officer better understand what someone with a mental illness is dealing with.” The course will include “group discussions with mentally ill clients.” 

According to a recent survey conducted by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, 41 of 42 states (eight states did not respond to the study) “have standards for mental health training.” State standards for mental health training, the survey found, are often instituted by a state’s officer training entity. Some states, like South Carolina, use the state legislature to pass legislation that addresses training. 

South Carolina is no stranger to the problems that can arise when officers are not properly trained to spot mental illness.

In August 2010, Andrew Torres’ family asked three officers to come to his Greenville home, and enforce a court order that would commit him to a mental hospital. Torres did not willingly comply, and the officers tasered him (the exact series of events are in dispute). Torres, who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic, went into cardiac arrest, and died at a hospital. Torres’ family sued the officers, and in 2014 were awarded $500,000 for the death of their son.

The recently-passed bill, sponsored by Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden), is meant to prevent such episodes from happening again. Sheheen recently said that if officers are not properly trained, a confrontation with a mentally ill subject “escalates to criminality or violence or trouble.” He added: “It’s not fair to law enforcement to put them on the street and not equip them.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post New South Carolina Law Requires Officers to Undergo Mental Health Training appeared first on Law Street.

Prosecutors have dropped the perjury charge against the police officer who arrested Sandra Bland, a black woman who was arrested at a traffic stop and later was found dead in jail.

The officer, Brian Encinia, only faced a single charge of perjury for lying during the investigation into the arrest. He agreed to surrender his officer license and never work in law enforcement again in exchange for the charge to be dropped. But the case will permanently show on his record.

In July 2015, Encinia pulled Bland over on a road near Houston, Texas, as she didn’t use her indicator when switching lanes. She said she was trying to get away from the police vehicle, as it had come up very close to her car and wouldn’t stop following her. When Bland was pulled over, Encinia asked her to put out her cigarette.

But she refused. In the audio from the dashcam footage you can hear how he violently pulls her out of her vehicle and slams her to the ground. She can be heard complaining about her wrist being bent to the point of breaking, and saying she can no longer hear.

Encinia also threatened to “light [her] up” with his taser gun. He also said “good” after Bland explains she has epilepsy. After taking Bland into custody, Encinia can be heard laughing and debating what he will charge her with–resisting arrest or assault.

It’s not enough. These officers need to be held accountable for murdering Black people. Anything less than that is unacceptable.

— Dr. SaVonni Yestanti (@SaVonniYestanti) June 29, 2017

Three days later, jail staff found Bland dead in her cell, hanging with a plastic bag around her neck. The official explanation was that she committed suicide. But her family has doubted that claim, saying that she had just gotten a new job and wouldn’t want to die. In July 2016, another officer claimed that officials tried to make him keep quiet about circumstances surrounding Bland’s time in jail.

The officer claimed he had seen marks on Bland’s forehead, and said that Encinia made up a charge of assaulting a public servant to justify why she would be detained for so long. After the dashcam footage was made public, Encinia was charged with perjury. He reportedly lied in a sworn affidavit in which he wrote that Bland was “combative and uncooperative” at the time of the arrest. But he never faced any assault charges.

No members of the jail staff faced any charges at all, even though they knew Bland had expressed suicidal thoughts before and had a history of depression. A lot of people do not think justice has been served, and Bland’s family has criticized the single perjury charge.

“We understand that this is far from a perfect solution, and that many people will feel that this is an inadequate punishment, while others feel that charges should have never been filed,” prosecutors in Encinia’s case said on Wednesday.

Rep. @GFColeman, author of Sandra Bland Act: “I’m sorry to Ms. Bland’s family for how poorly Texas has treated their loved one.” #txlege pic.twitter.com/DptVePBI06

— Chuck Lindell (@chucklindell) June 28, 2017

The one good thing that came out of this tragic case was the creation of the Sandra Bland Act, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law two weeks ago. The new law will require county jails to divert people that suffer from mental health issues or substance abuse to treatment. It will also require law enforcement to investigate any deaths that occur in jail. The law will go into effect on September 1.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Perjury Charge Dropped Against the Officer Who Arrested Sandra Bland appeared first on Law Street.

On Tuesday, three officers involved in the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald were indicted on three felony counts: conspiracy, official misconduct, and obstruction of justice. None of the officers pulled the trigger that killed McDonald on October 20, 2014 in Chicago’s South Side. Instead, they are accused of intentionally shielding the man who is charged with McDonald’s murder, Officer Jason Van Dyke.

According to the indictment, Detective David March and patrol officers Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney provided a misleading report after the shooting. Detailing the events that led Van Dyke to shoot and kill McDonald, the officers said the teenager wielded a knife and was aggressively approaching the officers, slashing his blade in their direction.

Three current or former Chicago police officers indicted in Laquan McDonald case https://t.co/fom5AeCmki pic.twitter.com/NKwFTBzbOu

— CNN (@CNN) June 27, 2017

But about a year after the shooting, in November 2015, the Chicago Police Department released dashcam footage that contradicted the officers’ report. In the video, McDonald appears to be holding a knife, but is clearly staggering away from the officers. Shots ring out and McDonald falls to the pavement, as Van Dyke continues to fire his weapon. In all, 16 shots were fired. The video, which sparked massive protests across Chicago, ultimately led to the dismissal of Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy.

“These defendants lied about what occurred during a police-involved shooting in order to prevent independent criminal investigators from learning the truth,” said Patricia Brown Holmes, the special prosecutor who announced the charges on Tuesday.

The indictment said that the three men were aware that a “public airing” of the shooting and the video “would inexorably lead to a thorough criminal investigation by an independent body and likely criminal charges.” The charges also said March, a detective with over three decades of experience, “failed to locate, identify, and preserve physical evidence” of the crime, “including video and photographic evidence.”

The three officers also allegedly conspired together to avoid interviewing three witnesses that would have conflicted with Van Dyke’s account of his encounter with McDonald. Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in 2015; he pleaded not guilty, and there is no trial date set at this point. March, Walsh, and Gaffney are scheduled to be arraigned on July 10. If convicted, they could face over ten years in prison and tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

In the Obama Administration’s last months in office, officials conducted an investigation into the CPD. The findings were announced just days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The Justice Department found a pattern of racial discrimination within the CPD, and said the department “engages in a pattern or practice of using force, including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Chicago Officers Indicted on Three Felony Counts in Laquan McDonald Murder appeared first on Law Street.

Martin Shkreli, a.k.a. “pharma bro,” definitely lived up to his reputation as the “most hated man in America” on the first day of his fraud trial. More than 120 prospective jurors were dismissed Monday, with some calling him “evil” and a “snake.”

Unsurprisingly, many of the jurors were quickly disqualified for criticizing Shkreli’s price gouging of AIDS drugs, even though the trial actually has nothing to do with him increasing the price of Daraprim overnight by more than 5,000 percent.

“I think he’s a very evil man,” said one young woman as she was questioned by Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto.

One woman even mimicked strangling Shkreli as she referenced him raising the price of “the AIDS drug,” according to the New York Times.

“Who does that?” she said. “A person that puts profit over everything else?”

“I looked right at him, and in my head, I said, ‘That’s a snake’–not knowing who he was,” said another woman upon seeing Shkreli in the courtroom. To which Shkreli’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman replied, “So much for the presumption of innocence.”

A male prospective juror said, “I have total disdain for the man.”

Another man told the judge, “This is the price gouger of drugs.” He added: “My kids are on some of these drugs. This impacts my kids.”

A third man said, “He kind of looks like a d*ck.”

The 34-year-old baby-faced former pharmaceutical exec is on trial in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn for allegedly running an elaborate Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he once headed up.

Prosecutors have accused Shkreli of lying to investors at the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and siphoning off more than $11 million in assets from his biopharmaceutical company Retrophin to repay them between 2009 and 2014.

In total, Shkreli faces eight counts of securities and wire fraud and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Since first drawing widespread criticism in 2015, Shkreli has appeared to relish in making the world hate him. He spent $2 million on a rare Wu-Tang Clan album, and then subsequently threatened to destroy it. He harassed journalist Lauren Duca until he was banned from Twitter. He even auctioned off the chance to punch him in the face for charity–although one lucky protester managed to pelt him in the face with dog poop for free.

On Wednesday, the judge denied requests to start the selection process over and ban reporters from listening in on sidebars after the defense accused news coverage of tainting the New York jury pool.

She did, however, agree to re-question about 40 people who qualified for the pool to see if they were influenced by the latest wave of publicity for Shkreli. Judge Matsumoto also requested another pool of 60 to 100 potential jurors to be brought to the courtroom on Tuesday, but there’s no guarantee they’ll hate him any less than the first batch.

The trial is expected to last six weeks, but it’s already shaping up to be a rough ride for Shkreli.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Finding a Jury for Martin Shkreli, the “Most Hated Man in America” appeared first on Law Street.

The murder of a Virginia teenager who went missing after leaving a mosque early Sunday morning will not be investigated as a hate crime, authorities said on Monday.

Fairfax Police arrested 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres and charged him with murder in connection with the case. The department tweeted Monday: “We are NOT investigating this murder as a hate crime.” Authorities appear to believe the crime was motivated by road rage.

We are NOT investigating this murder as a hate crime. https://t.co/f6TegmdKMR pic.twitter.com/mlGzrQfiMk

— Fairfax Co. Police (@fairfaxpolice) June 19, 2017

“Nothing suggests that this girl or the group was targeted because of who they are or what they believe,” said Tawny Wright, a Fairfax police spokeswoman.

“Something happened and he became upset,” said Wright in a telephone interview with Reuters. “The group started separating a little bit. The victim happened to be closest to him and then he assaulted her.”

The body of 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen was discovered by police floating in a pond in Sterling, Virginia on Sunday afternoon. According to the medical examiner, she died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Hassanen was last seen walking toward the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling with a group of friends at around 3:30 a.m. The girl and her friends were dressed in abayas, a robe-like dress worn by some Muslim women.

According to reports, the group was grabbing food at a nearby IHOP or McDonalds after a Ramadan prayer service when a car pulled up and a man with a baseball bat jumped out and started swinging at the group of girls. All but one of the teens were able to flee back to the mosque, according to Deputy Aleksandra Kowalski, a spokeswoman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

There are no words…17yr old #Nabra Hassanen kidnapped, beaten& murdered today in Virginia after attending mosque https://t.co/yEqCp8dzIB pic.twitter.com/RX30XFjGbP

— Miss Myrtle (@MissMyrtle2) June 19, 2017

After an extensive search, a body, believed to be the teen’s, was found about three miles from where the altercation took place.

“What investigators told the father and the mother, he hit her in the head and put her in the car and he threw her in the water,” Nabra’s family friend and spokesperson Abas Sherif told the Associated Press.

Torres was taken into custody as a suspect after police stopped him for driving suspiciously in the search area.

ADAMS is one of the largest mosques in the country, and the murder came as a shock to the local Muslim community as it celebrates the final days of the holy month of Ramadan, in which participants fast from sunrise to sunset.

“We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event. It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth,” the ADAMS Center said in a statement. “It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth.”

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), who visited the center several times during his time as a state senator, said he hopes the community can come together to support one another.

“The ADAMS Center has always welcomed me and so many in Northern Virginia like family,” said Herring. “This unspeakable attack feels like an assault on our entire community. Words fail at a time like this, so we’ll all have to do the best we can to surround them with the love and support they’ve always shown each of us.”

Hassanen’s death comes amidst a surge of anti-Muslim crimes–the very same day a terror attack took place outside a London mosque, where a van plowed into a group of pedestrians. The driver reportedly said “I want to kill Muslims” repeatedly. And last month, two men were stabbed to death on a Portland train while protecting two girls against anti-Muslim threats. And while police are not investigating the Virginia teen’s death as a hate crime, Mahmoud Hassanen, Nabra’s father, believes that’s exactly what it was.

Nabra was a 17 year old black Muslim girl. it was a hate crime. it is terrorism. & normalizing it will only result in more ppl getting hurt. https://t.co/lpZuogXs6F

— nañi (@pettyblackgirI) June 19, 2017

A crowdfunding campaign for the girl’s family has already raised more than $180,000. The family has also raised over $43,000 towards funeral arrangements through a GoFundMe campaign.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Murder of Muslim Teenager Not Being Investigated as Hate Crime appeared first on Law Street.

Spectators let out audible gasps as Judge Lawrence Moniz announced the verdict for 20-year-old Michelle Carter, who was accused of encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself in 2014. On Friday, she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and could face up to 20 years in prison. The sentencing phase of her trial will begin on August 3.

It may have been the first trial of its kind–dealing with the question of whether someone can be guilty of another person’s suicide. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Robert Cordy said at the beginning of the trial that it was the first case where words alone were the evidence, at least in that court.

Audible gasps come from the gallery when Judge Moniz finds #MichelleCarter guilty.

— Bob McGovern (@BobMcGovernJr) June 16, 2017

Carter was 18 when she encouraged her 17-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy III to kill himself. Reportedly she wanted attention as the “grieving girlfriend.” But their conversations all happened via text messages–they lived many miles apart–and Roy had been depressed and suicidal for some time. Roy took his own life by pumping carbon monoxide into his truck.

Despite many legal experts who expected Carter to be acquitted, the judge said that Carter’s behavior was both immoral and illegal. He pointed to the fact that Roy previously had tried to commit suicide, but reached out to his family for help. His family responded by getting him treatment.

The messages I’m getting from attorneys are ranging from “Holy crap” to “Told you so.” #MichelleCarter

— Bob McGovern (@BobMcGovernJr) June 16, 2017

On the day that Roy committed suicide, he texted Carter, explaining that he was having second thoughts. He called her, but she told him to get back in the truck. “He breaks that chain of self-causation by exiting the vehicle,” Moniz said. He added that by telling Roy to get back in, despite “his ambiguities, his fears, his concerns,” Carter created a situation that would most likely cause severe harm to Roy.

“She admits in subsequent texts that she did nothing, she did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family. And finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck,’” Moniz said. According to legal experts, this case could encourage Massachusetts lawmakers to write laws that will hold people accountable for what they say to each other online.

The ACLU of Massachusetts issued a statement disagreeing with the verdict, saying it is a violation of free speech. Basically the organization said that it could lead to the criminalization of other conversations, like end-of-life care between family members.

Just in: @ACLU_Mass criticizes Michelle Carter guilty verdict as violation of First Amendment. pic.twitter.com/mgm14A5Yte

— Dan Glaun (@dglaun) June 16, 2017

Another facet of the case is that Carter has also struggled with mental illness herself. At the time of Roy’s suicide, she was on antidepressants that might have affected her actions. According to psychiatrist Peter Breggin, who testified in court on Monday, the medication Carter was taking could have affected her frontal lobe, impacting her ability to empathize with other people and make sound decisions.

“Someone who wouldn’t do anything outlandish or dangerous might when the frontal lobe is injured in some way,” Breggin said. He also claimed that Carter appeared supportive of Roy. He recounted that she tried to talk him out of committing suicide. But, when Roy claimed he didn’t want help, she supported him. “She’s not thinking she’s doing something criminal, she found a way to help her boyfriend,” he said.

No matter what, this is a tragic and complicated case. One young man lost his life, and one young woman could be facing a lengthy prison sentence. In the end, there is no winner.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Michelle Carter Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter in Texting Trial appeared first on Law Street.

On Monday, a Bangladeshi diplomat in New York was charged with labor trafficking and assault for allegedly forcing his servant to work up to 18 hours a day without pay. The man couldn’t escape his situation as the employer, Mohammed Shaheldul Islam, had taken his passport and threatened to kill his mother and son.

Forty-five-year-old Islam is the deputy consul general for Bangladesh. According to authorities, he hired Mohammed Amin to be his servant and organized for him to come to the U.S. in 2012. But when he arrived, Islam took his passport and made Amin work for up to 18 hours a day. He said if Amin left, he would have his mother and son killed and “shame” his daughter.

Islam is also accused of beating Amin if he wasn’t obedient enough, with his hands or with a wooden shoe. He didn’t pay him, but Amin did make a little bit of money working at parties and events that Islam organized. But even then, Islam took the tip money and gave Amin a check back, so that it would look on paper as if he was given a paycheck.

Islam is now facing 33 charges for grand larceny, assault, labor trafficking, unlawful imprisonment, and more. “The long list of 33 charges in the indictment is a clear indication of the shocking depth of the deprivation and abuse allegedly meted out by this diplomat against his helpless domestic worker,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch in Asia.

Arranging for countrymen to accompany diplomats to serve as household help is common for South Asian diplomats. But in 2013, Indian deputy consul general Devyani Khobragade was arrested on charges of labor trafficking, also in New York. She had forced her housekeeper and nanny to work for $1 dollar an hour, for 100 hours a week. Shortly after that Islam started writing checks for Amin’s tip amounts, to create the illusion of a regular paycheck.

Khobragade’s arrest caused relations between the U.S. and India to worsen. People in India were outraged at the news–not because of the rich diplomat’s treatment of her employee, but because U.S. officials had arrested her outside her daughter’s school and strip-searched her. Many also argued that the housekeeper was far better paid than domestic workers in India.

Preet Bharara, then the United States Attorney in Manhattan, commented on it at the time. “One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse,” he said.

Experts say the cases that are actually prosecuted are only the tip of the iceberg–the practice of using servants under slave-like conditions is probably much more common than we know.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Bangladeshi Diplomat Allegedly Forced Unpaid Aide to Work 18-Hour Days appeared first on Law Street.

A Texas sheriff’s deputy and her husband have been indicted on murder charges after choking a man to death outside of a Denny’s restaurant in the Houston area last month.

John Hernandez was confronted by the couple just after 11 p.m. on May 28 for urinating outside of a Denny’s restaurant in Northeast Harris County after a dinner with his family.

Terry Thompson, 41, put Hernandez in a chokehold and pushed him to the ground. His 45-year-old wife, Chauna Thompson, an off-duty Harris County sheriff’s deputy, helped pin him down.

When the couple noticed Hernandez wasn’t breathing, they finally let go and he was rushed to the hospital–but it was too late. The 24-year-old father of one was put on life support and died the following week.

The choking took place in front of Hernandez’s shocked wife and young daughter, who reportedly was screaming, “Quit hitting my daddy.”

On Thursday, the Thompsons were indicted on murder charges and they face life in prison if convicted. The charges came a day after protesters held a rally and a march in support of Hernandez’s family to demand justice. One group organized a sit-in at the sheriff’s office.

Tensions were high the entire week leading up to the indictments after a cellphone video of the altercation was circulated on social media.

John Hernandez was clearly attacked by the husband of a Harris County Deputy. This man needs to be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/QNf6I3TVip

— Alexis Isabel (@lexi4prez) June 5, 2017

According to Terry Thompson’s lawyer, Scott Courtney, the indictment was rushed due to public pressure. Courtney said Hernandez attacked Thompson first, and that the chokehold was self-defense.

“It’s disappointing that citizens can simply march on the courthouse and demand somebody be indicted for murder,” he said.

But District Attorney Kim Ogg didn’t buy it. In a statement, she said:

We grieve with the Hernandez family. We believe that this grand jury true-bill is a reflection of our community’s belief that a crime occurred and that crime was murder–and that it was participated in by Terry Thompson and his wife, Deputy Chauna Thompson.

Family of #JohnHernandez says their “faith has been restored” after indictments of Chauna and Terry Thompson. #abc13 pic.twitter.com/ySIxIZ2uNp

— Pooja Lodhia (@PoojaOnTV) June 8, 2017

Randall Kallinen, an attorney for the Hernandez family, said Hernandez’s wife was put in a police car for four hours after the incident, as if she were a suspect. She also had her cellphone taken away by deputies at the scene.

Melissa Trammell, a Denny’s employee testified that she had witnessed the incident. “The man was turning purple,”said Trammell. “We begged him to get off the man and he wouldn’t.”

Trammell testified that she tried to reason with Thompson, but instead he looked her in the face and said, “I’m not getting off him.”

Chauna Thompson and her husband were both offered the opportunity to testify, but declined.

Even with the indictments, the Hernandez family worries that the Thompsons may receive a more lenient treatment because of the wife’s position. Prosecutors, however, say they will show no favoritism in the case and will “let the chips fall as they may with the grand jury.”

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A federal government contractor was charged with removing and mailing classified materials about Russian interference in the 2016 election to a news outlet, the Justice Department announced June 5.

Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old intelligence contractor, printed and retained classified intelligence reporting from the National Security Agency, containing classified national defense information, on or about May 9, according to the Justice Department.

A few days later, Winner allegedly mailed that intelligence report to The Intercept, which subsequently published the NSA report on its site on June 5.

The report identified two cyber attacks by Russian intelligence actors: one in August 2016, the other in November 2016. In the August cyber attack, the intelligence actors executed a spear-phishing campaign against a company that sells voter registration-related software. As part of that campaign, the actors sent emails to members of the company to entice employees to click on a “link within a spoofed Google Alert email, which would redirect the user to the malicious domain.” The report said the campaign “appeared to be designed to obtain the end users’ email credentials.”

During the November cyber attack, the actors also contacted the email addresses of 122 local election officials about a week before the 2016 election. The report said it is possible that those officials’ email addresses were obtained from the compromised accounts of members of the company from the August attack.

The Intercept isn’t new to publishing leaked classified information, having released 166 documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden in May 2016.

In its statement, the Justice Department announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Winner at her home, on June 3. Winner appeared in federal court on June 5 where she was charged with violating 18 U.S.C. Section 793(e), a provision of the Espionage Act which deals with gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information.

If convicted, Winner could face up to ten years in prison.

“Releasing classified material without authorization threatens our nation’s security and undermines public faith in government,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein as part of the Justice Department’s statement. “People who are trusted with classified information and pledge to protect it must be held accountable when they violate that obligation.

FBI Special Agent Justin C. Garrick said in an affidavit that the U.S. government agency conducted an audit of six individuals who had printed the intelligence reporting. It revealed that Winner had been in email contact with the news outlet. The audit did not reveal that the other five individuals had been in contact with the news outlet.

According to The Intercept, the NSA document was provided to the outlet anonymously.

Garrick also said Winner confessed that she had intentionally identified and printed the classified intelligence reporting, removed it from her office space, retained it, and mailed it to the news outlet.

In a series of tweets on June 5, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange showed his support for Winner. He said sources like Winner, who does not have “elite immunity,” should be “strongly encouraged” to communicate knowledge.

Alleged NSA whistleblower Reality Leigh Winner must be supported. She is a young women accused of courage in trying to help us know. pic.twitter.com/B4aIdt7qz6

— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) June 6, 2017

Reality Leight Winner is no Clapper or Petraeus with “elite immunity”. She’s a young woman against the wall for talking to the press.

— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) June 6, 2017

It doesn’t matter why she did it or the quality the report. Acts of non-elite sources communicating knowledge should be strongly encouraged.

— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) June 6, 2017

NY Daily News writer Shaun King also voiced his support for Winner, calling her a “courageous young woman” and “a brilliant Air Force veteran disturbed by what she saw.”

I stand w/ this courageous young woman, Reality Winner, who leaked NSA docs.

She’s a brilliant Air Force veteran disturbed by what she saw. pic.twitter.com/1U7MqsOPxS

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 6, 2017

Still, others on social media remained staunchly opposed to Winner’s actions.

Reality Winner is going to prison for her “snowflake” espionage acts.. who names their child Reality?#potus #maga #@CNNPolitics

— Cindi Turchik (@CindiTurchik) June 6, 2017

The more I learn about #RealityWinner, the more I think we need to be prosecuting whoever gave her a security clearance. Is there no line?

— Adam Goldstein (@AdGo) June 6, 2017

For now, however, Winner awaits her trial.

Marcus Dieterle

Marcus is an editorial intern at Law Street. He is a rising senior at Towson University where he is double majoring in mass communication (with a concentration in journalism and new media) and political science. When he isn’t in the newsroom, you can probably find him reading on the train, practicing his Portuguese, or eating too much pasta. Contact Marcus at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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After a long investigation, Munich police have arrested two leaders of a Croatian-based crime ring responsible for up to a fifth of all burglaries committed across Germany. The investigation into the criminals began in January 2016, when German police witnessed a group of three young women skillfully break into a home in the Munich suburb of Lehel. The crime ring was reliant upon young women, who were less likely to be seen as suspicious and less likely to receive harsh jail sentences in the event that they were caught.

According to Reinhold Bergmann, the commissioner for organized burglary crime, these women were traded among the families of the crime ring, often through marriage, and were forced to commit the robberies against their will. Police arrested twenty of the young women used as “worker bees” by the crime ring in Munich, as well as two mid-level gang members in western Germany. The women and girls who worked for the organizations were trained to say that they were teenagers upon arrest, presumably so that they would be tried as minors, but it remains to be seen how many truly are teenagers as most of them have forged identification documents. Details about how these young women were recruited into the organization are still unclear but those that were married into the family (rather than those who were blood relations) may have been victims of human trafficking. This organization was built upon home burglaries but their operations appear to reach much further and deeper than the stereotypical mafia clan.

Detectives arrested members of the group in northern Spain this July and the arrests this week will chip away at the organization, but there are believed to be dozens of other “tentacles” of the group still operating in Belgium, France, Italy, and beyond. Millions of dollars worth of property has been stolen in Germany, much of which seems to have been funneled into the mansions in Croatia where the police found the two leaders this week. Some small items including jewelry and watches were recovered in the mansions, but the majority of the stolen property will never be returned.

This week’s arrests are a feather in the cap of Munich’s police department but they also raise questions about exactly how powerful this organization is. No doubt police forces from multiple countries are working together but it is difficult to share information across time zones and language barriers, especially when so few details about the scope and reach of the organization have been revealed. Hopefully these arrests will be the first in a larger chain but for the moment, Germany is the only nation that seems to truly be effectively combatting these crime families.

Jillian Sequeira

Jillian Sequeira was a member of the College of William and Mary Class of 2016, with a double major in Government and Italian. When she’s not blogging, she’s photographing graffiti around the world and worshiping at the altar of Elon Musk and all things Tesla. Contact Jillian at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently reduced the scope of his threat to withhold funding from sanctuary cities, narrowing the focus to a set of grants made by the Justice and Homeland Security departments. This is the latest development in an ongoing dispute that dates back to President Donald Trump’s fifth day in office.

Sessions issued the new guidance in a memo to the grant-making components of the Department of Justice. He outlined what will constitute a sanctuary city for funding purposes and explained which grants these cities could risk losing. This stems from an executive order signed by Donald Trump on January 25 titled, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” which is currently tied up in a legal challenge. The original order threatened to withhold all federal funding, while this most recent memo indicates that it might only affect a relatively small number of grants.

In April, a federal judge blocked a central part of the executive order, prompting President Trump to criticize the ruling and vow to take the issue to the Supreme Court. Judge William Orrick, a district court judge in San Francisco, issued an order in favor of Santa Clara County and the City of San Francisco, both of which challenged the order, arguing that withholding all funding from sanctuary cities was clearly unconstitutional.

The new memo may be a response to this ruling, which referenced past opinions to show that the executive branch does not have unilateral authority to revoke funds or use them to coerce state and local governments. While courts have upheld efforts to attach strings to grant funding, those conditions typically need to be related to the purpose of the grant, and it is usually Congress, not the executive branch, that sets these conditions. For example, courts have said that Congress can condition a portion of highway funding on local drinking age laws because the two are related.

There is no agreed-upon definition for what a sanctuary city is, but the general idea behind the term applies to local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration officials. When it comes to grant funding, the government has chosen a fairly narrow definition. In fact, Attorney General Sessions’ memo specifically says that willful non-compliance with one specific statute is what will be used to determine sanctuary status.

That statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1373, specifically deals with communication between local governments and federal immigration authorities. It prohibits local governments from blocking or limiting the ability of local officials or agencies from communicating with immigration agents. In April, Sessions notified nine local governments that their laws potentially violate the statute and threatened to withhold Justice Assistance Grant funding if they don’t provide proof of compliance by the end of June.

In the most recent memo, Sessions narrowed his interpretation of the executive order to “be applied solely to federal grants administered by the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security, and not to other sources of federal funding.” He also notes that this condition will only apply to grants from the Office of Justice Programs and the Office of Community Policing Services, departments where compliance with Section 1373 is a condition.

In his ruling, Judge Orrick notes that both Santa Clara County and the city of San Francisco get a large portion of their overall funding from the federal government, most of which is unrelated to immigration enforcement. Santa Clara receives $1.7 billion, or about 35 percent of its annual revenue, from the federal government while San Francisco gets $1.2 billion, or about 12.5 percent. That funding comes from a wide range of programs, including entitlement programs, and is used to pay for a number of critical government services. Judge Orrick also concludes that Santa Clara and San Francisco are likely to win the case given the limitations on the executive branch’s control over funding.

While the part of President Trump’s order that seeks to withhold all funding from sanctuary cities is likely unconstitutional, it’s unclear whether a narrower effort–like the one outlined in Sessions’ recent memo–would be successful. As the process continues, we can expect to see additional legal challenges as cities and states fight to maintain both their existing policies and funding.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman from New York, pleaded guilty to transferring obscene materials to a minor in a federal court in Manhattan on Friday. The expected plea agreement capped an FBI investigation into Weiner’s relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Weiner, 52, could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The judge said he will be required to register as a sex offender. Weiner also agreed to not appeal any prison sentence between 21 and 27 months.

In court on Friday, Weiner issued the following statement:

Beginning with my service in Congress and continuing into the first half of last year, I have compulsively sought attention from women who contacted me on social media, and I engaged with many of them in both sexual and non-sexual conversation. These destructive impulses brought great devastation to family and friends, and destroyed my life’s dream of public service. And yet I remained in denial even as the world around me fell apart.

Last September, the girl anonymously shared her story with British tabloid The Daily Mail. She said Weiner had sent her sexually explicit text messages and photographs. She said Weiner was aware that she was a minor. That report came just months after Weiner was embroiled in another sexting scandal that led to a separation with his wife, Huma Abedin, a close aide to Hillary Clinton.

The FBI’s investigation into Weiner’s communications with the 15-year-old girl also affected the presidential campaign–Weiner’s electronic devices contained emails pertinent to the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s private email server. Recently fired FBI Director James Comey sent a controversial letter to Congress, in the days before the November 8 election, saying that the FBI, while investigating Weiner, found new emails that “appear to be pertinent to the [Clinton] investigation.”

The FBI determined the newly-discovered emails didn’t contain any new information, but Clinton recently blamed the eleventh-hour disclosure as central to her election defeat.

Weiner’s political career crumbled in 2011, when his first sexting scandal went public. He had been a Democratic representative from New York since 1999. Despite his tarnished reputation, he ran for mayor of New York City in 2013. His bid was derailed by yet another sexting scandal.

According to an Associated Press report, Weiner was crying in court as he apologized to the girl, saying, “I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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After serving seven years behind bars, Chelsea Manning walked out of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas today a free woman.

Manning, 29, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret government files to Wikileaks. The leaked military archives contained files such as diplomatic cables, videos, and PowerPoint presentations, and is considered to be one of the largest leaks of classified information in history.

President Barack Obama commuted the bulk of her remaining sentence–all but four months to be exact–in January, as one of his final acts in office.

Manning, who already has a Twitter account that she updated regularly while in prison, quickly acclimated herself to new forms of social media upon her release. She commemorated her “first steps of freedom” on her newly acquired Instagram account–the app was created in 2010, the same year she went to prison.

First steps of freedom!! . . #chelseaisfree

A post shared by Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea87) on May 17, 2017 at 6:39am PDT

She even went as far to celebrate her first post-prison meal, a greasy slice of pepperoni pizza.

So, im already enjoying my first hot, greasy pizza

A post shared by Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea87) on May 17, 2017 at 9:34am PDT

Over the years, Manning, who has had a Twitter account since 2013, has remained vocal about her imprisonment, transition, and politics.

In a short statement Wednesday, Manning said:

After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived. I am looking forward to so much! Whatever is ahead of me is far more important than the past. I’m figuring things out right now — which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A years-long, largely bi-partisan effort to reform the criminal justice system in the U.S., the world’s preeminent jailer, is being undermined by Jeff Sessions. On Friday, the attorney general issued a memo directing federal prosecutors to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense,” with the “goal of achieving just and consistent results in federal cases.”

Sessions’ memo, issued after weeks of harsh-on-crime rhetoric, effectively reverses a 2013 memo issued by then-attorney general Eric Holder, which directed prosecutors to take a case-by-case approach, and to seek the toughest sentences only for violent offenders. The memo returns the Justice Department to a sentencing approach similar to the one taken by the George W. Bush Administration.

“This is a key part of President Trump’s promise to keep America safe,” Sessions said on Friday, after releasing the short memo to the public. “We know that drugs and crime go hand in hand,” he said. “Drug trafficking is an inherently violent business.” Sessions, who spent the height of the 1980s crack epidemic as a prosecutor, added U.S. attorneys “deserve to be un-handcuffed and not micromanaged from Washington.”

According to the Coalition for Public Safety, an organization that partners with both progressive and conservative groups to push criminal justice reform, there are upwards of two million people incarcerated in the U.S., a 500 percent increase over the past 30 years. One quarter of the world’s entire prisoner population is in the U.S. In a statement in response to Sessions’ memo, the group’s president Steve Hawkins, along with U.S. Justice Action Network’s Holly Harris, said:

Research has shown, time and again, that lengthy prison terms for lower-level offenders do not increase public safety. Federal prosecutors have a responsibility to enforce the law firmly, but need the flexibility to do so in ways that will best serve their communities and protect public safety. That’s why we have and continue to support congressional efforts to reform sentencing.

“Locking up people who don’t pose a threat to public safety is a waste of taxpayer money and law enforcement resources, and it doesn’t deter crime,” they added. Congress failed to pass a bipartisan reform bill last year, despite widespread support, and now, with the Justice Department’s shift in tone and official policy, a federal effort is less likely. States, even Republican bastions with high prison populations, are now leading the charge to reform how non-violent drug offenders are punished and treated.

While there are some Republicans who oppose a more lenient approach to incarceration, many prominent Republican senators–and activists like the Koch brothers–back reform. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a prominent conservative advocate for criminal justice reform, wrote on Twitter on Friday: “To be tough on crime we have to be smart on crime. That is why criminal justice reform is a conservative issue”

Sessions’ memo does allow for “circumstances in which good judgement would lead a prosecutor to conclude that a strict application” of the new policy is “not warranted.” Holder, who was the attorney general from 2009 to 2015, responded to Sessions’ directive in a statement. “This absurd reversal is driven by voices who have not only been discredited but until now have been relegated to the fringes of this debate,” he said.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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In honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday, the Black Lives Matter movement is giving the gift of freedom to several black women in dozens of jails across the country. At least 30 women will be bailed out just in time to spend the holiday with their children, for what they’re calling National Mama’s Bail Out Day.

This year, give the gift of freedom for Mother’s Day #EndMoneyBail #FreeBlackMamas https://t.co/7YhBtmHkAi

— NationalBailOut (@NationalBailOut) April 27, 2017

According to The Nation, many of these women are in jail for low-level offenses such as loitering or small-scale drug possession. These women haven’t been convicted, but remain jailed because they can’t afford bail.

A coalition of 25 black-led organizations, including organizers with Southerners on New Ground (SONG), the Movement for Black Lives, and ColorOfChange, raised more than $250,000 toward the release of women in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and several other cities.

Sixty-two percent of people in jail can’t afford to post bail. This coordinated bail-out is meant to underscore not only that issue, but other major problems with the criminal justice system–especially those affecting poor black women. Women in local jails make up the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. incarceration system, and black women make up 44 percent of women in jails.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, about 70 percent of female offenders are mothers. The majority of these women are single mothers with at least two young children; therefore, an extended jail stay is often significantly more devastating for their home life than, let’s say, the incarceration of a male without children.

Once arrested, defendants face a litany of fees, which could add up to thousands of dollars–whether they can afford them or not–aside from just bail. These include public defender application fees; reimbursement fees for representation; and supervision, programming, and electronic monitoring fees for those released on pretrial supervision.

“The National Black Mama’s Bail Out Day Action is part of the growing movement to end mass criminalization and modern bondage,” the SONG website states.

It is rooted in the history of Black liberation, inspired by the enslaved Africans and Black people who used their collective resources to purchase each other’s freedom. Through this action, we will support birth mothers, trans mothers, and other women who [are] mothers and are entangled in the criminal legal system.

Arissa Hall, a national Mama’s Bail Out Day organizer and project manager at the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund told The Nation that “it’s a myth that folks don’t come back to court” when released on their own recognizance.

According to her, upwards of 95 percent of people helped by bail funds return to court for their scheduled appearances. “People will come back to court regardless of whether or not bail is set.”

The bailouts are scheduled to happen on Thursday and Friday, with Mother’s Day celebrations scheduled for Sunday. The coalition is continuing to raise money for more bailouts, and is even considering a potential Father’s Day effort.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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After becoming the first police force to develop its own crime tracking system back in the 1990’s, the New York Police Department has decided to pioneer a new way to measure public safety: asking New Yorkers how they think the police are doing in real-time. While seeking feedback from the public is hardly a new idea, the new system developed by the NYPD employs new technology to get up-to-the-minute insights.

The NYPD’s new sentiment meter works much the same way that traditional polling does, except it will provide live data at a hyper-local level. With the same technology used by online advertisers, the NYPD will ask people to rate their trust, sense of safety, and approval of the local police. Working with a consulting company, the department will identify individuals by their location and ask them a short series of questions with online surveys targeted like commercial ads. The way it’s administered will allow the NYPD to constantly bring in new information about its performance in each neighborhood.

Since the implementation of CompStat–the department’s management and crime tracking system–in 1994, the NYPD has relied on crime statistics as one of its primary measures of success, contributing to a dramatic reduction in crime over several decades. Here’s a look at how the city’s violent crime rate per 100,000 residents has changed since the mid-1980’s and how that compares to cities with populations over 250,000 and the U.S. as a whole:

To see more of New York’s crime data or to see how other large cities compare, check out Law Street’s interactive dashboard.

While the NYPD has undoubtedly played a role in lowering the city’s violent crime rate, the department’s relationship with the community has frequently been strained. In many minority communities across the country, trust in the police has plummeted following high-profile deaths at the hands of law enforcement. And in New York, the death of Eric Gardner–who died from being placed in a chokehold by a police officer after he was confronted for selling cigarettes on the street–sparked protests across the city after a video of the incident went viral.

With the new system, which Police Commissioner James O’Neill has started calling the “sentiment meter,” the NYPD seeks to understand how people view the local police force and how those perceptions vary throughout the city’s 77 precincts. New technology will allow the department to monitor how New York residents rate its performance by surveying a larger sample, with more frequency than ever before. Much like how the CompStat system allowed the NYPD to identify hot spots–areas where crime was particularly prevalent–data from the sentiment meter will allow local commanders find neighborhoods with low trust in the police. This will allow them to create and evaluate new strategies to both reduce crime and improve public relations.

John Linder, who worked as a consultant to help the NYPD develop the system, outlined the department’s goals in an interview with the Marshall Project in January:

If we can find a way to give the commanders of the NYPD real time data on what people feel, then police brass can tailor strategies and tactics in response. It can give them more than just crime statistics, police activity (arrests, summonses, stop-question-frisks, case closures by detectives) to guide what they do and don’t do. That’s what O’Neill has told us to deliver.

While the department is hopeful that the new data will help resolve longstanding issues with the community, some still question whether the new data will be as useful as the NYPD suggests. Johnetta Elzie, founder of Campaign Zero–an advocacy group devoted to ending police violence–asked, “Who feels safe to even reply back? And who, in the marginalized community, is going to trust the police and send an honest answer back?” in an interview with the New York Times.

As crime rates in cities across the country have fallen over the past several decades, the key to reducing crime even further may be improving police-public relations. While it may take some time before the new system yields results for the NYPD, placing this level of emphasis on how the actions of police officers affect the many communities they serve is certainly a step in the right direction.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The NYPD’s New Plan to Measure Community Safety: Will it Work? appeared first on Law Street.

Although crime is often a major issue in public debate at the local and national level, American perception of crime rates often does not match what the statistics tell us. While violent crime has generally been declining for the past several decades, public opinion polling since the early 1990s shows that most Americans have felt that crime went up in the past year, when more often than not the opposite occurred.

Given this persistent gap between perception and reality as well as false or misleading public statements about crime, it’s particularly important to look at the long-term trends. Law Street’s interactive crime statistics dashboard provides detailed information about crime statistics in America’s largest cities going back to 1985. With it, you can visualize crime trends for any city with available data from the FBI and a population greater than 200,000 people.

The tool clearly illustrates the general downward trend in violent crime since the early 1990s. Here’s a look at the violent crime rate per 100,000 people for the United States as a whole and for all cities with a population over 250,000. As you can see in the chart below, violent crime rates tend to be noticeably higher in large cities relative to the nation as a whole and the decrease that has occurred over the past several decades was primarily concentrated in those cities as well.

When you look at several individual cities, that downward trend is pretty easy to identify. Three major cities with some of the largest percentage decrease in crime rates are New York City, Los Angeles, and Dallas, as you can see in the chart below. The 2015 violent crime rates in these three cities dropped by more than half relative to the rates at their respective peaks in the 1990s.

While looking at trends over several decades helps explain how crime rates today compare to the particularly high rates several decades ago, more recent trends are also important. While many cities continue to see their crime rates fall, others have seen modest but significant increases in recent years. This is particularly true when you look at changes in murder rates. The number of murders in large cities saw a notable increase in 2015, which for many cities may be an emerging trend. Here’s a look at a few cities that have seen their murder rates go up for multiple consecutive years.

Although the national murder rate and the rates in the cities detailed above went up in 2015–the most recent year with available data–it’s important to note that the increase did not happen everywhere. In fact, there were several large cities that saw modest decreases in their murder rates. However, the recent changes remain notable even if rates remain near multi-decade lows.

To take a closer look at these cities and to identify trends on your own, check out the new interactive dashboard or read more of Law Street’s Crime in America coverage.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What Do Crime Trends Look Like in America’s Largest Cities? appeared first on Law Street.

Eight inmates in Arkansas, all men convicted of murder, are scheduled to be executed over 10 days next month. But there’s a big problem: the state can’t find enough witnesses for the executions. State law requires a minimum of six witnesses be present for an execution. In addition to the struggle to procure enough witnesses, the executions, scheduled between April 17 and 27, face another hurdle: the inmates filed a federal complaint on Monday, claiming the 10-day execution spree is “cruel and unusual.”

According to a local newspaper, the state is desperately seeking volunteers to attend the executions. And Wendy Kelly, the director of the Department of Correction, is personally seeking volunteers. In fact, last Tuesday, Kelly reportedly fished for volunteers during a keynote address at the Little Rock Rotary Club.

“You seem to be a group that does not have felony backgrounds and are over 21,” Kelly said, according to The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “So if you’re interested in serving in that area, in this serious role, just call my office.”

Arkansas law dictates all executions must include “a number of respectable citizens numbering not fewer than six nor more than twelve whose presence is necessary to verify that the execution was conducted in the manner required by law.” But finding enough citizens willing to sit-in on the executions has been a challenge.

Last month, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ordered the executions; four of the men are black, four are white. All were convicted of murder. The rationale for squeezing all eight executions in 10 days: Arkansas’s stock of midazolam, a sedative used in the three-drug lethal injection, expires at the end of April. Midazolam is difficult to acquire, and due its precarious legality, replenishing the state’s supply is not a guarantee.

Aside from the witness recruiting effort, the executions could be stalled because of the inmates’ federal complaint. John Williams, a federal public defender who represents three of the inmates, said the complaint “challenges the execution schedule.” He added: “It’s an unprecedented act and we think the pace of the schedule puts our clients at unnecessary risk.” The judge could dismiss the complaint outright, or issue a preliminary injunction, which would likely delay the executions.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Arkansas Can’t Find Enough Witnesses for Upcoming Executions appeared first on Law Street.

Late Monday night, 28-year-old white Army veteran James Jackson from Baltimore reportedly stabbed black New Yorker Timothy Caughman, 66, to death with a sword. Jackson later told police that he has hated black men his whole life, and that he traveled to New York to kill black men. Jackson turned himself in on Wednesday morning just after midnight. The group behind the Women’s March called for people to join a march against hate crimes in honor of Caughman on Friday afternoon.

NYC: Meet us at 6pm in Union Square as we stand against hate crimes. #SayHisName: #TimothyCaughman! https://t.co/QD14criLvA pic.twitter.com/dPfhZojzIU

— Women’s March (@womensmarch) March 24, 2017

Jackson, like Dylann Roof, had written down his thoughts and beliefs about race and told police that he planned to deliver them to the New York Times. He took the bus to New York, aiming to get a lot of news coverage. According to his manifesto, he planned to kill multiple people.

Jackson was arraigned in Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday, charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime. But the prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi, said that additional charges may be forthcoming, such as first degree murder as “this is an act, most likely, of terrorism.” A police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the New York Times that Jackson said that he had hated black people his whole life, since he was a child. Apparently he was particularly upset by black men who are in relationships with white women.

This act by someone who appears to be a white supremacist–although there are no confirmed ties between Jackson and any groups or organizations, he was obviously fueled by racial hate–has caused outrage. Many people are wondering why many politicians are not doing more about this type of homegrown terrorism, let alone acknowledging it.

Many hours ago, a terrorist stabbed &killed an American in a major international city. No not London but NY. A white supremacist. Forgotten.

— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) March 23, 2017

Hi @PressSec, this is James Jackson. Extremists like him have been committing underreported acts of terror against Americans for centuries. pic.twitter.com/DeM7imzS47

— Dab Aggin (@DabAggin) March 24, 2017

There is also a notable difference in how the media covers murders of people of color compared to white people. New York Daily News writer Shaun King lashed out at his own colleagues on Friday, criticizing them for focusing on Caughman’s criminal history; he was arrested a couple of times for petty crimes, most recently 15 years ago. As King points out, a criminal record is irrelevant to murder. But the media appears to be more likely to focus on criminal history when writing about a black man who was killed than, for example, when covering the deaths of white people who tragically died in the London terror attack.

What my employer, the @NYDailyNews, & other outlets, did to #TimothyCaughman, a hate crime victim, was plain wrong.https://t.co/09OPGkG8pO

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) March 24, 2017

Caughman was a well-liked, quiet man from Queens, who used to run a federal anti-poverty program for youths. He had many different jobs during his lifetime and at the time of his death he lived in a room in a building for formerly homeless people transitioning to permanent housing. Caughman also read a lot and loved getting autographs from celebrities and keeping up with celebrity news. Actress Shari Headley used to communicate with him on Twitter, and she expressed her condolences on the social media site.

My heart is heavy typing this. Timothy Caughman was a fan of mine since 1991. He only spread LOVE His murder was senseless. RIP @timrock715 https://t.co/gZLt45bqQ6

— Shari Headley (@shariheadley) March 23, 2017

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke out against the crime on Friday, calling it “domestic, racist terrorism,” and comparing it to Dylann Roof’s killings in Charleston. He said that the election of Donald Trump has “unleashed forces of hate all over the country” and that attackers of this kind need to be punished harshly. But Trump, who quickly expressed condolences for the American tourist who was killed in the London attack, has yet to say anything about his fellow New Yorker.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post White Man Who Traveled to New York To Kill Black Men Charged with Hate Crime appeared first on Law Street.

For the past couple months, residents in the Washington DC metro area have been inundated with almost daily images of missing teen girls on local TV newscasts and on social media. The unprecedented onslaught of missing persons coverage, involving primarily black and hispanic girls, has led locals to wonder what’s going on in the District, inspiring the hashtag #MissingDCGirls.

According to the DC Police Department’s website, there have been a total of 501 missing persons cases involving juveniles in the first three months of 2017. As of Friday, there are currently 22 open missing juvenile cases. While the case volume appears staggering, is it really out of the ordinary? Here’s what you need to know about DC’s missing teens.

Not Just Teen Girls Missing

Well for starters, it’s not just teen girls that are missing. There have been several teen boys reported missing as well, including 14-year-old Jaylen Lee and 14-year-old Navaras Johnson. Lee has been missing since March 18 and Johnson has been missing since February 27. Both boys are labeled as “critical missing.”

Have you seen him? 14 yo Jaylen Lee last seen 1000 b/o Maryland Ave, NE. Text 50411/ call 202-727-9099 #MissingPerson pic.twitter.com/tY5hh7xcLY

— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) March 20, 2017

Viral Instagram Post Got it Wrong

An Instagram post claiming that 14 DC girls had gone missing in a single day went viral across social media on Thursday, sparking outrage.

14 black girls go missing in 24 hrs & I have to rely on Black Twitter to get info cuz mainstream media’s too busy to care. #missingdcgirls

— Shalisa Hayes (@ShalisaHayes) March 24, 2017

While any number of missing teens cases is definitely cause for concern, the police have said that this information is inaccurate. According to NBC Washington, actress Taraji P. Henson, rapper LL Cool J, and hip-hop mogul Russel Simmons were among those who shared the misleading post with their followers. Henson’s post garnered over 38,000 likes and countless comments.

Black Lawmakers Want Action

A group of black members of Congress have requested that the FBI and DOJ look into the missing black and hispanic teens.

In a letter obtained by the Associated Press, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C) called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey to “devote the resources necessary to determine whether these developments are an anomaly or whether they are indicative of an underlying trend that must be addressed.”

Number of Missing Teens is Actually Normal

While lawmakers are pushing for an investigation, local law enforcement don’t seem as worried by the numbers. At a press conference on March 16, Acting DC Police Chief Newsham, Commander Chanel Dickerson, and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser indicated that the number of missing kids was in fact normal.

“The number of missing person reports has remained constant…what has changed is getting that information out quickly. There is no evidence to suggest there has been an increase in missing persons,”  said Bowser.

Chief Newsham also said that the year-over-year number of missing persons, including juveniles, has held steady, and that there is no known link in D.C. now between missing people and human trafficking.

While the increased social media efforts have certainly made residents more aware of missing teens, they have also increased paranoia about a wider conspiracy.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What You Need to Know About DC’s Missing Teens appeared first on Law Street.

A Texas teenager who ran into a church earlier this month, claiming she had been abducted and sexually assaulted by three black men, has admitted that she made the story up. Breana Harmon Talbott made headlines with her story, and many white nationalists took the opportunity to blame the alleged perpetrators’ race for the crime. Far right groups on Reddit, social media, and neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer picked the story up. Many complained about the lack of media coverage and claimed that if the races had been reversed, it would be all over the national news. But now, the story has proven to be a hoax.

#satchat
Breana Talbott, 18, Denison TX, appar kidnapped/raped by 3 men.
I guess no media bc doesn’t fit noble blacks/evil whites narrative. pic.twitter.com/qBMiuqYPOz

— Philip Schuyler (@FiveRights) March 11, 2017

When Talbott entered the church on March 8 she was bleeding from cuts and scratches on her body, which she later admitted were self-inflicted. A rape kit from the investigation came back negative, meaning that there was no physical evidence of rape. On Wednesday, police announced that Talbott’s allegations were unfounded. “Talbott’s hoax was also insulting to our community and especially offensive to the African-American community due to her description of the so-called suspects in her hoax,” a statement on Facebook read. It also said the department would file a criminal case against Talbott for “False Report to a Peace Officer, a Class B Misdemeanor.” Talbott also admitted that she had fabricated the story.

Breana Talbott of Denison accused of staging kidnapping, making up story of being raped near church: #Denisonpolicehttps://t.co/Vm3UlUyUDI pic.twitter.com/7qtvJ0mMFX

— domingo ramirez jr. (@mingoramirezjr) March 22, 2017

The news caused shock and outrage in the community. Talbott’s friends had even created a GoFundMe to replace her jewelry that she claimed was stolen. Her then-fiancé was the one who called the police when she “went missing” about three hours before she reappeared. He had no idea she made the whole thing up and they have since separated. Denison Police Chief Jay Burch said that even though everyone was relieved the attack never happened, “there could be permanent damage as a result–a damage of relationships within our community, damage to the reputation of our community.”

Denison PD confirms 3/8/17 kidnapping & sexual assault was a hoax perpetrated by Breana Talbott, victim @FOX4 pic.twitter.com/pbapqXKF7s

— John Gnann (@kdfw07) March 22, 2017

The topic of false allegations when it comes to rape and sexual assault is incredibly sensitive. According to Slate, a commonly cited estimate is that only about 2 percent of rape reports are false. And women had to fight for a long time to gain the respect and the rights we have today. For a long time it wasn’t considered rape if a man forced himself upon his spouse, and that didn’t change until 1979 with the first conviction of spousal rape in the U.S. Still, victims of sexual abuse are often not taken seriously and so many have to fight to get a proper investigation. Cases like Talbott’s make it even more damaging when people make false accusations, because they’re used as justification to not trust other survivors.

Unfortunately, Talbott’s case received even more attention because she claimed that the made-up offenders were black. This played right into the hands of far right extremists who immediately used the story to push their own agenda. According to a recent study, black people are more likely to be wrongfully convicted than white people, and are also more likely to spend a long time imprisoned before being exonerated. False accusations will undermine the credibility of real victims, but they also contribute to a false image of who commits crimes. While the police figured out what had really happened before anyone was arrested or charged, wrongful convictions are always a problematic possibility.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Police: Texas Teenager Fabricated Story that She Was Raped by Three Black Men appeared first on Law Street.

In early January, Daniel Aldape, a 46-year-old homeless man, was found dead at an intersection in Las Vegas. About a month later, 60-year-old David Dunn, also homeless, was found dead under his blankets at the same intersection. Both died of blunt trauma to the head.

And so, every evening since Dunn died, in an attempt to catch the perpetrator of these horrific murders, Las Vegas police placed a blanket-clad mannequin at the intersection, hoping the killer would strike again. On February 22, Shane Schindler did just that. As Schindler began bashing the mannequin with a hammer, police arrested him on charges of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.

Andrew Walsh, a Las Vegas police captain involved in the mannequin sting, told the Guardian why he resorted to such an unorthodox strategy. “We used some tactics you wouldn’t normally see, but we didn’t have a lot of evidence to go by,” he said, adding that “the sidewalk or a soft patch of dirt is no place for a human being to take their last breath” and that the force “took those crimes very personally.”

Walsh said the police are still questioning Schindler, 30, and the investigation is still ongoing. Las Vegas, like other west coast cities, has an inordinate amount of homeless people living in public spaces, rather than in shelters or temporary housing. In fact, over half the Las Vegas homeless population lives on sidewalks, at parks, or in tunnels. Violence against homeless people is hardly new.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, there were 77 attacks against homeless people in 2015; 27 of those attacks were fatal. From 1999 to 2015, there were 1,657 reported acts of violence against homeless people, 428 of which were fatal. The perpetrators are usually teenagers and men under 30.

To Daren Richards, Schindler’s public defender, attempting to bludgeon a mannequin with a hammer is not sufficient evidence to warrant an arrest. “Our defense is that carrying a hammer in a bag is not carrying a concealed weapon under the law or all the construction workers and carpenters in this town would be arrested tomorrow,” he said. “If they’re going to charge him with something else, let’s see the charges. But as of right now all that other stuff is irrelevant.”

But Walsh, the police chief, while looking to end this gruesome killing spree, is also looking back, and mourning Aldape and Dunn. “They are the lost faces of our community,” he said.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Police Use Mannequin to Catch Man Suspected of Killing Homeless Men appeared first on Law Street.

A study released Tuesday by the National Registry of Exonerations found that black Americans are more likely than white Americans to be wrongfully convicted of murder, sexual assault, and drug crimes.

The study  broke down the exonerations that are listed in the National Registry of Exonerations’ records by demographic. The results were striking: despite the fact that black people make up 13 percent of the population in the U.S., they make up 47 percent of innocent defendants convicted and then exonerated. You can read the full study here, but here are some of the other illuminating findings:

• Innocent black defendants are roughly seven times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent white defendants. Black defendants are most likely to be wrongfully convicted if they are accused of killing white victims.
• Black prisoners are 3.5 times more likely to have been wrongfully convicted of sexual assault than white prisoners. The study attributes this disparity to issues with witness identification. According to the study: “Assaults on white women by African-American men are a small minority of all sexual assaults in the United States, but they constitute half of sexual assaults with eyewitness misidentifications that led to exoneration.”
• In regards to convictions of drug crimes, the study determined that black people were 12 times more likely to be wrongfully convicted than white people. The study notes that this disparity likely comes from the fact that “police enforce drug laws more vigorously against African Americans than against members of the white majority, despite strong evidence that both groups use drugs at equivalent rates.”

The study also concluded that innocent black people usually spend a longer period of time incarcerated than innocent white people before being exonerated.

This study obviously cannot account for innocent people who have not been exonerated, which is likely a fairly large population. We don’t know definitively what that population looks like. But this study does point to a troubling picture: almost across the board, it’s more likely that black Americans are wrongfully convicted of crimes than White Americans.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Study Finds Black Defendants More Likely to Be Wrongfully Convicted than White Defendants appeared first on Law Street.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio likes to repeat the claim that New York City is the “safest big city” in the United States. It’s a superlative that he frequently touts, but when you take a closer look at the underlying evidence behind this assertion, he may be overstating his case. While New York is the safest among America’s very large cities, that only holds true if you look at a particularly small group of highly populated metropolises.

This particular claim is one that Mayor de Blasio repeated last week in a statement responding to the appeals court ruling on President Trump’s executive order on immigration. Here’s the full statement:

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just said, ‘No you can’t,’ to the Trump Administration and its un-American travel and refugee bans. Here in New York – the safest big city in America – we will always protect our neighbors, no matter where they came from or when they got here. Those are our values.

And here’s a tweet from last June repeating the same claim:

NYC: Still the safest big city in America. pic.twitter.com/GTktjlcCqL

— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) June 3, 2016

To be fair to de Blasio, there is some subjectivity when it comes to interpreting what he’s saying. Namely, there is no clear, universally accepted definition of what counts as a large city. And assuming he’s talking about population, there is no agreed upon size that makes a city large or small. At Law Street, we set a threshold of at least 200,000 residents to define large cities, but given that de Blasio is mayor of a city with about 8.5 million people, he might only be thinking of a smaller group of very large cities.

So what does the data tell us? When thinking about safety, we typically look to the FBI’s annual crime statistics, which detail the number of violent crimes known to law enforcement in various cities, states, counties, etc. This data, part of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, is particularly useful because it provides the same data for nearly every city in the country. To compare between multiple cities, we take the total number of violent crimes–a category that includes murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault–and adjust it by population to calculate a violent crime rate per 100,000 people. In 2015, the most recent full year with FBI data, New York City had a crime rate of 586 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

In order to test Mayor de Blasio’s claim, we need to look at New York in the context of other large cities. If we use the 200,000 population threshold, New York does not have the lowest violent crime rate. Only when you raise the threshold significantly–looking only at cities with populations larger 1.5 million people–does New York have the lowest crime rate.

Using the table below, you can switch between different population thresholds to see how New York’s crime rate stacks up against other cities. Each city’s murder rate per 100,000 people is also included for comparison.

As you can see, using such a narrow definition for what qualifies as a large city means including New York and just five other American cities–Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia. In the most narrow sense, the Mayor’s claim is accurate when you limit the scope of comparable cities, but you may also want to compare New York to other cities that may not be quite as big. Ultimately, evaluating this claim comes down to how big a city should be in order for it to be compared to the largest one in the country.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Is Bill de Blasio’s Claim that New York is the “Safest Big City” Overstated? appeared first on Law Street.

At a meeting with leaders of the National Sheriffs’ Association on Tuesday, Donald Trump made a false claim about the U.S. murder rate, a statement that he has repeated several times in the past. The comment came as he was touting the importance of meeting with local sheriffs, something he emphasized given that, as he claims, the murder rate is the highest that is has been in 47 years. But when you look at official FBI data, almost the opposite is true.

Here’s the president’s full statement according to a White House readout of his remarks:

And yet the murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 47 years, right? Did you know that? Forty-seven years. I used to use that — I’d say that in a speech and everybody was surprised, because the press doesn’t tell it like it is. It wasn’t to their advantage to say that. But the murder rate is the highest it’s been in, I guess, from 45 to 47 years.

So, is President Trump right? Is the murder rate at a multi-decade high? If you look at it literally, his claim is false on its face; the murder rate actually remains near historic lows. But if you dig deep enough, there is something unusual about the recent change in the murder rate.

First, let’s take a look at his actual claim. In 2015, the most recent year with available data from the FBI, the U.S. murder rate was 4.9 murders per 100,000 people. The highest murder rate in the last 47 years–the date range selected by President Trump–was in 1980, which had a murder rate of 10.2 per 100,000 people. Put simply, the highest murder rate in the past several decades was more than twice as high as the murder rate in 2015. While it is possible that the murder rate increased slightly in 2016, there is absolutely no evidence that went up by more than 100 percent, which it would need to do for the president’s claim to be true.

Here’s a graph showing how the murder rate has changed over the past 50 years:

With a few exceptions–notably 2015–the murder rate has trended downward for more than two decades. Despite a recent increase in murders, the murder rate remains near the lowest point that it has been in half a century.

Now let’s also take a brief moment to look at where this data comes from, and why it’s the best available to tell us about U.S. crime rates. Each year, the FBI publishes its annual Crime in the United States report, which is created through an extensive collaborative effort between the FBI and nearly every law enforcement agency in the United States. The report includes data from more than 18,000 agencies that cover nearly 98 percent of the U.S. population. This report is the most authoritative collection of crime data in the United States, detailing every criminal offense known to law enforcement.

While the actual claim that Donald Trump made on Tuesday–and also something that he frequently alluded to during the course of his campaign–is false, there is something noteworthy about the 2015 data. Namely, there was a significant increase that year compared to the previous year, a jump of about 11 percent. This single year increase is by far the largest in recent years. But despite that, 4.9 murders per 100,000 people is still lower than the 2009 rate.

Now that doesn’t mean that the recent jump in the murder rate is insignificant, but when it comes to addressing the problem, it may be more helpful to look at what is happening in individual cities. In fact, the number of murders did not increase in every city in 2015, there was significant variation between them. Law Street has an interactive map showing exactly how murder rates changed in America’s largest cities.

While Trump’s claim about the murder rate in the United States is incorrect, if you dig deep enough there is something noteworthy about recent crime statistics. This would be particularly true if the recent increase becomes a trend. It is important to note that the issue with Donald Trump’s claim isn’t just a matter of semantics–what he said is quite different from what actually appears to be important from the most recent crime statistics. Making claims that wildly overstate the number of murders in the United States is not conducive to addressing something that might be a very serious problem if it becomes a persistent trend.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post President Trump Continues to Make False Claims about the U.S. Murder Rate appeared first on Law Street.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel unwittingly prompted a public battle with President Donald Trump on Monday, when he criticized Trump for focusing on the crowd size at his inauguration. On Tuesday evening, coinciding with an “O’Reilly Factor” segment on violence in Chicago, Trump tweeted a veiled threat aimed at Emanuel. 

“If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24 percent from 2016), I will send in the Feds!” Trump tweeted, citing figures that aired on Bill O’Reilly’s show. Official statistics from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) put the numbers a bit lower, at 234 people shot, and 38 killed. In 2016, a department spokesman said, 227 were shot, with 33 deaths. The spokesman said the department’s figures do not factor in “justified” shootings (those in self-defense) or officer-involved shootings.

Emanuel’s verbal spat with Trump stemmed from a bit of criticism he lodged at the president on Monday: “You didn’t get elected to debate the crowd size at your inaugural,” the mayor said, referring to Trump’s insistence that his inauguration ceremony was the most-watched ever. “You got elected to make sure that people have a job, that the economy continues to grow, people have security as it relates to their kids’ education. It wasn’t about your crowd size. It was about their lives and their jobs.”

On Wednesday, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said his department was “more than willing” to work with the federal government to combat Chicago’s persistent violence. Chicago had a bloody 2016. The death toll was the highest in nearly two decades, at 762 people killed, largely the result of gang violence.

Days before U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch left office, her department released its findings that the CPD “engages in a pattern or practice of using force, including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.” The Justice Department also found a pattern of racial discrimination practiced by Chicago officers.

On Wednesday, a Chicago Democrat, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, came to Emanuel’s defense. “The president wants publicity and to be seen beating up on Democratic elected officials and appearing hostile to a big city like Chicago in the eyes of his suburban and rural voters,” he said.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Trump Threatens to “Send the Feds” to Chicago to Deal with “Horrible Carnage” appeared first on Law Street.

On Thursday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch–a week or so before she leaves her post–announced reforms for the Baltimore Police Department, agreed to by the city and the DOJ. The reforms include increased community oversight, and improved recruitment and training policies. In a statement, Lynch said the reforms will help “ensure effective and constitutional policing, restore the community’s trust in law enforcement, and advance public and officer safety.”

The consent decree follows a Department of Justice report on policing in Baltimore that was released last August, the culmination of a year-long investigation spurred by the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. The report, which was based on data from 2010 to 2016, found that the Baltimore Police Department has “systemic deficiencies” in training, and policies that “failed to equip officers with the tools they need to police effectively.” There was widespread racial bias in the department, the report found; police officers were also found to have used excessive force.

Lynch also said that a pending investigation into the Chicago Police Department will be released shortly, perhaps as early as Friday. According to a Chicago Tribune report, the Justice Department found that Chicago police violated the U.S. Constitution with some of their practices. The Chicago investigation began in December 2015, after a video was released that showed a Chicago police officer shooting and killing a black teenager, Laquan McDonald.

“Change is painful. Growth is painful. But nothing is as painful as being stuck in a place that we do not belong,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at the time of the DOJ report. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department has investigated 25 law enforcement agencies across the country; 14 ended in consent decrees. 

These reforms come during a transitional period for the Justice Department. President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, Jeff Sessions, has raised concerns that the Justice Department will shield police departments rather than investigate possible reforms. During his two-day confirmation hearing that concluded on Wednesday, Sessions was prodded about how he would enforce consent decrees, and if he would pursue the issue of police reform as attorney general.

“I think there is concern that good police officers and good departments can be sued by the Department of Justice when you just have individuals within a department that have done wrong,” Sessions said. “These lawsuits undermine the respect for police officers and create an impression that the entire department is not doing their work consistent with fidelity to law and fairness, and we need to be careful before we do that.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post DOJ Announces Reforms for Baltimore Police Department appeared first on Law Street.

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning is reportedly on President Barack Obama’s shortlist for a possible commutation, according to a source from the Justice Department. Manning, formerly known as Bradley, is serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for leaking almost a million classified documents while working as an intelligence analyst. More than 100,000 people signed an online petition campaigning for a commutation last month, exceeding the number of signatures needed for the White House to act within 60 days.

Manning has been imprisoned since 2010. She tried to commit suicide twice while in jail and also went on a hunger strike in an attempt to receive gender reassignment surgery. This request was eventually granted. Her critics have called her a traitor and many in the military view her with disdain for exposing secret U.S. military information. But still, her supporters say that what Manning revealed didn’t cause any harm to U.S. interests, only embarrassment. She also made a sincere apology before the sentencing. But the judge sentenced her to 35 years in prison—ten times longer than sentences some other whistleblowers have received.

Chelsea Manning has been put on President Obama’s short list for possible commutation https://t.co/aWgoJn6YKt. pic.twitter.com/dgp34Joao9

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 11, 2017

“After this case, I had to tell Chelsea–‘I’ve represented murderers. I’ve represented rapists. I’ve represented child molesters. And none of them received 35 years,'” said defense lawyer David Coombs. Manning was also placed in solitary confinement for almost a year before the trial. In a letter accompanying the petition that was sent to President Obama, she describes a complicated family background; she was struggling with gender identity and trying to fit in while growing up, and was kicked out from her home by her father’s new wife. After being homeless for several months, her paternal aunt Deborah Manning got in touch and took her in.

Manning’s case broke almost concurrently with Edward Snowden’s–and Snowden had leaked significantly more damaging information. Four Army intelligence officers that spoke to NBC said that what Manning leaked was nothing compared to what Snowden revealed. They believe that the sentence seems exaggerated. And her aunt agrees. “I really believe the judge felt she needed to send some sort of message,” Deborah Manning said. “I think in a way she was a scapegoat for Edward Snowden.” And Snowden showed his support in a tweet.

Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 11, 2017

Her aunt and Manning’s legal team have also cited the urgent need for better care, as she is suffering from gender dysphoria related anxiety, distress, and depression. Manning’s aunt said, “I would say this is someone who’s never had a chance in life, who is extremely bright, who became extremely emotionally distressed as some point, who made a bad decision, who paid for that bad decision.”

Manning spoke to VICE News through a liaison and said: “I’m staying optimistic. Regardless of the outcome, I am eternally grateful I have so much love and support out there.”

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Will Obama Commute Chelsea Manning’s Sentence? appeared first on Law Street.

When it comes to crime statistics, violent crime tends to get most of the attention. While it’s often easy to overlook property crime because no force is involved, the FBI estimates that $14.3 billion was lost last year because of property crimes. Offenses that the FBI considers property crimes are burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The most expensive property crime is motor vehicle theft, which cost about $7,000 per crime on average in 2015.

According to FBI estimates, there were 707,758 motor vehicle thefts in 2015, causing more than $4.9 billion in losses. While property crime in general decreased last year, the number of motor vehicle thefts went up by 3.1 percent. Despite that increase, the number of vehicle thefts last year was lower than the number in 2011 and represents a decrease of more than 40 percent since 2006.

Because motor vehicle theft is a property crime, these numbers only include offenses where there is no force or threat of force involved. Additionally, because of the FBI’s hierarchy rule, if multiple crimes are committed in the same instance, only the most significant crime (typically if a violent crime is involved), is counted in the reported crime statistics.

The map below illustrates the rate of motor vehicle theft in states across the country.

With a rate of 475 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 people, California has the highest rate in the nation. Vermont had the lowest rate of motor vehicle thefts, with just 28 per 100,000 people. Following Vermont are nearby Maine and New Hampshire, with 61 and 67 per 100,000 people respectively.

When you look at individual cities, four of the top 20 cities with the highest rates of motor vehicle theft are in California, as shown in the table below–starting with Oakland, California, which had a rate of 1,523 vehicle thefts per 100,000 people in 2015, the highest rate among all cities with more than 100,000 residents. In total, Oakland had 6,389 motor vehicle thefts last year.

The table below shows which cities have the highest rates of motor vehicle theft among cities with a population larger than 100,000 people.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What Do Motor Vehicle Theft Rates Look Like Across the U.S.? appeared first on Law Street.

Hate crimes and anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic vandalism have surged in libraries lately. Authorities say that they have rarely seen anything like this–vandalism specifically targeting libraries, employees, and books. At a public library in Evanston, Illinois, a librarian discovered that someone had written “bullsh*t hatred cover to cover” inside the cover of a copy of the book “The Koran for Dummies.” They had also drawn a swastika and written a derogatory comment about the Prophet Muhammed.

It turned out that at least six more books were vandalized in a similar way. But it would be very difficult to figure out who did it—any damage done while the books were out on loan would have been discovered and reported on their return, but as that didn’t happen, someone must have vandalized them while in the library. Though the library does have some security cameras, they don’t cover the whole place and nothing suspicious was found on the footage.

In a show of ignorance, Quran and Islam-themed books are defaced at library in Evanston, Illinois. https://t.co/aVGOwVGevN

— Voto Latino (@votolatino) November 27, 2016

According to the American Library Association, there has been an increase in harassment and vandalism at libraries over the past month. At the University of New Mexico, a man approached a young woman who was studying in the library and tried to pull off her hijab. And administrators also found swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti on the walls of Reed College in Portland.

These crimes are unusual for libraries–they’re supposed to be peaceful places for education and discussion. The ALA is now starting to keep track of every xenophobic incident that is reported. “We hope to track the details, locations and frequency, the better to stay on top of it, develop training or webinars, and support our members,” said James LaRue from the ALA.

This uptick coincides with the 2016 election, which was divisive to say the least. According to several hate crime monitors, verbal and physical abuse aimed at minorities in schools, mosques, and other public places have increased dramatically since the election. A November report from the FBI supports that narrative, showing 5,818 documented hate crimes in 2015. That was a rise of 6 percent compared to the year before, and included assaults, bombings, threats, and property destruction against minorities, women, LGBT individuals, and others. (It’s important to note as well that hate crimes are notoriously underreported.)

The largest increase was in the rise of hate crimes against American Muslims. There were 257 reported cases of assault, or attacks on mosques in 2015, which marks a rise of 67 percent from 2014. That is a high that hasn’t been seen since the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. “We need to do a better job of tracking and reporting hate crime to fully understand what is happening in our communities and how to stop it,” said FBI director James Comey to the New York Times.

But some supporters of Donald Trump say that they have also been victimized, claiming that they also need a “safe space” where they can express their opinions. Maybe the best solution would be for the opposing sides to communicate more openly, to try to understand each other’s point of view.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Libraries Report Surges in Hate Crimes and Xenophobic Vandalism appeared first on Law Street.

The New York Times published a story on Sunday that delved deep into New York state penitentiaries, documenting a number of racial disparities in how inmates are disciplined and awarded parole. On Monday, in response to The Times expose, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), ordered an investigation into racial bias in the state’s prisons.

Cuomo called The Times report “disturbing,” and said in a statement: “I am directing the state inspector general to investigate the allegations of racial disparities in discipline in state prisons and to recommend appropriate reforms for immediate implementation.” He also said he plans on nominating a number of minority candidates to New York’s Parole Board.

“I will be advancing new appointments to the Senate this upcoming session to ensure the state’s Parole Board is reflective of the population it serves,” he said. Only one of the 13 current board members is black; none are Latino, though the state prison population is about three-fourths black or Latino. Cuomo’s nominations would need to be approved by the State Senate, which is comprised of 31 Republicans and 31 Democrats.

The Times report was based on data from 2015, focusing on 60,000 disciplinary cases, and on interviews with inmates across the state. Most of the racial disparities documented took place in upstate prisons, where officers, a vast majority of whom are white, guard prison populations that are majority-black or Latino.

One instance of racial bias documented in The Times report happened at Clinton Correctional Facility, where only one of the 998 guards is black. The report found that black inmates were four times as likely as white inmates to be sent to solitary confinement. In addition, black inmates were held in isolation for 35 more days on average than whites. Here are some other findings from the report:

• A number of black inmates reported guards referring to them by racial slurs, like “porch monkey,” and “spear chucker.”
• Among inmates under 25 years old, blacks received far more disciplinary citations than whites, at 185 to 14 respectively.
• Over the past several years, white inmates were more likely than black or Latino inmates to be granted parole. Less than one in six black or Latino inmates were released on parole after their first hearing, compared to one in four white inmates.

The report also illustrated the discrimination black guards who work in prisons staffed with a majority of white officers experienced. One case from the early 2000s focused on a black officer at Elmira Correctional Facility named Curtis Brown. An investigation found that white guards wrote “token” on Brown’s locker.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Governor Cuomo Orders Investigation into Racial Disparities in NY Prisons appeared first on Law Street.

Alaska is the most dangerous state based on its violent crime rate for the third year in a row, according to the latest crime statistics from the FBI. The rate of violent crime increased significantly in Alaska last year–going from 636 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2014 to 730 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2015. Following Alaska is Nevada (696 violent crimes per 100,000 people) and New Mexico (656 violent crimes per 100,000 people).

Law Street’s annual slideshow of the Safest and Most Dangerous States ranks all 50 states based on their violent crime rates. Each slide details the violent crime statistics for every city in the country with available data and a population of 25,000 or more. The qualifying cities are listed from highest to lowest rate of violent crime per 100,000 residents for each state. The category of violent crime is comprised of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

GO DIRECTLY TO YOUR STATE:

AL | AK | AZ | AR | CA | CO | CT | DE | DC | FL | GA | HI | ID | IL | IN | IA | KS | KY | LA | ME | MD | MA | MI | MN | MS | MO | MT | NE | NV | NH | NJ | NM | NY | NC | ND | OH | OK | OR | PA | RI | SC | SD | TN | TX | UT | VT | VA | WA | WV | WI | WY

Alaska: #1 Most Dangerous State | 730 Violent Crimes/100,000 People

“Alaska” courtesy of Ryan Schreiber; License: (CC BY 2.0)

Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here for additional information on Law Street’s crime-ranking methodology.

Source:

FBI: Violent crime, population, murder, and officer statistics, measured January – December 2015.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post America’s Safest and Most Dangerous States 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

Have you just recently recovered from the creepy news story about the urban legend Slenderman? Not so fast. The Wisconsin case, in which two 12-year-old girls tried to kill a third girl by stabbing her 19 times in 2014, is far from over. And a new HBO documentary features the trial, which has picked back up again recently. The two girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, are now 14 and are being charged as adults for first-degree homicide. This means they could serve 65 years in prison, if found guilty. But on Friday the court is scheduled to discuss psychological evaluations of the girls, which could give them a chance for a lighter sentence.

This comes at the same time that HBO is announcing its release of a documentary about the case, called “Beware The Slenderman.” It is said to focus on “the court’s deliberation whether the girls should be tried as adults or children.” The trailer is sure to send chills down your spine.

The first trailer for @HBO doc “Beware the Slenderman” is as creepy as the story it tells https://t.co/86ILbr9McI pic.twitter.com/2x18FNeGk5

— Paste Magazine (@PasteMagazine) November 11, 2016

The girls’ victim Payton Leutner was a classmate. They lured her into the woods reportedly convinced that they had to kill her, otherwise the tall, faceless man known as Slenderman would come and kill their families. According to the girls, they wanted to prove to people that Slenderman was real, and if they sacrificed a human, they would be rewarded with being his proxies and living in his mansion. Fortunately, Leutner survived by crawling out of the woods to the street, where a passing cyclist helped her to safety.

Geyser and Weier’s defense attorneys have tried to have their cases moved to a juvenile court, but the motions were denied in August due to the degree of premeditation. According to the state, they had planned the deed for months, lied to the victim by telling her to not move and that they would get help, and started to flee from law enforcement. As a last resort to try to get the girls a more lenient sentence, their defense attorneys entered pleas of not guilty because of mental disease or defect in the late summer. On Friday, the conclusions of the psychologists who have evaluated the girls will be discussed in court.

Anissa Weier appears via video, Morgan Geyser appears in person as the Slender man case moves ahead pic.twitter.com/mpoeNd7GyJ

— Myra Sanchick (@myrasanchick) November 11, 2016

Entering a plea of insanity essentially means that the defendant asserts that at the time of the crime she was affected by a mental disease that prevented her from knowing right from wrong. If found guilty under those conditions, the defendant would normally be sent to a state mental hospital for treatment. Geyser has already been diagnosed with an early onset of schizophrenia. According to doctors, she was traumatized after the attack and talked to hallucinations of Slenderman in her cell.

After a suicide attempt, Geyser has spent the past six months at a mental health institute where she doesn’t get to read, draw, or even wear her glasses, much to her mother’s distress. Weier is committed to a juvenile detention center on a $500,000 bail and has recovered from a ”shared delusional belief” since she was separated from Geyser. Both girls’ parents are trying to lower the bail so that they can go home and be under house arrest.

Reality is scarier than fiction in the trailer for HBO’s Slenderman doc https://t.co/4dSpivmn73 pic.twitter.com/Ln0zcUMBux

— The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) November 11, 2016

A fact that could work in the girls’ favor is that they may have truly believed they didn’t have any other choice than to kill Leutner, since they thought their families would die unless they did. This, according to the defense, should mean that the girls only should be charged with attempted second-degree homicide. Lawyers have asked that the girls’ trials be conducted separately and with a jury from another county.

In the meantime, popular culture is still dwelling on the online myth of Slenderman that has affected so many young people and many believed the 6^th season of “American Horror Story” would feature the faceless character. That didn’t happen, but it is not far-fetched to think that he will show up somewhere else soon.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The Slenderman Case is Still Going On and HBO Made a Documentary About It appeared first on Law Street.

On Thursday the Justice Department announced new guidelines for collecting nationwide data on law enforcement officials’ use of force in encounters with civilians. According to the New York Times, this is the biggest effort of its kind that the federal government has ever made to account for use of force.

“Accurate and comprehensive data on the use of force by law enforcement is essential to an informed and productive discussion about community-police relations,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch in a statement. She said that the purpose of these new steps is increased transparency and a better understanding between law enforcement officials and the communities that they serve.

The FBI is currently developing a national database as part of the Department of Justice’s efforts to gather… https://t.co/9LE1tzKQ7m

— QkTip (@QkTipcom) October 13, 2016

The Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) that was passed in 2014 requires officials to record and report all deaths of civilians that occur either in custody or during interaction with officers. But they are not required to report non-fatal cases. With the new initiative, officers must collect, maintain and report data on all shootings or violent encounters involving an officer, whether fatal or not, and the same goes for people already in custody.

Last year, the FBI started working on developing a National Use of Force Data Collection, an online portal for reporting use-of-force data from all over the country, in collaboration with local law enforcement. Bigger city police departments and the FBI will start reporting data early next year.

The past year has been dramatic and traumatic and seen several fatal encounters between police and civilians, with casualties on both sides and violent protests as a result. If these new procedures could help to resolve the societal tensions, it is a good start.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The DOJ Will Start Collecting More Info on Police Officers’ Use of Force appeared first on Law Street.

One of the detectives investigating the Derrick Rose rape trial in Los Angeles died from an apparent self-inflicted single gunshot wound to the chest, authorities said on Wednesday.

LAPD Det. Nadine Hernandez was a 19-year veteran with the force who worked in the Robbery-Homicide Division Special Assault Section. She was found dead in her home in Whittier at 3:27 p.m. on Tuesday. She was 44 years old.

In a statement, the LAPD said Hernandez was one of several detectives on the case, and that “the Rose investigation will continue unimpeded.”

“At this point there is no indication that her case work had any connection to her death,” the statement said.

Breaking: After the judge denied Derrick Rose’s mistrial motion, the LAPD detective on the case is found, dead pic.twitter.com/qpCUA5Yjpt

— Spark Sports (@Spark_Sports_) October 12, 2016

Rose, a former Chicago Bulls star and current New York Knicks player, and two friends are being sued for $21.5 million for allegedly raping an incapacitated woman three years ago.

The plaintiff, whose name has remained undisclosed throughout the trial, accused Rose and his friends of drugging her at a party in L.A. and later gang raping her in her apartment.

She and Rose met in 2011 and maintained a two-year relationship. Rose claims the sex that night was consensual.

The latest developments in the trial came Wednesday when the defense called for a mistrial after the plaintiff’s lawyers failed to produce three text messages exchanged between their client and Rose on the night the alleged rape took place.

Lawyers of the plaintiff said there was no new information contained in the texts. Rose’s lawyers, however, said the texts show the accuser as having plotted sex in the hours leading up to the incident. They also claim the messages show her the next morning asking for a taxi reimbursement, seemingly undisturbed by the events of the previous evening.

The judge ruled that withholding the texts was not enough the derail the trial.

This Derrick Rose case is turning into an SVU episode

— Iesha ✨ (@ieshaax3) October 12, 2016

“I’m not going to dismiss it now,” U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said. “I’m not going to declare a mistrial when we have a jury in the box.”

Rose’s defense attorney Mark Baute mentioned Hernandez’s death when asking for a mistrial Wednesday, apparently shocking the plaintiff.

Police in Whittier, the LA suburb where Hernandez was found dead in her home, echoed the LAPD’s statement saying, “There are no signs of foul play, and the incident is being investigated as a suicide.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Detective in Derrick Rose Case Found Shot Dead appeared first on Law Street.

Over the weekend two police officers were shot and killed in Palm Springs, California. The suspect is 26-year-old John Felix who was taken into custody early Sunday morning after a standoff with police that lasted for several hours. The officers were responding to a disturbance call when the suspect allegedly started firing at the officers.

One of the officers killed was 63-year-old Jose Vega who had been in the force for 35 years and was two months away from retirement. The other was 27-year-old Lesley Zerebny who had just come back from maternity leave after giving birth to a daughter four months earlier. A third officer was injured but released from the hospital the same day.

According to a neighbor who spoke with the Associated Press, Felix’s father told her, “My son is inside and we’re scared, he’s acting crazy.” He added that they had called the police and that the son said he was going to shoot them. According to Police Chief Bryan Reyes, Felix refused to open the door for the officers and threatened to shoot through it. As they tried to speak to him he opened fire. More officers in tactical gear and an armored vehicle arrived and Felix barricaded himself inside the house. After a failed attempt to try to locate his exact position using robots, officers sent in a chemical agent that finally made him surrender. When he came out, he was wearing light body armor and carrying ammunition.

John Felix was a gang member who lived with his parents. He previously spent four years in prison for a gang-related murder attempt in 2009, for which he took a plea deal and admitted to assault with a firearm and connections to a gang. Felix was arrested three years ago at the same house as the one where the incident on Saturday occurred. He will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder as well as several additional felony counts.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement on Sunday:

Our nation’s heart is broken yet again by the appalling act of violence that claimed two brave law enforcement officers on Saturday. Officers Jose Gilbert Vega and Lesley Zerebny were at opposite ends of their careers, but they shared a steadfast devotion to the people they had sworn to serve.

According to AP, it had been 54 years since the last uniformed police officer killing in Palm Springs. Officer Vega was supposed to have the Saturday off but worked anyway. Officer Zerebny had returned early from maternity leave. It was just a matter of bad timing and bad luck that made the difference between life and death.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Father of Suspect in California Police Killings: He Wanted to Shoot the Police appeared first on Law Street.

During the first presidential debate, Donald Trump made a point of citing violence in Chicago but failed to recognize Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new plan for fighting violent crime in the city. The plan is broken into three categories: enforcement, investment, and prevention. But will it actually be effective?

The enforcement step of the plan has received the most attention as it involves hiring almost 1,000 new beat cops, detectives, and supervisors (and outfitting them with new squad cars and equipment). Emanuel has pledged not to raise taxes to pay for the expansion of the police force but it is unclear how he plans to fund these new hires. Hiring will begin as soon as January, so the approximately $135 million necessary to fund this wave of new police hires will have to show up quickly if Emanuel wants to make good on his promise.

Although adding officers to the force is an admirable step for a city where the police force has been stretched thin, there are doubts regarding whether Emanuel’s new hires will be enough to seriously impact Chicago. It is not so much the number of officers who are available as it is their training and interaction with the community that will shape attempts to curb violent crime throughout the metropolitan area. Besides concerns that the plan will be ineffective, critics have also stepped forward to argue that this plan gives Mayor Emanuel too much power, as it interferes with the independence of the police force. These objections are largely linked to the establishment of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which would have the power to investigate alleged police misconduct to a much greater extent than in the past. The mayor will appoint most of the employees of this investigative agency, which has led community members to question its impartiality and ability to break away from the failures of the Independent Police Review Authority, the agency that it will be replacing.

The mayor unveiled his plan during a speech which was notable not for its rhetoric about improving policing but for what it lacked–there were virtually no references to improving the racial divide between the police force and minority communities. The mayor did not address the issues with predictive policing or this summer’s protests against police brutality in Chicago. The majority of both homicide perpetrators and victims in Chicago are black, and gang membership in the city is primarily concentrated among black and Latino populations. Although one should never jump to the same simplistic conclusion that Trump used in the first debate, implying that all minority citizens of Chicago live in violent squalor, it is undeniable that the black community has seen the largest share of violence in the city. Mayor Emanuel touted mentorship programs and family interventions as solutions to violence in Chicago neighborhoods but he did not go any further to discuss how community leaders can dissuade young people from joining gangs, buying guns, or being injured during violent confrontations with police officers. Community policing is a two-way street: police officers have to be trained but there needs to be community outreach as well. If neither side is being provided with directions and tools on how to improve their relations, will anything really change in Chicago?

Jillian Sequeira

Jillian Sequeira was a member of the College of William and Mary Class of 2016, with a double major in Government and Italian. When she’s not blogging, she’s photographing graffiti around the world and worshiping at the altar of Elon Musk and all things Tesla. Contact Jillian at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com

The post Chicago’s Incomplete Plan to Combat Violence appeared first on Law Street.

When the FBI released the latest round of national crime statistics, most attention was quickly drawn to the significant rise in the number of murders. Statistics for the 2015 calendar year, released by the FBI on Monday, show that there was an estimated 10.8 percent increase in the number of murders in the United States.

Click here to read more Crime in America coverage.

That jump, as well as the current number of murders in the United States, can be interpreted in many different ways. First, an increase of more than 10 percent is the largest spike in recent history and marks an alarming change almost any way you look at it. What’s particularly troubling is that we don’t yet have a great explanation to account for why this happened.

But the other way to look at it–comparing the murder rate in 2015 to that of previous years–paints a different picture. Despite that dramatic jump, the U.S. murder rate remains near historic lows. In fact, we had fewer murders last year than we did in 2008 and last year’s murder rate, which is adjusted for population, was lower than the one in 2009 despite going up 10 percent. While the jump from 2014 to 2015 was quite large, 2014 had the lowest murder rate in over two decades.

Put simply, you can use the most recent numbers to bolster two very different arguments about crime in America. One approach that might be more helpful is to look at the way in which murder rates change between cities. In fact, change in the murder rates varied widely in America’s largest cities.

The map below details how murder rates changed in the 50 largest cities with two consecutive years of murder statistics available from the FBI. While this does not include each and every one of America’s largest cities, given that not every city’s data is reported by the FBI, it includes almost all of them. The green and red bubbles indicate positive and negative changes, respectively, and the size of the bubble indicates the size of the change. Note that the map shows the percent change in the murder rate from 2014 to 2015, not the actual rate for each city.

Scroll over each city for additional details and change the view by zooming or selecting a region in the filter below the map. To reset the map hit the home button on the top left panel.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post How Have Murder Rates Changed in America’s Largest Cities? Here’s a Map appeared first on Law Street.

Law Street Media’s comprehensive Crime in America 2017 coverage provides a look at the safety of our cities and towns around the United States. Based on data provided in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, Law Street analyzes the data to provide lists of the safest and most dangerous cities around the U.S. Take a look at the rankings and features below to discover how safe your city actually is. Check back regularly for continued reporting and additional features.

Rankings

Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000

Most Dangerous Cities Under 200,000

Safest Cities Over 200,000

Safest and Most Dangerous States

Interactive Dashboard

Crime Trends in America’s Largest Cities

Charts and Data

NOTES

• What the FBI Says About Its Uniform Crime Reports
• Methodology

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

Irvine, California, and Gilbert, Arizona, remained the two safest cities in the United States with populations over 200,000 for the fourth year in a row. Newcomers to this year’s list included Glendale, California, which previously wasn’t included because its population was below the 200,000 person threshold, and Scottsdale, Arizona, which was not included in the FBI’s statistics last year. While the overall rate of violent crime rose by a small margin in the United States–roughly 3 percent–the safest cities were a mixed bag, with both notable increases and decreases in violent crime rates.

All statistics are based on 2015 data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. Check out the slideshow below for the Top 10 Most Safest Cities Over 200,000.

Click here for the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000

Click here for the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Under 200,000

#1 Irvine, California

Image courtesy of Orbitgal via Flickr

Irvine topped the list of  Top 10 Safest Cities Over 200,000 for the fourth year running. Irvine’s violent crime rate did rise by about 14 percent, but it was not enough to drop the California city from the #1 spot on the list. In raw numbers, Irvine only had 24 more violent crimes in 2015 than in 2014. Irvine’s population also rose, by over six percent. Additionally, Irvine saw two murders in 2015, compared to zero in 2014. The increase in the overall count mainly came from the increased instances of robbery, which rose by almost 60 percent to a total of 58.

Violent Crime Rate:  56/100,000 people*
Murder Rate: 1/100,000 people
Population: 258,198
Officer to Population Ratio: 1:1,272
Rank Last Year: #1

—

*Irvine, California switched the way it reports rape incidents during the 2015 calendar year, moving from the FBI’s legacy definition to the FBI’s revised definition, which is more inclusive. For more information about the definition change, click here.

Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here for additional information on Law Street’s crime-ranking methodology.

Source:

FBI: Violent crime, population, murder, and officer statistics, measured January – December 2015.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2017: Top 10 Safest Cities Over 200,000 appeared first on Law Street.

Rockford, Illinois, is the most dangerous city in the U.S. with a population between 100,000-200,000 people, displacing Little Rock, Arkansas, which now ranks as #2. Tallahassee, Florida moved onto the list at #8 after just missing the cut at #12 last year; Odessa, Texas also moved from #11 to #9. Many of the rest of the positions held steady and only saw small increases or decreases in their violent crime rates.

All statistics are based on 2015 data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. Check out the slideshow below for the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Under 200,000.

Click here for the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000

Click here for the Top 10 Safest Cities Over 200,000

#1 Rockford, Illinois

Image courtesy of Alexbaumgarner via Wikimedia Commons

Rockford, Illinois has displaced Little Rock, Arkansas, as the most dangerous city with a population between 100,000-200,000 people. Rockford saw a 28 percent increase in its violent crime rate last year, after a 10 percent decrease the year before. However, Rockford’s murder rate only increased slightly, from 11 per 100,000 people in 2014 to 13 per 100,000 people in 2015. The most dramatic jumps came from increases in the numbers of robbery and aggravated assault, rising by 22 percent and 30 percent respectively.

Violent Crime Rate:  1,585/100,000 people
Murder Rate: 13/100,000 people
Population: 148,178
Officer to Population Ratio: 1:529
Rank Last Year: #2

—

Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here for additional information on Law Street’s crime-ranking methodology.

Source:

FBI: Violent crime, population, murder, and officer statistics, measured January – December 2015.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated to remedy a spelling issue. 

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2017: Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Under 200,000 appeared first on Law Street.

St. Louis, Missouri moved from #4 to #1 this year on Law Street’s list of Dangerous Cities Over 200,000 after its violent crime rate rose by more than 8 percent. As violent crime increased nationally by nearly 4 percent, many cities in the top 10 saw substantial increases. Detroit is #2 on this year’s list, moving down after three consecutive years at the top of the list due to an 11.5 percent decrease in its overall violent crime rate. Notably missing from this year’s list is Cleveland, Ohio, which had ranked #8 on last year’s list. The FBI did not provide information for Cleveland this year, and therefore the city cannot be ranked.

All statistics are based on 2015 data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. Check out the slideshow below for the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000.

CLICK HERE FOR THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES UNDER 200,000

CLICK HERE FOR THE TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES OVER 200,000

#1  St. Louis, Missouri

Image courtesy of Kevin McCoy via Wikimedia Commons

A significant violent crime spike in St. Louis, Missouri put the city at the top of Law Street’s list of the Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000. The violent crime rate in St. Louis went up by more than 8 percent in 2015, going from 1,679 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2014 to 1,817 per 100,000 last year. That increase moved the city up from the #4 spot in last year’s rankings. St. Louis also saw 29 additional murders in 2015, going from 159 in 2014 to 188 in 2015. The city had a murder rate of 59 murders per 100,000 in 2015. Additionally, the number of robberies and aggravated assaults both experienced notable increases last year, going up 15 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Violent Crime Rate:  1,817/100,000 people
Murder Rate: 59/100,000 people
Population: 317,095
Officer to Population Ratio: 1:258
Rank Last Year: #4

—

Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here for additional information on Law Street’s crime-ranking methodology.

Source:

FBI: Violent crime, population, murder, and officer statistics, measured January – December 2015.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2017: Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000 appeared first on Law Street.

Amid growing fear of terrorism and divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail, researchers have identified a startling upward trend in hate crimes against Muslims. According to a recent study, these crimes have reached their highest levels since the period directly after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Brian Levin and Kevin Grisham, researchers at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, identified a slight rise in hate crimes overall but found a significant increase in those targeting Muslims. Using data from law enforcement officials in 20 states, they found 196 anti-Muslim hate crimes in the 2015 calendar year–a 78 percent increase from the previous year. Based on that sample, they estimate that there were approximately 260 hate crimes against Muslims across the country in 2015.

While most categories of hate crime saw either declines or slight increases, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab crimes spiked significantly, increasing by 78 and 209 percent respectively. They also found a 40 percent increase in anti-gender/transgender hate crimes. The 196 anti-Muslim hate crimes identified by the researchers in the 20 states surveyed amounted to a 29 percent increase relative to what the FBI found nationwide in 2014. The evidence for the increase in hate crimes with an Arab and gender bias came from smaller 10 and 9 state samples, respectively.

It’s important to note that these numbers almost certainly undercount the actual number of hate crimes in the United States. Incidents of hate crimes are notoriously difficult to measure–many victims may be reluctant to report these crimes and police departments may not identify hate crimes as such. And as the report notes (and I’ve previously written about), there is a significant gap between the number of reported hate crimes and the results of victimization surveys, which indicate that they occur much more frequently than these statistics suggest.

Last December, the researchers conducted a study of unofficial reports of hate crimes–largely by identifying incidents in news reports–and found evidence of a spike in the wake of the Paris shootings. With this study, they were able to build on their past findings using official data from police departments to identify an overall increase last year. “The newly available official data corroborates the December/November spike found in our earlier study,” they write. “The increase was real and material across the entire year as well.”

Trying to explain what is driving the recent increase is also particularly difficult, as causal connections are difficult to identify. But the authors note that recent rhetoric directed at Muslims is likely a factor. They point to a surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes that occurred after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. That spike dropped significantly–although it didn’t go away altogether–after September 17 when President Bush gave a speech at an Islamic center to distinguish terrorism from Islam and called for respect for American Muslims.

In contrast, they note that in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings last year, Donald Trump publicly called for a ban on Muslims entering the country. They note that after that point hate crimes against Muslims increased by 87.5 percent. Overall, the researchers identified a multi-year trend even predating the rise of Donald Trump in American politics.

The authors also note that the causes of hate crimes are extremely complicated. While hostile rhetoric may contribute to an increase in these events, there are many other factors at play. Many factors can contribute to prejudice toward a certain group and an even more complicated set of factors can explain whether a prejudice leads to violence. Ultimately, these statistics cannot provide a full picture of hate crimes in the United States, but they identify a trend that is troubling and difficult to refute.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Research Shows a Recent Surge in Hate Crimes Against Muslims appeared first on Law Street.

When police were called to a burning car in Riverview, Missouri, around 2AM on Tuesday morning, they found the body of activist Darren Seals inside, shot to death. Seals, 29, was a prominent activist who protested after black teenager Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. He was by the Brown family’s side the evening it was announced the officer involved in the shooting was not indicted.

Seals’ supporters expressed their grief on social media.

His name was Darren Seals. RIP. pic.twitter.com/Cd4NQuqBvX

— Torraine Walker (@TorraineWalker) September 6, 2016

Some think he was targeted by the police for his strong commitment to the protests over Michael Brown’s death, a belief that Seals himself seems to have expressed on his Twitter.

@LegendaryQueen8 yea 10 detectives pulled me and my 14 year old brother over, pointed guns on us, and told me “choose your enemies wisely”

— King D Seals (@KingDSeals) July 25, 2016

St Louis County Police said they investigated the incident as a homicide but have no suspects. The block where Darren Seals died was involved in another police matter about a week ago when an older woman was found dead in her apartment. However that death appears to have been a suicide.

According to the police, Seals lived about 12 miles away from where he was found dead. Seals described himself on his Twitter account as a businessman, revolutionary, activist, fighter, leader, and “unapologetically black.” After he engaged in protests after the shooting of Michael Brown, he told MTV about the experience in an interview. Even though he described holding Brown’s mother after they heard the results from the non-indictment as feeling “her soul cry,” he also described the protests as fruitful:

I don’t recall anyone having a longer protest, a more productive protest, a more creative protest than what we did. I don’t think people will ever really appreciate what we did until years from now. We really did the best we could.

Seals also led protests with a group called Hands Up United, which wanted to change police policies through the campaign Polls Ova Police. Some people believe this work made police officers target Seals during the last weeks of his life.

#DarrenSeals spent his last days under constant harassment from STL Police. Any investigation into his murder needs to start there IMO.

— D (@Delo_Taylor) September 7, 2016

Seals repeatedly declared his distance from the Black Lives Matter movement and claimed it is simply a newly formed group taking credit for what different local protesters, including him, have been working hard on for years.

#BlackLivesMatter people did to Ferguson what white people did to mother Africa, come in steal all our resources then leave us for dead..smh

— King D Seals (@KingDSeals) September 2, 2016

In the end, Darren Seals became a symbol for the battle he fought, but details about his death are still unclear.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Ferguson Activist Darren Seals Found Shot Dead in Burning Car appeared first on Law Street.

One of the deadliest cities in America, Chicago, recorded its 500th homicide over Labor Day weekend, making 2016–with four months yet to pass–the deadliest year in a decade in a city where gang-related violence has ruptured in recent years. By the close of the weekend, according to Chicago Tribune data, 512 people in Chicago had been killed this year. Most of the violence occurred from Monday morning into dawn on Tuesday, as all 13 victims died from gunshot wounds. Last weekend, 65 people were shot in total.

According to the Tribune, police attributed the late surge in shootings to retaliatory acts by gang members at holiday gatherings. Many of the homicides took place in the city’s South Side neighborhoods, the nucleus of violence during a historically bloody summer. In August alone, 90 people were killed, the highest single month tally since June 1996.

As the final days of summer tick away, 2016 is projected to be Chicago’s deadliest year in at least a decade. The deadliest city with two million citizens or more (a handful of other cities–St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore–see more murders on a per capita basis), Chicago is on track to record its highest murder rate since the early 2000s. The projected homicide rate for the city for 2016 is 24.1 deaths per 100,000 people. New York, where murder rates have been steadily declining, is on pace for a substantially lower homicide rate, at 3.8 per 100,000 people.

Violence over the Labor Day holiday brought Chicago’s gun-related homicide total to 512 in 2016#LostStreetsChicago https://t.co/p3TuhFbg4r

— BBC News US (@BBCNewsUS) September 6, 2016

A majority of Chicago’s victims die as the result of gun violence. Proponents of gun-control argue the city needs stricter gun ordinances. But Illinois has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. The reality is that 60 percent of the city’s guns were purchased out of state–many from Indiana–and driven back into the city.  The state government is taking political steps to address the city’s exorbitant violence.

A few weeks ago, Governor Bruce Rauner (R-IL), passed a law to address people without gun-owner IDs  bringing firearms into Illinois. The law reclassifies the act from a crime to a felony, which would carry a penalty of four to 20 years in prison, and up to 30 years for repeat offenders.

Labor Day weekend was the deadliest of the three holiday weekends thus far in Chicago. Six fatalities were recorded over Memorial Day weekend, and five during the July 4th weekend. Among those killed over the weekend was a retired pastor, but most of the victims were 20-something year old males.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Chicago Records 500th Homicide of the Year Over Labor Day Weekend appeared first on Law Street.

After serving only three months in Santa Clara County jail for sexual assault, former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner was released on Friday morning. He left after serving half of a six-month sentence that he received in June after he was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on Stanford’s campus in of January last year.

The case has been widely covered and the judge was harshly criticized for the lenient punishment. Prosecutors wanted a six-year sentence, but Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky responded saying, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others.”

As Turner left the jail, wearing dress pants and a wrinkled white shirt, a small group of demonstrators and members of the press watched. Sandra Pfeiffer, who told NPR member station KQED that she was a rape survivor herself, said, “Other people get locked away for a very long time, why did he get out after 90 days? Why? Why? It doesn’t make sense.”

In the aftermath of Turner’s sentencing, the Department of Education released a list of sexual assault complaints at colleges across the country. The list revealed that Stanford had five federal complaints–not counting Brock Turner’s case, which was conducted in the justice system not by the university–into how the school handled sexual assault cases. According to the list, Stanford had the most of any school under review.

Before Turner was sentenced, his father sent a controversial letter to the judge in his son’s case, which also led to a lot of criticism. In the letter, he argued that his son didn’t deserve to have his life ruined by a prison sentence. He wrote, “His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.”

In court, Turner’s victim read a powerful statement in court where she questioned the lenient punishment and society’s view on sexual assault. She also wondered what the outcome would have been if the assailant had not been a privileged, white star-athlete:

If I had been sexually assaulted by an un-athletic guy from a community college, what would his sentence be? If a first time offender from an underprivileged background was accused of three felonies and displayed no accountability for his actions other than drinking, what would his sentence be?

Turner’s early release made a lot of people on Twitter mad, as some saw it as an example of white privilege.

I know dudes from my hood who’ve had their lives ruined over a bag of weed and this dude Brock Turner just did 3 months for rape.

— Blédakiss (@ChefRoble) September 2, 2016

If only Brock Turner were a poor undocumented Mexican immigrant & not ‘an All-American boy,’ Trumpists cld use him to vilify a whole people.

— Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) September 2, 2016

Some argued that his sentence reflects one of the many reasons why victims of sexual abuse often do not speak up.

If you ever say “Why don’t rape victims just tell the police?” Please refer to the Brock Turner case and realize that it’s not that simple.

— tess (@that1mum) September 2, 2016

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Brock Turner Released From Jail After Serving 3 Months for Sexual Assault appeared first on Law Street.

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons for federal prisoners, according to a memo from Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates released on Thursday. According to Yates, the Department of Justice plans to either not renew existing private prison contracts or significantly reduce the scope of the agreements in the coming years. Over time, this will end the use of private prisons at the federal level, but that’s only part of the picture. Let’s take a closer look at what this means.

Why Now?

The decision comes less than a week after the Office of the Inspector General released a harsh report about the quality of these contract prisons. According to the report, “in most key areas, contract prisons incurred more safety and security incidents per capita than comparable BOP institutions and that the BOP needs to improve how it monitors contract prisons in several areas.” The announcement also comes on the heels of an investigation from Mother Jones, which involved a reporter going undercover for multiple months in a Louisiana private prison. That story highlighted many of the security concerns involved with private prisons as well as the way that the profit motive can negatively affect prison conditions.

In her memo, Yates also points out that this move is in part a response to recent progress shrinking the size of the federal prison population. The use of private prisons was largely a product of the massive increase in federal prisoners over the past several decades. But 2014 marked the first year in which the number of federal prisoners actually decreased. The chart below shows the massive growth in the number of federal prisoners since 1980.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, CSTAT

In 2013, the Department of Justice began its Smart on Crime Initiative, which sought to improve fairness and efficiency in the criminal justice system. An important part of the initiative was sentencing reform, which sought to ensure that sentence lengths were appropriate, particularly for nonviolent criminals. The new sentencing guidelines later became retroactive for drug offenders, which allowed inmates to challenge their sentence and get it reduced if approved by a judge. As a result, the DOJ hopes that the recent prison population decline will become a sustained trend, which in turn will reduce the need for private prisons.

How Many Prisoners Does This Affect?

While we know that the federal prison population has grown significantly over the past couple decades, how many of those prisoners are held in private prisons? Currently, private prisons account for about 11 percent of all federal prisoners, or about 22,100 prisoners. There are 13 private prisons used by the federal government, which will now be phased out over the next several years. But it’s important to note that most of the prisoners held in private prisons are at the state level. Here’s a look at the use of private prisons by states and the federal government since 1999:

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, CSTAT

What This Won’t Change

As you can see in the chart above, states use private prisons a lot more than the federal government and that won’t change with the DOJ’s recent decision. Another prominent use of private prisons is immigrant detention, which is overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshalls Service. Because immigration detention is not overseen by the DOJ, this decision will also not affect those facilities.

Simply put, this decision will not affect the majority of inmates in private prisons. But that doesn’t mean that the DOJ’s move will have no effect. In her memo, Assistant Attorney General Yates notes:

Private prisons served an important role during a difficult period, but time has shown that they compare poorly to our own Bureau facilities. They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’ s Office oflnspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security.

While she compares private facilities to the ones operated by the Bureau of Prisons, her comments amount to a strong statement against these prisons. Having a clear federal policy to stop using these facilities on the grounds that they are inferior to publicly controlled prisons may send a message to states to reconsider their private contracts. And shortly after the decision was announced on Thursday, Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group–the two largest private prison companies–saw their stock prices plummet.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post DOJ to Phase Out Private Prisons: Here’s What That Means appeared first on Law Street.

Baltimore police officers routinely engage in unconstitutional searches and arrests, excessive force, and profiling of black people, says a report from the Department of Justice presented on Wednesday morning.

The 163-page report says this pattern exists because of “systemic deficiencies in BPD’s policies, training, supervision, and accountability structures that fail to equip officers with the tools they need to police effectively and within the bounds of the federal law.”

Unconstitutional stops and arrests

The report is not a pleasant read. While people living in the wealthy, predominantly white areas of Baltimore describe the police as responsive and respectful, individuals in the poor, mainly black neighborhoods, on the other hand, describe the police as disrespectful and not responsive to their calls. They are also often targeted for unjustified stops and searches.

The DOJ’s report presents numbers on how many black people were stopped, often without reasonable suspicion. In fact, many were stopped when simply standing or walking on the city’s sidewalks. In the report, an image of a police department permeated with racial bias emerges.

Black people accounted for 95 percent of the 410 people who were stopped 10 times or more in the five and a half year period of data collection. One man, in particular, was stopped 30 times in less than 4 years, without ever being charged with a crime.

.@TheJusticeDept: ‘BPD’s Enforcement Activities Disproportionately Impact African Americans’ https://t.co/c0KeX8WF4X pic.twitter.com/f2Q1I3wXUN

— DOJ Civil Rights (@CivilRights) August 10, 2016

The frequent disregard for the Constitution through mass stops, searches, and arrests seem to be due to the  “zero tolerance” policy from the 1990s, which rewarded officers who make a lot of arrests.

The Baltimore Police also may have been biased against women when handling sexual assault cases. Officers failed to properly and meaningfully investigate cases of sexual assault and also to collect and corroborate evidence supporting the women’s accounts. While the DOJ did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that policing in Baltimore amounted to gender-bias in violation of federal law, some bias appears to have affected officers’ handling of sexual assault cases.

What’s next?

The Department of Justice launched the investigation in the spring of 2015, after the death of Freddie Gray. Reforms to make necessary changes will probably cost tens of millions of dollars and may take several years. The next step in the process is for city and federal officials to negotiate a settlement and present it to a federal judge. The settlement will include a list of requirements that the Baltimore Police Department will need to meet in the coming years.

A positive note is that everyone the DOJ investigators talked to during the investigation agreed that the BPD needs major reforms, even current police officers and city leaders. The DOJ said it will talk to local residents to take their opinions into account during the later stages of negotiation.

“There’s going to be a lot of folks with a lot of ideas about what needs to happen now in the community and in law enforcement, and it’s been really important to us to be able to hear directly from community members,” Vanita Gupta, head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division, said to the Baltimore Sun.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Baltimore Police: Racially Biased, Routinely Unconstitutional appeared first on Law Street.

This morning, I opened up social media to discover news about yet another Black man dead after an officer-involved shooting. Although details are still incredibly fuzzy, according to a few different accounts, last night a man named Leek Moss was shot and killed by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania police.

This was #LeekMoss yesterday morning w/ his newborn baby.

Police shot & killed him last night. pic.twitter.com/IwsZ5gREgH

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 8, 2016

Local news reports say that the shooting was at roughly 9 PM last night, August 7, and did involve a police officer, but “details surrounding the incident are unclear at this time.” Reports also discuss unrest and high emotions in the aftermath of the shooting.

As far as I could tell, there haven’t been any news articles that have disclosed Moss’s identity yet, but Twitter and Facebook have been mourning the 17-year-old father of a newborn infant, and a Facebook page that appears to be Moss’s shows expressions of condolence from his family members and friends.

Additionally, a press conference was held this morning that went over some of the details of the shooting. According to coverage of that press conference, the officer involved had been active for under two years, and there may have been a knife involved. The circumstances are still under investigation.

#AltonSterling#PhilandoCastile#KorrynGaines#PaulONeal#LeekMoss

In one month…

— ugh (@thetrapgoth) August 8, 2016

#LeekMoss is a teenager and a new father. A beloved son and brother. Killed by police last night in Harrisburg, PA. pic.twitter.com/A4PknSbcSk

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 8, 2016

#Harrisburg let Dauphin County DA @edmarsico know we want independent investigation into the shooting of #LeekMoss 717-780-6767

— Walter S Thomas Jr (@revthomasjr) August 8, 2016

#LeekMoss i hope this isn’t true. Again #blacklivesmatter

— on purpose amy (@ToxicSabrinaAF) August 8, 2016

While details of what happened to Moss are still unclear, police have mentioned several times to “not believe everything on social media” and to “remain calm.” While that’s expected after a death, it’s also worth noting that most probably wouldn’t even know about shooting without social media’s ability to disseminate information quickly.

More details are to come on Moss’s death, but as more and more Black Americans lose their lives in officer-involved incidents, the need for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the palpability of America’s mistrust of police continues to ring true.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Leek Moss: Social Media Reports Black Teen Killed by Officer in PA appeared first on Law Street.

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that a D.C. Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD) officer has been arrested on suspicion of supporting the terror network ISIS. This is the first case of a U.S. law enforcement officer facing terrorism charges. Here’s what we know:

Who Is He?

The officer’s name is Nicholas Young, and he is a 36-year-old man from Fairfax, Virginia. Young has been a MTPD officer since 2003, and has been under surveillance for suspected ties to terrorism for six years.

Breaking: Fairfax home searched, of MetroTransit cop Nicholas Young, 36 charged w attempting to help ISIS @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/AN99yIjQtB

— Peggy Fox (@PeggyTV) August 3, 2016

What Did He Do?

Young is accused of allegedly purchasing nearly $250 worth of gift cards that were intended for ISIS in order to purchase mobile messaging accounts to recruit others to join the terrorist organization.

He is also accused of making vague threats to kill FBI agents and informants or bring guns into federal court, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Washington Post. The paper writes, “Young allegedly threatened to kidnap and torture an agent who interviewed him, and leave the head of anyone who betrayed him in a cinder block at the bottom of a Virginia lake.”

How Long Has He Been on the FBI’s Radar?

According to the DOJ’s statements, Young has been on the FBI’s radar since 2010. Here is a rough timeline of his encounters with the FBI:

• In 2010, Young was interviewed by law enforcement about his relationship with Zachary Chesser, who later pled guilty to supporting a foreign terrorist organization and making threats against the creators of “South Park” for writing an episode about Islam he disliked.
• In 2011, Young traveled to Libya one time and attempted to travel a second time. He also had several meetings with an undercover law enforcement officer, many of which were with Amine El Khalifi, who later pled guilty to planning to conduct a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol Building in 2012.
• In 2014, Young met approximately 20 times with an FBI informant, who he advised how to travel overseas to join the Islamic State and evade detection.
• In 2016, he contacted the same FBI informant about purchasing the gift cards for ISIS.

Is Metro Safe?

According to authorities, there was never any credible or specific threat to the Metro system. MTPD officials initiated this investigation and have been working closely with the FBI throughout the case. Metro Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik said in a statement.

This investigation began with concerns that were reported by the Metro Transit Police Department, and it reinforces that, as citizens, we all have a duty to report suspicious activity whenever and wherever it occurs.

Young was terminated from the MTPD Wednesday morning after his arrest.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post How did a D.C. Metro Cop Become First U.S. Officer to Face ISIS Charges? appeared first on Law Street.

Dylann Roof is accused of killing nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina church last summer, and was charged with 33 federal offenses and received the death penalty. On Monday, Roof’s defense attorneys filed a legal challenge to the capital punishment, arguing that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

#DylannRoof’s federal attorneys try to throw out death penalty as ‘unconstitutional’: https://t.co/zNPsJJp1Hy pic.twitter.com/rkFDTu95r7

— The Root (@TheRoot) August 2, 2016

In a 30-plus page motion, his defense team wrote, “this Court should rule that the federal death penalty constitutes a legally prohibited, arbitrary, cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by both the Fifth and Eighth Amendments.” The motion went on to say, “The facts of this case are indisputably grave. But if, as we contend here, the FDPA [Federal Death Penalty Act] is unconstitutional, no one can be lawfully sentenced to death or executed under it, no matter what his crimes.”

If federal prosecutors drop the pursuit of the death penalty, Roof’s lawyers say they will drop the challenge. Why the complication? The challenge comes from the prosecution’s unwillingness to accept Roof’s guilty pleas and multiple life sentences without parole.

Roof, a white male who is now 22-years-old, was indicted on 33 counts of federal hate crimes and firearm charges last summer. He is accused of killing nine black worshippers at a Bible study in the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The Justice Department is strongly pursuing the death penalty because Roof targeted his victims on the basis of race and religion.

“The nature of the alleged crime and the resulting harm compelled this decision,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in May about the decision to pursue the death penalty. A month after the shooting in July 2015, she said, “To carry out these twin goals of fanning racial flames and exacting revenge, Roof further decided to seek out and murder African Americans because of their race.” She went on to say, “An essential element of his plan, however, was to find his victims inside of a church, specifically an African-American church, to ensure the greatest notoriety and attention to his actions.”

The judge who is presiding over the case, Richard Gergel, did not immediately rule out the filing to challenge the death penalty. However, Twitter users immediately reacted.

#DylannRoof should absolutely be given the death penalty when found guilty. If you MURDER people, you have sacrificed your own right to live

— Josh Nelson (@RoarFromIA) August 2, 2016

 

Foreign terrorists don’t get to challenge a death penalty, why should domestic terrorists? #DylannRoof #KillDylannRoof

— TW: White female. (@karmapolitical) August 2, 2016

#KorrynGaines & #DylannRoof news this AM. IF you’re going to kill the woman who might have shot someone, then kill the man who murdered 9.

— Austin Saunders (@Widlcat77) August 2, 2016

Yeah, #DylannRoof doesn’t deserve the death penalty. They should randomly go into his cell & violently murder him. That would be “fair”.

— Faustslaughter (@Faustslaughter) August 2, 2016

Roof’s federal trial is set for November 7 in U.S. District Court. A murder trial in South Carolina state court is scheduled for January.

Inez Nicholson

Inez is an editorial intern at Law Street from Raleigh, NC. She will be a junior at North Carolina State University and is studying political science and communication media. When she’s not in the newsroom, you can find her in the weight room. Contact Inez at INicholson@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Dylann Roof’s Lawyers Seek Life Sentence Over Death Penalty appeared first on Law Street.

On Thursday night, Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination for president in Cleveland. In his acceptance speech Trump made one thing abundantly clear: he promises to be the law and order candidate. But with that promise came the need for justification: why do we need a law and order president? Trump sought to answer that question and more by painting a particularly bleak picture of America.

Let’s take a closer look at some of Trump’s claims and put them in some much-needed context. The quotes below are taken from his prepared remarks obtained by Politico Thursday afternoon. The transcript is nearly identical to the actual speech but may have some slight differences.

Where are our violent crime numbers?

Donald Trump started his speech with some stark claims about crime in the United States:

Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America’s fifty largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years.

The 17 percent claim appears to come from a Washington Post analysis that was published earlier this year. The Post looked at preliminary crime data from 50 of the largest American cities and found that murders increased by about 17 percent in 2015. So yes, it does appear that there is an increase in homicides and there may even be an uptick in violent crime–we’ll know for sure when the FBI releases its formal statistics this fall. But it’s also important to keep this development in context.

Even with a few years of a crime spike, America is much safer than it was a two decades ago. In fact, the violent crime rate has dropped precipitously over the last 25 years. As the chart below shows, the violent crime rate has dropped by about 43 percent between 1995 and 2014. While we don’t have more recent data, it is particularly unlikely that we have reversed many of those gains within the last year and a half. We may be experiencing a spike in violent crime right now, but we currently have no indication that it will lead to a multiyear trend of increasing crime rates.

The chart below shows how violent crime has dropped over the past several decades. Note that the Y-Axis does not start at zero, rather it starts at 300 to better illustrate the relationship between each point.

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report

Trump specifically spoke about murder rates, which have also fallen in a similar fashion. In 1995 there were 8.2 murders per 100,000 people. In 2014 the rate was 4.5. The uptick identified by the Washington Post is certainly troubling, but that too must be taken in context. Trump accurately characterized the 17 percent spike as the largest change in the past 25 years. But as the Post points out, last year’s homicide rate remains below where it was in 2008 and not every city saw an increase. Of the largest 50 cities, 36 saw an increase in murders while 14 experienced a decrease or no change.

What about Chicago?

Trump went on to note that the number of shootings in Chicago is particularly high this year:

In the President’s hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims of shootings this year alone. And more than 3,600 have been killed in the Chicago area since he took office.

This statistic also appears to be true. According to the Chicago Tribune’s count, there have been 2,224 shooting victims between the beginning of the year and July 22. Last year there was 2,988 shootings in total, meaning that this year will likely surpass that final count.

There does appear to be a real problem with gun violence and homicides in many American cities. We do not have enough data to say whether this is a durable trend or just an uptick, but even accounting for an increase, violence remains near historic lows. We also don’t know what is responsible for the recent developments, as many competing theories have been thrown around. It is a complex and multifaceted problem that many local police departments will need to address.

Police in America

Trump also argued that law enforcement deaths are increasing:

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year.

According to the Officer Down Memorial page, which tracks police deaths as they happen, there have been 68 police officers killed in the line of duty so far this year, a 1 percent decrease. The National Law Enforcement Memorials Fund also keeps an independent count of officer deaths. According to the NLEMF’s data, there were 63 officer deaths at this point last year and there are 67 this year–a 6 percent increase. Both of those total counts include accidental deaths, but they also note that firearm-related deaths are up in 2016. A large part of that increase came in two recent high-profile attacks on police in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

After the Dallas attack, we noted that the resulting five officers deaths amounted to about 10 percent of the previous year’s total. According to preliminary numbers from the FBI, which specifically tracks felonious deaths, there were 42 officers killed in 2015. While the next round of FBI statistics on officer deaths and assaults in the line of duty will be particularly useful to inform these debates, the general trend has been going downward. For more, you can read our article titled, “What We Know About Officer Deaths in the Line of Duty”

Donald Trump went on to make several additional claims in his speech that have since been rigorously fact-checked. While Trump’s crime-related claims are directionally accurate, it is important to look at the surrounding context. Much of Trump’s speech seemed to hinge on whether or not the rule of law is breaking down in the United States. He argues that it has and that is why he is campaigning as the law and order candidate. However, despite a recent spike in murders and possibly violent crime, those rates remain near modern lows. Similarly, the number of police officers killed and assaulted has been declining over the past several years. While some of that progress may have been reversed temporarily, it’s important to ask whether that represents a durable trend or if it is simply a temporary uptick.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Is the World as Scary as Donald Trump Says it is? appeared first on Law Street.

The scene at the border of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick neighborhoods Tuesday afternoon looked like something out of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” Dozens of people  were slumped over in the streets, while some were staggering and bracing themselves against buildings–unable to stand up straight. The bizarre behavior was the result of a mass overdose on K2, also known as synthetic marijuana or spice, at the corner of Broadway and Myrtle–the epicenter of the drug’s epidemic was dubbed “Zombieland” by residents and cops.

33 people hospitalized after calls about mass K2 overdose in Brooklyn: NYPD https://t.co/BUxMuVKOU5 via @NBCNewYork pic.twitter.com/psIO3zHPC3

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 13, 2016

According to the New York Times, a spokesman for the Fire Department said eight people were taken from the Stockton Street area to Woodhull Medical Center suffering from “altered mental states,” lethargy and respiratory issues around 9:40 AM. Others were found in the surrounding area.

UPDATE: 33 people overdose on K2 in BedStuy Tues.; many seen collapsed on sidewalk https://t.co/MwNfe3PA8T pic.twitter.com/LiehXm5Kib

— Aidan Gardiner (@AidanGardiner) July 13, 2016

After the initial call, more and more people began to surface in the intersection exhibiting erratic behavior. Some were confrontational, fighting police, while others appeared to be paralyzed by the drug’s effects.

Brian Arthur, 38, streamed the scene live on Facebook. Warning, the video contains some vulgar language.

K2 has quickly grown in popularity because not only is it addictive and offers a high similar to marijuana, but it’s cheap–costing as little as $1 a joint. But it isn’t a new drug.

Spice consumption was popular first in the U.K. in 2004, and then later became prevalent in the U.S. in 2008. It can be extremely dangerous because it  is technically made of synthetic cannabinoids, or chemicals designed to mimic the effect of THC on the brain, and users can never be certain which chemicals they are actually getting in any given dose.

Smoking the drug can lead to slew of adverse side effects, which include: kidney failure, arrested heart rate, high blood pressure, loss of consciousness, violent behavior, nausea, vomiting, tremors, seizures, hallucinations, paranoia, agitation, anxiety, and even death, according to the state Department of Health.

New York, like many other cities, has banned the manufacture and sale of K2, but authorities have failed to crack a dent in the growing epidemic. Many convenience stores and bodegas have been caught selling the drug, but lackluster punishments have had a minimal effect on stopping the practice. Individual clerks caught selling face only a fine of up to $500 and 15 days in jail.

New York’s mass overdose Tuesday cast a necessary spotlight on K2–which has been linked to recent surges in hospitalizations and calls to poison control centers–but it’s clear NYC authorities are struggling to clean up the drug hotspot.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Mass K2 Overdose in Bed-Stuy Dubbed A Zombie Apocalypse appeared first on Law Street.

If you are currently living in or visiting Phoenix, Arizona, stay vigilant: there may be a serial killer on the loose. Local authorities announced this week that they believe that seven recent killings in the city are all connected–the work of a man who many are calling “the serial street shooter.”

The series of shootings in the Phoenix area began in mid-March when a 16-year-old boy who was shot, but not killed, while walking on the street late at night. The very next night, March 18, a 21-year-old man was also shot and wounded. The crimes escalated into killings from there, with two people shot and killed in April, then two in early June. The final three killings happened on June 12 in front of the victims’ home. The victims were all pictured in an NBC tweet this morning.

After 7 murders, apparent nighttime serial killer has Phoenix on edge. https://t.co/9rDvi8lkHX pic.twitter.com/I4hRWfM5uC

— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) July 14, 2016

The shootings have taken place in the Maryvale area of Phoenix, known for being a low-income neighborhood. A map was released depicting the locations of the eight shootings.

Though there is a locational connection, the police have not released any other links between victims or the shooter.

Police have only recently deemed these slayings part of a larger plan. Up until this week, there was no publicized connection between the eight shootings. This week, the police labeled the shooter a serial killer, killing these people for no apparent reason. Now, a sketch artist’s depiction of the man based off of eye witness testimony has been released to the public.

Possible serial killer behind 7 murders in Phoenix, police say. @Miguelnbc reports now #NBCNightlyNews pic.twitter.com/U07iNLOizD

— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) July 13, 2016

Additional information about the suspect indicates that he is most likely a light skinned Latino or white male in his 20s.

This shocking update to the recent shootings has people all over Phoenix on edge. Members of the community are scared to go out at night. The families of the victims are afraid to reveal their identities. One of the victims’ sister was quoted in an interview with a  Phoenix news station, saying:

It’s unbelievable that there is this monster that has done so much harm, that nobody is coming forward. All of these people were so good. Good people with good families. And now they are gone in the blink of an eye because of a monster.

Not just asking for the public to report any suspicious vehicle or persons. But [it] want[s] them to report any unfamiliar vehicle or person that comes into their neighborhood.

Alexandra Simone

Alex Simone is an Editorial Senior Fellow at Law Street and a student at The George Washington University, studying Political Science. She is passionate about law and government, but also enjoys the finer things in life like watching crime dramas and enjoying a nice DC brunch. Contact Alex at ASimone@LawStreetmedia.com

The post Is There a Serial Killer on the Loose in Phoenix? appeared first on Law Street.

As high-profile police shootings continue to hold the nation’s attention, a new study on the extent of racial bias in police officers’ use of force is making some big waves. In fact, this research comes to a particularly surprising conclusion: the police are actually less likely to shoot black civilians. But there are some important details to work through before we jump to any conclusions.

The study, conducted by renowned Harvard economist Roland Fryer, did identify some significant bias in the way police officers use force. This is a bias that exists at nearly all levels–like putting hands on a civilian, pushing a person up against a wall, using handcuffs on someone without arresting them, and even using pepper spray or a baton–but when it comes to lethal force, the most severe of all, police may actually be slightly less likely to kill black civilians.

But before we jump to conclusions or even accept that conclusion on its face, it’s important to sort through a large number of methodological nuance to understand what we can take away from this research. Fair warning, if you came here looking for a clear-cut conclusion, you’ll have to read the rest of this article to get the full picture.

Some Background

First, it’s important to point out that Roland Fryer’s study involved a significant undertaking by a team of researchers. And Fryer himself certainly wasn’t expecting the final conclusion. “It is the most surprising result of my career,” Fryer told the New York Times. The research is also still a working paper, which means that it hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed and published in a formal journal. It was put out by the National Bureau of Economic Research for experts in the field to look at and discuss its findings prior to a more formal release.

The debate about police shootings is one that has notoriously had a lack of hard data to discuss. We simply don’t have good statistics on the number and characteristics of incidents when police officers used lethal force. Independent counts have started to fill this gap–of note are the Washington Post’s database of police shootings and the Guardian’s “The Counted” project–but there is little national data with the depth necessary to identify bias. With this research, Fryer and his team provide some important analysis to a discussion that has few statistics to draw from.

A look at the methods

So let’s take a closer look at the data and how it was used. To measure racial bias when it comes to all levels of force the researchers looked at statistics provided by several police departments, notably New York City’s “stop, question and frisk” program, as well as nationally representative survey data that measures interactions with the police. To look at the use of lethal force–officer-involved shootings–the researchers had to assemble their own dataset from 10 police departments in three states. The researchers managed to get a particularly interesting dataset from the Houston police department, which provided a large number of reports on interactions between police and civilians.

Of that Houston dataset, the researchers took a random sample of files with “arrests codes in which lethal force is more likely to be justified: attempted capital murder of a public safety officer, aggravated assault on a public safety officer, resisting arrest, evading arrest, and interfering in arrest.” However, this data was unique to the Houston police department. The other police departments could only give details for instances when lethal force was used, but we would need data about when officers decided not to use force in order to properly identify the effects of bias.

The conclusions and what they mean

First, it’s important to note that the researchers only look at actual interactions between officers and civilians. This means that the study does not engage with one important racial bias in policing–that officers are more likely to stop and interact with black civilians than white civilians.

That caveat aside, when it comes to the lethal use of force, here’s how Fryer summarizes his findings:

Using data from Houston, Texas–where we have both officer-involved shootings and a randomly chosen set of potential interactions with police where lethal force may have been justified–we find, in the raw data, that blacks are 23.8 percent less likely to be shot at by police relative to whites.

The researchers used the raw data referenced in the quote and then controlled for a range of factors–civilian behavior, possession of a weapon, the situational context, and much more–but still found no presence of bias in the use of lethal force by the Houston police department.

Importantly, this is only based on the Houston data, so while we may be able to conclude that officer-involved shootings in Houston are not subject to racial bias, we cannot really take that to mean that the same holds true nationally or for any other police department. Even then, this conclusion rests on the researchers’ ability to control for several important variables like behavior and context.

It is also important to note that this data came from police officer summaries of their interactions with civilians. While we cannot cast doubt on an entire police department, there have been several cases where the story provided by police officers has been refuted with video evidence.

Police officers’ bias in nonlethal force

Looking beyond lethal force, Fryer and his team found persistent racial bias at all other levels of force. Using the New York City Police Department’s data on its stop and frisk program between 2003 and 2013, the researchers found a notable relationship between race and the use of force. After controlling for as many variables as possible, the researchers note that black civilians are 17 percent more likely to be subject to the use of force than white civilians. For Hispanics, the rate was 12 percent higher than for white people.

Interestingly, this pattern largely remained consistent at a range of different levels. The lowest level of force measured–officers laying their hands on a subject–occurred much more frequently than the highest–using pepper spray or a baton. But the rate at which minority civilians incur the use of force largely remained consistent at all levels short of lethal force. As Fryer puts it, “The use of high levels of force in these data are rare. Yet, it is consistently rarer for whites relative to blacks.” What’s particularly interesting about this is that the researchers managed to find bias in data collected and provided by the NYPD itself.

The researchers also looked at a nationally representative survey to identify the extent to which racial bias exists in these interactions. Using data from the Police-Public Contact Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, they found even larger differences in the use of force by race. While the researchers note that the rate at which officers used force was considerably lower in the survey data–about 15 percent of white civilians experienced the use of force in the stop and frisk data while only 1 percent reported experiencing force in the survey data–a pattern of bias remains for different racial groups. They conclude:

Differences in quantitative magnitudes aside, the PPCS paints a similar portrait–large racial differences in police use of force that cannot be explained using a large and varied set of controls.

After looking over his research, Fryer argues that police may act according to perceived costs. He suggests that there may not be racial bias in the use of lethal force because doing so is particularly costly–there is often internal reviews and the decision to shoot someone can have profound life consequences for the police officer as well as the victim. However, the same costs may not exist when using nonlethal force. Fryer argues that if we wish to reduce racial bias for lower levels of force, we should increase the costs associated with using them. Put simply, if we want to reduce this bias, police need to feel that they will be held accountable for unnecessarily using force.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post When Does Racial Bias Affect Police Officers’ Use of Force? appeared first on Law Street.

It has been a long, bloody week in America. Following the killing of two black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier this week, protests sprung up across the country. In Dallas on Thursday night, a peaceful protest turned violent when shots rang out at about 8:45 pm. As a fuller picture of what happened develops over the coming days, read on for details on what we know, what we don’t know, and how Thursday’s tragic episode fits into a larger historical perspective.

What Happened

Five police officers were killed, and seven others were wounded. Two civilians were shot as well. As the Dallas police conduct their investigation, information surrounding the shooting is slowly trickling in. Reports indicate one of the shooters was killed in a parking garage in an overnight standoff with SWAT forces after negotiations failed. He has been identified as Micah Johnson, 25, and a resident of Dallas. The Dallas police chief told reporters on Friday that Johnson, during the standoff in the parking garage, said he was upset about recent events in Louisiana and Minnesota, and he “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”

The police detonated an explosive device that was connected to a robot, enabling them to kill Johnson while preserving their own safety. He said he acted alone, not on behalf of any group. But it is unclear if he had any assistance from any of the other suspects at this time. He also told officers that there were explosive devices he planted in the area. Officers are conducting explosive sweeps of the Dallas area.

According to a statement by the Dallas Police Department, the gunfire was delivered from an “elevated position.” Aside from the suspect that was killed by the explosive device, police have three other suspects in custody. In the hours after the chaos on Thursday night, police mistakenly identified a man in a camouflage shirt as a suspect. After hearing he was wrongly suspected, Mark Hughes turned himself in to clear up any confusion before the situation escalated.

What We Don’t Know

Many pieces to the puzzle of what happened Thursday night in Dallas are still missing. Five officers have been killed as of Friday morning, but that figure could rise as the seven who were wounded undergo treatment. It is also unclear how many shooters were involved in the attack–aside from one man who was killed overnight in a standoff with a SWAT team–or if they were coordinated or premeditated. Follow Law Street’s Twitter account to keep up to date with the story as it develops.

A Tense Time for Police and Communities of Color

This attack comes during a period in which the relationship between the police and African American communities is particularly strained. On Tuesday, Alton Sterling was shot and killed at close range by police officers in the process of arresting him. The incident was captured on video and sparked protests nationwide. Then on Wednesday, a police officer in Minnesota shot and killed Philando Castile at a traffic stop. Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend who was in the car with him, says that Castile told the officer he had a licensed firearm but was shot while he was reaching for his wallet. Reynolds started live-streaming the immediate aftermath of the shooting on Facebook, prompting even greater outrage.

The Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas on Thursday was a response to these deaths and a continuation of recent efforts to address police violence in minority communities. So far, all accounts suggest that the rally was peaceful before the shooting broke out.

The Dallas Police Department’s Twitter account chronicled the protests as it moved through the downtown area:

Men, women, boys & girls gathered @ Belo Garden Park for the demonstration re: recent police involved shootings. pic.twitter.com/gah2Q3tqG6

— Dallas Police Depart (@DallasPD) July 8, 2016

At a press conference after the shooting, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings mourned the loss of the officers and highlighted the police department’s recent efforts to improve relations with the community. He said, “This police department trained in de-escalation far before cities across America did it. We are one of the premier community policing cities in the country and this year we have the fewest police officer related shootings than any large city in America.” He also noted that so far there was no indication that the violence was related to the protesters.

The Deadliest Incident in Over a Decade

The shooting in Dallas marks the deadliest incident for police officers since the attacks on September 11, 2001. According to preliminary statistics released by the FBI, there were 42 felonious officer deaths in 2015. Last night’s incident alone amounts to more than 10 percent of last year’s total.

The Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks police officer deaths throughout the year, recorded 21 deaths from gunfire in 2016 prior to the killings in Dallas. Over the past 10 years, the number of felonious police officer deaths has generally trended downward.

Available evidence does not suggest that violence against the police has increased in recent years as police officers face heightened scrutiny. While the number of felonious deaths tends to fluctuate from year to year, the best way to measure violence against the police is with the FBI’s assaults in the line of duty statistics. The FBI plans to release data for the 2015 calendar year later this fall.

Read More: What We Know About Officer Deaths in the Line of Duty

Read More: Law Street Media’s Police in America 2016 coverage

Kevin Rizzo also contributed to this article.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Nightmare in Dallas: What You Need to Know appeared first on Law Street.

It happened again–a cellphone video circulating on social media shows police shooting a black man at close range, only hours after Independence Day celebrations ebbed. Early Tuesday morning Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed when pinned to the ground by two police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

According to reports from Louisiana police an anonymous person called 911 and said that a man selling CDs outside the grocery store had threatened him with a gun. Police arrived at the scene, tasered Sterling and wrestled him to the ground.

The cellphone video shows how seconds later someone says, “He’s got a gun.” This led the officers to shoot Sterling even though he was already lying on the ground. It was later confirmed he was shot multiple times in the chest and the back, sparking outrage on social media and protests in Baton Rouge.

This is the video.

Executed in cold blood https://t.co/BWJVRQr1qU #AltonSterling

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 6, 2016

A Man, a Father, a Husband, a Black Man, an American, shot while laying on his back. Tell me why Again? Heaven Help us All #AltonSterling

— LeVelle Moton (@LeVelleMoton) July 6, 2016

According to local media, residents who took to the streets accepted the fact that the same civil unrest and race-focused protests that have grown in other cities have now arrived in Baton Rouge. In Baton Rouge the African-American population is divided from the white, in many cases living in separate neighborhoods and under the poverty line.

Even though protesters stopped traffic and no police officers were in sight, the protests were largely non-violent and controlled.

The #AltonSterling aftermath pic.twitter.com/PPvSuiEtaz

— Avi (@RecklessAvi_) July 6, 2016

Alton Sterling was a father of three and sold his CDs in front of the convenience store. The owner Abdullah Muflahi told CNN that they had known each other for six years and that he never saw any argument between Sterling and someone else. He also never saw the gun-waving incident that allegedly was called in to 911.

“Pretty much everybody who knows him knows he’s a sweet person,” Sterling’s sister, Mignon Chambers, said to WVLA-TV.

Sterling’s family spoke at a press conference about the shooting:

This must stop. Enough!RT @CNN: "I want my daddy": #AltonSterling’s 15-year-old son in tears https://t.co/6PcxaxmfXC https://t.co/pP1CgsU3Mq

— Kristin Diable (@kristindiable) July 6, 2016

The shooting comes a little more than a week after the actor Jesse Williams gave a speech at the BET Awards on racism, and urged listeners to not accept police brutality. According to CNN, the police officers involved in Sterling’s death are now on administrative leave.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Police Shooting of Alton Sterling Sparks Protests in Baton Rouge appeared first on Law Street.

Police officers in Idaho are hereby banned from talking to the media on weekends. The new policy from the Police Department in Lewiston, Idaho became official earlier this week in order redistribute resources during understaffed weekends. Journalists seeking weekend updates must now be present at an actual crime scene, even if it’s only to get a quick brief.

Lewiston’s City Councilman Jesse Maldonado disapproves of the new rule and called it “disquieting.” He told the Idaho Statesman, “City residents reading the newspaper, their interest doesn’t stop on Friday. That’s just not how it works.”

Newspaper readers aren’t the only ones affected by Idaho police suspending communications during weekends. The decision also hinders transparency between the police and the public, preventing them from interacting openly with the community. In the midst of recent discussions about police misconduct and violence, it would probably be in the police department’s own interest to show openness towards the media.

As Law Street reported previously, the number of prosecutions of police officers involved in civilian shootings is higher than it’s been in a decade. It’s possible that these numbers have grown in part due to growing media attention on the issue. Therefore, the media could play an important role in bringing cases of misconduct into the limelight.

According to the Idaho Statesman, surrounding towns have very open and transparent relationship with the media. One sheriff claimed that he bas given his cell phone number to reporters and another officer claimed he allows reporters to have access to call logs and personnel during regular business hours.

“As an agency we have a good, efficient, working relationship with the media and we keep those channels of communication open,” said Joel Hasting, Police Chief in Clarkston, Washington. “It’s about the police department being part of the community and not segregated.”

Progress is being made to make police departments more transparent, with more and more officers wearing body cameras and being indicted for use of excessive force. Prohibiting police officers from talking to the media seems like a step backwards. However, the mayor of Idaho pointed out that they can change the new policy at any time if it ends up hindering public information. Hopefully he will keep an eye out for that.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Idaho City Bans Police From Talking to Media on Weekends appeared first on Law Street.

As police violence has garnered much of the public’s attention, some believe that increased scrutiny of law enforcement has led to a “war on police.” The best way to understand the extent of the violence police face and how it has changed over time is to look at the FBI’s statistics on officer assaults in the line of duty.

In the map below, darker red states have a higher rate of assaults per 100 employed officers. The second chart details the number of employed officers based on the population that they cover. In total, there were 48,315 assaults in the line of duty in 2014. For the United States as a whole, there were nine assaults per 100 law enforcement officers that year.

In the second map, darker blue states mean there is a higher number of officers per 100,000 people. The FBI’s data includes statistics from 11,150 law enforcement agencies that employ more than 536,000 officers. The agencies included in the report cover more than 75 percent of the U.S. population. All data is from the 2014 calendar year.

Read More: What We Know About Officer Deaths in the Line of Duty

*Use landscape mode if viewing on mobile*

The Rockford, Illinois and Maui, Hawaii police departments are the only agencies in their states with available data. You can view both police departments’ statistics here.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Police in America 2016: State-by-State Breakdown of Officer Assaults in the Line of Duty appeared first on Law Street.

The FBI recently released a snapshot of law enforcement officer deaths in 2015, indicating that such deaths decreased last year. But that is only a small subset of the available information on officer deaths. Now that policing has reached the center of the public’s attention, statistics about what happens to officers while they’re on duty are sure to be an important part of the debate.

Interactive Map: Officer Assaults and Employment by State

The FBI publishes an annual report on Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty (LEOKA), which can provide some interesting insights into the matter and inform debates about police deaths. The annual LEOKA publication is one of the most detailed data sets kept by the FBI. For obvious reasons, it’s important for the FBI and all law enforcement agencies to keep track of and understand the situations in which police officers are killed and assaulted.

Here’s what the FBI data tells us:

More Officers Die from Accidents than Felonies

Source: FBI LEOKA 2014     |     Includes Preliminary 2015 Data

The chart above details the number of officer deaths from both accidents and felonies between 2005 and 2015. The average number of felonious deaths during that 11 year period is about 50, while the average number of accidental deaths is just below 60. Last year saw particularly low numbers for both felonious and accidental deaths, with 41 and 45 respectively.

The data can also tell us a lot about the causes of these deaths. Nearly 60 percent of accidental deaths that occurred between 2005 and 2014 were the result of automobile accidents. If you broaden the category to include motorcycle and aircraft accidents they account for more than 70 percent in total.

The chart below details the trends over time:

Source: FBI, LEOKA and *Preliminary 2015 Data

There has been a slight downward trend in both felonious and accidental police officer deaths. The preliminary numbers for 2015 are also encouraging, as the number of accidental deaths tied its 10-year low with 45, and the number of felonious deaths matched the second lowest point in the same period at 41. Law enforcement deaths in the line of duty is certainly an important thing to track, but when it comes to assessing the threat that officers face every day, looking at assault statistics can be particularly informative.

 What We Know About the Offenders

Source: FBI, LEOKA – Table 47

The FBI keeps detailed information on both victims and offenders, allowing felonious offenders to be broken down by race, sex, and several other categories. Between 2005 and 2014, there was a total of 563 offenders involved in felonious officer deaths. When you break those numbers down by race, 309, or 55 percent of the known offenders are white and 224, or 40 percent are black. Asian/Pacific islanders, Native Americans, and offenders whose race was not reported account for less than 2 percent each.

Offenders are also overwhelmingly male–nearly 97 percent of known offenders are men. The vast majority–83 percent–have also had prior criminal arrests and just over one-quarter of all offenders were under some form of judicial supervision.

Assaults and Injuries have Been Decreasing

Source: FBI, LEOKA – Table 76

Assaults on police officers have generally trended downward over the past 10 years. After peaking at 61,257 in 2007, the total number of assaults has decreased to 48,315 in 2014, a decrease of more than 20 percent. The chart above also details the number of officers who sustained injuries from an assault. All injury numbers are estimates–based on percentages provided by the FBI–with the exception of 2014, which is the exact number recorded by the FBI.

The number of assaults that caused injuries also followed a downward trend, with approximately 16,866 in 2007 and 13,654 in 2014. Although the number of injuries has not dropped as quickly as the total number of assaults, this is certainly an encouraging sign for police officers.

Moving Forward

The 2015 assault and injury statistics, which will be released later this year, will be particularly interesting in light of recent discussion of the so-called “Ferguson effect,” in which some argue that the perceived threat to law enforcement officers has caused proactive policing to decline and crime rates to go up. These numbers will also help inform the debate on the alleged “war on police,” a related argument in which some claim that officers are being attacked more as protests and movements like Black Lives Matter have called more attention to issues surrounding police violence.

Based on the preliminary numbers for felonious deaths, that does not appear to be the case. But we do not yet know whether increased scrutiny is correlated with an increase in assaults. As the chart above indicates, the number of assaults has gone down steadily over the past several years, but in time, we’ll know if 2015 is an exception.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Law Street Media’s Police in America coverage takes a look at statistics on law enforcement officers in the U.S. As the conversations around police policies, use of force, and police deaths feature prominently in public discourse, Law Street strives to provide the most up-to-date facts, numbers, and coverage of Police in America.

Officer Deaths by the Numbers

What We Know About Officer Deaths in the Line of Duty

State-by-State Breakdown of Officer Assaults in the Line of Duty

Latest News:

Preliminary Data Shows Drop in Police Officer Deaths

When Does Racial Bias Affect Police Officers’ Use of Force?

To read more about crime rates in U.S. cities, states, and metropolitan areas, check out Law Street’s Crime in America coverage.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Police in America 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

Mass shootings in the United States generate intense media, public, and political attention, often leading to strong policy responses as well. But according to a recent working paper, those responses aren’t exactly what you might expect. Professors at Harvard Business School researched the aftermath of mass shootings and found that while these events did often lead to a significant increase in gun legislation, those efforts actually tend to make guns more available to the public. Here’s what you need to know about the new research:

The Main Takeaways

While most attempts to study gun legislation focus on the efforts’ effects on the sale and use of guns, these researchers sought to understand what prompts changes in gun laws. Professors Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra, and Christopher Poliquin highlight three primary findings from their research:

• Mass shootings are salient public events that lead to strong policy responses from state legislatures.
• Despite the relatively small number of people who die from mass shootings–by their measure, fewer than 100 people die each year due to public mass shootings while approximately 30,000 people die from gun violence each year–such events have a disproportionate effect on gun legislation.
• They find, surprisingly, that mass shootings lead to a loosening of state gun laws. This is largely because both parties respond to gun violence in different ways and legislatures controlled by Republicans are more likely to enact new gun laws after a mass shooting.

The researchers find that a single mass shooting corresponds with a 15 percent increase in gun legislation introduced the following year. They note in the paper, “A single mass shooting leads to an approximately 15 percent increase in the number of firearm bills introduced within a state in the year after a mass shooting.” That increase is particularly significant in the context of gun-related deaths. Under their measure of mass shootings, these incidents lead to about 0.3 percent of all gun deaths but prompt a significant amount of legislation.

While it may not be surprising that high-profile events lead to political responses, the extent of that response may be. According to the researchers:

Our estimates suggest that the per-death impact of mass shootings on bills introduced is about 66 times as large as the impact of gun homicides in non-mass shooting incidents.

Policy Responses

Another important takeaway is that these events tend to spark strong responses from policymakers, but the content of those responses–whether they are proposals to strengthen or loosen gun control laws–largely depends on the party in control of the state legislature. They find that in Republican-controlled legislatures, mass shootings lead to a 75 percent increase in laws that loosen gun restrictions. On the other hand, they found no statistically significant effect on enacted laws when Democrats control the legislature.

In their research, the authors looked at several reports and databases of mass shootings in combination with the LexisNexis bill tracking service in order to determine the legislative response to mass shootings. After identifying bills proposed in response to mass shootings, they coded each bill in terms of whether they tightened or loosened gun laws. To isolate incidents that are generally considered mass shootings, they only looked at shootings that are public events, with three or more deaths, and where the victims are not related to the shooter. They also controlled for a wide range of variables to try and find a causal connection between these shootings and enacted laws.

Looking at state government responses to these events provides some important, and often overlooked, insight into how mass shootings shape gun policy. We might assume that when tragic events like these occur and generate a large amount of attention, policymakers would respond with laws that restrict gun sales. While that does happen, when you look at bills that make it all the way into law, they tend to have the opposite effect.

Party Control Matters

Because Republicans generally do not believe that stronger gun control will reduce mass shootings, they instead respond to these events with laws that correspond to their underlying ideological views. When looking at laws that were actually enacted, the evidence suggests that Republicans are more likely to put their policy preferences into effect. While the researchers do not attempt to explain why in their paper, they find that Democrat-controlled legislatures do not lead to a significant increase in enacted laws that restrict gun sales.

Gun control is one of the most polarizing issues in American politics, with Republicans and Democrats strongly split on the appropriate level of restrictions for gun buyers. This split explains, in part, why politics largely determines the response to these events. Put simply, these events tend to drive policymakers to push for laws that their existing political beliefs support; and Republican-controlled legislatures are considerably more likely to put those laws into effect.

One of the primary problems here–and an important driver of political polarization between the two parties–is a lack of consensus on effective policies to prevent gun violence. Democrats believe that additional restrictions and safeguards to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands are necessary. Meanwhile, Republicans are skeptical of the effectiveness of these efforts and argue that people should be entitled to protect themselves from danger. As a result, policymakers respond to mass shootings based on what they already hold to be true and not necessarily with evidenced-based proposals to reduce gun violence.

What’s Next?

This research also highlights some important questions for policymaking going forward. In the paper, the authors write:

We find that even random and infrequent events that account for a relatively small portion of total societal harm in a domain might nonetheless be crucial levers for policy consideration and change.

Although they find that the responses to mass shootings are largely based on existing ideology, it’s worth questioning whether events–which account for about 0.3 percent of all gun deaths–should have such an outsized influence.

The important takeaway from all of this isn’t necessarily that public mass shootings lead to looser gun laws, but why exactly that happens. In the United States, American citizens and their elected officials are far from consensus on what the best response to gun violence should be. While research suggests we should treat gun violence as a public health issue–much like tobacco or automobile accidents–agreement on specific policies can be difficult to come by and the solutions are often more complicated than simply making it harder to buy guns.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Preliminary statistics released by the FBI on Monday show that 41 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in 2015, a 20 percent decrease from the previous year. Although the statistics are preliminary and are subject to revision, these numbers indicate that police officer deaths are near historic lows. This release comes during national police week, which began with a candlelit vigil on May 13.

The preliminary statistics will likely add to the debate about a so-called “war on cops” that some argue is the result of recent police protests. While law enforcement work often involves danger, there is no evidence to suggest that police officer deaths are on the rise. The number of police officer deaths decreased significantly last year and is at the second-lowest level in the past decade.

Take a look at the graphics below to understand these statistics and how they fit into historical trends.

Officer Deaths Over Time

Source: FBI, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2014 and *Preliminary 2015 Release

Both felonious and accidental deaths were relatively low in 2015 compared to previous years. Felonious deaths experienced a 20 percent decrease from the previous year. With 41 felonious deaths, last year matched 2008 with the second lowest number in over a decade. The lowest number in recent history came in 2013 with 27 deaths from felonious incidents in the line of duty.

Accidental deaths did not change between 2014 and 2015, but at 45, that number is at its lowest level for over a decade. A death is considered accidental by the FBI when it was a result of something that was not willful or intentional.

Regional Breakdown

Source: FBI

The chart above details the distribution of felonious police officer deaths from the FBI’s preliminary data. The South saw the most with 46 percent of the total deaths, followed by the West with 22 percent, the Midwest with 12 percent, and Northeast and Puerto Rico with just under 10 percent each.

While the statistics released on Monday do not provide details about the number of law enforcement officers and the population covered by each region, it is important to note that historical data indicates that the South has both more people and officers compared to other regions. Based on data from the 2014 report, the last year with complete data available, the South had about 40 percent of all employed police officers and the South has historically had higher numbers of police officer deaths than other regions.

Weapons Involved

Source: FBI

The chart above details the weapons involved in the 41 felonious officer deaths based on the preliminary data for 2015. All but three deaths were due to the use of firearms, with handguns accounting for nearly three-quarters of firearm deaths. The FBI also notes that 30 of the 41 officers were wearing body armor when they were killed.

The vast majority of the 45 accidental deaths involved automobiles; 29 were due to automotive accidents, seven were struck by vehicles, and four were fatally injured in motorcycle accidents.

A Look at 2016

While the FBI does not have any information available for 2016, and likely won’t until it releases preliminary data this time next year, there are independent counts of law enforcement fatalities with more updated information. The Officer Down Memorial Page, which has tracked this data for a long period of time, has found 17 fatal shootings and one intentional death using a vehicle as a weapon so far this year. As the Guardian points out, if this rate continues for the rest of the year there would be 48 officer deaths–an increase from 2015 and the same number as 2014, based on the website’s count.

The final data, which will have expanded details and information on assaults that resulted in injury in 2015, will be released by the FBI in the fall with its annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed in Assaulted report.

For more Law Street Media Crime Coverage, Check Out Crime in America 2016

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Pfizer’s announcement on Friday that it will enforce the distribution restriction of its drugs that are used in lethal cocktails makes it the last FDA-approved pharmaceutical company to do so. Which means states that still carry out executions are forced to go underground to find drugs, or go back to very outdated options.

Pfizer stated:

Pfizer makes its products solely to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve. We strongly object to the use of any of our products in the lethal injection process for capital punishment.

We are committed to ensuring that our products remain available and accessible to the medical professionals and patients who rely upon them every day. We have implemented a comprehensive strategy and enhanced restricted distribution protocols for a select group of products to help combat their unauthorized use for capital punishment.

Pfizer is the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world, and its stance on the issue is important. However, it’s hard to know exactly how big of an impact it will have on the actual business of executions because of the secrecy surrounding the process. There are 32 states still using death penalty, and of those, a majority are not open about their drug sources because of fear of  violent actions from execution opponents.

As Law Street has reported earlier, the lethal injection crisis has been going on for a few years. This is due to drug manufacturers’ refusal to provide drugs for this purpose, and export restrictions from European nations, where capital punishment is no longer in use. This has led to the use of drugs that could cause unnecessary suffering, or drugs from compounding pharmacies, resulting in some drawn-out and seemingly painful deaths. To not have to break the law to carry out executions, some states have actually turned to old-fashioned options such as the firing squad, electric chairs, or even gas chamber as possible solutions. Others have just delayed executions again and again, waiting to find the right drugs.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Andy Warhol’s soup cans are one of the most iconic images of American pop art–and last week, someone decided to take them for a walk. The Springfield Art Museum of Springfield, Missouri reported a burglary last week that involved several prints made by Warhol in 1968. The FBI has announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the thieves–which seems excessive until you consider that a single one of Warhol’s soup can prints sold for $30,660 last year at Christie’s. The reward also pales in comparison to the $5 million reward offered for information regarding the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum robbery–during which multiple pieces by Renoir and Vermeer were stolen. Yet it is still a massive sum that will hopefully tempt informants to come forward.

The FBI has a specially designated Art Crime Team brought in to handle matters involving stolen artwork but unless the prints are found relatively quickly, they may be transferred into the collection of a private buyer via the black market and never seen again. The FBI operates a National Stolen Art File, which provides a comprehensive index of art that has been stolen worldwide, but with a piece as recognizable as Warhol’s soup cans, putting it in the index is not even necessary. The print could never go to auction in a traditional showroom, which means tracking it will be an infinitely difficult task. Law enforcement will be forced to rely heavily on anonymous tips and confidential informants, which is why they have drawn attention to their tip line with a cash incentive.

However, that incentive may not seem justified from all quarters. Why is the FBI designating such a massive cash prize to the Warhol paintings when it could donate the same prize to informants who call in regarding violent actions or organized crime? Why is the FBI designating that money to prizes at all when it could be using it to finance operations and hire the best possible analysts (instead of potentially losing them to the private sector)? The Art Crime Team would respond that stealing art can be equated with stealing history, taking away the identity and history of a given people. This argument holds up when considering the team’s successful recovery of artifacts stolen from archaeological sites and public museums, but when examining private collections, we come to gray area. Should the government be tasked with providing a reward for the theft of a privately owned painting or should that responsibility fall to the owner, who has the ability to insure the painting?

On its website, the Art Crime Team has listed several of its successes, including the case of “approximately 100 paintings stolen from a Florida family’s art collection in a fine art storage facility. This collection included works by Picasso, Rothko, Matisse and others that were recovered from Chicago, New York and Tokyo.” Stealing a painting from a venue like the Springfield Art Museum does impact the community’s ability to access and enjoy art but if it was stolen from a private collection, the public would have just as little access to the artwork after the theft as they did before. The reward offered in the case of the Warhol prints may turn up valuable information, but it could also be a waste of government funds that will do virtually nothing to return the prints. 

Jillian Sequeira

Jillian Sequeira was a member of the College of William and Mary Class of 2016, with a double major in Government and Italian. When she’s not blogging, she’s photographing graffiti around the world and worshiping at the altar of Elon Musk and all things Tesla. Contact Jillian at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com

The post Should the FBI Offer Reward Money for Stolen Art? appeared first on Law Street.

Law Street’s annual Crime in America Rankings take an in-depth look at crime rates and important crime statistics for major cities across the country. The following infographic gives a visual summary of the report’s highlights and major findings:

Image copyright Law Street Media

Using statistics from the FBI, Law Street ranked cities, states, and metro areas according to their violent crime rates. Topping the list of most dangerous cities with populations over 200,000 is Detroit, Michigan with 1,989 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. The Memphis-TN metro area is the most dangerous metro and Alaska is the most dangerous state based on their violent crime rates per 100,000 people. The city with the lowest crime rate based on Law Street’s criteria is Irvine, California, which continues its streak at the top of the list of safest cities. Maine has the lowest crime rate out of all 50 states.

Read More: Crime in America 2016

One of the more interesting findings of Law Street’s reporting is the wide range in the number of police officers relative to the number of city residents, which Law Street termed the officer to population ratio. Among cities with populations greater than 200,000, Washington, D.C. has the most sworn officers relative to its population size. On the other end of the spectrum is Santa Ana, California, which has just one police officer for every 1,274 residents. When taking a closer look at the rankings, many of the cities with fewer police officers relative to their size are also some of the safest cities in the country while some of the most dangerous cities have notably high ratios.

There are some important exceptions to those trends. For example, Stockton, California has one police officer for every 807 citizens, which is notably higher than other cities on the Most Dangerous Cities list. Stockton ranks in the top 20 in terms of its officer to population ratio but makes the top 10 list of dangerous cities. A likely explanation for this case is the fact that Stockton recently went through bankruptcy, which caused cutbacks in many government offices. This case may be an example of an understaffed and underresourced police department that, among other things, contributes to an above average crime rate.

Law Street’s analysis of the FBI’s half year data for 2015 shows how crime rates changed from January to June compared the year prior. The graph at the bottom of the infographic depicts the changes among the most dangerous cities over 200,000. While Detroit, Michigan experienced a notable decrease in its violent crime rate, St. Louis saw its rate increase by nearly 23 percent in the first half of 2015.

For an even more in-depth look at Law Street’s crime coverage check out Crime in America 2016.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Infographic: Visualizing Crime in America 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

Most of us have experienced having to painfully roll out of bed to make an early work shift after a late night of drinking the night before. It’s always a struggle, but no matter how slow time passes, the shift comes to an end and you can return to bed and nurse your hangover. But this is not the case for every early morning shift. When it comes to arriving to work to co-pilot a commercial airline flight for hundreds of passengers, there are much graver consequences.

Saturday morning, a pilot for an American Airlines flight headed from Detroit to Philadelphia was arrested for failing a breathalyzer test.  A TSA agent was the first person to notice the pilot “acting suspiciously” and minutes before the flight was to take off at 7 AM, the airport police were notified. The Wayne County Airport Authority administered a breathalyzer test, which the pilot failed and resulted in the airport police taking him into custody. The pilot was then “turned over to Romulus police, where he failed another breathalyzer test.”

The Federal Aviation Administration recommends that pilots wait at least 24 hours from their last sip of alcohol before flying. However, the FAA requires that “no person may operate or attempt to operate an aircraft” within eight hours of having consumed alcohol or “with a blood alcohol content of 0.04 percent or greater.” Though this unnamed pilot’s blood alcohol content has not been released, Michael Conway, Director of Public Affairs at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, reported that the pilot’s BAC was over the 0.04 percent limit. Conway further commented that this is an “extremely unusual” situation and said the pilot has been released as authorities determine whether charges will be filed.

Due to this pilot’s irresponsible drinking, the American Airlines flight was cancelled. Despite this airline’s bad reputation with canceling flights without offering accommodations, under these unique circumstances, American Airlines offered other flights for its passengers. Many of the passengers, on their way to enjoy their spring break in Philly, had to postpone or cancel their spring break plans. Though I am sure they were all shocked and disappointed, especially the spring breakers who had to postpone their spring break dreams, this will probably be a story they will never forget.

Ashlyn Marquez

Ashlyn Marquez received her law degree from the American University, Washington College of Law and her Bachelor’s degree from The New School. She works in immigration law and has a passion for worker’s rights, tacos, and avocados. Contact Ashlyn at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Spring Breakers’ Plans Ruined Due to Pilot’s Apparent Drunken State appeared first on Law Street.

Much of the discussion surrounding the size of the U.S. prison population fails to take into account the role of crime rates. Research has found that certain policies lead to harsher punishments for crimes and that these policies can vary between states. A key example is the use of strict sentencing laws and prosecutors’ growing tendency to seek felony charges for crimes, both of which have been used to explain the massive growth in the number of American prisoners over the past several decades.

Underlying all of this is the idea that certain policies are responsible for high rates of imprisonment, meaning that some states are more punitive than others. But we haven’t been able to measure how exactly this varies between states and what is responsible for the change. A new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts attempts to solve this dilemma. Researchers at Pew created a new calculation called the punishment rate, which looks at the connection between crime rates and incarceration levels to determine which states tend to punish criminals more than others based on the frequency and severity of crime.

Read More: The Punishment Rate: A New Way to Look at the U.S. Prison System

The Pew Charitable Trusts study ranks states based on their punishment rates to see which are the most punitive. The researchers found that as incarceration rates rose dramatically between 1983 and 2013, so too did punishment rates but that increase varied widely among  states.

The map below shows the Pew Charitable Trusts’ calculations for the change in punishment rates between 1983 and 2013. Darker red colors indicate a greater positive change.

If reading on mobile, use landscape view for best results or open the map in a new tab.

As the map indicates, Colorado experienced the largest change in its punishment rate between 1983 and 2013, going up 417 percent over the 30-year period. While all states saw their punishment rates increase over this period the increases were more modest in some–in states like North and South Carolina the punishment rate went up by less than 20 percent.

It’s important to note that the punishment rate measure does have its drawbacks, most notably the fact that it can’t account for drug-related imprisonment in its crime rate weighting–meaning that states with strict drug laws but low levels of other crimes are rated as more punitive because such crimes aren’t accounted for in the crime rate statistics. This is because the FBI data used to measure crime rates does not track every crime that can be punished with jail time. The researchers acknowledge this but argue that the measurement still provides insight into the larger trends at play and will hopefully prompt states to take a closer at whether their policies lead to excessive punishment for certain crimes.

While the map above highlights the states that saw the largest changes in their punishment rates, it’s also interesting to look at where each state currently stands. Pew Charitable Trusts ranks each state based on its punishment rate in 2013, the most recent year with the necessary data available. See the chart below for the full rankings by state.

If on reading mobile, use landscape view for best results.

When it comes to the rankings, most states with high punishment rates also have high incarceration rates, meaning that the imprisonment rate is often a good way to determine how punitive many states are. However, the researchers did find several outliers. In their report, the researchers find 17 states whose punishment rate ranking differs from their incarceration rate ranking by more than 10 spots, illustrating a punishment mismatch. They conclude:

Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming each ranked much higher in their punishment rates than in their imprisonment rates. In other words, these states punished crime significantly more than their imprisonment rates show. The opposite was true for Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Nevada, and New Mexico.

These findings show that simply looking at the incarceration rates does not provide the full picture when it comes to how punitive a state is. A state may have a high rate of incarceration, but that might also be related to relatively high levels of serious crime. Looking at punishment rates help us understand which states have policies that tend to be more punitive, and hopefully, this will lead policymakers to determine whether such punishments are truly appropriate.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Which States are the Most Punitive When it Comes to Crime? appeared first on Law Street.

Most people know that the prison population in the United States has grown dramatically over the past several decades. While it’s true that the number of people in U.S. prisons has grown significantly, we don’t have a concrete understanding of how that growth compares to changes in crime rates–are more people sent to prison because there was more crime or did we start punishing crime more? The Pew Charitable Trusts attempts to fill that gap with its punishment rate calculation, which provides some interesting details about how punishment varies over time and between states.

According to the Public Safety Performance Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts, the imprisonment rate increased by 149 percent between 1983 and 2013 while the punishment rate increased by 165 percent for the United States as a whole. In its research, Pew noticed that all states became more punitive from 1983 to 2013, but the changes varied widely among states.

With its new punishment rate measurement, Pew sought to look at the prison population relative to both the frequency and severity of crime in each state. Doing so helps provide a better understanding of how the incarceration rate changed relative to the prevalence of serious crime. Looking at imprisonment rates in the context of crime rates also helps illustrate differences in how states punish crime and whether certain states are more punitive than others.

Based on the report’s findings, Mississippi’s punishment rate of 818  in 2013 was the highest among all of the states and significantly greater than the national average, which was 477 that year. On the other side of the spectrum is Maine, which had a punishment rate of just 231. In the 30-year period that the researchers analyzed, Colorado experienced the largest increase in its punishment rate, going up 417 percent between 1983 and 2013.

For a full breakdown of the report’s findings and a look at each state’s ranking, you can read more here.

The researchers looked at instances of violent crime using data from the FBI’s uniform crime reporting program for all seven Part I offenses–murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. They then weighed each crime according to its severity, which was determined by the average length of a prison sentence for each crime.

In the end, the authors were able to determine which states were the most punitive based on how many people they imprisoned in relation to the frequency and severity of crime. A state with a relatively low rate of serious crime but a high prison population would have a high punishment rate, indicating that it is more punitive than other states.

While the Pew Charitable Trusts report provides some much-needed context to discussions of the U.S. prison system, it’s important to note that the measure is still far from perfect. In his thoughtful critique of Pew’s research, Tom Meagher at the Marshall Project notes that the punishment rate metric uses the best available information, but its limitations highlight the inherent challenges in measuring the criminal justice system.

Arguably the most significant gap in the measurement is the difficulty that the model has taking drug offenses into account. Drug crimes have been one of the largest contributors to the growth in the prison population, but because they are not tracked by the FBI’s uniform crime reporting system the weighting model cannot take them into account.

In the brief on the punishment rate, the researchers address the issue of drug crime and other offenses not tracked by the FBI, noting:

Although the imprisonment rate counts drug offenders—who make up nearly a fifth of the state prison population—drug crimes are not counted among the FBI’s Part I offenses, so the severity-weighted crime rate does not include them.

Pew acknowledges these drawbacks but argues that the punishment rate can still provide important context when looking at the criminal justice system. While there are imperfections in the data and limitations in terms of what the measurement can tell us, looking at punishment rates and how they vary across states can help understand the way in which prisons are utilized in the criminal justice system.

The report also doesn’t get into why exactly both incarceration and punishment rates increased over the 30-year period, but it does point to existing research that explains, at least in part, the trend. The authors note that changes in policies, rather than crime rates, largely explain the imprisonment growth. Ultimately they conclude, “States that imprison a large share of their residents, for example, can have a high crime rate or a low one; the same is true for states that lock up a small proportion of their populations.” While the report may not tell people which policies are responsible for potentially unnecessary levels of punishment, it may prompt states to start looking at the effects of their criminal justice decisions.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The Punishment Rate: A New Way to Look at the U.S. Prison System appeared first on Law Street.

What if heroin overdoses were not classified as accidents, but as homicides?

That is what one Pennsylvania coroner is starting to do.

According to Penn Live, in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, coroner Charles E. Kiessling wants to call the issue like it is. Rather than have the death be classified as either a suicide or accidental, labeling heroin overdose deaths as homicides holds the drug dealers accountable for their actions.

“If you are selling heroin to someone and they die, isn’t that homicide?” he said to Penn Live. He added that ruling the deaths as accidental downplays the true severity of the situation.

This issue has garnered both positive and negative comments. Some argue that this will become a slippery slope where car dealers are blamed for car accidents. However, as explained in Penn Live, a coroner’s report is not legal finding, therefore a death being classified a homicide on the report does not mean in the eyes of law enforcement it will immediately be taken that way.

This same argument has been presented in previous years regarding fast food chains and obesity. In one 2002 case against McDonald’s, two teenagers blamed the fast food chain for their obesity, arguing that they were not provided with the necessary nutritional information. Lawyers for McDonald’s made the case that it was really a case of a lack of individual responsibility.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention handbook states that a death should be designated a homicide if it is from “… a volitional act committed by another person to cause fear, harm, or death. Intent to cause death is a common element but is not required for classification as homicide.”

The second part of their definition is crucial because in these cases of heroin overdoses, there may not be explicit intent to kill.

The coroner’s decision comes as heroin related deaths are increasing across the state, along with a personal connection after he said he pronounced a friend’s son dead from heroin, according to Penn Live.

“This hit me very personally,” Kiessling said to Penn Live. “I don’t care if I offend people. Drug dealers are murderers and belong in state prison.”

A hole in the slippery slope argument, though, comes when opponents argue that then a doctor would need to be charged with homicide if one of their patients overdosed on prescription medicine. However, unlike drug dealers, doctors have licenses and their medicines are administered in methodical and specific amounts, making it more difficult for patients to overdose accidentally. When it comes to drugs, the buyer may not even know what chemicals are in the drugs and this unknown lends itself to issues.

With that being said, is it really plausible to call all drug dealers “murderers?” The same language can be used as was used by McDonald’s lawyers: it is the individual’s choice to consume certain foods or drugs, meaning that drug dealers shouldn’t be held liable for what happens to their consumers.

With any overdose, the situation is very sensitive, and the classification of the death could mean different implications for not only police but also for the families of the victims.

Julia Bryant

Julia Bryant is an Editorial Senior Fellow at Law Street from Howard County, Maryland. She is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Economics. You can contact Julia at JBryant@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Pennsylvania Coroner Labels Heroin Overdoses ‘Homicide’ appeared first on Law Street.

Do you live in Manhattan? Do you enjoy littering, drinking on the street, or peeing in public, or even doing all three things at the same time? Well if so, I have some very good news for you: the NYPD will no longer arrest you for such minor infractions. But this isn’t just good news for you drunken, littering, peeing partygoers out there–it’s a sign that the NYPD is starting to move away from the theory of “broken windows policing” that has for so long characterized the city’s policies.

“Broken windows policing” is at its essence, a simple theory. Criminologist George Kelling and social scientist James Wilson first posited the idea in the 1980s, and it essentially suggests that if one window in a building is broken and no one does anything about it, the other windows will soon be broken. So in policing, if there are little crimes, like public drinking and urination and those aren’t handled, bigger crimes will flourish.

But in practice, broken windows policing has led to a lot of arrests for these low-level crimes, particularly for minorities. Small crimes like public drinking end up racking up arrest records particularly for minority men, making it more difficult for them to find jobs. They can also have tragic consequences–Eric Garner was arrested for seemingly minor crime of selling cigarettes, and was killed in the process.

These arrests also carry a high price tag for the city, and backlog the already-crowded criminal justice system. It’s estimated that this change in policy will remove 10,000 cases from the court dockets each year.

This change in policy doesn’t mean that drinking or urinating in public are suddenly legal. But instead of arresting people who are caught violating the law, the NYPD in Manhattan will give the offender a summons, he will show up to court and appear before a judge, and then a judge can decide whether or not to give him a penalty like a fine.

This obviously doesn’t solve all of the problems with policing in New York City. The way in which even this new policy–handing out summons instead of arrests–is applied could still be prone to racial bias. Additionally, these new policies also only apply to Manhattan. As Police Reform Organizing Project Director Robert Gangi points out, there’s still a lot more work to be done:

If in Manhattan that practice stops, that is a good thing, and that is a positive step toward curtailing one of the current abusive NYPD practices. Now, highly problematic is that apparently this change—relatively modest change—will only take place in Manhattan…this will result in a significant discrepancy in practice, where if you’re caught for a second time being in the park after dark in Brooklyn, the police can arrest you.

The new policy will take take affect on March 7, and is hopefully a sign of an overall move away from broken windows policing to come.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Manhattan Will Stop Arresting Outdoor Drinkers and Public Urinators appeared first on Law Street.

The city of Kalamazoo, Michigan was terrorized Saturday night when a man, believed to be 45-year-old Jason Brian Dalton, went on a shooting spree for hours that left six people dead, and two wounded. Police have yet to pinpoint a motive that would explain why a married father of two would shoot people of different ages, genders, and ethnicities at random.

Jason Brian Dalton had no criminal record. Police are baffled as to why he may have killed: https://t.co/K8NypwUHJn pic.twitter.com/AgufCvcyDK

— CNN (@CNN) February 22, 2016

We do know that Dalton was operating as an Uber driver during the time of the murders, and even picked up fares in between shootings. In fact so much attention has been placed on Dalton’s profession that “Uber” is currently the main identifier being used in the media to describe him. Now the popular ride sharing app is facing scrutiny, as people question how its hiring practices failed to pinpoint Dalton as a possible liability.

But is Uber really to blame?

Uber regularly runs background checks on all prospective new drivers before allowing them to join its driver fleet. Third parties run each candidate’s name through databases and then flag anything suspicious. However, some say this system is less thorough than ones used by taxi and limo companies, which require candidates have their fingerprints taken to be submitted to law enforcement.

But even with fingerprint analysis, Dalton would have passed. According to Uber, Dalton passed all of his background checks and police said he had no criminal history. Another surprising fact is that Dalton had a 4.7 out of 5 rating on the app, and received mostly positive feedback from people he picked up.

However, Uber did admit that it failed to act on a report that claimed Dalton was driving erratically and endangering passengers, about an hour before cops say he went on his shooting rampage.

According to the New York Post, a passenger by the name of Matt Mellen called the police and complained to Uber that he was forced to jump out Dalton’s car around 4:30pm because Dalton was “speeding, driving on lawns and medians, and running stop signs.”

Uber said it only takes action over allegations of “bad driving” after first speaking with the driver. Therefore Mellen’s complaint was filed away into a pile of similar ones, instead of indicating a possible imminent threat.

So to answer our question “is Uber to blame?” the answer is not exactly.

Uber followed its typical hiring procedures and background checks, and had no reason to suspect Dalton would carry out such horrific crimes. Uber also relied on feedback from more than 100 riders that were picked up by Dalton during his time with the company, most of which were positive. It did, however, drop the ball when it came to the complaint submitted the day of the shooting. But even if Uber had disciplined Dalton, we can’t say that would have prevented his violent attacks.

Uber definitely has room for improvement, but continuing to refer to Dalton as the “Uber driver that shot people,” will only continue to draw negative attention to the company that ultimately isn’t responsible for this man’s crimes.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Attention on Uber After Kalamazoo, Michigan Shooting Rampage appeared first on Law Street.

Violent crime increased by 1.7 percent nationally in the first half of 2015, according to a preliminary report released by the FBI. Although violent crime was up slightly from January to June last year, that increase comes during a long and continuous drop in violent crime. In every other year since 2007–with the exception of 2012, which saw a slight increase as well–the FBI’s preliminary statistics have showed a drop in violent crime in the first six months of the year.

The FBI’s preliminary semiannual crime publication details crime statistics for different population groups, regions, and individual cities for the first six months of 2015. Several cities experienced notable changes in their violent crime rates. Detroit, Michigan, for instance, experienced a significant decrease in its violent crime numbers relative to the previous year, as violent crime dropped by over 9 percent. The city’s violent crime decreased in every category, particularly incidences of murder, rape, and robbery. In total, Detroit had 581 fewer violent crimes in the first half of 2015 than it did in the same period of the previous year. On the other end of the spectrum was St. Louis, Missouri, which saw its violent crime statistics go up by about 23 percent. Notably, the number of murders went up by 58.6 percent, with 34 additional murders in the first half of 2015.

Many mid-sized cities experienced large changes as well. Rockford, Illinois saw its violent crime increase by roughly the same margin as St. Louis, going up by 23.2 percent. Lansing, Michigan’s capital city, experienced a notable decrease in crime, which fell by nearly 13 percent in the first half of last year.

See how the other cities on Law Street’s crime rankings fared in the FBI’s preliminary statistics:

Dangerous Cities Over 200,000: Detroit, St. Louis See Big Changes

Dangerous Cities Under 200,000: Mixed Bag of Results for Early 2015 Crime

Safest Cities: Five of Top 10 See Crime Decrease in First Half of 2015

According to the FBI’s recent report, changes in violent crime varied widely in different parts of the country. While the Northeast actually reported a 3.2 percent decrease in violent crime, the West saw crime go up by more than 5 percent relative to the first half of 2014. As 2015 progressed, murmurs of a crime increase spread, and while current data suggests that may be the case, such a conclusion remains preliminary. The largest increase by population grouping occurred in cities with populations between 250,000 to 499,999 people–where crime grew by 5.3 percent.

It is important to note that the FBI’s statistics are preliminary and may be revised as the FBI gets more data from local police departments. Additionally, trends may have shifted by the end of the year, which we will not be able to have definitive statistics on until the FBI releases its annual Crime in the United States Publication.

Changes in year-to-year crime statistics have been attributed to a wide variety of developments ranging from new policing tactics to factors as simple as cold weather. While national trends may be able to explain changes in crime rates, it’s best to look at changes on a case by case basis. While the national increase in the first six months of last year is notable, it is also important to realize that crime rates remain near historic lows.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Violent Crime Ticks up Slightly in First Half of 2015 appeared first on Law Street.

Half of the cities on Law Street’s list of Most Dangerous Cities over 200,000 experienced an increase in violent crime in the first half of 2015, following the national trend according to FBI statistics released Tuesday. Violent crime was up approximately 1.7 percent across the United States. St. Louis, Missouri experienced the single largest increase in violent crime in 2015 relative to 2014 with an increase of 22.9 percent. Detroit, Michigan experienced the largest decrease, as the city saw its violent crime drop by over 9 percent in 2014. Two of the top 10 Most Dangerous Cities do not have preliminary data available.

The FBI’s semiannual report covers January to June 2015–the most recent period for which comprehensive crime statistics are available. Law Street’s analysis of this preliminary data for each of the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities with populations greater than 200,000 people appears below as an update to our most recent Crime In America Rankings published last Fall. Changes in these preliminary statistics, included below, compared with the same time period in the previous year provide key information on emerging trends in these important cities ahead of the full-year coverage of rankings that will be available this Fall.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS UNDER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SAFEST AND MOST DANGEROUS STATES.

#1 Detroit, Michigan

In the first six months of 2015, Detroit–the most dangerous city over 200,000–continued its downward trend with a notable decrease in violent crime. In total, Detroit had 581 fewer violent crimes in the first half of 2015 relative to the same period in 2014, a drop of over 9 percent. Violent crime was down in every category in Detroit, but the most significant drop occurred in the city’s robbery statistics, which fell by nearly 30 percent last year. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -9.2 %
(2014: 6,292; 2015: 5,711)
Murder: -20.7%
(2014: 135 ; 2015:107)
Rape: -17.6%
(2014: 284; 2015: 234)
Robbery: -29%
(2014: 1,589; 2015: 1,128)
Aggravated Assault: -1%
(2014: 4,284; 2015: 4,242)

#2 Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis experienced a slight decrease in violent crime in the first six months of 2015, going down 2.1 percent relative to the previous year. Although Memphis experienced a small increase in aggravated assaults, decreases in all three of the other categories contributed to the overall drop. The largest decreases occurred in the city’s reported rape and robbery statistics, which fell by 10.4 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -2.1%
(2014: 5,633; 2015: 5,517)
Murder: -1.5%
(2014: 65; 2015: 64)
Rape: -10.4%
(2014: 269; 2015: 241)
Robbery: -9.9%
(2014: 1,553; 2015: 1,400)
Aggravated Assault: +1.8%
(2014: 3,746; 2015: 3,812)

#3 Oakland, California

Oakland, California is the #3 Most Dangerous City in the country with a population over 200,000 people; however, we cannot provide an update on its preliminary 2015 data. According to the FBI, Oakland’s data was incomplete at the Uniform Crime Report deadline. If the data becomes available through the FBI, we will post an update with that information.

#4 St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis experienced a notable increase in violent crime in the first six months of 2015, reporting an increase of 22.9 percent. In total, the city had 522 more violent crimes in the first half of 2015 than it did in the first half of 2014. St. Louis saw increases in three of the four categories of violent crime. One of the most noteworthy increases occurred in its murder statistics, which went from 58 in the first half of 2014 to 92 in the first half of 2015, an increase of almost 60 percent. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +22.9%
(2014: 2,284; 2015: 2,806)
Murder: +58.6%
(2014: 58; 2015: 92)
Rape: -11.8%
(2014: 144; 2015: 127)
Robbery: +40.1%
(2014: 594; 2015: 832)
Aggravated Assault: +17.9
(2014: 1,488; 2015: 1,755)

#5 Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama experienced a modest increase in its reported violent crimes in the first half of 2015. In total, the city had 137 more violent crimes from January to June 2015 than it did in the same period of the previous year. Higher numbers of robberies and aggravated assaults largely explain the increase overall, which rose by 11.7 percent and 7.8 percent respectively. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +8.5%
(2014: 1,619; 2015: 1,756)
Murder: +30.4%
(2014: 23; 2015: 30)
Rape: -7.2%
(2014: 83; 2015: 77)
Robbery: +11.7%
(2014: 454; 2015: 507)
Aggravated Assault: +7.8%
(2014: 1,059; 2015: 1,142)

#6 Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Wisconsin experienced a very slight decrease in crime in the first half of 2015, going down about 1 percent relative to the previous year. Although crime was down overall the city did have a notable spike in murders, which went from 36 in the first half of 2014 to 75 in the first half of 2015, an increase of 108 percent. Aside from murders, the other categories of violent crime either remained constant or decreased. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -0.9%
(2014: 3,957; 2015: 3,921)
Murder: 108.3%
(2014: 36; 2015: 75)
Rape: -12.5%
(2014: 192; 2015: 168)
Robbery: -3.2%
(2014: 1,551; 2015: 1,501)
Aggravated Assault: 0%
(2014: 2,178; 2015: 2,177)

#7 Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore, Maryland experienced a 6 percent increase in violent crime in the first half of 2015, with 235 more crimes than in the previous year. Much of that increase can be attributed to the city’s higher number of robberies, which went up by 11.3 percent. The city also had a notable increase in murders, going from 99 in 2014 to 144 in 2015, a 45.5 percent increase. Baltimore faced several challenges in terms of policing and crime last year, some of which may not be accounted for in these statistics because they only include data from the first half of the year. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +5.9%
(2014: 3,989; 2015: 4,224)
Murder: +45.5
(2014: 99; 2015: 144)
Rape: N/A*
(2014 legacy definition: 129 ; 2015 revised definition: 140)
Robbery: +11.3%
(2014: 1,641; 2015: 1,826)
Aggravated Assault: -0.3%
(2014: 2,120; 2015: 2,114)

*Baltimore, Maryland began reporting its rape statistics using the FBI’s revised definition of rape in 2015. As a result, its statistics are not comparable to the previous year. For more information click here.

#8 Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland experienced a modest decrease in violent crime in the first half of last year, going down 4.4 percent. Much of the city’s overall drop can be attributed to a decrease in the number of reported robberies, which fell by nearly 9 percent. While the city did have an overall drop, it reported an increase in aggravated assaults and murders in the first half of the year. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -4.4%
(2014: 2,499; 2015: 2,390)
Murder: +42.3%
(2014: 26; 2015: 37)
Rape: -19.2%
(2014: 266; 2015: 215)
Robbery: -8.7%
(2014: 1,408; 2015: 1,286)
Aggravated Assault: +6.6%
(2014: 799; 2015: 852)

#9 Stockton, California

Stockton, California followed the national trend with a modest increase in its violent crime statistics from January to June last year. In total, Stockton’s violent crime went up by 2.4 percent, reporting 47 more violent crimes in the first half of 2015 relative to the previous year. The largest increase came in the city’s robbery statistics, which were up by over 7 percent. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +2.4%
(2014: 1,972; 2015: 2,019)
Murder: -14.3%
(2014: 21; 2015: 18)
Rape: N/A*
(2014 legacy definition: 61; 2015 revised definition: 65)
Robbery: +7.1
(2014: 532; 2015: 570)
Aggravated Assault: +0.6
(2014: 1,358; 2015: 1,366)

*Stockton, California began reporting its rape statistics using the FBI’s revised definition of rape in 2015. As a result, its statistics are not comparable to the previous year. For more information click here.

#10 Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis, Indiana is the #10 Most Dangerous City in the country with a population over 200,000 people; however, we cannot provide an update on its preliminary 2015 data. According to the FBI, Oakland’s data was incomplete at the Uniform Crime Report deadline. If the data becomes available through the FBI, we will post an update with that information. Data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

—

Research and analysis by Law Street Media’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Dangerous Cities Over 200,000: Detroit, St. Louis See Big Changes appeared first on Law Street.

According to FBI statistics released on Tuesday, the United States saw violent crime increase nationally by 1.7 percent in the first half of 2015 relative to the previous year. But it was a mixed bag for the most dangerous cities with populations between 100,000 and 200,000. Five of the cities saw increases in violent crime, three saw decreases, and two did not have information available from the FBI. Rockford, Illinois, the number two city on the list, saw the largest increase, as violent crime went up 23.2 percent in the first half of last year.

The FBI’s semiannual report covers January to June 2015–the most recent period for which comprehensive crime statistics are available. Law Street’s analysis of this preliminary data for each of the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities with populations under 200,000 appears below as an update to our most recent Crime In America Rankings published last Fall. Changes in these preliminary statistics, included below, compared with the same time period in the previous year provide key information on emerging trends in these important cities ahead of the full-year coverage of rankings that will be available this Fall.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS Over 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SAFEST AND MOST DANGEROUS STATES.

#1 Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas is the #1 Most Dangerous City in the country with a population between 100,000 and 200,000 people; however, we cannot provide an update on its preliminary 2015 data. According to the FBI, Little Rock’s data was incomplete at the Uniform Crime Report deadline. If the data becomes available through the FBI, we will post an update with that information.

#2 Rockford, Illinois

Rockford saw a sharp increase in violent crime in the first six months of 2015. While there was only a moderate increase in reported rapes and robberies in Rockford, the number of aggravated assaults increased by 28.4 percent. The number of aggravated assaults in Rockford went from 670 in the first half of 2014 to 860 in the same period in 2015. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +23.2%
(2014: 927; 2015: 1,142)
Murder: -10%
(2014: 10; 2015: 9)
Rape: +13%
(2014: 69; 2015: 78)
Robbery: +9.6%
(2014: 178; 2015: 195)
Aggravated Assault: +28.4%
(2014: 670; 2015: 860)

#3 Springfield, Missouri

Springfield, Missouri saw a moderate increase in its violent crime in the first half of 2015. While it seems as though the murder rate experienced a sharp increase based on the percentage change, the increase in raw numbers is relatively low, as the city had two additional murders in 2015. Robbery and aggravated assault increased by 17.1 percent and 15.5 percent respectively, accounting for most of the increase in overall crime. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +12.8%
(2014: 942; 2015: 1,063)
Murder: +40%
(2014: 5; 2015: 7)
Rape: -5.9%
(2014: 136; 2015: 128)
Robbery: +17.1%
(2014: 181; 2015: 212)
Aggravated Assault: +15.5%
(2014: 620; 2015: 716)

#4 Lansing, Michigan

Lansing, Michigan saw a decrease of 12.7 percent in the number of reported violent crimes in the first half of 2015 relative to the same period in the previous year. With the exception of rape, crime rates fell across the board. Due to the relatively low number of reported rapes in Lansing, the 2.6 percent increase is the result of just one additional offense in 2015. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -12.7%
(2014: 537; 2015: 469)
Murder: -20%
(2014: 5; 2015: 4)
Rape: +2.6%
(2014: 38; 2015: 39)
Robbery: -24.8%
(2014: 109; 2015: 82)
Aggravated Assault: -10.6%
(2014: 385; 2015: 344)

#5 Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford saw a slight increase in violent crime in the first half of 2015. Robbery had a moderate increase of 10.5 percent and aggravated assaults were up but by a very small margin. The number of reported rapes fell noticeably by 31.8 percent relative to the previous year. The murder rate was up by 100 percent, going from 7 in the first half of 2014 to 14 in the first half of 2015. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +3.9 %
(2014: 671; 2015: 697)
Murder: +100%
(2014: 7; 2015: 14)
Rape: -31.8%
(2014: 22; 2015: 15)
Robbery: +10.5%
(2014: 229; 2015: 253)
Aggravated Assault: +0.5%
(2014: 413; 2015: 415)

#6 Springfield, Massachusetts

Violent crime increased by 7.7 percent in Springfield, Massachusetts in the first half of 2015. The number of reported rapes and robberies were both down, but aggravated assault saw a notable increase of 16.3 percent. Additionally, more than twice as many people were murdered in the first half of 2015 as 2014, going from 6 to 13. In total, Hartford had 60 more violent crimes from January to June 2015 than in the same period of the previous year. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +7.7%
(2014: 777; 2015: 837)
Murder: +116.7%
(2014: 6; 2015: 13)
Rape: -15.7%
(2014: 51; 2015: 43)
Robbery: -5.4%
(2014: 261; 2015: 247)
Aggravated Assault: +16.3%
(2014: 459; 2015: 534)

#7 Springfield, Illinois

Springfield, Illinois followed the national trend with a slight increase in the number of reported violent crimes from January to June 2015 relative to the same period in the previous year. The total violent crime was up just 1.3 percent. Changes in the robbery and aggravated assault rates were almost negligible, and while the murder rate shows a 100 percent increase, that is a result of two additional murders in the first half of 2015 relative to the same period in 2014. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +1.3%
(2014: 551; 2015: 558)
Murder: +100%
(2014: 2; 2015: 4)
Rape: +11.9%
(2014: 42; 2015: 47)
Robbery: -0.9%
(2014: 111; 2015: 110)
Aggravated Assault: +0.3%
(2014: 396; 2015: 397)

#8 New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven, Connecticut is the #8 Most Dangerous City in the country with a population between 100,000 and 200,000 people; however, we cannot provide an update on its preliminary 2015 data. According to the FBI, Oakland’s data was incomplete at the Uniform Crime Report deadline. If the data becomes available through the FBI, we will post an update with that information.

#9 Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chattanooga, Tennessee had a modest drop in the number of violent crimes in the first half of 2015, going down 7.4 percent relative to the same period in 2014. Particularly notable were the 27.5 percent drop in robbery, and a 30 percent decrease in reported rapes. Aggravated assault, however, had a small increase of 1.8 percent. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -7.4%
(2014: 883; 2015: 818)
Murder: -47.1%
(2014: 17; 2015: 9)
Rape: -30%
(2014: 60; 2015: 42)
Robbery: -27.5%
(2014: 182; 2015: 132)
Aggravated Assault: +1.8%
(2014: 624; 2015: 635)

#10 Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester, Massachusetts saw a slight decrease in violent crime of 5.4 percent in the first half of 2015. While aggravated assault was down by 8.8 percent, robbery was up by 8 percent. The number of reported rapes fell by 42.9 percent, however, given the relatively low number offenses, a drop from seven rapes to four yields a high percentage change. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -5.4%
(2014: 814; 2015: 770)
Murder: +0%
(2014: 4; 2015: 4)
Rape: -42.9%
(2014: 7; 2015: 4)
Robbery: +8.0%
(2014: 175; 2015: 189)
Aggravated Assault: -8.8%
(2014: 628; 2015: 573)

—

Research and analysis by Law Street Media’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

FBI: Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Dangerous Cities Under 200,000: Mixed Bag of Results for Early 2015 Crime appeared first on Law Street.

Nationally, violent crime increased by approximately 1.7 percent from January to June 2015 relative to the same period in 2014. Four of the safest cities followed the national trend with crime increases and one city did not have preliminary statistics available through the FBI. The 25.2 percent increase in violent crime in Fremont, California was the largest among the top 10 safest cities, as the city saw 29 additional violent crimes in the first half of last year. On the other hand, Plano, Texas experienced the largest decrease among the top 10 safest cities, as violent crime fell by 20.3 percent.

The FBI’s semiannual report covers January to June 2015–the most recent period for which comprehensive crime statistics are available. Law Street’s analysis of this preliminary data for each of the Top 10 Safest Cities with populations greater than 200,000 people appears below as an update to our most recent Crime In America Rankings published last Fall. Changes in these preliminary statistics, included below, compared with the same time period in the previous year provide key information on emerging trends in these important cities ahead of the full-year coverage of rankings that will be available this Fall.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS Over 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 Most Dangerous Cities with Populations Under 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SAFEST AND MOST DANGEROUS STATES.

#1 Irvine, California

Irvine California, the safest city with a population greater than 200,000, followed the national trend with a slight increase in violent crime in the first half of 2015 relative to the previous year. Although Irvine had an increase of 3.7 percent, the increase in raw numbers appears much smaller–the city only had two more violent crimes in the first half of 2015 than it did in the same period of the previous year. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +3.7%
(2014: 54; 2015: 56)
Murder: +100%
(2014: 0; 2015: 1)
Rape: N/A
(2014 legacy definition: 9; 2015 revised definition: 11*)
Robbery: +17.6%
(2014: 17; 2015: 20)
Aggravated Assault: -14.3%
(2014: 28; 2015: 24)

*At some point during this year, the Irvine, California police department moved from the legacy definition of rape to the FBI’s revised definition. As a result, Irvine’s 2014 rape statistics are not comparable to its 2015 statistics. The FBI changed the definition of rape in 2013 to be more accurate and inclusive. For more information click here.

#2 Gilbert, Arizona

Gilbert, Arizona experienced a notable decrease in its violent crime statistics from January to June 2015. Violent crime in the city fell by 18.6 percent, which was the second largest decrease among all of the top 10 safest cities. The largest decrease occurred in the number of reported robberies, which fell by more than 50 percent. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -18.6%
(2014: 113; 2015: 92)
Murder: +0%
(2014: 0; 2015: 0)
Rape: +44.4%
(2014: 9; 2015: 13)
Robbery: -54.8%
(2014: 31; 2015: 14)
Aggravated Assault: -11%
(2014: 73; 2015: 65)

#3 Fremont, California

Fremont, California experienced a 25 percent increase in violent crime from January to June 2015 relative to the same period in the previous year. In total, the city reported 29 more violent crimes in the first half of 2015 than it did in the first half of 2014. The largest increase occurred in Fremont’s robbery statistics, which went up by over 37 percent, from 51 in 2014 to 70 last year. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +25.2%
(2014: 115; 2015: 144)
Murder: +0%
(2014: 1; 2015: 1)
Rape: N/A*
(2014 legacy definition: 7; 2015 revised definition: 19)
Robbery: +37.3%
(2014: 51; 2015: 70)
Aggravated Assault: -3.6%
(2014: 56; 2015: 54)

*Fremont, California began reporting its rape statistics using the FBI’s revised definition of rape in 2015. As a result, its statistics are not comparable to the previous year. For more information click here.

#4 Virginia Beach, Virginia

Virginia Beach went against the national trend with a modest decrease in violent crime in the first half of last year. In total, the city reported 22 fewer violent crimes last year than it did in 2014, a drop of 6.7 percent. The biggest change occurred in the number of reported rapes, which fell by 34.5 percent. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -6.7%
(2014: 327; 2015: 305)
Murder: +0%
(2014: 12; 2015: 12)
Rape: -34.5%
(2014: 55; 2015: 36)
Robbery: +4.1%
(2014: 123; 2015: 128)
Aggravated Assault: -5.8%
(2014: 137; 2015: 129)

#5 Santa Clarita, California

Santa Clarita, California is the #5 Safest City in the country with a population greater than 200,000 people; however, we cannot provide an update on its preliminary 2015 data. According to the FBI, Santa Clarita data was incomplete at the Uniform Crime Report deadline. If the data becomes available through the FBI, we will post an update with that information.

#6 Henderson, Nevada

Henderson, Nevada experienced a modest increase in violent crime in the first half of 2015. In total, Henderson reported 31 more violent crimes in the first half of 2015 relative to the first half of 2014, an increase of 15.7 percent. Much of that increase was the result of higher numbers of reported rapes and robberies, which increased by 54.5 percent and 20.3 percent, respectively. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +15.7%
(2014: 198; 2015: 229)
Murder: +0%
(2014: 1; 2015: 1)
Rape: +54.5%
(2014: 33; 2015: 51)
Robbery: +20.3%
(2014: 69; 2015: 83)
Aggravated Assault: -1.1%
(2014: 95; 2015: 94)

#7 Plano, Texas

Plano, Texas experienced a modest decrease in violent crime in the first half of 2015, going down 10.4 percent relative to the first half of the previous year. The largest decrease came in the number of robberies, which fell by more than 20 percent. Plano’s violent crime decreased in every category with the exception of murder which had a slight increase. Although the percentage of murders increased significantly, that change was the result of one additional murder relative to the previous year. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -10.4%
(2014: 249; 2015: 223)
Murder: +50%
(2014: 2; 2015: 3)
Rape: -2.1%
(2014: 47; 2015: 46)
Robbery: -21%
(2014: 81; 2015: 64)
Aggravated Assault: -7.6%
(2014: 119; 2015: 110)

#8 Chandler, Arizona

Chandler, Arizona also went against the national trend in the first half of 2015 with a decrease in violent crime of nearly 10 percent. In total, Chandler had 22 fewer crimes from January to June 2015 than it did in the same period of the previous year. Much of that decrease is the result of a 12.8 percent drop in the number of aggravated assaults. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -9.6%
(2014: 228; 2015: 206)
Murder: Went from 1 to 0
(2014: 1; 2015: 0)
Rape: +8.3%
(2014: 24; 2015: 26)
Robbery: -7.3%
(2014: 55; 2015: 51)
Aggravated Assault: -12.8%
(2014: 148; 2015: 129)

#9 Irving, Texas

Irving, Texas reported the largest decrease in violent crime in the first half of 2015, as the number of crimes dropped by 20.3 percent. That decrease is a result of a significant drop in the number of aggravated assaults, which went from 169 in the first half of 2014 to 112 in 2015, a drop of 33.7 percent. Although the percentage of murders reported in Irving increased greatly, that was the result of four additional murders in 2015. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: -20.3%
(2014: 271; 2015: 216)
Murder: +200%
(2014: 2; 2015: 6)
Rape: N/A*
(2014 legacy definition: 19; 2015 revised definition: 15)
Robbery: +2.5%
(2014: 81; 2015: 83)
Aggravated Assault: -33.7%
(2014: 169; 2015: 112)

*Irving, Texas began reporting its rape statistics using the FBI’s revised definition of rape in 2015. As a result, its statistics are not comparable to the previous year. For more information click here.

#10 Chula Vista, California

Chula Vista, California experienced an 8.9 percent increase in violent crime from January to June 2015 relative to the same period in the previous year. This increase is largely a result of a higher number of robberies, going up 13.1 percent relative to the previous year. The overall increase may also be a result of the Chula Vista police department’s change in its definition of rape. In 2015, the city began submitting rape statistics according to the FBI’s revised definition, which was changed in 2013 to be more inclusive and accurate. The data below reflects changes from January to June 2015 versus the same period in 2014.

Total Violent Crime: +8.9%
(2014: 292; 2015: 318)
Murder: +33.3%
(2014: 3; 2015: 2)
Rape: N/A*
(2014 legacy definition: 20; 2015 revised definition: 30)
Robbery: +13.1%
(2014: 107; 2015: 121)
Aggravated Assault: +1.9%
(2014: 162; 2015: 165)

*Chula Vista, California began reporting its rape statistics using the FBI’s revised definition of rape in 2015. As a result, its statistics are not comparable to the previous year. For more information click here.

—

Research and analysis by Law Street Media’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

FBI: Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Safest Cities: Five of Top 10 See Crime Decrease in First Half of 2015 appeared first on Law Street.

We often talk about crime statistics in terms of the safest and most dangerous cities, but many of the most popular cities in the United States rarely make those lists. In fact, many of the top travel destinations may actually have lower crime rates than you would think. We looked at the top 10 U.S. cities on Trip Advisor’s list of Travelers’ Choice Destinations to determine the most popular cities for visitors, and then broke down their actual crime rates.

A notable example of is Chicago, a city that many people think has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country. In raw numbers, Chicago does have a lot of violent crime–over 24,000 violent crimes in 2014–but given its large population, its rate does not place it among the top 10 highest. To break the top 10, Chicago would need almost 1.5 times as many violent crimes, given its current population of over 2.7 million people.

This is true for many of the most popular American cities, particularly those with very large populations. For each city on Trip Advisor’s ranking, we list its violent crime statistics, which include murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. We also indicate each city’s rank in terms of violent crime rate among the 111 U.S. cities that have a population greater than 200,000 people and available data from the FBI.

All data is based on the FBI’s most recent Crime in the United States publication, which includes statistics from the 2014 calendar year. It is important to note that this is not a ranking of cities’ crime statistics, rather a look at how crime rates vary across popular American cities. A wide range of factors contributes to a city’s violent crime rate, particularly among cities of different sizes and demographics.

Check out the slideshow below to see how violent crime statistics varies among top travel destinations in the country.

Click here to see the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000

Click here to see the Top 10 Safest Cities Over 200,000

Click here to see all of Law Street Media’s Crime in America Coverage

New York, New York

Image courtesy of Peter McConnochle via Flickr

Violent Crime Rate: 597 per 100,000 people
Overall Rank: #53
Population: 8,473,938
Total Violent Crime: 50,564
Murder: 333
Rape: 2,190*
Robbery: 16,518
Aggravated Assault: 31,460

The overall rank is relative to the 286 U.S. cities with populations over 200,000 people and available FBI data.

*New York began the year submitting rape data classified according to the legacy UCR definition. However, at some point during the calendar year, the agency modified its reporting methods and began classifying and submitting rape offenses according to the revised UCR definition of rape. For more details click here.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime Rates in the Most Popular U.S. Travel Destinations appeared first on Law Street.

A development that has so far been described using anecdotal evidence now has some data to back it up: in the wake of the Paris attacks, hate crimes against Muslims and mosques may be increasing. An analysis from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that the number of hate crimes since the Paris attacks is nearly three times greater than the monthly average in the past five years. While this finding is striking, it is important to acknowledge how incomplete hate crime data is in the United States.

According to the analysis–which used the FBI’s criteria and definitions from American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code to identify hate crime incidents in news reports–the study found 37 suspected hate crimes between November 13 and December 13. Brian Levin, the director of Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, notes that these findings represent a significant increase based on available data. According to FBI statistics, the United States averaged 12.6 hate crimes with an anti-Islamic bias each month over the previous five years. There were 11 anti-Islamic hate crimes in the week after the San Bernadino shootings alone.

It is important to note that the FBI data on hate crime is, put simply, incomplete. The statistics published each year by the FBI are almost certainly an undercount of the total number of hate crimes. The data, which includes incidents and offenses known to law enforcement, are voluntarily submitted by local law enforcement agencies. While 15,494 agencies participated in Hate Crime Statistics Program last year, only 1,666 agencies reported crimes.

To get a sense of how much information might be missing from the data, let’s look at the numbers. Florida, the third most populous state in the country with nearly 20 million residents, reported 72 hate crimes in 2014. By contrast, the District of Columbia has fewer than 660,000 residents but reported 87 hate crimes over the same period. The FBI even publishes an additional table with all of the agencies that reported zero hate crimes.

Survey data on hate crimes further highlights the gaps in the FBI’s statistics. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, an annual survey of a nationally representative sample of American households, there were about 293,800 hate crimes in 2012, while the FBI data shows fewer than 6,000.*

It is important to note that both data sets are trying to measure different things–the survey tracks self-identified victimization while the FBI data includes incidents known to law enforcement–but the massive gap illustrates that the FBI data is most likely missing something. Even when you account for the fact that approximately 60 percent of survey respondents did not report their victimization to the police, the numbers remain far apart.

So does this mean we should dismiss the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism’s analysis? Researchers claim that there was a significant increase in anti-Islamic hate crimes after the Paris attacks, but they are comparing news reports to FBI data, which is most likely incomplete. The lack of accurate data on hate crimes makes it difficult to draw sweeping conclusions, but there is additional evidence to suggest that Islamaphobia is on the rise in America. Another review of anti-Islamic crimes found that crimes targeting mosques increased after the Paris attacks as well. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations–which tracks damage, harassment, intimidation, and zoning incidents related to mosques–2015 experienced a significant increase in incidents, especially in recent months. There have also been widespread reports of mosques increasing security because of the perceived threat against Muslims. Even if there has not been a dramatic growth in hate crimes, the perception among Muslims in the United States and around the world is, by itself, a notable consequence of these trends.

While researchers look at a possible increase in hate crimes, anti-Islamic rhetoric has been on the rise. Donald Trump has said we should temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country, supports a database to track Muslims, and said that the United States should consider shutting down mosques. Marco Rubio went further to say that the government should not only shut down mosques but any place where radicalization happens. Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz have argued that preference should be given to Christian refugees fleeing prosecution, indicating that they pose less of a threat than Muslims fleeing the same thing. Ben Carson even used an analogy to compare Syrian refugees to a rabid dog.

We may not know the extent to which growing fear of terrorism has caused hate crimes, but as public resentment towards Muslim Americans grows the evidence, while anecdotal, seems difficult to dismiss.

*The FBI added an addendum to its 2012 report to include additional submissions from Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Texas, but even when the additional data is accounted for the total doesn’t increase much. [back]

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post As Anti-Islamic Rhetoric Grows, Hate Crime Against Muslims May be Rising appeared first on Law Street.

While crime in the United States continued its downward trend last year, some metropolitan areas experienced relatively high rates of violent crime when compared to the rest of the country. According to the most recent crime data from the FBI, which covers the 2014 calendar year, the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metro area had the highest violent crime rate in both the south and the entire United States for the second year in a row. The Memphis metro area had approximately 1034 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Of the 15 metro areas with the highest crime rates, nine are located in the Southern region of the United States while none of the top 15 are located in the Northeast.

Check out the slideshow below to see the rankings of the Top 15 Most Dangerous metro areas across the United States. All rates below are calculated per 100,000 people. Ranking metropolitan areas provides additional insight about crime in the United States because the statistics account for crime in a principal city as well as surrounding suburbs, which tend to be both socially and economically integrated.

Read More: Crime Rankings for the Midwest, Northeast, South, and West

Read More: Interactive Crime Map of the United States

#1 Memphis, TN-MS-AR      

Image courtesy of James Blucher via Flickr

Overall Rank: #1
Rank in South: #1
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 1034
– Murder: 13
– Rape: 51
– Robbery: 270 
– Aggravated Assault: 699
Population: 1,348,092

The Memphis, TN-MS-AR metro area includes Crittenden County, AR; Benton, DeSoto, Marshall, Tate, and Tunica Counties, MS; and Fayette, Shelby, and Tipton Counties, TN as well as the city of Memphis, TN.

More info on metro areas:

The Office of Management and Budget began delineating Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the 1950s in order to provide an established level of analysis for government reports and statistics. MSAs are characterized as having an urban core with more than 50,000 people and surrounding areas that have close social and economic integration. The FBI does not provide data on all of the 388 MSAs defined by the Office of Management and Budget. Click here to see the FBI’s explanation for why all MSAs are not included. MSAs are organized by counties or their equivalent. All statistics in Law Street’s Crime in America metro rankings are presented as rates per 100,000 people, and they are taken from the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States publication section on metropolitan statistical areas. To see the FBI’s data click here.

Click here to see full Crime in America 2016 Coverage, including the Safest & Most Dangerous Cities and States.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2016: Top 15 Most Dangerous Metro Areas appeared first on Law Street.

The Springfield, IL metro area sits atop the list of the most dangerous metro areas in the Midwest for the second year in a row. According to the latest FBI crime statistics, which cover the 2014 calendar year, Springfield, IL had a violent crime rate of 767 per 100,000 people, the fourth highest in the country. The Wausau, WI metro area was the safest metro in the Midwest for a second straight year. In total, Wisconsin had five of the top 10 safest metro areas in the Midwest. In 2014, the Midwest region of the United States held about 21 percent of the country’s population, but just 19 percent of its violent crime.

The rankings below detail the violent crime rate for cities and their surrounding metropolitan area across the Midwest. Check out the rankings below to see the Top 10 Safest and Top 10 Most Dangerous metro areas across the South. All rates below are calculated per 100,000 people. Click here to read more information about Metropolitan Statistical Areas and these rankings.

Read More: Crime Rankings for the Northeast, South, and West

Read More: Slideshow: Top 15 Most Dangerous Metros in the United States

Read More: Interactive Crime Map of the United States

Top 10 Most Dangerous Metros in the Midwest

#1 Springfield, IL Metro Area

Click to enlarge.

Overall Rank: #4
 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 767
 – Murder: 9
 – Rape: 71
 – Robbery: 138
 – Aggravated Assault: 549
 Population: 211,855

The Springfield, IL metro area includes Menard and Sangamon Counties as well as the city of Springfield.

#2 Rockford, IL

Click to enlarge.

 Overall Rank: #19
 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 665
 – Murder: 7
 – Rape: 57
 – Robbery: 144
 – Aggravated Assault: 458
 Population: 343,135

The Rockford, IL metro area includes Boone and Winnebago Counties as well as the city of Rockford.

 #3 Saginaw, MI

Click to enlarge.

 Overall Rank: #21
 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 660
 – Murder: 8
 – Rape: 82
 – Robbery: 84
 – Aggravated Assault: 486
 Population: 195,891

The Saginaw, MI metro area includes the Saginaw County and the city of Saginaw.

#4 Flint, MI

Click to enlarge.

 Overall Rank: #22
 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 652
 – Murder: 8
 – Rape: 70
 – Robbery: 117
 – Aggravated Assault: 458
 Population: 413,337

The Flint, MI metro area includes Geneseee county and the city of Flint.

 #5 Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN

Click to enlarge.

Overall Rank: #24
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 646
– Murder: 8
– Rape: 39
– Robbery: 209
– Aggravated Assault: 390
Population: 1,971,378

The Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN metro area includes Boone, Brown, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Putnam, and Shelby Counties as well as the city of Indianapolis3, the city of Carmel, and the city of Anderson.

 #6 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI

Click to enlarge.

 Overall Rank: #25
 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 634
 – Murder: 6
 – Rape: 33
 – Robbery: 251
 – Aggravated Assault: 343
 Population: 1,573,272

The Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI metro area includes Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, and Waukesha Counties as well as, the city of Milwaukee, the city of Waukesha, and the city of West Allis.

 #7 Danville, IL

Click to enlarge.

Overall Rank: #30
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 592
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 91
– Robbery: 108
– Aggravated Assault: 392
Population: 79,939

The Danville, IL metro area includes Vermillion County and the city of Danville.

 #8 Toledo, OH

Click to enlarge.

 Overall Rank: #41
 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 559
 – Murder: 5
 – Rape: 50
 – Robbery: 171
 – Aggravated Assault: 334
 Population: 608,517

The Toledo, OH metro area includes Fulton, Lucas, and Wood Counties as well as the city of Toledo.

 #9 Battle Creek, MI

Click to enlarge.

Overall Rank: #44
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 538
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 90
– Robbery: 65
– Aggravated Assault: 380
Population: 134,882

The Battle Creek, MI metro area includes Calhoun County and the city of Battle Creek.

 #10 Springfield, MO

Click to enlarge.

 Overall Rank: #45
 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 536
 – Murder: 5
 – Rape: 74
 – Robbery: 94
 – Aggravated Assault: 364
 Population: 452,154

The Springfield, MO metro area includes Christian, Dallas, Greene, Polk, and Webster Counties and the city of Springfield.

Top 10 Safest Metros in the Midwest

#1 Wausau, WI

Click to enlarge.

 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 90
 – Murder: 2
 – Rape: 13
 – Robbery: 9
 – Aggravated Assault: 66
 Population: 135,783

The Wausau, WI metro area includes Marathon County and the city of Wausau.

 #2 Columbus, IN

Click to enlarge.

Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 110
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 17
– Robbery: 30
– Aggravated Assault: 62
Population: 80,345

The Columbus, IN metro area includes Bartholomew County and the city of Columbus.

 #3 La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN

Click to enlarge.

 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 113
 – Murder: 0
 – Rape: 23
 – Robbery: 25
 – Aggravated Assault: 65
 Population: 135,985

The La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN metro area includes Houston County, MN and La Crosse County, WI as well as the city of La Crosse, WI and the city of Onalaska, WI.

 #4 Midland, MI

Click to enlarge.

Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 124
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 42
– Robbery: 11
– Aggravated Assault: 70
Population: 84,059

The Midland, MI metro area includes the Midland County and the city of Midland.

 #5 Eau Claire, WI

Click to enlarge

 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 131
 – Murder: 0.6
 – Rape: 27
 – Robbery: 12
 – Aggravated Assault: 92
 Population: 165,411

The Eau Claire, WI metro area includes Chippewa and Eau Claire Counties as well as the city of Eau Claire.

#6 Ames, IA

Click to enlarge.

 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 132
 – Murder: 0
 – Rape: 41
 – Robbery: 17
 – Aggravated Assault: 74
 Population: 93,130

The Ames, IA metro area includes Story County and the city of Ames.

 #7 Appleton, WI

Click to enlarge.

 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime:  137
 – Murder: 0
 – Rape: 16
 – Robbery: 11
 – Aggravated Assault: 110
 Population: 231,052

The Appleton, WI metro area includes Calumet and Outagamie Counties as well as the city of Appleton.

#8 Rochester, MN

Click to enlarge.

 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 141
 – Murder: 1
 – Rape: 29
 – Robbery: 26
 – Aggravated Assault: 85
 Population: 213,400

The Rochester, MN metro area includes Dodge, Fillmore, Olmsted, and Wabasha Counties and the city of Rochester.

#9 Sheboygan, WI

Click to enlarge.

 Rates/100,000 people:
 – Violent Crime: 163
 – Murder: 0.9
 – Rape: 24
 – Robbery: 18
 – Aggravated Assault: 119
 Population: 114,823

The Sheboygan, WI metro area includes Sheboygan County and the city of Sheboygan.

#10 Michigan City-La Porte, IN

Click to enlarge.

Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 166
– Murder: 5.4
– Rape: 8
– Robbery: 73
– Aggravated Assault: 80
Population: 111,335

The Michigan City- La Porte, IN metro area includes La Porte County as well as Michigan City and the city of La Porte.

—
More info on metro areas:

The Office of Management and Budget began delineating Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the 1950s in order to provide an established level of analysis for government reports and statistics. MSAs are characterized as having an urban core with more than 50,000 people and surrounding areas that have close social and economic integration. The FBI does not provide data on all of the 388 MSAs defined by the Office of Management and Budget. Click here to see the FBI’s explanation for why all MSAs are not included. MSAs are organized by counties or their equivalent. All statistics in Law Street’s Crime in America metro rankings are presented as rates per 100,000 people, and they are taken from the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States publication section on metropolitan statistical areas. To see the FBI’s data click here.

Click here to see full Crime in America 2016 Coverage, including the Safest & Most Dangerous Cities and States.

Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2016: Safest & Most Dangerous Midwest Metros appeared first on Law Street.

The Vineland-Bridgeton, NJ metro area is the number one most dangerous metro in the Northeast United States for the second year in a row. According to the latest crime data from the FBI, which covers the 2014 calendar year, the Vineland-Bridgeton metro had a violent crime rate of 511 per 100,000 people. The Bangor, ME metro area also retains its spot atop the top 10 safest northeast metro areas with only 77 violent crimes per 100,000 people. While the Northeast is home to about 18 percent of the U.S. population, it had just 15 percent of the nation’s total violent crime last year.

Check out the rankings below to see the Top 10 Safest and Top 10 Most Dangerous metro areas across the Northeast. All rates below are calculated per 100,000 people. Click here to read more information about Metropolitan Statistical Areas and these rankings.

Read More: Crime Rankings for the Midwest, South, and West

Read More: Slideshow: Top 15 Most Dangerous Metros in the United States

Read More: Interactive Crime Map of the United States

Top 10 Most Dangerous Metros in the Northeast

#1 Vineland-Bridgeton, NJ

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Overall Rank: #54
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 511
– Murder: 11
– Rape: 29
– Robbery: 211
– Aggravated Assault: 261
Population: 157,616

The Vineland-Bridgeton, NJ metro area includes Cumberland County as well as the city of Vineland and the city of Bridgeton.

#2 Springfield, MA

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Overall Rank: #56
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 507
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 51
– Robbery:  136
– Aggravated Assault: 318
Population: 629,676

The Springfield, MA metro area includes Hampden and Hampshire Counties as well as the city of Springfield.

#3 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD

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Overall Rank: #75
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 460
– Murder: 7
– Rape: 34
– Robbery:  180
– Aggravated Assault: 239
Population: 6,054,007

The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro includes the Metropolitan Divisions of Camden, NJ; Montgomery County-Bucks County-Chester County, PA; Philadelphia, PA; and Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ as well as the city of Philadelphia, PA and the City of Wilmington, DE.

#4 Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY

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Overall Rank: #85
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 436
– Murder: 6
– Rape: 31
– Robbery:  156
– Aggravated Assault: 243
Population: 1,135,581

The Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY metro area includes Erie and Niagara Counties as well as the city of Cheektowaga Town and the city of Niagara Falls.

#5 Barnstable Town, MA

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Overall Rank: #91
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 426
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 40
– Robbery:  32
– Aggravated Assault: 352
Population: 215,384

The Barnstable Town, MA metro area includes Barnstable County and the city of Barnstable.

#6 Worcester, MA-CT

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Overall Rank: #97
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 421
– Murder: 0.9
– Rape: 25
– Robbery:  74
– Aggravated Assault: 321
Population: 856,152

The Worcester, MA-CT metro area includes Windham County, CT and Worcester County MA as well as the city of Worcester, MA.

#7 Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ

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Overall Rank: #123
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 384
– Murder: 6
– Rape: 20
– Robbery:  177
– Aggravated Assault: 181
Population: 276,587

The Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ metro area includes Atlantic County as well as Atlantic City and the city of Hammonton.

#8 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA

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Overall Rank: #133
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 371
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 17
– Robbery:  135
– Aggravated Assault: 216
Population: 20,070,688

Includes the Metropolitan Divisions of Dutchess County-Putnam County, NY; Nassau County-Suffolk County, NY; Newark, NJ-PA; and New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ as well as New York, NY; Newark, NJ; Jersey City, NJ; White Plains, NY; the city of New Brunswick, NJ; and Lakewood Township, NJ.

#9 Trenton, NJ

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Overall Rank: #151
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 347
– Murder: 9
– Rape: 11
– Robbery:  150
– Aggravated Assault: 177
Population: 371,608

The Trenton, NJ metro area includes Mercer county and the city of Trenton.

#10 Norwich-New London, CT

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Overall Rank: #159
Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 340
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 45
– Robbery:  62
– Aggravated Assault: 232
Population:  146,061

The Norwich-New London, CT metro area includes New London County, the city of Norwich and the city of New London.

Top 10 Safest Most Dangerous Metros in the Northeast

#1 Bangor, ME

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 77
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 12
– Robbery:  23
– Aggravated Assault: 40
Population: 153,425

The Bangor, ME metro area includes Penobscot County and the city of Bangor.

#2 State College, PA

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 82
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 25
– Robbery:  8
– Aggravated Assault: 49
Population: 155,684

The State College, PA metro area includes Centre County and the city of State College.

#3 Gettysburg, PA

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 102
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 20
– Robbery:  10
– Aggravated Assault: 73
Population: 101,545

The Gettysburg, PA metro area includes Adams County and the city of Gettysburgh.

#4 Glens Falls, NY

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 111
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 47
– Robbery:  8
– Aggravated Assault: 57
Population: 128,487

The Glens Falls, NY metro area includes Warren and Washington Counties as well as the city of Glens Falls.

#5 Portland-South Portland, ME

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 128
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 26
– Robbery:  27
– Aggravated Assault: 73
Population: 522,033

The Portland-South Portland, ME metro area includes Cumberland, Sagadahoc, and York Counties as well as the city of Portland and the city of South Portland.

#6 Lewiston-Auburn, ME

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 142
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 42
– Robbery:  38
– Aggravated Assault: 60
Population: 107,711

The Lewiston-Auburn, ME metro area includes Androscoggin County as well as the city of Lewiston and the city of Auburn.

#7 Chambersburg-Waynesboro, PA

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 149
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 27
– Robbery:  40
– Aggravated Assault: 79
Population: 152,602

The Chambersburg-Waynesboro, PA metro area includes Franklin County as well as the city of Chambersburg and the city of Waynesboro.

#8 Lebanon, PA

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Rates/100,000 people: 154
– Violent Crime: 154
– Murder: 5
– Rape: 21
– Robbery:  34
– Aggravated Assault: 94
Population: 135,898

The Lebanon, PA metro area includes Lebanon County and the city of Lebanon.

#9 Lancaster, PA

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 165.1
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 38
– Robbery:  51
– Aggravated Assault: 74
Population: 531,837

The Lancaster, PA metro area includes Lancaster County and the city of Lancaster.

#10 Johnstown, PA

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Rates/100,000 people:
– Violent Crime: 165.3
– Murder: 5
– Rape: 10
– Robbery:  35
– Aggravated Assault: 115
Population: 139,742

The Johnstown, PA metro area includes Cambria County and the city of Johnstown.

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More info on metro areas:

The Office of Management and Budget began delineating Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the 1950s in order to provide an established level of analysis for government reports and statistics. MSAs are characterized as having an urban core with more than 50,000 people and surrounding areas that have close social and economic integration. The FBI does not provide data on all of the 388 MSAs defined by the Office of Management and Budget. Click here to see the FBI’s explanation for why all MSAs are not included. MSAs are organized by counties or their equivalent. All statistics in Law Street’s Crime in America metro rankings are presented as rates per 100,000 people, and they are taken from the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States publication section on metropolitan statistical areas. To see the FBI’s data click here.

Click here to see full Crime in America 2016 Coverage, including the Safest & Most Dangerous Cities and States.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2016: Safest & Most Dangerous Metros in the Northeast appeared first on Law Street.