Black rag dolls meant to be abused get pulled from shelves – comes with instructions to “slam against the wall”
They’re called “Feel Better Dolls.”
In the instructions, buyers are told to take the black rag dolls — which come with red, green, black and yellow hair made of yarn, styled in dreadlocks — and “find a wall to slam” them against.
“Whenever things don’t go well and you want to hit the wall and yell, here’s a little ‘feel better doll,’” the instructions read. “Just grab it firmly by the legs…and as you whack the ‘feel good doll’ do not forget to yell I FEEL GOOD, I FEEL GOOD.”
The toys were being pulled from shelves in New Jersey this week after sparking outrage among residents and state officials.
“This doll is offensive and disturbing on so many levels,” said Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, who represents Bayonne and other areas of Jersey City.
“It is clearly made in an inappropriate representation of a black person and instructs people to ‘slam’ and ‘whack’ her,” the official charged in a statement. “Racism has no place in the world and I will not tolerate it, especially not in this district.”
The dolls were being sold at a One Dollar Zone store in Bayonne and at least two other locations across the Garden State, though it’s unclear where.
Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis blasted them as “insensitive” in a Facebook post this week— saying they “can certainly be considered racist.”
“Aside from the shock of seeing such an insensitive product being sold in our community, I am grateful for the people that saw it and said something immediately,” Davis said. “We will not tolerate any symbol of hate and division within our community! #WeAreBayonne.”
One Dollar Zone President Ricky Shah issued an apology after pulling the dolls Monday. The Paterson-based company was blaming their existence on a simple error of not checking a large shipment of new items — centered around an “I Love NY” theme — that had come into their stores recently.
“This somehow slipped through the cracks,” Shah said in a statement.
The manufacturer of the dolls — the Harvey Hutter Co., based in New York — couldn’t be reached Friday. Shah claimed that it appears to no longer be in business.
The company’s supplier, Global Souvenir Marketing, did not respond to requests for comment.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/26/black-rag-dolls-meant-to-be-abused-get-pulled-from-shelves/
Photo Credit: Angela McKnight via AP
Man steals ambulance, takes it to get KFC, Doritos and cigarettes
(Meredith) – Police near Houston, Texas said a man stole an ambulance that was sitting outside of a psychiatric hospital and then drove it to KFC to order food.
Police tell KTRK the man – who has not been publicly identified – also stopped for some Doritos and cigarettes during his joy ride.
Police said the man stole the ambulance early Thursday morning after it was left running with the keys in it. The man is a former patient of the psychiatric hospital, KTRK reports.
Lt. Lynwood Moreau with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the man told him he took the ambulance because he “needed a ride.”
“I rolled up on him, opened the door, asked him why he had the ambulance – he said he needed a ride,” Moreau told KTRK.
The man is in jail, charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Teens recorded spitting into soda bottles, placing them back in store fridge
Two teens from Indiana were recorded spitting into soda bottles, then returning the drinks to a store refrigerator, according to a report.
Video footage of the cringe-worthy incident was posted online and shared by Indianapolis resident Brittney Edwards with the hopes of catching the soda spitters, according to WTHR.
“I don’t know what’s in kids’ minds these days, but that’s not right at all,” Edwards told the station.
The recording shows two teens, a boy and a girl, taking turns spitting into separate 20-ounce bottles of soda before tightening the cap and placing the drinks back in the fridge with the other unopened bottles.
“At the end of the day, somebody could [get] sick, horribly sick. Hospitalized,” said Edwards. “It don’t matter. That’s worse than e-coli to me.”
Edwards said her daughter goes to school with one of the teens in the video.
It’s unclear when and where the drink tampering occurred — or if local authorities have been notified.
In an earlier tampering incident, a Texas teen was busted after she licked a container of Blue Bell ice cream and put it back in the freezer. Video of the sick prank went viral.
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Indiana woman arrested for wearing stolen dentures at probation meeting
Don’t lie through someone else’s teeth!
An Indiana woman was busted for stealing dentures this week — after she showed up to a probation meeting with the prosthetics “that were clearly not hers,” according to the Jennings County Sheriff’s Office.
The meeting with the alleged thief, Joann Childers, came the same day that the dentures’ rightful owner contacted police to report she had stolen them.
Deputies spoke with Childers’ probation officer, who told authorities that she believed the woman may have been wearing stolen teeth.
Officers visited Childers’ home Wednesday where they confronted her about the alleged theft — and found the chompers had the original owners’ name on them.
“While speaking with Ms. Childers, Deputy Gholson observed the Dentures in plain view in Ms. Childers home,” the sheriff’s office said. “The dentures had the victim’s name written on them.”
The dentures were returned to their owner and charges were filed against Childers for theft, authorities said.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/26/woman-arrested-for-wearing-stolen-dentures-at-probation-meeting/
Photo Credit: Jennings County Sheriff’s Office
Twin babies found dead in the back of a car, father forgot them when he went to work
THE BRONX — Twin babies, a boy and a girl, were found dead in the back of a car in the Bronx after their father forgot them when he went to work, according to sources.
Officials say the twins, each 7 months old, were found in the back of the car at West Kingsbridge Road and Kingsbridge Terrace.
The father of the children went to work at 8 a.m. Friday and forgot the babies in the car, according to sources. He returned to the car at 4 p.m.
“How can you leave the children behind and forget about the kids?” C.J. Rivera, the father of a 9-year-old, wondered. “As a father, you’re supposed to take care of your family, take care of your responsibilities.”
Rivera said the news was shocking, even more so because he says the neighborhood is community-oriented and usually has steady foot traffic thanks to a nearby bus stop.
The father has been taken into custody, sources said.
A source tells PIX11’s Nicole Johnson that the father, 37, went to work at the Veterans Affairs hospital nearby. He returned to the car around 4 p.m., drove a short distance, and noticed the babies.
Shortly after the crime tape went up, devastated neighbors gathered across the street to leave candles as part of a makeshift memorial for the children.
Police continued to question the father Friday afternoon, who officials didn’t immediately identify.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
FBI Agents Found Buckets Of Human Body Parts And A Torso With Another Person’s Head Sewn Onto It In A Horrific Raid At An Arizona Body-Donation Center
FBI agents found buckets of human body parts and a torso with the head from another body sewn onto it in a horrific 2014 raid at a for-profit body-donation center in Phoenix, Arizona, recently published court documents say.
The agents made the gruesome discoveries at the Biological Resource Center in January 2014, but details of the raid were recently revealed via an eyewitness testimony in a civil lawsuit filed against the center, the Arizona Republic and KTVK reported this month.
Mark Cwynar, the FBI special agent who gave the testimony, recalled seeing “various unsettling scenes” during the raid, according to the Arizona Republic. He also described some of his discoveries as a “morbid joke,” KTVK said.
Here’s what he saw, according to the Arizona Republic and KTVK’s reporting from court documents:
- A “bucket of heads, arms, and legs.”
- A “cooler filled with male genitalia.”
- A woman’s head sewn onto a larger male torso, like “Frankenstein,” hanging on a wall.
- “Infected heads.” It’s not entirely clear what this means.
- Bodies that had been cut up with chainsaws and bandsaws. The bodies didn’t have ID tags.
- “Pools of human blood and other bodily fluids” on the freezer floor.
Why the facility stored the body parts and treated them as such is not clear.
KPHO-TV via Arizona’s Family
The FBI raided the center after it was accused of selling the donated body parts for a profit, ABC 15 Arizona reported.
Citing the court documents, the Arizona Republic said the most expensive item the facility sold, a “whole body with no shoulders or head” was $2,900, while a foot was $450. It wasn’t clear who the body parts were sold to.
The Biological Resource Center was closed in 2014 after the raid, but lawsuits from families who donated bodies are ongoing.
Thirty-three plaintiffs are suing the center, with some saying they thought they were donating their loved ones’ remains for scientific research or organ donation and that the bodies were not treated with dignity or respect, the Arizona Republic reported.
Their case is set to go to trial on October 21, the newspaper added.
CBS 15 via Arizona Attorney General/YouTube
The facility accepted bodies from families in exchange for free pickup and, later, the cremated remains of body parts it did not sell, according to the Arizona Republic.
Troy Harp, a plaintiff who donated the bodies of his mother and grandmother to the center in 2012 and 2013, told KTVK that he received what he was told were his mother’s ashes shortly after the 2014 FBI raid but that he wasn’t sure they were really hers.
Stephen Gore, the Biological Resource Center’s owner, pleaded guilty in 2015 to operating an illegal enterprise and was sentenced to one year deferred prison time and four years probation.
According to the Arizona Republic, Gore wrote in a letter to a judge in 2015 that he “could have been more open about the process of donation on the brochure we put in public view.”
“When deciding which donors could be eligible to donate, I should have hired a medical director rather than relying on medical knowledge from books or the internet,” he added.
Court filings say he is representing himself in the latest civil suit, the Arizona Republic reported, adding that it had not been able to contact Gore.
Photo Credit: start.att.net
Woman who used racial slur in confrontation with black diners says she’d do it again
A white North Carolina woman was caught in a now-viral video using the N-word while confronting a group of black women at a restaurant — and then doubled down on her serving of hate, saying she’d use the slur again, according to a report.
A 66-second clip posted to Facebook on Tuesday by Chanda Stewart, who is black, shows a woman identified as Nancy Goodman speaking to an employee at Bonefish Grill in Raleigh, complaining that the three nearby women were being disruptive and too loud.
“So am I shocked because this person had the audacity right here to come to our table and tell us that we are the rudest people that she has ever met,” Stewart says, alluding to the smiling white woman. “Look at her … We’re paying for our food just like everybody else and she told us that we are the rudest people ever.”
Goodman then pulls out her phone and walks around her table to confront the women, video shows, telling them that she has “really good” friends who are black.
“And I love them,” Goodman says.
“We never said anything about color,” Stewart replies.
Goodman then tells the group she thought they were being “too loud,” prompting another woman at Stewart’s table to say that their money was “just as green” as hers.
“Oh, you’re so stupid, n—-r,” Goodman replies before walking away from the women’s table, video shows.
Goodman later told WRAL that she wasn’t sorry for using the slur, saying she would “say it again” to the group of women.
“I’m not going to say I’m sorry to them because they kept pushing at it,” Goodman told the station. “I would say it again to them. They are the rudest individuals I have ever seen.”
Goodman, who insisted she wasn’t racist, apologized to her family, friends and other customers at the restaurant in a since-deleted post on her Facebook page, saying she had “extreme anxiety” but admitted that did not excuse her behavior.
“I am ashamed of my actions,” she wrote in the post.
A spokeswoman for the restaurant’s parent company, meanwhile, told WRAL that the incident was being reviewed so such confrontations can be de-escalated in the future.
“We do not tolerate hate speech or disrespect in our restaurants,” a spokeswoman for Bloomin’ Brands told the station.
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Gun-toting frat bros pose in front of Emmett Till memorial, may face federal charges
Three fraternity brothers at the University of Mississippi have been suspended by chapter officials — and are possibly facing federal charges — for taking a photo in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till while holding a shotgun and AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
“The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of ‘likes,’ and no one said a thing,” says a complaint filed with the UM Office of Student Conduct.
The Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network, reviewed the complaint and obtained a copy of the picture in question, which was taken earlier this year.
Ole Miss student and Kappa Alpha Order member Ben LeClere posted it on his private page in March and is reportedly the one holding a shotgun.
Two of his fraternity brothers, John Lowe and another young man who has yet to be identified, can be seen posing alongside him — the latter of whom is toting the AR-15.
A fourth person, said to be the photographer, may have also been with the trio, the complaint says.
KA officials reportedly suspended LeClere, Lowe and the other man on Wednesday after the photo was brought to their attention by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
“The photo is inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. It does not represent our chapter,” said Taylor Anderson, president of Ole Miss’ Kappa Alpha Order, in an email to the center. “We have and will continue to be in communication with our national organization and the University.”
US Attorney Chad Lamar, of the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford, was also shown the image and chose to refer it to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for further investigation.
“We will be working with them closely,” he said Thursday.
Ole Miss officials condemned the students’ actions, calling the photo “offensive and hurtful.” They claimed to have received a copy of it back in March, which they forwarded and referred to university police — who then gave it to the FBI.
University spokesman Rod Guajardo told the Center for Investigative Reporting that the FBI decided to not investigate the incident because the picture “did not pose a specific threat.”
He pointed out how while the image may be “offensive,” it’s not a violation of the Ole Miss code of conduct — since it was taken off campus and not at a university-affiliated event.
However, the school “stands ready to assist the fraternity with educational opportunities for those members and the chapter,” Guajardo said.
The Emmett Till sign that was captured in the photo has been targeted several times since being erected in 2008.
Vandals reportedly threw the first site marker into the nearby Tallahatchie River — where Till’s body was dumped after his 1955 lynching. The second was shot up repeatedly, with officials estimating that it got blasted more than 315 times before finally being removed and replaced in 2016.
The third and most recent sign, which was captured in the IG photo, had to be taken down last week after being riddled once again with bullet holes. It’s unclear if LeClere, Lowe and the other young man were responsible.
The fraternity brothers are just the latest Ole Miss students to come under fire for incidents involving civil rights icons.
A trio of Sigma Phi Epsilon members got hit with federal charges several years ago after they placed a noose around the neck of a James Meredith statue, along with a Confederate flag.
Meredith was the first known black student to attend Ole Miss.
One of the fraternity members pleaded guilty and received six months in prison for “using a threat to intimidate African American students and employees because of their race or color,” according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.
All of them wound up withdrawing from the university. The school’s Sigma Phi chapter was later shuttered following an internal investigation.
“Hazing, underage drinking, alcohol abuse and failure to comply with the university and fraternity’s codes of conduct” were the reasons given as to why the fraternity’s national headquarters was closing the chapter.
Photo Credit: Instagram/Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting
Texas school district to begin drug testing students as young as 12
AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A school district in the Texas Panhandle will begin drug testing students as young as 12 years old who are interested in playing sports or participating in other extracurricular activities.
Testing will begin with the resumption of classes next month at Bushland Independent School District and will be required of students in grades seven through 12 who play in the band, sit on the student council, assemble a yearbook, play chess or participate in other clubs. Students who receive a permit to park at the high school also will be subjected to testing.
The district does not have a drug problem or growing epidemic, district Assistant Superintendent Angie Watson said Wednesday, but the purpose is to keep students safe and “deter them from doing anything that would harm them.”
“There isn’t an apparent drug problem,” Watson said, “but that isn’t to say that kids across the nation are not being introduced to drugs and getting into drugs. We’re just trying to be proactive. We’re giving them a reason to not do that.”
The school board a few months ago gave the OK for the development of a policy and then district officials released it to the public last week, Watson said. There are about 700 students in grades seven through 12 in the district, which is just west of Amarillo. Either saliva swabs or urine samples from those students involved in extracurricular activities will be tested.
Administrators will check for seven substances — including alcohol, marijuana, heroin and opioids — and Watson said funds were set aside in the school budget this year to cover costs. Some students also will be subjected to random follow-up testing to ensure they’re adhering to the policy.The Key to an Effective Procedure Room DesignFunction, efficiency and versatility are key to a seamless room design and procedure zone. Discover the technology that brings it all together.Ad By MidmarkSee More
A school district in Nebraska took the unusual step last month of adding nicotine to the list of drugs to be randomly tested. The move by Fairbury Public Schools drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska.
Several districts in Texas have drug testing in place. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 broadened the authority of public schools to test children for illegal drugs by allowing for the inclusion of middle and high school students participating in extracurricular programs, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Testing had previously been allowed only for student athletes.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Missouri man charged after firing 115 shots in his backyard while intoxicated
OVERLAND, Mo. (KMOV.com) — An Overland man was charged after shooting 115 rounds into trees in his backyard while intoxicated, police said.
On Wednesday, Overland police officers responded to a call of shots fired in a residential neighborhood in the 10400 block of Canter Way Drive. Upon arrival, officers heard constant gunfire and surrounded the resident they believed the gunshots were coming from.
Joseph Manley, 56, exited the house and admitted he was shooting his guns into the trees in his backyard and he had been drinking alcohol. Wild Acres Park is behind his backyard.
Officers revealed he used three different types of guns; an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a FNH semi-automatic handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun.
Court documents say Manley fired a total of 115 rounds and a breathalyzer revealed his blood alcohol content was .148.
Manley was charged with three counts of unlawful use of weapon while intoxicated on Thursday. We customize. You could save $782.Our customized coverage could save you $782 on auto and home insurance. Get a free quote in minutes today.Ad By Liberty Mutual InsuranceSee More
Police said Manley is considered dangerous as he fired over 100 rounds in a residential neighborhood.
Manley is being held at the St. Louis County Jail.
Photo Credit: St. Louis County Justice Services