New Jay-Z, Will Smith series to tell story of Emmett Till’s mother seeking justice for son
A new ABC series will tell stories of the civil rights movement through the black women behind it and will start with Mamie Till, who fought for justice since her 14-year-old son’s brutal killing more than 60 years ago.
“Women of the Movement” will be executive produced by Jay-Z and Will Smith among others, the network announced.
Emmett Till’s barbarous slaying in 1955 jolted the nation and helped to fuel the civil rights movement after gruesome photos of the boy’s mutilated body spread across the globe.
Emmett Till was visiting family in Mississippi when he was falsely accused of flirting with a white woman. Her husband and another man beat him viciously, shot him in the head and then strapped a 75-pound cotton gin fan to his neck with barbed wire so it would weigh him down when they tossed him in the Tallahatchie River.
Last year, the Justice Department reopened the investigation into the killing “based upon the discovery of new information,” the department said in March 2018.
“For African Americans, the murder of Till was evidence of the decades-old codes of violence exacted upon Black men and women for breaking the rules of white supremacy in the Deep South,” the National Museum of African American History and Culture says.
Till’s family, along with newspapers and civil rights organizations used his death to “strike a blow against racial injustice and terrorism,” the museum says.
His mother insisted on open-casket funeral services — services that were attended by more than 50,000 people and covered by Jet magazine.
A hundred days after the child’s murder, the museum says, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. She thought about going to the back of the bus but then thought of Emmett Till and “couldn’t do it,” Rev. Jesse Jackson had told Vanity Fair.
Mamie Till never stopped seeking justice since the fateful day of her son’s death.
The first season of the ABC series was inspired by Devery S. Anderson’s book, “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement,” ABC said.
Other executive producers of the show include Jay Brown, Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith, James Lassiter, Aaron Kaplan, Dana Honor, Rosanna Grace, Alex Foster, John Middleton and David Clark, ABC said.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Cyntoia Brown, ex-sex slave convicted of killing man who bought her, released from prison as a college graduate
Cyntoia Brown was released from prison early Wednesday morning after being granted clemency by then-Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam in January, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
Initially sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who bought her for sex when she was 16, Brown was released to parole supervision after spending more than a decade jailed.
Her case drew the attention of high-profile advocates, lawmakers and A-list celebrities and even prompted a documentary. Here is what you should know about what happened and why she is walking free.
She went to prison a teen and is coming out an adult
Brown has spent half of her life behind bars.
In 2004, she was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the killing of a 43-year-old man. At 16-years-old, she was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder, first degree felony murder and aggravated robbery.
Brown’s sentence required her to serve at least 51 years in prison before she was eligible for parole. The now 31-year-old is scheduled to be released after serving 15 years.
She says she was defending herself from her rapist
Much of the controversy surrounding her case came from what she said happened leading up to the killing.
Brown testified at her trial that at 16 she was solicited for sex by Johnny Mitchell Allen.
He brought her back to his house, Brown testified, where she saw a gun cabinet. Brown testified that she had been forced into prostitution by a pimp and resisted Allen. But then, she said she saw him reach under the bed, and she believed he was going to kill her.
In self-defense, she reached for a gun in her purse and shot him, she said.
The prosecution argued during her trial that she shot him in an attempt to rob him, because she took his wallet afterward.
She had the support of A-List celebrities
Years after Brown’s sentencing, her case became a widespread conversation on social media, inspiring the viral hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown. Among those promoting her story and advocating for her release online were celebrities, most notably Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West.
Rihanna posted on social media: “Imagine at the age of 16 being sex-trafficked by a pimp named ‘cut-throat.’ After days of being repeatedly drugged and raped by different men you were purchased by a 43-year-old child predator who took you to his home to use you for sex. You end up finding enough courage to fight back and shoot and kill him.”
“Your (sic) arrested as (sic) result tried and convicted as an adult and sentenced to life in prison,” Rihanna’s post continues. “This is the story of Cyntoia Brown. She will be eligible for parole when she is 69 years old.”
Kardashian West, who championed Brown’s release and has become an advocate for criminal justice reform, praised the governor’s decision to grant clemency.
She is coming out with a degree
“I learned that my life was — and is — not over,” Brown said in a documentary, “Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story.” “I can create opportunities where I can actually help people.”
In prison, Brown received her associate degree from Lipscomb University in 2015 and, according to The Tennessean, obtained a bachelor’s degree in the Tennessee Prison for Women in May.
She collaborated with Tennessee’s Juvenile Justice System to help counsel young people at risk, and her supporters say she’s been a model inmate during her incarceration.
“She is light years today, as a woman, different from the traumatized 16-year-old that she was,” Derri Smith, founder and CEO of non-profit End Slavery Tennessee, said last January. “She’s mentoring … troubled youth, working on her college degree, she is planning a nonprofit so she can help other young people.”
Photo Credit: pix11.com
South Carolina teen arrested after racist, threatening videos go viral
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Parents at a Catholic school in South Carolina say they’re angry they weren’t told until weeks after a student’s arrest that he had made racist videos and threatened to shoot people at the school.
The videos show the white 16-year-old male shooting a box that he says represents all black men and uses a racial slur several times.
Officials at the Cardinal Newman School in Columbia say the videos were made in May. They say they weren’t made aware of them until July and the teen was expelled a few days later, on July 15.
Parents were told July 30, after The State newspaper published a story.
Police charged the teen on July 17 after finding a second video in which he threatened the school. His name hasn’t been released because he is a juvenile.
By JEFFREY COLLINS and MARTHA WAGGONER, Associated Press
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Texas teen arrested after grandmother thwarts mass shooting plan
A Texas teen was arrested after his grandmother thwarted his plan to carry out a mass shooting at a local hotel, officials said.
William Patrick Williams, 19, was charged Friday with making false statements to a firearms dealer after telling his grandmother that he bought an AK-47 rifle, according to the US attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
The Lubbock teen allegedly told his grandmother July 13 that he planned to use the firearm to “shoot up” a local hotel and then force authorities to kill him.
Fearing the teen was homicidal and suicidal, the grandmother convinced him to enter a hospital for treatment instead, officials said.
He was briefly hospitalized before he was arrested Thursday for misrepresenting his address on forms to purchase the AK-47, according to prosecutors.
His rented hotel room was searched by officers who uncovered the AK-47 rifle, 17 magazines loaded with ammunition, multiple knives, a black trench coat, a black T-shirt that read “Let ‘Em Come,” and black fingerless gloves, prosecutors said.
“This was a tragedy averted,” said US Attorney Nealy Cox. “I want to praise the defendant’s grandmother, who saved lives by interrupting this plot, as well as the Lubbock police officers and federal agents who investigated his unlawful acquisition of a deadly weapon. If you suspect a friend or loved one is planning violence against themselves or others, do not hesitate to seek help immediately by calling law enforcement.”
Williams’ arrest came two days before the massacre Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, about 350 miles southwest of Lubbock. The suspect, Patrick Crusius, was in custody after the shooting left 20 people dead and 26 others injured.
Another massacre followed less than 24 hours later when Connor Betts, 24, opened firein Dayton, Ohio, killing nine people. He was killed by responding police.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/05/texas-teen-arrested-after-grandmother-thwarts-mass-shooting-plan/
Photo Credit: Lubbock County Jail
Woman arrested for stealing dog from man having seizure
A Colorado woman was arrested after allegedly stealing a dog from a man who suffered a seizure and ultimately died.
Melody Mellon, 30, was at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Longmont, a city roughly 35 miles north of Denver, on Tuesday when 59-year-old Robert Corbey — who had been feeling ill that day — suffered a seizure.
Paramedics responded and attempted to save his life, but Corbey was pronounced dead at a hospital, KDVR reported, citing the Longmont Police Department.
During this time, Mellon allegedly took the dog, named Sampson, and fled.
The next day, Longmont Deputy Police Chief Jeff Satur spotted Sampson walking with a couple in town. “I was like, ‘Oh, there he is!’ I recognized him right away,” he told KCNC-TV.
The couple said a woman gave them Sampson.
nvestigators eventually linked Mellon to the dog theft when a woman called police early Thursday, claiming her truck had been stolen. Police said they eventually found Mellon sleeping inside the truck.
Police say the woman lied about her name and kicked two officers as they tried to take her to a hospital. Investigators claimed that when she was medically cleared and transported to the Boulder County Jail, she “intentionally urinated and spit inside the patrol vehicle.”
Mellon reportedly faces charges of auto theft, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest on top of the outstanding warrants.
Sampson, Corbey’s therapy dog, was reunited with his family. “It feels like we have a piece of my uncle having Sampson back,” Corbey’s niece, Kelly Pleffner, told the news outlet.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/05/woman-arrested-for-stealing-dog-from-man-having-seizure-cops-say/
Photo Credit: Longmont Police
Drunk Florida man allegedly peed into nightclub ice machine
This guy’s a real pisser.
A boozy Florida man took a whiz into a commercial ice machine at a local nightclub over the weekend, a report said.
Michael Williams, 28, of St. Petersburg was inside the 260 First club at around 2:20 a.m. Saturday when he relieved himself inside the joint’s ice chest, The Smoking Gun reported, citing an arrest affidavit.
An “intoxicated” Williams caused a “disturbance” and then “actively resisted the security officers as they tried to remove him” from the bar, the affidavit said.
Williams was charged with disorderly conduct.
As police patted down Williams, they found a bag of marijuana in his pants pocket and additionally hit him with a misdemeanor possession charge, the outlet reported.
Williams was booked at the county jail and later released after posting his $400 bond, the report said.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/06/drunk-florida-man-allegedly-peed-into-nightclub-ice-machine/
Photo Credit: Pinellas County Sheriffs Office
Pedophile beaten and drowned in prison cell toilet bowl
A pedophile was allegedly drowned in his Florida prison cell toilet after being beaten by a cellmate, according to a report.
Convicted child molester David Oseas Ramirez, 56, was found dead in his cell in Jacksonville’s Duval County Jail last Tuesday allegedly after being beaten and drowned in the toilet bowl, according to First Coast News.
He was serving life for lewd and lascivious molestation of an 11-year-old girl — with his 2013 jury taking less than 15 minutes to find him guilty, according to Newsweek.
The attack was witnessed by a third inmate and also captured on surveillance camera footage, which has not been released, the station said. A medical examiner will determine the official cause of death.
Cellmate Paul Dixon, 43, was arrested on suspicion of Ramirez’s murder, authorities announced. He was already serving life for a murder committed when he was 17.
“A verbal altercation became physical. The suspect killed the victim in his cell,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“A third cell-mate was present and witnessed the murder. The suspect declined to speak with detectives and requested an attorney.”
The killing highlighted how there is “no peace in jail” for convicted child molesters, News4Jax crime and safety analyst Ken Jefferson said.
“They have to constantly watch over their back. They have to hope they can befriend someone to look out for them,” he said.
Jacksonville sheriff’s assistant chief Brian Kee told Action News Jax that the department has not had a similar crime “in recent memory.”
“I mean, I’ve been here almost 23 years. I can’t recall one,” Kee said.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/04/pedophile-beaten-and-drowned-in-prison-cell-toilet-bowl-reports/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Husband lets pals gang-rape wife after losing poker bet
A monstrous Indian man bet his wife in a twisted game of poker — then twice let her be gang-raped after he lost, according to a report.
The unidentified gambling addict bet his wife after running out of money during a drunken card game with a relative named Anil and a friend called Arun at his house in Jaunpur, according to New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV).
He then let both men rape her after losing the game, the station reported.
The wife fled to her uncle’s house, followed by her husband, who begged for her forgiveness, the station said.
She let him drive her back home — only for him to stop the car and allow the two men to gang-rape her again, according to NDTV.
Shockingly, police initially refused to file a case, but she finally made an official crime report after taking her complaint to court, the station says. There was no information on what is happening with the case.
India has been plagued by a series of horrific sex attacks. Just last month, two men reportedly kidnapped a 3-year-old girl from a train station, gang-raped her and cut off her head.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/08/06/monster-lets-pals-gang-rape-wife-after-losing-poker-bet/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
This 9-year-old has built more than 30 mobile games
Seated in a stylish living room of a home in a suburb of Nigeria’s commercial center, Lagos, Basil Okpara Jr. is tapping away on his laptop keyboard.
The 9-year-old is building a hide and seek game, using a free programming application called Scratch 2.
Scratch 2 allows users to create games, animations, and stories online or offline. So far, Basil has used it to generate more than 30 mobile games.
Today’s game involves a bat he has programmed to hide. The player gets a point every time he catches the bat when it emerges from its hiding place.
“I learned how to build games at a boot camp. Now, I build to keep me busy when I am bored,” Basil told CNN.
In March, his father signed him up for a five-day boot camp for children aged 5 to 15.
The camp, organized by Codefest International, was put in place to give children like Basil access to emerging technologies like robotics and virtual reality.
Growing up, Basil used to play a lot of mobile games says his father, Basil Okpara Sr.
“I bought him a tablet when he was 4 years old because I saw that he was always grabbing phones to play games with. He played Candy Crush and Temple Run a lot,” the father told CNN.
But Basil’s interest in creating his games grew at age 7 after he got scolded for spending all of his time playing.
“There was this day he was on the tablet, as usual, he was so carried away with the game he was playing that I got upset with him,” his father said.
“Out of annoyance, I said to him, ‘you are always playing games, can’t you think about building your own games so others can play yours too?’. I was angry when I said it, and I did not know he took it seriously,” he added.
Since then, Basil actively showed interest in learning how to make his own games, prompting his parents to buy him a laptop and register him to learn the first steps of building games.
Basil, who wants to be a scientist in the future, titles his games based on what they are about.
The games are still in their raw form and can currently only be accessed on computers that have Scratch 2 installed.
But according to his father one of them, titled Frog attack, will be available to the public on Google play store in August.
Africa has the largest youth population in the world, and like Basil, this population is taking the lead when it comes to innovation on the continent.
Two Nigerian 12-year-olds were recently celebrated for using codes to build robots to sort out their house chores.
In May, team Acrobot, a Ghanaian all-girls high school team won the 2019 Robofestcompetition by programming robots to stack boxes.
And with Africa experiencing increased investment from tech giants like Google and Microsoft, Basil and his peers are on their way to becoming future coding stars.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/08/06/this-9-year-old-has-built-more-than-30-mobile-games/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Elderly man accused of exposing himself to 11-year-old in Queens Rite Aid
SUNNYSIDE, Queens — Police are looking for a man they say exposed himself to a young girl in a Queens drug store on Saturday.
According to police, on Saturday around 1 p.m., an elderly man approached an 11-year-old girl and exposed himself in the Rite Aid at 50-15 Roosevelt Ave. in Sunnyside, Queens.
Authorities said the man then exited the store and fled in an unknown direction.
The girl was not injured during the incident, police said.
The man is described as about 80 years old, standing 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighing approximately 120 pounds, and last seen wearing a blue Yankees hat, a light brown shirt, black pants, and black shoes.
The NYPD has released the above surveillance footage of the man in question.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visitingwww.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
Photo Credit: pix11.com