Black Woman Says She Was Forced To Expose Herself At Target To Prove She Didn’t Steal
In an incident characterized as racial profiling by her attorneys, a black Michigan woman says she was forced to expose her body to employees at a Detroit-area Target after being falsely accused of stealing a bikini from the store.
Ashanae Davis, 20, said she had been walking out of a Target in Southfield on May 22 when a male security worker, who was black, grabbed her by the arm and prevented her from leaving.
According to Davis’ lawyer Jasmine Rand, a second security worker, who was white, then handcuffed her client and “dragged” her through the store while yelling loudly that Davis was wearing “stolen bikini panties … underneath her clothing.”
“He said that over and over. Loud enough for other customers to hear and loud enough to publicly humiliate our client,” Rand, a prominent civil rights attorney who has also represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, said at a news conference on Monday.
Davis’ lawyers called this humiliating practice the “Target Walk of Shame,” which they described as a “de facto policy” at Target stores nationwide aimed at embarrassing would-be shoplifters. In 2015, the retailer was sued by a California woman after her 22-year-old son died by suicide after allegedly being subjected to the so-called shame walk.
According to Davis’ attorneys, their client was then escorted to a room, where she was told to lift her shirt and pull down her pants. A white female manager was in the room at the time, as were the two male security workers. The trio found nothing stolen on Davis’ person and eventually allowed her to leave the store.
“At first I was in shock, of course, and it was just very humiliating,” Davis told WXYZ-TV of the ordeal. “I felt degraded. It was sad. I was very upset.”
On Tuesday, Target apologized for the incident and said it had fired one of its employees over what happened. The retailer later told NBC News that it was the black security worker who’d lost his job.
“We want everyone who shops at Target to feel welcomed and respected and take any allegations of mistreatment seriously,” the company said in a statement. “We’re sorry for the actions of our former team member, who created an experience we don’t want any guest to have at Target. Upon reviewing our team’s actions, we terminated the team member who was directly involved and are addressing the situation with the security team at the store.”
Target added that Davis had been stopped because a new bikini with tags still attached was allegedly spotted in her bag. The swimsuit had been purchased from a different store and not from Target, NBC….
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Teen accused of trying to rape his friend’s mother during sleepover
ARLINGTON, Tenn. — A Tennessee mother says she fought back after her son’s teenage friend allegedly sexually assaulted her during a sleepover.
Jordan Corter, 18, is charged with attempted rape and sexual battery.
Shelby County deputies said Corter was staying at a friend’s house for a sleepover. The mom brought all of the family’s alcohol into her room and locked the door, according to WREG.
Around 2:30 a.m., however, Corter knocked on her bedroom door, deputies said.
When she opened it he allegedly forced himself inside, locked the door and touched her inappropriately. When she fought back, he forced her onto the bed, according to deputies.
She told investigators that she kneed him in the groin, grabbed a pistol and forced him to leave.
The victim went to the authorities the next day.
Arrest records show Corter told police he, “forced the victim to do the things she didn’t want to do.”
He then began crying and said he, “should not be forgiven.”
At Corter’s Bartlett home on Tuesday, Corter’s step-grandfather defended him, and said, “He’s a good kid. He just graduated high school.”
But others said it’s a tough lesson.
“You have to watch who you let in your house, I guess. You can’t be too careful these days,” a resident said.
via: http://pix11.com/2018/06/05/teen-accused-of-trying-to-rape-his-friends-mother-during-sleepover/
Trump Grants Alice Marie Johnson Clemency After Visit From Kim Kardashian
I’m not saying this is a it bad thing. I commend Kim Kardashian and Kanye for freeing this woman. But I really think Kim and Kanye did this just for the likes and hearts. And a pat on the back. I personally like those that give back big in a quiet manner. And who is humble. Kanye has really lost his way . Kanye used to be very humble but still driven. It seems like Kanye’s Spirit and soul died once his mother died.
President Donald Trump has granted clemency for Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old serving a life sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense, multiple sources reported Wednesday.
Trump’s decision to commute Johnson’s sentence comes days after reality star Kim Kardashian spoke with the president at the White House about prison reform and sentencing. Kardashian has spent months using her platform to bring attention to Johnson’s case. She met with the president to discuss the possibility of revisiting Johnson’s sentence.
“I would like to thank President Trump for his time this afternoon,” Kardashian tweeted after her White House visit in May. “It is our hope that the President will grant clemency to Ms. Alice Marie Johnson who is serving a life sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offense.”
Johnson was sentenced in 1996 for helping a multimillion-dollar cocaine ring, something Johnson said she became involved with after she lost her job and was unable to support her family. In an op-ed titled “Why Kim Kardashian Thinks I Should Be Released From Prison” for CNN, Johnson wrote that her life “began to spiral out of control” after the loss of her son and her divorce.
“I made the biggest mistake of my life to make ends meet and got involved with people selling drugs,” Johnson wrote in her CNN piece. “This was a road I never dreamed of venturing down. I became what is called a telephone mule, passing messages between the distributors and sellers. I participated in a drug conspiracy, and I was wrong.”
Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-grants-alice-marie-johnson-clemency-kim-kardashian_us_5b16d73ae4b09578259c521e?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063&utm_source=main_fb&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_medium=facebook
Paul Manafort Likely To Go To Jail On Friday, Former U.S. Attorney Predicts
Paul Manafort
“Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.”
Those words from the game Monopoly sum up what a former U.S. attorney said Paul Manafort should expect when he heads to court on Friday for a hearing about revising his bail.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has asked a judge to revoke bail for President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager over accusations of witness tampering.
“He’s going to have to bring his toothbrush,” a former U.S. attorney said.
Lakewood moves to stop release of some Western State Hospital psychiatric patients within its borders
Patients deemed ready to be discharged from Western State Hospital remain there longer than needed, officials say, because there are too few care facilities in the community. (Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times)
As Washington looks for more places to discharge patients, Lakewood OKs a moratorium on business licenses for new adult family homes and a lawsuit to end what it calls the unsafe release of people with histories of violence or sexual offenses into its city.
The city home to Washington’s main psychiatric hospital is fighting to stop patients from being discharged to residential treatment centers within its borders.
Lakewood approved a moratorium last week on city business licenses for new adult family homes and authorized a lawsuit against the state to end what it calls the unsafe release of people with histories of violence or sexual offenses into its city.
“Injecting sex offenders and violent criminals into a residential neighborhood was never the idea of the authors of this legislation,” said Mayor Don Anderson, addressing state law around discharges, before the legal action was approved.
Adult family homes routinely contract with state government to serve people with disabilities and mental illnesses, a small portion of whom are leaving the 857-bed Western State Hospital. They can serve up to six people and are in residential areas.
Lakewood’s measures come as Washington is desperately looking for places to discharge patients who the state considers healthy enough to leave the hospital. State officials, mental-health advocates and owners of adult family homes have slammed the city’s efforts as discriminatory, shortsighted and cruel toward people in need.
John Ficker, executive director of the Adult Family Home Council, testified at last Monday’s council meeting that the care facilities are a community asset and a success story other cities should imitate.
“They are reducing the backlog in your hospital. They are helping people live in the most community-based option available,” he said. “In my opinion this really boils down to nothing more than a ‘not in my backyard’ kind of story.”
Safety concerns
Friction over adult family homes in Lakewood is not new. But tensions spiked last year when Western State nearly discharged a mentally ill man charged with murder to an adult family home in the city’s Oakbrook neighborhood despite psychological evaluations that ruled him a risk.
The man’s release was postponed after an outcry from local officials.
While the Lawrence Butterfield case is a noteworthy part of Lakewood’s argument, other patients are moving into adult family homes and other facilities from Western State with histories of arson, violence or sexual offenses.
In those cases, the state has deemed the patients psychologically stable enough to leave the hospital but ruled they need ongoing care and mental-health treatment.
City officials contend state law requires those patients to be served at more secure treatment centers, preferably in nonresidential neighborhoods. One type of treatment center that has attracted support for tough-to-place patients is enhanced services facilities. Those have more support, including behavioral health workers and required round-the-clock nursing staff.
Washington has only three enhanced service facilities, holding eight to 16 beds each. A fourth is to open in September, and the state is encouraging more of them — namely with construction money. There are none in Pierce County.
Many on Lakewood’s City Council also expressed distrust of hospital officials, saying they are motivated enough to release dangerous people out of Western State that safety worries won’t stop them.
Alleged driving factors: It’s far cheaper for the state to serve people in community settings, and the hospital has a severe admission waitlist caused in part by its inability to discharge patients who are ready to leave.
Lakewood officials have accused the hospital of skirting state law around stringent review of certain dangerous patients before ordering Butterfield’s discharge.
“They have every incentive not to be too tough of a regulator because at the same time they need to move the merchandise out of places like Western State,” City Councilman Paul Bocchi said Monday.
Alleged discrimination
State officials have not directly commented on the Butterfield situation, citing patient privacy.
But hospital officials argue people discharged from Western State with criminal pasts often are at low risk to reoffend under proper supervision. Some are older. They also attribute part of the hospital’s backlog to their careful work to not discharge patients to unsafe conditions.
A poor discharge can lead a patient right back into Western State, said Bea Rector, who runs a division at the state Department of Social and Health Services that oversees the process of finding a step-down home for patients who need mental-health care.
“We know that they are healthy and safe in the state hospital,” Rector said in a recent interview with The News Tribune, The Olympian and public radio’s Northwest News Network. “And so until we find that right placement, we are making that difficult decision to have them in the hospital while we continue to build the community resource that will meet their need.”
Rector called Lakewood’s efforts to block people with certain criminal histories from living in adult family homes “discriminatory.”
“There is state and federal law that require for housing to be fair and to not use people’s background as a way of saying, ‘You can’t live here,’ ” she said.
Ficker, of the Adult Family Home Council, said he would estimate fewer than 100 adult family homes in the state serve patients from Western State. Data offered by DSHS show more than 2,500 adult family homes across Washington.
Because of the discharge troubles, the state has been boosting its efforts to increase the number of beds at adult family homes, enhanced service facilities and care centers as part of a larger strategy to reshape and improve Washington’s mental health system.
What’s driving location?
Part of Lakewood’s lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court last Tuesday alleges that Washington is violating the Growth Management Act, which regulates development. The city argues the state is unequally distributing adult family homes, leading to a crush of them in Lakewood and specifically the city’s Oakbrook neighborhood.
The growth law stipulates essential public facilities be spread out fairly. Lakewood says adult family homes meet the definition of an essential facility.
Lakewood had 81 adult family homes in early May, according to state data, meaning it has the fifth-highest rate of the treatment centers per capita in Washington.
Vancouver and Seattle appear to have the most adult family homes — 153 and 123, respectively, in early May — but their populations also are far higher.
In fact, large cities tend to have low rates of adult family homes. Seattle is 35th in the state when comparing its family homes to population. Tacoma is 32nd, Spokane is 33rd and Olympia is 22nd. Shoreline has the highest ratio of adult family homes to population.
“There’s no effort by DSHS to make sure these things are in different geographic areas of the state,” said Bocchi, the Lakewood council member.
A handful of community members from Oakbrook testified before the Lakewood City Council last week that adult family homes are beginning to dominate the neighborhood and that they may have dangerous people near them.
A DSHS spokesman would not comment directly on the allegation of violating the Growth Management Act, saying the agency wouldn’t address the pending litigation.
Yet in a May 9 letter to Lakewood, the assistant secretary of Aging and Long-Term Support Administration for DSHS pushed back on the idea that his agency has control over siting adult family homes.
“The department does not select the location of its contracted providers,” wrote assistant secretary Bill Moss. “Where adult family homes are located is largely market driven.”
Ficker said a huge determining factor is housing costs, which are higher in bigger cities. Another is building type. Ficker said Oakbrook has an abundance of large one-story houses, ideal for adult family homes.
Fewer options near home
In a meeting with adult family homeowners before the Lakewood council meeting, Ficker stressed that Lakewood’s ordinances would hurt businesses owners, employees and patients across the spectrum — not just the slice of Western State patients Lakewood is hoping will go to more secure treatment centers.
Isabela Njeri, 41, is one person who might be affected by Lakewood’s moratorium. In an interview after Ficker’s meeting, she said she has been working for five years at a facility that helps people who have Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and other disorders that affect memory, but recently decided to set up her own adult family home.
She settled on Lakewood and has been searching since last year for the right property.
Njeri said that if Lakewood successfully blocks her and others from setting up homes, elderly people will have fewer options close to home and less access to one-on-one care.
“They’re well taken care of,” she said.
On a personal level, she said it would certainly throw a wrench in her long-made plans.
“I would probably have to look for something else to do, which is not where I want to go,” she said.
Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lakewood-moves-to-stop-release-of-some-western-state-hospital-psychiatric-patients-within-its-borders/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_left_1.1
Kofi Siriboe Makes An Urgent Case For Discussing Black Mental Health
His new short documentary, “WTF Is Mental Health?,” seeks to define mental health and undo some of the preconceived notions people have about it.
Black mental health isn’t just a talking point for Kofi Siriboe.
He’s serious about the topic ― and about making room for black people to have open and honest discussions on it.
“I feel like with mental health, people always react negatively. We kinda have a lot of stigma in our community and in society in general,” the 24-year-old actor told HuffPost. “I feel like that space wasn’t really created for us.”
The “Queen Sugar” actor is using his platform to change that. Siriboe stepped behind the camera for “WTF Is Mental Health?” ― one of his first forays into production and a project he’s releasing exclusively to HuffPost. Filmed in the Bronx, the short-form documentary explores mental health among young black people. In the mini-documentary, seven people get real about their individual mental health journeys and discuss the challenges and stigmas they’ve faced along the way.
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“Most White people want an all white neighborhood “
Really?? What he really tryin’ to say is he wants a Jim Crow America. A separate but equal unequal America.
https://www.facebook.com/msnbc/videos/2092763497486558/
Elfen’s Neosoul Hip Hop New Music Tuesday LMNO Feat Kev Brown
LMNO Ft Kev Brown Senstive Hearing release date March 25th 2008
Before I choose a Neosoul Hip Hop, old school R&B. Album and or single. Or even when I’m writing and posting articles for you tisippers. I’m always listening to something as I write. It puts me in a clear writing flow. Well this weeks what’s new to me is old to you. What’s old to you is new to me. Is one of the most illist albums to come out in 2008. I bring you LMNO Ft Kev Brown Sensitive Hearing. Every track is a head bobbin’ lyrical stimulating mind sex experience. This is true Hip hop at it’s finest. There’s more white folks who love and appreciate the hip pop genre that we started . You brown and black kids are not getting a balance of different styles of hip hop and other music genres. We as people of color are often get regected and selected by selective hearing. This is one of the reasons I come at you each week with something you may never get to hear on the mainstream radio. I’m your radio personality from yesteryear. What I like you might like too!
The Radio Personalities or Disc Jockies. Was once the driving force as to what musicians and singers song got on the airwaves.
There’s a LMNO and Kev Brown Selective Hearing pt2 album! I strongly suggest you give that a listen too! Next week I got some Nxworries! ‘Till next week get out and exspand your music playlist!