Iran Press/ America: Daniel Prude’s suffocation in Rochester, New York, in March has drawn new attention to the hoods — mesh bags that have been linked to other deaths — and the frequent reliance on police to respond to mental health emergencies.
His death has underscored one of the top demands of the police reform movement that certain duties should not be handled by law enforcement but by social workers or mental health experts. Seven officers involved in the encounter were suspended with pay Thursday.
While many in law enforcement defend the hoods as vital to prevent officers from being spit on or even bitten — a concern that has taken on new importance during the coronavirus pandemic — critics have denounced them as dangerous and inhumane. For some, they evoke hoods used on prisoners at US government overseas detention sites or “black sites.”
Amnesty International condemned the use of spit hoods Thursday, a day after Prude’s family made public a body camera video, and police reports it obtained from the Rochester department. The organization said the hoods are particularly dangerous when a person is already in distress, as Prude appeared to be.
Protesters gather outside police station after teenager shot dead in Washington
Protesters gathered outside a precinct building in Washington’s southeast after a teenager was shot dead by police on September 2.
DC’s Metropolitan Police Department reported the shooting of an adult male at around 5:15 pm local time. The victim of the police shooting was identified by relatives as 18-year-old Deon Kay, the Washington Post said.
Police said they were working on a tip that there were firearms in a vehicle. When they found the vehicle, two men fled and the police shot one of them when he produced a firearm.
After the horrific killing of George Floyd, a black US citizen, by a Minneapolis police officer, several cities in the country have witnessed widespread protests against racism.
214/216
Read More:
