Police hold a perimeter near the White House as demonstrators gather to protest police brutality in the morning hours of May 31, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Alex Wong/Getty Images
In a summer of unrest over police violence, you might think that suing the police is a way for the families of those killed to get justice. It can be, but the amount of justice available — in monetary settlements from cities and towns — may depend on the local politics of where the killing happened.
That’s according to an NPR analysis of civil case settlements in 2015, the year following protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the police killing of Michael Brown. We chose 2015 both because it was the immediate aftermath of the Ferguson protests, and because it was long enough ago that most of the cases would have been resolved.
During that year, we found 93 police cases in which police killed a person who had not been armed with a gun or other weapon. Of those cases, we found that 29 of them — nearly a third — ended in a settlement for the families of those killed. To find and categorize the cases, we reviewed reports in other media, as well as documents from courts and local governments.
The largest settlements stemming from those deaths occurred in counties that voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
In the counties that voted for Clinton, there were 61 fatal incidents. Twenty of those cases settled for a total of more than $50 million, or about $2.6 million per case. Most of the settlements were for more than $1 million.
In the counties that voted for candidate Donald Trump, there were 31 deaths. Eight of those cases were settled, for a total of $14 million – about $1.8 million per case. Three settlements topped $1 million.
(One death that led to a large settlement occurred in a city that straddles three counties where the presidential vote was mixed. It was excluded from our tally, as was one settlement where the amount was not disclosed.)
Now, six years after Ferguson, civil rights lawyers say there may be new connections developing between the courts and popular opinion on police. Black Lives Matter protests have been polarizing, they say, and are hardening political divisions about law enforcement on both sides.
The latest Ipsos/NPR poll out Sept. 3 backs this up: Three out of four Democrats support recent protests in the wake of the Kenosha, Wis., shooting of Jacob Blake, while fewer than 1 in 10 Republicans do.
Lawyers say that if such divisions extend to legal disputes over police behavior, that can mean stark differences around the country — in terms of localities’ inclination to settle cases, and of local jurors’ willingness to hold police officers accountable.
Dave O’Brien, an Iowa lawyer who exclusively represents civil rights plaintiffs, spoke with NPR just after losing a jury trial in a police brutality case in Sioux City, a conservative town in a conservative state.
It was a case he expected to win. And while he says he doesn’t want to read too much into a single case, he blames the loss on a community backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I’ve previously had a lot of success with true-blue conservative (jurors) – somebody who believes in individual liberty and not allowing the government to take advantage of an individual,” O’Brien says. “Those people, I love on my juries. But my reading of this case was that as a result of Black Lives Matter, the backlash has pushed them towards a pro-police stance that they previously didn’t take.”
O’Brien says that he used to be able to convince conservative gun owners to cherish the civil rights he was fighting for in police brutality cases, just as they value their right to bear arms. But something has changed.
A protester stands face to face with police during demonstrations against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., on August 25, 2020.
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images
In conversations with potential jurors during jury selection, he says jurors “just felt like Black Lives Matter was a bit too much of an overreaction and anti-police. We had to overcome it, and we didn’t do it successfully.”
On the other hand, in more liberal Los Angeles County, veteran civil rights lawyer James DeSimone is seeing a different effect.
“I do believe that the jury pools here in California have become more open to finding police liable in appropriate cases,” he says. “As more people become aware that not all police officers can be believed, that in circumstances of excessive force, police officers should be held liable, that makes our job easier.”
Clark Neily, a former trial lawyer and vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says NPR’s findings and what they suggest about the current political moment aren’t surprising. “This probably reflects, to some extent, the plaintiff’s lawyers and the defense lawyer’s projections about what’s likely to happen if the case proceeds to trial and there is a verdict,” he says.
The Cato Institute has called for increased legal accountability on the part of police, particularly by ending the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which has insulated them from liability.
“We have a persistently racially disparate criminal justice system,” Neily says, “The communities of color tend to bear the brunt of the most significant pathologies in the system. It’s especially acute now with the frustration and resentment that is spilling out into the street.”
But some lawyers wonder if the legal environment this year and next will look more like the aftermath of 2014’s Ferguson protests in some cities, and in others, just the opposite.
“The cases where I had the most success and the largest settlement values was when the riots in Ferguson were going on,” says Missouri attorney Joshua Roberts.
“The cities down here were, ‘We want to get this out of the news, we want to get this resolved.’ And they were a lot less cantankerous to deal with.”
Currently, though, the climate in southwest Missouri is “very pro-law enforcement,” he says.
In this summer of protests, William O. Wagstaff III, a New York civil rights attorney, says he routinely convenes groups of people of different demographic backgrounds to react to the facts of particular cases. He says he doesn’t want to make “outdated assumptions” about them.
“I have noticed a shift in perspectives from people I would previously consider to be liberal and sympathetic to issues of racial inequalities in policing,” Wagstaff says, “because they believe the rallying cry for accountability has gone too far.”
For families of those killed by police to file suit, they must first believe they can fight city hall, and find a lawyer who agrees. And if local politics seem pro-police, families may be discouraged from filing a suit at all. In fact, about half the deaths NPR reviewed did not result in a lawsuit.
To Sherene Mayner, the town of Paris, Texas, where her son, Garrett McKinney, was killed by police in 2015, seemed pro-police and wary of outsiders — as some there called her son after his death.
Mayner, who works as a Realtor in Austin, says her son suffered from schizophrenia and physically attacked the officer after being tased. She says the small-town climate in Paris inhibited her from asking questions about Garrett’s death.
She fights back tears as she recounts that months later, the Highway Patrol officer who shot Garrett during a struggle was awarded a Purple Heart by the Texas Department of Public Safety in connection with the shooting. “He just shot my son, and no one called me to say, ‘I’m sorry,'” she says, remembering seeing a photo of the officer, Timothy Keele, displaying his award.
“That always bothered me,” she says, “He got this award, and he’s all smiling and grinning when he’s getting this award, and I’m like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.'”
So far, Mayner has not filed a lawsuit in the shooting.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
