American Masters rod Serling submitted for your approval documentary
Before we get hyped on the re-creation of the twilight zone hosted by Jordan Peele we must go back to where the Twilght Zone all began with a man by the name of Rod Sterling
Mom walked around son’s university trying to get him a date
Well, at least you get to have already met his mother.
Police at a university in Maryland responded to reports of a woman in her 50s who approached students with a picture of her son and asked if they might be interested in a date.
It is unclear how many students at Towson University — located in Townson, Md. — were approached by the mom, but it was enough for the school’s police department to put out an alert to identify the woman, the Baltimore Sun reported. She is not facing any criminal charges, but she is going to be asked to stop.
The school said it is attempting to alert students about the woman, since her presence affects their “safety and security.”
The Towson University Police sent an email to the student body saying: “The Towson University Police Department is investigating three related incidents occurring in the Cook Library and Center for the Arts buildings on February 6 and 7, 2019. Students have reported being approached by an older female who attempted to show them a picture on her cell phone and ask if [they] were interested in dating her son. The subject of interest is described as a female, appearing to be in her 50s, with glasses, wearing blue jeans and a striped long sleeve shirt with red trim along the bottom, a multi colored scarf, brown shoes and carrying a dark colored coat.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/11/mom-walked-around-sons-university-trying-to-get-him-a-date/
Ohio woman lives with IUD floating in abdomen for 11 years
In late 2007, Melinda Nichols of Chillicothe, Ohio, decided she had delivered her last child. She’d already tried the pill and a form of the Depo-Provera shot without success. So, a few weeks after her youngest son’s birth, she opted for the Mirena intrauterine device (IUD), a semi-permanent form of hormonal birth control.
Nichols returned to the doctor who performed the insertion for a follow-up just a couple weeks later. She was told a routine X-ray would be taken to make sure her IUD was in the same place her doctor had left it.
The X-ray showed no IUD.
“It fell out,” the doctor told her. She asked, “Wouldn’t that be something I would have seen?” They assured her it can happen without notice, and suggested she get a another one. Frustrated, she made the final call to have a tubal ligation instead.
Cut to a decade later — last November. Nichols, now 40, had apparently strained a muscle in her back while on the job. She had another abdominal X-ray at that time.
“You need to call your OB,” the doctor told her. “Your IUD is in a weird spot.” Her X-ray showed that the implant had apparently punctured through the cervix and migrated up the abdominal cavity. Nichols was understandably baffled.
“I had no clue,” Nichols tells The Post. “It was in me for almost 11 years.”
Dr. Stephen Chasen, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Weill Cornell Medicine & NewYork-Presbyterian, says IUD “migration” happens due to “perforation” of the uterine wall. This may occur during the insertion process thanks to an inexperienced practitioner. Or, the IUD may “erode” through the uterus and end up floating somewhere in the abdomen. This happens to about one out of every 1,000 IUD patients.
“For the cases of IUDs gradually eroding out of the uterus, it is not clear why it happens or whether or not it can be prevented,” Chasen tells The Post.
Chasen says the risks of a displaced IUD are not great. Unintended pregnancy would be the most common unwanted outcome. Some women — like Nichols — might experience a mysterious abdominal pain.
“I would get this weird pain in my side,” she says, but didn’t think much of it. “You don’t go to the doctor just because you have a weird pain every once in a while.”
Late last month, she went in to have her IUD removed via laparoscopy. Using snaking cameras and robotic arms, surgeons explored her lower organs in search of the rogue implant.
Had Nichols not seen a doctor for an unrelated issue, she says there’s no telling how long she may have kept going with the IUD missing inside her body. She never went back to figure out why the doctor who performed the insertion didn’t see the device in the first follow-up X-ray.
She hopes women will read her story and be sure to press their doctors to be more thorough.
The IUD isn’t the only contraceptive implant that can go missing in the body. Last November, a report found that Nexplanon implants — usually inserted just under the skin of the upper arm — were turning up in the lungs, chest and vital arteries of some patients.
“Make sure that if you have something like this that you check it,” says Nichols. “If they say it fell out, you make sure they know it fell out!”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/11/ohio-woman-lives-with-iud-floating-in-abdomen-for-11-years/
Katy Perry’s shoes pulled after ‘blackface’ backlash
Dear fashion people: Please stop trying to make “blackface” happen.
First it was Prada. Then Gucci. Now, pop star Katy Perry (who, yes, is apparently a fashion designer) is in hot water for selling shoes that evoke — intentionally or not — the racist imagery.
The styles in question — a pair of mules and some high-heeled sandals — feature eyes and big red lips, resembling minstrel makeup.
TMZ reports that retailers Dillards and Walmart will pull the offending styles, though not the whole line, from their stores after facing social media backlash.
The incident comes just days after luxe label Gucci pulled a turtleneck featuring a mouth cover with wide red lips from its website. In December, Prada incited anger with a range of accessories featuring black characters with oversize lips.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/11/katy-perrys-shoes-pulled-after-blackface-backlash/
Man arrested for projecting porn onto his garage door
It’s drive-in porn.
Antonio Smallwood, 41, of Virginia was busted last week for allegedly projecting a porn flick on the front of his garage door for his neighbors to see, The Smoking Gun reported.
Police were called to the Newport News home after a neighbor reported to authorities that “pornographic material [was] being displayed,” according to the news outlet.
When an officer arrived, he “observed a movie involving sexual activity being projected on the garage door of the residence,” The Smoking Gun reported, citing a police report.
The cop attempted to serve Smallwood with a summons for screening the X-rated movie, but when the porn buff refused to sign the summons, he was arrested.
Smallwood was charged with obscene sexual display and obstruction of justice, according to the report. He was booked into the local jail.
The man is being held without bond. A court appearance is scheduled for March 8.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/11/man-arrested-for-projecting-porn-onto-his-garage-door/
Officer used Taser on man’s genitals, says lawsuit accusing police of torture
Johnny Wheatcroft is entangled in his seat belt the first couple of times Glendale, Arizona, police use a Taser on him.
By the end of the video, Wheatcroft’s pants are down, his kids are screaming and an officer appears to have the Taser on or near Wheatcroft’s genitals as he threatens to use it on him again.
Wheatcroft last year sued the officers and the city over the July 2017 incident, and video obtained by CNN last week shows the altercation.
The Glendale Police Department said in a Friday statement that Wheatcroft’s wife, Anya Chapman, who was in the back seat, swung a bag of bottled drinks at Officer Mark Lindsey, knocking him out. The couple’s children, ages 6 and 11, and the driver, family friend Shawn Blackburn, were also in the car.
Video from a parking lot surveillance camera that shows Lindsey being injured captures three officers surrounding a silver Ford Taurus. A white bottle flies out of the back seat, hitting Lindsey, who grabs his forehead and falls backward out of view, below the open passenger door.
Wheatcroft, police said, reached his hands into a backpack, raising officers’ suspicions. He then repeatedly resisted officers’ attempts to remove him from the car, they said.
“For the safety of themselves and those around them, including the minor children, the officers attempted to remove Mr. Wheatcroft from the vehicle so they could maintain a safe eye on him for the duration of the traffic stop as well as conduct a pat down for weapons,” the Glendale police statement said.
CNN’s attempts to reach the officers were unsuccessful.
‘I’m not doing nothing, bro’
According to Wheatcroft’s federal lawsuit, which alleges multiple rights violations, Wheatcroft and Chapman arrived at a motel the evening of July 26, 2017, and intended “to reserve a room so they could enjoy some family time together.”
When officers Matt Schneider and Mark Lindsey pulled up, the lawsuit says, there was no probable cause to suspect they were doing anything illegal. Schneider asked the occupants for identification, and when Wheatcroft asked why that was necessary, Schneider threatened to take him into custody, the lawsuit alleges.
“Defendant Schneider never asked Plaintiff Johnny Wheatcroft to exit the vehicle,” it says. “Rather, Defendant Schneider reached inside the vehicle and opened the passenger door of the vehicle and placed a Taser between Plaintiff Johnny Wheatcroft’s neck and right shoulder and asked if he was going to fight.”
Police bodycam video shows an officer — Schneider, according to the lawsuit — attempting to twist Wheatcroft’s arm behind his back. The man’s elbow is well above his shoulder as he tells officers, “I’m not doing nothing, man. I’m not doing nothing, bro.”
Officers try to pull him from the car, but Wheatcroft still has his seat belt on. An officer fires a stun gun into Wheatcroft’s lower back and then again in the middle of his back before handcuffing him, the video shows. After Wheatcroft is handcuffed, an officer places the Taser between his shoulder blades and fires it again, it shows.
Wheatcroft falls out of the car. His kids and wife are screaming, as is Wheatcroft, who is still wrapped in the seat belt.
“Ow! Ow!” he cries, sitting on the ground, wedged between the car and the passenger door.
The bodycam shows the officer back up, take aim and fire the Taser once more. Wheatcroft screams again. The officer’s outstretched arm blocks the bodycam’s view, but the sound of another Taser — that of officer Michael Fernandez, according to the lawsuit — can be heard again.
“Turn over, motherf***er,” an officer orders.
As officers fight for Wheatcroft’s hands, Chapman leans between the front seats and says, “He’s not going to do nothing.”
‘You hit him in the head’
Schneider appears to address his injured counterpart and another officer, saying, “Mark, stay down. Watch Mark. He’s hurt.”
The woman asks, “What’d I do?”
“You hit him in the head,” an officer replies.
Wheatcroft, who is still standing at this point, interjects, “No, no she didn’t. She didn’t mean to.”
It appears officers are trying to take him to the ground as he pleads, “I’m stuck in the seat belt. I’m stuck. I’m stuck in the seat belt, bro. Ow! Ow! Ow!”
A boy in the back of the car climbs between the front seats to free his father from the seat belt. Schneider turns the Taser toward the boy and quickly lowers it, the video shows.
“Hey, get in front of the right now. Get in front of the car,” he says.
The child begins crying and Schneider softens his tone: “You’re all right. Come on. You’re all right, buddy.”
Burying his face into the seat, the boy continues crying as his father screams and his mother pleads with police.
“Mark’s hurt. He got hit in the head by her. We need to get her in handcuffs right now,” an officer can be heard saying on the body camera.
As another officer takes Chapman into custody, the boy tells police, “She didn’t mean to. Please don’t take my mommy.”
After Fernandez “slammed” Wheatcroft face first on the hot asphalt, the lawsuit says, Schneider Tased him and kicked him in the groin.
Lawsuit: Officer put gun to man’s head
An officer can be heard off camera accusing the handcuffed Wheatcroft of kicking and resisting. Schneider’s bodycam turns toward Wheatcroft, who is on his face. One of his legs is flailing.
Amid the scuffle, Schneider’s bodycam captures the officer pulling down Wheatcroft’s shorts, placing the Taser between his exposed upper thighs and firing.
Two officers appear to be trying to restrain Wheatcroft’s upper body, and the man can be heard crying, “Ow! Ow! Ow! My elbow! My elbow!”
According to the lawsuit, “Wheatcroft was prone and handcuffed on the ground when Defendant Schneider pulled down Plaintiff’s shorts and Tased his testicles and perineum, which was significantly and excruciatingly painful,” it says.
The video shows Schneider placing the Taser on Wheatcroft’s exposed skin below his shirt and saying, “Keep fighting, you’re going to get it again. You want it again? Shut your mouth. I’m done f***ing around with you.”
According to the lawsuit, “At this same time, one of the officers placed a handgun to Plaintiff Johnny Wheatcroft’s head” — which is not clear form the video.
As they pulled the Taser prongs from Wheatcroft’s body, he screamed more, the lawsuit says. Schneider told him, “Stop being a big baby,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Defendants wrongfully arrested and charged Plaintiff Johnny Wheatcroft with resisting arrest and aggravated assault and, as a result, he spent months in jail before the charges were dismissed,” the lawsuit says. “All charges against Plaintiff Johnny Wheatcroft were dismissed given the lack of any basis to support the claims.”
Treatment was ‘depraved, vicious and evil’
The lawsuit says Wheatcroft committed no crime before he was approached, posed no threat and did not resist arrest, while officers are accused of failing to establish probable cause before using excessive force.
“The assault and battery of Plaintiff Johnny Wheatcroft was unlawful, unprovoked, unwarranted, unjustified, callous, depraved, vicious, and evil. There was no reason for Defendants Schneider, Lindsey, and Fernandez to torture this vulnerable man,” the lawsuit says.
Wheatcroft, who is now serving time in a state prison on an unrelated burglary conviction, suffered “devastating injuries and emotional trauma,” while his wife and kids suffered “severe psychological damage,” says the lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damage, plus attorneys’ fees.
In its Friday statement, Glendale police said Schneider approached the Ford Taurus after observing a traffic violation, and the parking lot was the subject of a “blanket trespass agreement with the city and the parking lot owner.”
When police approached, it says, Wheatcroft reached “down below the seat into a backpack,” refused to comply with officers’ demand and declined to identify himself. When police tried to take him into custody, Wheatcroft repeatedly resisted, and after officers warned him they would deploy their stun guns, he “continued to argue, yell and physically resist the officers’ control holds,” according to the police statement.
Feeling threatened after seeing his colleague knocked out, Schneider used a Taser on Wheatcroft and called for backup, it says.
“As multiple officers arrived on scene, they tended to the injured officer and helped detain Mr. Wheatcroft as he was continuing to resist officers by kicking and screaming,” police said.
The officers found a “usable quantity of methamphetamine” in the car, and Chapman later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, according to the police statement.
“Per department protocol,” the statement says, “a review of the officers’ actions has been performed and discipline implemented regarding certain tactics used by one officer.” It does not elaborate.
Though the lawsuit claims officers did not provide medical care to Wheatcroft or photograph his injuries, the police statement says Wheatcroft refused medical attention. Lindsey was treated at a hospital and returned to duty several days later, police said.
NJ mom killed toddler because he wouldn’t eat, listen
BRIDGETON, N.J. — A New Jersey woman accused of killing her toddler son told police she struck the boy because he wouldn’t eat or listen, according to a criminal complaint.
Nakira Griner is charged with murder and other counts in the death of 23-month-old Daniel Griner Jr. It was not known Monday if she has retained an attorney.
Cumberland County prosecutors have said the Bridgeton woman initially reported that her son had been abducted Friday night. A response team began a search aided by city and state police, prosecutors, and bloodhounds from New Jersey State Park Police.
The child’s burned and dismembered remains were found around 3 a.m. Saturday, buried under a shed in the yard of Griner’s home.
Griner told police she hit the boy because he wouldn’t “eat nor listen to her,” according to the criminal complaint.
The complaint said Griner admitted striking the child so hard that she left bruises on his face and also said he fell down a flight of stairs. After striking the child, she didn’t call for help, but placed him in a stroller and left him alone.
Griner told police responding to the abduction report that a stranger had attacked her while she was walking with her toddler in a stroller and her infant son strapped to her chest, according to the complaint. She said her assailant kicked her and she fell to the ground as the attacker continued to kick her in the head and right side.
When she looked up, the stroller and Daniel was gone, she told police. Officers soon found the stroller, containing only a pair of red sneakers, a few blocks away. Griner’s story began to change during subsequent interviews with police, authorities said.
Griner is scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a detention hearing.
via: http:// https://pix11.com/2019/02/11/police-nj-mom-killed-toddler-because-he-wouldnt-eat-listen/
A third of Americans say blackface is ok for Halloween costumes
About a third of Americans say blackface is sometimes OK for a Halloween costume, according to a Pew Research Center poll that reveals divides on the issue among political lines.
Wearing blackface is always acceptable for Halloween, 15% of respondents say, while another 19% said it’s sometimes acceptable.
The survey was conducted mostly before recent controversies over blackface roiled politics in Virginia, where the governor and attorney general both admitted to darkening their skin as part of costumes. And there’s a long line of politicians and celebrities who’ve gotten flack for wearing blackface.
The issue has sparked debate since it was discovered that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook featured a picture of a man in blackface next to a person in a KKK outfit. Northam also admitted to wearing blackface to a party. Separately, the state’s attorney general, Mark Herring, also a Democrat, admitted to wearing blackface to a party in college.
Now, according to Pew, barely more than a slight majority — 53% — of all American adults think its unacceptable for a white person to use blackface in a costume.
Blackface dates back to minstrel shows
The origins of blackface date back to the minstrel shows of mid-19th century. White performers darkened their skin with polish and cork, put on tattered clothing and exaggerated their features to look stereotypically “black.”
The first minstrel shows mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations, depicting black people as lazy, ignorant, cowardly or hypersexual, according to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
The performances were intended to be funny to white audiences. But to black people, they were demeaning and hurtful.
Differences along political, racial lines
In the Pew survey, Republicans (and Republican-leaning independents) were much more likely to see blackface as acceptable than Democrats. A quarter of Republicans said it’s always acceptable and half of Republicans said it was always or sometimes OK. Only 21% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said it’s always or sometimes OK.
The poll results also revealed a racial divide. Among white people, 39% thought blackface was always or sometimes acceptable as part of a Halloween costume, compared to only 18% of black people and 28% of Latinos. More than half of black Americans (53%) said blackface as a part of a Halloween costume is never acceptable.
White Americans between the ages of 18-29 were significantly more likely than those over 30 to believe that blackface isn’t acceptable. Twenty-six percent of these younger white Americans said it was always or sometimes OK, compared to 39% percent of whites between 30-49 and 45% of 50-to-64-year-olds.
Significantly more Americans find it acceptable to dress as a person wearing traditional clothes from a country or culture other than their own as a part of their Halloween costume, an act sometimes referred to as “cultural appropriation.” Almost 3 in 5 Americans said that it’s always (26%) or sometimes (32%) acceptable.
Virginia in turmoil
Northam has resisted calls to step down since photos of a man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan outfit emerged from his 1984 medical school yearbook. The governor denied being either man in the picture, but later admitted to darkening his face to resemble Michael Jackson during a dance contest in 1984.
In an interview with CBS’s Gayle King, Northam said “the reality has really set in” as to why the use of blackface is offensive.
Herring admitted that he appeared in blackface at a party in 1980, where he dressed up like a rapper.
“That conduct clearly shows that, as a young man, I had a callous and inexcusable lack of awareness and insensitivity to the pain my behavior could inflict on others,” Herring said in a statement. “It was really a minimization of both people of color and a minimization of a horrific history I knew well even then.”
The Pew survey, conducted January 22 to February 5, includes an oversample of black and Hispanic respondents to provide more reliable estimates of those segments of the population. The overall data are weighted to provide a balanced representation of the US population as a whole.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/02/11/a-third-of-americans-say-blackface-is-ok-for-halloween-costumes/