A New Study Shows Police Violence Is a Leading Cause of Death for Young Black Men

It’s become clear that young black men have different experiences with – and more reasons to fear – interactions with police.

At least, that’s how it seems.

But now, a scientific study is backing up that idea with proof.

According to new research, black men between the ages of 20 and 29 experience the highest mortality rate, with use-of-force by police being the 6th leading cause of death (after accidents, suicide, other homicides, heart disease, and cancer).

Study author Frank Edwards, of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Newark, issued a statement about their findings.

“We haven’t really known for sure how often these killings have been happening because the data hasn’t been good enough. But if we are going to try and change police practices that aren’t working, we need to track this information better.”

Lest you think those numbers aren’t striking, they mean that 1 in every 1,000 black men will be killed by police – a 2.5x higher rate than for white men.

They join American Indians and Alaskan Natives in being “significantly more likely” to be killed by police. Even black women are 1.4x more likely than white women to be killed by police.

The data comes from Fatal Encounters, a journalist-led effort to document police-related deaths, which otherwise are lumped in with other crime statistics.

We find that African American men and women, American Indian/Alaskan Native men and women, and Latino men face higher lifetime risk of being killed by police than do their white peers.”

Even though the data includes so-called “justified” killings, the results are nonetheless compelling. Race and police brutality continue to stand in the national spotlight, largely due to the fact that even though black people make up a mere 13% of the population, they encompass 34% of the prison population and 25% of people killed by on-duty police – making them closer to 3x more likely to die that way than their white peers.

While these results can be partially explained by the fact that younger people are more likely to engage in risky behavior, the study authors point out that police in the U.S. kill more people overall than forces in other industrialized democracies, particularly when it comes to people of color.

Hopefully studies like these, combined with thoughtful policies and departments intent on improving relations between officers and those they serve, will help steer America in the right direction.

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A Huge Game of Hide-And-Seek at IKEA Got Stopped by the Police

This is a headline you don’t see every day, now is it? But it’s true – every word of it!

Police were recently called to an IKEA store in Glasgow, Scotland, after store employees became alarmed when customers began hiding in cupboards, refrigerators, and beds.

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Posted by IKEA on Friday, August 30, 2019

The culprit? A “Hide and Seek” Facebook event that over 2,000 people signed up for and another 10,000 folks were “interested in.” Damn you, social media!

The store’s management had heard about the planned event and were turning people away at the front door, but they couldn’t catch every mischievous person who wanted to get in on the action.

Not sure if you have seen the hide and seek thing going on in Ikea but, my friend just dropped me off at the airport to…

Posted by Paige Taft on Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Five police officers were dispatched to the IKEA store to help staff put an end to the game. Rob Cooper, the manager of the Glasgow store, said:

“The safety of our customers and co-workers is always our highest priority. We were aware of an unofficial hide and seek Facebook event being organised to take place at our store and have been working with the local police for support. While we appreciate playing games in one of our stores may be appealing to some, we do not allow this kind of activity to take place to ensure we are offering a safe environment and relaxed shopping experience for our customers.”

Sounds like this game got squashed almost before it even started. Buzzkill!

There’s actually been a somewhat global trend of people wanting to play Hide and Seek at IKEA stores going all the way back to 2014. Games have taken place in Belgium, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. One organizer for a game in Belgium said, “Sometimes it’s fun just to do some childish things. Ikea is like an extremely large living room. We played hide and seek the whole day. It was really exhausting but so much fun.”

IKEA, however, is not on board. The store issued a statement telling customers, “It’s hard to control. We need to make sure people are safe in our stores and that’s hard to do if we don’t even know where they are.”

Good point. Safety first, people…keep that in mind.

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Cops Share the Worst Excuses They’ve Heard That Actually Turned out to Be True

Cops have to deal with a lot of BS on a daily basis AND they get lied to constantly, so you know they’ve heard it all before.

But, apparently, sometimes those excuses that sound like total bullsh*t turn out to be true.

Here are some police officers spilling the beans.

1. Still a mystery

“Had a Domestic in Progress I responded to during Christmas Day and the excuse for them fighting was “We’re not mad at each other, we’re just upset because we wanted to surprise the kids for Christmas, we got some Deer, dressed them up, now they’re destroying our house.”

Turns out there was literally three fully grown white-tailed deer in the house somehow dressed with full bell harnesses like Santa’s reindeer.

I had to call the Game Wardens down who were then able to help me remove the deer from the property without injury to us or them.

How they managed to get the Deer and dress them up is still a mystery to this day.”

2. Because he could

“One of the funnier ones that I remember. We got a call for a kid (he was 18 and a gang member) brandishing a firearm. He had pulled up his shirt pretending to brandish a firearm to intimidate somebody. The person calling only saw a holster. After we got there, he kept telling us it wasn’t a gun but a dildo. We took him down at gunpoint and he was right. He was walking around with a holstered, black dildo. Why? Because he could. Haha”

3. Light him up

“One night I’m out working, and as I go down the street (fairly nice middle class area surrounded by some high crime neighborhoods) around midnight I see a dude on a bike, no lights on, pulling a lawnmower behind him on a rope.

I immediately flip a 180 and light him up. Recognize the guy as a local homeless dude with some prior burglary/theft arrests. I walk up and just open with “Dude, come on…”

Guy holds his hands out and swears he didn’t steal the lawnmower. Claims someone just gave it to him. I ask who, and he doesn’t know a name. So I demand he tell me where to find said lawnmower owner. The directions he gave were literally “go that way a bit, then right at a stop sign, and take one of those side streets that way. It’s about halfway down a street, at a house that has a pickup and a car in the driveway.”

By this point backup had arrived, so I leave him in the presence of backup, and drive off in search of his mythical donor of lawn equipment. I made a decent guess as to the first turn, then flipped a mental coin as to which of the next three side streets he would have gone down. I pick the second of the three streets, and start down it. Every other fucking house has a truck and car combo…there must have been a dozen houses that matched the description.

Halfway down, I see an average looking house and go “ehh, I’ll try this one”. After all, it’s midnight and this is a wild goose chase. Go up, ring the doorbell…middle aged dude comes to the door. “Hello sir, have you been giving away lawnmowers to random sketchy homeless guys at midnight today?”

Yes. As a matter of fact, he had. Homeowner goes on to complain to me that his wife was upset as his continual inability to get the mower running, and had ordered him with some severity to remove the mower from the house or face the consequences. He pushed it to the curb right as homeless guy rode by, and the latter had asked and received his permission to take it.

I drove back in shock and amazement. Apologized to homeless guy, and sent him on his way. A few months later we ran into each other at a nearby gas station, and he told me it turned out just to need a new spark plug, and that he had gotten it running again, before going on to sell it for $150 to someone.

For years after, whenever I would run into him, he would always make sure to remind me of the money he made from selling that “stolen” lawnmower…LOL.”

4. Remember to take your insulin

“Not really an excuse, but shocked the shit out of me. I’ve always been told a diabetic with high blood sugar acts the same as someone who is drunk.

Get a call for a car all over the road, hitting trash cans on the side of the road and what not. We stop the car and get the driver out. He’s slurring his speech like no other, can’t maintain his balance to save his life. Fails all the sobriety tests, but blew 0’s on the PBT. He denied drinking and swears up and down he didn’t do any drugs, never mentions the diabetes.

We’re all scratching our heads and I remember the blood sugar thing. Call medical to our location and sure as shit his blood sugar was 550, and he finally remembers that he hadn’t taken insulin in 8 hours.”

5. Burst implants

“My dad is an officer and he pulled someone over for speeding and running a red light and they said their breast implant burst. He called ems to rush them to the hospital and turned out it did and it’s actually very dangerous if they leak.”

6. Weird

“Was doing a tour as an MP (not my normal job, but whole other story), and we got called on a domestic. At the house, there is this huge corn-fed guy about 6’4″ and 275, and a petite Asian girl about 4″10″ and 95 pounds soaking wet. The whole house was in disarray, and the call had come because of yelling heard by the neighbors.

She was crying and talking in an Asian language that none of us understood, and kept gesturing toward her huge husband. He wasn’t talking. We wrap him up, take him to the station, and are trying to interview him, but he’s not saying much. We intend to charge him with domestic assault. We notice somewhere along the way that he has horrible welts all along the backs of his hands and along his forearms.

It took a lot of prying, but we finally got out of him that his wife would beat him with wire coat hangers when she was mad, and apparently that was pretty often. He was too embarrassed to admit to anybody that he was being abused by his wife who was less than a third of his size. We finally got it straightened out, turned her over to the local police, and barred her from base. Hopefully the guy got the help he needed.”

7. No ID

“I used to work as a military police officer. I was working at the main gate one night and this guy tried to come on base but he didn’t have any ID other than a drivers license so I couldn’t let him on. The guy told me that a general said he could come on but he didn’t have any proof of that and he didn’t know what the generals name was.

It was also super late at night and he didn’t seem to have any answers that would help us identify who he was. Long story short, the dude ended up being legit and was coming on base to be awarded a silver star the next day from that general.”

8. Oh, boy

“Not a cop. Family friend was. Pulled a guy over who was speeding profusely. Guy was obviously disheveled. He said he was headed to the hospital because he had a tick on his penis. Cop was confused, but he escorted him there, then waited in the lobby to check on him/ see if he was blowing smoke. After a while, he asked the desk what was going on, why it took so long to take a tick off his penis.”

9. Pay attention to this story

“Popped a college kid for shitty driving and pulled a hundred grams of weed off of him. Also, a 1lb glass pipe shaped like a huge nail. No biggie. Also find weed under the other college kids in the car. Driver falls on the sword and tells me all of it is his and lets his friends walk free. I like this kid.

However during the search we find packaged addies in the cellophane of a cigarette pack with the top melted closed. <goddamnit intensifies>. Ask kid if hes dealing addies at school. Tell him I’m aware of the prescription pill epidemic. He says no and spins a huge yarn about how he only carries a few on him because hes had his orange pill bottle stolen so many times. Kid seems like a pretty good dude. I decided to take the x-files approach. Supervisor tells me pursue charges for dealing..blah blah blah. I tell the kid he has one chance to prove hes telling the truth.

Shows me the broken glass under his drivers seat from a vehicle burglary. Gotta do better. I follow behind him back to his dorm, he let’s me in and shows me the busted footlocker he kept them in under his bed. Dunno. Kinda weak. Supervisors telling me to hurry and and drop the axe. Tell him to do better. He calls one of the soccer team assistants up and we meet him in the locker room. Shows me the little wooden locker which has a broken lock. Ehhh.

Assistant coach tells me they have replaced the lock on his cabinet three times. Campus security has numerous reports of medicine theft from this kid. Nice. I call supervisor up and tell him I have no grounds to pursue delivery charges.

Poor bastard just kept getting his adderalls jacked and being the big dumb meatball he was, he started packaging them like that. I end up talking to his best friend breaking up a house party a couple months later. Friend tells me kid is a stand up guy who only uses weed due to extreme anxiety (totally believable from my interaction with him) and has never sold anything in his life. Friend thanked me and told me his buddy spoke well of me. Friend also tells me he had to drive his buddy to the hospital a few hours after I left from a panic attack due to the whole incident.

I felt bad for the kid. So now, whenever I see him smoking up in his car in the mall parking lot I just wave.”

10. Diabetic

“Former cop here. I was behind a vehicle that couldn’t stay in the lane, kept swerving, etc. It was 1am, and I think another drunk idiot on the road. Pull him over, guy is a straight up asshole to me. Cursed me out, yelling at me, and I notice his speech is slurred. I get him out to car, and I can smell a fruity smell on his breath and he has to lean against the car for support. I ask him how much he had to drink and he tells me to fuck off.

By this point I’m ready to bring him in for a DUI, but I just had a feeling something wasn’t right. I called EMS to come check him, blood sugar was at 40. Not drunk, just a diabetic. If I would have arrested him, he probably would of died before I finished the paperwork. Go with your gut if something doesn’t seem right!”

11. Ants in his pants

“My first ever real call was for a flasher at the local park, when i got there and finally found him it was a mentally impaired young man 16-17 who had a pair of headphones on in a full pooh bear. I said hey man come here what the hell is going on you know u have to keep your pants on especially at the park.

He goes on to tell me he had bad itching down his pants and couldnt take it anymore so he had to rip his pants off and was running home to get help, I said cmon you couldnt make it home first? He said no I had ants in my pants. As sure as shit according to more then one witness’s account, he had been sitting in a sandbox playing at the park and accidentally on a nest of red ants that had crawled up his pant legs…”

12. Recycling

“Former Park Ranger.

First week in the job we pull up and see a couple of kids smoking in their car with the windows down. The city has an ordinance against smoking on park property, but it is too petty to give them a ticket.

We approach the car and they are visibly nervous. My FTO looks through the windows and sees a couple of beer cans in the car. Bingo.

We get them out and start running their info, they are all underage but old enough to smoke cigarettes. My FTO asks them where the beer came from- the driver says he recycles. FTO laughs and begins to search the car.

I’m finishing up running their info, and these guys are being really respectful. FTO finishes searching the cab and goes to open the trunk. All the sudden I hear him bust out laughing. He is laughing so hard he can barely breathe.

He waves me over to look at the trunk of the car and it is level with crushed cans and bottles.

My FTO said that he has heard that excuse for 20 years and this is the first time it was true. He walked up, uncuffed the driver and let him go.”

13. Whoops

“I’m running booking one night, guy gets brought in for posessing a truly stupendous amount of drugs. Im talking like 2 rubbermade totes full of shrooms, a huge bag of weed, and enough heroin to overdose half the county. “Well,” says he, “I’m a DEA informant and they told me to make the drop so they could be there and raid the crap out of everybody and let me go for helping.”

Uh huh. riiiiiight. Face left please.

Guy is like “I’m tellin you dude, theyre gonna be suuuuper pissed that you country retards fucked up thier bust!”

Whatever, get in the holding cell and shut up.

About 3 hours later three guys show up, DEA agents, theyre super pissed that our deputies fucked up thier bust. I go back to the holding cell to let the guy out, and he’s just like “theyre super pissed huh?”

yeah.

“told you so.”

14. Mind. Blown.

“I went to a disturbance at a backyard bbq once. Turns out it was a bunch of Roma (gypsies). As I was trying to figure out what was going on I had some old lady approach me and want to talk to me off to the side.

She told me she was an informant for the FBI and that if I left, she would be able to get some information on a matter the FBI was interested in. I rolled my eyes and thanked her and said I would be out of there as soon as I could make sure there was no violence going on.

Anyway I determined it was just verbal so I cleared the call and went back in service. About 15 to 30 minutes later dispatch radioed me to head back to the station. I got there and got a message to call some FBI Field office and ask for a certain agent.

I called and sure as shit this agent said he understood I spoke with his informant and wanted to know everything she told me.

Blew my mind.”

15. IKEA will do that to you

“Cop here – got a call of a domestic dispute that sounded very heated and a lot of banging was heard. Get to scene and I can hear someone yelling and swearing and brawling, doesn’t sound good at all. Guy answers the door, shirt off and angry, but seems bewildered as to why police had been called.

He told me he was building Ikea furniture – sounds like the most bullshit thing. But, we enter, see the new IKEA furniture half set up and no one else is home. Colour me surprised.”

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Tennessee Police Warned About “Meth Gators,” Then Had to Walk It Back

Remember that urban legend that said if you flushed a baby alligator down the toilet, the poor little fella would end up in the sewer, get enormous, have a major chip on its shoulder for being deserted, and then would go on a killing rampage? It’s actually the basis of a schlocky 1980 movie called Alligator.

Well, there’s a new alligator-centered urban legend you should familiarize yourself with because it’s a doozy…and police in Tennessee had to backtrack after the story went viral. Let’s begin, shall we?

Police in Loretto, Tennessee, posted a photo on Facebook about a drug bust. In the post, they also told people they shouldn’t flush their drugs down the toilet because it ends up in local waterways and that’s always bad news…oh, and it might create meth gators.

You read that right, meth gators.

The Facebook post read:

“Folks…please don’t flush your drugs m’kay. When you send something down the sewer pipe it ends up in our retention ponds for processing before it is sent down stream. Now our sewer guys take great pride in releasing water that is cleaner than what is in the creek, but they are not really prepared for meth.

Ducks, Geese, and other fowl frequent our treatment ponds and we shudder to think what one all hyped up on meth would do. Furthermore, if it made it far enough we could create meth-gators in Shoal Creek and the Tennessee River down in North Alabama. They’ve had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help. So, if you need to dispose of your drugs just give us a call and we will make sure they are disposed of in the proper way.”

People on social media bought into the hype and shared their thoughts.

Because the story went viral and people totally believed these doped-up reptiles might be coming to hunt them down, the Loretto Police Department had to clarify that meth gators are not, in fact, real.

I mean, this story even went international:

Loretto Police chief Bobby Joe Killen said, “As far as I know, there’s no methed-up gators being sighted anywhere. It’s just a joke to let people know they don’t need to be flushing their drugs of any kind down the sewer system. They need to dispose of it in a proper manner.”

Killen added, “We take our job seriously, but we like to joke amongst ourselves at the department. When you work eight, 10-hour shifts in our line of work, there are times when we like to laugh a little bit. Otherwise, you take your problems home.”

I predict a horror movie franchise based on meth gators and I could not be more pleased about it!

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Brady Snakovsky, a 9 year old…

Brady Snakovsky, a 9 year old, was watching Live PD and noticed a K9 without a bulletproof vest on, so he made a go-fund-me with his mom to purchase a vest for the dog and instead raised over $80,000, which was used to create a legitimate charitable organization donating to police.

Elvis Presley was an official…

Elvis Presley was an official captain of the Memphis Police Department and even had dashboard police lights for his cars. He was known for pulling people over and lecturing them on safety before giving them an autograph and letting them go.

These Penguins Disobeyed Police and Returned to Invade a Sushi Shop Twice

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE THIS STORY.

Meet the cutest criminals in perhaps the whole world.

Two penguins in New Zealand disobeyed police and hid under a sushi stand.

On the one hand, penguins have NO business being in or near a sushi shop. But on the other hand, penguins mainly eat fish, so…

You can see how they’d be tempted.

The little blue penguins hid underneath a sushi stand, Sushi Bi, across from a railway station in Wellington. Police “temporarily detained” the pair before releasing them back into Wellington Harbor, according to Radio New Zealand.

These birds seemingly have no respect for police authority! Even though they’d been returned to the harbor, they snuck across busy lanes of traffic to get from the station to the sushi bar a second time. At that point, the Department of Conservation was called to remove them.

You know – escalate to a higher authority.

These penguins are apparently common in Wellington Harbor, and at this time of year, they pair up and look for a spot to lay their eggs.

These two penguins just happened to choose the sushi shop, which is a first.  They’ll likely try to attempt to return to the same site to nest over and over again, despite the every attempt to remove them.

“It’s a natural characteristic of the penguins – they will always return to where they possibly were nesting,” explained Mike Rumble, a volunteer with the DOC.

Jack Mace of the DOC says that people should keep their distance from the penguins because they can bite. They are cute, but not harmless.

If anyone wants to start a petition to let the penguins nest under the sushi shop, though, I’ll definitely sign it!

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Police Arrested a Man in Missouri After a Loud Fart Gave Away His Hiding Spot

Headline of the year? So far, I’d say yes.

Police officers in Liberty, Missouri, were hot on the trail of a man with a felony warrant out for his arrest – he was wanted for possession of a controlled substance – and about to pull out all of the stops. Fox9 reports that K-9 units had been called in to track his scent, but they were never deployed…

Because the guy let a fart rip so loudly that it gave away his hiding place.

I mean, that is some gas, if you can’t hold it in long enough to not get arrested.

If you’ve got a felony warrant for your arrest, the cops are looking for you and you pass gas so loud it gives up your hiding spot, you’re definitely having a 💩 day. 🚓 #ItHappened

Posted by Clay County, Missouri Sheriff on Tuesday, July 9, 2019

The local police station had a bit of fun with the incident on their Facebook page (because how could you not?), and everyone who has read the story has had a similar (snort-laughing) response as well.

Here are some of the better ones (in this writer’s opinion).

“He had the right to remain silent, but he didn’t have the ability.”

“Boy, am I glad I caught wind of this story.”

“I fart the law and the law won.”

To be honest, I’m still not over it.

I swear, I’ll go to my grave wishing there was video.

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These Are the Four Magic Phrases to Know When You Get Stopped by the Cops

If an interaction with police moves beyond them giving you a ticket – for instance if they say, “We smell something in your car” or “If you haven’t done anything, then you’ll agree to us searching your car” – there are some important things to know.

You still have rights, and there are a few key phrases you can use, straight from the Constitution and past case laws, that’ll assist in moving the situation along.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

1. “Am I free to go?”

First try saying something along the lines of “Am I being detained?” If the police have nothing on you, they cannot do anything but let you go. But they may say, “No, you are not free to go,” in which case they suspect something and are going to try to get you to admit to something.

2. “I do not consent to any type of search.”

Unless there is evidence of a crime visible from through the window, law enforcement cannot perform a warrantless search your vehicle (or your house) without your permission – which means they may try to play mind tricks to convince you to allow a search. So do NOT give up your rights too easily (who knows what your buddy forget in your glove compartment?), even if they slip in the old, “We’ll go easier on you if you let us search your car.”

Photo Credit: Pexels, Rosemary Ketchum

3. “I want to remain silent.”

Let’s say you’re pulled over for going 10 miles over the speed limit and when you open the window they claim to smell marijuana. Instead of babbling on and on about the one time your friend borrowed your vehicle, use this phrase. You have a constitutional right not to incriminate yourself (the 5th amendment that TV loves so much), so they cannot force you to say anything. They may take you in, but you will not have dug a hole for yourself that you have trouble getting out of later.

4. “I want a lawyer.”

If you’ve gotten this far, chances are you’re past the point of them letting you go on your merry way. So ask for one and remain silent until the lawyer arrives.

This video shows examples of how you can use these 4 magic phrases (and then some) and best practices for handling yourself calmly if you are pulled over.

These may be difficult to remember when under pressure. I suggest leaving a note in your car or using a mnemonic for “Free (to go), (do not consent to) Searches, (stay) Silent, and (I want a) Lawyer.”

Stay safe!

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10+ People Admit How They Bribed Cops to Get out of Trouble

When you get pulled over by the police, you usually just hang your head and go along with the program, right?

But these 13 people DID NOT like the idea of getting a ticket. So they took matters into their own hands and just straight up bribed a cop. And yes, bribing is extremely illegal and can lead to even more trouble.

Read on to see what actually went down…

1. I bet it didn’t work?

Photo Credit: Whisper

2. Ummm…. what did you do?

Photo Credit: Whisper

3. Make a run for the border!

Photo Credit: Whisper

4. Damn. That would be hard to pass up…

Photo Credit: Whisper

5. But… did you fuck him?

Photo Credit: Whisper

6. Hey, as long as it worked out in the end…

Photo Credit: Whisper

7. Okay, this isn’t exactly bribery…

Photo Credit: Whisper

8. For life? You’re going to work at the sex shop FOR LIFE? Hahaha… yeah…

Photo Credit: Whisper

9. Well, that wasn’t a soul crushing night or anything…

Photo Credit: Whisper

10. Yeah, sure you did…

Photo Credit: Whisper

11. Trashy is as trashy does…

Photo Credit: Whisper

12. Okay, that’s actually funny. But I doubt this works.

Photo Credit: Whisper

13. Cops like to get high too…

Photo Credit: Whisper

If you haven’t lost faith in law enforcement before, did this hurt your perceptions?

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