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The invisible shield: how activists and lawmakers are breaking down qualified immunity, Part 3

Herb Boyd Damaso Reyes

April 15, 2021 |

New York Amsterdam News |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Colorado

The protests against police abuses in 2020 prodded numerous legislatures to challenge the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which protects police officers from being sued for violating people's civil rights. Colorado's law, the first to pass, was a direct response to the protests, as was New York City's law. While one Colorado lawsuit has already been filed, the full effects of these laws and others in the pipeline won't be known for some time. Proponents say these changes won't transform police culture, but they are necessary precursors to making deeper changes.

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The Polarised City (1): How 2 Jos Communities Struggle To Unite After Years Of Crises

Nathaniel Bivan

April 12, 2021 |

HumAngle |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Jos

With help from nongovernmental organizations, the people of two communities who clashed violently since 2001 found ways to coexist peacefully since 2019. Violent attacks and reprisals between the Christians of Unguwar Balakazai and Muslims of Mai Damisa claimed hundreds of lives and destroyed homes repeatedly. Elders trained by the Youth Initiative Against Violence and Human Rights Abuse told youth stories about peace in Jos in the past. Youth ambassadors trained by the Jos Stakeholders for Peace Centre met and agreed to lay down their weapons.

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The invisible shield: how qualified immunity was created and nearly destroyed the ability to sue police officers in America Pt. I

Herb Boyd Damaso Reyes

April 01, 2021 |

New York Amsterdam News |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The Civil Rights Act of 1871, as a direct response to white resistance to Reconstruction-era reforms in the former Confederacy, gave people the right to sue government officials for depriving them of their civil rights. But a series of court decisions from the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s through the 1980s undercut the law's intent, so much so that police officers ended up with "qualified immunity" from liability for rights violations – effectively avoiding accountability, even when they act in bad faith.

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For Rohingya Survivors, Art Bears Witness

Patricia Leigh Brown

March 19, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Bangladesh

Artolution provides art education and supplies to Rohingya Survivors in Bangladesh refugee camps, all of whom experienced severe trauma, to create life-affirming and informative murals. Topics range from safe hygiene practices to the dangers of domestic violence. The group trains artists to become muralists and teachers and pays them an annual stipend. The murals help artists heal, provide important public health information to the community, and amplify the cultural traditions they had to hide for so long. The nearly 200 murals are on almost all surfaces of the refugee camp from latrines to “monsoon walls.”

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How a Nigerian security guard used football to end tribal conflict

Kelechukwu Iruoma

March 18, 2021 |

TRT World |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Port Harcourt, River State

A series of four football competitions in 2017-18 brought peace to two communities whose land dispute had led to violence. In the absence of a government response, the chief security officer of the Igbesikala-Ama, a minority group, put his peacemaking training to work to recruit teams from eight communities to participate. Included were people from the two communities in conflict and members of the youth "cults" who had done the fighting at their elders' instigation. The competition brought an end to the violence, though a lack of money put an end to the football competitions.

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The Young Uyghurs Mobilizing to Keep Their Culture Alive

Andrew McCormick

March 04, 2021 |

Yes! Magazine |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: China, Xinjiang

A growing community of young Uyghurs are working to preserve and promote their culture from the diaspora. Many online networks provide ways for young people to connect, and also offer courses on traditional culture, Uyghur language, and career networking. Other groups fundraise to help Uyghurs still in China, where they live under oppressive conditions and authorities have banned most aspects of traditional Uyghur life. Dozens of Uyghur schools have popped up around the globe, where young people, many of whom have never been to China, contribute to keeping the culture alive.

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How Food Changed the Course of the #EndSARS Protests in Nigeria

Zainab Onuh-Yahaya

February 23, 2021 |

Life & Thyme |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria

During Nigerians' protests against the brutality of the Nigerian Police Force's Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a single tweet for donations to feed protesters grew into a movement that sustained the protests both physically and emotionally, while also giving supporters a way to connect to the protests. As the food network grew more elaborate, it inspired Project F.E.E.D: Lagos, a network of soup kitchens that extended beyond the government's brutal crackdown on the EndSARS protests. “In a country characterized by a lot of lack, food became the one thing that was abundant during these protests."

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Police Use Painful Dog Bites To Make People Obey

Abbie Vansickle Challen Stephens

December 14, 2020 |

The Marshall Project |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Police often use dogs as a form of "pain compliance," non-lethal tactics that get a criminal suspect under control without having to resort to potentially lethal means. But this use of dogs can inflict pain and injury far out of proportion to the threat posed, even to the point that the detained person cannot comply with officers' demands. A lack of national standards or consensus about how to use dogs responsibly and safely, and the existence of many other tools and tactics that can be used instead, make the existence of hundreds of dog-bite cases a study in a failed de-escalation strategy.

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#EndSARS: Inside Nigeria's Fight to End Police Brutality

Innocent Eteng

October 29, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Lagos

Modeled in part on America's Black Lives Matter protest movement, Nigerian protests against brutality and extortion committed by the police have in a brief time attracted uncommon levels of support across ethnic and religious lines. The government responded by disbanding the primary focus of the protests, its notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), and made other concessions. Protesters say these steps, while welcomed, might easily be undercut by government intransigence. So they have vowed to continue pressing for reform of the Nigeria Police Force.

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How They Did It: Tracking Down a Rwandan Genocide Suspect

Marthe Rubió

October 27, 2020 |

Global Investigative Journalism Network |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France, Orléans

Years after international authorities had stopped searching for a man suspected of being an architect of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a freelance journalist spent eight months searching data and doing on the ground reporting to find the suspect in central France. A story on the find by journalist Théo Englebert led Rwanda to issue an arrest warrant and a French prosecutor to open a counterterrorism investigation. Englebert's sleuthing provides a tutorial on "finding someone who wants to disappear."

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