Netflix Friday Night documentary Taking Up Space
We also need to remember our HBCU’s. White people are already taking those over. I acknowledge we need more inclusion at these historical white colleges. But to forget and almost dismiss HBCU’s is also denying our black historic accomplishments.
https://www.facebook.com/netflixtakingupspace/videos/498736903881305/
Georgia Police Use Taser on 87-Year-Old Woman Using Knife to Cut Dandelions
An 87-year-old grandmother using a knife to cut dandelions in the woods near her rural Georgia home last week was taken down by a police Taser and arrested, according a police report.
Martha Al-Bishara was arrested for criminal trespass and obstruction of a police officer, according to the report. Chatsworth Police said Al-Bishara did not drop a steak knife despite several commands and a demonstration by officers. At one point, she walked toward officers with the knife, police said.
Police had gone to a wooded area near a Boys and Girls Club last Friday after an employee called 911 to report that an elderly woman was walking around with a knife in the community, around 80 miles north of Atlanta.
“There’s a lady walking on the bike trails, she has a knife and she won’t leave,” the caller told a dispatcher. “She told me she doesn’t speak English, and she’s walking up the trail with a knife towards me.”
“It looks like she’s walking around looking for something, vegetation to cut down or something. She has a bag too,” the caller said.
The Boys and Girls Club employee told the dispatcher that the woman did not seem to be a threat. “But she came at you with a knife, though, right?” the dispatcher asked. “No, she just brought the knife onto the property in her hand, she didn’t try and attack anybody or anything,” the caller said.
Police arrive, order woman to drop knife
Two Chatsworth officers along with Police Chief Josh Etheridge arrived at the scene, and repeatedly asked Al-Bishara, to drop the knife, according to the police report. “Her demeanor was calm, even when we had our guns out,” an officer noted in the police report.
Officers began making hand gestures to indicate dropping a knife, but the woman still did not comply, the report states.
Etheridge told CNN affiliate WTVC that he took a knife from his pocket, showed it to Al-Bishara, and “threw my knife down on the ground, trying to make her understand what we wanted her to do.”
At that point, Al-Bishara began to walk toward the group and did not react when one of the officers turned on his Taser, according to the police report.
“The female did not react to the Taser being on, or the white light coming from the end of the Taser,” the reporting officer noted.
When Al-Bishara was approximately five yards away, still holding the knife in her hand, the officer fired his Taser and struck her in the chest, according to police. Officers then helped her to her feet, and placed her in handcuffs.
Officers tased Al-Bishara just across the street from her house while she was on property belonging to the Boys and Girls Club, according to WTVC.
Another woman who then arrived on the scene identified herself as Al-Bishara’s daughter-in-law. She said that the older woman typically wanders into the woods looking for dandelions and collects them using a knife, according to the police report.
The daughter-in-law also said Al-Bishara has dementia and speaks Arabic.
Etheridge told WTVC police used the least possible force, and he believes his officers’ actions were justified.
The Taser pointed at Etheridge and unholstered firearm should have been indication of what wanted Al-Bishara to do, according to the police chief.
“Most people, that’s kind of the universal command for ‘stop,’ ” Etheridge said.
‘My grandma did not look violent’
Al-Bishara, a Syrian native, usually puts the dandelions in a salad she often makes for her husband, according to WTVC. Family members said the recipe is common in her culture, the station reported.
But the dandelions were not blooming in her yard and they couldn’t find any in the store, her granddaugther, Martha Douhne, told the station.
So, Al-Bishara crossed the street, headed for the vacant lot, where she had picked dandelions before, according to WTVC.
Douhne said her grandmother didn’t understand what police wanted her to do, and police shouldn’t have used a Taser on her.
“Obviously, my grandma did not look violent,” Douhne told WTVC. “With the three, four officers that were here, I think they could have controlled her in other ways.”
Al-Bishara’s court appearance is scheduled for September 19.
via: https://ktla.com/2018/08/17/georgia-police-use-taser-on-87-year-old-woman-cutting-dandelions/
Rapper Juelz Santana pleads guilty to gun charge, faces up to 20 years in prison
Rapper Juelz Santana admitted in court Thursday that he tried to get a gun onto a plane at a New York-area airport earlier this year.
Santana, whose real name is LaRon James, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and carrying a weapon on an aircraft. The 36-year-old Totowa resident faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 12.
Santana was arrested in March after security staff at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport found a loaded .38-caliber handgun and nonprescription oxycodone pills in a carry-on bag containing his identification on March 9.
Santana left the area, leaving two bags behind, but turned himself in three days later. He has been free on bail while awaiting trial.
In June, a judge modified his bail so that he could perform concerts in New Hampshire, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Among the conditions were that Santana’s mother accompany him on the trips, that he drive instead of fly and that he not travel with other members of the tour.
While on bail, Santana also was allowed by the court to tape an episode of the VH-1 show “Love and Hip Hop” in Hoboken and New York.
This month, a judge postponed Santana’s original trial date of Sept. 4 so the rapper and his attorneys could continue negotiations on a plea deal.
Article via: Rapper Juelz Santana pleads guilty to gun charge, faces up to 20 years in prison
Argument over Aretha Franklin reportedly leads to Virginia shooting
An argument over whether Halle Berry played Aretha Franklin in a movie reportedly led to a person being shot in Virginia.
The Suffolk Police Department is investigating the shooting which occurred around 10:43 a.m. at the intersection of East Washington Street and Liberty Street on Thursday, Aug. 16.
Witnesses told WTKR in Norfolk that the shooting was between two people who were arguing whether the Academy Award-winning actress ever played the Detroit icon in a movie. Police have not confirmed or denied that detail.
Franklin, The Queen of Soul, died in Detroit at the age of 76 on Thursday.
According to the Suffolk Police Department, the verbal altercation between two adult males turned physical. One of the subjects produced a firearm, shooting the other involved subject at least once.
Both subjects received emergency medical assessment and treatment by Suffolk Fire & Rescue personnel before being transported to local hospitals for further treatment.
The gunshot victim is in serious condition, police said. The investigation is ongoing.
Just in case you were wondering, Aretha Franklin said in a 2011 interview that she would want Halle Berry to play her in a biopic.
Article via: Argument over Aretha Franklin reportedly leads to Virginia shooting
Young Chicago heart patient hopes ‘KiKi Challenge’ video gets Drake’s attention
An 10-year-old awaiting a heart transplant at Lurie Children’s Hospital has two birthday wishes: to get a new heart, and to meet Drake.
So Sophia Sanchez of Downers Grove made a video of the “KiKi Challenge” from the hospital in hopes of getting Drake’s attention.
She says Drake is her idol, and she’s trying to meet him while town in town this weekend. He’s performing Friday and Saturday at the United Center.
And maybe for Sophia, he’ll be stopping by Lurie Children’s Hospital.
Sophia’s 11th birthday is Saturday, Aug. 18.
Article via: Young Chicago heart patient hopes ‘KiKi Challenge’ video gets Drake’s attention
Elfen’s TBT Music Video of the week Aretha Franklin freeway of love
Here is another one of her hits back in the 1980s for the rest of the week I’m going to show you videos that you probably have never really heard of or seen. You’ve heard the classics from the 60s and the 70s but in the 80s and 90s she was still making hits.
Elfen’s TBT R&B Album of the week Aretha Franklin A Rose is Still a Rose
Today we must lift our roses and say goodbye to the queen of soul Aretha Franklin. She has died today at age 76. If you think today’s R&B “Artist” are truly ORGINAL and who can call themselves a LEGEND you are so sadly mistaken. Upon learning of Aretha Franklyns illness and spending her time in hospice care at her home surrounded by family and friends. I got to thinking about how my mama would pull out her Aretha Franklin albums from the 1960s. I heard Aretha singing about RESPECT and When a Man loves a woman.
When the 1980s and 90s hit Aretha was still writing and sangin’ new songs for my generation. One of her best albums of 1998 was A Rose is Still a Rose. The album talks of heartache, breakups, makeups and letting us woman know life goes on after a breakup. You don’t need a man to validate your life. Aretha was is unique. Her music is the kind you can play in front of your grandma without getting the side eye. Let’s all raise our vutral roses to the sky and give Aretha the all the love and prayers and thank her for sharing her soulful beautiful voice. RIP Aretha Franklin ! Give A Rose is Still A Rose a listen below!
Aretha Franklin music’s ‘Queen of Soul dies at 76
Aretha Franklin, whose exceptionally expressive singing about joy and pain and faith and liberation earned the Detroit diva a permanent and undisputed title — the “Queen of Soul” — died Aug. 16 at her home in Detroit. She was 76.
Her representative Gwendolyn Quinn confirmed the death to the Associated Press and said the cause was pancreatic cancer.
One of the most celebrated and influential singers in the history of American vernacular song, Ms. Franklin reserved her place on music’s Mount Rushmore in the late 1960s and early 1970s by exploring the secular sweet spot between sultry rhythm-and-blues and the explosive gospel music she’d grown up singing in her father’s Baptist church.
The result was potent and wildly popular, with defining soul anthems that turned Ms. Franklin into a symbol of black pride and women’s liberation.
Her calling card: “Respect,” the Otis Redding hit that became a crossover smash in 1967 after Ms. Franklin tweaked it just so (a “sock it to me” here, some sisterly vocal support there), transforming the tune into a fervent feminist anthem.
“Whenever women heard the record, it was like a tidal wave of sororal unity,” the song’s producer, Jerry Wexler, said two decades after Ms. Franklin first declared, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.”
Twenty of her singles topped Billboard’s R&B chart and more than 50 reached the R&B Top 10 over a six-decade recording career during which she earned volumes of praise for her innovative and emotive vocal performances, even when the material didn’t quite measure up to her talents.
A graceful mezzo-soprano stylist, Ms. Franklin had remarkable range, power and command, along with the innate ability to burrow into a lyric until she’d found the exact coordinates of its emotional core.
“She just bared her soul, she exposed herself, she did everything but get on the floor and scream and cry,” singer Natalie Cole told VH1. “She just had that special something that people respond to.”
“I don’t know anybody that can sing a song like Aretha Franklin,” Ray Charles once declared. “Nobody. Period.”
She was at once a brilliant technician and a master emoter, a devastating combination that was unleashed on hits ranging from the swaggering “Chain of Fools” and the cooing “Baby, I Love You” to the pleading “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” and the fiery, finger-wagging, “Freedom!”-chanting “Think,” another of Ms. Franklin’s feminist anthems that gave unprecedented voice to black women in particular.
In Ms. Franklin’s music, the politics were mostly personal, even when she sang about being “Young, Gifted and Black.” But through the profundity and ubiquity of her songs, she became the multi-octave voice of the civil rights movement, performing at rallies staged by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a family friend — and, later, at King’s funeral.
As one measure of her influence, comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory observed of Ms. Franklin’s radio presence: “You’d hear Aretha three or four times an hour. You’d only hear King on the news.”
She sang gospel truths that resonated across age groups, but it was grown-up music, reflecting an adult sense of self-awareness and sexual maturity and full of hard realities to which she seemed to relate.
“If a song’s about something I’ve experienced or that could’ve happened to me, it’s good,” she told biographer Mark Bego. “But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it. . . . I look for something meaningful. When I go into the studio, I put everything into it. Even the kitchen sink.”
In 1968, at the apogee of her career when she was in her mid-20s and recording soul classic after soul classic on Atlantic Records, Ms. Franklin explained: “Soul to me is a feeling, a lot of depth and being able to bring to the surface that which is happening inside, to make the picture clear. Many people can have soul. It’s just the emotion and the way it affects people.”
Long before she abruptly and mysteriously canceled a half-year’s worth of performances and appearances in November 2010 (doctor’s orders were cited, but no details about her ailments were offered), Ms. Franklin’s health had been a source of concern, mostly because of the considerable weight she was carrying.
When she resurfaced in 2011 for a brief concert tour, just months after announcing that she was undergoing an unspecified surgical procedure, Ms. Franklin told AARP magazine that she’d shed 85 pounds. She attributed the change to diet and exercise but steadfastly denied that she’d had gastric-bypass surgery — and also that she’d had pancreatic cancer. Ms. Franklin did not divulge additional details.
If she was concerned with body image before the weight loss, it didn’t show. Sometimes, she’d wear tube tops and leotards onstage, as if to flaunt her girth. In her later years, she favored strapless gowns and was known to slap her ample backside during her infrequent concerts.
READ MORE AT THE WASHINGTON POST
Teen suffocated nephew after he asked to play video games
A Colorado teen girl faces murder charges after she allegedly suffocated her nephew then hid his body inside a closet, according to authorities.
Jennie Bunsom, 16, was identified as the suspect in the death of 7-year-old Jordan Vong, who was reported missing Aug. 6 before his body was found at his Denver home, according to the Denver Post.
Bunsom allegedly killed the boy, who asked her to play video games with him, wrapped his body in a blanket and stuffed it in her bedroom closet.
Police obtained a warrant the next day to enter the family’s home and discovered the boy’s body hidden, according to officials.
“[Bunsom] didn’t tell any of her family what she had done to Jordan because she was afraid,” a probable cause statement obtained by the Denver Post said. “Nor did she tell any of her family where she had hid Jordan.”
The teen girl appeared in court Tuesday morning where it was ruled that she will face first-degree murder charges as an adult.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/08/14/teen-suffocated-nephew-after-he-asked-to-play-video-games-da/