GoFundMe page for Jacob Blake surpasses $900,000 in one day
A GoFundMe page for Wisconsin police shooting victim Jacob Blake has raked more than $900,000 in just one day.
The fundraising page, posted on Monday morning — one day after the 29-year-old black man was shot and critically wounded by a white cop in the city of Kenosha — initially had a goal of $250,000 but the target was upped to $1 million on Tuesday as money poured in.
“We are looking to raise funds to supplement the moral support and prayers we have been receiving,” organizer Julia Jackson wrote on the page. “These funds will go toward Jacob’s medical bills, family expenses, legal representation, support for his children, and therapy costs.”
“This is the only official go fund me created by the family of Jacob Blake.”
It is not known what Jackson’s relationship is to Blake and his family.
By midday Tuesday, the page had raised more than $890,000 from more than 31,000 donors.
Blake was shot multiple times by a white cop shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday. His family said he is paralyzed from the waist down, and it is unknown if the injuries are permanent.
The shooting has sparked two nights of violent protests in the city of about 100,000 people, with demonstrators torching buildings and vehicles, and hurling bricks and other objects at police.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers called in 125 National Guard troops after the widespread unrest began on Sunday night.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/25/gofundme-page-for-jacob-blake-surpasses-900000-in-one-day/
Photo Credit: GoFundMe
Cop’s wife dies while trapped in rear of sweltering police SUV
The wife of a Florida cop died after getting trapped inside his police SUV as the temperature outside soared into the 90s, according to a report Monday.
Clara Paulino’s fingerprints were found all over the interior of the Ford Explorer following the horrifying incident outside their Miami Shores home Friday, the Miami Herald reported.
“Clearly, she was panicked and trying to get out,” a law enforcement source told the paper.
Paulino, 56, apparently climbed into the back seat while looking for something, then got trapped there by the door’s latching mechanism, which prevents it from being opened from the inside.
Paulino wasn’t carrying a cellphone and a safety partition prevented her from reaching over the front seat to honk the horn for help, according to the Herald.
“It’s literally a cage,” one Miami cop said of the patrol vehicle’s rear seat.
Paulino’s husband, Aristides Paulino, who’s been a Miami cop for 25 years, was asleep in their home following a midnight shift when the tragedy unfolded Friday afternoon, according to the Herald.
Aristides, 58, and the couple’s son found Clara’s body around 5:30 p.m. — as many as 4½ hours after she got trapped, the paper said.
It’s unclear why she went into the SUV, which her husband left unlocked in their driveway when he returned home and went straight to bed late Friday morning, sources told the Herald.
Investigators were treating Clara’s death as an accident but it remained under investigation by the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Homicide Bureau.
“It’s very preliminary,” a police spokesman, Lt. Carlos Rosario, told the Herald.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done. But right now, it’s an unclassified death.”
Aristides and Clara Paulino married 38 years ago, the paper said.
Their son, also named Aristides, told the Herald that the family didn’t want to discuss her death.
“We haven’t even buried her yet and it’s a lot [of] pain,” he said.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/24/cops-wife-dies-while-trapped-in-rear-of-sweltering-police-suv/
Photo Credit: NBC 6 South Florida
LeBron James knows how ridiculous his balding head looks
This is what LeBron James would have missed had he instituted his typical social media blackout during the NBA playoffs.
Monday morning, hours before the Lakers were set to square off with the Trail Blazers in Game 4 of their first-round series, James paid tribute to the back of his balding head and its resemblance to a partial Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
The 35-year-old star took to Instagram and posted a side-by-side picture of a peanut butter cup that got partly stuck to the wrapper and the back of his head that was light on hair.
“One of the funniest ones I’ve seen,” James wrote. “Hated when my Reese cup would do that but guess what I still kept it and ate it so [shrug emoji].”
James usually goes dark on social media during the playoffs, but made an exception given the unique environment of this year’s playoffs, in the NBA’s bubble.
“I won’t be turning my phone off during this run; I can’t afford to,” James previously told reporters.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/24/lebron-james-knows-how-ridiculous-his-balding-head-looks/
Photo Credit: @kingjames / Instagram
Brazilian Supermarket Under Fire For Covering Worker Who Died Mid-Shift With Umbrellas Instead Of Closing
A grocery store in Brazil has come under fire for how it handled the death of one of its workers. The supermarket reportedly covered the dead body in the middle of the store and continued operations as normal.
The Carrefour in Recife, Brazil went viral last week after the story came to light. On August 14, sales manager Manoel Moises Cavalcante died in the store.
A supermarket worker who died mid-shift was covered up with umbrellas as the store remained open.
Unsuspecting shoppers carried on picking up their groceries unaware a man was laying dead on the floor close by.
Manoel Moisés Cavalcante died at a the Carrefour store in the city of Recife, Brazil at around 8am on Friday, August 14.
His body was left on the shop floor covered with umbrellas and surrounded by cardboard boxes while the store remained open for business.
Photos of the scene caused outrage as images went viral on social media.
Carrefour Brasil apologised on Wednesday adding that the incident was handled inappropriately.
A statement read: “The company erred in not closing the store immediately after what happened to await the funeral service, as well as in not finding the correct way to look after the body.”
According to Carrefour, the man was a sales manager who fell ill inside the store.
First aid was given and an ambulance was called, but Mr Cavalcante died.
Carrefour said it “followed guidelines to not remove the body from its place”.
The subsidiary of France’s Carrefour SA, is one of the largest retail chains in Brazil.
Bosses say they have now changed its guidelines to include the mandatory closure of the store in future.
The statement added: “We apologise to the family and stand ready to support them in whatever way necessary.”
This is not the first controversy surrounding the way Carrefour handles incidents in its stores in Brazil.
In 2018, a security guard at a store in the state of Sao Paulo killed a street dog after striking it with a metal bar, a case that caused revulsion on social media and with animal welfare groups.
via: https://percolately.com/supermarket-worker-died-covered-umbrellas/
Photo Credit: percolately.com
KFC suspends its iconic ‘finger lickin’ good’ slogan due to coronavirus concerns
KFC has decided to pause using its “finger lickin’ good” slogan because … well, that’s probably not the best idea right now.
Several months after health officials recommended everyone stop touching their faces to help stop the spread of coronavirus, KFC said Monday that the 64-year-old slogan “doesn’t feel quite right.”
“We find ourselves in a unique situation — having an iconic slogan that doesn’t quite fit in the current environment,” said Catherine Tan-Gillespie, global chief marketing officer at KFC in a statement. The menu isn’t changing and the company said the slogan will return when the “time is right.”
To be clear, Monday’s announcement is a marketing campaign. A clever one, perhaps, with good intentions baked into it … but a marketing campaign nonetheless. KFC blurred out the slogan featured on old billboards and signs in a cheeky ad released on its YouTube page.
KFC, like most fast food places, uses bizarre, self-effacing and at times hokey marketing ploys to bring customers into their stores. Fast food is a low-growth, zero-loyalty business with razor-thin margins, so any bump in customers is a major win for quick-serve restaurant chains.
In the past, KFC has poked fun at itself by hawking chicken-scented clogs, chicken-scented yule logs, and, best of all, “finger lickin’ good” chicken-flavored edible nail polish (that one’s probably not coming back anytime soon. (Health experts, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have been urging people to wear masks, wash their hands thoroughly and avoid touching their faces as way to prevent Covid-19 from spreading.)
Also similar to other fast food restaurants, KFC temporarily closed down its dining rooms in March and encouraged customers to order via its drive-thrus or delivery. It also installed Plexiglas counter-top shields between employees and customers, required workers to wear masks and implemented health screenings before shifts.
After a couple months of absolutely horrendous foot traffic at restaurant, sales at KFC have bounced back sharply in recent months as people crave indulgences during a particularly stressful time in history. KFC is owned by Yum! Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Scott Peterson spared from death penalty in infamous slaying of pregnant wife
California’s highest court overturned Scott Peterson’s death sentence Monday — although it still left the door open for the man who killed his pregnant wife to be executed.
The state Supreme Court balked at the notion that Peterson — who in 2002 murdered wife Laci, 27, to be with his mistress — was wrongfully convicted because of jury bias.
“Peterson contends his trial was flawed for multiple reasons, beginning with the unusual amount of pretrial publicity that surrounded the case,” the court said. “We reject Peterson’s claim that he received an unfair trial as to guilt and thus affirm his convictions for murder.”
But the court did agree that Peterson’s trial judge “made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection that, under long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent, undermined Peterson’s right to an impartial jury at the penalty phase.
“While a court may dismiss a prospective juror as unqualified to sit on a capital case if the juror’s views on capital punishment would substantially impair his or her ability to follow the law, a juror may not be dismissed merely because he or she has expressed opposition to the death penalty as a general matter,” the court’s judges wrote in their unanimous opinion.
Still, the decision allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty again against Peterson.
He was convicted of first-degree murder for Laci’s death and second-degree murder for their unborn son, Connor. Laci was eight months pregnant when she was killed by her husband.
Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager, whose office would retry the penalty phase of the case, did not immediately comment.
Photo Credit: AP
Jacob Blake ‘fighting for his life’ after Wisconsin police shooting
Wisconsin man Jacob Blake — whose shooting by cops in front of his kids sparked riots in his hometown of Kenosha — was still “fighting for his life” Monday after surgery, his family told local media.
“Jacob Blake’s brother tells me Jacob is still fighting for his life. He says he just got out of surgery and is in the ICU,” TMJ4 reporter Lauren Linder said on Twitter.
One of his cousins, only giving the name Pauly, also confirmed his relative was in intensive care after being shot several times in the back by an officer trying to stop him from getting into his car Sunday afternoon.
“We need prayers not condolences,” Pauly tweeted.
The family deplored the violent protests that rattled Kenosha overnight Monday, with ugly scenes of looting, fires and attacks on cops.
“We will not excuse the actions of the Kenosha Police department, but his mother asks everyone to please remain peaceful,” Pauly said, a message the shot dad’s brother also shared in his message to TMJ4.
Blake’s shooting sparked violent protests after video showed a cop shooting several times in the back as he started getting into his gray SUV — after he’d reportedly just helped break up a fight.
His family retained civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who insisted it was “a miracle he’s still alive” as his “three sons witnessed their father collapse after being riddled with bullets.”
“We will seek justice for Jacob Blake and for his family as we demand answers from the Kenosha Police Department,” Crump vowed in a statement Monday.
“How many more of these tragic ‘while Black’ tragedies will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of Black lives by the police finally stops?” he asked.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/24/jacob-blake-fighting-for-his-life-after-police-shooting-family/
Photo Credit: twitter
Beyoncé drops video for ‘Brown Skin Girl,’ starring Blue Ivy and Kelly Rowland
Beyoncé has released a new video for her song “Brown Skin Girl,” featuring appearances from her daughter Blue Ivy and former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, along with Naomi Campbell, actor Lupita Nyong’o, singers Saint Jhn and WizKid and others. It premiered Monday morning on “Good Morning America.”
While Beyoncé released a video for the song last year, at the time of its initial release on her companion album to “The Lion King” film, the new video is from her “Black Is King” visual album based on the music from the film.
Like many of Beyoncé’s recent videos, the Jenn Nkiru-directed clip is almost more like a series of paintings than a conventional video, with Beyonce and many others appearing in a series of beautiful settings and outfits. It may have been filmed several months ago, as little social distancing is in evidence.
In a brief statement to “GMA” about the video, Beyoncé said, “It was so important to me in ‘Brown Skin Girl’ that we represented all different shades of brown. We wanted every character to be shot in a regal light … It was important that we are all in this together and we’re all celebrating each other.”
n Variety’s review of “Black Is King,” Jeremy Helligar wrote: “Despite its racially charged title, ‘King’ is not just for Black people. It’s also for a society of non-Blacks who have been conditioned to think of people of African descent as being less-than, without their own history and with limited futures. Written and directed by Beyoncé with various collaborators, ‘Black Is King’ reminds us that Black lives didn’t begin in chains. Those came relatively late, but they couldn’t erase a rich and complex past in the motherland. ‘History is your future,’ Beyoncé announces toward the beginning. ‘One day you will meet yourself back where you started, but stronger.’”
Photo Credit: youtube
Wedding guest reportedly shoots groom in the chest, bride refuses to talk
A Texas groom was shot in the chest at his own wedding party — and even his new bride is refusing to help investigators, according to officials.
Officers believe the groom, who has not been identified, was blasted after a fight with one of his guests at the celebration in suburban Houston Thursday night, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Both the shooter and the injured groom fled the scene — but the newly married man was found bleeding at a house across the street.
He was airlifted to a local hospital in critical condition, as seen in footage shared by a Harris County sheriff’s captain. He was later upgraded to stable condition and is expected to survive, officials said.
“Witnesses on scene thus far have been uncooperative,” Capt. John Shannon told ABC 13 — confirming that that included the bride.
“People at the house have been detained until we can get their witness statements,” Shannon said.
The bride had been seen running into the street screaming, “Where is he? I need to find him!” after the shooting, a neighbor told Click2Houston.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/23/wedding-guest-shoots-groom-in-the-chest-bride-refuses-to-talk-report/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Detroit cop fatally shoots fenced-in dog in its own yard, disturbing video shows
A Detroit cop fatally shot a dog on its own yard as it clashed with a K9 through the fence, video shows.
Footage of the incident taken on a Ring doorbell camera showed a white dog run to the home’s gate as the officer passed with the K9 on a leash on Aug. 3, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The two dogs then run together on opposite sides of the fence before the K9 approached and the white dog attacks the K9’s snout.
The officer was then seen reaching for a gun and firing at the white dog’s head, the outlet reported.
The Detroit Police Department has defended the cop, saying she was only trying to protect the K9 officer.
Police said the officers had been searching the neighborhood for a suspect’s illegal weapon they believe was tossed into a yard, the outlet reported.
When they approached the white dog’s yard, the cops asked the homeowner to secure the pooch so they could search, police said.
While waiting for the owner to do so, the police moved on to the next yard but the white dog attacked, authorities said.
“Her partner was being attacked and we demand that our officers protect not only themselves but their partners and citizens. At this point it was a clear and present danger; her dog was being viciously harmed,” Detroit Police Commander Darin Szilagyi told the newspaper.
“It’s unfortunate it came to this, we don’t like to see any animal hurt.”
The video has since gone viral on social media with Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro calling for the cop to be fired and prosecuted.
“This officer should be held accountable,” Castro wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/08/23/detroit-cop-fatally-shoots-fenced-in-dog-in-its-own-yard-video-shows/
Photo Credit: twitter