Ex-Phoenix Cop’s Misconduct Hangs Over Jacob Harris Case
Jacob Harris’s father is heading to appeals court on Wednesday. Federal judges will decide the fate of his wrongful death suit against the city of Phoenix.
Meg O'Connor Sep 13, 2023
Los Angeles Commits Another $1 Billion to LAPD Despite Falling Violent Crime
Police say they need pay raises to help with hiring and retention. But crime has been falling in LA, even as the department reports having its lowest number of officers in decades.
Meg O'Connor Aug 23, 2023
‘They Killed Freddie Gray’: New Book Reveals Dark, Hidden Truth About Gray’s Death
In her new book, “They Killed Freddie Gray”, Justine Barron reveals much of what the public has believed about Gray’s death is incorrect.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Aug 23, 2023
Survivor Injustice Asks Us To Reconsider What Justice Looks Like For Crime Victims
This excerpt from Survivor Injustice asks us to reconsider what justice really looks like for crime victims.
Kylie Cheung Aug 16, 2023
Atlanta Voters Want to Decide the Future of Cop City. Will Their Leaders Let Them?
Organizers say they’ve collected thousands of signatures for a referendum to put Cop City on the November ballot. But local officials seem intent on making sure it doesn’t reach a vote.
Aja Arnold Jul 27, 2023
Cops and Republicans Are Criminalizing Pregnant People Without Roe
Lawmakers in seven states proposed bills to make abortion murder punishable by death. Cops arrested three women for their pregnancy outcomes.
Meg O'Connor Jun 21, 2023
To Cut Down on Shoplifting, Let’s Arrest Some CEOs
Online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay make billions from shoplifted products. Why are police and lawmakers focusing on small-time thieves?
Ethan Corey May 31, 2023
Behind Georgia’s Authoritarian Crackdown on ‘Stop Cop City’ Protests
At least 42 people have been charged with “domestic terrorism” under the state’s wide-ranging statute. Legal experts are calling it a “sloppy” and unprecedented attack on constitutional rights to free speech and protest.
Aja Arnold Apr 03, 2023
Police Killed His Son. Prosecutors Charged The Teen’s Friends with His Murder.
It’s been four years since a Phoenix police officer killed Jacob Harris. Records obtained by The Appeal show officials have made inconsistent or false statements about the night police killed him. As Harris’s friends grow up behind bars, his father won’t stop until he gets justice for his son.
Meg O'Connor Mar 14, 2023
Without Political Change, Police Brutality Footage Has Become Trauma Porn
Absent structural organizing and actual political change, societal consumption of anti-Black violence instead reinforces the dehumanization of Black people that is central to white supremacy.
Nneka Ewulonu Mar 08, 2023
Police Surveillance Firms Are Just Data-Brokers by Another Name
ShotSpotter, Flock Safety, and Fog Data Science pitch themselves as third-party public-safety platforms, but they really are are “data brokers”—companies that profit by selling bulk information to others.
Edward Vogel Feb 01, 2023
Tyre Nichols’s Killing Has Everything to Do With Race
“That Black officers can also be the face of police brutality against Black people doesn’t disprove the racism at the institution’s core,” writes Ieshaah Murphy.
Ieshaah Murphy Jan 31, 2023
Police Killing of Protester Brings Grief, Urgency to Atlanta’s ‘Stop Cop City’ Movement
Organizers are calling on national support for their continued efforts to halt the construction of a police militarization facility in the Atlanta forest.
Aja Arnold Jan 20, 2023
As Trust in Police Wanes, Cops are Replacing Human Witnesses With Robots
As more people criticize or refuse to cooperate with police, writers Emily Galvin-Almanza and Khalid Alexander argue most departments aren’t taking that criticism to heart—they’re replacing human sources and interactions with computer-generated evidence instead.
Emily Galvin-Almanza, Khalid Alexander Dec 20, 2022
Fake Victims Lead to Real Arrests in Online Child Sex Stings
Federally funded police task forces carry out thousands of online stings each year, despite little evidence that they prevent abuse.
Steven Yoder Dec 19, 2022
Adams’ Forced Hospitalization Plan Will Have Lifelong Consequences
New York law can leave people who are involuntarily committed financially liable for their hospital bills and ambulance ride
Jerry Iannelli Dec 07, 2022
FBI Crime Data is Out. Here’s What You Need to Know.
Lies, damned lies, and crime statistics.
Ethan Corey Oct 05, 2022
How American Public Spaces Became so Criminalized—and How We Can Win Them Back
On September 23, 2020, a Black man died for the alleged crime of crossing the street the wrong way. His death was due in large part to America’s long history of criminalizing public spaces and our existence in them.
Nneka Ewulonu Sep 21, 2022
Stacey Abrams’ Bold New Idea is to Tack to the Center
Stacey Abrams wants to give police officers raises. Time and again, Democrats have reacted to calls for racial justice by giving more money to cops.
Nneka Ewulonu Jul 20, 2022
Can Residents Trust Durham’s Police Chief After She Cooperated With ICE?
Patrice Andrews once promised she’d never work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But in 2018, she directly ordered the arrest of immigration activists during an ICE deportation.
Tina Vasquez May 13, 2022
Don’t Let Cops Co-Opt Denim Day
Her jeans were so tight, she couldn’t have been raped, the judges said.
Meg O'Connor Apr 27, 2022
Florida Cops Nearly Sent a Five-Year-Old to Jail
Reporters entertained the notion that a toddler deserved prison time with headlines like ‘No Charges for 5-Year-Old in Pembroke Pines School Attack’
Nneka Ewulonu Apr 13, 2022
The New Law Enforcement Spending Spree Is Already Underway
Billions of dollars of federal COVID relief aid are flowing to police, prisons, and jails in jurisdictions across the nation.
Nick Wing Mar 29, 2022
‘It’s a Money Grab’: Billions in COVID Relief Going to Fund Police and Prisons
Less than two years after racial justice protests sparked calls to “defund the police,” states and jurisdictions are using pandemic aid to pad already bloated law enforcement budgets.
Brian Dolinar Mar 23, 2022
What Happened When Oakland Tried to Make Police Pay for Misconduct Decades Ago
In the ’90s, the city passed a policy requiring the police department to pay some of their own legal costs. There’s no evidence that the department ever paid up.
Akintunde Ahmad Mar 01, 2022
Ex-Prison Boss Drunkenly Pulls Gun On Cops, Shows Two Tiers Of Justice
On the night of Jan. 6, Arizona’s former prison director, Charles Ryan, drank half a bottle of tequila and got into a three-hour armed standoff that involved about 50 police officers. After a tense confrontation in which Ryan repeatedly pointed a gun at officers, Tempe police took Ryan into custody and brought him to a hospital — but he was never booked into jail. In the end, Ryan went back home like nothing had happened.
Meg O'Connor Feb 22, 2022
How Could Police Shootings Keep Happening After We Did Nothing To Stop Them?
The specific ways in which Frey and other local leaders failed to respond to Floyd’s death seem frankly astonishing when laid out on paper. But the story of this failure is, in fact, the only future offered by the centrist “police reformer” set.
Jerry Iannelli Feb 15, 2022
How St. Paul Became The Twin Cities’ Leader On Justice Reform
Although Minneapolis has garnered media attention since the George Floyd uprising, St. Paul may be the Twin City making the most strides toward transformative justice. But Sheriff Bob Fletcher’s actions may undo positive steps in Ramsey County.
Hibah Ansari, Anna Simonton Jan 11, 2022
“Woman of the Year” Mariska Hargitay Should Quit “SVU”
Last month, Glamour magazine featured “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay on the cover of its “Women of the Year” issue. On Nov. 8, an avalanche of A-list celebrities — including “SVU” co-stars Christopher Meloni and Ice-T, actress Melissa McCarthy, and #MeToo co-founder Tarana Burke — honored Hargitay at the Women of the Year Awards which was held at the Rainbow Room, a ballroom that serves as one of the epicenters of New York City high-society.
Jerry Iannelli, Meg O'Connor Dec 07, 2021
‘Rage Induced Policing’: Hacked Documents Reveal D.C. Police’s Aggressive Robbery Crackdowns
Internal emails and their attachments show that a roving Metropolitan Police Department unit attempted to suppress robberies in 2012 and 2013 by stopping and frisking and surveilling residents of Black neighborhoods.
Chris Gelardi Dec 06, 2021
Meet the California PR Firm Helping Cops Fight Off Bad Press
There’s a growing business crafting law enforcement narratives about police shootings and officer misconduct.
Scott Morris Nov 30, 2021
Police Disinformation Is Still Disinformation
It’s Giving Tuesday! And a generous donor has pledged to match the first $5,000 we receive today. If you love this newsletter and The Appeal’s reporting, now is the best time to give. With your help we can make major headway toward funding more vital journalism in 2022. Photo by Joseph Ngabo at Unsplash Police […]
Jerry Iannelli Nov 30, 2021
Lots to be thankful for. Plus a reality check.
The Appeal team has a lot to be thankful for this year, including the fact that we can spend time with our families again. We know not everyone is as fortunate, and we’re thinking of community members, especially those behind bars, who can’t be with their loved ones. In the midst of Thanksgiving travel and […]
Nick Wing Nov 23, 2021
Police Threats Over Vaccine Mandates Are Proving Empty
If you missed it last week, we’ve officially kicked off our year-end fundraising campaign through NewsMatch, an industry-wide program to sustain journalism through matching gifts on the local and national level. Through Dec. 31, NewsMatch will match your new monthly donation (at 12 times the value), or double your one-time gift, all up to $1,000. […]
Nick Wing Nov 16, 2021
Big Retail Chains Are Manufacturing a Shoplifting ‘Crisis’
We’re excited to share that we’re kicking off our year-end fundraising campaign through NewsMatch, an industry-wide program to sustain journalism through matching gifts on the local and national level. Through Dec. 31, NewsMatch will match your new monthly donation (at 12 times the value), or double your one-time gift, all up to $1,000. In total, […]
Jerry Iannelli Nov 09, 2021
Why the Media Won’t Stop Using ‘Officer-Involved Shootings’
That one of the nation’s premier newspapers still uses such police-centric language more than one year after the international uprising following the murder of George Floyd is a microcosm of the sad state that American media finds itself in at the moment.
Jerry Iannelli Oct 12, 2021
The Recent Rise in Violence Should Be a Rallying Cry for Reform
Acknowledging the increase in homicides doesn’t mean giving in to the clamor for punitive responses. Instead, it should be a rallying cry for reform.
Nick Wing Oct 05, 2021
How a Troubled Police Department Is Shaping Buffalo’s Mayoral Race
Citing years of police brutality and racial disparities in arrests, activists are pushing candidates to embrace reforms ahead of next week’s Democratic primaries.
Raina Lipsitz Jun 15, 2021
How The Twin Cities Mayors Diverge on Policing and Race
While Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey faces scrutiny over policing and racial equity issues, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has helped his city achieve progressive milestones, say lawmakers and advocates.
Cinnamon Janzer May 25, 2021