164
votes
Accepted
Are these 'French children held at gun point'?
Are they being held? Yes.
The Telegraph article you quote has the key facts. This article in Le Monde (Google Translate) has more details.
Are they children? Technically yes.
The Le Monde article ...
- 15.8k
143
votes
Accepted
Can 1 in 1,000 black men expect to be killed over the course of their lifetime by the police?
The statement by John Oliver that "1 in 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by the police" is supported by research of the highest calibre. There is a peer reviewed paper in one of the most ...
- 57.5k
140
votes
Accepted
Did Trump order tear gas to be used on protesters to clear a pathway to a church for a photoshot?
I think there are three issues here: 1) Was 'tear gas' used? 2) Who ordered the attack? 3) Why did they order it?
Was 'tear gas' used?
According to the Parks Police smoke canisters and pepper balls ...
tim♦
- 51.9k
116
votes
Did Martin Gugino, 75, who was injured at the Buffalo, NY protest, provoke the police?
is there any credible supporting evidence that the man was attempting
to instigate a confrontation, or that he was planning to 'set up' the
police force?
No.
Buzzfeed:
Trump's Tuesday ...
- 2,034
111
votes
Are one-third of Americans 'killed by strangers' killed by police?
To a reasonable approximation this appears to be true, provided we restrict ourselves to deliberate killings, although one quarter may be a more accurate figure.
The total number of murders in the US ...
- 57.5k
107
votes
Does the United States have more tax preparers than police and firefighters combined?
No
As per the statistics that @gerrit cited, the statement as listed is untrue. There are almost as many firefighters alone as tax preparers.
There is a true way of stating it. If we explicitly ...
- 10.2k
107
votes
Accepted
Did Martin Gugino, 75, who was injured at the Buffalo, NY protest, provoke the police?
As the other answer states, the source of the initial claim can be traced back as follows:
Trump's Twitter, which he wrote after a segment of "@OANN I watched"...
That OANN segment cites..
An ...
- 44.9k
98
votes
Accepted
Did a raid by a SWAT team from Joe Arpaio's office end with a house on fire and deputies laughing as a dog burned in it?
Parts of the story are corroborated in this account (Grado, Gary. "Charges urged in raid in which house burned." East Valley Tribune. Oct 15 2004), which is based on a statement from the sheriff's ...
- 10.2k
76
votes
Can 1 in 1,000 black men expect to be killed over the course of their lifetime by the police?
Putting aside the reputation of the journal for a second, it is nevertheless possible to examine carefully the citation and methodology of the paper and find it to be a good representation of reality. ...
- 611
71
votes
Is the number of complaints filed a good measure of how abusive a police officer or department is?
The association between the complaints against an officer and the bad behaviour of an officer is complicated, but, yes, there is a relationship.
Lersch, K. M. (2002). Are Citizen Complaints Just ...
- 141k
57
votes
Did Trump order tear gas to be used on protesters to clear a pathway to a church for a photoshot?
This article from New York Magazine summarizes the answer to your question(s) quite nicely. Note: all the bolding within quotes is my own.
Did Trump order the protestors cleared? Yes.
A Justice ...
- 538
48
votes
Accepted
Is saying "du" to a police officer illegal in Germany?
Laws and fines
The relevant law is § 185 StGB (English version), which only says:
Die Beleidigung wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu einem Jahr oder mit Geldstrafe […] bestraft.
The penalty for insult ...
- 722
47
votes
Accepted
Was Andrew Tate raided by police because of a pizza box revealing that he is in Romania?
(edit: Oddthinking found an explicit denial that the pizza box had anything to do with it, so I accordingly have edited this answer.)
Report says "police monitored social media"
I believe ...
- 44.9k
38
votes
Accepted
Are white and non-white police officers equally likely to kill black suspects?
TL;DR - we don't know if the study is corroborated.
I will continue to look into this topic to edit and improve the answer. It may be too early to conclude if the results of the 2018 paper are ...
- 14.1k
38
votes
Accepted
Are African Americans victims of a disproportionate number of police killings?
It depends on the measure
Mapping Police Violence (MPV) says:
Unarmed black people were killed at 5x the rate of unarmed whites in 2015
This is a real statistic, but it is important to ...
- 10.2k
33
votes
Does the United States have more tax preparers than police and firefighters combined?
True, almost true, or false, depending on sources and interpretation.
Depending on sources, the number of professional firefighters + law enforcement officers is either the same or slightly smaller ...
- 17.7k
28
votes
Accepted
Did Police spray fake blood on themselves in Philadelphia on August 14th 2019?
According to Truth Or Fiction
As for the liquid in the bottle, it is most likely a disinfecting solution such as Betadine (povidone-iodine, which can appear deep orange or red) or a treatment to ...
- 29.5k
26
votes
Was Andrew Tate raided by police because of a pizza box revealing that he is in Romania?
@Avery's existing answer shows how the story was generated.
As a complement, we now have denials from Romanian authorities that they used the pizza boxes.
Philadephia Inquirer:
Ramona Bolla, a ...
- 141k
23
votes
Have 8 out of 10 police officers in Sweden seriously considered quitting due to the danger?
According to a survey 3 of 4 (not quite the same a 8 of 10) police officers are considering changing job. But the main reason stated is that they are unhappy about the salary. Only 7% stated have ...
- 2,354
17
votes
Are people with a high IQ not allowed to become police officers in New London?
The lawsuit reported on by ABC News did happen (Robert Jordan vs. the City of New London, CT). The court case can be found here. That page verifies many of the facts given in the article, including ...
- 30.7k
17
votes
Accepted
Did a suicidal woman talk a police officer into jumping with her?
This story is from the October 25, 1994 issue of the Weekly World News, page 2:
The Weekly World News had a reputation for posting outrageous stories made up from whole cloth.
While I cannot prove ...
- 728
16
votes
Is saying "du" to a police officer illegal in Germany?
It is not illegal per se. See
10 surprising German laws foreigners need to know - The Local
Though using the “du” form with a German police officer is not directly forbidden, it can be (and often ...
- 7,653
15
votes
Are black people disproportionately shot more than other people in America?
According the Washington Post database:
People fatally shot by police were:
19% Blacks in 2018 through August 30th
23% Blacks in 2017
24% Blacks in 2016
26% Blacks in 2015
14% of the ...
- 105k
13
votes
Is the Cobra 80 fire cracker "three to four times as powerful" as a hand grenade?
This post on a Dutch IT forum may shed some light on this matter. This guy seems to access to some facts about the M67 hand grenade, as well as the Cobra 6 [not Cobra 80] firework:
De M67 hand ...
- 239
13
votes
Is saying "du" to a police officer illegal in Germany?
First off, a bit of background on "Du" vs. "Sie".
"Du" is an informal address usually reserved to family and friends. There are special groups where group membership ...
- 19k
12
votes
Accepted
Is there more police brutality in cities controlled by the Democratic party?
A major problem here is how to define "worst police brutality in America"? I don't think we can have any conclusive evaluation of Shaun King's statement without a clear definition and an ...
- 7,352
12
votes
Is there more police brutality in cities controlled by the Democratic party?
Yes
It's not a very technical or precise claim, but its essence is factually sound.
Using the common measure for "police brutality" as police killings,* a large majority of the cities with ...
- 6,817
10
votes
Accepted
Were only 17 of 500 sexual assaults on Cologne's Silvesternacht reported in crime statistics?
I do not want to focus so much on the linked article, suffice to say that EXPRESS is using very lurid language in the article. Instead I focus on your three specific claims.
The primary source is the ...
- 206
10
votes
Did a police officer hand back a weapon after disarming a criminal because of bad habits learned in training?
On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace (2007) does have this story at page 76:
One police officer gave another example of learning to do the wrong thing. ...
- 105k
10
votes
Accepted
Are police officer's families 2-4 times more likely to experience domestic violence?
According to Officer-Involved Domestic Violence: The
Mediating Factors Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and
Forensic Science: Vol. 6 , Article 9 (2018):
Various new studies have ...
- 105k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible