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Category: Police

  • San Francisco’s War On RV Communities Is Bureaucratic Cruelty By Design

    I used to think San Francisco was a compassionate city. But I’ve come to understand that what looks like bureaucratic dysfunction is often deliberate: a system engineered to displace.

    Over the past year, I’ve watched my RV community be targeted, harassed, and evicted. Not by accident—but by design.

    It began on Bernal Heights Boulevard, where our small group — about 12 RVs with individuals, families, and pets — lived in relative peace. We shared meals and watched each other’s things while folks went to work. Then came a wave of 311 complaints: reports of sewage, parking issues, even allegations of harassment we believe were fabricated. Police soon followed. One officer warned us we’d be arrested “if we so much as winked at a teenager.”

    The post San Francisco’s War On RV Communities Is Bureaucratic Cruelty By Design appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • “By the time you go to the police, nobody is going to ever see you again” | Podcast Trailer


    This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Cops in Florida who beat a young Black man to face no charges – so the community steps in

    A fundraiser for young Black man William McNeil Jr from Jacksonville Florida has gone viral in response to the disgusting, but all too predictable announcement from local prosecutors to let the cops who brutalised him off the hook.

    No consequences for Florida cops that brutalised William McNeil Jr

    In February, Florida cops pulled over 22-year-old William McNeil Jr. He was on his way home from mentoring local youth in his community.

    McNeil savvily recorded the encounter – which exposed the Florida cops’ deplorable violence towards him during the incident. In an appalling scene, the officers smash in his car window before punching him in the face and violently dragging him from the vehicle and assaulting him:

    The footage clearly shows McNeil simply asking the officers their reasons for demanding he exit the car. Instead of answering, the cops quickly got violent.

    But of course, the Florida force has been doing what all cops do best: lying through their teeth about the events. It was the usual claims. As the Washington Post reported:

    Police wrote in a report that before he was pulled out of the car, McNeil reached for the floorboard, where an unsheathed knife was later found.

    However, the outlet then noted that:

    Publicly available video footage does not show him leaning down toward it.

    Unsurprisingly, further police body-cam footage the Jacksonville sheriff’s office has just released also showed no such thing:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by useless cops (@uselesscops)

    It provided further context. Officers told him they’d pulled him over for not having his headlights on – in visibly broad daylight – before savagely attacking him.

    Police impunity, as ever

    They arrested William McNeil Jr for possession of marijuana, resisting an officer without violence, and driving with a suspended license. McNeil pleaded guilty to the latter two, and a court served him a two-day prison sentence.

    Police waving drug laws around and targeting Black communities for criminalisation? It’s obviously nothing new from the rabidly racist US police and state, as something they’ve disproportionality done for a past-time.

    But police keep us safe, right?

    Of course, nothing can remotely justify the cops vindictively brutalising McNeil. McNeil has described how the assault left him:

    not only traumatized but also with a chipped tooth, multiple stitches in my lip, a concussion, and short-term memory loss.

    Yet, according to the Jacksonville sheriff T.K. Waters, prosecutors in Florida have already said they won’t be charging the officers involved.

    A violent encounter with cops comes at an unconscionable cost

    In a press conference on Wednesday, William McNeil Jr spoke out for the first time about the experience:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by useless cops (@uselesscops)

    Understandably still broken from the atrocious incident, McNeil spoke of his fear in the moment and the fact he’d done nothing wrong.

    Now, people are stepping up to support him where the state won’t. McNeil has set up a fundraiser, after many asked him to do so.

    Naturally, the hugely traumatising incident has had a huge ongoing impact on him in multiple unconscionable ways. He wrote on the fundraiser that:

    I faced several charges that forced me to seek legal representation, which I could not afford. The incident resulted in significant medical bills, and I am unable to repair my car. The mental, emotional, and psychological distress has made it challenging for me to maintain steady employment. I am uncertain if I am mentally or physically prepared to return to college in Fall 2025, which was my intention before this incident. What should have been a typical day for me has turned into an uncertain future due to a violent encounter that should never have occurred. I am raising $10,000.00 to help cover medical expenses, auto repairs, recoup legal fees, and to support myself as I recover and work towards rebuilding my life.

    Already, it has outstripped its original $10,000 goal. At the time of publication, more than 500 people have donated over $15,000 to help McNeil seek justice.

    Support McNeil where the state won’t

    Ultimately, the racist cops were arguably looking for any excuse to pull over and beat an unarmed Black man – and William McNeil Jr was the unlucky first to cross their paths. The scene with officers grabbing his head and pushing him to the ground could be switched out with George Floyd footage from 2020, and you’d notice no difference. And US cops murdering Black people in traffic stops has long been systemic.

    In 2016, cops in Minnesota shot dead 32-year-old Philando Castile in a traffic stop. In 2021, police killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright, after pulling him over for an expired registration and an air freshener. The list goes on – and the violence never stops.

    In the press conference with McNeil, a speaker on stage noted that:

    it could have been a different result if he hadn’t kept his demeanor.

    And he was right. But it also speaks to a lengths Black, brown, and racially minoritised people have to go to maintain the image of the perfect victim as well. When it comes down to it, the virulently white supremacy that victim-blames Black folks to uphold systemic police violence against their communities is what McNeil’s footage and story has captured in a nutshell.

    The US state, and indeed Western white supremacist nations the world over, will never protect the communities their status quo is dependent on marginalising.

    As ever, McNeil’s experience is a torrid tale in repulsive police impunity. But mutual aid is standing up to this abominable injustice. At the end of the day, it’s communities that keep communities safe – and we must continue to do so.

    You can donate to William McNeil Jr’s fundraiser here.

    Featured image via screengrab

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • It shouldn’t need saying but cops were NOT escorting anti-racist protesters in Essex

    A Telegraph article has framed recent Essex police failures as cops escorting pro-asylum seeker protesters to the Bell Hotel. However, what the Torygraph failed to mention is that this is from the typical UK police playbook.

    In reality, they’re following protesters while trying to extract information along the way.

    ‘Facilitating free assembly’ at the Bell Hotel

    Essex Police have come under fire on social media for ‘escorting’ left-wing protesters to the Bell Hotel housing asylum seekers, where far-right lunatics were gathering.

    Essex police have denied escorting them to the hotel. However, videos online very clearly showed police walking alongside protesters. The Assistant Chief Constable, Stuart Hooper, defended their actions. He said:

    We have a reasonable duty to protect people who want to exercise their rights. In terms of bringing people to the hotel, the police have a duty to facilitate free assembly.

    ‘Facilitating free assembly’ – apart from when that assembly involves protesting a genocide, right?

    Racism, plain and simple

    Some of the protesters were seen with signs saying:

    I’m not far right I’m worried about my kids

    Well, we say ‘protesters’. They were actually Karens (one of them quite literally a Karen) from Reform – most of who were bussed in (ironically):

    There was also the predictable ex-BNP Karens there:

    Are they planning to protest outside the house of every single one of the 117 people accused of violent and sexual offences in the Epping area? Or is it only the Black and brown ones that are a problem?

    Most days in the UK, white men are accused of, or charged with, sexually abusing children. Where is the moral outrage? Where’s the protests and the riots? Or the uproar? That’s right, there is none because its plain and simple racism disguised as ‘protecting children’.

    If they really cared about protecting children, there would be a hell of a lot more protests.

    In a statement to the BBC, Essex police said:

    Officers did provide a foot cordon around protesters on their way to the protest, where they and others were allowed to exercise their right to protest.

    Later some people who were clearly at risk of being hurt were also escorted by vehicle away from the area for their safety.

    To reiterate, we categorically did not drive any counter-protesters to the site on any occasion.

    Caught with their pants down

    The right wing have kicked up a fuss about police escorting the left-wing protesters for all the wrong reasons. They were incensed that the police might have driven the anti-racist counter-protesters to the site, which the grovelling Essex Constabulary were quick to deny.

    The issues were instead that:

    •⁠ ⁠The police focused on non-violent protesters, rather than forming a barrier around those committing violence.

    •⁠ ⁠It craftily used this as an excuse to tail left-wing protesters while letting the right-wing thugs get away with bigotry and violence, no doubt making the situation worse because they viewed it as ‘protection’.

    But no matter what the police were actually trying to do, we have caught them with their pants down – because they lied. 

    ‘Facilitating freedom of assembly’ is just a pretence for gathering intelligence on those dangerous anti-racist, anti-genocide, tofu-eating, planet-protecting wokerati – truly a terrifying national security risk! Cops in Essex just did what they do best: protect the status quo. With successive Tory governments – and now this despicable Labour one, the far-right sit comfortably within that.

    In 2025 Britain, fascist thugs can sidle up to a hotel housing men, women, kids, and families fleeing Western-fueled conflict, persecution, and climate ruin, and the state enables them. But is it any wonder when the prime minister is spouting rancid, depraved plans to go after migrants like it’s his (warped) Liam Neeson moment?

    Either way, time and again, police have used this underhanded tactic – and we’re sure as hell not buying.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Chicagoans Pack City Hall To Oppose Jim Crow Curfew Ordinance

    Chicago, IL – On Wednesday morning, July 16, hundreds of people packed the Chicago city hall lobby ahead of the city council meeting. Many youth and community organizations stood united in opposition to the racist snap curfew ordinance that was put forward by Alderman Brian Hopkins two months before. This snap curfew would give the Chicago Police Department unchecked power in the instance of a mass gathering to institute a curfew with only 30 minutes notice and engage in mass arrests.

    The curfew received a favorable vote in the June city council meeting, but Mayor Brandon Johnson vetoed the ordinance.

    The post Chicagoans Pack City Hall To Oppose Jim Crow Curfew Ordinance appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ICE deportation action lands Marshallese, Micronesians in Guantánamo ‘terror’ base

    By Giff Johnson, editor, Marshall Islands Journal/RNZ Pacific correspondent

    United States immigration and deportation enforcement continues to ramp up, impacting on Marshallese and Micronesians in new and unprecedented ways.

    The Trump administration’s directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and deport massive numbers of potentially illegal aliens, including those with convictions from decades past, is seeing Marshallese and Micronesians swept up by ICE.

    The latest unprecedented development is Marshallese and Micronesians being removed from the United States to the offshore detention facility at the US Navy base in Guantánamo Bay — a facility set up to jail terrorists suspected of involvement in the 9/11 airplane attacks in the US in 2001.

    Marshall Islands Ambassador to the US Charles Paul this week confirmed a media report that one Marshallese was currently incarcerated at Guantánamo, which is also known as “GTMO”.

    The same report from nationnews.com said 72 detainees from 26 countries had been sent to GTMO last week, including from the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.

    A statement issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE operations, concerning detention of foreigners with criminal records at GTMO said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was using “every tool available to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets and out of our country.”

    But the action was criticised by a Marshallese advocate for citizens from the Compact countries in the US.

    ‘Legal, ethical concerns’
    “As a Compact of Free Association (COFA) advocate and ordinary indigenous citizen of the Marshallese Islands, I strongly condemn the detention of COFA migrants — including citizens from the Republic of the Marshall Islands — at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay,” Benson Gideon said in a social media post this week.

    “This action raises urgent legal, constitutional, and ethical concerns that must be addressed without delay.”

    Since seeing the news about detention of a Marshallese in this US facility used to hold suspected terrorists, Ambassador Paul said he had “been in touch with ICE to repatriate one Marshallese being detained.”

    Paul said he was “awaiting all the documents pertaining to the criminal charges, but we were informed that the individual has several felony and misdemeanor convictions. We are working closely with ICE to expedite this process.”

    Gideon said bluntly the detention of the Marshallese was a breach of Compact treaty obligations.

    “The COFA agreement guarantees fair treatment. Military detention undermines this commitment,” he said.

    Gideon listed the strong Marshallese links with the US — service in high numbers in the US military, hosting of the Kwajalein missile range, US military control of Marshall Islands ocean and air space — as examples of Marshallese contributions to the US.

    ‘Treated as criminals’
    “Despite these sacrifices, our people are being treated as criminals and confined in a facility historically associated with terrorism suspects,” he said.

    “I call on the US Embassy in Majuro to publicly address this injustice and work with federal agencies to ensure COFA Marshallese residents are treated with dignity and fairness.

    “If we are good enough to host your missile ranges, fight in your military, and support your defence strategy, then we are good enough to be protected — not punished. Let justice, transparency, and respect prevail.”

    There were 72 immigration detainees at Guantánamo Bay, 58 of them classified as high-risk and 14 in the low-risk category, reported nationnews.com.

    The report added that the criminal records of the detainees include convictions for homicide; sexual offences, including against children; child pornography; assault with a weapon; kidnapping; drug smuggling; and robbery.

    Civil rights advocates have called the detention of immigration detainees at Guantanamo Bay punitive and unlawful, arguing in an active lawsuit that federal law does not allow the government to hold those awaiting deportation outside of US territory.

    In other US immigration and deportation developments:

    • The delivery last month by US military aircraft of 18 Marshallese deported from the US and escorted by armed ICE agents is another example of the ramped-up deportation focus of the Trump administration. Since the early 2000s more than 300 Marshall Islanders have been deported from the US. Prior to the Trump administration, past deportations were managed by US Marshals escorting deportees individually on commercial flights.
    • According to Marshall Islands authorities, there have not been any deportations since the June 10 military flight to Majuro, suggesting that group deportations may be the way the Trump administration handles further deportations.
    • Individual travellers flying into Honolulu whose passports note place of birth as Kiribati are reportedly now being refused entry. This reportedly happened to a Marshallese passport holder late last month who had previously travel
    • led in and out of the US without issue.

    Most Marshallese passport holders enjoy visa-free travel to the US, though there are different levels of access to the US based on if citizenship was gained through naturalisation or a passport sales programme in the 1980s and 1990s.

    US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Laura Stone said, however, that “the visa-free travel rules have not changed.”

    She said she could not speak to any individual traveller’s situation without adequate information to evaluate the situation.

    She pointed out that citizenship “acquired through naturalisation, marriage, investment, adoption” have different rules. Stone urged all travellers to examine the rules carefully and determine their eligibility for visa-free travel.

    “If they have a question, we would be happy to answer their enquiry at ConsMajuro@state.gov,” she added.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Trump Admin Seeks 1-Day Sentence for Cop Convicted in Killing of Breonna Taylor

    Civil rights prosecutors in the Trump administration are pursuing a one-day jail sentence for Brett Hankison, the ex-police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor, effectively seeking to solidify impunity for police involved in the shooting that sparked nationwide protests against racist police brutality. Hankison was convicted by a federal jury in November for using…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Kneecap police investigation exposed as a political stunt as cops drop all of it

    Avon and Somerset Police have decided not to continue their investigation into Kneecap’s performance at Glastonbury.

    State intimidation of Kneecap

    It is clear that opening the investigation was nothing more than a political stunt, aimed at inflicting intimidation.

    The email stated:

    RE: Your Clients: (1) Liam Og Hanna, (2) Naoise O’Caireallain and (3) James John O’Dochartaigh, commonly known
    ‘Kneecap’

    I am Senior Investigating Officer for Avon and Somerset Police’s investigation into Kneecap’s performance at the Glastonbury Festival on 28th June 2025 [REDACTED}
    Following a review of the evidence, I have determined there will be no further
    action.
    I would be grateful if you could communicate this to your clients, and/ or advise me of an alternative way of contacting them.
    Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
    Regards [REDACTED]
    Detective Superintendent [REDACTED]

    The police announced the investigation publicly, and with a huge show of force from the media. But now, they have decided to close the investigation in a private email chain to two people.

    Of course, you can quietly retract an accusation you put out at full volume.

    Where’s the public apology for reputational damage? Kneecap had gigs cancelled amid the media uproar. Manchester council have also been ‘in talks’ over dropping them from the Wythenshawe Park lineup in August.

    The group were set to play at the TRNSMT festival in Glasgow this weekend. The festival pulled them from the lineup following concerns raised by the police. Despite that, they played a replacement show at Glasgow’s O2 Academy, which sold out in 80 seconds.

    Similarly, Radar Festival pulled Bob Vylan from their lineup in Greater Manchester earlier in July. This was after they led “death to the IDF” chants during their Glastonbury set.

    Of course, broadcasters can call for disabled people to be shot or starved, but a band calling for death to a genocidal army is somehow crossing a line?

    Clearly, though, the government and police have already damaged both of their reputations.

    Witch-hunt

    The investigation was nothing more than a witch-hunt designed to unnerve anyone standing up for Palestine.

    In a country where most sexual offences go unsolved, the government and police think a good use of their time is intimidating a pop-trio standing up for dead babies. If nothing else, that shows you the morals of the people both governing and policing us.

    Over and over again, the police have overstepped when it comes to shutting down protests against genocide. They are disguising their own police harassment as ‘anti-terror policing’.

    The police would charge anyone else for wasting their time.

    It should not take a band to set the standard for leadership by standing up against genocide. But here we are.

    At least the police have now backed off. However, they had already done serious reputational damage to a band that has shown more morals than every police force in the country, and the government, put together.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • More arrests expected as multiple Palestine Action protest to take place on Saturday

    On Saturday 19 July, dozens of people across the country are expected to be arrested under counter-terrorism legislation for holding cardboard signs. It is, of course, over the government’s proscription of Palestine Action. Locations include:

    • London, Gandhi statue in Parliament Square, 1pm
    • Manchester, Gandhi statue in Cathedral Yard, 12pm
    • Edinburgh, top of the Mound, 11am
    • Bristol, in front of the Council House on College Green, 1pm
    • Truro, front steps of Truro Cathedral, 11am

    Since home secretary Yvette Cooper ordered that Palestine Action be banned as a ‘terrorist organisation’ on 5 July, after the group entered an RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes red, more than 100 people have been arrested around the country for holding cardboard signs saying:

    Orwellian over Palestine Action protests

    Last Saturday, in Orwellian scenes, peaceful protestors in Cardiff were arrested under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act, kept in police custody for an extended period, while their homes were raided and their personal belongings seized.

    In further evidence of the chilling effect of the ban, on Monday Kent Police threatened to arrest a woman, Laura Murton, on terrorism charges simply for holding a sign referring to Israel’s genocide with a Palestinian flag, on the basis that that was sufficient to provide grounds for ‘suspicion’ that she was a supporter of a proscribed group:

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Humanti Project (@humantiproject)

    Despite such extreme repression that is shocking to the conscience of democracy, the protests are expected to resume on Saturday, including in Parliament Square, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Truro.

    Saturday’s protests come ahead of a High Court hearing on Monday 21 July in the legal challenge to the ban, in which the Claimant, Huda Ammori, will seek permission for a full judicial review of the proscription.

    A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, which is supporting the campaign to de-proscribe Palestine Action, said:

    These protests will see many more ordinary people across the country take a stand, who don’t want to be handcuffed and detained in a police cell but refuse to stand by while our country collapses into an Orwellian nightmare where opponents of genocide are criminalised and silenced, and arrested just for holding a sign.

    Protest groups targeting property, not people, in order to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel’s war machine while it commits horrific atrocities – is obviously not terrorism. It aims to stop violence and terrorism being committed against the Palestinian people. How long until this unprecedented, authoritarian proscription is used against racial justice, climate, disability rights groups and trade unions, unless we resist the ban now, before it’s too late?

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Cops In Chaos Over How To Respond To Palestine Action Protests

    The UK-wide protests on Saturday 12 July against the proscription of Palestine Action have exposed a stark divide in the policing response across different forces. Raids and repression to different degrees across the country are indicative of the chaos the government has unleashed with its order that permits police to treat protestors holding cardboard signs as if they were terrorists.

    The spectrum of responses on Saturday ranged from a hands-off approach in Kendal and Derry, to surreal repression in Cardiff, where cops locked protestors up, raided their homes, and tested their food cupboards with something appearing to be a Geiger counter.

    The post Cops In Chaos Over How To Respond To Palestine Action Protests appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • On CNN, Los Angeles’ ICE Protesters Were Seen And Not Heard

    A FAIR study found that CNN’s primetime coverage of the Los Angeles anti-ICE protests in early June rarely included the voices of the protesters themselves. Instead, the network’s sources were overwhelmingly current and former government and law enforcement officials. The resulting coverage rarely took issue with Trump’s desire to silence the people who were defending their undocumented neighbors—but mainly debated his decision to deploy the California National Guard to do so.

    The post On CNN, Los Angeles’ ICE Protesters Were Seen And Not Heard appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Cops in chaos over how to respond to Palestine Action protests

    The UK-wide protests on Saturday 12 July against the proscription of Palestine Action have exposed a stark divide in the policing response across different forces. Raids and repression to different degrees across the country are indicative of the chaos the government has unleashed with its order that permits police to treat protestors holding cardboard signs as if they were terrorists.

    The spectrum of responses on Saturday ranged from a hands-off approach in Kendal and Derry, to surreal repression in Cardiff, where cops locked protestors up, raided their homes, and tested their food cupboards with something appearing to be a Geiger counter.

    Palestine Action protests against proscription: police response divided

    On the one hand, police in Kendal and Derry used their discretion to allow protests to proceed without interference. On the other hand, South Wales Police treated the protestors as if they presented a serious danger to the public. They arrested them under the Terrorism Act Section 12, applying for an extension of pre-charge custody and conducted raids on their homes. Reportedly, the force even tested protesters’ food cupboards with a device resembling a Geiger counter.

    Protesters sit in a line holding placards while a huge line of police stand before them.

    In Manchester and London the approach was somewhere in between. Police arrested protestors under the Terrorism Act Section 13 (a much lesser charge than Section 12). They then quickly released protesters on police bail.

    Large group of protesters with Palestine flags and placards reading "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action".

    No arrests in Derry or Kendal, but draconian repression and overreach elsewhere

    In both Kendal and Derry, the police chose to allow the actions to proceed undisturbed. This was despite protesters alerting them to the demonstrations in advance. In Kendal, the first part of the wording of the sign was different: “Defend Your Right to Protest” as opposed to “I Oppose Genocide”. But this doesn’t explain the different approach, because it is only the second part of the message that allegedly violates the Terrorism Act.

    In Leeds, the police arrested and raided the home of one solo sitter. They have now released him on police bail.

    Police have so far charged one person over the weekend, and that was in Glasgow, where a man wore a shirt the police considered to be supportive of Palestine Action.

    Meanwhile, the South Wales Police deployed draconian terrorism powers.

    They responded to the sign-holding as if it were a serious terrorist incident. The force held the 13 sign-holders for an extended period in police custody. This was after a Superintendent authorised the extension of the normal time for being held prior to charge. This is usually a maximum of 24 hours. South Wales Police also raided the homes of the sign-holders, seizing posters, books, and tech, and leaving broken down front doors wide open. Two of the 13 were Quakers, aged 78 and 80, an it was reportedly their food cupboards that the police tested for radioactive material.

    A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said:

    The Chief Constable of South Wales police has got carried away with his new powers, treating peaceful protestors with cardboard signs like Al-Qaida operatives. Is this absurd diversion of police resources what Yvette Cooper really intended?

    The massive variation in the police response to people holding exactly the same sign brings the law into disrepute. Express your opinion in Kendall or Derry and the police will leave you be. Do the same thing in Cardiff, the police will react as if your cardboard sign is a grave danger to the public, keeping you locked up while they break down your doors and raid your homes.

    It shows the chaos the Home Secretary’s order is causing. Basic legal principles have been turned on their head. Dystopia beckons if we don’t take a stand.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • How To Create A Justice System Rooted In Care

    What if justice begins not with punishment, but with care?

    What if our failure to care for the communities harmed by police — and for the officers themselves — is the quiet crisis sustaining a system that brutalizes everyone it touches?

    We need to talk about the emotional cost of policing. But not in isolation.

    We need to talk about George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Tyre Nichols. We need to talk about the rage that floods the streets when a routine stop turns deadly, when a mental health crisis becomes a fatal encounter. These are not isolated incidents, they are systemic patterns. And yet, they are also deeply personal, carried out by individuals who are sometimes breaking under the weight of the very system they represent.

    The post How To Create A Justice System Rooted In Care appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • We Regret to Inform You

    Bruce Praet is a well-known name in law enforcement, especially in California. He co-founded a company called Lexipol that contracts with more than 95 percent of police departments in the state and offers its clients trainings and ready-made policies.


    In one of Praet’s online training webinars, he offers a piece of advice that policing experts have called inhumane. It’s aimed at protecting officers and their departments from lawsuits.


    After police kill someone, they are supposed to notify the family. Instead of delivering the news immediately, Praet advises officers to first ask about the person who was killed to get as much unflattering information as possible. 


    Reporter Brian Howey started looking into this advice when he was with the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. This week on Reveal, he delves into his finding that officers have been using this tactic across California. He also finds that the information families disclosed before they knew their relative was killed later affected their lawsuits against law enforcement departments. 


    This is an update of an episode that originally aired in November 2023.

    Connect with us onBluesky, Facebook and Instagram

    Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Journalist shoved to the ground by police at immigration protest

    Freelance journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was knocked to the ground by police and then struck in the back with a baton in Whittier, California, while documenting immigration protests on June 11, 2025.

    The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

    Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was freelancing for the Los Angeles Public Press, reporting on demonstrations at the DoubleTree Hotel in Whittier, where protesters believed federal immigration officials were staying as they carried out raids throughout Los Angeles County.

    In a post on the social platform Bluesky, Beckner-Carmitchel wrote that Whittier Police Department officers arrived after a window was broken. In photos and footage he posted, the officers appear to be positioned to prevent protesters from entering the hotel.

    He told the Tracker that officers then came rushing out of the hotel to push back the crowd.

    “When Whittier PD surged out of the hotel, an officer pushed me with his baton and I lost my balance and fell,” Beckner-Carmitchel said. “While I was on the ground, I also had an officer put his hand on me. I don’t necessarily want to call it a punch, but there was force.”

    In footage he posted to Bluesky, officers can be seen charging forward, pushing the crowd with their batons and shouting “Back! Get the fuck back!” It appears that two officers pushed Beckner-Carmitchel, knocking him to the ground. As he begins to get up, another officer seems to rush toward him, striking and pushing the journalist back down despite him shouting, “Press! Press! Press!”

    Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker he was able to get up once the officers had moved past him, but he was left with bruises on his left arm and hip.

    In a statement posted on Instagram, the city of Whittier and the Whittier Police Department said that the claims that federal agents were staying at the hotel were incorrect.

    “In response to an urgent plea from hotel management, a regional law enforcement response, led by the Whittier Police Department, was activated to help restore safety,” the statement said. “The crowd was safely dispersed around 2:00 a.m., with no injuries reported and no arrests made.”

    Whittier police did not respond to a request for further comment.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Police brutality video from Jaunpur, UP, falsely viral as Tamil Nadu incident

    Following the alleged custodial death of a temple security guard in Tamil Nadu, a video depicting an alleged incident of police brutality has been gathering traction on social media. In the footage, two men can be seen restraining a man while a policeman beats him up with a belt. Users are sharing this video and claiming that the incident is from Tamil Nadu.

    A user named Arjun tweeted the viral clip with the same claim, adding that the police department should be renamed as the brutality department of Tamil Nadu government. (Archived link)

    A user named Selvakumar also made a similar claim while sharing the video. (Archived link)

    Another user named Kumaran tweeted the video and wrote that people were being beaten up and tortured by the police in the name of interrogation. Kumaran used the hashtag ‘DMKFailsTN’ linking this video to Tamil Nadu. He later deleted this tweet.

    Fact Check

    Alt News performed a reverse image search using frames taken from the viral video. This led us to a report by UP Tak dated April 25, 2025 related to this video. The video report states that this case is from Mungra Badshahpur police station of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, where SHO Vinod Mishra had assaulted a man with a belt.

    The report states that the young man had given some money to the police officer for some work, but when it was not done, the young man went to ask for his money back. At this time, the SHO beat him up with a belt while some policemen pinned him against a pillar. Speaking on this matter, SSP Rural, Shailendra Singh stated that they had taken cognizance of the matter, and launched a departmental inquiry to investigate what had transpired. Along with this, he mentioned that the SHO had been shunted with immediate effect. This makes it evident that the viral video is not from Tamil Nadu, but from Uttar Pradesh. 

    A report by India TV from April 24, 2025, also states that the incident is from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and identifies the individual beating up the man in the video as Mungra Badshahpur police station-in-charge Vinod Mishra. This report, too, makes the point that the victim had given money to Mishra for some work, but when the work was not done, the youth asked for the money back from him, which was when the station in-charge started thrashing him.

    Amar Ujala, too, reported on the incident of alleged police brutality. However, their report said it was a matter of domestic dispute in a family residing in Hemapur-Tarhathi area in Mungra Badshahpur Block in Jaunpur District. One of the parties involved in the dispute had allegedly given Rs. 26,000 to police, upon which police picked up the youth seen in the video from his house, tied him to a pillar in the police station and beat hm up severely. Although Alt News cannot confirm these allegations, it is clear that this video is not from Tamil Nadu, but from an incident in Uttar Pradesh.

    To sum up, several users shared a video of a man being brutally beaten up by policemen inside a police station in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, with the false claim that it was an incident from Tamil Nadu.

    The post Police brutality video from Jaunpur, UP, falsely viral as Tamil Nadu incident appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Photographer struck by police horse, crowd-control munition while covering LA protest

    Freelance photographer Montez Harris was charged repeatedly by a police horse and shot with a crowd-control munition while reporting on anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 11, 2025.

    The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around Los Angeles of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

    At the time of the incident, Harris was filming at Grand Park in front of Los Angeles City Hall with a large camera and long lens, and had a camera bag, according to a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Press Club and others against the Los Angeles Police Department earlier this month over alleged attacks against journalists.

    An LAPD officer on horseback then charged his horse into Harris at least two times, according to the lawsuit and a video of the incident. “Leave the area,” officers screamed at Harris, who was already walking away.

    “Get out of here or you’re gonna get shot,” said another officer, who was on foot. Harris was later shot with a crowd-control munition, according to Adam Rose, chair of the L.A. Press Club’s press rights committee.

    Soon after that, a third officer, also on foot, can be seen in the video shoving Harris.

    Harris declined to comment when contacted by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

    The LAPD, when reached for comment, directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts, where statements and comments would be posted. The account does not appear to have posted any comment concerning the incident involving Harris.

    Two days before this incident, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said in a press conference that he was “very concerned” about reports that journalists were being hit by crowd-control munitions.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ABC News correspondent pushed by police on live TV while covering LA protest

    ABC News correspondent Matt Gutman was pushed and berated by a police officer on live TV while covering a protest against the Trump administration in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 14, 2025.

    The protest was one of more than 2,000 “No Kings” demonstrations held nationwide to counter a military parade attended by President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. It also followed days of protests in the city and nearby towns against recent federal raids, part of the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown.

    Gutman was reporting live June 14 as the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies began aggressively clearing the streets of protesters.

    An ABC News Live video posted by multiple social media users showed an LAPD officer — wearing a gas mask and other riot gear standing in a line of other officers — pushing Gutman and yelling at him for allegedly touching another officer.

    “Now you’re pushing me on live television,” Gutman said to the officer. “We didn’t touch anybody, you know that’s true.”

    “Tensions are extremely high here,” Gutman continued. “Yes, because you touched the officer,” the officer shouted.

    “That was a moment that we haven’t experienced very often here,” Gutman added as the officer moved away. “I think that there has been respect between the media and law enforcement here. We have kept our distance.”

    Another video from the ABC News Live feed posted on social media shows an officer forcefully pushing Gutman out of the way of a police line and the reporter’s hand appearing to grab the officer’s arm in response, seemingly to maintain his balance. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker could not confirm the timing of that incident.

    The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment about the incident. In a statement on the social platform X, the department warned members of the media not to position themselves between a crowd and a police skirmish line, saying they could get caught between “rocks, bottles, thrown items, fireworks, and less-lethal munitions.”

    Gutman and ABC News did not respond to requests for comment.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Palestine protesters target NZ businesses ‘complicit’ with Israel’s Gaza genocide

    Asia Pacific Report

    Protesters against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and occupied West Bank targeted three business sites accused of being “complicit” in Aotearoa New Zealand today.

    The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa’s “End Rocket Lab Genocide Complicity” themed protest picketed Rocket Lab’s New Zealand head office in Mt Wellington.

    Simultaneously, protesters also picketed a site in Warkworth where Rocket Lab equipment is built and Mahia peninsula where satellites are launched.

    In a statement on the PSNA website, it was revealed this week that the advocacy group’s lawyers have prepared a 103-page “indictment” against two business leaders, including the head of Rocket Lab, along with four politicians, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

    They have been referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for investigation on an accusation of complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    Rocket Lab chief executive Sir Peter Beck is one of the six people named in the legal brief.

    “Rocket Lab has recently launched geospatial intelligence satellites for BlackSky Technology,” said PSNA co-chair John Minto in a statement.

    High resolution images
    “These satellites provide high resolution images to Israel which are very likely used to assist with striking civilians in Gaza. Sir Peter has proceeded with these launches in full knowledge of these circumstances”

    A "Genocide Lab" protest against Rocket Lab in Mt Wellington
    A “Genocide Lab” protest against Rocket Lab in Mt Wellington today. Image: PSNA

    “When governments and business leaders can’t even condemn a genocide then civil society groups must act.”

    The other business leader named is Rakon Limited chief executive officer Dr Sinan Altug.

    “Despite vast weapons transfers from the United States to Israel since the beginning of its war on Gaza, Rakon has continued with its longstanding supply of crystal oscillators to US arms manufacturers for use in guided missiles which are then available to Israel for the bombing of Gaza, as well as Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran with consequential massive loss of life,” Minto said.

    “Rakon’s claims that it has no responsibility over how these ‘dual-use’ technologies are used are not credible.”

    Rocket Lab and Rakon have in the past rejected claims over their responsibility.

    Speakers at Mount Wellington included the Green Party spokesperson for foreign affairs Teanau Tuiono; Dr Arama Rata, a researcher and lecturer from Victoria University; and Sam Vincent, the legal team leader for the ICC referral.

    Law academic Professor Jane Kelsey spoke at the Warkworth picket.

    Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, leading international scholars and the UN Special Committee to investigate Israel’s practices have all condemned Israel’s actions as genocide.

    Protesters against Rocket Lab's alleged complicity with Israel's genocide in Gaza
    Protesters against Rocket Lab’s alleged complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza today. Image: Del Abcede/APR


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island – SBS podcast

    Pacific Media Watch

    In July 1985, Australia’s Pacific territory of Norfolk Island (pop. 2188) became the centre of a real life international spy thriller.

    Four French agents sailed there on board the Ouvéa, a yacht from Kanaky New Caledonia, after bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, killing Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira.

    The Rainbow Warrior was the flagship for a protest flotilla due to travel to Moruroa atoll to challenge French nuclear tests.

    Australian police took them into custody on behalf of their New Zealand counterparts but then, bafflingly, allowed them to sail away, never to face justice.

    On the 40th anniversary of the bombing (10 July 2025), award-winning journalist Richard Baker goes on an adventure from Paris to the Pacific to get the real story – and ultimately uncover the role that Australia played in the global headline-making affair.

    The programme includes an interview with Pacific journalist David Robie, author of Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior. David’s article about this episode is published at Declassified Australia here.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Dalit man tortured in Jhansi? Old video resurfaces; police says victim, assailants from same community

    A 55-second-long clip, purportedly showing a Dalit labourer with his hands tied and his head being shaved against his will as a crowd laughs at his plight, is viral on social media. In the second half of the clip, the man is seen speaking to the media, narrating the ordeal he was subjected to. He says his head was forcibly shaved as an act of humiliation because he refused a job, and he was then paraded in that state.

    X user Navratn Lal Yadav (@NavrtnYadav) shared the clip on June 29 with a caption in Hindi that translates to: “Now if a Yadav, Lodhi, or Dalit refuses to work as a labourer, their head is shaved, they are hung upside down and made to drink water, paraded through the entire village—this is the Taliban-like punishment of the BJP government. There is no definition for what happened in Jhansi; under the protection of the government of the dominant people, their courage is emboldened. PDA will change the government in 2027”. So far, this post has received over 163,000 views and has been retweeted nearly 2,000 times. (Archive)

    Several other users shared the same clip, claiming that the victim belongs to the Dalit community and the perpetrators are from a dominant caste. Below are a few instances.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    We noticed that the Jhansi police clarified, under some of the recent posts carrying the viral clip, that the video is eight months old and that both parties are from the same community.

     

    To know more about the incident, we broke down the viral video into several keyframes and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a report by Aaj Tak from October 25, 2024, which carried a screengrab from the viral clip. The headline of the article said: ‘A young man was punished for not preparing fodder for the buffalo, his head was shaved and he was hung from a tree with his hands and legs tied’.

    The report mentioned that the victim, 45-year-old Baba Kabutra, was tortured by four men, who have been referred to as bullies, from the Takori village in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. According to the report, one of the assailants was pressuring the victim to move from the Padri village to Takori to prepare fodder and clean dung of his cattle. When the victim declined the job, four men—Vijay, Nakul, Shatrughan and Kallu—dragged him from his workplace, shoved him into a car and took him to Takori village where they shaved his head, paraded him through the village, beat him up with his hands and feet tied and hung him upside down from a tree.

    A case had been registered at the Sipri Bazar police station after the video of the victim’s head being shaven went viral on social media. The report, however, made no mention of the victim or the assailant’s castes.

    We then came across a report by Hindustan Times, also from October 25, 2024. Quoting the station officer of Sipri Bazar police station, the report mentioned that both the accused and the victim belonged to the same caste.

    A video statement by superintendent of police, Gyanendra Kumar Singh, shared on Jhansi Police’s official X account on October 26, 2024 made it clear that the victim was “Baba Kabutra”, a resident of Padri village, and the assailants, three of whom had been arrested, were also from the Kabutra community.

    To sum up, the viral clip is from October 2024, and is not an instance of caste-based violence. The victim and the assailants are from the same community.

    The post Dalit man tortured in Jhansi? Old video resurfaces; police says victim, assailants from same community appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Police Arrest Protesters As Student Blockades Spark Unrest In Belgrade


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Counter-Terrorism Police Arrest Four People After Paint Sprayed On Planes

    Counter-terrorism police have arrested four people in connection to the protest by Palestine Action at RAF Brize Norton, in which two activists on scooters spray painted two British military planes with red paint and evaded security and police.

    Three have been arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Another was arrested of assisting an offender.

    The embarrassment caused to the government by the recent Palestine Action incursion at Brize Norton, has led rapidly to the announced proscription of Palestine Action. Keir Starmer explicitly referred to the spray-painting of the planes as “vandalism”, not ‘terrorism’ and many Parliamentarians including former Justice Secretary Lord Falconer, have stated that the protest may be criminal damage, but not terrorism.

    The post Counter-Terrorism Police Arrest Four People After Paint Sprayed On Planes appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Cuban journalist targeted with threats, intimidation after refusing police summons

    Miami, June 26, 2025—Cuban authorities must end their intimidation of two community-media journalists, Amanecer Habanero director Yunia Figueredo and her husband, reporter Frank Correa, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

    Figueredo refused to comply with a June 23 police summons, reviewed by CPJ. On that same day she received three private number phone calls warning her that a police investigation had been opened against her and Correa for “dangerousness,” the journalists told CPJ. On June 16, a local police officer parked outside the journalists’ home told them that they weren’t allowed to leave in an incident witnessed by others in the neighborhood.

    “The Cuban government must halt its harassment of journalists Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa, and allow them to continue their work with the community media outlet, Amanecer Habanero,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Reporters should not be threatened into silence with legal orders.” 

    Cuba’s private media companies have come under increased scrutiny from a new communication law banning all unapproved, non-state media and prohibiting them from receiving international funding and foreign training.

    Amanecer Habanero is a member of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP), a network of six community media outlets, which has strongly condemned the actions of Cuban authorities against Figueredo, who became director of the outlet earlier this year.

    In a statement, ICLEP said Figueredo has been the victim of an escalating campaign of intimidation by Cuban law enforcement, including verbal threats by state security agents; permanent police surveillance without a court order; restriction of her freedom of movement; psychological intimidation against her family; and police summonses without legal basis in connection with her work denouncing government.

    Cuba’s private media companies have come under increased threat from a new communication law banning all unapproved, non-state media and prohibiting them from receiving international funding and foreign training.

    Cuban authorities did not immediately reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Met officers who strip searched Child Q found to have committed gross misconduct

    The Metropolitan police officers who strip searched Child Q in 2020 have been found to have committed gross misconduct. The findings come via an investigation from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The panel found that the treatment of the child was:

    disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary, which was humiliating for the child and made her feel degraded.

    At the time, Child Q was strip searched in a school in Hackney without an adult present, nor without informing her parents. In 2022, the City of London & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership reviewed the case and found that:

    had child Q not been Black, then her experiences are unlikely to have been the same

    Now, five years later – far too long an amount of time for an official investigation – the Met are finally being held to task. However, alarmingly, the IOPC concluded that:

    It did not find, based on the evidence, that race was a factor in their decisions or that the child was adultified.

    Child Q failed

    The panel did outline the numerous ways in which the Met police failed Child Q. The two officers in question, Trainee Detective Constable Kristina Linge and Police Constable Rafal Szmydynsk:

    were found to have breached the police standards of professional behaviour relating to duties and responsibilities, authority, respect and courtesy; orders and instructions, and discreditable conduct.

    The pair:

    • failed to have an appropriate adult present during the strip search
    • failed to get authorisation from a senior officer prior to the search
    • failed to give Child Q a copy of the search record
    • did not respect Child Q’s rights
    • failed to protect Child Q

    A third officer, PC Victoria Wray was found to have committed misconduct:

    She was found to have breached the police standards of professional behaviour relating to duties and responsibilities, authority, respect and courtesy; and orders and instructions.

    The search of Child Q was initially carried out because a teacher suspected she could smell weed on the pupil. IOPC director Amanda Rowe acknowledged that:

    Their decision to strip search a 15-year-old at school on suspicion of a small amount of cannabis was completely disproportionate. They failed to follow the policies that exist to ensure that children in these situations have appropriate protective measures in place.

    Anti-Blackness

    The enduring understanding of Child Q since her case came to light has been one of anti-Black racism. In 2022, the Canary’s Sophia Purdy-Moore reported:

    Today, schools systematically push Black pupils out of mainstream education and into pupil referral units, alternative provision, and – ultimately – prisons. Educators enact this through ‘zero tolerance’ policies which punish Black and minoritised pupils for wearing colourful hijabs or natural afro hair.

    Anti-Black racism is built into our education systems. As such, the experiences of Child Q cannot be understood without appreciating the anti-Blackness and racism she suffered at the hands of these cops. In 2022, No More Exclusions founder Zahra Bei told us:

    It’s appalling but it’s not surprising that the school dealt with this child and the situation as a criminal matter as opposed to a safeguarding matter. As it says in the report, she was seen as the risk instead of being at risk. And that is what fundamentally needs to change for Black children. Their childhood, their vulnerability, their needs, their humanity has to be recognised in its fullness.

    Hackney MP Diane Abbott has also called out the broader pattern of misogynoir that led to Child Q’s awful experience:

    Institutional racism

    The findings from the IOPC shouldn’t have taken five years from the incident to be delivered. But, that’s just like the Met Police – to commit horrific racism, deny they did so, and re-traumatise their victims. Child Q has previously spoken of her trauma over the incident. Undoubtedly, this latest finding that race did not play a part will add to her trauma. The IOPC may be shielding the Met Police from further embarrassing accusations of racism, but the rest of us must understand that denials of racism are a painful and retraumatising experience.

    The fact that a 2022 safeguarding report did what the IOPC failed to do in their dismissal of race as a factor is a disgrace. Child Q’s experiences are part of a broader pattern of anti-Black racism that is rampant in our education and police systems.

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Papua New Guinea police blame overrun system for prison breakouts

    By Margot Staunton, RNZ Pacific senior journalist

    Police in Papua New Guinea say the country’s overrun courts and prisons are behind mass breakouts from police custody.

    Chief Superintendent Clement Dala made the comment after 13 detainees escaped on Tuesday in Simbu Province, including eight who were facing murder charges.

    Dala said an auxiliary policeman who had the keys to a holding cell at Kundiawa Police Station is also on the run.

    Police are investigating a claim by local media that he is the partner of a female escapee who was facing trial for murder.

    Six police officers on duty at the time have been suspended for 21 days while investigations continue.

    “The auxiliary officer is not a recognised police officer and should not have had the key, but it appears he was helping the sole police officer on cell duties,” said Dala, who is the acting assistant commissioner for three Highlands provinces.

    Dala said it appeared the auxiliary officer wandered off for a meal and left the cell door open at the entrance to the police station.

    “He may have played a role in assisting the escapees, but we are still trying to find out exactly what happened.”

    ‘Probably hiding somewhere’
    “If we find it was deliberate then he will definitely be arrested. He is probably hiding somewhere nearby and we’ll get to him as soon as we can,” he said.

    As of yesterday, none of the escapees had been caught. Police are relying on community leaders to encourage them to surrender.

    But this could take a month or longer and police fear some could reoffend.

    He said the police have previously been told not to use auxiliary officers in any official capacity as they were community liaison officers.

    “This is a symptom of our severe staff shortages, but I have reissued an instruction banning them from frontline duties,” he said.

    Dala said PNG’s courts and prisons were completely overrun, and this was the main reason detainees in police custody escape.

    Up to 200 people on remand
    He said on any given day there could be up to 200 people on remand in police cells under his command and many brought in weapons and drugs.

    “We have different cells for different remandees, but if we are overcrowded we have to keep prisoners in the main corridor, especially those who have committed minor crimes,” he said.

    Dala said some remand prisoners were being kept in police holding cells for more than a month.

    He said the police had faced a lack of political will to deal with severe staff shortages, a lack of training across the force and outdated infrastructure.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Journalist SHOT IN THE HEAD by LA police while covering protests


    This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Photojournalist detained in police kettle amid LA immigration protests

    Independent photojournalist John Rudoff was detained in a kettle by police while covering an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.

    The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

    Rudoff told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting protests throughout the night of June 9. The protests were centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

    After the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly, Rudoff said he followed as 50 to 100 demonstrators were pushed back by “a wall of cops” on South Alameda Street, a major thoroughfare. He added that the officers were heavily armed, carrying 40 mm crowd-control munitions, pepper balls and shields.

    Officers herded the crowd and by approximately 8:30 p.m. had surrounded them using a technique called kettling.

    “The usual tactic is to have a wall of cops — mostly armored with helmets and face shields and batons — advancing toward a group of protesters,” Rudoff said. “They would advance 10 or 20 feet and stop and form up their line again and then yell ‘Move!’ or ‘Move back!’ and push forward another distance.”

    Rudoff told the Tracker he was among the journalists and demonstrators caught in the kettle and told they were under arrest for failure to disperse.

    “I basically sat down and made a few pictures and twiddled my thumbs for an hour as several of the protesters, one by one, were lined up and taken away by the cops,” he said. “About 45 minutes to an hour later, a sergeant pointed his finger at me and beckoned me toward him.”

    The photojournalist said he complied and was told to put his hands behind his back. The officer asked Rudoff if he was with the press and noticed the National Press Photographers Association credential around his neck.

    “He said, ‘Let me take a look at that,’ and I think he photographed it with a cellphone, but I’m not sure,” Rudoff said. “And then he said, ‘I’m going to walk you out of here with your hands behind your back. I don’t want the activists to see that we’re letting you go.’”

    Rudoff told the Tracker he was able to then reconnect with a colleague who had avoided the kettle and leave.

    “I was not physically injured and I’ve got psychological skin like an alligator,” he said. “But I was out of business for an hour, and I know perfectly well that the California Penal Code says that police are not allowed to disperse, detain, beat or arrest journalists doing their jobs, and that is precisely what they did.”

    When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s arrests, the LAPD did not address the detainments and removal of journalists caught in the kettle.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Journalist struck, shoved by police at Philadelphia immigration protest

    Unicorn Riot reporter and editor Chris Schiano was struck and shoved by police while reporting on an anti-deportation march in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 14, 2025.

    Schiano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering the immigration enforcement protest, separate from the “No Kings” protest in Philadelphia the same day. The march began around 6 p.m. at the Federal Detention Center in the Center City neighborhood and continued around nearby streets.

    Bicycle officers from the Philadelphia Police Department began working to encircle the protesters, who in turn used improvised barriers to slow down the police, Schiano told the Tracker. He said officers finally surrounded the demonstrators at around 7 p.m. outside a Holiday Inn Express hotel.

    Schiano filmed protesters as they fled the scene until two police officers slammed their bikes into the journalist and ordered him to move. “I only heard their orders by the time I was already being struck,” Schiano said.

    Schiano said he was wearing a vest with “PRESS” written across it in large white letters, as well as his Unicorn Riot press pass.

    “I’m a journalist. I’m a journalist, sir,” Schiano told the police in a video of the incident. “Move back,” a police officer said as he shoved Schiano. At that moment, the reporter told the Tracker he worried he would be hit again.

    Looking back, Schiano says he has the “strong impression” that the police didn’t care that he was a journalist. He added that he did not sustain any injuries.

    After that incident, Schiano said he was caught in the kettle for about one more minute before he was allowed to leave with the remaining protesters.

    The reporter said he then documented protesters being followed by dozens of police officers on motorcycles. While filming, Schiano said police officers sped up and came “within an inch or so of striking me.” The people Schiano was following eventually dispersed, and the police on motorbikes stopped following them.

    Schiano filed a complaint against the police over the incident June 22.

    When reached by email for comment, PPD spokesperson Jasmine Colón-Reilly said, “The role of the Philadelphia Police Department is not to interfere with the expression of any First Amendment rights, but to manage public safety during demonstrations to prevent the loss of life, injury, or property damage, and minimize disruption to persons (and communities) who are uninvolved; as well as those who are involved.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.