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Support Your Local Police
Stephen Orlando never thought about being anything but a Houston police officer. A graduate of Waltrip High School on the city’s north side, he joined the force in 1975, when he was nineteen. His...
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The Throwdown
In the course of the federal grand jury hearing on Randy Webster’s death, one member of the panel asked Officer Wayne Holloway if he had ever heard the slang term “throwdown.” Holloway said he had....
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ON THE NIGHT OF NOVEMBER 22, 1995—Thanksgiving Eve—Sergeant Mark Bergmark and reserve officer James Purcell of the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department had nothing more pressing to do than drive around...
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HPD Stars in “The Fifth Worst Police Misconduct Video of 2011”
It’s not the sort of year-in-review list you want your state or city to be on: the now-infamous video of Houston Police Department officers beating teen burglary suspect, Brandon Holley, was named by...
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How Much of a Difference Would Police Body Cameras Really Make?
Keyarika Diggles was suspected of failing to finish paying off her traffic tickets. Diggles, a single mother of two, had been making payments, but she still owed more than $100. That led two Jasper...
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What Happened in McKinney
There’s an undeniable history in this country of police treating black people, especially young black people, like they must be controlled. As a result, many black people, especially young black...
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What Is There to Say About This Austin Police Video?
There’s an old adage in journalism that you’ve probably heard: a dog bites a man, that’s not a story. A man bites a dog, that’s a story. You have to keep this in mind when covering the great state of...
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Here’s The Latest On The Sandra Bland Investigation
First things first: It’s still unclear how Sandra Bland died. The official story on the 28-year-old activist is that she committed suicide in Waller County jail after she was arrested on charges of...
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On ‘Contempt Of Cop,’ Jailhouse Suicide, And Sandra Bland
Fourteen days after Sandra Bland was arrested and ten days after she was found dead in the Waller County jail, it’s starting to seem unlikely that we’ll ever know with certainty how a routine traffic...
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Who Can Get Away With Jaywalking?
I’m going to confess to a crime: I jaywalked on Austin’s Sixth Street on Thursday, and I got away with it. I was running late for a screening at the Austin Film Festival. It was early in the evening,...
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Brian Encinia Charged With Perjury In Sandra Bland’s Case
We’ll never know for sure what happened to Sandra Bland. We know that she died in custody after being arrested during a traffic stop in Waller County. We know that she was found hanging in her cell, a...
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Austin Police Shot An Unarmed Black Teenager While He Was Naked
We don’t know where seventeen-year-old David Joseph was in relation to Austin Police Officer Geoffrey Freeman when the officer shot and killed the teen on Monday morning. We do know that Joseph was...
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‘How Can They Expect Peace When They Won’t Give Us Peace’: A Weekend of...
The armored SWAT vehicles arrived at Dallas City Hall shortly after 4 p.m. on Saturday, along with officers carrying thick shields and guns. Protesters, about a thousand feet away from the city’s...
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“There Are No Checks and Balances”: Two Texas Criminal Justice Experts on the...
On May 25, a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, killing him on camera. Every night since then, protesters have taken to the streets to call for justice...
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Austin Filmmaker Ya’Ke Smith’s New Short, ‘Dear Bruh,’ Honors Lives Lost to...
Ya’ke Smith’s new film, Dear Bruh, opens with a collage of videos and images that showcase Black men and boys laughing, smiling, and embracing. These patches of joy are then contrasted with the faces...
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“Black Austin Matters” Is an Artistic Challenge to the City
On the morning of June 16, about two dozen artists and activists wearing masks and wielding long stem paint rollers gathered in downtown Austin, just a few blocks from the Capitol on Congress Avenue....
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The Ragged Edge
This story is from Texas Monthly’s archives. We have left it as it was originally published, without updating, to maintain a clear historical record. Some of the language in this archival story...
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