title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: In Coast City, Hal Jordan encounters the Black Lantern Spectre. Using the real Spectre-Force's power to protect itself, it is rendered immune to the combination of emotional lights that usually destroy Black Lanterns. Knowing that the Spectre is afraid of Parallax, Jordan allows himself to be possessed by the fear entity once more in order to stop him. The powers of the Spectre also become of interest to the Red Lantern Corps leader Atrocitus, as he senses the Spectre's real nature despite being influenced by the black ring: an embodiment of rage and vengeance. Atrocitus desires to harness the spirit's power for his corps and his own vengeance against the Guardians of the Universe. Parallax tears into the Black Lantern's body, freeing the real Spectre-Force and destroying the facsimile. Atrocitus attempts to turn the Spectre into his own rage entity but fails, the Spectre telling him that "he is God's rage" and of the true rage entity and warning him not to trifle with it. Parallax then attempts to destroy the Spectre, who uses his own fear of the entity coupled with the love Carol Ferris feels for Hal, to separate Parallax from its host. The Spectre then confronts Nekron, the master of the Black Lanterns, but discovers that Nekron is without a soul and is thus immune to his powers. The Spectre is then removed from the battlefield by Nekron to parts unknown.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: In the "Brightest Day" storyline, the Spectre resurfaces, again with Crispus Allen as its host, in the hills of Montana on the trail of the Butcher, the Red Lantern entity. The Spectre confronts Atrocitus once again when the two locate the Butcher, who is about to possess a man whose daughter had been killed by a death row inmate. Despite the Spectre's attempts to stop it, the Butcher succeeds, killing the criminal. The Butcher then attempts to possess Atrocitus, revealing that Atrocitus had a wife and children who were killed in the Manhunters' attack. With the Spectre's help, Atrocitus wards off the Butcher and imprisons it within his power battery. The Spectre attempts to judge the man that the Butcher possessed, but Atrocitus argues that his method of judgment is flawed. The Spectre calls off his judgment and is unable to judge Atrocitus, discovering that his mission is a "holy" one, although he warns Atrocitus that this will not last forever.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: The Spectre later appears during James Robinson's "Rise of Eclipso" storyline in "Justice League of America". In the story, Eclipso captures the angel Zauriel and begins to torture him to draw the attention of the Spectre. The plan succeeds, with the Spectre traveling to the moon to rescue Zauriel, only to be ambushed by Jade and the members of the Justice League's reserve roster, all of whom had been brainwashed by Eclipso. Once the heroes wear the Spectre down, Eclipso confronts his old nemesis and seemingly kills him by cleaving the Spectre in two. Eclipso then absorbs the Spectre's immense powers, which he then uses to shatter the moon with a single blow from his sword before attempting to use them to fulfill his sinister agenda. Eclipso is defeated by the reserve Justice League.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: Jim Corrigan is a Gotham City Police Detective whose fiancé is kidnapped. He is guided by the Phantom Stranger on the instructions of the Voice. He leads Corrigan to the abandoned warehouse where his girlfriend is being kept, but this turns out to be a trap. Corrigan and his girlfriend are killed by the kidnappers and he is then transformed into the Spectre, who accuses the Phantom Stranger of betraying him. As the Spectre is about to attack the Phantom Stranger, the Voice intervenes and sends the Spectre off to inflict his wrath on those who are more deserving of it.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: It is revealed that the Voice chose Corrigan to be "the mirror of his desire for justice" (though Corrigan believes in vengeance) and imbued him with divine powers. Corrigan returns to work as a police detective in Gotham City, but his rage causes him to practice vengeance rather than justice in his alter ego as the Spectre. The Phantom Stranger attacks Corrigan's police precinct, convinced that Corrigan was the one who kidnapped his family out of revenge.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: After the two exchange blows physically and verbally, the Voice himself intervenes in the form of a Scottish Terrier (his sense of humor) and informs the Stranger of his mistake, setting him on the right path. The Voice also sets Corrigan straight on his duty, making him realize he is meant to exact justice, not vengeance.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: Batman calls in Corrigan and Batwing to investigate Arkham Asylum, because he believes something supernatural is going on and was already busy trying to end a violent gang war in Gotham. Corrigan and Batwing investigate and discover a demonic Deacon Blackfire commanding an army of corrupted humans and demons in the sewers beneath the asylum.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: Corrigan eventually joins Gotham's Detailed Case Task Force, a small precinct responsible for investigating supernatural events off the books.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: The Spectre has all the abilities of God, including, but not limited to, manipulation of reality, invulnerability, and limitless strength. Virtually anything he wishes to do to those he judges is possible. He has no discernible weakness other than needing a human host to be able to be a fair and impartial judge, although he has been tricked before by the Psycho-Pirate and Eclipso.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: The Spectre is immune to most damage, although he can be hurt by powerful magic. Though he is widely considered to be the most powerful superhero in terms of abilities, the Spectre does not harm the innocent (unless he is tricked into doing so). The Spectre is usually immune to mind control effects. In the "Blackest Night" story arc, Atrocitus attempted to enslave him with a Red Lantern power ring, but the Spectre cast it off, stating that his fury comes from a Higher Power and cannot be controlled by a mere mortal.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: In the four-issue "Elseworlds" miniseries "Kingdom Come", the Spectre is Jim Corrigan, a once-human soul imbued with angelic powers by God. In a near-apocalyptic world, the Spectre takes a preacher named Norman McCay through the events of a possible future of the DC Universe. Here, the Spectre is to determine who is responsible for an impending apocalyptic event. However, here his "faculties are not what they once were", and he is said to need an outside perspective to properly judge the events that they witness. A conversation between McCay and Deadman reveals that, with the passing of time, Corrigan has become further and further removed from humanity, now only wearing his cloak to cover an otherwise nude body. He is reminded by McCay of his humanity to see things through the perspective of the man that he once was and decides that no one is to blame. Corrigan becomes a member of McCay's congregation and they become friends. In the epilogue set in a superhero-themed restaurant, he expresses irritation that the meal named after him, the "Spectre Platter", is a mix of spinach and cottage cheese.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: In the Tangent Comics imprint, the Spectre is a man named Taylor Pike, a boy genius who one day bombarded himself with neutrino energy and gained the power to become intangible. Initially operating as a thief, he later joined the Secret Six.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: The Spectre makes his first appearance at the end of the third chapter of Year Three in the "" comic, attacking Jason Blood's home where John Constantine and Batman have gathered their allies, seemingly killing the ancient human and the detective Harvey Bullock at the same time. Batman briefly confronted him in an attempt to restore his confidence after Superman broke his back. He later confronted Ragman and Deadman, also making clear he aligns himself with Superman's One Earth Regime. It is also strongly implied that someone else has usurped the mantle from Jim Corrigan, the true Spectre, as Deadman attempts to talk with Corrigan, but discovers that the Spectre's current inhabitant is "not" Corrigan. Having inherited the powers of Deadman, the deceased Dick Grayson comes before Batman, informing him that Corrigan was found in Arkham "jokerized" by some form of magic (Batman had briefly believed that the Joker had become the new host of the Spectre). Superman and Wonder Woman are then rescued from an angry Trigon by the true being impersonating the Spectre, Mister Mxyzptlk.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: Variations of Jim Corrigan appear in series set in the Arrowverse. One version appears in the TV series "Constantine", portrayed by Emmett Scanlan, while an alternate universe version appears in the crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths", portrayed by Stephen Lobo, with the latter passing the Spectre's power to Oliver Queen so he can save the multiverse from the Anti-Monitor.


title: Spectre (DC Comics character)

text: The character won the "1961 Alley Award as the Hero/Heroine Most Worthy of Revival" and the "1964 Alley Award for Strip Most Desired for Revival".


title: Classical Athens

text: The city of Athens (, "Athênai" ]; Modern Greek: Αθήναι, "Athine" or, more commonly and in singular, Αθήνα, "Athina" [a.'θi.na]) during the classical period of ancient Greece (480–323 BC) was the major urban centre of the notable "polis" (city-state) of the same name, located in Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Isagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for 180 years, until 322 BC (aftermath of Lamian War). The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the Age of Pericles.


title: Classical Athens

text: In the classical period, Athens was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, Athens was also the birthplace of Socrates, Plato, Pericles, Aristophanes, Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization, and the birthplace of democracy, largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then-known European continent.


title: Classical Athens

text: Hippias, son of Peisistratus, had ruled Athens jointly with his brother, Hipparchus, from the death of Peisistratus in about 527. Following the assassination of Hipparchus in about 514, Hippias took on sole rule, and in response to the loss of his brother, became a worse leader who was increasingly disliked. Hippias exiled 700 of the Athenian noble families, amongst them Cleisthenes' family, the Alchmaeonids. Upon their exile, they went to Delphi, and Herodotus says they bribed the Pythia always to tell visiting Spartans that they should invade Attica and overthrow Hippias. That supposedly worked after a number of times, and Cleomenes I led a Spartan force to overthrow Hippias, which succeeded, and instated an oligarchy. Cleisthenes disliked the Spartan rule, along with many other Athenians, and so made his own bid for power. The result was democracy in Athens, but considering Cleisthenes' motivation for using the people to gain power, as without their support, he would have been defeated, and so Athenian democracy may be tainted by the fact its creation served greatly the man who created it. The reforms of Cleisthenes replaced the traditional four Ionic "tribes" (phyle) with ten new ones, named after legendary heroes of Greece and having no class basis, which acted as electorates. Each tribe was in turn divided into three trittyes (one from the coast; one from the city and one from the inland divisions), while each trittys had one or more demes, depending on their population, which became the basis of local government. The tribes each selected fifty members by lot for the Boule, the council that governed Athens on a day-to-day basis. The public opinion of voters could be influenced by the political satires written by the comic poets and performed in the city theaters. The Assembly or Ecclesia was open to all full citizens and was both a legislature and a supreme court, except in murder cases and religious matters, which became the only remaining functions of the Areopagus. Most offices were filled by lot, although the ten strategoi (generals) were elected.


title: Classical Athens

text: The silver mines of Laurion contributed significantly to the development of Athens in the 5th century BC, when the Athenians learned to prospect, treat, and refine the ore and used the proceeds to build a massive fleet, at the instigation of Themistocles.


title: Classical Athens

text: In 499 BC, Athens sent troops to aid the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, who were rebelling against the Persian Empire (see Ionian Revolt). That provoked two Persian invasions of Greece, both of which were repelled under the leadership of the soldier-statesmen Miltiades and Themistocles (see Persian Wars). In 490 the Athenians, led by Miltiades, prevented the first invasion of the Persians, guided by king Darius I, at the Battle of Marathon. In 480 the Persians returned under a new ruler, Xerxes I. The Hellenic League led by the Spartan King Leonidas led 7,000 men to hold the narrow passageway of Thermopylae against the 100,000–250,000 army of Xerxes, during which Leonidas and 300 other Spartan elites were killed. Simultaneously the Athenians led an indecisive naval battle off Artemisium. However, that delaying action was not enough to discourage the Persian advance, which soon marched through Boeotia, setting up Thebes as their base of operations, and entered southern Greece. That forced the Athenians to evacuate Athens, which was taken by the Persians, and seek the protection of their fleet. Subsequently, the Athenians and their allies, led by Themistocles, defeated the Persian navy at sea in the Battle of Salamis. Xerxes had built himself a throne on the coast in order to see the Greeks defeated. Instead, the Persians were routed. Sparta's hegemony was passing to Athens, and it was Athens that took the war to Asia Minor. The victories enabled it to bring most of the Aegean and many other parts of Greece together in the Delian League, an Athenian-dominated alliance.


title: Classical Athens

text: Pericles – an Athenian general, politician and orator – distinguished himself above the other personalities of the era, men who excelled in politics, philosophy, architecture, sculpture, history and literature. He fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never return throughout its history. He executed a large number of public works projects and improved the life of the citizens. Hence, this period is often referred to as "Age of Pericles." Silver mined in Laurium in southeastern Attica contributed greatly to the prosperity of this Athenian Golden Age.


title: Classical Athens

text: During the time of the ascendancy of Ephialtes as leader of the democratic faction, Pericles was his deputy. When Ephialtes was assassinated by personal enemies, Pericles stepped in and was elected general, or "strategos", in 445 BC; a post he held continuously until his death in 429 BC, always by election of the Athenian Assembly. The Parthenon, a lavishly decorated temple to the goddess Athena, was constructed under the administration of Pericles.


title: Classical Athens

text: Resentment by other cities at the hegemony of Athens led to the Peloponnesian War in 431, which pitted Athens and her increasingly rebellious sea empire against a coalition of land-based states led by Sparta. The conflict marked the end of Athenian command of the sea. The war between Athens and the city-state Sparta ended with an Athenian defeat after Sparta started its own navy.


title: Classical Athens

text: Athenian democracy was briefly overthrown by the coup of 411, brought about because of its poor handling of the war, but it was quickly restored. The war ended with the complete defeat of Athens in 404. Since the defeat was largely blamed on democratic politicians such as Cleon and Cleophon, there was a brief reaction against democracy, aided by the Spartan army (the rule of the Thirty Tyrants). In 403, democracy was restored by Thrasybulus and an amnesty declared.


title: Classical Athens

text: Sparta's former allies soon turned against her due to her imperialist policies, and Athens's former enemies, Thebes and Corinth, became her allies. Argos, Thebes and Corinth, allied with Athens, fought against Sparta in the Corinthian War of 395–387 BC. In 378, the attempt of the Spartan commander Sphodrias to capture Piraeus by surprise triggered Athens to establish the Second Athenian League. Finally Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 in the Battle of Leuctra. However, other Greek cities, including Athens, turned against Thebes, and its dominance was brought to an end at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) with the death of its leader, the military genius Epaminondas.


title: Classical Athens

text: By mid century, however, the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs. In 338 BC the armies of Philip II defeated Athens at the Battle of Chaeronea, effectively limiting Athenian independence. During the winter of 338–37 BC Macedonia, Athens and other Greek states became part of the League of Corinth. Further, the conquests of his son, Alexander the Great, widened Greek horizons and made the traditional Greek city state obsolete. Antipater dissolved the Athenian government and established a plutocratic system in 322 BC (see Lamian War and Demetrius Phalereus). Athens remained a wealthy city with a brilliant cultural life, but ceased to be an independent power.


title: Classical Athens

text: Athens was in Attica, about 30 stadia from the sea, on the southwest slope of Mount Lycabettus, between the small rivers Cephissus to the west, Ilissos to the south, and the Eridanos to the north, the latter of which flowed through the town. The walled city measured about in diameter, although at its peak the city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. The Acropolis was just south of the centre of this walled area. The city was burnt by Xerxes in 480 BC, but was soon rebuilt under the administration of Themistocles, and was adorned with public buildings by Cimon and especially by Pericles, in whose time (461–429 BC) it reached its greatest splendour. Its beauty was chiefly due to its public buildings, for the private houses were mostly insignificant, and its streets badly laid out. Towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, it contained more than 10,000 houses, which at a rate of 12 inhabitants to a house would give a population of 120,000, though some writers make the inhabitants as many as 180,000. Athens consisted of two distinct parts:


title: Classical Athens

text: The city was surrounded by defensive walls from the Bronze Age and they were rebuilt and extended over the centuries.


title: Classical Athens

text: In addition the Long Walls consisted of two parallel walls leading to Piraeus, 40 stadia long (4.5 miles, 7 km), running parallel to each other, with a narrow passage between them and, furthermore, a wall to Phalerum on the east, 35 stadia long (4 miles, 6.5 km). There were therefore three long walls in all; but the name "Long Walls" seems to have been confined to the two leading to the Piraeus, while the one leading to Phalerum was called the "Phalerian Wall". The entire circuit of the walls was 174.5 stadia (nearly 22 miles, 35 km), of which 43 stadia (5.5 miles, 9 km) belonged to the city, 75 stadia (9.5 miles, 15 km) to the long walls, and 56.5 stadia (7 miles, 11 km) to Piraeus, Munichia, and Phalerum.


title: Classical Athens

text: The Acropolis, also called "Cecropia" from its reputed founder, Cecrops, was a steep rock in the middle of the city, about 50 meters high, 350 meters long, and 150 meters wide; its sides were naturally scarped on all sides except the west end. It was originally surrounded by an ancient Cyclopean wall said to have been built by the Pelasgians. At the time of the Peloponnesian war only the north part of this wall remained, and this portion was still called the "Pelasgic Wall"; while the south part which had been rebuilt by Cimon, was called the "Cimonian Wall". On the west end of the Acropolis, where access is alone practicable, were the magnificent "Propylaea", "the Entrances," built by Pericles, before the right wing of which was the small Temple of Athena Nike. The summit of the Acropolis was covered with temples, statues of bronze and marble, and various other works of art. Of the temples, the grandest was the "Parthenon", sacred to the "Virgin" goddess Athena; and north of the Parthenon was the magnificent "Erechtheion", containing three separate temples, one to "Athena Polias", or the "Protectress of the State," the "Erechtheion" proper, or sanctuary of Erechtheus, and the "Pandroseion", or sanctuary of Pandrosos, the daughter of Cecrops. Between the Parthenon and Erechtheion was the colossal Statue of Athena Promachos, or the "Fighter in the Front," whose helmet and spear was the first object on the Acropolis visible from the sea.


title: Classical Athens

text: The lower city was built in the plain around the Acropolis, but this plain also contained several hills, especially in the southwest part. On the west side the walls embraced the Hill of the Nymphs and the Pnyx, and to the southeast they ran along beside the Ilissos.


title: Classical Athens

text: The period from the end of the Persian Wars to the Macedonian conquest marked the zenith of Athens as a center of literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy) and the arts (see Greek theatre). Some of the most important figures of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles, the philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, the historians Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, the poet Simonides and the sculptor Phidias. The leading statesman of this period was Pericles, who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. The city became, in Pericles's words, an education for Hellas (usually quoted as "the school of Hellas [Greece].")


title: Deborah

text: According to the Book of Judges, Deborah (, "Dəḇōrā", "bee") was a prophetess of the God of the Israelites, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel and the only female judge mentioned in the Bible. Many scholars contend that the phrase, "a woman of Lappidot", as translated from biblical Hebrew in Judges 4:4 denotes her marital status as the wife of Lappidot. Alternatively, "lappid" translates as "torch" or "lightning", therefore the phrase, "woman of Lappidot" could be referencing Deborah as a "fiery woman." Deborah told Barak, an Israelite general from Kedesh in Naphtali, that God commanded him to lead an attack against the forces of Jabin king of Canaan and his military commander Sisera (Judges 4:6–7); the entire narrative is recounted in chapter 4.


title: Deborah

text: Judges chapter 5 gives the same story in poetic form. This passage, often called "The Song of Deborah", may date to as early as the twelfth century BC, and is perhaps the earliest sample of Hebrew poetry.


title: Deborah

text: In the Book of Judges, it is stated that Deborah was a prophet, a judge of Israel and the wife of Lapidoth. She rendered her judgments beneath a date palm tree between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel in the land of Ephraim.


title: Deborah

text: The people of Israel had been oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose capital was Hazor, for twenty years. Stirred by the wretched condition of Israel she sends a message to Barak, the son of Abinoam, at Kedesh of Naphtali, and tells him that the Lord God had commanded him to muster ten thousand troops of Naphtali and Zebulun and concentrate them upon Mount Tabor, the mountain at the northern angle of the great plain of Esdraelon. At the same time she states that the Lord God of Israel will draw Sisera, commander of Jabin's army, to the River Kishon. Barak declines to go without the prophet. Deborah consents, but declares that the glory of the victory will therefore belong to a woman. As soon as the news of the rebellion reaches Sisera, he collects nine hundred chariots of iron and a host of people.


title: Deborah

text: As Deborah prophesied, a battle is fought (led by Barak), and Sisera is completely defeated. He escapes on foot while his army is pursued as far as Harosheth Haggoyim and destroyed. Sisera comes to the tent of Jael and lies down to rest. He asks for a drink, she gives him milk and while he is asleep she hammers a tent-pin through his temple.


title: Deborah

text: The Biblical account of Deborah ends with the statement that after the battle, there was peace in the land for 40 years ().


title: Deborah

text: The Song of Deborah is found in Judges 5:2–31 and is a victory hymn, sung by Deborah and Barak, about the defeat of Canaanite adversaries by some of the tribes of Israel. Biblical scholars generally identified the Song as one of the oldest parts of the Bible, dating somewhere in the 12th century BC, based on its grammar and context. However, some critics have recently argued that the song's language and content indicate that it was written no earlier than the 7th century BC. The song itself differs slightly from the events described in Judges 4. The song mentions six participating tribes (Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir (son of Manasseh), Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali) as opposed to the two tribes in Judges 4:6 (Naphtali and Zebulun) and does not mention the role of Jabin.


title: Deborah

text: Though it is not uncommon to read a victory hymn in the Hebrew Bible, the Song of Deborah stands out as unique in that it is a hymn that celebrates a military victory of two women: Deborah, the prophetess and Jael, the warrior. Michael Coogan writes that Jael being a woman "is a further sign that Yahweh ultimately is responsible for the victory: the mighty Canaanite general Sisera will be 'sold' by the Lord 'into the hand of a woman (Judges 4:9).


title: Deborah

text: Traditional Jewish chronology places Deborah's 40 years of judging Israel () from 1107 BC until her death in 1067 BC. The "Dictionary of World Biography: The Ancient World" claims that she might have lived in the period between 1200 BC to 1124 BC. Based on archaeological findings, different biblical scholars have argued that Deborah's war with Sisera best fits the context of either the second half of the 12th century BC or the second half of the 11th century BC.


title: NIMBY

text: NIMBY (or nimby), an acronym for the phrase "not in my back yard", is a characterization of opposition by residents to proposed developments in their local area, as well as support for strict land use regulations. It carries the connotation that such residents are only opposing the development because it is close to them and that they would tolerate or support it if it were built farther away. The residents are often called nimbys, and their viewpoint is called nimbyism. The opposite, pro-housing movement is known as YIMBY for "yes in my back yard".


title: NIMBY

text: Some examples of projects that have been opposed by nimbys include housing development, homeless shelters, incinerators, sewage treatment systems, fracking, and nuclear waste repositories.


title: NIMBY

text: Generally, many NIMBY objections are guessed or feared, because objections are more likely to be successful before construction starts. It is often too late to object to the project after its completion, since new additions are unlikely to be reversed.


title: NIMBY

text: As hinted by the list, protests can occur for opposite reasons. A new road or shopping center can cause increased traffic and work opportunities for some, and decreased traffic for others, harming local businesses.


title: NIMBY

text: People in an area affected by plans sometimes form an organization which can collect money and organize the objection activities. NIMBYists can hire a lawyer to file formal appeals, and contact media to gain public support for their case.


title: NIMBY

text: The word appears in a June 1980 newspaper article from Virginia, with the origin of the phrase explained thus: The phrase '"not in my back yard" syndrome', without the acronym, is found from February of the same year. The "Oxford English Dictionary" earliest citation is a "Christian Science Monitor" article from November 1980, although even there the author indicates the term is already used in the hazardous waste industry.


title: NIMBY

text: The concept behind the term, that of locally organized resistance to unwanted land uses, is likely to have originated earlier. One suggestion is it emerged in the 1950s.


title: NIMBY

text: In the 1980s, the term was popularized by British politician Nicholas Ridley, who was Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment. Comedian George Carlin used the term in 1992 for his "Jammin' in New York" special, implying that people had already heard of it.


title: NIMBY

text: The NIMBY acronym has also been used by social scientists since the early 1980s to describe the resistance of communities to the siting of controversial facilities and land use.


title: NIMBY

text: The term's connotation has harshened since its introduction in the 1980s. Beyond their impact on any single development or neighborhood, NIMBY organizations and policies are now painted as worsening racial segregation, deepening economic inequality, and limiting the overall supply of affordable housing.


title: NIMBY

text: "NIMBY" and its derivative terms "nimbyism", "nimbys", and "nimbyists", refer implicitly to debates of development generally or to a specific case. As such, their use is inherently contentious. The term is usually applied to opponents of a development, implying that they have narrow, selfish, or myopic views. Its use is often pejorative.


title: NIMBY

text: The term "Not in my neighborhood", or "NIMN", is also frequently used. "NIMN" additionally refers to legislative actions or private agreements made with the sole purpose of maintaining racial identity within a particular neighborhood or residential area by forcefully keeping members of other races from moving into the area. In that regard, "Not in My Neighborhood," by author and journalist Antero Pietila, describes the toll NIMN politics had on housing conditions in Baltimore throughout the 20th century and the systemic, racially based citywide separation it caused.


title: NIMBY

text: "NAMBI" ("not against my business or industry") is used as a label for any business concern that expresses umbrage with actions or policy that threaten that business, whereby they are believed to be complaining about the principle of the action or policy only for their interests alone and not for all similar business concerns who would equally suffer from the actions or policies. The term serves as a criticism of the kind of outrage that business expresses when disingenuously portraying its protest to be for the benefit of all other businesses. Such a labelling would occur, for example, when opposition expressed by a business involved in urban development is challenged by activists—causing the business to in turn protest and appealing for support from fellow businesses lest they also find themselves challenged where they seek urban development. This term also serves as a rhetorical counter to NIMBY. It is seen as an equivalent to NIMBY by those opposing the business or industry in question.


title: NIMBY

text: "BANANA" is an acronym for "build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything" (or "anyone"). The term is most often used to criticize the ongoing opposition of certain advocacy groups to land development. The term is commonly used within the context of planning in the United Kingdom. Sunderland City Council lists the term in their online dictionary of jargon.


title: NIMBY

text: In the United States, the related phenomenon "CAVE people" or "CAVE dwellers" serves as an acronym for "citizens against virtually everything."


title: NIMBY

text: "PIBBY" is an acronym for "place in blacks' back yard." This principle indicates that the people with perceived social, racial, and economic privileges object to a development in their own back yards, and if the objectionable item must be built, then it should be built so that its perceived harms disproportionately affect poor, socially disadvantaged people. Economically disadvantaged people might not be willing or able to hire a lawyer to appeal the right way, or might have more immediate troubles than a new nearby construction project. The environmental justice movement has pointed out nimbyism leads to environmental racism. Robert D. Bullard, Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, has argued that official responses to NIMBY phenomena have led to the PIBBY principle.


title: NIMBY

text: "SOBBY" is an acronym for "some other bugger's back yard" and refers to the state of mind which agrees that a particular project may be desirable and perhaps necessary but only if it is placed elsewhere than someone's neighborhood or district.


title: NIMBY

text: Reverse NIMBY is a phenomenon opposite to the widely educated concept of NIMBY. Instead of arguing that it is troublesome that a hazardous facility is located in my backyard, proponents and people who exploit the concept of reverse NIMBY would say that "If it happens in my backyard, it matters more because, well, it's my backyard." It appears within the U.S. Congress where politicians actively use the mentality after major catastrophic events to garner recovery funds from the federal government. This is a viable strategy for members of Congress to garner benefits for their constituents because it is difficult for the federal government to understand needs at the local level.


title: NIMBY

text: NIMTOO, or "Not In My Term of Office," refers to the phenomenon of how elected officials would postpone unpopular projects especially during times of elections or re-elections. This creates inefficiency in governmental policies and the delaying of certain important civil infrastructures such as a nuclear power plant or a hydroelectric plant.


title: NIMBY

text: Although often used rather pejoratively, the use of the concept NIMBY and similar terms have been critiqued. For instance, the term is frequently used to dismiss groups as selfish or ill-informed, yet these same groups may have virtues that are overlooked.


title: NIMBY

text: YIMBY, an acronym for "yes, in my back yard", is a pro-development movement in contrast and opposition to the NIMBY phenomenon.


title: NIMBY

text: Frequently argued debate points in favor of development include higher employment, tax revenue, marginal cost of remote development, safety, and environmental benefits. Proponents of development may accuse locals of egotism, elitism, parochialism, drawbridge mentality, racism and anti-diversity, the inevitability of criticism, and misguided or unrealistic claims of prevention of urban sprawl. If people who do not want to be disturbed see the general need of an establishment, such as an airport, they generally suggest another location. But seen from society's perspective, the other location might not be better, since people living there get disturbed instead. Strict land use regulations are an important driver of racial housing segregation in the United States. White communities are more likely to have strict land use regulations (and white people are more likely to support those regulations).


title: NIMBY

text: Those labeled as NIMBYs may have a variety of motivations and may be unified only because they oppose a particular project. For example, some may oppose any significant change or development, regardless of type, purpose, or origin. Others, if the project is seen as being imposed by outsiders, may hold strong principles of self-governance, local sovereignty, local autonomy, and home rule. These people believe that local people should have the final choice, and that any project affecting the local people should clearly benefit themselves, rather than corporations with distant investors or central governments. Still others may object to a particular project because of its nature, e.g., opposing a nuclear power plant over fear of radiation, or opposing a local apartment complex due to worries about overcrowding or crime, but accepting a local waste management facility as a municipal necessity.


title: NIMBY

text: A study by economists Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti estimated that the housing restrictions brought on by NIMBY activists are costing US workers $1 trillion in reduced wages, (several thousand dollars for every worker), by making it unaffordable to relocate to higher-productivity cities.


title: NIMBY

text: A 1994 paper by Michael Gerrard found that NIMBY movements generally oppose three types of facilities: waste disposal, low-income housing, and social services (such as homeless shelters). While opposition to waste disposal may have community benefits by encouraging recycling, it has also perpetuated the existence of those facilities in minority communities, while opposition to low-income housing and social services facilities has significant negative effects for society at large.


title: NIMBY

text: In July 2012, residents of Kings County rallied against a bylaw, developed over three years of consultation and hearings, allowing wind generators to be constructed nearby. A similar theme arose in September 2009, where residents there rallied against a wind generator in Digby Neck. In January 2011, residents of Lawrencetown in Halifax County openly opposed a cellular telephone tower being built. A proposed development of downtown Dartmouth in August 2012 was also contested by residents. In February 2013, some residents of Lunenburg County opposed wind farms being built in the area, saying, "It's health and it's property devaluation" and "This is an industrial facility put in the middle of rural Nova Scotia. It does not belong there."


title: NIMBY

text: In March 2013, some residents of the community of Blockhouse opposed the building and development of a recycling plant, referred to by one business owner as a "dump." The plant would offer 75 jobs to the community of roughly 5,900 people. In the same month, the municipal councilors of Chester approved the building of wind turbines in the area in a 6–1 vote, despite some local opposition.


title: NIMBY

text: The opposition to the development of 650 apartments in the grounds of St Paul's College school in the Dublin suburb of Raheny. 650 individual objections were received against the planning submission as well as several protests held.


title: NIMBY

text: Court challenges were taken by residents groups against the permission which was granted on the basis of not adequately addressing the EU habitats directive. Following a revised submission with a report on the effects to light-bellied Brent geese and other protected birds, the development was finally granted permission in August 2020.


title: NIMBY

text: The No TAV opposition to the Turin–Lyon high-speed railway is often characterized as a NIMBY movement.


title: NIMBY

text: Starting in 1966, the Sanrizuka Struggle movement opposed the construction of Narita International Airport. Originally the plan for the airport also included a high speed railway line that was scrapped. NIMBYs also prevented extension of the congested airport's very short second runway (unusable for anything but short-haul narrow-body aircraft) until the late 2000s, when cross-town Haneda Airport was opened to international traffic, as additional runways on landfill were completed at many billions of dollars of extra costs; the second runway was lengthened to . The second Narita runway still runs short of its original 1974 blueprints and impacts airport operational capacity.


title: NIMBY

text: Odakyu Electric Railway, now providing transit along a corridor with 5 million people living in walking distance of its rail and feeder bus service area, was originally built in the pre-war era, and as the city of Tokyo's population ballooned, rail demand in suburbs exploded. By the 1960s, "oshiya" pushers were required to squash people into packed trains, and Odakyu Railway sought to expand its two-track lines to four, thus allowing more passing trains and faster run times as well as less crowding and congestive wait and hold of trains. NIMBY residents living near the line in the Setagaya ward fought attempts by the railway to acquire land; Odakyu attempted to buy each piece of land individually, offering high prices. The Setagaya Residents' opposition established a long-term and remarkable NIMBY case in the courts and legislature. By 1993, after three decades of trying, it was apparent this plan was failing, and the company decided to go for a multi-billion dollar solution: tunneling two lines underground, and then adding back two new lines stacked on top, to make four tracks in each direction for 12 stations and 10.4 km, instead of acquiring the land. The company's decision began in 1993 and completed in 2004 for one critical section, meanwhile, for the second smaller section, this same decision was made in 2003 with project completion finally approaching fruition in March 2018, nearly six decades later.


title: NIMBY

text: There is mounting opposition to the exploitation of Lithium at the Jadar mine site by Rio Tinto (corporation) in Western Serbia. The local residents are concerned about the impact of Lithium mining on the local environment including water pollution with no regard to the economic and other environmental benefits including battery production reducing reliance on oil, less air pollution and lower emissions.


title: NIMBY

text: The Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial, built in 2017, is dedicated to locals who served the International Brigades against Spanish nationalist forces backed by Hitler and Mussolini. The memorial sits outside the city centre because all planning proposals to erect the memorial in the centre were rejected for numerous reasons, with Liberal Democrat councillors opposing all the suggested locations. The creation of the monument was also opposed by the Oxford Preservation Trust and the London Place Residents' Association. The current placement of the memorial was the third proposed location, with the previous two having their planning applications rejected by Oxford City Council. The first proposed spot was Bonn Square which was rejected citing that granite was not a stone native to Oxford. The second proposed location was St Giles' which was also rejected by councillors, claiming that the close proximity of an anti-fascist memorial to current war memorials would insult the memory of people who died during the Second World War. Some objected to the memorial because it did not honour "both sides ... in a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness", and called the design "aggressive towards the memory of the victims of conflict".


title: NIMBY

text: Liberal Democrat councillor Elizabeth Wade opposed each proposed location for a monument in Oxford, although she claimed she was never opposed in principle. She described the second proposal on St Giles' near Oxford's First and Second World War memorials as “aggressive and triumphalist”. Describing herself as a historian and speaking to the "Oxford Mail", she then opposed the third and current location because she believed a monument with a red flag would glorify communism, despite no red flag ever being proposed to appear on the monument. Her rejection of every proposal led to Britain's largest and longest running left-wing newspaper, the "Morning Star", labelling her as a NIMBY.


title: NIMBY

text: In the affluent English village of Ashtead, Surrey, which lies on the outskirts of London, residents objected in 2007 to the conversion of a large, £1.7 million residential property into a family support centre for relatives of wounded British service personnel. The house was to be purchased by a registered charity, SSAFA Forces Help. Local residents objected to the proposal out of fear of increased traffic and noise, as well as the possibility of an increased threat of terrorism. They also contended that the SSAFA charity is actually a business, thereby setting an unwelcome precedent. Local newspapers ran articles titled "Nimby neighbours' war with wounded soldiers' families" and "No Heroes in my Backyard."


title: NIMBY

text: Ex-servicemen and several members of the British general public organised a petition in support of SSAFA, and even auctioned the "Self Respect of Ashtead" on eBay.


title: NIMBY

text: Particularly in the time period preceding the final decision on the route of the high-speed railway known as High Speed 2, BBC News Online reported that many residents of conservative constituencies were launching objections to the HS2 route based on the effects it would have on them, whilst also showing concerns that HS2 is unlikely to have a societal benefit at a macro level under the current economic circumstances. Likewise, Labour MP Natascha Engel—through whose constituency the line will pass—offered a "passionate defence of nimbyism" in the House of Commons, with regards to the effects the line would have on home- and business-owning constituents. HS2 has also been opposed by residents of the Chilterns and Camden who argue that there is an insufficient business case for the line. On 17 March 2014, it was announced that Camden residents were successful in their campaign to prevent the construction of the HS1–HS2 link railway.


title: NIMBY

text: In November 2007, a consultation process began for the building of a new third runway and a sixth terminal and it was controversially approved on 15 January 2009 by UK government ministers. The project was then cancelled on 12 May 2010 by the Cameron Government. The project was adopted by the House of Commons in June 2018. NIMBY people and political objectors appealed to court of law, and lost in the UK Supreme Court in December 2020.


title: NIMBY

text: Coventry Airport is owned by CAFCO (Coventry) Limited, a joint venture between Howard Holdings plc and Convergence-AFCO Holdings Limited (CAFCOHL). In June 2007, it had its application to build permanent terminal and passenger facilities rejected by the UK government due to public pressure.


title: NIMBY

text: The London Borough of Merton did not have enough school places for local children who would be reaching school age in 2012 and 2013. Almost all local schools had expanded, but the group "Save Our Rec" (recreation ground) (dedicated in the preservation of green areas in the local community) opposed the expansion of Dundonald School as their interest was focused on protecting one of the few green spaces left in the Borough of Merton. Those that disagreed with the "Save our Rec" group labelled the group NIMBY despite efforts to protect green spaces the expansion proceeded onto a portion of the park and the park's pavilion.


title: NIMBY

text: Research shows that conservatives and liberals are equally likely to oppose new housing developments in their localities. White neighborhoods and cities tend to favor more restrictive housing development policy. A study in "Perspectives on Politics" found that "individuals who are older, male, longtime residents, voters in local elections, and homeowners are significantly more likely to participate" in local government, and that "these individuals overwhelmingly (and to a much greater degree than the general public) oppose new housing construction." Nimbys tend to be homeowners, and have been described as acting to keep home prices high in self-interest and as working against their financial interests. Some economists believe that this is due to a public misunderstanding of how the new construction of housing affects housing prices. For example, only 30-40% of Americans believe that new housing construction reduces housing prices, and meanwhile a comparable amount of Americans believe that new construction increases housing prices.


title: NIMBY

text: According to a 2017 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of 7.4 million affordable homes available for rent to extremely low income (ELI) households in the United States. As a result, seventy-one percent of ELI households are forced to spend over half of their income on housing costs leading to severe financial burdens. Although the need for more affordable housing is evident, opposition from NIMBY activists present significant challenges to affordable housing developments, resulting in costly design changes, construction delays, and permit denials. However, research suggests that proactive outreach and communication by affordable housing developers and proponents through the leveraging of social marketing and positive messaging can overcome common NIMBY barriers.


title: NIMBY

text: Many local residents (including farmers) in Hanford, California and surrounding areas are opposed to the California High-Speed Rail Authority building high-speed rail near farmland, citing that it will bring environmental and economic problems.


title: NIMBY

text: Wealthy residents of southern Orange County, California defeated a local measure that proposed to convert the decommissioned El Toro Marine Base into a commercial airport, claiming that the airport would be "unsafe" during landings and takeoffs, as well as create air quality issues. The real issue was the FAA planned the flight paths for the airport over expensive neighborhoods of south Orange County and residents feared that their property values would decrease. The airport proposal, however, was strongly supported by northern Orange County residents. The defeat of the local measure resulted in the creation of the Orange County Great Park.


title: NIMBY

text: National, state and local environmentalists, historic preservationists and long-time residents of South Pasadena, California have been successfully opposing the completion of the highly controversial State Route 710 through the cities of Los Angeles (El Sereno), South Pasadena and Pasadena for over 60 years. There has been a federal injunction in place for 41 years stopping construction of the surface freeway. USC and UCLA urban and transportation planning students study this 80-year-old controversy because it is a classic example of sustained grass-roots opposition to a government proposal.


title: NIMBY

text: On 29 September 2017, 15 housing bills were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown to combat the state's housing shortage. Many of these bills are considered direct attempts to reduce the ability of private citizens to suppress housing construction, even being referred to by some as "Anti-NIMBY" bills.


title: NIMBY

text: In 2022, California governor Gavin Newsom declared that "nimbyism is destroying the state" and promised to hold cities and counties accountable for stopping new housing development.


title: NIMBY

text: Nimbyism from a small number of people in San Francisco, including several members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, has led to a suppression of new housing construction, transit expansion, bike infrastructure, and new retail stores in the city. Nimbys have cited restrictions on buildings' shadows, increased car traffic, and concerns with parking as reasons for opposing projects. Residents, economists, and housing advocates argue that new housing construction makes housing more affordable, thereby reducing displacement, personal property tax burdens, and homelessness. Examples of nimbyism in San Francisco include 8 Washington housing project, 1846 Grove Street housing, 1060 Folsom housing, 1979 Mission housing, 2675 Folsom housing, 250 Laguna Honda Boulevard housing, 770 Woolsey, UCSF Parnassus Heights hospital expansion, and the Polk Street bike lane.


title: NIMBY

text: Many residents of Marin County, an affluent bedroom community in the San Francisco Bay Area, have for many years exemplified the idea of nimbyism through their ardent resistance to housing developments and housing quotas. Residents believe housing developments will lead to increased population density which can lead to increased traffic, increased pollution, crowded schools, a lack of open space, and a poor quality of life.


title: NIMBY

text: A minority of residents in St. Lucie County, Florida have vehemently opposed the construction of wind turbines in the county. The construction of the wind turbines was strongly supported by over 80% of county residents according to a 2008 Florida Power and Light (FPL) poll. Additionally, the power company proposed building the turbines in a location on a beach near a prior existing nuclear power plant owned by the company.


title: NIMBY

text: In the 1980s, an agency known as the Palm Beach County Expressway Authority was formed to develop a series of east/west highways to take people from suburban Palm Beach County into downtown West Palm Beach. This was done in anticipation of population growth that would happen over the next decades in Palm Beach County that would bring in more traffic. Many neighbors in areas such as Westgate and Lake Belvedere Estates strongly opposed this plan, stating it would destroy their neighborhoods. Ultimately, the plan was revised to turn the SR-80 Boulevard into an express-like roadway by eliminating traffic lights and overpassing other local roadways.


title: NIMBY

text: In 1959, when Deerfield officials learned that a developer building a neighborhood of large new homes planned to make houses available to African Americans, they issued a stop-work order. An intense debate began about racial integration, property values, and the good faith of the residents, community officials and builders. For a brief time, Deerfield was spotlighted in the national news as "the Little Rock of the North." Supporters of integration were denounced and ostracized by residents. Eventually, the village passed a referendum to build parks on the property, thus putting an end to the housing development. Two model homes already partially completed were sold to village officials. Otherwise, the land lay dormant for years before it was developed into what is now Mitchell Pool and Park and Jaycee Park. The first black family did not move into Deerfield until much later, and in years since Deerfield has seen a greater influx of minorities, including Jews, Asians, Greeks and others. This episode in Deerfield's history is described in "But Not Next Door" by Harry and David Rosen, both residents of Deerfield.


title: NIMBY

text: In the late 1990s a proposal for commuter rail on the Dan Patch Corridor between Minneapolis and Northfield was studied. In 2002, due to opposition from neighborhoods along the corridor, two state representatives from the suburbs of Bloomington and Edina passed a legislative ban prohibiting further study, discussion, funding, and construction of the project. While the ban is still in place despite numerous attempts to repeal it, the two suburbs that sponsored the ban are now open to the proposal. Lakeville and St. Louis Park remain opposed to the project and repealing the ban.


title: NIMBY

text: In 1858, a group of residents in Staten Island burned down the New York Marine Hospital, at the time the largest quarantine facility in the United States, citing its negative effect on local property values.


title: NIMBY

text: On Long Island, various electrification and expansion projects of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) were substantially delayed due to the protests of people living near the railroad. For example, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has proposed to build a third track on the Main Line from Floral Park station to Hicksville station in order to increase capacity. Although most communities along the route supported grade crossing eliminations as part of the project, there was fierce opposition for building a third track from the villages of Floral Park, New Hyde Park, and Garden City, which said the construction and the resulting increased train service will reduce the quality of life in their neighborhoods. The third track project was suspended indefinitely in 2008, but new funding for the project was included in a 2016 infrastructure improvement plan announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, which included measures intended to mitigate locals' concerns. Despite the promise of mitigation efforts, several local politicians denounced the governor's plan within a day of its announcement. In December 2017, the LIRR awarded a contract to build the third track.


title: NIMBY

text: In Port Washington, New York, a dispute broke out between the town of North Hempstead and the LIRR over a proposed yard expansion at Port Washington station. To expand the yard, a parking lot belonging to the town would need to be reduced in size, but a local councilperson stated that the addition of the tracks "will completely ruin the character of the town." The LIRR was able to expand the yard without the agreement of North Hempstead by tearing up 140 parking spaces of its own parking lot, also adjacent to the station.


title: NIMBY

text: Community opposition also led to the cancellation of a proposed extension of the New York City Subway's Astoria Line (carrying the ) to LaGuardia Airport. Similarly, opposition has stopped any proposal to build a bridge or tunnel across the Long Island Sound with some believing it will harm their communities with an influx of unwanted traffic as well as concerns regarding the environment and the number of homes that would be cleared as a result.


title: NIMBY

text: In early 2020, in Campbell County, Tennessee, complaints occurred after an out-of-state company began controlled blasting at a rock quarry in the county. Campbell County Schools had dismissed their schools early due to the quarry, located less than 2,000 feet from the high school, performing a scheduled blast. Residents gathered for pleas to shut down the quarry. Campbell County officials later passed a resolution banning the development of quarries within 2,000 feet of a public building or power grid structure.


title: NIMBY

text: In 2009, Norfolk Southern Railway released plans of a proposed intermodal freight transport truck-and-train facility in Jefferson County, Tennessee as a part of the Crescent Corridor project in a private-public partnership with state and Jefferson County officials. The proposed facility, if completed, would have generated 77 on-site jobs, 1,700 related-industry jobs in Jefferson and surrounding counties, and the potential of an annual income of dollars a year. The project received extensive backlash from an organized group of affected property owners and farmers, citing the massive loss of land as a negative impact on Jefferson County's agricultural industry. The project status has remained stagnant since 2015, as Norfolk had no plans of constructing the facility in the short-term future, but plans on having the site property as a "long-term investment" according to a press release by the company's public relations director.


title: NIMBY

text: In 1994, opposition from residents and historians led to the cancellation of the Disney's America theme park outside of Haymarket, Virginia.


title: NIMBY

text: NIMBY movements in a non-western context are often overlooked by the general public because grassroot resistance is less likely to occur under authoritarian regimes. However, there have been successful NIMBY movements in China over the last few decades. In May 2014, in the city of Yuhang in Zhejiang Province, a NIMBY movement prevented the construction of a giant refuse incinerator. The victory came at enormous costs with many grassroot leaders arrested and many government infrastructures destroyed. However, in the case of China, many socially harmful projects simply continue their operation or relocate after the media attention has died down.


title: NIMBY

text: On this issue, New York Times opinion writer Farhad Manjoo stated: "What Republicans want to do with I.C.E. and border walls, wealthy progressive Democrats are doing with zoning and Nimbyism. Preserving “local character,” maintaining “local control,” keeping housing scarce and inaccessible—the goals of both sides are really the same: to keep people out."


title: NIMBY

text: In a 2020 paper exploring the relationship between homeowners' self-interest and pro-NIMBY attitudes among both self-identified liberals and conservatives, William Marble and Clayton Nall note: “Whether they are responding to different housing policies, responding to persuasive political messaging, or evaluating hypothetical proposals for local development, homeowners remain opposed to local development policies that threaten their self-interest.“


title: NIMBY

text: Historian Nancy Shoemaker cites "Not-in-My-Backyard Colonialism" as one of twelve types of colonialism, in which an area is colonized to dispose of convicts or conduct dangerous experiments. She cites Australia and the Marshall Islands—used as a nuclear test site by the United States—as examples.


title: Police brutality

text: Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, beatings, shootings, "improper takedowns, and unwarranted use of tasers."


title: Police brutality

text: The origin of modern policing can be traced back to 18th century France. By the 19th and early 20th centuries, many nations had established modern police departments. Early records suggest that labor strikes were the first large-scale incidents of police brutality in the United States, including events like the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Pullman Strike of 1894, the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, the Great Steel Strike of 1919, and the Hanapepe Massacre of 1924.


title: Police brutality

text: The term "police brutality" was first used in Britain in the mid-19th century, by "The Puppet-Show" magazine(a short-lived rival to "Punch") in September 1848, when they wrote:Scarcely a week passes without their committing some offence which disgusts everybody but the magistrates. Boys are bruised by their ferocity, women insulted by their ruffianism; and that which brutality has done, perjury denies, and magisterial stupidity suffers to go unpunished. [...] And police brutality is becoming one of our most "venerated institutions!"


title: Police brutality

text: The first use of the term in the American press was in 1872 when the "Chicago Tribune" reported the beating of a civilian who was under arrest at the Harrison Street Police Station.


title: Police brutality

text: In the United States, it is common for marginalized groups to perceive the police as oppressors, rather than protectors or enforcers of the law, due to the statistically disproportionate number of minority incarcerations.


title: Police brutality

text: When used in print or as the battle cry in a black power rally, police brutality can by implication cover several practices, from calling a citizen by his or her first name to death by a policeman's bullet. What the average citizen thinks of when he hears the term, however, is something midway between these two occurrences, something more akin to what the police profession knows as "alley court"—the wanton vicious beating of a person in custody, usually while handcuffed, and usually taking place somewhere between the scene of the arrest and the station house.


title: Police brutality

text: In March 1991, members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) beat an African American suspect, Rodney King, during his arrest for drunk driving. A white civilian videotaped the assault. This incident led to extensive media coverage and criminal charges against several of the officers involved. In April 1992, hours after the four police officers involved were acquitted at trial, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 commenced and resulted in 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damage to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses. After facing a federal trial, two of the four officers were convicted and received 32-month prison sentences. The case was widely seen as a key factor in the reform of the Los Angeles Police Department.


title: Police brutality

text: Under president Idi Amin, many Ugandan people were killed, including minority groups. Many others were tortured.


title: Police brutality

text: Incidents of police brutality skyrocketed by 312% from 2011 to 2012 compared to 2001 to 2002, with only 1 in 100 cases leading to a conviction. There were also 720 deaths in police custody due to police action from 2011 to 2012.


title: Police brutality

text: In 2015, as a result of police officers being accused of crimes such as rape, torture, and murder, the cost of civil liabilities claims were so great that there was concern the costs would strain the South African Police Service national budget. The police commissioner at the time, Riah Phiyega, blamed the large number of claims "on a highly litigious climate".


title: Police brutality

text: Police brutality has spread throughout Soweto. Nathaniel Julius was killed in Soweto by police officers from the El Dorado police station. He was a 16 year old boy with Down Syndrome, and was shot because he didn't respond to the police officer calling him. This action was not warranted because Nathaniel didn't have any weapons on him and he was just walking from the store after buying biscuits. Two police officers were arrested over Julius' death on murder charges, after mass protests against this in the area. South African police are commonly accused of excessive force, with ten deaths attributed to police the same year (2020).


title: Police brutality

text: Police brutality was a major contribution to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and Khaled Said's death, though little has changed since. One of the "demands" around which people decided to take to the streets in Egypt was "purging the Ministry of Interior" for its brutality and torture practices. After six months of reporting gang rape, a woman in Egypt is still seeking justice not only for herself, but also those who were witnesses in her favor and are jailed, tortured in pretrial custody. The lack of investigation into the Fairmont Hotel rape case of 2014 has also put the Egyptian authorities under condemnation. Reportedly, the prime witnesses of the case have been subjected to drug testing, virginity tests and publicly defamed, while their families suffer trauma.


title: Police brutality

text: In May 2017, a man named Shamim Reja was killed by police in the Sonargaon police station. The victim's father claimed that his son was tortured in the police station as the police wanted Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) 600,000. Police investigated and the officer-in-charge Arup Torofar, SI Paltu Ghush, and ASP Uttam Prashad were found guilty as charged.


title: Police brutality

text: In Shahbag, Bangladesh on 26 January 2017, hundreds of protesters against the Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company were taken into custody with extreme force by police officers. The protesters were struck by police officers and had a water cannon, tear gas, and baton charges used on them.


title: Police brutality

text: Politically motivated riots and protests have occurred historically in China, notably with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Associations such as Falun Gong have objected against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and which are dispersed by riot police. Chinese protesters have been able to systematize powerful group mobilizations with the use of social media and informal mass communication like Twitter and its Chinese counterparts Weibo.


title: Police brutality

text: In Xintang, Canton Province (Guangzhou), protests over allegations of corruption and abuse of power abound in the country – they are the principal cause of discontent in the CCP the then-CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. The Xintang region, Canton Province (Guangzhou), is an influential textile hub, attracting thousands of workers from all over the country, and what lit the fuse was a complaint of mistreatment against a pregnant migrant worker. Protests on 20 February used a website to urge participants not to shout more anti-government slogans, but to go outside for a quiet walk in the places where they had been deciding to continue the protest. After a brutal police response, the authorities installed corrugated metal fences outside the restaurant and the home of dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes security officers and volunteers with red armbands, pre-emptively positioned in Wangfujing. This presence interrupted the orderly operation of the shops.


title: Police brutality

text: During the 2014 Hong Kong protests, there were numerous instances of police brutality. Seven police officers were caught on video kicking and beating a prominent political activist who was already handcuffed. There had also been more than hundreds of incidents of police beating passers-by with batons. Pictures on local TV and social media show demonstrators being dragged behind police lines, circled by police officers so that onlookers' views were blocked, and in some cases, re-emerging with visible injuries. An officer-involved, retired police officer Frankly Chu King-wai was sentenced to three months in prison for causing serious bodily harm.


title: Police brutality

text: During the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests which gained extensive international coverage, complaints of police brutality increased substantially and broke previous records of complaints.


title: Police brutality

text: Cases that have caused outrage include the police's mauling and intentional head-shooting of protesters by rubber bullets and rapid tear-gassing of a surrounded crowd. Numerous were critically wounded. Many Hong Kong citizens accuse the police of attempting to murder protesters to deter the people from exercising their freedom of expression.


title: Police brutality

text: Amnesty International released a report on 21 June 2019 denouncing the role of the Hong Kong police in the 12 June protest that ended up in bloodshed.


title: Police brutality

text: Several street conflicts continued in Hong Kong throughout July 2019. Instances of police striking journalists with batons to obstruct their live reporting have been filmed.


title: Police brutality

text: On the night of 31 August 2019, more than 200 riot police officers entered the Prince Edward MTR station and attacked suspects in a train compartment on the Tsuen Wan line with batons and pepper spray. Many suspects sustained head injuries. Until November 2019, several alleged cases of sexual violence, "disappearings", and falling deaths were found to have been directly involved with Hong Kong police brutality, and massive attacks on campus and streets have been also occurring with the concurrent deterioration of the city.


title: Police brutality

text: The 2009 Iranian Presidential election protests over the victory of Mahmoud Ahmeninejad, the police and paramilitary forces used excessive force against protestors, injuring and killing many. Many detentions, injuries and deaths of protestors, including children, were also reported on the 2019-2020 protests.


title: Police brutality

text: In April 2018, a video showed a female member of Iran's morality police slapping a woman and wrestling her to the ground, for allegedly not complying with Iran's mandatory headscarf. The police's actions were widely condemned, including by Iran's vice-president for women’s affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar. Iran's interior ministry ordered an inquiry.


title: Police brutality

text: On September 13, 2022, Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman was deatined by authorities. She was announced dead on September 16, 2022, allegdly due to cardiac arrest. However, it was likely due to injuries acquired due to the brutality she encountered. This incident sparked massive protests, and women burning the mandatory headscarf. The head of Tehran's morality police was later suspended.


title: Police brutality

text: During India's independence struggle, protestors and activists were subject to Lathi charges and shootings. One such incident is recalled as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where a crowd gathered to protest the Rowlatt act were indiscriminately fired at, on the orders of a British Officer, General Dyer with 200 causalities.


title: Police brutality

text: During the emergency of 1975-1977, several cases of Police Brutality were recorded, including the Rajan case on 31 March 1976.


title: Police brutality

text: On 23 January 2017, a pro-jallikattu silent protest in Tamil Nadu turned violent. The National Human Rights Commission consolidated reports that the police used violent methods without prior warning, including beatings and damaging private property, to disperse protesters in Chennai. There were widespread social media reports of police setting vehicles on fire. On 15 December 2019 police authorities baton-charged students who were protesting against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act at University Library of Jamia Milia University, New Delhi. The Lathi Charge is very well known in India for excessive use of force done by police during mass protests or riots.


title: Police brutality

text: Islamic extremists in Indonesia have been targeted by police as terrorists in the country. In many cases, they are either captured or killed. There are cases of police corruption involving hidden bank accounts and retaliation against journalists investigating these claims; one example occurred in June 2012 when Indonesian magazine "Tempo" had journalist activists beaten by police. Separately, on 31 August 2013 police officers in Central Sulawesi province fired into a crowd of people protesting the death of a local man in police custody; five people were killed and 34 injured. The police's history of violence goes back to the military-backed Suharto regime (1967–1998) when Suharto seized power during an alleged coup and instituted an anti-Communist purge.


title: Police brutality

text: Criminal investigations into human rights violations by the police are rare, punishments are light, and Indonesia has no independent national body to deal effectively with public complaints. Amnesty International has called on Indonesia to review police tactics during arrests and public order policing to ensure that they meet international standards.


title: Police brutality

text: During the Bersih protests, Malaysian police attacked protesters and killed one. Malaysian police also cane prisoners for several offences, including theft, drug dealing and molestation.


title: Police brutality

text: The discussions of police brutality in the Philippines were revived on 21 December 2020 when a civilian police officer Jonel Nuezca shot his two unarmed neighbors following an argument over an improvised noise maker known locally as boga set up by the victim a day earlier. The incident sparked nationwide outrage and most news organizations linked the incident to the war on drugs. Prior to the incident, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte had made remarks on ordering the police to shoot-to-kill but Duterte "denied" it to "shoot" on civilians.


title: Police brutality

text: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states have seen many cases of brutality, with some even involving senior figures. For example, Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) sheikh, was involved in the torture of many business associates. He often recorded some of the abuse. Issa was eventually arrested but a court found him not guilty and released him. Amnesty International reported that a UAE worker was subjected to a wide array of torture methods during his time in jail, including beatings and sleep deprivation. UAE prisoners are also treated poorly and tortured.


title: Police brutality

text: Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi-American activist and his death inside a Saudi Embassy drew widespread criticism. In October 2018, he went into the Embassy in Turkey. On that same day, a group of Saudi authorities entered the country and intercepted him at the Embassy and killed him soon after. They disposed of his body and then returned to Saudi Arabia.


title: Police brutality

text: Pakistan's law enforcement is divided into multiple tiers, including forces under provincial and federal government control. The law strictly prohibits any physical abuse of suspected or convicted criminals; however, due to deficiencies during the training process, there have been reported instances of suspected police brutality. Reported cases are often investigated by police authorities as well as civil courts leading to mixed outcomes.


title: Police brutality

text: A recent case includes the purported extra judicial killing of a man named Naqeebullah by an ex-officer named "Rao Anwar". Taking notice of the matter, the Supreme Court issued arrest and detention warrants in the case to arrest the accused.


title: Police brutality

text: In October 2019, the People National Alliance organised a rally to free Kashmir from Pakistani rule. As a result of the police trying to stop the rally, 100 people were injured.


title: Police brutality

text: In 1976, Thai police, military personnel and others, were seen shooting at protesters at Thammasat University. Many were killed and many survivors were abused.


title: Police brutality

text: Turkey has a history of police brutality, including the use of torture particularly between 1977 and 2002. Police brutality featured excessive use of tear gas (including targeting protesters with tear gas canisters), pepper spray, and water cannons. Physical violence against protesters has been observed, for example, in the suppression of Kurdish protests and May Day demonstrations. The 2013 protests in Turkey were in response to the brutal police suppression of an environmentalist sit-in protesting the removal of Taksim Gezi Park.


title: Police brutality

text: In 2012 several officials received prison sentences for their role in the death in custody of the political activist Engin Çeber.


title: Police brutality

text: The European Court of Human Rights has noted the failure of the Turkish investigating authorities to carry out effective investigations into allegations of ill-treatment by law enforcement personnel during demonstrations.


title: Police brutality

text: In 2021, the General Directorate of Security issued a circular banning all audio-visual recordings of law enforcement officers at protests.


title: Police brutality

text: In Vienna, there is an association made between Vienna's drug problem and the city's African migrants, which have led to African migrants being racially profiled.


title: Police brutality

text: There have been several highly publicized incidents in Austria where police have either tortured, publicly humiliated, or violently beaten peoplein some cases, to the point of death. While the most notorious of these incidents occurred in the late 1990s, incidents as recent as 2019 are being investigated by the Vienna Police Department for Special Investigations.


title: Police brutality

text: There has been a notable lack of commitment to addressing the violation of civilians' rights in Austria, with Amnesty International reporting that in 1998–1999 very few people who violated human rights were brought to justice. This was worsened by the fact that many people who made a complaint against police were brought up on counter-charges such as resisting arrest, defamation, and assault.


title: Police brutality

text: From 2014 to 2015, 250 accusations of police misconduct were made against officers in Vienna with none being charged, though 1,329 people were charged with "civil disorder" in a similar time period. The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT)'s 2014 report included several complaints of police using excessive force with detainees and psychiatric patients. The culture of excusing police officers for their misconduct has continued into the present day, and any complaints of mistreatment are often met with inadequate investigations and judicial proceedings.


title: Police brutality

text: Austria has legislation that criminalizes hate speech against anyone's race, religion, nationality, or ethnicity. Laws like this discourage discrimination, help with altering public perceptions of different ethnic and cultural groups, and subsequently reduce the number of racially motivated incidents of police brutality. Austria has several NGOs that are trying to implement broad programs that encourage positive cross-cultural relations and more targeted programs such as racial sensitivity training for police. The Austrian police are formulating their policies to prevent police brutality and to make prosecuting police misconduct fairer. In January 2016, Austrian police forces started a trial of wearing body cameras to document civilian—police interactions.


title: Police brutality

text: However, it appears that incidents of police brutality are still occurring. Amnesty International suggested that more work needs to be done by the government to reduce negative stereotypes that lead to prejudice, racial profiling, hatred, and police brutality. One suggestion was to disband the "Bereitschaftspolizei", Vienna's riot police, as they have frequently been involved with human rights violations and situations of police brutality. Amnesty International also proposed that the Austrian government adopt a National Action Plan against Racism, something which they had previously refused to do. Such a plan was required by the 2001 Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.


title: Police brutality

text: In May 2021, authorities stopped Ryanair Flight 4978 in Belarusian airspace. A Belarusian journalist and activist, Roman Protasevich was taken off the plane and detained by authorities.


title: Police brutality

text: Belgian law enforcement changed to two police forces operating on a federal and local level in 2001 after a three-tier police system. While the two services remain independent, they integrate common training programs and recruitment. The change was prompted by a national parliamentary report into a series of pedophile murders which proved police negligence and severely diminished public confidence. Currently, approximately 33,000 local police and 900 civilians work across 196 regional police forces.


title: Police brutality

text: The United Nations (UN) Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials (1990) are replicated in Belgian law through The Criminal Code and the Police Functions Act. These principles dictate that the use of force should be proportionate, appropriate, reported, and delivered on time; however, the UN Human Rights Committee reported complaints of ill-treatment against property and people by police escalated between 2005 and 2011, most commonly involving assault against persons no longer posing danger. Belgian judicial authorities were found to also have failed to notify national police watchdog, Committee P, of criminal convictions against police, which is both a direct breach of Belgian judicial procedure and a failure to comply with Article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.


title: Police brutality

text: An extreme instance in January 2010 led to the death of Jonathan Jacob in Mortsel. He was apprehended by local Mortsel police for behaving strangely under the influence of amphetamines. The footage depicted eight officers from Antwerp police's Special Intervention Unit restraining and beating Jacob after he had been injected with a sedative sparked public outrage. Jacob died from internal bleeding following the incident, but police claimed they did not make any mistakes and "acted carefully, respecting the necessary precautions".


title: Police brutality

text: In 2013, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) convicted Belgium of human rights violations in an appeal on the treatment of two brothers in custody who had been slapped by an officer. The Grand Chamber voiced its concern that "a slap inflicted by a law-enforcement officer on an individual who is entirely under his control constitutes a serious attack on the individual's dignity". The Belgian League of Human Rights (LDH) monitored police brutality through the Observatory of Police Violence (OBSPOL) after Belgium downplayed cases. OBSPOL was formed in 2013 and collects testimonies on its website, informs police brutality victims of their rights, and strongly advocating public policy being adapted in of favor victim protection.


title: Police brutality

text: Several other instances of police violence can be noted in Belgium. In 2014, Mawda, a four-year-old child was killed in an encounter with a truck used to carry migrants across the border. A police officer shot on the moving car, despite knowing a child was in it. The case got widespread media attention, but the police officer only ended up with a 400€ fine and one year of suspended prison sentence.


title: Police brutality

text: In 2018, Lamine Bangoura was killed in his own apartment by eight policemen because he had not paid rent. In the attempt to evict him out of his flat, the policemen used unwarranted brutality which resulted in Lamine's death.


title: Police brutality

text: In 2019, Mehdi, 17-year-old Moroccan boy was run over by a police car on patrol. In 2020, Adil, a 19-year-old Moroccan boy was chased by a police car for not respecting the Coronavirus curfew. He was hit by a police car to stop him in his chase, which killed him on impact. Sources say it was on purpose, even though he was on a scooter. Both these cases had been filed as dismissed.


title: Police brutality

text: In 2021, Ibrahima was arrested. He was filming a police control. The authorities however, said he was arrested for not respecting the curfew, which starts at 10pm, even though his arrest happened at 6pm. He died in police custody, in unknown circumstances. His death prompted a lot of reaction from the public, who organized a protest a few days after his killing.


title: Police brutality

text: The Constitution of Croatia prohibits torture, mistreatment, and cruel and degrading punishment under Article 17, and accords arrested and convicted persons humane treatment under Article 25 of the OHCHR. Croatia has a centralised police force under the command of the Ministry of the Interior with approximately 20,000 police officers.


title: Police brutality

text: From 1991 to 1995, the Croatian police, in addition to their regular police tasks, were a militarised force charged with the role of defending the country while seceding from Yugoslavia. Military training taught police officers to use firearms before exhausting other procedures, which has affected the philosophy and behaviour of police officers in using excessive force. Developments were made to achieve democratic policing as a modern, professional force that is also accountable to the public. However, citizen complaints of violent police behaviour suggest that the militarization of the police force in the early 1990s continues to influence the level of force accepted as legitimate and reasonable by Croatian police officers.


title: Police brutality

text: The European Court of Human Rights has found that Croatian police authorities have failed to fulfill their obligations, on numerous occasions, under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by failing to carry out effective investigations to protect its citizens and tourists from violent attacks. In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Croatian police authorities for ignoring requests to starting an investigation into perpetrators who violently attacked a Croatian citizen.


title: Police brutality

text: The Croatian police have a history of discriminatory abuse and failing to recognise violence against the Romani minority living in Croatia. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance noted that Croatian police abuse against minority groups including Romani were continually reported; police authorities are reluctant to take violence against Romani people seriously. Police investigations into black market selling in Croatia have been excessively violent towards Romani vendors, with reports of physical violence and abusive racism being directed at them. The Romani women's association, "Better Future", reported that police had beaten a pregnant Romani woman who attempted to evade arrest for black market selling in 2002.


title: Police brutality

text: The Croatian police violence has been used to intimidate refugees travelling from Serbia into Croatia. This included segregating nationalities, with Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghani nationals gaining entry to Croatia as refugees more easily than other nationalities. An unaccompanied sixteen-year-old from Morocco recounted his experience trying to gain asylum in Croatia after lying about being a Syrian national: "We had to get into a police car [...] They told us this is Slovenia, but then it was Serbia [...] One of my friends tried to run away, but the Croatian police caught [sic] him and beat him."


title: Police brutality

text: The Police of Denmark has a force of approximately 11,000 officers and they serve in the 12 police districts and the two Danish overseas territories. The Danish Independent Police Complaints Authority () (the Authority) handles the investigation of police misconduct allegations. Annual statistics released by the Authority revealed a reduction in the number of complaints against police from 2012 to 2015. In 2012, the Authority received 726 conduct complaints from across Denmark; in 2015, the number of complaints fell to 509, representing approximately 0.05 complaints per officer. A majority of complaints stem from general misconduct, such as traffic violations and unprofessional behaviour (e.g., swearing).


title: Police brutality

text: However, the 2015 Annual Report identifies some instances where the Police of Denmark used excessive force. For example, the Authority investigated a complaint made about alleged violence against an arrested person in Christianshavn on 15 March 2016. Another investigation looked into the alleged use of force against a 16-year-old boy on 28 June 2016, which resulted in charges being laid against the two offending police officers from the Sydsjællands- and Lolland-Falster police department. Although examples of police brutality are not common, highly publicised incidents have been reported.


title: Police brutality

text: To ensure that police are well-trained and to mitigate the risk of police brutality, police recruits undergo approximately three years of training; at the National Police College, recruits learn about police theory, the Road Traffic Act, criminal law, physical training, other legislation, first aid, radio communication, securing evidence, identifying drugs, preventing crime, management, human rights, and cultural sociology to name a few. After this training period, recruits are promoted to the position of a police constable. By comparison, US police academies provide an average of 19 weeks of classroom instruction. The prolonged training in Denmark was observed to increase the ability of police to effectively de-escalate conflicts and enact their duties professionally and responsibly.


title: Police brutality

text: To keep police officers accountable and to ensure that they perform their duties in compliance with Danish, European and international laws, the Independent Police Complaints Authority has the power to handle criminal investigations against police officers and determine complaints of police misconduct. This body is independent of both the police and prosecutors. For example, police


title: Police brutality

text: Therefore, police in Denmark are held to high standards and will face consequences if they breach their obligations to encourage compliance. Victims of police misconduct are encouraged to lodge a report with the Authority.


title: Police brutality

text: The Estonian Police force was temporarily dissolved in 1940 when Estonia lost its independence to the Soviet Union after it was occupied, before the Police Act passed in 1990 dissolved the Soviet militsiya and re-established it. In 2010, the Public Order Police, Police Board, Central Criminal Police, Border Guard, Citizenship, and Migration Board merged into the Police and Border Guard Board. It is the largest state agency in Estonia with over 5000 people in employment. The main objectives for this organisation are to maintain security and public order, crime prevention, detection and investigation, securing the European Union (EU) border, citizenship and identity documentation administration.


title: Police brutality

text: The Estonian Ministry of Justice reports that crime figures dropped by 10% from 2013 to 2015. They instruct that those who find themselves detained by the police should comply with their instructions and those who experience a language barrier are allowed to "request the presence of an interpreter and should not sign any documents or reports until they are confident that the document's contents are consistent with the details of the incident or the victim's statement".


title: Police brutality

text: Incidents of police abuse are very rare. Although uncommon, powers are sometimes abused which leads to police brutality, such as the 2007 Bronze Soldier riots.


title: Police brutality

text: The Bronze Night occurred from 26 to 29 April 2007, when riots broke out over the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn being relocated. The government wanted to relocate the statue and rebury the associated remains near the Tallinn Military Cemetery; the response was heavily negative among the country's Russophone population, but for Estonians historically the Bronze Soldier served as a symbol of Soviet occupation and repression. For Russian citizens, it represented Soviet Russia's victory over Germany in World War II and their claim to equal rights in Estonia.


title: Police brutality

text: One Russian rioter was killed and other protesters were arrested. Due to the overcrowded detention centres, many of the detainees were taken to cargo terminals in Tallinn's seaport. Then-chairman of the Constitution Party Andrei Zarenkov stated "people were forced to squat for hours or lie on the concrete floor with their hands tied behind their backs. The police used plastic handcuffs which caused great pain. The police selectively beat the detainees including women and teenagers. We have pictures of a toilet which is stained with the blood of the injured".


title: Police brutality

text: The police department denied all claims made against them. On 22 May 2007, the Office of Prosecutor General of Estonia received more than fifty complaints on the police brutality that occurred during Bronze Night and opened seven criminal cases against them. In November 2007, the United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed concerns over the use of excessive force and brutality by law enforcement personnel in regards to Bronze Night. The Council of Europe published in its report that those detained were not granted all the fundamental safeguards, including the right to a doctor or a lawyer, and to inform a relative or a third party of their arrest. It was later discovered that the accused were only allowed outside contact and lawyer assistance when brought before a judge. Several detainees were denied access to a doctor while in police custody despite displaying visible injuries.


title: Police brutality

text: The policing structure of the nineteenth century France has been linked to the outcomes of France's reorganisation during the French Revolution. There have been multiple instances of violent enforcement stemming from issues around racial and geographic differences throughout France's history. Additionally, the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reported human rights violations by France including physical and psychological abuse as a result of excessive force towards Muslims when undertaking house raids.


title: Police brutality

text: France's police ombudsman is currently dealing with 48 judicial inquiries into police brutality against its citizens, in which 1,000 individuals have been arrested within three months. There have been several high-profile cases of alleged police brutality which have gained media attention, including the death of Lamine Dieng on 17 June 2007, who died after suffocating in a police van while he was constrained. The investigation of Lamine's death is ongoing. Grey areas around police accountability have come to light, including questions over how his body was covered in bruises and whether or not carotid restraint (which involves constricting the carotid arteries) was used against him. The European Court of Human Rights condemned France in 1998 for their apparent use of carotid constriction. This same method of restraint was seen to be used against Hakim Ajimi who died of positional asphyxia as a result of overwhelming pressure being placed on his chest and neck by police.


title: Police brutality

text: Recent protests over disputed labor laws have revealed the extreme nature of police brutality in France, as many videos have surfaced in the media depicting police using disproportionate force on protesters. French officials have forced these aggressive videos to be destroyed.


title: Police brutality

text: A group known as the Stolen Lives Collective formed in response to the increased number of cases of police brutality in French communities. It represents families of those who have been affected by police brutality. The group strongly demands the government to act against police brutality and to reduce racism present across the police force in France.