Vox Sentences: Justice Department will investigate the Baltimore police

1. Baltimore under investigation

A protester walks through tear gas in Baltimore. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

• The Justice Department will investigate the Baltimore Police Department for excessive use of force and other abusive practices to evaluate whether police systemically violated the Constitution and locals' civil rights.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• The announcement follows weeks of tense protests over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died on April 19 after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in a police van despite repeated pleas for medical help.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had requested the civil rights probe.

  [Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake]

• The Justice Department's COPS Program is already helping with some limited reforms, following a 2014 report that found the city had paid about $5.7 million since 2011 to settle police brutality accusations.

  [Baltimore Sun / Mark Puente]

• The Baltimore Police Department has also been accused of "rough rides," in which detainees are driven recklessly in police wagons to purposely cause injuries.

  [Baltimore Sun / Doug Donovan and Mark Puente]

• "Despite the progress being made, it was clear that recent events … had given rise to a serious erosion of public trust."

  [Attorney General Loretta Lynch]

• One reporter asked the US attorney general if the Baltimore Police Department is different than Ferguson's because it's more diverse — but systemic racism affects everyone, even black cops.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• To read more about Freddie Gray's arrest and the protests that followed, check out Vox's full explainer.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

2. Labor and pollsters lose the UK election

UK Prime Minister David Cameron will remain in power. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

• In a surprising election in the UK, Conservatives crushed the Labor Party and won a majority of the seats in Parliament.

  [Vox / Timothy Lee and Matthew Yglesias]

• The surprise is very bad news for pollsters, who were all projecting a much closer race.

  [Reuters / Estelle Shirbon]

• Another party that won big: the pro-independence Scottish National Party.

  [New York Times / Katrin Bennhold]

• Conservatives slashed the budget and caused economic turmoil when they took office five years ago, but the economy has recovered since then.

  [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]

• Check out the full election results in the BBC's wonderful interactive.

  [BBC]

3. A manicure controversy

(Brian Brainerd/Denver Post via Getty Images)

• A New York Times investigation uncovered the systemic abuse of women working in New York salons, with some earning as little as $10 a day.

  [New York Times / Sarah Maslin Nir]

• This type of exploitation is already illegal — but the law isn't being enforced.

• It gets worse: the second part of the investigation found that some of the products used by salons are poisoning workers.

  [New York Times / Sarah Maslin Nir]

• One reason it's easy for employers to exploit immigrant workers: bosses can blackmail unauthorized immigrants and even those on work visas with the threat of deportation.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown argues that the industry at least provides job and training opportunities that many of these salon employees wouldn't otherwise have.

  [Reason / Elizabeth Nolan Brown|]

• Here's a guide to getting an ethical manicure.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

4. Misc.

• The US economy added 223,000 jobs last month, which is good but mostly expected.

  [Vox / Matthew Yglesias]

• Doctors thought they cured a patient of Ebola — but it turns out the virus was living in his eye.

  [New York Times / Denise Grady]

• Here's how to win a bunch of popular games, according to data scientists.

  [Washington Post / Ana Swanson]

• Spanish police discovered a boy trying to cross the border in a suitcase.

  [Associated Press]

• Bill Simmons is leaving ESPN.

  [Vox / Todd VanDerWerff]

5. Verbatim

• "[M]ale superheroes and male-dominated teams like the Avengers will have 19 films before a female superhero has one."

  [Vox / Alex Abad-Santos]

• "Republicans' intransigence has created an obvious opportunity for Hillary to rip off our arms and beat us with the bloody ends."

  [Fergus Cullen, former NH Republican Party chairman, to Washington Post / David Nakamura and Robert Costa]

• "Mary had a little lamb, and its fleece was white as snow, everywhere that Mary went — oh, fuck."

  [The first audio recording of the word "fuck" via Boingboing / David Pescovitz]

• "Your mom is dying to confront you in hand-to-hand combat at last. Give her the opportunity to destroy you in front of a paying audience on Mother's Day, and her heart will swell with joy."

  [ClickHole]

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