Still in Solitary
Five years after statewide hunger strikes and a landmark settlement, men incarcerated in a California prison say they’re still isolated for up to 22 hours a day.
Joshua Manson May 21, 2020
San Francisco D.A. To Announce Sweeping Changes On Sentencing Policy and Police Stops
As a candidate, Chesa Boudin condemned gang enhancements as racist. Now as DA he plans to significantly limit, if not eliminate, their use.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Feb 28, 2020
Providence Police Gang Database Policy ‘Tramples Fundamental Constitutional Rights,’ Lawsuit Says
The department is targeting communities of color and violating local and federal law by using broad ‘association’ criteria to list people in a gang database, a Rhode Island community organization claims.
Julia Rock, Lucas Smolcic Larson Jan 10, 2020
California Gang Laws Are Normalized Racism
The gang database in the state gives police increased authority to approach and harass people for virtually no reason at all.
Emily Galvin-Almanza Oct 04, 2019
‘We’ve Got One In The Sweep’
Three Bronx friends recount their 2012 arrests in the NYPD’s ‘Operation Crew Cut,’ along with their experiences with the court system and incarceration, and reflect on their lives seven years later.
Olivia Heffernan Jul 30, 2019
Spotlight: The Dangers of Gang Databases and Gang Policing
An NYPD database labels over 18,000 people in New York City as active gang members. Three of the people labeled this way are 13 years old, and more than 400 others are under 18. Nearly 99 percent of the people whose names are in the database are people of color. Nearly 88 percent are Black […]
Vaidya Gullapalli Jul 03, 2019
Spotlight: After Nipsey Hussle’s Killing, Gang Members Call For An End To Violence
After the rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed on March 31, there was an outpouring of grief in Los Angeles and across the country. Hussle has been applauded as the rare star who remained rooted in his community and committed to it through his art, entrepreneurship, and activism. (Hussle was posthumously honored with the 2019 Humanitarian Award at […]
Vaidya Gullapalli Jun 24, 2019
New Orleans Police Appear to Use Surveillance to Initiate Investigations
City officials say its vast network of cameras are simply a tool when responding to 911 calls and complaints of criminal activity. But several cases suggest the system serves an additional purpose.
Mike Hayes Jun 03, 2019
‘They Sent Him to His Cell to Die’
Rashad McNulty entered a guilty plea in a series of federal gang indictments in New York that have been criticized as racist and overly punitive. But before McNulty was even sentenced, he died in jail. Now, his family is seeking justice.
Aaron Morrison May 01, 2019
NYPD Detective With a Shady Past Helped Lock Up a Pot Dealer For Federal Conspiracy
Jurors were barred from hearing about the eight civil rights lawsuits against Detective Jeremiah Williams.
George Joseph Jul 24, 2018
Former Baltimore Police Officer Criticizes The Department’s Gang Database
A onetime gang liaison for the Baltimore Police Department writes that its database is racist and error-ridden.
Larry Smith Jul 23, 2018
The LAPD Has a New Surveillance Formula, Powered by Palantir
Los Angeles Police Department analysts are each tasked with maintaining “a minimum” of a dozen ongoing surveillance targets for future targeting, using Palantir software and an updated “probable offender” formula, according to October 2017 documents, obtained through a public records request lawsuit by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and given exclusively to The Appeal. These […]
George Joseph May 08, 2018
New Documents Reveal How ICE Mines Local Police Databases Across the Country
In cities across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations agents can mine local police reports using COPLINK, a data program little known outside law enforcement circles. While public records have revealed ICE’s access to this program in the past, new documents, obtained by the ACLU of Massachusetts and shared with The Appeal, offer the first […]
George Joseph Apr 26, 2018
Police Accountability and Public Defender Groups Demand Transparency on NYPD Gang Policing
Since its initiation in 2013, the NYPD’s gang policing program has operated with little outside scrutiny. Based on evidence it has kept almost entirely hidden from public view, the police have targeted and surveilled entire social networks inside low-income communities, breaking down doors in pre-dawn military-style raids that have resulted in over 2,000 arrests in just the […]
Max Rivlin-Nadler Feb 12, 2018
NYC Agency Uses Brooklyn Gang Raid To Encourage Evictions Of Entire Families From Public Housing
Early on the morning of January 19, the New York Police Department and local and federal partners raided the Sheepshead/Nostrand Houses, a large public housing complex in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, arresting 13 alleged members of the “Towaz Boyz gang.” Unnamed law enforcement authorities described the scene to the Daily Newsas a “New Jack City-style sales operation” — a reference […]
Emma Whitford Jan 31, 2018
From Gang Allegations to Deportation: How Boston is Putting its Immigrant Youth in Harm’s Way
The Trump administration uses Sanctuary Cities as punching bags in its war against immigrants. But even in the cities taking federal heat for protecting immigrant communities, a little-understood, post-9/11 institution called the “fusion center” is playing a starring — if behind the scenes — role in the Trump-Sessions deportation regime. Despite promises from liberal mayors, local police departments are […]
Kade Crockford Jan 18, 2018
How a Group Policing Model Is Criminalizing Whole Communities
This article was published in collaboration with The Nation. Editor’s note: After publication, The Appal received letters from David Kennedy and other proponents of the Ceasefire model that challenged this article’s characterization of the model and its effectiveness. An internal review determined that the story contained a number of inaccuracies related to the BRAVE program and the description of […]
Max Rivlin-Nadler Jan 12, 2018
Philly’s Gang Violence Strategy Doesn’t Work. Here’s Why.
Philadelphia implemented the “focused deterrence” model of gang policing, which includes the promise of critical social services. The reality is much different.
Maura Ewing Dec 21, 2017
Commentary: Attorney General Sessions Says He Wants To Target Gangs, But In The Federal Bureau of Prisons Gangs Find A Home Base, And A Place To Flourish
With the Department of Justice targeting national gangs like MS-13, the Trump administration has declared a war on national gangs. “MS-13 members brutally rape, rob, extort and murder,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the International Association of Chiefs of Police at a conferencein Philadelphia in late October. “Just like we took Al Capone off the streets […]
Seth Ferranti Nov 10, 2017
Prosecutors Forced to Redefine ‘Gang Member’
Two years ago, some longtime residents of Placentia, California, were disturbed when Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced his plan to fight a problem they didn’t think they had: violent street gangs. “The residents in these neighborhoods that consist of families, children and the elderly have been in the crossfire of these rival gangs […]
Maura Ewing Oct 16, 2017
Portland is saying goodbye to its controversial gang database
Police say the tool is outdated.
Carimah Townes Sep 12, 2017