A Black Lives Matter organizer is facing felony charges for allegedly stealing flags during a pro-Trump caravan, reports say

insider@insider.com (Taylor Ardrey)

July 22, 2020, 7:17 PM

Jonathan Gartrelle (L), participating in a protest against police brutality, confronts a demonstrator taking part in a counter demonstration advertised as a Law and Order Rally that was also supporting President Donald Trump on June 14, 2020 in Miami, Florida. Protests continue in cities throughout the country over the death of George Floyd, who died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25th.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

• A Miami Black Lives Matter protest organizer is facing felony charges after he was accused of stealing flags from a car during a "Cubans for Trump" caravan.
• Jonathan Gartrelle is being charged with two felonies; strong-arm robbery and escape, as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting an officer without violence and obstructing a public street, according to the Miami Herald.
• Gartelle told the Miami Herald that the charges were "overblown," adding, "Their goal is to have me in jail for two weeks, get beaten up by some officers, and distract from the movement."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A Miami protester is accused of stealing flags from a car during a pro-Trump caravan event that occurred last Saturday, according to The Miami Herald.
According to a police report obtained by Insider, Jonathan Gartrelle, a Black Lives Matter organizer in Miami, is charged with two felonies: strong-arm robbery and escape. He is also charged with resisting an officer, obstructing a public street, and criminal mischief.
At a "Cubans for Trump" caravan, an event planned to "support police and law and order," an officer observed Gartrelle preventing traffic on the road, the report from the Miami Police Department said. The officer also saw Gartrelle "removing flags fixed to passing vehicles, damaging them and discarding them in the roadway," the report said.
The officer then tried to arrest Gartrelle, but he was able to escape, according to the police. The officer said Gartelle removed his garments to disguise himself in the crowd of protestors.
According to the police report, a witness who was in the passenger seat of a white vehicle was able to identify Gartrelle to the police and said a flag was "ripped" from their hand as it was waved out of the passenger side window. The witness stated that Gartelle "attacked them for no reason," the report said.
Gartrelle was arrested on Monday after he was identified due to his posts on Instagram, where he provided commentary on the incidents. Gartrelle also posted about organizing a rally in front of the Miami Police Department to demand an investigation into a "possibly fatal hit-and-run."
At the event on Saturday, Gartrelle had told an officer on scene that he had been hit by a vehicle during the caravan event after he walked in front of it. But according to the police report, Gartrelle didn't "want to do anything" after disclosing the incident.
Gartrelle did not want to press charges, a spokeswoman for the Miami police, Kiara Delva, told the Miami Herald.
However, since the incident, he has been demanding justice.
On Monday, Gartrelle was spotted and arrested before the rally, according to a petition demanding the police "investigate the assailants who attempted to harm him immediately." The petition is also demanding the officers involved to be held accountable for his "unlawful targeting and arrest."
According to the police report, officers who attempted to arrest Gartrelle had previously come in contact with him "since the first protests began on May 30, 2020 and multiple protests the defendant attended thereafter."
According to the Miami Herald, Gartrelle was released on bond Tuesday.
Gartrelle told the newspaper that the charges against him were "overblown," saying he took two flags from parked cars and threw them on the ground, but did not steal them.
"Their goal is to have me in jail for two weeks, get beaten up by some officers, and distract from the movement," Gartrelle said, according to the outlet.
Jonathan Gartrelle did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Read the original article on Insider

please pass this along........I Can't Do That, Boss': Texas FedEx Driver Refuses to Help Fallen 89-Year-Old

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cant-boss-texas-fedex-driver-172854262.html

U.S.

'I Can't Do That, Boss': Texas FedEx Driver Refuses to Help Fallen 89-Year-Old

July 21, 2020, 1:28 PM

Scroll back up to restore default view.

A FedEx delivery driver refused to assist an 89-year-old man asking for help after he had fallen on a porch in Freeport, Texas, on July 18.Maria Kouches, the daughter of the elderly man, owns the Ring camera that captured the footage. Kouches’s father can be heard saying, “Hello, help, please. Give me a hand. I need to get up.”From a distance the driver can be heard responding, “I can’t do that, boss.”Kouches told media outlets her father had fallen about 15 minutes before the delivery was made. She explained he has fallen before and he has dementia and trouble with his legs. She told ABC 30 that her father moves around with his walker, and was “maybe trying to go back inside and his leg gave out.”Kouches wrote in a Facebook post that the driver didn’t even “ring the doorbell or call 911!”Kouches told Storyful her father is “doing fine” and wanted to “thank everyone for their concern.”FedEx issued the following response to Storyful: “We extend our thoughts and concerns for the well-being of the person depicted in this video. The safety of our team members and customers in the communities that we serve is our highest priority. We are reviewing the circumstances behind this incident and will take the appropriate action.” Credit: Maria Kouches via Storyful

People are NO LONGER judged by their actions.....

it is all about the color of your skin.

you could be the nicest person in the world, but if the color of your skin is not like the person judging you.... you are SCUM.


YES, it just happened.

As soon as you hear the word " DEMAND "...... instantly turn your back.

NO ONE SHOULD EVER be able to "demand" anything.

Associated Press

ViacomCBS drops Nick Cannon, cites 'anti-Semitic' comments

LYNN ELBER

July 15, 2020, 1:37 AM

FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2018, file photo Nick Cannon poses for a portrait in New York. Cannon's “hateful speech” and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories led ViacomCBS to cut ties with the performer, the media giant said. “ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism," the company said in a statement Tuesday, July 14, 2020. It is terminating its relationship with Cannon, ViacomCBS said. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision/AP, File)

 

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nick Cannon's “hateful speech” and anti-Semitic theories led ViacomCBS to cut ties with the TV host and producer, the media giant said.
“ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism," the company said in a statement Tuesday. It is terminating its relationship with Cannon, ViacomCBS said.

The company's move was in response to remarks made by Cannon on a podcast in which he and Richard “Professor Griff” Griffith, the former Public Enemy member, discussed racial bias. The podcast reportedly was filmed last year and aired two weeks ago.

“We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast ‘Cannon’s Class’ on YouTube, which promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” ViacomCBS said.
“While we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight against bigotry, we are deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti-Semitism, and we are terminating our relationship with him,” the company said.

Cannon produced “Wild ’n Out,” a comedy improv series for VH1, a ViacomCBS-owned cable channel. He's been a regular part of TV shows unconnected to the company, including as the former host of NBC's “America's Got Talent” and host of Fox's “The Masked Singer.”
There was no immediate response to requests for comment made to a representative for Cannon and to him through his website. Fox also didn't immediately respond to a request for commen

In Cannon's hour-plus podcast, he and Griffin contend that Black people are the true Hebrews and that Jews have usurped their identity.

Cannon then segues into a discussion of skin color — “And I’m going to say this carefully,” he begins — to allege that people who lack sufficient melanin are “a little less.”
Those without dark skin have a “deficiency” that historically forced them to act out of fear and commit acts of violence to survive, he said.
“They had to be savages,” Cannon said, adding that he was referring to “Jewish people, white people, Europeans,” among others.

ViacomCBS’ action came as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the basketball great and writer, condemned several sports and entertainment celebrities for anti-Semitic tweets and posts and what he called a “shocking lack of indignation” in response.
Abdul-Jabbar made his comments in a column for The Hollywood Reporter that didn’t refer to Cannon.
As controversy over his remarks began to bubble up Monday, Cannon replied in a Facebook post.
“I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric ... The Black and Jewish communities have both faced enormous hatred, oppression persecution and prejudice for thousands of years and in many ways have and will continue to work together to overcome these obstacles," he wrote.
In the lengthy post, Cannon also said he welcomed being held accountable for his statement and that held himself accountable “for this moment and take full responsibility."

NEVER....EVER apologize for YOUR OPINION

Freedom of Speech is YOUR RIGHT !

U.S.

Gun violence kills 160 as holiday weekend exposes tale of 'two Americas'

Joanna Walters in New York and agencies

July 7, 2020, 5:00 AM EDT

Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

A six-year-old in Philadelphia, a seven-year-old in Chicago, an eight-year-old in Atlanta, a 15-year-old in New York, all shot. Community cries of “enough is enough”.
Neighborhoods in some of the largest US cities erupted in gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend, killing an estimated 160 people and leaving more than 500 wounded from Friday night to Sunday.
Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, declared a state of emergency on Monday after 31 people were shot and five killed over the weekend in Atlanta. He authorized 1,000 national guard troops to “protect state property and patrol our streets”.
Related: 'There are two pandemics': Chicago's gun violence persists amid lockdown

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But Chicago saw the worst violence in one of the bloodiest holiday weekends in recent memory, ending with 17 people fatally shot including a seven-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy and 63 more wounded, an increase of five shootings on the high figures that had marred the holiday weekend the previous year.

Chicago police investigate the scene where a seven-year-old girl was fatally shot in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago on Friday. Photograph: Tyler LaRiviere/AP

Despite an effort that included an additional 1,200 officers on the streets and pleas from the city’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, for residents not to reverse limited progress that had been made against the epidemic of gun violence, Lightfoot lamented the children whose “hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun”.
The city’s south and west sides have seen worse weekends this year, however, and a one-year-old and a three-year-old were killed during recent shootings. The rising violence prompted Donald Trump to write to Lightfoot and the Illinois governor, JB Priztker, both Democrats, accusing them of receiving more than $1bn in special federal funding for anti-crime measures and coronavirus relief that was “not being turned into results”.
“Your lack of leadership … continues to fail the people you have sworn to protect,” the letter said.
Lightfoot dismissed Trump’s letter as “all talk, little action”.

Secoriea Turner, eight, was killed near a Wendy’s in Atlanta. Photograph: Atlanta Police Department Handout/EPA

The shooting death of an eight-year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, in Atlanta, prompted the mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to call for justice while noting the shadow such street violence casts over the huge and largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests against racism and police brutality.
“Enough is enough,” Bottoms said. “If you want people to take us seriously and you don’t want us to lose this movement, we can’t lose each other.”
The shooting happened near the Wendy’s restaurant where a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, was killed by a white police officer in June.
“She was only eight years old,” Charmaine Turner said of her daughter Secoriea. “Right now, she would have been on TikTok, dancing on her phone.”
Atlanta police said two other people were killed and more than 20 injured in gunfire during the holiday weekend.
In New York, a series of shootings on Saturday and Sunday claimed at least nine lives and wounded 41 others in a rise in incidents in some neighborhoods. A 15-year-old boy was wounded in the Bronx.
And in Philadelphia, a six-year-old boy died of a gunshot wound amid five fatal shootings in about five hours on Sunday afternoon, police said.
The Trace, a non-profit news website covering gun violence in the US, which tallied the weekend toll of shootings in the US, reported that preliminary research from the University of California, Davis, has found a potential link between the rise in violence and a surge in gun-buying during the coronavirus pandemic, of more than 2.1 million more guns than usual between March and May.

Chicago is, woefully, a tale of two cities and across the country it’s a tale of two Americas
Rev Gregory Livingston

The Rev Gregory Livingston, a pastor and civil rights leader who moved to New York last summer after many years running an anti-violence community organization in his native Chicago, spoke of Chicago “going through absolute madness”.
But he warned that nationwide systemic racism that is not being addressed, and the “violent history” of America that has not been reckoned with were dividing people and causing some communities to break down.
“Chicago is, woefully, a tale of two cities, and across the country it’s a tale of two Americas. Chicago is a very segregated city, and that legacy is part of what’s fueling this horrific violence,” Livingston told the Guardian.
He condemned “corruption and racism” and said the pandemic and economic fallout had exacerbated inequality. The pandemic has been disproportionately hard on Black Americans already suffering economic and healthcare deprivations.
Livingston campaigned strongly to vote out the previous Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel. Lightfoot has been in the position since May 2019, and has just appointed a new police chief.

The Rev Gregory Livingston: ‘Chicago is a very segregated city and that legacy is part of what’s fueling this horrific violence.’ Photograph: Joshua Lott/The Guardian

Lightfoot agreed with Livingston’s point that a long history of segregation in Chicago and under-investment were “at the root” of the “explosion” of violence.
“You have to give a sense of hope. You have to reach out to those young men on the corners who are the shooters, but it can’t just be on the police and the city government. It’s all hands on deck,” Lightfoot said.
She said of Trump: “We are leading. He needs to take our lead and follow it.”
Livingston called on Lightfoot to tackle racism and policing problems “head on”.
“There is an individual responsibility [among those shooting], but there are also conditions that create a climate of violence,” he said.
He accused the New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, of being “scared” of confronting racism in the New York police department. “There is no courage in city hall,” he said.
And he warned mayors across the US that Chicago was the “control” for what would happen elsewhere this summer if inequality and the demands of protesters coast to coast since George Floyd, an African American, was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer did not spur change.
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, declared herself dismayed that she was not asked about the weekend shootings at her briefing on Monday, despite citing “a doubling of shootings in New York City for the third straight week”.

Multiple shootings in multiple Democrat-run cities such as New York and Chicago. Tragic loss of life.

But not one question during the briefing... pic.twitter.com/krdPbmyr1w
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) July 6, 2020

Journalists at the briefing responded that she had ended the 22-minute briefing and departed while many were still waiting, hands raised, to ask questions.