Albert Samaha
"This Is What They Did For Fun": The Story Of A Modern-Day Lynching
Craig Anderson was headed home to celebrate his birthday with his partner. Instead, he became the victim of a brutal and violent form of racism that many in Mississippi had thought long gone.
Albert Samaha
Controversial Mississippi Drug Unit Under Review By Local Officials
University of Mississippi Police Chief Tim Potts told a local paper that a BuzzFeed News investigation sparked the changes to the Lafayette County Metro Narcotics unit, which used controversial methods to recruit college-age informants.
Albert Samaha
Black And Latino Students Say They See Harsh Treatment From School Officers, Who Are Growing In Number
“In some cases police officers doing work in schools don’t always get specific training for dealing with kids...and so you see them using tools used in the streets in the classrooms.”
Albert Samaha
Head Of Controversial Mississippi Narcotics Unit Resigns
The head of a Mississippi narcotics unit that was the focus of several BuzzFeed News stories has resigned. He denies that his resignation was due to BuzzFeed News stories on the unit’s recruitment of college age informants.
Albert Samaha
How Mississippi Cops Threaten College-Age Kids Into Becoming Informants
A recording of two officers from Oxford, Mississippi’s Metro Narcotics unit sheds light on how the unit pressures college-age suspects into becoming informants.
Albert Samaha
"I Killed Him Because He Was Snitching"
Metro Narcotics in Oxford, Mississippi, makes frequent use of college-age informants. Chris Bland claims he murdered one of them for being a "snitch."
Albert Samaha
A Suicide On CO Row
Scott Jones loved being a correctional officer at California's High Desert State Prison. Then he watched his colleagues commit enough abuses that he saw no choice but to break the code of silence, turning himself into a pariah in a neighborhood called CO Row.
Albert Samaha
Baltimore Police Department Cancels Days Off During Court Hearings In Freddie Gray Murder Case
BPD leadership called for all hands on deck in case of unrest on the days the six officers charged for Freddie Gray's death will appear in court.
Albert Samaha
One Man's Effort To Escape New Orleans' Cycle Of Poverty And Incarceration
Jessie was born in jail, grew up in the projects, and spent time behind bars as an adult. Now, he hopes his budding coffee business can keep him on track.
Albert Samaha
This Official Is Tasked With Reforming The Police Dept That Killed Sam DuBose
The professor leading the university’s review into the UCPD said that campus cops have made the area safer despite an officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in the area.
Albert Samaha
Indefensible: The Story Of New Orleans' Public Defenders
Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans didn’t even have a full-time public defender program. The one they built remains overwhelmed and underfunded.
Albert Samaha
“DA Time”: How New Orleans Locks People Up For Weeks Without Charges
Anyone suspected of a felony in New Orleans can be jailed for up to two months. That can alter a life forever, even without a conviction or a charge.
Albert Samaha
University Of Cincinnati Police Overwhelmingly Target Black People
Through the first seven months of 2015, the University of Cincinnati police force has issued three times as many citations to black people as to white people. Last week a white UCPD officer was indicted for shooting an unarmed black man during a traffic stop.
Albert Samaha
Residents Around University Of Cincinnati Feel "Harassment" From Campus Police
"It was only a matter of time" before one of the university's officers shot and killed someone, one local said.
Albert Samaha
Louisiana’s Justice System Remains Unforgiving A Decade After Katrina
Despite post-Katrina reforms to the criminal justice system, Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country. That’s largely due to a practice of adding lots of extra time to the sentences of people with prior convictions, even for nonviolent crimes.
Albert Samaha
Many Baltimore Cops Relieved To See Commissioner Go
Anthony Batts had come into the embattled department as a “reform commissioner,” but many rank-and-file officers bristled at the changes he made.
Albert Samaha
Baltimore Mayor Fires Police Commissioner
Both former Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake were criticized for their handling of riots sparked by the death of a young black man in police custody in April.
Albert Samaha
"The Doors Of The Church Are Open"
Hundreds gathered at Mother Emanuel on Sunday for the first service since nine parishioners were killed in the church’s basement.
Albert Samaha
South Carolina Prosecutor Grapples With Racially Charged Killings
Solicitor Scarlett Wilson has a tense relationship with black activists, but with the police shooting of Walter Scott and the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church, she is now tasked with prosecuting two of the most high-profile racially charged murder cases in the country.
Albert Samaha
Mississippi Private Prison Plagued By “Disorder” and “Mayhem”
Federal Judge Carlton Reeves ruled that conditions at the facility were unconstitutionally violent. He had previously described the facility as a “horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world.”
Albert Samaha
