The gun’s not in the closet’
Since 1999, children have committed at least 145 school shootings. Among the 105 cases in which the weapon’s source was identified, 80 percent were taken from the child’s home or those of relatives or friends.
Yet The Washington Post found that just four adults have been convicted for failing to lock up the guns used.
Now, after a deadly school shooting in Kentucky, a prosecutor must decide: Should the parent who owned the weapon be charged?
The gunfire had lasted less than 10 seconds, but now hidden behind locked doors all across the rural campus, teenagers wept and bled and prayed.
Police would soon swarm Marshall County High’s hallways on that chilly morning in January, and though the exact number of students who had been shot remained unknown for hours, it didn’t take investigators long to find the boy they believed had pulled the trigger. His name was Gabriel Parker, a sophomore whose family lived near the banks of Kentucky Lake. Before word spread that two were dead and 14 were wounded, a detective headed south, in search of the answer to a question:
Where had Parker, who was 15, gotten the gun?
Beneath a wind chime topped with a metal cross, Parker’s stepfather, Justin Minyard, opened the front door of their modest frame house, and the detective told him what had just happened. The 26-year-old’s stepson, police alleged, had opened fire on hundreds of students gathered in Marshall’s commons with a Ruger 9mm semiautomatic pistol. Minyard, according to court records, acknowledged that he kept one firearm in the home, stored in his bedroom closet. He walked back and checked the shelf.
His gun, Minyard told the detective, was gone.
In the hours that followed, police say, Parker confessed to his interrogators that getting the weapon was easy. It hadn’t been secured with a lock or sealed in a safe or even hidden somewhere secret. The night before the shooting, Parker explained, he carried a laundry basket to his parents’ bedroom closet. He reached up to a shelf and grabbed the pistol, which was inside a case, then stuffed it beneath the clothes. Parker also took at least two magazines, along with the bullets he needed, leaving behind more than 400 rounds of ammunition that police would later seize. The next morning, he put the handgun in his bag and rode with his mom to the school of 1,400 students, where at 7:57 a.m., police said, he fired the first round.
Since 1999, the shooters in at least 145 acts of gun violence at primary and secondary schools have been under the age of 18, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Discussions about how to curb shootings at American schools have centered on arming teachers or improving mental health treatment, banning military-style rifles or strengthening background checks. But if kids as young as 6 did not have access to guns, The Post’s findings show, two-thirds of school shootings over the past two decades could not have happened.
While investigators don’t always determine — or publicly reveal — the weapons’ origins, The Post found 105 cases in which the source was identified. Of those, the guns were taken from a child’s home or those of relatives or friends 84 times. The Post discovered just four instances when the adult owners of the weapons were criminally punished because they failed to lock them up.
When Commonwealth Attorney Mark Blankenship took on the Parker prosecution, his focus was solely on ensuring that the teen would be tried as an adult, making him eligible to receive a life sentence. But the longer Blankenship thought about how Parker had gotten the weapon, the more it troubled him.
Parker wasn’t a hunter and didn’t hang out much with the high schoolers who were. The teen, a plump redhead who wore glasses, was quiet and shy. He had a small group of friends, mostly from Marshall’s marching band, in which he played the tuba. The teen couldn’t have persuaded another student, or anyone else, to give him a weapon without raising considerable suspicion, Blankenship concluded. To the prosecutor, that meant the only gun Parker could have used to ravage his high school was the one he took from his stepfather’s closet.
Like almost everyone he knows, Blankenship, 65, owns a firearm. It’s a shotgun his father passed down to him, and though he doesn’t keep shells for it and has never considered himself an enthusiast, he’s been around guns since birth. Blankenship also appreciates why someone would want to reach a weapon quickly during a break-in, so he researched gun safes online, and what he found were more than a dozen devices for under $250 that had been designed to securely store pistols — just like Minyard’s — and be opened in less than three seconds.
“That’s when it really hit me,” Blankenship said, “that this was so easily preventable.”
Gun rights are revered in Marshall County, a community of 31,000 where 3 in 4 voters backed Donald Trump in 2016. Generations of cattle, corn and tobacco farmers throughout this nearly all-white swath of countryside have long viewed their rifles and shotguns much the same way they do their rakes and shovels: essential tools that, on their own, could do no harm. In fact, many people still find it more unseemly to drink a beer in public— Marshall was dry until 2015 — than to wield an AR-15 rifle in public — legal in almost all of Kentucky thanks to its open-carry law.
Blankenship, in office since 2008, was on the verge of beginning his reelection campaign and knew that scrutinizing the pistol’s owner would be unpopular, but he just couldn’t shake how much trauma one gun in the hand of one 15-year-old had caused.
There were the teachers who’d been covered in their own students’ blood, the officers whose kids were begging them not to go back to work, the paramedic who could no longer stand large crowds, the young siblings of high schoolers who imagined they would be shot next, the two couples who had outlived their children, and the teenagers — so many that Blankenship couldn’t fit everyone’s parents into his office — who had bullet holes in their arms and legs and chests and stomachs and faces.
So, about a week after the shooting, in a meeting with investigators, the prosecutor finally said it out loud: “I’m seriously thinking about going after the stepfather.”………
READ MORE WASHINGTON POST
Mom Allegedly Killed in Sleep by Sons Who ‘Were Tired of Her Parenting Style and Demands on Them’
Two Nevada teens allegedly confessed to fatally stabbing and bludgeoning their mother because they “were tired of her parenting style and demands on them,” police said.
Sgt. Adam Tippetts of the Nye County Sheriff’s Office said in a videotaped statement that Michael Wilson and Dakota Saldivar, both 17, are the suspects in the death of their mother, Dawn Liebig, 46. Both are being charged as adults.
Tippetts said deputies responded Monday to a missing persons call from the teens, who allegedly claimed their mother had “simply disappeared and they had not heard from her.”
Next, the teens allegedly claimed their mom was suicidal and asked them to assist her suicide by stabbing her to death, Tippetts said.
But suspicious officers went through the teens’ phones and allegedly discovered a text from one saying, “my mom passed away,” according to a declaration of arrest obtained by local news station FOX5.
Tippetts alleged the pair “finally confessed that a few hours prior to the murder, they had a fight with Liebig and were tired of her parenting style and demands on them.”
According to Tippetts, the teens said they waited until their mom fell asleep and then allegedly stabbed and bludgeoned her over a 30-minute period.
The declaration of arrest alleges that Wilson stabbed Liebig in the neck and Saldivar struck her 20 times in the head with a hammer, FOX5 reports.
One of the teens allegedly took detectives to a shallow grave in the desert where they discovered Liebig’s body and the murder weapons, Tippetts said.
Wilson and Saldivar were charged with open murder, conspiracy to commit murder and domestic battery with a deadly weapon.
Both were taken to an adult detention facility where they were denied bail at their first appearance in front of a judge.
Attempts to reach their attorneys were unsuccessful. They will have a formal arraignment on Aug. 9, an official confirms to PEOPLE.
Netflix Nappily Ever After Offical Trailer
Because the hypocrisy of it all I’m not with the whole natural hair movement but this movie sounds pretty good.
Cue the World’s Smallest Violin: White Driver Who Followed Black Man, Called Him Slurs, Now Whines About Life Being Ruined
Here is another racist bigot white boy with his white privilege who’s mouth wrote him a check he could not pay. As for me IDGAF! The only reason the white boy is saying he sorry is because he’s going to have to apply for welfare soon. Racism is bad for business we need to make an appointment to the doctor to get a prescription for some super strength kopetate for the diarrhea of his mouth.
An Ohio state contractor who, in a fit of road rage, took it upon himself to follow a black man to his home and call him a “nigger” repeatedly is now whining and complaining about his life being ruined.
Hmm, this year’s crop of white tears is exceptional.
Jeffrey Whitman, the owner of Uriahs Heating and Cooling, did all of this from behind of the wheel of his company truck, prompting immediate backlash and consequences. His image quickly spread online, his voicemail became full, his Yelp reviews were trashed and now he’s complaining.
“It was an awful mistake and obviously I don’t know how to explain it, and it’s ruined my life and it’s ruined my family’s life,” Whitman told the Columbus Dispatch.
“I’m out of business, I’m completely out, I’m done, I’ll never work in Columbus again,” he added. “This has completely and thoroughly ruined my life.”
Should have thought of that before you followed a black man some two miles to his house (like, what the fuck? This is how people get shot) and then called him racial slurs—neither action, by the way, really constitutes a mistake.
Whitman went viral last week after the victim, Charles Lovett, posted video of his encounter to Facebook.
The video shows Lovett getting out of his car and approaching a white commercial van sitting in front of his driveway. Lovett demands to know why the man followed him, only to be called a nigger.
“I just want to let you know what a nigger you’re being,” Whitman said.
“You want to let me know how much of a nigger I am?” Lovett cooly replied.
“Yeah, I want to let you personally know how much of a nigger you are,” the contractor continued.
At first, Whitman pretended he could square up, refusing to apologize, insisting he didn’t follow Lovett (even though he ended up in the man’s driveway,) and saying that the n-word wasn’t a big deal because he grew up with it.
After the backlash began, he began to sing a more humble tune and issued an apology, but it was too little too late.
But, get this, even after all of this, Whitman is still insisting he’s not racist and saying that he doesn’t know why there’s so much hate. The cognitive dissonance.
“I just don’t understand the intensity of the hate,” he said.
“I was just trying to address the rudeness,” Whitman added, apparently refusing to see the irony of addressing rudeness by calling someone not only a name but a fucking slur.
Ah, well. Dun, dun, dun, dun, another one bites the dust.
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Why the hulk is more important in avengers 4 than you think (Bruce Banner)
The hulk is one of my favorite Marvel characters ever! Love the story arc idea can’t wait for avengers 4
Retired LA police officer has the perfect solution to stop nosy paranoid white people from calling cops on innocent blacks
In the past year, there have been multiple high-profile incidents of white people getting caught threatening to call the cops on people of color for engaging in everyday, normal activities: swimming in a pool; eating lunch; using food stamps; feeding the homeless, to name just a few recent examples.
In addition to traumatizing people with unnecessary police encounters, calling 911 when you see a black person do something in public (or in private) is a monumental waste of time and resources for first responders.
Retired Sgt. Cheryl Dorsey—who worked for the LAPD for 20 years—tells Raw Story there’s a simple solution.
“There are policies in place for people who abuse 911. Let’s say someone goes fishing on a lake, even though there’s a sign that says ‘No fishing on the lake,’ and they get stuck needing a SEAL team to rescue them or whatever. They charge you for resources.”
The same can be true for calling the authorities on people who are not breaking the law.
“Let’s say somebody calls you and you suspect it’s BS … charge that person for the salary of every emergency responder who’s on the scene because of it,” Dorsey said.
She recalls that back during her time on the force, the LAPD would get daily phone calls from what they jokingly referred to as “the Laser Lady.”
“She’d call everyday. She wanted someone to adjust the tin foil on her head! It was kind of funny.”
But there’s nothing funny about the racism that would prompt someone to call the police on a black person doing nothing wrong.
“Police department resources are minimal. Cops don’t have time to go to the scene because there are some black people having a BBQ in a park.”
“It’s such a no brainer. Many people live paycheck to paycheck. If you had to pay the salaries of four cops responding to the scene and a sergeant… well you’d probably think twice.”
Source: THE RAW STORY
Boy Died After Mistaking Dad’s Meth For Breakfast Cereal: Police
A 8-year-old boy in Indiana who died after reportedly mistaking his dad’s methamphetamine for breakfast cereal had more than 180 times the lethal amount of the drug, according to a toxicology report released Thursday.
Curtis Collman III died June 21 after overdosing on meth at the home of his father, Curtis Gilbert Collman, 41, according to WAVE TV.
Reports said the boy ingested several grams of meth that were on a plate, thinking it was cereal.
Around 10 a.m., the elder Collman noticed his son seemed ill and called a friend who came over to look at the child, according to reports.
When the woman suggested calling 911, Collman Jr. allegedly ripped the phone out of her hand and said, “I’m not going back to prison.”
He then grabbed a handgun from another room and threatened to kill himself, the woman and his son, according to the Seymour Tribune.
Collman then took his son to his parents’ home, but fled when they too wanted to call 911, reports said.
Although the suspect’s parents called for help, the boy later died.
Police finally apprehended the elder Collman on Thursday evening and charged him with failure to register as a sex offender, which stemmed from a 2006 conviction on a Class D felony of sexual misconduct with a minor, the Tribune reported.
Collman has since been charged with neglect of a dependent causing death, pointing a firearm and theft.
On Friday, he requested a bond reduction so he could spend time at home with his parents while awaiting trial, but Jackson County law enforcement officials planned to fight to keep Collman behind bars. The judge was to decide by close of business Friday if the bond would be lowered.
Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/curtis-collman-meth_us_5b64de1de4b0b15abaa351b7?utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_source=main_fb&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063
Smith College Employee Called Police On Black Student Eating Lunch
The only way ignorant bigoted racist white people will stop calling the police on people of color is if they themselves are arrested and charged with false reporting. These bigoted racist white folks are calling 9ll on black people for just living like normal human beings. JUST CAUSE THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT! There is no consequences for their actions. For every action there is a reaction for every reaction there is action. Someone needs to take action before a black or brown person gets killed. For just living and minding their own business. Something to think about when these non emergency calls come through at that very moment someone else could really need some medical attention but because the police fire and medical but mostly police are being called for foolishness a life could be lost and precious time was wasted.
A Smith College employee called the police on a black student who was eating lunch in a common area because she “seemed to be out of place,” the school said.
The student, Oumou Kanoute, is working at Smith College as a teaching assistant and residential adviser over the summer. She said she was taking a break from work on Tuesday when a police officer approached her and asked why she was there.
“I did nothing wrong, I wasn’t making any noise or bothering anyone,” Kanoute wrote Tuesday in a Facebook post. “All I did was be black.”
Smith College announced on Friday that the employee has been placed on leave. It also released a transcript of the employee’s call to the police.
“I was just walking through here in the front foyer of [REDACTED] and we have a person sitting there laying down in the living room area over here,” the caller said. “I didn’t approach her or anything but um he seems to be out of place … umm … I don’t see anybody in the building at this point and uh I don’t know what he’s doing in there just laying on the couch.”
Kanoute said the incident made her “nervous” and caused her emotional distress.
“No student of color should have to explain why they belong at prestigious white institutions,” she wrote. “I worked my hardest to get into Smith, and I deserve to feel safe on my campus.”
Smith College said in a statement that the officer who responded to the call found nothing suspicious.
A third party is investigating the incident, Smith College President Kathleen McCartney said in a statement on Thursday.
Every staff member will participate in mandatory anti-bias training starting this fall, McCartney said. The school also plans to hold anti-bias workshops for faculty and staff.
“Smith College does not tolerate race- or gender-based discrimination in any form. Such behavior can contribute to a climate of fear, hostility and exclusion that has no place in our community,” Title IX coordinator Amy Hunter said Wednesday in a statement.
Kanoute wrote a second Facebook post on Wednesday asking for support for her request to the school administration to release the name of the employee who reported her to the police.
“I demanded that the administration share the name of the person who made the 9-1-1 call so that they can confront and acknowledge the harm done to me as [a] student,” Kanoute said.
The post has received more than 900 shares as of Friday. Smith College said it has received multiple requests to release the name of the complainant, but school policy prohibits the release of names in campus police records.
Kanoute added in a post written Thursday that she would like to receive a formal apology from the employee.
Similar incidents of police being called on black people while doing everyday activities have increasingly dominated the news as individuals film the racist incidents.
A white woman whom the internet dubbed “Barbecue Becky” called the cops on a black family barbecuing in Oakland, California, in April. In May, a black student at Yale University was napping in a common area when a white student called the police on her.
Last month, a woman who stopped to give some supplies to a homeless man outside of a California grocery store had the police called on her for suspected shoplifting.
The story has been updated with new statements from McCartney and the transcript of the police call.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/smith-college-employee-called-police-155251262.html
Ohio judge orders man’s mouth taped shut during sentencing
An Ohio judge fed up with interruptions ordered a convicted robber’s mouth to be taped shut in court on Tuesday.
Franklyn Williams, 32, who was convicted of three armed robberies, had multiple outbursts during his sentencing despite receiving more than a dozen warnings from Judge John Russo, WJW reports.
Video captured by the station inside the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court shows Williams loudly complaining about his attorneys before Judge Russo interjects, saying, “Mr. Williams, I’m the judge in the matter, shut your mouth and I will tell you when you can talk.”
“If we have to, I will gag you in one second,” Judge Russo adds. “Zip it until I give you a chance to talk.”
When Williams continued to defy the judge’s orders, Russo ordered his mouth to be taped shut. However, one piece of red tape proved ineffective and, after Williams continued to try and speak, the judge instructed deputies to place another piece of tape over his mouth.
Williams was convicted in December on counts of aggravated robbery, kidnapping, theft, misuse of credit cards and having weapons under a disability. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 24 years in prison after his second trial in the case, according to WJW.
During the first, Williams pleaded guilty and was sentenced to up to 14 years in prison. He was granted an appeal after a court found he was misinformed about when he would be eligible for release.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ohio-judge-orders-man-apos-143529847.html