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(AP) — The U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation Wednesday into alleged civil rights violations by police in a majority Black Mississippi city, stepping in following accusations that officers used excessive force and arrested people without justification. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who leads the Justice Department's civil rights division, announced the investigation at a news conference. The area also has a storied place in civil rights history. It also follows the June arrest of Jill Collen Jefferson, the president of JULIAN, the civil rights organization that filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of residents. If the Justice Department concludes that police officers committed the alleged civil rights violations, it could bring a lawsuit seeking court-ordered changes to the department.

Persons: JACKSON, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, ” Clarke, Robert Clark, Todd Gee, Jill Collen Jefferson, JULIAN, Sam Dobbins, Dobbins, Jefferson, ___ Michael Goldberg Organizations: U.S . Justice Department, “, Mississippi Legislature, Southern, Southern District of, Lexington Police Department, Lexington Police, Lexington, Department, Associated Press, America Statehouse News Initiative, America Locations: Miss, Black Mississippi, Lexington, Jackson, Holmes County, Mississippi, U.S, Southern District, Southern District of Mississippi, Rankin County , Mississippi, @mikergoldberg

"SpaceX's discriminatory hiring practices were routine, widespread, and longstanding, and harmed asylees and refugees," Justice Department lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. AdvertisementAdvertisement"Export control laws and regulations do not prohibit or restrict employers from hiring asylees and refugees; those laws treat asylees and refugees just like U.S. citizens," the lawsuit says. The Justice Department's civil rights division, which brought the lawsuit, informed SpaceX in 2020 that it had initiated its investigation. SpaceX initially refused to hand over employment records and fought a Justice Department subpoena in court. "SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company," Clarke said.

Persons: Elon Musk, asylees, Musk, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, SpaceX didn't, Tesla Organizations: SpaceX, Elon Musk's, Service, Justice, Defense, State, Justice Department, Twitter Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Minneapolis police agree to court-enforced reforms 3 years after George Floyd protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Rachel Nostrant | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] A pedestrian walks past a mural near the closed Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct on the third anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 25, 2023. The agreement approved July 13 by Hennepin County District Court Judge Karen Janisch provides for an independent community commission to oversee the Minneapolis Police Department and mandates policing reforms. "No, I don’t think it’s going to be enough.”Under the July 13 agreement, Minneapolis city and police officials have 60 days to put together implementation teams. Her department had conducted its own investigation into Minneapolis police after last year announcing it had found probable cause to believe that the Minnesota Human Rights Act had been violated. It worked with the city and its police department on the agreement approved by Judge Janisch.

Persons: George Floyd, Leah Millis, Karen Janisch, Derek Chauvin, Floyd, Toussaint Morrison, Rebecca Lucero, Judge Janisch, Rachel Nostrant, Donna Bryson, Aurora Ellis Organizations: REUTERS, Hennepin, Minneapolis Police Department, Minneapolis police, Department's Civil Rights, Minnesota Department of Human Rights, Minnesota Department of Human, Minnesota Human, Thomson Locations: Minneapolis, Minneapolis , Minnesota, U.S, Minnesota, Hennepin County

☆ Minneapolis police face federal oversight for excessive force, discrimination
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

June 16 (Reuters) - Police in Minneapolis routinely use excessive force and discriminate against Black and Native American people, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday after a two-year investigation prompted by the police killing of George Floyd. The city has agreed to what will likely be years of federal oversight as it works to reform the Minneapolis Police Department, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the findings. "We found that the Minneapolis Police Department routinely uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust deadly force and unreasonable use of Tasers," Garland said at a press conference at the city's federal courthouse. Frey and other Minneapolis officials will negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department known as a consent decree in which a federal judge will oversee the city's progress in reforming the police department. The department has negotiated similar federal oversight agreements in other cities, including Ferguson in Missouri, Baltimore and Cleveland.

Persons: George Floyd, General Merrick Garland, Derek Chauvin, Garland, Jacob Frey, Frey, Chauvin, Floyd, Eric Miller, Marcia Howard, Howard, Mayor Frey, Department's, Joe Biden, Ferguson, Jonathan Allen, Deepa Babington, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Police, U.S . Justice, Minneapolis Police Department, U.S, Justice Department, Civil Rights Division, REUTERS, Minneapolis Police, Democrat, Justice Department's Civil, Thomson Locations: Minneapolis, Minneapolis , Minnesota, U.S, Black, Missouri, Baltimore, Cleveland, New York

☆ Somehow 32 school districts in Mississippi are still under federal orders to desegregate
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Michael Goldberg | Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But 69 years later, 32 school districts in Mississippi are still under federal desegregation orders. (AP) — There are 32 school districts in Mississippi still under federal desegregation orders, the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division's assistant attorney general said Thursday. "In our ongoing efforts to fulfill the promise of Brown vs. Board of Education, we currently have 32 open cases with school districts here in Mississippi," Clarke said. In addition to school districts, Clarke said at least five Mississippi jails and prisons have come under federal scrutiny. Clarke declined to offer more details about the case, citing an ongoing federal civil rights investigation.

Persons: Brown, —, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, Rogelio V, Solis Mississippi, Michael Corey Jenkins, Jill Collen Jefferson, JULIAN, Bonita Streeter, Mitzi Dease Paige, Solis, Jefferson Organizations: Service, US Department of Justice's, US Department of Justice's Civil Rights, Justice Department, of Education, Holmes, Community, Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, AP, The Justice Department, Mississippi Delta, Penitentiary, South Mississippi Correctional Institution, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, Correctional, Sheriff's Deputies, Southern, Southern District of, Solis An Associated Press, Lexington Police Department, The, Department, FBI Locations: Mississippi, LEXINGTON, Miss, Lexington, Jackson, Parchman, Wilkinson, Hinds, Rankin, Southern District, Southern District of Mississippi, Solis An

The Justice Department said the law violated the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, which promises equal protection. The Justice Department also said it was asking the court to issue an immediate order to prevent the law from going into effect on July 1. But many medical associations have said the law is transphobic and that gender-affirming care can be life-saving. Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the ban into law last month along with a separate measure restricting drag performances in public. Several other U.S. states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, and over the last several weeks groups have sued over laws adopted in Utah, Florida, Indiana and Arkansas.

☆ U.S. policing AI at companies to make sure it doesn't violate civil rights
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 25 (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Tuesday warned financial firms and others that use of artificial intelligence (AI) can heighten the risk of bias and civil rights violations, and signaled they are policing marketplaces for such discrimination. Increased reliance on automated systems in sectors including lending, employment and housing threatens to exacerbate discrimination based on race, disabilities and other factors, the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Justice Department's civil rights unit, Federal Trade Commission and others said. "Claims of innovation must not be cover for lawbreaking," Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, told reporters. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is trying to reach tech sector whistleblowers to determine where new technologies run afoul of civil rights laws, said Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra. If companies do not even understand the reasons for the decisions their AI is making, they cannot legally use it, Chopra said.

A Louisiana man was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for kidnapping and attempting to murder a gay teen as part of a broader hate crime scheme targeting men on an LGBTQ dating app, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. His decadeslong sentencing rested on a variety of factors, the Justice Department revealed, including that Seneca intentionally targeted the teen and other gay men because of their sexual orientation. Within days of his assault on White, Seneca allegedly attempted to kidnap a different man and allegedly kidnapped another, the Justice Department said in a previous statement. The Louisiana case is one of several where people have used Grindr, a dating app founded in 2009 that is predominantly used by gay men, to target LGBTQ people around the world. In 2018, it was widely reported that Egyptian authorities and residents were using Grindr and other dating apps to entrap and persecute gay men.

They said they plan to share the footage with the Justice Department. The main entrance to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Mississippi Department of CorrectionsThe crisis in state prisons had become so acute that Gov. Some changes were already in the works under new leadership, the Justice Department said at the time, with cooperation coming from state officials. The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for further comment.

☆ DOJ plans to monitor elections in these 46 cities and counties to ensure voters aren't harassed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Justice Department plans to monitor polls in two dozen states across the country to ensure no one intimidates voters or otherwise meddles with Tuesday's midterm elections. The department's Civil Rights Division selected 64 jurisdictions in 24 states, including Alaska, Florida, Georgia and Nevada, for oversight in both the general election and early voting. The division routinely monitors elections in the field, starting in 1965 when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. DOJ monitored polls in 18 states and 44 cities and counties in 2020, by comparison. Attorneys' Offices and the Office of Personnel Management will assist the DOJ Civil Rights Division in monitoring efforts and maintaining contact with state and local election officials.

☆ A mechanic who says he was fired after refusing to 'forgive and forget' a colleague's use of a racist slur is suing a Georgia county
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A mechanic said he was fired by a Georgia county after refusing to forgive the use of a racist slur. Loyal told his brother-in-law, Bobby Turner, about the incident, upsetting Puryear. Both men were fired by the county for misconduct two weeks after Loyal's initial complaint, per the filing. "No employee should have to endure racial harassment or retaliation in the workplace, especially racial slurs," said assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's civil rights division. "Punishing employees for reporting harassment and discrimination to their supervisors is illegal and undermines the basic statutory protections designed to identify and root out racial harassment in workplaces across the country."

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