use of force

Don't Pick Up the Phone is a Netflix documentary series about the decade-long strip-search phone hoax that targeted fast-food restaurants across the U.S., with the 2004 McDonald's case in Mount Washington, Kentucky as its most notorious incident.

Tragedien i Tjæreborg is a Danish TV 2 Play documentary series about the death of Lukasz Makala following a police arrest in Tjæreborg, Denmark, in March 2021.

Grand Knighthawk is a 2023 Hulu documentary about a 2015 northern Florida KKK murder-plot against a Black former inmate, stopped by an undercover Army veteran and the FBI.

The Russell and Williams case is a 2012 US police shooting in which 13 Cleveland officers fired 137 rounds at an unarmed couple in a car after a 22-minute chase.

The Harvey Weinstein case is a series of US sexual assault prosecutions against the former Miramax producer, resulting in convictions in New York and California between 2020 and 2025.

On May 31, 2024, a knife attack occurred at Marktplatz in Mannheim, Germany, during a demonstration by the right-wing extremist group Die Basis and pro-Palestinian activists. A 25-year-old man of Afghan origin wounded six people, including five police officers present to maintain order at the demonstration.

On 1 October 2020, a 51-year-old man drove his Range Rover through the pedestrian zone of Trier, Germany's oldest city, killing six people and injuring 14 others. The attacker, identified as Bernd W., was arrested without resistance at the scene. The case raised urgent questions about mental illness, alcohol abuse, and the prevention of mass violence in public spaces.

On December 1, 2020, 51-year-old Bernd W. drove a stolen Jeep into the packed pedestrian zone of Trier, Germany, killing five people and injuring 18. Investigators quickly concluded it was suicide by mass murder, not terrorism.

On September 10, 2020, Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf, one of the Rhineland's leading university hospitals, was hit by a massive ransomware attack attributed to the cybercriminal group Netwalker. The attack forced the hospital to turn away emergency patients and resulted in at least one death, marking one of Europe's most serious cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

On 19 January 2025, the city of Aschaffenburg in Hesse, Germany, was struck by a brutal knife attack in broad daylight. A man killed at least two people and wounded several others at multiple public locations in the city centre. The perpetrator was apprehended by police the same day.

On 20 December 2024, a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia drove a car into the crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. The attack killed 6 people and injured around 300 others. The suspect was arrested at the scene and had been working as a psychiatrist in Germany.

Norbert Pöhlke terrorized the Ludwigsburg area in Baden-Württemberg during the 1970s with a series of brutal armed robberies committed while wearing masks and costumes. The case became one of Germany's most notorious crimes as the perpetrator remained unidentified for years. Pöhlke's systematic violence and ability to disguise himself made him one of the country's most feared criminals of the decade.

Kalief Browder was arrested at 16 in 2010 for allegedly stealing a backpack. He spent three years at Rikers Island without trial because his family couldn't afford bail. Two years were in solitary confinement. His tragic story triggered historic reforms of the American bail system.

Barry Morphew, 49, was indicted in June 2025 and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife Suzanne, who disappeared on May 10, 2020, during a bike ride in Chaffee County, Colorado. After initial charges were dropped in 2022, prosecutors brought the case back following the discovery of Suzanne's remains in 2023.

In 1967, NYPD detective Frank Serpico began reporting widespread, systemic corruption within the department. His decision to blow the whistle—and survive a suspicious shooting—transformed American policing and made him an icon of integrity.

Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit's mayor from 2001 to 2008, orchestrated one of America's most brazen municipal corruption schemes, systematically extorting over $1 million from contractors and diverting hundreds of thousands in public funds for personal luxury. His conviction in 2013 on 24 federal felony counts exposed a network of co-conspirators—including his father Bernard and contractor Bobby Ferguson—who weaponized city contracts and pension fund access for personal enrichment.

In October 1994, Kim Groves, a 32-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed outside her New Orleans home in an act of retaliation. Her killer was not a gang member or rival dealer—it was NOPD Officer Len Davis, who ordered her murder after she reported him for brutality.

Oscar Pistorius, the celebrated South African sprinter known as the Blade Runner, shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp four times through a locked bathroom door on Valentine's Day 2013. After a lengthy legal battle spanning years, he was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to over 13 years in prison.