Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, hosted a Black media briefing addressing the popularity of certain verbiage used by most newsrooms to describe the complexities of the Jussie Smollett Case. ... read more »

The NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, on Tuesday urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring federal civil rights charges against the white Chicago police officer who fatally shot Black teenager Laquan McDonald. ... read more »

“When I got the paper, I literally at one point said, ‘hot damn,’” says Phillip Goff, a behavioral scientist at Yale University who wrote a commentary on the study published in the same issue. “I was a skeptic about demographic reform previously, and now I am a convert.… Demographics reform in policing actually has the potential to dramatically change behavior.” ... read more »

Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, was taken into custody in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide. Antioch is about 15 miles from Kenosha. Two people were shot to death Tuesday night in an attack carried out by a young white man who was caught on cellphone video opening fire in the middle of the street with a semi-automatic rifle. ... read more »

“We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation,” Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed in a statement. “We’ve reached out to the Empire cast member’s attorney to request a follow-up interview,” he added. ... read more »

Another legal expert said that while she doubts the three officers would have been charged without the video, the fact that they were charged based on obvious discrepancies between their reports and the video sends a powerful message to both police and the public. ... read more »

Fan Voting for Seasonlong NBA Cares Community Assist Award presented by Kaiser Permanente Began Sunday on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram ... read more »

Seven Chicago police officers should be fired for filing false reports in the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014, ... read more »

For more than a year after an officer shot and killed a black teen named Laquan McDonald, the Chicago Police Department had video footage that raised serious doubts about whether other officers at the scene tried in their reports to cover up what prosecutors now contend was murder. ... read more »

Chicago police are reporting a dramatic spike in the number of homicides and shootings in the city's bloodiest January for at least 16 years. It's another blow to a department that has struggled to regain public trust following the damning release of a video showing a white officer fatally shooting a black teenager. ... read more »