NY man charged with raping 14-year-old girl days after his prison release
An upstate New York man raped a 14-year-old girl just nine days after being released from prison, police said.
Luis Torres, 21, was arrested while on parole late last month after the teen victim told investigators he raped her at a Syracuse home in February — just nine days after he was sprung from prison for stabbing a mall employee in 2017, Syracuse.com reports.
Police said in court documents cited by the outlet that Torres, of Syracuse, then had sex with the girl on two other occasions between late February and early April.
Torres, who was taken into custody on June 26, remained held without bail Friday at the Onondaga County Justice Center on charges of second-degree rape, endangering the welfare of a child and violating his parole, online records show.
Torres had been on parole after being convicted of second-degree assault in a December 2017 attack at Destiny USA, a mall where police said he stabbed an employee at Syracuse’s Original Caramel Corn Shoppe after stealing a bag of chips. He was later sentenced to two years in prison, Syracuse.com reports.
After being initially released from custody with conditions in August 2019, Torres later returned to prison in January prior to being set free again on Feb. 20, according to the report.
Torres is due back in court on July 30, online records show. It’s unclear if he’s hired an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/03/ny-man-charged-with-raping-teen-9-days-after-prison-release/
Photo Credit: Syracuse Police Department
Phaedra Parks says it was an ‘honor’ to direct Rayshard Brooks’ funeral
Phaedra Parks says it was an honor to direct Rayshard Brooks’ funeral.
“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” alum, who is also a licensed funeral director and mortician, was asked by the Brooks family to direct the funeral for the 27-year-old black man, who was fatally shot by Atlanta police on June 12.
“It was an honor to serve the family, to help them at that very hard moment,” Parks, 46, told Page Six on Monday.
“They have four children,” she continued. “I’m a mother of two beautiful African American boys and I can only imagine having to bury a spouse and knowing you’ve got these beautiful children and you have this expectation of raising in a two-parent household.”
In the wake of recent Black Lives Matter protests, Parks, who shares sons Ayden, 10, and Dylan, 7, with her ex-husband Apollo Nida, noted that she has had to have some difficult discussions with her boys.
“I’m very honest with them about what’s going on right now,” she said. “They’re very aware, but it’s very scary for me as a mother of two African American boys to know the injustices that happen every day because you hear the stories.”
Parks added: “I have always raised them up to be very aware of the African American culture, but to understand even though we live a very affluent lifestyle there is definitely racism, unfortunately, and they cannot do what their white counterparts can do, even though they attend the same schools, they live right next door to one another.”
In addition to her services as a funeral director, Parks has kept up her reality show bona fides, currently starring on We TV’s “Marriage Bootcamp: Hip Hop Edition” alongside her boyfriend, Medina Islam.
Parks said doing the show was “transformative” and helped both her and Islam improve their relationship.
“It gave us both a lot of insight and knowledge on what marriage would look like for us,” she revealed. “I don’t want to give the show away, but it was definitely extremely helpful. We came out knowing we had both grown individually and as a couple.”
Photo Credit: nypost.com
White man confronts black woman driving in her own neighborhood
A black Massachusetts woman shared a disturbing video of a white man following her in his BMW as she drove in her own neighborhood — accosting her to ask what she was doing in the area.
“I just got Karen’d? This man followed me home because I went to pick up DOG FOOD at somebody’s house!” Julia Santos, 21, tweeted, using the term for entitled white women in social media, after the man stopped her while she was driving home in Groveland on Monday.
The driver of the convertible Beemer cornered her on a side street and began peppering her with questions about what she was doing in her neighborhood, where she has lived her entire life, about 35 miles north of Boston, the Boston Globe reported.
“So what are you driving up Juniper Terrace for?” the creep asks.
Santos explained that she had just picked up the dog food after seeing a post online offering free chow.
“I don’t feel safe right now,” she then says.
“You don’t feel safe? I don’t feel safe with you driving around in my neighborhood,” he replies.
“Why?” Santos asks.
“Too many people,” he says.
“Or is it because I’m black? Is that why?” Santos asks.
“No,” he says. “I don’t know what color you are. What color are you?”
After a couple of minutes, a neighbor watching the conversation from her car chides the man for harassing Santos.
“I don’t like the fact that this poor girl is being harassed,” the neighbor is heard saying.
“I don’t like the fact that she’s in my neighborhood,” the man says.
Santos told the Boston Globe that she was still “a little shaken up” by the incident, which has gone viral on social media.
“But I am so happy and relieved about the amount of support I’ve received inside and outside my community,” she said, adding that while she has experienced her “fair share of racism” in her life, it was “nothing as scary as this.”
“I honestly wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” she told the newspaper. “I am so relieved my neighbor was there and I have no idea what could’ve happened to me if she wasn’t.”
She said the incident “represents where we are right now as a country.”
“I just think especially in this racial climate, some people are walking on eggshells,” she added. “Meanwhile, some people … have just gone full racist mode.”
Groveland Police Chief Jeffrey Gillen said he was “deeply disturbed” by the incident, which is being investigated.
Police said they have identified and spoken with the man who accosted Santos, but did not release his name.
“The fact that a resident of our town could face accusation and be followed around like a criminal should make everyone stop in their tracks and consider how we treat one another,” Gillen told the Globe.
“On a personal note, I have lived in this area for my entire life and have been a police officer here for more than 30 years,” he added.
“I have met many of the families in Groveland, including the victim’s family, and watched families grow here. … Our job as police officers is to not only keep people safe but also feel safe in Groveland.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/01/white-man-confronts-black-woman-driving-in-her-neighborhood-video/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Video shows cops laugh while shooting rubber bullets at protesters
Florida cops laughed and celebrated shooting protesters with rubber bullets during a George Floyd rally in May, newly released body camera footage shows.
“Beat it, little f—er,” Detective Zachary Baro, the leader of a Fort Lauderdale Police Department SWAT team unit, can be heard saying in the video, which was obtained by the Miami Herald.
A protester had just tossed a tear gas can back at a line of police officers — prompting them to open fire with the projectiles — when the cops began chuckling and boasting.
“Did you see me f— up those motherf—ers?” one of the officers says.
“I got the one f—er,” another replied amid laughter.
The officers believed Baro’s body camera was off at the time, according to a caught-on-camera conversation. In it, Officer Jamie Chatman asked Baro if his body camera was off, to which he wrongly replied that it was in “stand-by” mode and not recording.
The two officers then started joking about the people they had shot with the rubber bullets.
On Thursday, Fort Lauderdale City Manager Chris Lagerbloom said he was “troubled by what I saw” in the video, according to CBS Miami.
“While I am a huge supporter of the hard work of our police force, I would not want the actions of a few to taint the public’s perception of the dedication and professionalism of the Department as a whole,” Lagerbloom said in a statement.
“I can understand the intensity of the moment captured on body camera footage as the officers were clearly under attack … The language the officers used, and sentiment expressed is not consistent with what the public expects from our police force.”
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department said it is “in the process of conducting an exhaustive review” of the footage.
“Although the language is extreme and offensive to some, our officers were dealing with the chaos of a developing situation,” a statement from the police notes.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/02/cops-laugh-as-they-shoot-protesters-with-rubber-bullets-video/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Amazon delivery driver quits mid-shift, abandons truck and packages
He didn’t give a truck about his job anymore.
A Michigan Amazon delivery driver quit mid-shift this week — ditching a truck full of packages behind.
“I quit amazon f–k that driving s–t i left the van on 12 mile and Southfield y’all can have that bitch and it’s full of gas wit the keys in the IGNITION,” Derick Lancaster, 22, wrote in a stunning tweet Monday that had racked up more than 26,500 retweets by Thursday afternoon.
Lancaster said that he was frustrated with the grueling work and long hours for barely minimum wage, but he that he regrets how he handled his rather unconventional resignation, local ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV reported.
“It was immature and irresponsible on my end. At the same time enough is enough,” Lancaster told the station after abandoning his delivery van in a Detroit suburb.
Amazon drivers across the country have long complained of poor working conditions, a ProPublica investigation revealed last year.
The e-commerce giant also drew complaints from factory workers nationwide this year over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Lancaster said he would deliver more than 100 packages over the course of a 12-hour shift for about $15.50 an hour. He was constantly under pressure to deliver packages faster, he said.
“It was days I had to deliver 158, 212, and it just kept going up and up,” he said.
Missing his sister’s birthday party was the final straw that primed Lancaster to quit.
“She was real upset with me,” he told the station. “There is no set schedule.”
Since his viral resignation, Lancaster has inspired both admiration and scorn online — viewed as a working-class hero to some and wildly irresponsible to others who criticized him for inviting people to take others’ property.
“I can’t imagine how selfish someone has to be to abandon a van full of other people’s property,” one person on Twitter wrote. “This is not OK.”
But another added, “That’s some funny s–t though. Way to stick it to Jeff Bezos.”
Lancaster has kept his spirits high though, joking on Twitter about the press he’s gotten and defending himself against backlash he’s received.
“Why is white people so mad at me ?” Lancaster tweeted as he invoked the response to the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and Charleston, South Carolina church shooting in 2015.
“[Y]’all wasn’t mad when that officer was stepping on bro neck , i don’t think y’all was mad when that white n—- shot up the church killing them black people but y’all mad that a n—- quit his job ?”
Amazon assured it was “taking appropriate action,” but did not offer any elaboration.
“This does not reflect the high standards we have for delivery partners,” Amazon said in a statement.
“We are taking this matter seriously, and have investigated the matter and are taking appropriate action.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/02/amazon-delivery-driver-quits-mid-shift-abandons-truck/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Young people are throwing coronavirus parties with a payout when one gets infected
(CNN) — Some young people in Alabama are throwing Covid-19 parties, a disturbing competition where people who have coronavirus attend and the first person to get infected receives a payout, local officials said.
The parties are being held in Tuscaloosa, and infected people are urged to attend so others can intentionally contract the virus, City Council member Sonya McKinstry told CNN. She said she heard about the trend from fire officials.
“We thought that was kind of a rumors at first. We did some research, not only do the doctors’ offices confirm it, but the state confirmed they also had the same information,” she said.
During a presentation to the City Council this week, Fire Chief Randy Smith also said young people in the city are throwing parties with a payout if they catch coronavirus, McKinstry said.
The first person confirmed by a doctor to have coronavirus after the exposure wins the money made off the ticket sales, she said. Over the past few weeks, there have been several parties in the city and surrounding areas, and probably more that officials don’t know about, she added.
Click to find out more about a new promotionDon’t miss this content from our sponsor
“It makes me furious,” McKinstry said. “Furious to the fact that something that is so serious and deadly is being taken for granted. Not only is it irresponsible, but you could contract the virus and take it home to your parents or grandparents.”
The city is working on getting the word out and breaking up such parties. It also passed a mask ordinance this week that goes into effect Monday.
“This is not political. This is a public health issue. People are dying and there is no cure. We have to do whatever we can to save as many lives as possible, McKinstry said.
CNN has reached out to the Alabama Health Department for comment. The state has reported about 39,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 1,000 deaths.
Photo Credit: ctvnews.ca
Groom with coronavirus may have infected 113 people at his own wedding
An Indian man who traveled home for his wedding last month may have infected 113 people at the ceremony, a report said.
The 31-year-old man — who died two days after the wedding — traveled to Paliganj from New Delhi for the June 15 celebration attended by more 350 friends and family, according to The Indian Express.
The groom had pleaded with his family to stop the wedding because he was sick — but he was denied.
“Even though he was feeling unwell by June 14 and wanted the wedding deferred, family heads from both sides advised against it, citing huge financial losses if the arrangements had to be canceled,” a relative told the outlet.
Two days after the wedding, the man’s condition became serious and he was rushed to the hospital but died on the way. The family cremated his body, the report said.
A relative said they were less concerned about the virus because “rural areas are almost COVID-free.”
Local authorities are now attempting to prevent the infection from spreading any further.
All close relatives who attended the wedding were tested. The bride was not among those who tested positive.
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Gold Industry Shaken as 83 Tons of Fake Gold Bars Used to Secure $2 Billion Loans in China
The gold industry has been shaken after it was discovered that 83 tons of fake gold bars have been used as collateral for loans worth 20 billion yuan from 14 financial institutions to a major gold jewelry manufacturer in Wuhan, China. This amount of gold “would be equivalent to 22% of China’s annual gold production and 4.2% of the state gold reserve as of 2019.”
One of China’s largest gold jewelry manufacturers, Kingold Jewelry Inc., has been using fake gold to secure loans obtained from 14 Chinese financial institutions, Caixin reported Monday. The loans were for 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) obtained over the past five years. The Wuhan-based jewelry company was able to pass on the fake gold as pure gold, using it as collateral for loans and insurance policies to cover any losses. The publication detailed:
At least some of 83 tons of gold bars used as loan collateral turned out to be nothing but gilded copper. That has left lenders holding the bag for the remaining 16 billion yuan [$2.3 billion] of loans outstanding against the bogus bars.
Founded by Jia Zhihong in 2002, Kingold is the largest privately-owned gold processor in central China’s Hubei province. The Nasdaq-listed company (NASDAQ: KGJI) was previously a gold factory affiliated with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) that was split off from the central bank during a restructuring, the publication conveyed. Kingold’s chairman and controlling shareholder, the 59-year-old Jia served in the military in Wuhan and Guangzhou. He previously managed gold mines owned by the People’s Liberation Army.
The fake gold was first discovered in February when Dongguan Trust Co. Ltd. tried to liquidate Kingold’s collateral to cover defaulted debts. However, the gold bars turned out to be just “gilded copper alloy,” the news outlet described, adding that “The news sent shockwaves through Kingold’s creditors.” China Minsheng Trust Co. Ltd., one of Kingold’s largest creditors, then obtained a court order to test Kingold’s gold bars sitting in its coffers. The test result came back on May 22, confirming that the gold bars were just copper alloy. Two other creditors also tested Kingold’s pledged gold bars and found they were fake, Caixin learned, adding:
The 83 tons of purportedly pure gold … would be equivalent to 22% of China’s annual gold production and 4.2% of the state gold reserve as of 2019.
According to the news outlet, Chinese authorities are investigating how this happened. While Jia flatly denies that anything is wrong with the collateral his company put up, the Shanghai Gold Exchange, a gold industry self-regulatory organization, disqualified Kingold as a member on June 24.
Gold Market Dilemma and How Bitcoin Outshines Gold
The news of China’s fake gold has been heavily discussed on social media, with some questioning how much of the overall gold market is fake gold. Saifedean Ammous, the author of the popular book “The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking,” tweeted: “A quantity [approximately] 20% of China’s annual gold production was found to be fake. China is the world’s largest gold producer. How much more fake gold is out there? Could gold’s market supply be growing at 5-15% every year because of all the fake gold?”
New York Times bestselling author Jim Rickards opined: “The problem with Wuhan is not only do they lie about the [covid-19] virus, they lie about gold also. Wuhan looks like the world center of counterfeit gold bars.”
Many bitcoiners also chimed in on the fake gold discussions, comparing gold’s attributes to bitcoin’s. Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini crypto exchange noted, “This is why bitcoin is gold 2.0. It’s mathematically impossible to counterfeit.”
Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees commented, “I’m an advocate of gold, but one monetary attribute in which bitcoin handily beats gold is ‘verifiability.’ With free software any human (or machine) can verify bitcoin authenticity. Verifying gold requires expertise and equipment, & hard to scale.” Parallax Digital CEO Robert Breedlove tweeted:
Bitcoin is more divisible, durable, portable, recognizable (which encompasses verifiability), and scarce than gold. Bitcoin is also cheaper to safeguard and less vulnerable to theft. I wonder which one the free market will select?
Article via Bitcoin
White woman pulls gun on black woman, daughter during parking lot argument
A white woman pulled a gun on a black mother and her 15-year-old daughter during a heated caught-on-camera confrontation Wednesday at a Michigan Chipotle.
Video of the incident in the eatery’s parking lot in Lake Orion shows the woman, in a black T-shirt, point the gun at the mom, Takelia Hill.
“Get away,” the woman warns, as Hill can be heard saying, “She got the gun on me!”
The women begin arguing, as the one with the gun backs up near her SUV, screaming, “Get the f–k back!” at Hill.
The heated confrontation erupted after the woman allegedly bumped into Hill’s teen daughter, Makayla Green, while exiting the Chipotle in Orion Township at about 8 p.m.
“Before I could walk into Chipotle, this woman was coming out and I had moved out the way so she can walk out,” Green told The Detroit News. “She bumped me and I said, ‘Excuse you.’ And then she started cussing me out and saying things like I was invading her personal space.”
Frightened, the teen called her mom over.
“I walked up on the woman yelling at my daughter,” Hill said. “She couldn’t see me because her back was to me, but she was in my daughter’s face.”
The alleged bump was not caught on video. The footage picks up after the altercation moved into the parking lot, and begins with Hill and her daughter arguing with the unidentified woman as they demand an apology.
“You’re very racist and ignorant,” the teen says at one point, after a man in the driver’s seat of the SUV helps the woman into the passenger seat of the car.
The altercation then continues with the woman telling Hill, “You cannot just walk around calling white people racist.”
“Why would you bump her? Why didn’t you say sorry?” Hill continuously asks the woman in response.
The woman goes on to say, “White people aren’t racist … I care about you and I’m sorry if you had an incident that has made someone make you feel like that. No one is racist.”
The woman rolls her window up and the SUV begins backing out of the parking spot.
Hill is seen stepping back as the SUV starts to drive away, before she then hits the back window of the vehicle, claiming she thought the driver was going to hit them.
That’s when the woman jumps back out of the SUV and pulls a gun on Hill and her daughter, and Hill can be heard saying “She got the gun on me!” as the woman yells “Get the f–k back!”
The woman was later arrested by police, according to the Daily Mail.
Auburn Hills Police department confirmed the incident happened to the outlet but it is not known if the woman was charged.
The video, which was tweeted by Green, has received more than 7 million views as of Thursday.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/02/white-woman-pulls-gun-on-black-woman-daughter-in-michigan-parking-lot/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Judge sides with Disney in ruling that it wasn’t being unreasonable in refusing unlimited front-of-the-line passes to autistic man
A judge has sided with Walt Disney World in ruling that the theme park resort wasn’t being unreasonable when it refused to give unlimited front-of-the-line passes to an autistic man whose mother said in court papers the accommodation should have been made under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
U.S. District Judge Anne Conway ruled last week that it was unreasonable to give Donna Lorman’s son such access, saying it was ripe for abuse.
Lorman filed the lawsuit after Disney World changed its policy on disabled guests in 2013 in response to reports of tourists hiring people with disabilities and terminally ill children to help them go to the front of lines and ride multiple times.
Disney created the Disability Access Service Card which lets people with disabilities get return times for rides, similar to a FastPass, so they don’t have to wait in a line, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
As an example, Disney said in court papers that the standby line at Magic Kingdom’s popular Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster would increase by 39 minutes, from 69 minutes to 108 minutes if disabled guests got two more re-admission passes.
Lorman, president of the Autism Society of Greater Orlando, said the extra waiting was hard for her son who didn’t understand the concept of time. At Disney, he needed to visit the rides in a particular order or he would have a meltdown, she said.
She had asked 10 passes to the Magic Kingdom so her son could ride his favorite attractions by going directly into the FastPass line.
If Lorman’s son got special access, others would see it on social media and demand it, too, the judge said.
“Requiring the modification, based on the history of the former system, would lead to fraud and overuse, lengthen the wait times significantly for non-disabled guests, and fundamentally alter Disney’s business model,” Conway wrote.
Article via KTLA5