Latest news with #policeviolence
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Cop to go on trial for murder of Nahel M
Nahel M's death provoked several nights of unrest in Nanterre and other cities across France. (AFP pic) PARIS : A French police officer charged with murder in the deadly shooting of a teenager in 2023 that sparked violent protests across the country will go on trial next year, the Nanterre prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. In March, prosecutors requested that one of two officers investigated over the June 27 shooting of 17-year-old Nahel M in the Paris suburb of Nanterre be put on trial. A charge of complicity in murder against the other officer was dropped. Investigating judges on Tuesday decided the trial of the officer, identified as Florian M, should take place in the Assize Court of the Hauts-de-Seine. Depending on whether there are appeals, the trial could take place in the second or the third quarter 2026, the statement from the Nanterre prosecutor's office said. Neither the policeman's lawyer, nor the lawyer for Nahel's family could be immediately reached for comment. The police officer fired at Nahel after the latter failed to comply with an order to stop his car. The boy, of North African descent, later died from his wounds. A video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, showed two police officers beside the car, a Mercedes-AMG, with one firing his weapon as the driver pulled away. Nahel's death and the video were shared on social media, drawing widespread anger and provoking several nights of unrest in Nanterre and other cities across France.
Arab News
a day ago
- General
- Arab News
French policeman to go on trial over 2023 killing of teen that sparked riots
PARIS: The French policeman who shot and killed a teenager at point-blank range in 2023 outside Paris, sparking days of riots, is to go on trial on a murder charge, a court and prosecutors said Tuesday. The trial of the officer, who has been charged with the murder of Nahel M., 17, could take place in the second or third quarter of 2026, the court and prosecutor in the Paris suburb of Nanterre where the killing took place said in a joint statement. The officer, identified as Florian M., was released from custody in November 2023 after five months in detention. Mobile footage of him shooting Nahel inside a car during a traffic control on a busy street went viral. The anger sparked protests that degenerated into rioting and led to scenes of devastation nationwide. The police initially maintained that Nahel had driven his car at the officer but this was contradicted by the video, which showed two officers standing outside a stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at its driver. 'This order for a trial is both disappointing and not surprising,' said Laurent-Franck Lienard, the officer's lawyer. 'The investigating judge would have had to be courageous to take a different position than that of the prosecution' which pushed for the trial, the lawyer told AFP, adding that he would lodge an appeal against the order. 'We maintain that the shooting was legitimate,' he said. Frank Berton, the lawyer for Nahel's mother, expressed his 'satisfaction' over the move. 'We are just seeing the law being applied... Now all that remains is to convince the court,' he said. The move to try the officer over the death of Nahel, who was of north African origin, comes against the background of new tensions in France over racism and security. A man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbor and badly wounded a Turkish man in the south of France at the weekend, and a Malian man was stabbed to death in a mosque in April. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is taking an increasingly hard line on immigration issues, has faced accusations of not taking a strong enough stance against such crimes and even fueling a racist climate. But he said Monday that 'every racist act is an anti-French act.'
ABC News
6 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Senior leader says Alice Springs 'at breaking point' after Warlpiri man's death in custody
An Alice Springs town councillor and senior Alyawerre man says his town is at breaking point, after a young man died in police custody this week. The 24-year-old Warlpiri man from Yuendumu died after he was restrained by NT police officers following an altercation with a supermarket security guard. NT police say the man was placing items down the front of his clothing at the Coles supermarket in Alice Springs on Tuesday, when he was confronted by security guards. Two police officers were in the supermarket at the time and restrained the man. One eye witness told the ABC the restraint "looked pretty violent". He was taken to Alice Springs Hospital and pronounced dead. An autopsy on Wednesday found the man's cause of death was "undetermined". The man's grandfather, Ned Hargraves, a senior Warlpiri elder, said their family, all Warlpiri people, and many other people in Central Australia were devastated by the death. Mr Hargraves said his grandson was living away from his Yuendumu community and in "supported accommodation because of his disabilities". The most recent high-profile death in custody in the NT was the 2019 police shooting of 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man Kumanjayi Walker during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, about 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. The long-awaited coroner's findings into Mr Walker's death are due to be handed down on June 10 in Yuendumu. For Michael Liddle, the news of another Aboriginal death in custody brought back familiar feelings. "Here we go again," the Alyawarre man said. The Alice Springs town councillor has spent years working with Aboriginal men who come into contact with the justice system. He said the town's social issues were not going away. "At the moment, there's so much anger … what happens when there's a death in custody? I'm sad to say it's happened on our front door again," he said. Thirty people have died in custody so far this year in Australia, eight of them First Nations people, according to data from the National Deaths in Custody Program. Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said an independent investigation into the man's death could be the best path forward. She said the people of Yuendumu had already experienced "many traumas", and that wounds were reopened this week. She said the best way to navigate the complex issues at play may be to take the investigation out of the Northern Territory police's hands. Ms McCarthy did not suggest which agency should investigate instead, saying that decision would lie with NT Chief Minister and Police Minister Lia Finocchiaro. "I am calling on her to recognise the tensions that do exist, that I've certainly heard from family members, but also are very aware of the difficulties for members of the police force as well," she said. "This may be an opportune time to have something different, to provide that separation and clarity." Thalia Anthony, a law professor at the University of Technology Sydney who has written extensively on the NT's legal system, also said the death should be independently investigated. "I think this has to happen by a body outside of the Northern Territory. We know what a tight-knit group and culture the Northern Territory's police force have," she said. Assistant Police Commissioner Travis Wurst said he would lead the investigation and "provide oversight" along with NT Police's Professional Standards Command, separately to the coronial investigation. Assistant Commissioner Wurst visited Yuendumu on Thursday, two days after the death of the 24-year-old man who hailed from the Central Australian community. Speaking from an energy conference in Brisbane on Thursday, Ms Finocchiaro said the death was tragic, but police had undertaken their duty to serve and protect. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the community at this incredibly difficult time, but we also stand in solidarity with our police and the security personnel involved in this incident and incidents right across the Northern Territory," she said. Ms Finocchiaro said she has not made contact with the deceased man's family. In a statement, Assistant Commissioner Wurst said police were in contact with the man's family and were "providing support" through their cultural reform team.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
A Black father killed a cop after seeing his son shot dead in a police chase. People have donated tens of thousands of dollars to his cause
The day after learning his 18-year-old son had been killed by Cincinnati police, Rodney Hinton Jr. sat down with his family to watch the body cam footage of the teenager's final moments. Too distraught to watch it in full, Hinton left the police station before the video ended. A few hours later, according to prosecutors, he drove his car at high speed towards officer Larry Henderson, who was directing college graduation traffic at an intersection, killing him. Henderson, a 57-year-old father of five, had retired last December after over three decades as a Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy, but returned occasionally for special duty. He didn't have anything to do with the teen's death, and seems to have been chosen simply because he was a police officer. In the weeks since Hinton carried out the car attack, he has attracted thousands of supporters online, fan edits of his court appearances have gone viral with millions of views, and nearly $100,000 has been donated to support his defense and his family. Hinton's defenders have sought to place his actions in the context of institutional police violence against Black people. 'A lot of African Americans are tired of the police seemingly unjustifiably killing Black individuals without recourse or without punishment," Clyde Bennett, Hinton's attorney, told The Independent. Some say they understood how the pain of losing a son at the hands of police could have caused Hinton to lash out in the way that he did. Others compare it to the alleged killing of a healthcare executive by Luigi Mangione, who is often depicted as a cult hero standing up against the health insurance industry. Hinton's 'actions have been received and accepted by a lot of people because they can identify and relate to his experience, and they believe that they can understand why he did what he did, because they may have done the same thing in similar circumstances,' Bennett added. Hinton faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted on charges of two counts of aggravated murder of the retired deputy. Bennett said his client intends to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, explaining that seeing the video of his son's death triggered a psychiatric episode. 'I've got the medical records to prove it — he was not in his right frame of mind when he committed the act that he did. He did not understand the wrongfulness of his conduct because of his mental condition. I think he was insane at the time,' Bennett said. The investigation into the police killing of Ryan Hinton is ongoing. Police bodycam footage from May 2 in the East Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati shows officers arriving at a stolen vehicle parked on a dead-end street, and four men running from the vehicle. A man later identified as Ryan Hinton is seen dashing out from between two dumpsters and away from the officers. As he does so, one of the officers shouts 'He's got a gun!' several times. Another officer opens fire and continues firing as Hinton runs past him. If you're Team Luigi Mangione, you should be Team Rodney Hinton Jr. too. Both men were pushed to the brink by violent systems Leslie Vargas, writing for Afropunk Police later showed photographs of a loaded gun they say Hinton was holding. A coroner said the round that likely killed Hinton entered just under his armpit, ricocheted off a rib, hit his heart, and exited the front through his chest. Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge defended the officer who fired the shots. 'Based on the officer's interviews, the officer who did discharge his firearm said that when the individual came out between the dumpsters, he had the firearm in front of him. He was in like a bladed position, and [the gun] was pointed at the officer, and he felt threatened for his life. And that's why he discharged his firearm," Theetge said. The day after the shooting, Hinton and the rest of Ryan Hinton's family were invited into the police station to watch the footage of the incident for themselves. Theetge met with the family at 9:30 a.m. to review the footage. After just 20 minutes, Hinton 'was so upset he left the building,' Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said at a press conference. Hinton's family was worried about his mental state in the hours after he had seen the footage. Just after 1 p.m., Hinton pulled over into a middle lane and looked down a hill where Henderson, a marine veteran, was directing traffic at an intersection for the University of Cincinnati's spring graduation ceremony. Henderson was standing just off the road, underneath a tree for shade. Hinton then 'floors the vehicle,' according to Pillich, crossed into traffic lanes, and drove directly at Henderson, hitting him. 'He never veers off course, he never slows down,' she said. Hinton appeared in court for his arraignment the day after. The courtroom was packed with local police officers, together with a sizeable number of Hinton Jr.'s family members. Soon after, videos of that appearance began appearing on TikTok and other social media. One video, liked more than 412,000 times, showed a slow-motion clip of Hinton walking past a long line of police officers in the courtroom set to Sam Cooke's civil rights anthem 'A Change is Gonna Come.' Another version of the same clip, captioned 'the hate in their eyes' — referring to the police officers — had been liked 1.6 million times. T-shirts, yard signs and mugs for $20 a piece emblazoned with the image of Hinton in an orange jumpsuit walking by the police officers in the courtroom, with the words 'Free Rodney Hinton Jr.', are available to buy online. In Cincinnati, Hinton's actions were largely condemned. But online, they sparked a debate about the lasting impact of police violence on Black Americans. 'Rodney Hinton Jr. doing what he did was absolutely a direct reaction to watching the body cam footage of his son. But I also feel like DECADES of watching Black people suffer at the hands of police brutality, and be failed by the justice system, played a role in his actions too,' wrote Cindy Noir, a podcaster and commentator. Another writer compared the killing to that of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 'If you're Team Luigi Mangione, you should be Team Rodney Hinton Jr. too. Both men were pushed to the brink by violent systems—one by health insurance, the other by the murder of his child at the hands of police,' Leslie Vargas wrote for Afropunk. 'But only one is treated with sympathy. America always finds compassion for white rage while criminalizing Black grief. This isn't about what's justifiable—it's about who gets to be seen as human. Justice in this country still depends on the color of your skin,' she continued. In the days after the incident, the Black Panthers held a meeting in Cincinnati to organize in support of the father. 'We want to cause an epidemic towards the thinking that was expressed by Rodney Hinton," said Mmoja Ajabu, a Black Panther leader, said at the meeting. Online fundraising GoFundMe removed more than a dozen campaigns set up for him in the days after his arrest to help pay for legal fees quickly raised $5,000. That was shut down after protests from police unions, but another fundraiser on a different website set up by Hinton's sister has raised over $53,000 at the time of writing. A separate fundraiser set up by his wife now stands at $48,000. 'Dylan Roof, Kyle Rittenhouse, Derek Chauvin and the rest of those racist bigots had go fund me after killing black men for no reason so we can donate to our people,' wrote one donor on the fundraiser page. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost called a press conference on Tuesday, calling for the website that is hosting those fundraisers, GiveSendGo, to take them down. 'We shouldn't be crowdfunding an evildoer," Yost said, while conceding that the company was not breaking any laws. Bennett, Hinton's attorney, said the case had split public opinion. 'You got a certain part of the community that believes that what he did was evil and retaliatory, and it was done with a sane mind. And then you got another half of the community that says I understand how he might be triggered and have a psychiatric episode as a result of seeing his son killed,' he told The Independent. Meanwhile, Hinton's family is distancing themselves from the online debate. 'Everybody is hurting off this,' said Rodney Hinton Sr, Ryan's grandfather, at an emotional press conference, 'the family, the officer, the mother.' 'I was crying about what happened to the officer, you know, so that's what it was all about. It's all about healing each other. Everybody makes mistakes. It was an emotional mistake," he added. Anna Booker-Hinton, Hinton Jr.'s wife, hit out at media coverage of the case on the fundraising page for her husband. 'The media is twisting this devastating incident, trying to portray Rodney—an African American father in pain—as an angry man lashing out. But I know without a shadow of a doubt: Rodney did not act out of retaliation. He was a grieving father in unimaginable pain,' she wrote. Hundreds gathered for Henderson's funeral service on 9 May, including dozens of police cruisers from across the state. Ryan Hinton was laid to rest just over a week later with mourners wearing red, his favorite color, in tribute.
New York Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
5 Years After George Floyd's Murder, the Backlash Takes Hold
Black Lives Matter Plaza is gone from Washington, D.C. The bold yellow letters that once protested police violence are now paved over, though police killings nationally are actually up. The Justice Department has abandoned oversight agreements for police forces accused of racial bias, even as it begins an investigation of Chicago after the city's Black mayor praised the number of Black people in top city jobs. The U.S. refugee resettlement program is effectively shut down, but white South Africans have been granted an exception. Sunday is the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer, a searing moment of brutality that ignited what may have been the largest social movement in U.S. history. Five years later, the movement that his death helped begin may feel like it's in reverse. There has always been a rhythm to American social movements: forward momentum followed by backlash. Abolitionism's triumph gave way to the Ku Klux Klan and the end of Reconstruction. Civil rights marches dissipated, as Richard M. Nixon and his 'silent majority' rose to power. But even by historical standards, the current retrenchment feels swift and stark. Five years ago, Republicans and Democrats shared the nation's streets to denounce police violence and proclaim that Black lives matter. Now, Donald J. Trump, a president who has long championed white grievance, is setting the tone of racial discourse. To conservatives, the shift is a necessary course correction away from violence in the streets and crippling mandates that overburden police departments. 'President Trump is tirelessly enacting policies to ensure America's safety, prosperity, and success for all Americans,' said Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman. 'The Trump Administration is committed to stopping crime, upholding justice, protecting communities, and empowering federal, state, and local law enforcement.' But Manisha Sinha, who teaches American history at the University of Connecticut, sees the resurgence of old power structures as intentional though not inescapable. 'I don't think that there's something inevitable or cyclical about it,' Dr. Sinha said. 'As historians, we know that things just don't happen on their own.' To be sure, the Black Lives Matter movement well predated Mr. Floyd's death, emerging from the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in 2013 and the 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York, both of which happened at the hands of the police. But it exploded after the killing of Mr. Floyd. A half million people turned out in nearly 550 communities across the United States on a single day, June 6, 2020. Between 15 million and 26 million people participated in demonstrations or showed their support in the weeks after May 25, 2020, including Republican mainstays such as Mitt Romney, the party's 2012 presidential nominee, and Nikki Haley, Mr. Trump's first ambassador to the United Nations. Much has changed since then. Earlier this month, the Pew Research Center found that 72 percent of Americans say 'the increased focus on race and racial inequality after Floyd's killing did not lead to changes that improved the lives of Black people.' The popularity of the Black Lives Matter movement has dipped 15 percentage points from its June 2020 peak, though a slight majority of the public still voiced support. The toll can be personal. Selwyn Jones, 59, still speaks out about the death of his nephew, Mr. Floyd, under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. But as one of a handful of Black people in his small South Dakota town, Mr. Jones said his activism had alienated some people he once considered close. 'Those people that I thought were my friends, that I've known for 20 plus years, I haven't talked to any of them in about five years,' Mr. Jones said. Ibram X. Kendi, a professorial proponent of 'antiracism,' has seen his academic star dim since 2020, when he founded the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University with $55 million in donations. But in an interview, he said he still was taking the long view. The 'antiracist revolution' has slowed, he conceded, but it was never going to ascend unimpeded. 'I know it became particularly popular in recent decades that there's this singular arc of racial progress,' said Dr. Kendi, who will lead the Institute for Advanced Study at Howard University. 'It's political rhetoric, but it's actually not historical reality.' Still, it is difficult to ignore the headwinds facing racial justice activists, especially when those gusts seem to be blowing hardest from the highest levels of American power. Mr. Trump may have vowed in his second inaugural address to 'forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based,' but the president's belief that 'anti-white' discrimination has tilted society in favor of African Americans remains a driver of administration policy. Those policies include the dismantlement of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' in government, the targeting of perceived racial preferences in academia and the private sector and the rooting out of what Mr. Trump called 'improper ideology' at the Smithsonian Institution. As far back as 1989, Mr. Trump said, 'if I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated Black, because I really believe they do have an actual advantage.' In the 1990s, Mr. Trump expressed concern that white people losing majority status would lead to a revolution. In an Oval Office exchange on Wednesday with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Mr. Trump accused the leader of not doing enough to protect the white South Africans who he said were 'being executed.' He also has falsely claimed a genocide against white people was taking place. During the meeting Mr. Trump referred repeatedly to 'dead white people.' For some who achieved a new level of fame after Mr. Floyd's death, to only later receive recriminations and scorn, the last five years have been disorienting. 'I've tried not to take it personally,' said Dr. Kendi, whose scholarship has been impugned by Mr. Trump's supporters and whose tenure at Boston University included charges of mismanagement that were later dismissed. 'I know it has less to do with me and more to do with this attempt to make people like me, or the people who are doing the type of work that I'm doing, into these scary, harmful characters.' But Dr. Kendi has also faced criticism from his ostensible allies that his framework for antiracist activism is unworkable and counterproductive. Dr. Kendi has said that most of his critics 'either haven't read my work or willfully misrepresent it.' In the wake of Mr. Floyd's murder, the Black Lives Matter Foundation Inc. raised a staggering $79.6 million in fiscal year 2021. The next year, that figure was down to almost $8.5 million. By 2023, it was about $4.7 million, with expenses of $10.8 million, according to records tracked by the nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica. Allegations of mismanagement have ricocheted between the foundation and its funders, which harmed the reputation of the movement's leaders. Historians note that even when social movements are met with backlash, change is never fully rolled back. Despite the violence and terror used by southern states to suppress full Black citizenship in the post-Reconstruction era, slavery was not reinstituted. And Black activism is American activism, said Dr. Steven Hahn, a professor at New York University, even if some of the white allies who once stood shoulder to shoulder with Black protesters have turned away, 'You wouldn't have democracy in this country, or at least a sense of a robust democracy without Black people and their own struggles,' he said. 'They were the most committed to real democracy that was not bound by exceptions and exclusions.' But Professor Hahn expressed real worry. 'People get silenced, and then before you know it,' he said, 'we're really back at a really bad square one.' The police reform movement that was sparked by Mr. Floyd's murder has had lasting impacts. Many police departments still require officers to wear body cameras. No-knock warrants are banned in some areas. Data collection on police brutality has been enhanced. Mr. Trump's efforts to eradicate D.E.I., which critics say has become a catchall term to describe policies that benefit anyone who is not white and male, is beginning to meet grass roots resistance. On Wednesday, the big-box retailer Target reported a drop in foot traffic and sales, a response in part to its retreat from diversity policies, in part to tariff anxiety. The company's sales fell 3.8 percent last quartered compared with the same quarter a year ago. On the flip side of that is Michael Green, who like many was moved by the protests of 2020. A self-described 'flag nerd,' Mr. Green thought marchers should have proper banners that could match the iconography of Mr. Trump's movement, so he started Flags for Good, which makes signage for progressive causes, including Black Lives Matter. A company once run out of a spare bedroom has now become a career. Items in the Black Lives Matter section in particular have seen a huge leap in sales that, he said, was driven by Mr. Trump's re-election.
