Category: Racially motivated

Racially motivated, Racism in America, Racist

Jay-Z offers to pay legal fees of Phoenix Couple harassed by police

The ReadyWriter

Billionaire Rap artist Jay-Z is stepping in to offer legal support for the Phoenix couple who was held up at gunpoint by officers because their four-year-old daughter allegedly stole a $1 doll – an incident that the chief of police says is ‘unacceptable’. The philanthropic arm of the rapper’s entertainment company Roc Nation has hired a high-powered attorney to join the legal team that is preparing to sue the city of Phoenix for $10million dollars.

Dravon Ames, 22, and Aisha Harper, 24, parents to two young children, filed a notice of claim on Thursday accusing the police officers of committed battery, unlawful imprisonment, false arrest, and infliction of emotional distress. The police are also accused of violating the couple’s civil rights.. A notice of claim is a legal document filed with courts by a party which intends to bring a lawsuit. Phoenix police released a 16-page incident report accusing the couple of stealing other items from the store.

A passer-by filmed the incident from a far. In their video, the cops are heard yelling: ‘Put your f****** hands up or I’ll put a f****** cap in your head.’

Aisha repeatedly told them that she could not raise her arms because she was holding her baby.

Dravon got out of the car first and was put in handcuffs.

Once Iesha and the children were out of the car, one of the officers approached her aggressively, pointed his finger in her face and yelled: ‘When I tell you to do something, you f****** do it!’ as she held her baby in her arms.

‘I apologized to the family for the interaction and to be honest with you, I’m apologizing to the community too because that is not what should have happened in that circumstance.’

Too little, too late.

You can read the full story here!

Crime, Racial Profiling, Racially motivated, Racism in America

$35,000 Reward Offered for Information On 7-Year-old Girl’s Killer

The ReadyWriter

A manhunt is underway in Houston, Texas, for a gunman who shot and killed a 7-year-old girl during a possible road rage incident. ABC reports Jazmine Barnes was with her mother and 3 sisters in the family vehicle when she was shot around 7 a.m. Sunday morning.

LaPorsha Washington, 30, told police she was taking her four daughters, ages 6 to 16, to Joe V’s to pick up coffee on Sunday morning when they passed the Walmart off the 15400 block of Wallisville, when a man in a red pickup truck drove by and opened fire into the car. Washington, who was shot in the arm during the incident, described the shooter as a white male in his 40s with a beard and wearing a red hoodie.

Washington said she didn’t realize Jazmine was hit until another daughter alerted her.

“She said, ‘Momma, Jazmine’s not moving. She’s not talking” I turned around and my 7-year-old was shot in the head.“

Washington pulled over and called 911. She was hospitalized with a gunshot wound and is expected to recover. Her 6-year-old daughter suffered a minor injury.

Jazmine was pronounced dead at the scene.

Activist Shaun King and civil rights attorney Lee Merritt offered a $35,000 cash reward to anyone with information leading to the arrest of the suspect.

The activists say a similar unprovoked incident happened at that same Walmart in 2017. According to ABC News, a man named A’Vonta Williams was shot multiple times by a white male driving a pickup truck. That shooting remains unsolved.

The activists say they believe the two shootings are related. But the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the weapon ballistics, vehicle, and description of the suspect don’t match Sunday’s shooting incident.

According to CrimeOnline, the suspect fled in a red, 4-door pickup truck with no license plate.

Police said they will use all resources to catch the suspect. A grainy image of a red pickup truck was released to the public on Tuesday.

“We’re going to use all resources available to bring this killer to justice,” Major Jesse Razo told reporters. “I urge you, whoever did this, you know who you are. Please turn yourself in now — because we will be looking for you, we will locate you, we will find you.”

Conversations Of A Sistah, Racial tension, racial unrest, Racially motivated, Racism in America, Tracy L. Bell, Tracy L. Bell - Blog Talk Radio, Tracy L. Bell Host Conversations Of A Sistah

Blacks in America Are Not Safe, Tonight on “Conversations of A Sistah”

The ReadyWriter

Botham Shem Jean was fatally shot by a Dallas police officer who says she mistook him for a burglar in his own home. Jean was careful to avoid police officers before he was killed by one. What’s hard to fathom is, he was killed in his own home, while minding his own business and watching a football game like any other Friday night.

Botham Shem Jean had gone out of his way to avoid even routine encounters with police, his mother, Allison Jean, said during a visit to New York City on Thursday with her lawyer, Lee Merritt. Jean said her son had to explain life in America — where for black men in particular, a minor traffic stop can turn deadly — to his family back home on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

“I always told him, ‘Why do you have to be so dressy?’” Jean recalled in an interview. “He said ‘Mom, I don’t want to be stopped. I don’t want for them to think I’m somebody I’m not.’”

In 2016, when Botham Jean moved to Dallas to take an internship with the accounting firm PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, he made sure to transfer his car registration within the 30-day limit.

Unlike many mothers of African-American boys, Allison Jean, who headed several government agencies on St. Lucia, never gave her son, a risk assurance associate, a talk about avoiding police.

How much his race played a role in what happened when Amber R. Guyger, a white off-duty Dallas police officer, arrived at Jean’s door on the night of Sept. 6 is unclear, as are many of the details of what led to the shooting.

Why are Blacks Not safe in America?

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Racial Profiling, Racial tension, Racially motivated, Racism in America

‘You don’t belong in this building’: White man pulls GUN on black students at Florida A&M

The ReadyWriter

This is the terrifying moment when a white man pulls out a gun on a group of black students who were waiting for a friend to let them in to his college apartment block.

Footage posted on Twitter shows a man, identified as Don Crandall, blocking the entrance of several black Florida A&M University students to the Stadium Center student accommodation in Tallahassee last Saturday.

In the clip a group of students including Isaiah Butterfield, who filmed the incident, can be seen in a heated conversation with Crandall who at one point pulls out a gun.

Crandall had reportedly confronted the students as they waited outside the block for a friend to let them in to attend a party.

‘Find another elevator, you can’t get in this one,‘ Crandall can be heard saying as he blocks their way into the building.

‘Why not? Do you own the building?‘ the students asked.

‘Because you don’t belong in this building,‘ he replied, before adding, ‘You ain’t got a key for the building, you don’t belong in the elevator.’

Footage of the incident was posted on Twitter by Butterfield and is being investigated by Tallahassee police.

‘We are sick of the discrimination,’ Butterfield wrote alongside the tweet.

‘Never thought I’d have a personal experience with racism like this, this man pulled a gun on us because we were walking up to my friends apartment w/o a key.’

Butterfield later told ABC News he believed Crandall had been trying to ‘provoke’ the students in order to use his weapon.

‘Once we found out he had the gun, it turned into a whole different situation,’ Butterfield said.

‘We really think he was trying to provoke us to the point where it got violent so he could retaliate with the gun. I knew that if this dude even feels threatened, he’s going to find any excuse to pull the trigger.’

Twitter users later identified the man in the video as Crandall, the manager of a local hotel Baymont by Wyndham.

In a post on Instagram, the hotel confirmed his identity and said that he was no longer working there.

A spokesperson for Stadium Center also confirmed that Crandall did not live in the apartment block.

The Baymont by Wyndham hotel confirmed their former manager Don Crandall was the man involved with the incident. Notice they said “FORMER” Crandall was fired immediately.

Racial tension, Racially motivated, Racism in America, Racist

Georgia officer restraining 10-year-old during father’s arrest was excessive!

The ReadyWriter

A Georgia police officer’s conduct with an emotional 10-year-old boy is drawing scrutiny after the police department released body camera video of an officer restraining the child.

On Friday, officers with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department were called to a home in relation to a domestic violence suspect.

Officers carried out their investigation and placed the suspect under arrest.

While taking the man into custody, police said the boy became emotionally distraught and started running around, begging officers not to arrest his father.

Body camera footage captured by an officer was posted on Facebook.

At first, the boy is seen being restrained by the adults around him while he yelled at officers.

“Back up,” one woman yelled, pulling the boy back. “Who you trying to fight?”

When those attempts to deter the child were unsuccessful, he became more upset and started running around and jumped towards an officer.

The officer is then seen wrestling the child to the ground before forcefully restraining him.

“Calm down, calm down man,” the officer called out.

Within a few minutes, the child settled down and started to apologize.

“Understand,” the officer said. “Yes, sir,” the child replied. “You don’t run up on an officer.”

The boy settled down and officers helped him to his feet and took off the handcuffs.

Officers then escorted the boy to see his father who was in the back of a cop car.

The child asked his father for his phone and said he was going to call someone to bail him out before letting out a cry and patting his father on the head.

“He didn’t do nothing,” he insisted.

The officer allows the boy to approach the patrol car, leading him to the window where his father was seated. The boy takes his father’s phone, letting his dad knows that he’ll call someone who will be able to bail him out.

“Will you get out, Daddy?” he asks. “I love you.”

“Be strong,” the father, who was restrained in the back of the vehicle tells his son, as he leans his head toward the window so his son can pat his head.

The department released the body camera footage after the boy’s family posted their own video to Facebook.

“(Sic) didn’t do anything but was tryna talk to his dad who was in the police car,” Ariel Collins, the boy’s cousin, wrote on her Facebook post.

Police Chief Scott Freeman ordered an internal investigation due to a “juvenile involvement.”