Family Claims They Were Racially Profiled, Accused of Shoplifting at Santa Monica Nike Store
Two African-American parents are upset and claiming they were racially profiled after a store manager falsely accused them of shoplifting a $12 basketball from the Nike store in Santa Monica.
The heated dispute was captured on cell phone footage as police were called to the scene last week.
Joel Stallworth said he had already paid for the ball and left the store but a manager followed him out and demanded to see a receipt on July 5. He said the whole experience was humiliating.
Stallworth said he decided to buy the ball after his 18-month-old son, Sammy, picked it up inside the store and began carrying it around.
After they completed their purchase and left the store, he said a manager called police and demanded to see his receipt.
They showed her the receipt to prove they paid for the ball.
“To accuse somebody of stealing, you need to have evidence, right? So she just accused me. She had zero evidence that I stole anything. She couldn’t have evidence because I bought it. She discriminated against me,” Stallworth said. “She planted an evil seed in the officer, so as soon as the officer came up to me, he said, ‘sir, give me the stolen ball.'”
Stallworth said the manager never did apologize. The family has hired an attorney.
“What we’re hoping to do is to get Nike to have some sort of understanding and meeting of the minds to find out if this was an isolated act, or is this something that is more pervasive within the society of the employees that they hire,” attorney Stephen King said.
Stallworth said he is a business owner and he would never accuse someone of stealing without evidence.
KTLA reached out to Nike and Santa Monica police, but have not yet heard back.
Photo Credit: ktla.com
Berkeley Banishes Gender-Specific Words — Such as ‘Manhole’ — From City Code
Berkeley, California, has adopted an ordinance to replace some terms with gender-neutral words in the city code.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Wednesday that “she” and “he” will be replaced by “they.” The words “manpower” and “manhole” will become “workforce” and “maintenance hole.”
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed the measure to replace more than two dozen commonly used terms. There will be no more “craftsmen” in city code, only “craftspeople” or “artisans.”
Berkeley has a long history of leading on politically and socially liberal issues.
The sponsor of the ordinance is councilman Rigel Robinson, a 23-year-old recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He says his time in college expanded his awareness of gender issues.
Robinson says critics suggested the council spend time on more important matters.
via: https://ktla.com/2019/07/17/berkeley-banishes-gender-specific-words-even-manhole-from-city-code/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Kids with disabilities can now get special Halloween costumes at Target
Parents of children with disabilities often go out of their way to make creative Halloween costumes. This year, they will have the option to buy them at a big-name store.
arget’s Hyde and Eek! Boutique has unveiled two Halloween costumes adapted for wheelchair users. The company hopes they’ll help even more children take part in the holiday fun.
One of the collection’s wheelchair covers transforms the chair into a purple princess carriage. The other turns the chair into a pirate ship, complete with a Jolly Roger flag and waves for the wheels.
The matching wheelchair covers are sold separately.
There are also two new costumes with flat seams and no tags, for children with sensory issues: a shark and a unicorn.
Two years ago, the chain added clothing designed for children with sensory processing sensitivities, which can include autism. Designers removed itchy tags, seams and other details that the children could find irritating or uncomfortable.
Through these collections, the company saw that changing small details of its designs could have a huge impact, according to a Target spokeswoman.
Target also unveiled of a series of sensory-friendly home items this spring.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
New Jersey cop arrested for murdering his 3-month-old daughter
A New Jersey police officer was arrested Wednesday for allegedly murdering his 3-month-old daughter, authorities said.
The suspect, 31-year-old Daniel Bannister, was suspended from the Ewing Township police force after his daughter’s suspicious death on Dec. 5.
Investigators decided to do more tests on the infant after an autopsy in December determined she died of blunt force trauma to the head, including a skull fracture, NJ.com reported.
It was determined there was enough evidence to charge Bannister in the death, and cops arrested him at a convenience store in Mercer County on Wednesday, police officials said.
Prosecutors said the toddler’s death was consistent with an “ongoing pattern of abuse,” according to the NJ.com report.
The child’s mother, Catherine Bannister, was also arrested and charged with child endangerment, authorities said.
It was not clear Wednesday night whether the pair had lawyers.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/18/new-jersey-cop-arrested-for-murdering-his-3-month-old-daughter/
Photo Credit: Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office via AP
Grieving mom shares story of son with schizophrenia who threw little brother from Brooklyn roof
QUEENS — Odessa Frith moved to Queens after a devastating family tragedy last September that left her 4-year-old son, Shimron, dead in a Brooklyn courtyard — and her oldest son, Shawn, charged with throwing the little boy from a roof.
“My daughter take the phone,” the mother remembered through sobs, “ and when she take the phone, she said, ‘Mommy, Shawn throw Shimron off the building!’”
Frith, who lived with her six children on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn — after emigrating to New York from Guyana in 2017 — is sharing her intensely painful story for the first time with PIX11 News.
She said she wants the public to know about the help she didn’t get after her 20-year-old son, Shawn Smith, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the spring of 2018 at Kings County Hospital.
Shawn had threatened to jump from the roof but was talked down by police, after a call was made to 911.
Frith said Shawn spent three weeks in the psychiatric ward at Kings County, where he was given medication to manage his mental illness.
She had noticed he started acting strangely around his 19th birthday, hearing voices, but the diagnosis came when he was closer to age 20.
Shawn’s older sister picked him up to go home from the hospital and said medical personnel promised to keep track of Shawn.
She quoted the staff who released Shawn as saying, “They’re going to send somebody weekly” to the family’s apartment to make sure Shawn was taking the medicine.
“He took it for the first week,” the sister said about Shawn, “and then he didn’t want it.”
Psychiatrists are well aware of the side effects of specific medicines used to treat schizophrenia that can spawn side effects.
Dr. Lewis Nelson, who once ran the emergency room at NYU Hospital, told PIX11 in 2018 that people who refuse to take the medication put themselves and others at risk.
“Once they miss a few doses, their psychiatric illness starts to recur and, of course, it’s a spiral downward from there.”
Odessa Frith’s household was dealing with lots of stress in the weeks leading up to Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018.
Aside from Shawn’s illness, the electricity was turned off in most of the apartment, because another family member had stopped paying the bills.
Frith had gone to court on Friday, Sept. 28, to stave off an eviction proceeding.
She said she fried sausages for her family, including Shawn, before putting the youngest child, Shimron, to bed that Friday night.
At 3 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018, Frith said she woke up suddenly and realized little Shimron wasn’t sleeping in the bed near her.
She got up and went to the bathroom and noticed Shawn wasn’t in the apartment either.
Frith said she ran from the family’s 6th floor apartment down to the front of the building and saw police lights flashing.
“The officer said, ‘Mom, where are you going?’ I said I can’t find my baby and my big son.”
The mother learned the terrible news at the local precinct.
She waited eight months to go to Rikers to visit Shawn, who had flagged down police himself and admitted throwing his little brother from the roof.
When Shawn Smith saw his mother behind a plexiglass window at the jail, “He said, ‘Mommy, you came to find out what happened to Shimron?’ I said, Yes. He said, ‘Mom, I didn’t know it was Shimron. I thought it was a bag.’”
The oldest son sobbed and “he said, ‘Mommy, I’m so sorry. Mommy, I’m so sorry,’” Odessa Frith recalled.
“I said, Shawn, I forgive you, even though I know it hurt me. I forgive you. I want you to give your life to Christ. Ask God to forgive you.”
Odessa Frith seemed unaware that schizophrenia is one of the cruelest mental illnesses and one of the hardest to treat.
She remains anguished about things that happened before Shimron was killed and what happened afterwards.
“I know if that alarm was there, my baby would be alive today,” Frith said about the alarm connected to the roof door, “because my son would have turned back if that alarm went off.”
The mother said a police officer warned the building super to maintain the alarm, after Shawn Smith threatened to jump from the roof in the spring last year.
The realty company that manages the building said all of its roof alarms are in working order.
In our second report, we will detail our visit to the building on Nostrand Avenue and our conversation with the realty company.
Odessa Frith claims, “The owner of the building didn’t even call to say ‘sorry.’ They didn’t even say you have my sympathy. Nothing.”
Photo Credit: pix11.com
65-year-old Tupac fan asked to resign from Iowa government job after emailing rapper’s lyrics to employees
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Emails show that the director of the Iowa Department of Human Services had an obsession with the late rapper Tupac Shakur during a 2-year tenure before the governor requested his resignation last month.
Jerry Foxhoven hosted weekly “Tupac Fridays” to listen to music in his office. He sent Tupac lyrics about love and change to inspire employees and he marked his own 65th birthday with Tupac-themed cookies.
While some employees praised his Tupac fixation, one complained to lawmakers last year. Reynolds surprised Foxhoven by telling him to resign one day after Foxhoven had emailed his employees asking them to celebrate Tupac’s birthday.
A Reynolds spokesman says “a lot of factors” went into the decision to seek Foxhoven’s resignation.
By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press
via: https://fox2now.com/2019/07/17/emails-show-iowa-officials-tupac-fixation-before-his-ouster/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
San Luis Obispo Man Facing Hate Charges for Allegedly Threatening to Shoot Minorities Moving Into His Neighborhood
California prosecutors have filed hate crime and weapons charges against a Central Coast man who allegedly sent letters threatening to shoot property managers and minorities who moved into his neighborhood.
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Down announced Tuesday that 62-year-old Richard Vincent Orcutt faces 10 counts including communicating racially motivated criminal threats and unlawful possession of an assault weapon.
Authorities say a June 30 search of Orcutt’s San Luis Obispo home turned up 37 firearms including handguns, rifles, shotguns, an assault weapon and a large amount of ammunition.
Orcutt is scheduled for arraignment on July 29 and remains free after posting a $500,000 bond.
It is unclear if he has an attorney. A telephone listing for Orcutt could not be located in San Luis Obispo.
Photo Credit: ktla.com
NY woman was taking photo of ‘For Rent’ sign with cell phone when she ran over 2 kids
GATES, N.Y. — Police say an upstate New York woman accused of running over two toddlers was taking pictures with her phone at the time of the accident.
Authorities charged 29-year-old Letoya Palmo of Gates with two counts of assault and reckless endangerment.
A 2-year-old and a 10-month-old were being pulled in a wagon by their father when they were hit Thursday. They were critically injured.
Palmo initially said she was distracted by her two sons in the back seat. But Gates Police Chief Jim VanBrederode says forensic analysis of the suspect’s cell phone shows she was using it to capture a “for rent” sign.
Palmo sobbed and said she was sorry as she was arraigned Tuesday. She was sent to Monroe County Jail on $10,000 bail.
A call for comment was made to her lawyer.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
FL dad accused of throwing 5-year-old son into Atlantic ocean, yelling at him to swim
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A Florida father faces multiple charges after police say he repeatedly tossed his 5-year-old son into the ocean along Daytona Beach and yelled at him to swim.
Court records show police arrested 37-year-old John Bloodsworth for disorderly intoxication, jumping off the pier and child abuse.
Former Georgia State Trooper Mitch Brown told WESH he was on vacation with his family when he saw the child alone, struggling to swim in deep water next to the Main Street Pier Monday night.
Brown said he and his family were eating dinner when they noticed Bloodsworth jumping off the pier and swimming past the boy, who he would throw back into the waves while telling him to swim.
Brown said the boy was “visibly upset and crying.”
“I said, ‘I can’t take this no more,’” Brown said. “So I went down to the pier, down to the shore and confronted him myself.”
The former trooper held Bloodsworth and turned him in to Daytona Beach police, WESH reports.
Bloodsworth reportedly told the arresting officers he was “going to jail for being awesome.”
He was released from the Volusia County Jail Tuesday after posting bond, online records show.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Eric Garner’s family demands justice as officer won’t face federal charges in chokehold death
NEW YORK — Five years ago, Eric Garner uttered his last words, “I can’t breathe” during a confrontation with the NYPD.
Officers were attempting to arrest Garner on charges he sold loose, untaxed cigarettes outside a Staten Island convenience store. He refused to be handcuffed, and officers took him down.
Garner is heard on bystander video crying out “I can’t breathe” at least 11 times before he falls unconscious. He later died.
“I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for police reform activists, coming amid a stretch of other deaths of black men at the hands of white officers. Garner was black; Pantaleo is white. Protests erupted around the country, and police reform became a national discussion.
One day before his death anniversary, the Justice Department made the decision not to pursue federal charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the 2014 chokehold death.
Gwen Carr, Garner’s mother, told PIX11 the decision was “disappointing” and “to add insult to injury, they waited until the day before his death anniversary to say this.”
A state grand jury had also refused to indict the officer on criminal charges.
Carr also hopes NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill will “do the right thing” and fire Pantaleo.
“All the other administrations have failed my son and the Garner family,” she said.
On Garner’s death anniversary, his mother and Arc of Justice’s Kirsten John Foy said there will be 11 days of protests and unrest, symbolizing the 11 times Garner said he couldn’t breathe.
“It’s going to be uncomfortable,” Foy said.
“They need to be made just as uncomfortable as the Garner family has been.”
Photo Credit: pix11.com