List of cases of police brutality by date

This list compiles incidents alleged or proved to be due to police brutality that attracted significant media or historical attention. Many cases are alleged to be of brutality; some cases are more than allegations, with official reports concluding that a crime was committed by police, with some criminal convictions for offences such as grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest.

Before 1990 21 September 1920: Sack of Balbriggan –- Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) special constables known as "Black and Tans" burned and looted numerous houses and pubs in Balbriggan, Ireland. They also beat two local men to death. This was a reprisal for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassination of two RIC officers in the town. 22 September 1920: In reprisal for an IRA ambush, the Black and Tans killed five civilians and burnt 16 houses and shops in west County Clare, Ireland. 1–9 November 1920: In revenge for the IRA's killing of two local RIC policemen, the Black and Tans "besieged" the town of Tralee, Ireland. They imposed a curfew, fired on civilians in the streets, let no food in for a week and shot dead eight people in the town and surrounding area, many of them civilians. 21 November 1920: The Croke Park massacre in Dublin, Ireland. The Auxiliary Division opened fire on civilians who were watching a Gaelic football match in Croke Park; 49 were killed and 60–70 wounded. The attack was believed to be revenge for an IRA assassination operation earlier in the day. 24 March 1922: The McMahon killings in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Officers of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) broke into a house owned by an Irish Catholic family and shot all eight males inside. Six were killed. It is believed to have been a reprisal for the IRA's killing of two policemen the day before. 1 April 1922: The Arnon Street killings in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Ulster Special Constables broke into several Irish Catholic homes, shooting and beating six Catholics to death, including a child. This was believed to have been a reprisal for the IRA's killing of a policeman in the area. 19 May 1922: In revenge for the burning of a Protestant-owned mill, a mob of Ulster Special Constables and loyalists attacked and burned many Catholic homes and businesses in Desertmartin, Northern Ireland. Special Constables took four Catholic men from their homes nearby, lined them up by the roadside and summarily executed them.Lawlor, Pearse. The Outrages: The IRA and the Ulster Special Constabulary in the Border Campaign. Mercier Press, 2011. pp.275–280 23 June 1922: A group of Ulster Special Constables opened fire on civilians in the village of Cushendall, Northern Ireland, while preparing to enforce a nightly curfew. Special Constables summarily executed three young Catholic men by shooting them at close range. They claimed they were ambushed by the IRA and returned fire, but a British government inquiry concluded that this was not true. The report was not made public for almost a century.Lawlor, Pearse. The Outrages: The IRA and the Ulster Special Constabulary in the Border Campaign. Mercier Press, 2011. pp.302–309 25 December 1951: Five Hispanic men and two white men were severely beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department, in an incident known as the Bloody Christmas. Eight officers were indicted for assault, and five were found guilty. 21 March 1960. South African police shot at a crowd of black anti-apartheid protesters, killing 69 and injuring over 180 in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre. Evidence showed that the police continued firing even when the crowd had turned to run, and the majority of those killed and wounded were shot in the back. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission later concluded that the police actions had constituted "gross human rights violations in that excessive force was unnecessarily used to stop a gathering of unarmed people." (see Sharpeville massacre article for sourcing). 17 October 1961. The French police attacked a large demonstration of unarmed and peaceful protesters of Algerian origin, killing between 70 and 200 (numbers are uncertain, partly because many were drowned after being thrown into the Seine with their hands tied), in the Paris massacre of 1961. 7 March 1965. Alabama Highway Patrol troopers attacked civil rights demonstrators at the Edmund Pettus Bridge between Selma and Montgomery in an event that came to be known as "Bloody Sunday". 19 April 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland. During rioting between Irish nationalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), officers broke into the home of Catholic civilian Samuel Devenny (42), who was not involved in the riots. The officers beat Devenny ferociously with batons. His young daughter (who was recovering from surgery) and a family friend were beaten unconscious. His older daughter and son were also attacked. It is believed the attack led to Devenny's death on 17 July 1969.Findings on Devenny investigation , Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland 13 July 1969: Catholic civilian Francis McCloskey (67) was beaten with batons by Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers during street disturbances in Dungiven, Northern Ireland, and died of his injuries the following day. He is sometimes deemed to be the first death of "The Troubles".Chronology of the Conflict: July 1969, Conflict Archive on the Internet 14–15 August 1969: During the 1969 Northern Ireland riots, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) shot dead five Catholic civilians and opened fire on crowds of Irish nationalist protesters. A nine-year-old boy was killed when police fired on a block of flats with Browning machine guns. 1967–74: the methods of the Greek military junta were documented in the docudrama Your Neighbor's Son. It focused on the brutalization of young Military Police recruits which turned them into torturers. Michalis Petrou, a conscript who became a notorious torturer, testified against his former colleagues. May 4, 1970. Kent State, Ohio, United States of America. 4 students were killed and 9 wounded during an antiwar protest. They were shot by the National Guard. May 15, 1970. Jackson State, United States of America. 2 are killed and tens injured when Highway Patrol shot into a crowd at the Historically Black University. 11 May 1972: Dr George Ian Ogilvie Duncan was killed after allegedly being thrown into River Torrens by a group of police officers who were conducting routine “gay-bashing” in “beats”. The police officers suspected to be involved did not cooperate during an inquest, and they were later suspended or resigned from South Australia Police. In 1985, the case was reopened, and the police officers involved were charged with manslaughter, but none were successfully prosecuted due to a lack of evidence. This case of police brutality pioneered the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Australia. 1977. Steve Biko is widely believed to have been killed by police as a result of anti-apartheid demonstrations in South Africa. 1981: three people were killed by plastic bullets fired by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland during the 1981 Irish hunger strike protests,Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland: 1981. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).Chronology of the Conflict: 1981. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). and many others were badly injured. 6 December 1986: Malik Oussekine was beaten to death by police after being suspected of participating in a student protest in Paris, triggering widespread outrage.

1990–1999 2 March 1991: Rodney King was beaten with batons and kicked by four Los Angeles Police Department officers. The four officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and found not guilty, prompting riots in Los Angeles. The four officers were tried again in a federal court, and two of the officers were found guilty of violating King's civil rights. 29 August 1993: The Vigário Geral massacre occurred when 33 Brazilian law enforcement officers, including 28 military officers, sought revenge against drug traffickers for the killing of four police officers two days prior to the massacre. The officers opened fire on local residents in a community north of Rio de Janeiro, killing 21 people. Six officers were convicted of the murders. 22 December 1994: Anthony Baez was fatally choked by New York Police Department officer Francis Livoti in the Bronx, following an altercation with him. In June 1998, Livoti was convicted in a federal court on charges of violating Baez's civil rights, and was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment. 24 August 1995: Three officers from the Bangladesh Police - Moinul Hoque, Abdus Sattar, and Amrita Lal - abducted, raped, and murdered 14-year-old Yasmin Akhter in Dinajpur. The killing, and a subsequent attempted police coverup, provoked widespread outrage and riots that resulted in seven deaths after police fired on demonstrators. The three officers were convicted of murder and executed in 2004; however, other officers charged in connection with the coverup and violence during the unrest were all acquitted. July 1996: During the Drumcree protests and riots in Northern Ireland, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) fired 6,000 plastic bullets over several days. The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) condemned what it called the "completely indiscriminate" use of plastic bullets, while Human Rights Watch accused the police of using "excessive force".Chronology of the Conflict: 1997. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). The two largest Irish nationalist political parties said they had lost faith in the RUC as an impartial police force. 3 January 1998: Six policemen from the North East Rand Dog Unit set their dogs on three suspected illegal immigrants, allowing the animals to attack the three men as the officers shouted racial insults. The incident was caught on video and televised nationally by the South African Broadcasting Corporation on 7 November 2000, causing widespread outrage. All six policemen were ultimately sentenced to jail terms of between four and five years each. 4 February 1999: In the early hours of 4 February 1999, a 23-year-old Guinean immigrant named Amadou Diallo was fatally shot by four New York City Police Department plainclothes officers. One of them later claimed to have mistaken him for a rape suspect from one year earlier. The four officers, who were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit, were charged with second-degree murder and acquitted at trial in Albany, New York.

2000–2009 2000: Officers from the Philadelphia Police Department attacked Thomas Jones while he was wounded. 9 May 2001: Police fired tear gas and plastic bullets into crowds at the Accra Sports Stadium, Ghana, causing a stampede in which 127 people died. It was Africa's worst sporting disaster. An official inquiry blamed police over-reaction, but prosecution failed to establish a case. 20–21 July 2001: Carlo Giuliani, protesting at the 27th G8 summit was shot dead by police in Genoa, Italy; the officer was tried, but acquitted on the grounds that he had acted in self-defence. 62 other protesters were hospitalized (including three comatose) after a brutal night-time raid on the Diaz school where they were sleeping. In a trial that concluded in 2010, 25 Italian police officers were convicted of grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest.Hooper, John. "Top Italian policemen get up to five years for violent attack on G8 protesters." The Guardian. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2010. 23 May 2003: Ousmane Zongo, a Burkina Faso national, was unarmed as he was shot four times by a New York Police Department officer during a raid at a warehouse. Bryan Conroy was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced to five years probation.