Marijuana is often used as a tool by police officers to search your car.

In many cases, the mere odor of weed serves as probable cause to pull you over and rifle through your belongings. States that have decriminalized it are still grappling with the legality of using marijuana for warrantless searches.

In the case of Philando Castile, who was shot to death by a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop last year, we saw the devastating effects the smell of marijuana can have on an officer’s perception of motorists. Though marijuana is decriminalized to some degree in the state, St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez would later tell investigators that he thought he was in danger because he smelled weed:

“As he was pulling out his hand I thought I was gonna die, and I thought if he has the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana in front of the five-year-old girl, and risk her lungs and risk her life by giving her secondhand smoke … then what care does he give about me?”

It may come as no surprise, then, that states that have legalized marijuana are seeing a dramatic decline in warrantless searches.

NBC News did a deep dive into reports by the Stanford Open Policing Project, which collected data on 60 million traffic stops and searches by highway patrol officers in 22 states.

In Washington state and Colorado, NBC News found that searches were cut by more than 50 percent within months of legalization. Washington state saw a 50 percent reduction within three months, while Colorado saw a more gradual reduction, but searches still dropped by more than 50 percent within a year.

Legalization can lead not only to fewer warrantless searches, but an increase in the public’s trust of officers, the site found.

That said, full legalization may not have helped Castile. The report found that ethnic minorities are still stopped and searched disproportionately to white drivers in states where weed is legal.

Marijuana prohibition has always been racist. HuffPost’s Nick Wing reported in 2014:

According to a 2013 study by the American Civil Liberties Union, blacks across the nation were nearly four times more likely than whites to be arrested on charges of marijuana possession in 2010, despite data that suggested they use the drug at about the same rate. In some states, blacks were up to six times more likely to be arrested. This disparity isn’t new, and plays into broader arrest data: A study published in the journal Crime & Delinquency this month found that by the age of 23, nearly 50 percent of black males have been arrested, compared to 44 percent of Hispanic males and 38 percent of white males.

Data collected by the Stanford Open Policing Project implies that not much has changed today.

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The night of my Grandpa Homer’s high school graduation, he was living in the barracks of a detention center in California with his mom, his sister and thousands of other Japanese-Americans imprisoned during World War II.

Last weekend, he finally got the graduation party he missed out on all those years ago.

My mom had received Grandpa’s diploma by mail from his old school district in Oregon, and she saved it for a family get-together the day before Father’s Day. She asked my aunt and uncle to bring my cousin’s mortarboard cap, and the family came over and played “Pomp and Circumstance” at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

“It kind of took me by surprise,” Grandpa told me later. “[Your mother] said, ‘I have something for you,’ and someone gave me the cap and I opened the package and saw my diploma and said, ‘Oh my god!’

Someone gave me the cap and I opened the package and saw my diploma and said, ‘Oh my god!’
Homer Yasui, 92

Seventy-five years ago, Grandpa lost his chance to walk onstage in his cap and gown with the rest of his class. On May 13, 1942, he, his mother and his little sister Yuka were rounded up with other Japanese-Americans in Hood River, Oregon, and put on trains to what was then called an “assembly center” in Pinedale, California ― a hastily converted detention facility where thousands of Japanese-Americans were temporarily imprisoned before being sent to more permanent prison camps around the country.

Grandpa was 17 then, and a typical American teenager. The military instructed everyone to bring only what they could carry, so he packed a baseball mitt and baseball hat. He remembers thinking it was “kind of stupid” that everyone at the station was formally dressed.

Grandpa’s senior class was scheduled to graduate the following month, but by then, he and all the other young Japanese-Americans in the Hood River Valley, along with their families, had become prisoners of their own government.

Not that he was bothered much at the time. For years, Grandpa would joke about the “freedom” he had behind barbed wire, first at Pinedale and then at a “relocation center” in Tule Lake, California. No longer forced to work all summer on the family farm, he could smoke, play poker and chase girls.

The FBI had already taken his father away, shortly after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941. (Grandpa’s father, Masuo Yasui, wouldn’t be released until 1946, and was never actually charged with a crime.) Grandpa’s older brother Min was forced to endure months of solitary confinement for deliberately breaking a discriminatory wartime curfew. But for Grandpa, the injustice of his family’s ordeal didn’t really register until years later.

“I was so dumb in those days. I wasn’t worldly,” Grandpa said. “I also said, ‘Well, I’m in camp, OK.’ I never thought about my civil liberties being denied me and all that. Most people my age never thought about it.”

He eventually settled into a job as a hospital orderly, where he remembers tending to a white boy with terrible burns. With no big cities nearby, the prison camp at Tule Lake was the closest option for medical care in an emergency. The young man yelled that he didn’t want to be treated by “Jap” doctors. Ultimately, he succumbed to his injuries and died.

The boy’s death made an impression on my grandfather, and he told us all the story years later. Once he left Tule Lake, he went on to graduate from the University of Denver and then Hahnemann Medical School and Hospital in Philadelphia. He married my grandmother, Miki, and became a surgeon.

“The only graduation I ever participated in was my medical school graduation,” Grandpa told me. “I got my cap and gown, and Miki saw me and she blew a gasket, because a bunch of us doctors didn’t even have the sense to get our gowns pressed.”

He has one graduation photo from that day, taken by an itinerant street photographer. “We’re all dressed alike and we look real crummy,” he said.

In the years and decades that followed World War II, America’s consensus that people like my grandfather had been imprisoned “for their own protection” or “for the good of the country” began to erode. (But that sentiment lives on, as evidenced by the 2016 presidential campaign and its aftermath.)

Grandpa’s sister Michi triumphantly returned to the University of Oregon in 1984 to accept her college diploma ― decades after she was barred from her own graduation ceremony because of the military curfew imposed on Japanese-Americans. She was in her 60s at the time.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, acknowledging that the imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans was based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

And in November 2015, Grandpa and his sister Yuka met President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House. There, among Hollywood stars, trailblazing scientists and sports icons, Obama awarded their brother Min a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for challenging the U.S. government’s wartime policies all the way to the Supreme Court.

Grandpa shook the president’s hand and got a hug from the first lady. He said it was one of the proudest moments of his life.

Compared to that, maybe it wasn’t such a big deal when Grandpa got a message from Hood River Valley High School this year, offering him a chance to come back for an official graduation ceremony. He declined, because at 92, he wanted to stay home with Grandma and take it easy.

I asked Grandpa about the invitation and whether he thought it meant his hometown had taken a step forward. He chalked it up to his brother Min being recognized as an “exemplary citizen.”

“I think Hood River’s very late in doing this,” he said, “because many colleges have done this earlier, and cities like Seattle and Los Angeles recognized their mistakes after 30 or 40 years. And it took Hood River 75 years.”

“But that’s great,” he added. “Better late than never, while some of us are still alive to tell the tale.”

Listen to Homer tell the more of the Yasui family’s story on the podcast “Hear in the Gorge,” produced by Sarah Fox.

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The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant ― but succinct ― wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week’s great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.

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The Trump administration asked a federal judge on Friday to uphold the constitutionality of the controversial state immigration crackdown passed by the Republican-dominated Texas legislature.  

The U.S. government isn’t a party in the lawsuit challenging Texas Senate Bill 4, which bans so-called sanctuary policies that limit local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. But the Texas law has become a prominent test of whether courts will approve strong-arm tactics endorsed by President Donald Trump to pressure local jurisdictions into complying with federal deportation efforts.

“President Trump has made a commitment to keep America safe and to ensure cooperation with federal immigration laws,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Friday. “The Department of Justice fully supports Texas’s effort and is participating in this lawsuit because of the strong federal interest in facilitating the state and local cooperation that is critical in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws.”

SB 4 bars local jurisdictions in Texas from denying requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold suspected undocumented immigrants on the federal government’s behalf. Adopting a policy of refusing such requests, known as “detainers,” can land public officials in jail for up to a year under the new law. SB 4 also allows local police officers to ask the immigration status of anyone they stop, drawing comparisons to an Arizona law derided by critics as the “show me your papers” law.

Several jurisdictions ― including Austin, San Antonio and El Paso ― filed lawsuits to overturn SB 4 shortly after Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law last month.

The legal challenges accuse Republican lawmakers of trampling multiple constitutional principles.

Several federal judges have ruled in recent years that holding someone on an ICE detainer in a local jail if they would otherwise be allowed to go free violates the Fourth Amendment’s guarantees against illegal search and seizure. And because the federal government alone is charged with crafting immigration policy, the state of Texas can’t create its own, or dole out criminal penalties for refusing to follow a state policy, critics argue.

The flurry of lawsuits were consolidated into a single case that will have its first hearing on Monday, when U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia will consider whether to block the law from taking effect on Sept. 1 while the legal challenges move forward.

The Justice Department will try to convince the judge to give the law a chance.

“Cooperation with federal officials is plainly permitted under the [Immigration and Nationality Act] and the Constitution,” the statement of interest filed by DOJ reads. “Parties may disagree with the state legislature’s policy determinations in enacting SB 4, but nothing in federal immigration law precludes a state from directing law enforcement officers in the state to cooperate with the federal government, rather than merely permitting them to do so on an ad hoc basis.”

The filing hinges on the argument that ICE detainers have changed in the months since Trump took office. The Department of Homeland Security started issuing administrative arrest warrants in April, along with detainer requests, in an apparent effort to make ICE holds less vulnerable to legal challenges.

That argument may not convince Garcia. He ruled earlier this month that the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas violated the Fourth Amendment by refusing to release an undocumented immigrant for more than two months on the basis of an ICE detainer. The ruling appeared to strike a major blow against SB 4, which aims to force local jurisdictions to honor all such requests from ICE.

The Justice Department’s filing took note of that ruling, but countered that the case began last year, before Trump took office. The Trump administration’s new policy of including administrative warrants with ICE detainers solves the problem and is “fully consistent with the Fourth Amendment,” the filing says.  

But avoiding the constitutional pitfalls presented by ICE detainers requires a warrant in a criminal case, not an administrative warrant for a violation of civil immigration law, according to Nina Perales, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“The Fourth Amendment in this context requires probable cause that the individual has committed a crime in order to deprive that person of liberty,” Perales, one of several lawyers representing SB 4’s opponents, told HuffPost. “DOJ cannot hang its hat on the new detainer form when it comes to the stringent requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”

Read the Justice Department’s statement of interest below.  

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Jennifer Lopez will do a little bit of reinventing for her upcoming romantic comedy.

The singer and actress is set to star and produce STXFilms’s film “Second Act,” The Wrap announced on Thursday. Lopez also shared the news on Instagram with a caption that simply read: “Surprise!”

The rom-com is set to follow a big-box employee who reinvents herself and later gets the opportunity to show Madison Avenue the value of street smarts, according to several trade publications.  

“When Jennifer, Elaine [Goldsmith-Thomas] and Justin [Zackham] came to us with this idea, we loved it right away,” STXfilms chairman, Adam Fogelson, told The Wrap. “The premise of reinventing yourself and creating a career and life-defining second act is hugely relatable and aspirational.”

Fogelson also emphasized STXfilm’s mission to grow their portfolio of female-driven projects. 

Lopez is no stranger to romantic comedies, having starred in films like “The Wedding Planner,” “Maid in Manhattan” and “Monster-In-Law” in the early 2000s. But she expressed excitement about bringing this new story to life.

“There are so many things I love about this project and script,” Lopez said about the film in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “People try to put women to sleep at a certain age. “Second Act” is a story that empowers the every-woman to do more, to be more, and not limit their dreams.”

The film is set to be directed by Peter Segal (“50 First Dates”) and currently has no release date. 

Lopez most recently flexed her crime and thriller muscle on the silver screen with the 2015 films “Lila & Eve” and “The Boy Next Door,” the latter of which garnered $15 million at the box office during opening weekend despite its $4 million production budget.

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As if having cancer isn’t awful enough, many of the things people say ― however well-meaning ― can really sting.

Most friends and family are likely coming from a good place when they offer their sympathy or advice to someone with the disease. But as artist Matthew Mewhorter, who dealt with cancer himself, points out, these platitudes often don’t have their intended effect.

“I don’t want them to feel pity or guilt, but just be better informed,” he told HuffPost. “There’s so much misinformation about the cancer experience in the media and Hollywood, which has a negative effect on the way cancer [patients] are treated in real life.”

Mewhorter summed up the emotionally taxing experience of dealing with people trying to cheer up cancer patients in the comic below:

Mewhorter, who has been in remission for two years following a stage II rectal cancer diagnosis, channeled his experiences with the illness into his artwork. He created a series of comics like the one above called Cancer Owl, which details the everyday realities of living with and fighting the condition. He draws both his own stories and the stories of others who reach out to him.

“My therapist originally proposed that I art journal my experience and share it with others as a form of self care,” Mewhorter said. “I started drawing an owl with cancer in my hospital bed after my first surgery, and it just felt right. Drawing cute animals with bright colors made talking about cancer easier somehow.”

It’s estimated that more than 1.5 million people were affected by cancer in 2016. Mewhorter hopes his artwork helps people dealing with the condition to find some relief and community through humor about their illness.

“I hope it helps cancer patients and survivors not feel so alone,” he said. “I hope they feel permission to laugh in the middle of their situation, and consider a perspective that has given me vitality and hope in the midst of suffering.”

Head over to Cancer Owl to see more of Mewhorter’s comics.

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When it comes to domestic terrorism in America, the numbers don’t lie: Far-right extremists are behind far more plots and attacks than Islamist extremists. 

There were almost twice as many terrorist incidents by right-wing extremists as by Islamist extremists in the U.S. from 2008 to 2016, according to a new report from The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund and The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal.

Looking at both plots and attacks carried out, the group tracked 201 terrorist incidents on U.S. soil from January 2008 to the end of 2016. The database shows 115 cases by right-wing extremists ― from white supremacists to militias to “sovereign citizens” ― compared to 63 cases by Islamist extremists. Incidents from left-wing extremists, which include ecoterrorists and animal rights militants, were comparatively rare, with 19 incidents. 

When it comes to right-wing extremism, attackers are also ‘mostly men’ and ‘almost purely white.’
Reporter David Neiwert

While the database makes a point of distinguishing between different groups within right-wing extremism, lead reporter David Neiwert told HuffPost that “those are all gradations of white supremacy, variations on the same thing.” When it comes to right-wing extremism, attackers are also “mostly men” and “almost purely white,” Neiwert said.  

Attacks by right-wing extremists were also more often deadly, with nearly a third of right-wing extremist incidents resulting in deaths compared with 13 percent of Islamist extremist cases resulting in deaths. However, the sheer number of people killed by Islamist extremists ― a total of 90 people killed ― was higher than the death toll at the hands of right-wing extremists ― 79 people killed.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has focused his rhetoric and policies almost entirely on countering Islamist extremism, and not white supremacist extremism.  

“As with a lot of things related to Trump and the Islamophobic right, the reality is viewed through an upside-down looking glass,” Neiwert said. “The reality is the most significant domestic terror threat we have is right-wing extremism.”

The Investigative Fund’s findings reflect those of previous studies of domestic terrorism. The New America Foundation, for instance, which has been tracking deadly terror incidents on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11 attacks, also finds an almost two-to-one ratio of attacks by far-right extremists to Islamist extremists, with 21 deadly attacks by far-right extremists, compared to 11 by Islamist extremists.

Despite the facts, many Americans still associate terror attacks with Islamist extremists rather than far-right extremists, Neiwart noted. 

“I think the larger perception in the public ― and this includes many progressives and liberals ― is the inversion of the reality: that the greatest threat we face is Islamist radicals,” Neiwert said. “And it’s reflected in the way the press report upon various kinds of domestic terror attacks: When it’s a white domestic terrorist, they underplay it, write it off to mental illness.”

The reality is the most significant domestic terror threat we have is right-wing extremism.
Reporter David Neiwert

The media has a long history of double standards when it comes to covering terrorism ― starting with how slow mainstream media is to label attacks by white perpetrators as “terrorism,” and quick to label them as such when attackers are perceived as nonwhite or “other” ― and specifically, Muslim.

Part of problem is the complex nature of how officials choose to categorize attacks as terrorism. The FBI has specific criteria its uses to classify terrorist incidents ― but the public doesn’t always agree with officials’ labels. For instance, many people condemned the government for not labeling Dylann Roof a terrorist after he killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, even though he specifically said he was there “to shoot black people,” according to witnesses. 

“There’s actually a debate over whether what Dylann Roof did was domestic terrorism, when it so plainly is domestic terrorism,” Neiwert told HuffPost. “A lot of this has to do with embedded judgements about where these threats come from ― and that has to do with fear-mongering around Islamophobia.”

The solution, according to Neiwert, lies with the government first acknowledging the scale of the problem of far-right extremism, and then dedicating resources to fighting it.

So far Trump has shown a clear double standard in his response to terrorism: After Islamist extremists attacked London on June 3, for instance, Trump condemned the violence on Twitter the same day ― but after an attack in Portland, Oregon, by a white supremacist on May 26, Trump waited more than two days before tweeting about it. After the London attack, Trump also called on the courts to reinstate his travel ban on certain Muslim-majority countries ― which was roundly criticized. After the Portland attack, Trump made no calls to change policy to prevent future attacks.

The Trump administration also reportedly just dropped funding for nonprofit Life After Hate, a group that helps people leave the white supremacist movement.

But it’s not just Trump that’s the problem. The Fund’s database goes back to 2008 and shows clearly how government resources have been disproportionately dedicated to tackling Islamist extremism over right-wing extremism. The government succeeded in interrupting the vast majority of Islamist extremist terror cases since 2008, for instance: 76 percent of incidents tracked were “foiled plots,” which the group noted showed “a significant investment of law enforcement resources.” When it came to right-wing extremism, only about a third of incidents were interrupted ― 35 percent ― and the majority of the cases included acts of violence that led to deaths, injuries or damaged property. 

At the end of the day, it’s not only on the government to acknowledge the reality of the growing threat of far-right extremism, according to Neiwert, it’s on everyone from members of the media to average Americans.

“First thing we need to do is recognize that it’s there, it’s a problem, it’s a threat ― as great a threat as Islamists,” Neiwert said. “And it needs to be taken seriously.”

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It’s impossible to “do it all” ― especially when you’re ambitious, but lazy.

That’s the premise of many of the comics on the Instagram account Yeah, It’s Chill, by New York City-based artist Christine.

Christine’s alter ego “Krysteen” attempts to get through the entire process of doing laundry and folding: 

And tries to stay awake during yoga after an exhausting long work week: 

Mostly, though, she cuts herself some slack when she doesn’t fulfill small daily tasks:

The 20-something illustrator told HuffPost that Krysteen’s experiences are based on her own life, though the character is a little more dramatic and comfortable in her skin. 

“Krysteen recognizes that she can’t be perfect all the time and is OK with that,” she said. “There are so many expectations for women on how to live and be, but she knows that life isn’t that neat.”

Plus, she said, striving for the perfect life can be exhausting.

“Instead, Krysteen’s just out here living her best life!” the artist said.

Scroll down for more comics, or head to Yeah, It’s Chill to follow along.

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Jennifer Lopez clapped back at the haters who accused her of Photoshopping one of her most recent Instagram photos. 

On Thursday, the performer shared the photo below: 

If you weren’t distracted by how amazing J.Lo looks, you may have noticed what appears to be a smudge just under her sweatshirt on the right. Plenty of people in the comments claimed the mark was a result of an unsuccessful attempt at altering the pic, but Lopez wasn’t having any of it. 

The “Shades of Blue” star replied to the comments and then shared a screenshot of her response in her Instagram story. 

“Omg…Just a smudge on the mirror…lol…not photoshop. #lordblessthehaters #gymrat #youshouldtryit #wishtherewasphotoshopforhaters,” the 47-year-old star wrote.  

Is it really so hard to believe that Jenny from the Block, a celebrity who no doubt has a trainer, a chef and a very specific diet, looks so good? No. It’s not. 

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It’s been roughly six months since Fifth Harmony became a quartet, but the group says there are no plans to change their name. 

Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei and Dinah Jane spoke recently about the decision to keep their name the same despite Camila Cabello’s sudden departure in December.

“It was obviously a thought because it was a prevalent thing that there’s four of us and not five,” Jauregui told MTV’s Meredith Graves during a video interview posted Wednesday on Facebook. “Regardless, we were all very united in the fact that we didn’t want to change the name.”

“We felt like within ourselves, no, Fifth Harmony is the name that we grew with and we worked for and it’s our brand,” she continued. “It’s who we are. It’s our whole entire moment. It’s what we spent five years on.”

The rest of the group echoed Jauregui, with Jane adding that fans (also known as Harmonizers) are now the fifth member of the group. 

Cabello’s absence has done little to stop Fifth Harmony’s momentum. The group released their first single “Down” as a foursome on June 2.  

Cabello also recently released her debut solo single “Crying In The Club,” and has shown no signs of regret when it comes to her decision to leave Fifth Harmony.

“I wish the best for them and I’m sure they’re going to kill it and I’m super happy making my own music,” Cabello said during an interview with AMP Radio on June 8.

When asked if she had heard the group’s new song, the artist said she’d heard “snippets” and thought it was “pretty cool.” 

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Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies say they accidentally shot and killed a teenager while trying to ward off a dog that had bitten a deputy in Palmdale, California, early Thursday.

Officials said a ricocheting bullet hit the teen after deputies opened fire on the aggressive dog, according to an incident report that the sheriff’s department released.

Friends and family members later identified the victim as 17-year-old Armando Garcia-Muro who was entering his senior year of high school, according to the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed. 

The deputies were responding to reports of loud music when they arrived at the Palmdale apartment complex at 3:47 a.m. on Thursday. As the deputies approached the building, a dog that officials described as a “60 to 65 pound pit bull,” “aggressively charged” at the deputies, biting one of them in the left knee.

Garcia-Muro reportedly appeared from behind the apartment complex and restrained the dog, taking it to the rear end of the building. Deputies retreated back to the street where they waited for paramedics.

While the deputies waited, the dog became loose and charged at the deputies a second time. As the dog approached, deputies said they shot at it from a distance of 5 to 7 feet.

When deputies returned to the building to restrain the dog, they found Garcia- Muro on the ground in the carport area. He had a gunshot wound to the chest. Garcia-Muro was transported to a local hospital after the shooting, where he died of his injuries.

“He may have been struck by one of the skip rounds in what we’re calling an extremely, extremely unfortunate incident,” sheriff’s Capt. Christopher Bergner said at a news conference following the shooting.

“Our initial impression was [the deputies] didn’t even see the individual coming around from the side of the building.”

Five deputies were present during the incident, but only two opened fire, discharging six to eight rounds, according to Bergner. 

The deputy whom the dog had bitten was also hit by a stray bullet. A local hospital listed his condition as stable Thursday afternoon. Sheriff’s officials said the dog had to be euthanized because of its condition.

Nick Perez, a friend of the victim, told ABC 7 that Garcia-Muro was “trying to stop the dog from attacking the cops.” Residents who live near the apartment complex said that many people in the neighborhood own pit bulls, the news station also reported.

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department use-of-force policy permits deputies to shoot at animals if they “reasonably believe” that the creatures are about to “cause death or serious physical injury.” The policy also notes that shooting animals who do not appear to be a threat has proved to be “inherently dangerous to bystanders and personnel.”

Garcia-Muro’s mom, Roberta Alcantar, told ABC 7 that her son had plans to go to college and help his brother.

“He wanted to change his little brother’s life around,” Alcantar told the news station. “He wanted to go to school, college and better himself. He said he was done with his past life.”

The victim’s ex-girlfriend and friend Genevie Escobar told BuzzFeed News that Garcia-Muro had “started out bad” but had recently moved home and was looking for a job to support his family.

The department’s homicide detectives are actively investigating the shooting. Bergener said on Thursday that deputies who fire a weapon while on duty are automatically put on temporary desk duty while the incident is under investigation.

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The anti-immigrants movement, the war on drugs and the war on terrorism have fueled the anti-Mexican and anti-Latino sentiment

WASHINGTON — Dashcam footage released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union shows Minnesota police violently arresting a 22-year-old Asian man after a traffic stop last year.

In the video from July 28, 2016, an officer the ACLU identified as Buffalo Ridge Drug Task Force Agent Joe Joswiak approaches Anthony Promvongsa’s vehicle with his weapon drawn. 

Joswiak can be heard shouting a stream of expletives at Promvongsa.

Note: The video below contains violence and explicit language. The traffic stop begins around the 1:35 mark.

“Get the fuck out of the car, motherfucker!” Joswiak yells in the video. “Show me your fucking hands!”

Moments later, Joswiak can be seen opening the driver-side door and attempting to pull Promvongsa from the vehicle, without success. He then begins kneeing and punching Promvongsa, then drags him from the vehicle and throws him to the ground. Promvongsa’s face can be seen hitting the pavement.

The ACLU has called for an investigation into what it called a “brutal attack.” The organization says the officer didn’t give Promvongsa enough time to obey his orders. 

“Agent Joswiak’s use of force against Anthony Promvongsa is disturbing and completely unnecessary,” Teresa Nelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota, said in a statement. “Thus far Agent Joswiak has received no punishment for this abhorrent treatment of Anthony. This sends a message that the department condones the officer’s behavior, which it should not.” 

In a joint statement on Thursday, the Buffalo Ridge Drug Task Force, Worthington Police Department and the Nobles County Attorney’s Office said the video “is one piece of evidence in a pending criminal case.”

“The video, viewed in a vacuum, shows only a short segment of the incident that is the basis of the criminal charges,” the statement read. “Our agencies ask that the media and the public remain patient as the criminal case progresses accordingly.” 

Charges against Promvongsa include two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon (a motor vehicle), one count of fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle, possession of a small amount of marijuana, and driving after revocation, according to police. 

This type of violence with community members has to stop.
Anthony Promvongsa

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported Thursday that a criminal complaint alleges Promvongsa provoked a road-rage encounter the day of his arrest. The complaint, the newspaper said, accuses Promvongsa of “several aggressive acts toward the car of an off-duty Worthington police officer, including tailgating, swerving, making hand gestures out the window and closing in at a high rate of speed before stopping just short of the officer’s vehicle.”

That off-duty officer met up with a fellow off-duty officer, at which point Promvongsa allegedly sped between the two officer’s vehicles and yelled out the window that he was “going to get his boys and come back to get them,” the Star Tribune reported, citing the complaint.

Later, Joswiak and Sgt. Tim Gaul reportedly located Promvongsa and successfully pulled him over, but he ignored the officers’ orders, the complaint said, according to the Star Tribune.

“Joswiak delivered several knee strikes to Promvongsa in an attempt to gain control of him but Promvongsa continued to resist getting out of his vehicle,” the complaint states, according to KARE 11 News.

The complaint also states Joswiak threw a single punch before handcuffing the suspect, the Star Tribune reported. 

The video released by the ACLU, however, shows Joswiak throwing at least four punches. 

In a statement accompanying the ACLU release, Promvongsa said he had “no idea what was going on when I was approached and attacked” by Joswiak.

“I did not even have the opportunity to take off my seatbelt before I was literally blindsided with this unnecessary attack,” he said. “I immediately pulled over for the Worthington squad car and before I knew what was happening I was beat and ripped from my vehicle.”

“I know I am not the first person to have this type of traumatic experience with law enforcement in Worthington,” he added. “This type of violence with community members has to stop. This encounter was demoralizing and has left me scared of future interactions with the police.”

Promvongsa is currently awaiting a trial date. 

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Somehow, the topic of nun porn also made an appearance.