“…black men in particular are used to being feared.” says the President.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says black Americans feel pain after the Trayvon Martin verdict because of a “history that doesn’t go away.”
Obama spoke in a surprise appearance Friday at the White House, his first time appearing for a statement on the verdict since it was issued last Saturday.
“Trayvon could’ve been me 35 years ago,” Obama said.
Obama says African Americans view the case through “a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.” He says black men in particular are used to being feared and blacks see a disparity in the way they are treated under the law.
He says he also has heard drivers lock their doors and has seen women clutch their purses tighter when he walked by, before he was elected to public office.
The shooting range targets offered by Sgt. Ron King to other officers show a hooded figure with a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea, and a target on the chest.
An internal affairs report claims King’s possession of the targets, and his offer to give them to other officers, violated three department policies on professional conduct, respectful conduct and harassment in the workplace.
The report also revealed that King was involved with the targets months before the police chief found out about them in April, and began proceedings to fire him. The report claims that other officers warned him about the targets.
“You’re crazy,” and “That’s a real bad idea” some said when they first saw the targets in 2012, according to the report.
Despite that, the report says King offered one to another officer at a shooting range on April 2.
King, in a YouTube video, said the targets were a teaching aid covering decisions over when to shoot and when not to shoot.
The police chief said the investigation reveals serious and repeated lapses in the judgment expected of an officer and supervisor.
King had worked for Port Canaveral police since January 2011.
His work here is not yet done. Happy 95th Birthday Nelson Mandela! God Bless You.
Nelson Mandela’s condition steadily improves as he marks today, July 18th, his 95th birthday.
Mandela was taken to a hospital on June 8 for treatment for a recurring lung infection. In previous announcements, the government said he was in critical but stable condition. Court documents filed by Mandela’s family earlier this month had said Mandela was on life support and near death.
“Madiba remains in hospital in Pretoria but his doctors have confirmed that his health is steadily improving,” said a statement from President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, referring to Mandela by his popular clan name.
Mandela is making “remarkable progress,” said one of his daughters, Zindzi, after tense weeks in which some South Africans talked about the possibility that Mandela was on the verge of dying. “We look forward to having him back at home soon.” the South African Press Association quoted her as saying.
The U.N has declared July 18th as Nelson Mandela International Day in recognition of the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s struggle to end Apartheid. A procession was held in India to honor him and in Washington, U.S. congressional leaders plan a ceremony later today.
This date also marks the 15th wedding anniversary of Mr. Mandela and Graca Machel, the former First Lady of Mozambique who has spent much of the time at her husband’s side during his illness.
(Also Happy Birthday to my Sister Gina!. You’re both in good company).
…next year that is. Yes, the 2013-2014 NBA season for the Los Angeles Lakers seems more like a throw away season. The Lakers have lost their “next in line” player in Dwight Howard, have an aging Gasol, Kobe, and Nash, and have no cap space to sign any big name player this free agency. Heck, looking at the Lakers roster right now any person would laugh at it. This of course is all part of the Lakers plan for the 2014 free agency period.
Probably the Lakers biggest free agent signing, Center Chris Kaman
After this coming season, the Lakers will have around $40 million in cap space and only two players under contract, Steve Nash ($9.7 million) and Robert Sacre ($915,243). The Lakers can even waive Nash since he’ll be in his final season and stretch his money owed and only take a $3.2 million dollar salary cap hit in 2014-2015. Kobe Bryant will be the only big question mark considering he seems to want to play another three to four seasons, so let’s just pencil him in for around $10-15 million.
Lebron can become a free agent after 2014 and the Lakers are gearing up for a run at him
Let me read off some big names who will be free agents in 2014: Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Danny Granger, Loul Deng, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwayne Wade. The list continues if you want to add in the Restricted Free Agents which focus around up and coming stars like Kyrie Irving, John Wall, Eric Beldsoe, and Paul George; all of them though aren’t leaving their respected teams no matter what. The 2014 free agent class is massive in terms of star power to say the least and a team like the Lakers plan to take full advantage of it.
Teammates? It’s not as far fetched as you’d think
Let’s get this out of the way, Lebron James will not be taking his talents to L.A, that’s a total pipe dream. The same can be said for any of the young restricted free agents, especially Kyrie and Paul George. The only possible star the Lakers can land would be Carmelo Anthony. In his current tenure in New York, Melo hasn’t had incredible playoff success and coming to a town like L.A where he will be the man and be paired up with another super star is an intriguing offer to say the least. Plus, the Lakers can offer Melo a huge contract of four years and around $100 million dollars. It shall be a very interesting off season to say the least and the 2015 free agent class promises to be the same with players like Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo, and LeMarcus Aldridge becoming free agents. God I love the NBA.
MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee man who suspected his 13-year-old neighbor of breaking into his home and stealing weapons was convicted Wednesday of fatally shooting the boy as the teen’s mother looked on. Now, jurors will decide whether the 76-year-old defendant was mentally ill at the time.
A jury deliberated for about an hour before finding John Henry Spooner guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. Surveillance video from his own security cameras showed him confronting Darius Simmons in May 2012, pointing a gun at him from about 6 feet away and shooting him in the chest.
George Zimmerman became a hero to many after it was revealed that he shot and killed an innocent teenager, whose only crime was walking home one evening. So now that a woman has come forward accusing Zimmerman of molesting her when she was a child, you can bet that more sickos will call Zimmerman their hero too.
It’s becoming painfully clear that the jurors in George Zimmerman’s murder trial acquitted a killer who had a history of violence, disruption and child sexual molestation.
According to reports by Huffington Post, a female cousin of Zimmerman came forward to report the sexually abuse she experienced as a child. During an interview with investigators in March, the woman said, “It started when I was six,” she said. “We’d all lay in front of the TV and we had pillows and blankets and he would reach under the blankets and try to do things and I would try to push him off but he was bigger and stronger and older. It was in front of everybody and I don’t know how I didn’t say anything, I just didn’t know any better.”
The woman said Zimmerman would fondle her and penetrated her vagina with his fingers. She also revealed that Zimmerman molested other young girls. She spoke with a woman who was molested by Zimmerman as youth, but the woman wanted to maintain her privacy. When she was 12-years-old, Zimmerman made her rub his penis. Other times, he would take the girl to rooms and kiss and fondle her.
(CNN) — Martha Chumo, a 19-year-old self-taught programmer, was supposed to be in New York right now, honing her coding skills and mastering cutting-edge technologies in the company of fellow software enthusiasts.
Instead, she’s thousands of miles away, in her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya.
A few months ago, Chumo was accepted into the summer intake of Hacker School, a U.S.-based “retreat for hackers,” where budding programmers come together for three months to write code, learn new languages and share industry insights.
Whereas the programming boot camp was free to attend, Chumo still needed to find a way to cover her trip costs and buy a new laptop. Excited and determined, the young developer turned to online crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo for funds. She set a target of $4,200 and managed to raise nearly $5,800. All she needed then was a visa to travel to the United States.
A video entered as evidence in the murder trial of John Henry Spooner on Tuesday appears to show the 76-year-old shooting his 13-year-old neighbor Darius Simmons dead.
The Milwaukee senior is charged with first-degree homicide after the alleged incident in May last year. Jurors saw the video (below), taken from Spooner’s own surveillance camera, that shows the suspect walk out of his house, brandishing a gun. After a short argument, the man in the video waves the gun around before he shoots Simmons in the chest. Simmons manages to flee outside the scope of the camera before dying.
The verdict is still on my mind….I find it really troubling that in this day and age I will have to have “The Talk” with my son one day.
The Talk that explains how he needs to act when he gets pulled over by the police, The Talk that explains to him that he does not “fit the description”. The Talk that explains to him that he does not deserve to be stalked, he does not deserve to be profiled, and he does not deserve to get shot.
Through raising my son, he will know his life is not worthless, not meaningless. I am going to make sure that he grows into a God-fearing, God-loving, Handsome, Talented, Educated MAN with a beautiful family in which he is a wonderful Husband and Father. It is so sad that he has to grow up in this world in its current state.
Response email from another father of a son:
I understand that racism is not a trait you are born with but it is learned, which makes it that much more evil. I can’t begin to tell you all the times I saw this growing up. As a white man you are constantly bombarded with racist comments, like an advertisement on TV about others and their appearance. The hatred is handed to you on a silver platter while the server smiles at you. As a kid you associate this nonchalant lesson with a positive one and you start (unknowingly) actualizing it. My parents taught me one great thing though, question EVERYTHING; so I did, I left no rock unturned. I questioned Christianity, God, my parents, and all authority. Racism was something that I truly believed I didn’t have a problem with. I didn’t feel like I was racist because I had friends of different colors. I didn’t realize until college that racism was a self-evident proposition and the true evil of it was that it didn’t need proof in order to exist. I didn’t have to believe in it to be influenced by it. This angered me because I let it in. My eyes opened up for the first time and I realized that racism will always be a constant internal struggle for me as much as it is an external struggle in our communities.This leads me back to my son. I haven’t taught my son about racism yet because I still see that innocence in his eyes, but after seeing your post I realize that I better start handing him love on a silver platter while smiling at him. I have to casually, and nonchalantly communicate equality. I HAVE to make it a daily thing in order to make it a self-evident proposition before he can question it and know that it is actually a self-evident truth that all men are equal. I decided to message you this because I didn’t know how others would view this. You taught me something today Evan. I owe my kids this and I have to work hard at it in order to make it reality.
The letter below was written by Alex Fraser, after recieving the news of George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the fatal 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin:
Mr. Alex Fraser is a recent graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia. His degree is in theatre. He is an actor living in the Los Angeles area.
“…the Feds would be interested if it could be proven that George profiled Trayvon because of his race and not simply because of his suspicion of him being a criminal.”
“George’s defense lawyers did him no favors during the State trial when it comes to enhancing a Federal case of civil rights violation. In a Federal case it must be alleged that the defendant violated the civil rights of another individual because of race, gender, age, or other protected class. In other words …the Feds would be interested if it could be proven that George profiled Trayvon because of his race and not simply because of his suspicion of him being a criminal. Sounds easy but it is not, they probably couldn’t have done it until O’Mara helped them out by marching witness after witness to the stand and stressing that all of the alleged criminal incidents in the neighborhood were committed by African Americans. Therefore it was reasonable for George to profile Trayvon because he was African American. Remember, he even told the jury that it was OK that George was profiling because that had nothing to do with his need to defend himself. Self defense is not an available defense for violating someones civil rights. It is the profiling itself that is the crime. It is Trayvons right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” that was violated. It was Trayvons right to privacy and his right be where he was… George… you just might have another problem here. “
Countless New Yorkers were roused from a sound slumber at 3:51 a.m. Wednesday by an emergency message transmitted via their cellphones: a missing child.
The alert set off cellphones across the city after the New York Police Department reported that a 7-month-old boy was kidnapped by his biological mother the previous afternoon from a social service facility at Seventh Avenue and 125th Street in Harlem during a supervised visit. The authorities say the woman is bipolar and has had recent outbreaks of violence. She does not have legal custody of her child, according to a police report.
A spokesman for the Police Department said that the so-called Amber Alert was requested after officers determined that the child could be in imminent danger, but that it was the state police that approved and sent out the alert. The missing boy had not been located as of this morning, the officer said.
But the early morning alert sparked a backlash on Twitter and social media sites as people recounted their panic, confusion and irritation at hearing their cellphones beep and vibrate in the wee hours. “Is such a disruptive alarm necessary in the middle of the night?” one woman wondered blearily on Twitter.
All smartphones made after a certain point in 2011 automatically receive Wireless Emergency Alerts. Usually in New York City, they are used for high-level warnings like evacuation orders. In January, the federal government added Amber Alerts to the system.
The police have identified the mother as Marina Lopez, 25, of Queens, and described her as 5 feet 7 inches, 130 pounds and wearing a pink T-shirt and floral print shorts. The boy was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt and black shorts. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-577-TIPS.
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