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A woman at Uptown’s Pizza Milano was assaulted by a male employee Friday night when she did not leave the restaurant after he commanded her to leave.
Zone 2 police detectives are investigating the altercation captured on video by a bystander in which a male employee dressed in jeans and a grey sweater confronts a customer dressed in black and white by the entrance.
“Listen, you gotta go,” the employee says, for reasons that are not clear in the video. As he tells her to leave, he pushes the woman. Scared and upset, she says repeatedly, “Push me again,” and drops something, then bends to pick it up.
As she stands up and walks by him, the man grabs her arm, pulls her back, then pins her to the wall, shouting, “I said please!” pushing her to the ground and slamming her head against the floor as he continues to shout, “I said please!” The woman is silent as he assaults her. As it continues, the video captures customers shouts and protests, with kitchen staff running into the dining room to assist. The assaulter then shouts repeatedly, “Why you not gonna listen to me?”
The female victim reportedly went to the hospital hours after the incident where police were called to take a report. The victim has not been charged, states a memorandum from The City of Pittsburgh.
Since last night, the video has been viewed over 180,000 times. The telephone line at the restaurant has been busy.
The police have requested calls and visits from those who have information about the altercation to call or visit Zone 2 at (412) 255-2827 or 2000 Centre Avenue or the Zone 2 Substation at 600 Liberty Avenue.
Oklahoma City Workers Caught On Tape Calling Martin Luther King Day '****** Day'
Source: PBS.org
City workers in Oklahoma have resigned after a tape was released of them referring to Martin Luther King Day as “Ni**er Day.”
The recording is of Warner, Oklahoma, employees Joe Swimmer and Matt McLean, and the two of them discussing if they get a day off for MLK Day.
“Do we get Martin Luther King Day off?” Swimmer asks, to which McLean responds “No ni**er day for us.”
“We’re off for ni**er day?” Swimmer responds, and can be later heard saying “I’m not celebrating ni**er day.”
McLean then proceeds to say “We just call it JER day. James Earl Ray,” referring to the man who assassinated MLK.
“That’s what we always celebrate…not that we don’t like black people,” McLean adds after laughter from other men in the room.
Michael Wittmer, Swimmer and McLean’s coworker who recorded the conversation, said that comments like that have “been going on a long time” at the water department.
“The employees that work with me haven’t been too happy with me,” Wittmer said to Fox 25. “They feel like they were misled, but they weren’t misled. They just shouldn’t have been saying what they were saying.”
Wittmer said that after giving the tape to Tulsa World, a local publication, he went to work only to realize that his key would not open the door.
“I thought it was real disrespectful,” Wittmer said before adding that MLK deserves to be honored no “matter what color or what race you are.”
Reverend Roger Cutler, leader of the NAACP chapter in Muskogee, Oklahoma, also found the remarks disrespectful.
“It is appalling as a citizen of this state in this day and age to still have to deal with this type of racism,” Cutler said. “They don’t hate black people, well then why would you use a term that is derogatory towards someone you claim not to hate?”
City of Warner officials reportedly hosted a town hall meeting following the incident, where they addressed the resignations and promised an investigation into the incident.
"White supremacists in the United States killed more than twice as many people in 2017 as they did the year before, and were responsible for far more murders than domestic Islamic extremists, helping make 2017 the fifth deadliest year on record for extremist violence in America, a new report states.
The report, “Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2017,” published Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said extremists killed 34 people last year. Twenty of those victims — or 59 percent — were killed by right-wing extremists, a designation that includes white supremacists, members of the so-called “alt-right” and “alt-lite,” and members of the anti-government militia movement.
Of the 34 people killed, 18 were murdered by white supremacists, marking a 157 percent increase over the 7 people killed by white supremacists in 2016.
That’s also double the number of people killed by domestic Islamic extremists in 2017. Nine people were killed by domestic Islamic extremists last year, according to the report, eight of whom died in a single attack in New York.
In 2016, Islamic extremists were responsible for the bulk, about 71 percent, of domestic extremist murders in the U.S. This was largely an “aberration” however, the report states, due to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in which Omar Mateen killed 49 people and then pledged his allegiance to ISIS.
2017 marked a reversion back to the long-term trend in America, in which right-wing violence accounts for the majority of murders by domestic extremists.
From 2008 through 2017, according to the ADL, right-wing extremists have killed 274 people. That’s 71 percent of the 387 murders committed by extremists over the past 10 years.
“Americans do not have the luxury to ignore any extremist threat, including threats posed by white supremacists who are weaponizing social media and are more likely to take their actions into the streets,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, told HuffPost in a statement. “Their actions fuel controversy and conflict and their racist rhetoric and hateful ideas can inspire violence.”
The horror of right-wing extremism gained national attention in August, when more than a thousand white supremacists held a large rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The assorted racists and fascists, emboldened by President Donald Trump’s election, weren’t ashamed to show their faces, nor did they shy away from violence.
At the end of the rally, James Alex Fields Jr., a member of the far-right extremist group Vanguard America, allegedly drove his car into a crowd of protesters, injuring 19 people and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Flowers and a photo of car-ramming victim Heather Heyer lie at a makeshift memorial in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Earlier that year in May, a right-wing extremist named Jeremy Christian allegedly stabbed two men to death aboard a train in Portland, Oregon, as they tried to stop Christian from harassing two teenage girls, one of whom was black and one of whom wore hijab.
Also in May, a University of Maryland student named Sean Urbanski, who belonged to a bigoted Facebook group called “Alt-Reich Nation,” fatally stabbed Richard W. Collins III, an African-American student at Bowie State University. A prosecutor later stated that there was “lots of digital evidence” proving that the murder was racially motivated.
In March, a white supremacist from Maryland named James Harris Jackson, who frequented the alt-right website The Daily Stormer, traveled to New York to kill black men. Using a sword, he fatally stabbed a 66-year-old black man named Timothy Caughman in midtown Manhattan. He then turned himself into police.
A memorial for Timothy Caughman in New York City.
And in December of last year, two young white supremacists on opposite sides of the country allegedly committed double homicides. In Virginia, 17-year-old Nicholas Giampa, who’d grown enamored with a neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Division, killed his girlfriend’s parents after they had convinced their daughter to break up with Giampa because of his racist beliefs. In Aztec, New Mexico, 21-year-old William Atchison, who frequented white supremacist sites like The Daily Stormer, and who had grown obsessed with school shootings, killed two students at a local high school. Atchison took his own life, and Giampa attempted to and remains hospitalized in critical condition.
The increase in right-wing extremist murders helped make 2017 the fifth deadliest year on record for extremist violence since 1970, according to the ADL.
The deadliest attack last year, however, wasn’t committed by a white supremacist, but allegedly by Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist accused of driving a truck into a bike path lane in lower Manhattan, killing 8 people.
Although murders by extremists represent only a tiny fraction of the overall murder rate in the U.S. each year, “because of their nature they can have outsized impact, affecting entire communities — or even an entire country — in ways many deaths may not,” the ADL said in its report.
Moreover, the ADL noted, the deaths described in its report represent “the tip of a pyramid of extremist violence and crime in the United States; for each person actually killed by an extremist, many more are wounded or injured in attempted murders and assaults.”
Greenblatt, the ADL CEO, wrote an article in The Atlantic on Tuesday imploring the public to take the threat of right-wing violence more seriously.
“In recent years, much of the public discussion and the federal government’s focus have been on the violent threat posed by extremists inspired by ISIS, while less attention has been paid to the reality of right-wing violence,” Greenblatt wrote. “There’s no doubt that Islamic extremism is a significant threat, but we shouldn’t ignore any forms of extremism — we must tackle them all.”
On Tuesday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said in a tweet that Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen “failed to mention” the threat of domestic terror by white supremacists during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that day.
The Trump administration last year revoked federal funding for a program aimed at de-radicalizing neo-Nazis. And after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last August, the president defended the racists who gathered there, saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of that day’s demonstration.
Documents released Friday reveal that a former assistant police chief of a Louisville-area city sent disturbing text messages to a recruit, instructing him to shoot black people and commit other acts of violence. Todd Shaw reportedly resigned from the Prospect Police Department last year, and according to documents reviewed by WDRB-TV, the recruit asked what “the right thing to do” would be if he catches three juveniles smoking marijuana. Shaw’s reply: “**** the right thing. If black shoot them.” And when interacting with the children’s parents, Shaw said, “if mom is hot then **** her… if dad is hot then handcuff him and make him **** my ****.” He added: “Unless daddy is black… Then shoot him.” The ex-cop fought to prevent the release of those messages, but a court ruled that media should be allowed to view them. Shaw was previously under investigation for illegally assisting a fellow officer suspected of sexually abusing teens.
Philadelphia, PA — In America, the right of the people to peacefully express themselves shall not be infringed upon. No matter how racist, bigoted, misogynist, idiotic, controversial, or hateful, if this expression is non-violent then you, nor anyone else, have no right to silence that person or group.
That being said, when this hateful and racist expression comes from those in positions of authority, it should also not be silenced. However, that person should be fired — immediately.
One would naturally feel that a police officer with Nazi propaganda tattooed on himself would immediately be relieved of his duties as a public servant due to the horrific conflict of interests associated with Nazis. However, one would be wrong.
As the Free Thought Project reported in September, photos of Officer Ian Hans Lichterman and his tattoos spread across social media, prompting an investigation and no shortage of anger. While it is certainly Lichterman’s right to do with his own body what he pleases, as well as cover it in racist messages, it is not his right to do so as a servant of the public.
Lichterman’s department, on the other hand, disagrees. A months-long investigation into this officer’s tattoos cleared Lichterman of any violations, and the case was quietly closed in December. When Philly Voice reached out to the department to inquire whether or not any specific determinations were made about the tattoos, they chose to remain silent.
Now, the cop with Nazi tattoos on his body is free to assert his authority over the citizens of Philadelphia.
Reductio ad Hitlerum, also argumentum ad Hitlerum, is a humorous observation where someone compares an opponent’s views with those that would be held by Hitler or the Nazi Party. This comparison is often entirely inapplicable in most conversations in which it is used.
Godwin’s law is another adage asserting that, “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazism or Hitler approaches”— that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism. Again, the majority of the time this comparison is used, it is inapplicable.
Calling some police officers Nazis is not too far fetched in modern day America. All too often, we see people beaten down, tortured, or even killed over something as trivial as a cop demanding ID — see ‘Your papers please!’ or, rather, “Ihre Papiere, bitte!” However, again, it is not 100% accurate.
But when a cop actually tattoos their own skin with Nazi propaganda, all doubt is removed, and it becomes even more ominous when that cop receives the blessing of his own department for having it.
The blessing was given to Lichterman because the department allegedly has no policy on tattoos. Apparently, they are unconcerned with the fact that the tattoo represents a regime that killed millions in the name of racial supremacy. Tattoo or no tattoo, Lichterman’s views are there for the world to see, apparently, unless you are a cop.
On Tuesday, John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5, said there was “nothing wrong” with Lichterman having Nazi propaganda tattooed on his body. This comment was a reiteration of what he said in September when he told philly.com: “I’ve seen it. It’s an Eagle. Not a big deal.”
However, we tend to disagree. One does not permanently engrave on their body a symbol representing one of the most murderous regimes in the history of the world, and think it’s ‘not a big deal.’
The mayor also disagrees. In a statement released this week, Mayor Jim Kenney, who previously called the tattoos “disturbing” and “incredibly offensive,” said officials intend to change the tattoo policy to stop this from happening in the future.
McNesby, like the department, said he did not know what investigators determined the eagle to represent. However, it did not take the Free Thought Project very long to do so.
Second, only to the swastika, the partieadler eagle was used as the Nazi party emblem and is permanently inked into Lichtermann’s left forearm with the word ‘Fatherland’ over it. During the Third Reich, Fatherland was used to describe the country of Germany.
Last Summer, according to Phillymag.com, Instagram and Flickr, photographs allegedly owned by Lichtermann were removed, though many of those photographs are still online, including several of his dogs such as Gunny and Rommel.
As if the tattoo wasn’t enough, Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a senior German Army officer during World War II.
It is quite telling of the nature of police departments investigating their own that it took them several months to determine what it took us just three minutes to do on google.
When cops can be hired who openly display a symbol of tyranny, oppression, and genocide, and their department then condones it, something is very wrong.
Thomas Kawczynski, the former Jackman, Me., town manager, standing in front of the flag of New Albion, a group he founded to promote the embrace of white identity. He was ousted on Tuesday by the town selectmen. Creditvia Tom Kawczynski, via Associated Press
A small Maine town fired its manager Tuesday, days after his views promoting white identity and criticizing Islam attracted unwanted national attention.
The four selectmen of Jackman, Me., near the Canadian border, met on Tuesday morning and unanimously voted to end their relationship with the official, Thomas Kawczynski. He had been in the position since June.
“He pulled the wool right over our eyes and we had no clue what he was about,” said Raymond Levesque, who attended the meeting and owns a laundromat, ice cream parlor and general store in town.
Under the agreement, Mr. Kawczynski, whose contract promised a payout if he was terminated without cause, received a $30,000 settlement on the condition that he not take legal action against the town, said Warren Shay, a lawyer for Jackman.
Mr. Shay said that, not including the media, about 60 people attended the Tuesday meeting, weathering a mix of heavy freezing rain and snow. Fewer than 1,000 people live in Jackman, according to the 2010 census. The town is overwhelmingly white, according to that census, which listed 15 people of mixed race, nine American Indians or other indigenous people, five Asians and one black person.
Mr. Kawczynski’s views drew widespread condemnation late last week when The Bangor Daily News and The Portland Press Herald quoted him and statements he made online at the website of New Albion, a group he founded whose stated aim is “defending the people and culture of New England.”
Archived versions of the website show that Mr. Kawczynski had argued that voluntary segregation would improve happiness for all and, in one now-removed post, he wrote of what he perceived as “resentment against whites” and the need for a movement around white identity.
“You’re the ambassador for the race,” he wrote. “Every person you meet can walk away from seeing you thinking white nationalism is a good thing or a bad thing.”
Mr. Kawczynski had also called Islam “the scourge of Western civilization,” according to The Bangor Daily News, though that statement appeared to have been taken down.
In an interview with The Times on Tuesday, Mr. Kawczynski pushed back against the news reports, arguing that he had been taken out of context and is not a supremacist, a separatist or a nationalist.
“This is not a movement based on racism,” he said.
Instead, he said he was simply trying to bring a conversation into the open.
“There are a great many people who have thoughts that are not considered permissible,” he said, “and if the media and the lynch mob determine to force them into darkness then don’t be surprised when the darkness comes back in the form in which it was required to develop.”
The reports about Mr. Kawczynski’s beliefs drew swift condemnation.
In a statement, the Maine Town, City and County Management Association rejected and condemned Mr. Kawczynski’s views, describing them as “fundamentally incompatible” with his role.
In a since-removed Facebook post, the Jackman-Moose River Region Chamber of Commerce noted that interviewees are not asked their views on politics, race or nationality and described his beliefs as “shocking and offensive.”
In Maine, a town manager has several responsibilities, from handling budgets to promoting local tourism. Jackman, often described as a gateway to Canada, relies heavily on visitors for revenue.
“It’s a major route from Quebec down to and through Maine, and they pride themselves on being a welcoming community to everybody who wants to come,” Mr. Shay said.
Mr. Kawczynski’s termination was effective immediately, Mr. Shay said. “When we left, he turned in his keys and card and was on his way.”
WYCON COSMETICS UNDER FIRE FOR NAMING BLACK NAIL POLISH ‘THICK AS A *****’
ANGELA WILSON
JANUARY 23, 2018
Not long after retail fashion powerhouse H&M came under fire for it’s controversial “coolest monkey in the jungle” hoodie and Dove‘s ad promising visibly lighter skin, Italian beauty brandWycon Cosmetics has joined the cancelled list. The brand, which launched a new line of nail polishes, named it’s black polish: “Thick As A N*gga.”
After being blasted by vlogger Loretta Grace, leading to a backlash firestorm, Wycon defended their choice of names, calling their choices of shade names ‘a bit crazy,’ explaining that their polish names are inspired by hip hop singles, such as Drop it Like it’s Hot, Bootylicious and Candy Shop. According to the brand, the controversial polish name was inspired by a DBangz song called ‘Thick N****s and Anime Tiddies.” The cosmetic firm has also used controversial names for polish names in the past – including Dirty Talk and Lap Girl.
Initially, the company had not issued an apology, but did post in their heated Instagramcomments:
“We’re sorry that this post has triggered these types of reactions: every colour from our Gel On collection is inspired, with a cheerful attitude and a pinch of naivety, by famous song titles, many of which derive from the landscape of hip hop.”
The nail polishes are still available for purchase on their website, with numbers listed instead of polish names.
On Monday, January 22 the brand did issue a formal apology on their Instagram, with the hashtag #NoOneExcluded.
What do you think? Do you accept their apology?
LaDonna Horne still can’t quite believe an alleged hate crime landed her 26-year-old son in the intensive-care unit at Harborview Medical Center with a traumatic brain injury.
“You just never think it’s going to happen to you or so close to home. I was just telling someone, ‘It’s different out here. Everybody gets along. It’s so diverse,’ ” Horne, who is African American, said Tuesday.
It was the 11th day Horne, other family members and her son’s large circle of friends have kept vigil at the hospital while they wait for DaShawn Horne to wake up from injuries sustained in what police are calling an unprovoked attack with a baseball bat.
As his uncles, we taught him to protect himself,” said Ray Jenkins, who is considered family even though he isn’t related to Horne. “But to be attacked from behind because of the color of his skin …”
“Who can be prepared for that?” said LaDonna Horne’s brother, Rodney King, finishing his best friend’s sentence.
Auburn police and King County prosecutors say Horne is the victim of a brutal assault and hate crime, perpetrated by the 18-year-old brother of a young woman with whom Horne spent a night.
Julian Tuimauga, of Auburn, was charged last week with first-degree assault and malicious harassment — the state’s hate-crime statute — and remains in the King County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, jail and court records show.
From what his family has been able to piece together, Horne, a mail handler for the U.S. Postal Service who lives in Kent, had a rare Friday night off Jan. 19. He wanted to go to a particular nightclub in Seattle’s Pioneer Square but couldn’t get in, so he went to another nearby club instead. There, he met a woman in her 20s and the two “hit it off,” LaDonna Horne said.
At the end of the night, she invited him back to her place in Auburn.
The next morning, the woman called a Lyft car to drive Horne home, according to his relatives and charging papers.
It was the Lyft driver — who had backed into the driveway of a home in the 600 block of 27th Street Southeast — who witnessed the assault and called 911 just before 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 20, the charges say.
According to charging papers:
Tuimauga was carrying an aluminum baseball bat when he approached the Lyft driver and asked who the driver was there to pick up. The driver gave Tuimauga’s sister’s name as the person who had requested the ride, then watched as Tuimauga walked to a corner of the fenced yard.
A short time later, the driver saw Horne walk along the side of the house toward the driveway and heard him argue with Tuimauga, the charges say. He “then heard a thump sound like a bat had struck something,” according to charging papers.
The driver looked back and saw Tuimauga strike Horne in the head twice with the bat and watched him fall to the ground, the charges say.
At that point, the driver heard Tuimauga say, “This is what happens when you bring black people around here,” the charges say.
The Lyft driver drove away and parked two houses down, where he saw Tuimauga hit Horne three more times with the bat while he was lying unconscious on the ground, the charges say.
Part of the attack was captured by a neighbor’s video-surveillance camera, and the footage shows Tuimauga armed with the bat and Horne “falling into the frame” already unconscious, charging papers say.
While Horne was lying bloody in the front yard, Tuimauga used his cellphone to video-record the injured man while yelling racial slurs at him, the charges say.
According to the charges, Tuimauga repeatedly used the N-word.
State law defines malicious harassment — a felony commonly referred to as a hate crime— as intentionally injuring, damaging property or threatening someone because of his or her perception of the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental, physical or sensory handicap.
Tuimauga’s father and sister were inside the home and did not witness the attack, the charges say. But the sister told police her brother later broke down her bedroom door and called her a “*****,” charging papers say.
Police say Tuimauga later told detectives he was “in a rage” because he believed his sister and Horne had sex, the charges say.
At Harborview, doctors removed parts of Horne’s skull to relieve swelling in his brain, the charges say.
His brother, Obediyah Israel, set up a GoFundMe page on Friday to help cover his brother’s medical bills, lost wages and child support for his 16-month-old son, Deion. So far, the campaign has raised more than $3,800 of a $25,000 goal.
Man Ill just say this...yall be careful going to see that Black Panther movie premiere in theaters.
Seems like prime target locations for some BS to go down