Roundup: Police officers face justice for killings in Texas and Louisiana; states leave Biden behind on the death penalty; a nationwide drop in gun violence

Here’s your roundup for the week:

• NYPD will revamp its disciplinary procedures for cops, after the new commissioner said the current system is “manifestly unfair” to police. Related: The DOJ is now investigating two NYPD officers who appear to have been caught on video planting drugs. Despite the damning videos, both the department and the Staten Island DA’s office cleared them of any wrongdoing.

• A Florida sheriff has spent over $32,000 fighting the release of videos that show his deputies abusing inmates.

• Five Louisiana cops have been charged for the 2019 death of Ronald Green. State officials claimed Green had died in a car crash before video showed officers savagely beating him while he was shackled.

• Two Georgia men have been released from prison after 25 years. A true crime podcast uncovered evidence of their innocence.

• Study finds that federal judges have badly misapplied a Reagan-era pre-trial detention law, causing the unjust incarceration of thousands of people.

• Preliminary data suggests gun violence in the U.S. may be waning after a steep, two-year climb.

• An early look at key criminal justice races for the 2023 off-year elections.

• 2022: the year in blasphemy.

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (who, it’s always helpful to remember, is still under indictment!) asked for data from several state agencies to assemble a list of state residents who are trans — for entirely innocuous reasons, I’m sure.

• Two Alabama women have been convicted of misdemeanors for feeding stray cats.

• A Senate investigation finds that federal prisons habitually fail to investigate and prevent sexual assault. Related: The story of Thomas Ray Hinkle, a federal prison official who continue to get promoted and be given more oversight responsibility, despite repeated accusations of abuse from both inmates and subordinates.

• Outgoing Oregon Gov. Kate Brown commutes the death sentences of all 17 people on the state’s death row. And Nevada’s pardon board is considering doing the same thing. Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to lag on his promise to “eliminate” the federal death penalty.

• Aaron Dean, the former Ft. Worth cop who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, has been convicted of manslaughter.

• Trump-appointed federal judge takes aim at birth control.

• How Georgia’s sex offender registry traps victims of abuse and minor offenders in a cycle of debt and homelessness.

• The family of man murdered in 1976 now says the state of Florida convicted the wrong man.

• Due to bureaucratic inertia, hundreds of Louisiana prisoners have remained incarcerated a month or more after they’ve served their time.

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• Since San Francisco elected more law-and-order types to the mayoral and DA’s office, crime in the city has gone up. Oddly, we haven’t heard much about it.

• Colorado cop caught manufacturing more than a dozen DUI cases.

• Virginia Supreme Court reinstates progressive prosecutor in burglary case. A judge had removed her fro the case for a plea bargain he deemed too lenient.

• Arkansas man dies in police custody with injuries suggestive of severe beating. He had been convicted and sentenced to 10 years for possession of kratum, an herbal supplement that while illegal in Arkansas, is legal in 44 other states.

• Five months after a San Antonio cop was fired for giving a sandwich filled with dog feces to a homeless man (followed by at least two other feces-related incidents), he was again working as a cop in another jurisdiction.

• Ohio lawmakers wage a a bipartisan push for clemency for a death row prisoner with a strong innocence claim.

• EFF urges court to deny qualified immunity to cops who illegally arrest independent journalists.

• Whistleblowing Chicago police officer awarded $1 million settlement. He was demoted after reporting superiors who pressured him to change police reports to cover up a fatal shooting by another officer.

• Horrifying police video of the day:

Fifty Shades of Whey @davenewworld_2

WARNING: GRAPHIC ⚠️ A cop in Florida shoots a man in the woods holding an axe. The officer ran up to a man described as mentally ill, attempted no de-escalation, and shot him despite not being in danger.

This week in dog history:

“Battling Jack,” a bulldog from French Lick, Indiana, known for fighting badgers, was set to face off against “Thunder” a South African honey badger, as the central attraction at a 1916 auto convention in Toledo Ohio. Battling Jack had won national acclaim after showcasing his badger-fighting ability at the 1912 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, as a guest of Indiana Sen. Tom Taggart. At the auto convention, Jack would fight on behalf of the Gibson Raiders, a bicycle manufacturer in central Indiana, while Thunder fought on behalf of a group of car dealers in Cincinnati. The fight was staged at the large assembly hall in Toledo and, according to local sources, was “attracting much attention.” It isn’t clear who won the fight.

(Indianapolis Star, December 15th, 1916)

Photo:

Tirana, Albania, taken in 2014