Citizen-police encounters often begin with an officer asking for identification. People generally provide this information without questioning the legitimacy of the request. In circumstances where a citizen does question the officer, a typical response is generally, “because I’m a police officer,” or “because I said so.” But what if the officer is wrong? What if…
A new study was published regarding differences between use of the words “African-American” and “Black.” In the findings, researches discovered that participants in the study were more likely to associate negative words with the term “Black” than “African-American”: Perhaps, each term evoked different individuals. For example, if White Americans were told that an African-American man…
As local police departments militarize their weapons, it was only a matter of time before they upgraded their surveillance systems as well. Thanks to a small portable device known as a “Stingray” – about the size of a box of doughnuts- police are able to vacuum up loads of cell phone data from regular citizens…
Princeton University has agreed to settle a Title IX investigation with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. According to reports, “The government found that [Princeton] had failed to respond ‘promptly and equitably’ to complaints of sexual violence in violation of federal law.” Story here. A report issued by the Office of Civil Rights stated…
When a customer slips and falls on an icy sidewalk outside the store, who is responsible if the customer is injured? Is it the customer or the business? In most premises liability cases, the customer is responsible if the condition was “open and obvious,” but where the injury is caused by ice, Oklahoma law imposes…
How should police respond when a person has communicated a intent to provoke a deadly confrontation? According to reports by the Tulsa World, this scenario recently occurred in east Tulsa and resulted in an officer shooting a citizen armed with two BB guns. You can read the article here. According to reports, a suicide hotline…
Apple’s new TouchID – which unlocks the iPhone using a fingerprint instead of a four digit password – is intended to ratchet up the security level of the data stored on your phone. While this new feature may frustrate hackers, it may be less effective at keeping out the police, and may actually give them…
