Report an incident

We will document examples of excessive force being used by law enforcement officers during the 2020 protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Our goal in doing this is to assist journalists, politicians, prosecutors, activists and concerned citizens who can use the evidence accumulated here for political campaigns, news reporting, public education and prosecution of criminal police officers.

1. Do not incite violence or hatred

However angry we feel about the reactions to the protests, we will not use inflammatory or judgemental language, and will not tolerate such behavior from others.

We wish to remain an objective platform which can not be dismissed out of hand due to biased descriptions of events.

2. Document and archive the evidence

Our goal is to document primary and secondary evidence of police brutality towards protesters. As the events are currently ongoing and the evidence is primarily being distributed through social media, it may become unavailable without warning; as such, we will archive this information to keep it available for concerned citizens, journalists and (hopefully) prosecutors.

3. Spread the word

Raise awareness of this community and repository so that more obscure evidence which is not going viral will be posted here.

Share the evidence accumulated here with concerned citizens, congress members, attorneys, local government officials, journalists, activist groups and social media.

4. Use the community as a resource, and be a resource for the community

If people ask how to contribute, Send them to this page!

If you see a mistake in the incident reports, please contact us through the contact page to fix it.

Much of these incident reports are updated in real time from the github here. If you notice a lack of information from specific locations or need assistance finding information about a particular event, post an issue at Github, contact us or use the subreddit.

5. Be objective

The purpose of this effort is to share evidence of police brutality, of which hundreds of examples have been created and documented during these protests.

If you are here to bring awareness to what you see as inexcusable behavior by the police, you do not need to mischaracterize, cherry pick or manufacture evidence to do that. Their actions speak for themselves, so simply document what they do.

1. Gather evidence

To contribute to the incident reports, you will need to identify events where police used excessive force or abused their power during the George Floyd protests.

People have been regularly posting evidence to the following sources:

• our subreddit /r/2020PoliceBrutality
• /r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut subreddit
• /r/PublicFreakout subreddit
• #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM on Twitter
• #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd on Twitter
• #PoliceBrutality on Twitter
• #[CityName]riots & #[CityName]protest(s) on Twitter

2. Add it to the form

Once you identify the state and location for the incident, check if it has already been posted to the site or in this repository.

If the incident has already been reported

If you find the same incident, check the following:

• Is the exact same evidence already posted?
  • If so, do not add duplicate evidence.
  • If not, add it as a link source.
• Does your post add context or change the interpretation of other evidence?
  • If so, submit a report with the new information.

If the incident has not been reported

If you have identified a new incident, ensure that it meets our content standards and follow the Incident Report Guidelines to add it to the archive.

3. Share it!

Share the evidence on Twitter and our subreddit. Send it to your friends and bring attention to what you find.

Content Standards

1. Only events related to the 2020 George Floyd protests in the United States.

• No old events or events not related to the protests.
• No events from other countries.

Only add incidents which are related to the 2020 George Floyd protests. While all examples of police abuse are abhorrent, this website exists for the purpose of documenting the brutal crackdowns on peaceful protests and use of excessive force by police.

2. Only add clear evidence of police brutality or abuse of power.

• No looters getting arrested unless excessive force is used.
• No random Twitter descriptions of events (reputable source or direct evidence required).
• No out of context or misleading information.

Only add incidents which have clear evidence of police abuse of power or excessive force. Do not post anything based on rumors and do not post manipulated or out of context information. Eye-witness accounts for documented events are allowed, as are eye-witness accounts in the absence of video evidence, but only from reputable sources such as congresspeople or reporters from major outlets.

3. Use objective language. – No “cop beats protester with clear disregard for his humanity” or “pig shoots at person with contempt”. – No language supporting or denigrating police or activists.

Let police actions speak for themselves; use unbiased descriptions to explain what happened with as much detail as possible and using unemotional language. Pretend that you’re an AI telling a human exactly what the evidence shows and that you’ll have your AWS budget reduced if your algorithm is faulty.

4. Use correct location & date.

• Place the incident report with the correct city and state.
  • If the location is unknown, place “Unknown Location” file.
• Placing a date
  • If the date is unknown, get the best guess based on context and use (believed to be) Date
  • If you can’t get the date from context, putUnknown Date

It is important to keep this repository organized with contextual information, both to assist researchers looking for more information and to provide an accurate record of these historic events.