A great white shark swimming in Plettenberg Basy, South Africa caused surfers to head to shore.
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Thursday, June 25, 2020
Police Union’s Claim That NYPD Officers Were ‘Poisoned’ From Shake Shack Milkshakes is False
Last week, there were reports of NYPD police officers drinking poisoned milkshakes from a Shake Shack located in Manhattan and the police union stating that this was a targeted attack against the officers involved. According to the Detectives Endowment Association the officers were “intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack” As it turns out, the story was a complete farce, according to The New York Post.
The three police officers, who work at a Bronx precinct, ordered the drinks from a Shake Shack that is located at 200 Broadway in Manhattan. The order was placed via a mobile app, around 7:30 p.m. early last week. According to police sources, the order wasn’t done in person, so the Shake Shack employees could not have known that the order placed was from the police. The order was ready for pick up when the officers did indeed arrive, so that would also eliminate the chance for anyone to poison or tamper with their drinks.
After claiming the shakes didn’t taste right and tossing the drinks in the garbage, the store manager apologized and gave the officers vouchers for free food or drinks.
Shortly thereafter, after telling their sergeant about the incident, the Emergency Service Unit was called and they set up a crime scene at the Shake Shack. The three officers were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where they were examined and released without ever showing symptoms, sources said.
After interviewing employees and reviewing surveillance footage showing the shakes were made normally, detectives essentially closed the case.
Shortly before 11 PM, the Detectives Endowment Association publicly stated officers had become “ill” after being “intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack.” The Police Benevolent Association also declared at 10:47 PM that police officers came “under attack” from a “toxic substance, believed to be bleach.”
Then Chief Rodney Harrison made an announcement via Twitter.
After a thorough investigation by the NYPD’s Manhattan South investigators, it has been determined that there was no criminality by shake shack’s employees.
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) June 16, 2020
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) and Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) have demanded a probe into the unions’ alleged “inflammatory” behavior.
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Everybody else
It’s natural to believe that everyone else is as confident, assured, long-term thinking and generous as you are on your very best day.
But that’s unlikely. Because everyone else is probably not having their best day at the same time.
Once we realize that the world around us is filled with people who are each wrestling with what we’re wrestling with (and more), compassion is a lot easier to find.
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Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Helping consumers in a crisis
A new study shows that the central bank tool known as quantitative easing helped consumers substantially during the last big economic downturn — a finding with clear relevance for today’s pandemic-hit economy.
More specifically, the study finds that one particular form of quantitative easing — in which the U.S. Federal Reserve purchased massive amounts of mortgage-backed securities — drove down mortgage interest rates, allowed consumers to refinance their house loans and spend more on everyday items, and in turn bolstered the economy.
“Quantitative easing has a really big effect, but it does matter who it targets,” says Christopher Palmer, an MIT economist and co-author of a recently published paper detailing the results of the study.
All told, the study finds, the Fed’s so-called QE1 phase from late November 2008 through March 2010, a part of the larger quantitative easing program, generated about $600 billion in mortgage refinancing at lower interest rates, bringing about $76 billion worth of additional spending back into the broader economy.
However, as the study also demonstrates, the people benefitting from QE1 were a relatively circumscribed group of mortgage holders: borrowers from the Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So while observers may talk about quantitative easing as a “helicopter drop” of money, scattered across the public, the Fed’s previous interventions were relatively targeted. Recognizing that fact could shape policy decisions in the future.
“It’s not like the Fed drops money from a helicopter and then it lands randomly and uniformly and equally across the population, and people pick up those dollars and spend money and are off to the races,” Palmer says. “The Fed intervenes in specific ways, and specific people benefit.”
The paper, “How Quantitative Easing Works: Evidence on the Refinancing Channel,” is published in the latest issue of the Review of Economic Studies. The authors are Marco Di Maggio, an associate professor at Harvard Business School; Amir Kermani, an associate professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley; and Palmer, the Albert and Jeanne Clear Career Development Assistant Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Mortgage relief for some
The introduction of quantitative easing during the Great Recession was a notable expansion of the tools used by central banks. Rather than limiting its holdings to treasury securities, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s purchase of mortgage-backed securities — bonds backed by home loans — gave it more scope to boost the economy, by lowering interest rates in another area of the bond market.
The first round of quantitative easing, QE1, which began in November 2008, included $1.25 trillion in mortgage purchases. The second round, QE2, which started in September 2010, focused exclusively on treasury securities. The third round, QE3, was initiated in September 2012 and was a combination of mortgage and treasury security purchases.
To conduct the study, the researchers drew heavily on a database from Equifax, the giant consumer credit reporting agency, which includes detailed individual-level information about mortgages. That includes the size of individual loans, their interest rates, and other liabilities. The database covered about 65 percent of the mortgage market.
“It basically allowed us to trace the flow of Fed mortgage purchases down to individual households — we could see who was refinancing when the Fed was intervening to make interest rates lower,” Palmer says.
The study found that refinancing activity increased by about 170 percent during QE1, with interest rates dropping from about 6.5 percent to 5 percent. However, the Fed purchasing activity was highly focused on “conforming” mortgages — those fitting the guidelines of the GSEs, which often mandate having loans cover no more than 80 percent of a home’s value.
With the Fed not aiming its resources at nonconforming mortgages, much less refinancing occurred from people with those kinds of home loans.
“We saw a really big difference in who seemed like they were getting credit during quantitative easing,” Palmer says.
That means QE1 bypassed many people who needed it the most. Consumers with nonconforming mortgages, on aggregate, were in worse financial straits than people who could put more equity into their homes initially.
Checking the data geographically, the researchers also found that much less refinancing occurred in the “sand states” where a huge number of subprime, nonconforming mortgages were issued — especially Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and the Inland Empire region of California.
“People who are outside the conforming mortgage system are often those who need help the most, whether that’s because their loan size is too big, or their equity is too small, or their credit score is too low,” Palmer says. “They often needed the stimulus most and yet couldn’t get it because credit was too tight.”
Take it easy
Given both the success and targeted nature of QE1, Palmer suggests that future interventions could be broadened.
“One of our takeaways is that if the Fannie and Freddie requirements can be temporarily loosened, then Federal reserve QE purchases can do a lot more good, because they can reach more borrowers,” Palmer says.
More broadly, surveying the economic landscape as the Covid-19 pandemic continues, Palmer says we should continue to examine how central banks can provide relief, and to whom. With interest rates very low, the U.S. Federal Reserve cannot offer much broad relief by adjusting rates. More help may come from efforts like the Main Street Lending Program facilitated by the CARES Act, which runs through September.
“When credit markets get locked up, there’s less opportunity for your local restaurant or auto-body garage or toy store to take advantage of the fact that the interest rates are lower,” Palmer says. Instead, targeted programs are “really an attempt to focus the monetary stimulus directly from the Fed to the people who need it.”
To be sure, consumers gaining credit relief may not be as willing to spend right now as they were in 2008 or 2010. But given the economic struggles of 2020, freeing up any additional spending would be productive, Palmer says.
“If people can refinance right now, they’re probably not going on shopping sprees,” he says. “But there is still a lot of consumption happening that is very valuable.”
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Man sues Georgia police after suffering broken arm during false arrest
The police department in Valdosta, Georgia, is facing a lawsuit by a Black man who was the victim of mistaken identity and “unnecessary and excessive” use of force.
Antonio Arnelo Smith, 47, filed a federal suit last week against the city and the officers who caused his injuries during an Feb, 8 incident. Police bodycam captured the encounter, showing a sergeant slamming Smith to the ground after mistaking him for a suspect in a panhandling case.
Smith pleads his innocence but the officers on the scene are not trying to hear it. He is heard screaming in pain as they struggle to cuff him over an alleged warrant for his arrest, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
READ MORE: Georgia grand jury indicts all three defendants in Ahmaud Arbery killing
Moments after Smith informs the sergeant that he broke his wrist, the patrolman who initially approached Smith finally realizes that they roughed up the wrong man.
Watch the madness unfold via the Twitter video below:
Three police officers stopped this man on the side of the road, accused him of suspicious activity, picked him up, slammed him down, broke his wrist, handcuffed him while he was screaming — then realized they had the wrong man.
Because – skin color…
pic.twitter.com/awfLk2DNRP— Rex Chapman
(@RexChapman) June 24, 2020
“This is another guy,” the officer with the bodycam says. “The guy with the warrant’s over there.”
The cuffs are then removed and Smith is informed that an ambulance is on the way.
“I was getting ready to put my hands behind my back,” Smith said. “He forcibly picked me up.”
The disturbing encounter shows Smith is calm. He complies and provides ID when asked. The cops still opted to act as judge, jury and possibly executioner had they not realized their error.
Smith was later hospitalized and diagnosed with “distal radial and ulnar fractures,” per the lawsuit.
“From the moment Mr. Smith was slammed to the ground until he walked away, he cried and screamed in agonizing pain,” reads the lawsuit.
Smith’s lawyer, Nathaniel Haugabrook, said his client’s civil rights were violated.
He explained to the Valdosta Daily Times that Smith had the right “to be free from an unlawful arrest, unlawful detention and all of the other rights that goes along with us being citizens.”
Smith is reportedly seeking $700,000 in compensation.
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Mayor De Blasio to install Black Lives Matter mural in front of Trump Tower
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has a message for the Trump Administration: Black Lives Matter.
De Blasio intends to drive this point by installing a massive mural dedicated to the movement outside Trump Tower next month, New York Post reports.
“Obviously he is doing it to antagonize the president,” a source told the publication. “This is what he is concerned about while the city burns. What an amateur politician.”
From New York, to D.C. and Stockholm, artists are honoring the BLM movement and urban communities with street murals that are helping activists channel their voices positively.
READ MORE: NYC Mayor de Blasio’s daughter arrested during George Floyd protest
.@realDonaldTrump: we’re in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Stop the anti-immigrant dog whistles. Start working on a REAL recovery to get families back on their feet. https://t.co/CdgUkAInak
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) June 23, 2020
Most recently a Black Lives Matter mural was reportedly painted in large yellow letters on the floor of Fulton Street in Brooklyn. A similar mural is expected to be painted outside of Trump Tower, along Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. It is set to appear before the July 4 weekend.
“We see a lot of people slowing down when they drive over it because it is something different and a message we are carrying forward,” said Oklahoma City Councilwoman Nikki Nice. She worked with the local chapter of Black Lives Matter to paint murals downtown, which she said “turned into a real community effort.”
De Blasio’s mural project is expected to receive similar community support amid the ongoing protests over police brutality and racial injustice. Some critics, however, are not convinced that the mayor genuinely cares about the movement or its message.
“There’s no evidence that Black lives actually do matter to Mayor De Blasio,” former Rep. Nan Hayworth tweeted. “He’s made schools, housing, and the economy worse. Black lives are being lost in despair and violence. A mural changes nothing.”
The move to install the mural comes as De Blasio and Trump’s contentious relationship continues to escalate over the president’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as his response to the protests that erupted following the police killing of George Floyd.
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‘Days of Our Lives’ star Melissa Reeves slammed over anti-BLM stance
Actress Melissa Reeves of Days of Our Lives fame is under fire for co-signing several anti-Black Lives Matters tweets from right-wing radical Candace Owens.
Earlier this week, Reeves’ fans were left disappointed when she came out against the BLM movement. The soap star is catching heat for “liking” several of Owens’ social media posts, including one calling the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks “justified” and another describing COVID-19 as a “scamdemic” that “was cancelled to accommodate the Left’s nationwide anarchist riots,” per ET Canada.
One Twitter user called Reeves “trash,” while The Deveraux Daily wrote, “I’m heartbroken. I’ve devoted so much of my time and money to support a person who has made it abundantly clear she values statues over human lives. I feel like a fool.”
READ MORE: Don Lemon, Candace Owens react to Dave Chappelle disses in new Netflix special
Several fans defended her stance, with one noting that she found Reeves to be “completely lovely and non-judgmental” after meeting the TV star at several Days of Our Lives events, New York Post reports.
Reeves co-star, Linsey Godfrey, fired back at the fan’s remark, writing “Yea but even the nicest people can have awful views. Plenty of nice people have awful moral compasses. I can’t associate w/ it because it makes me a hypocrite. I condemn all those hateful & harmful beliefs.”
When a user addressed Godfrey directly, asking, “She doesn’t agree with you politically & she’s a christian, so she’s automatically a bigot?” The actor replied, “Yes. Supporting a company that donates money to gay conversion therapies and is actively anti LGBTQ+ is ok with you? Not supporting BLM is ok with you?,” he wrote.
Adding “There is NO difference in opinion when it comes to racism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia. Period. Ever.”
Yes.
Supporting a company that donates money to gay conversion therapies and is actively anti LGBTQ+ is ok with you? Not supporting BLM is ok with you?
There is NO difference in opinion when it comes to racism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia. Period. Ever.— Linsey Godfrey (@linseygodfrey) June 24, 2020
Reeves’ political views were also condemned by the popular Instagram fan account Days of Our Lives Classics.
In a message posted to the page on Wednesday, the administrator(s) wrote, ““Being a racist/bigot is not something we should tolerate/ignore/accept,” read the caption. “I know Missy is ‘Days’ vet and a lot of us have loved her every since she came to Salem in 1985. But I just can’t support this kind of behavior. It’s not acceptable.”
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Milwaukee crowd burns suspected sex trafficking house
A crowd in Milwaukee suspected there was a sex trafficking house in their neighborhood and decided to take justice into their hands by burning down the place.
Heavy reported that people were angry about the disappearance of teenagers Gilbreana Perkins, 13, and Tydrianna Perkins, 15, who hadn’t been seen since Sunday. Worried neighbors confronted the police on Tuesday at the house where the girls had been seen earlier in the week. The police came in search of the girls Monday and Tuesday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but didn’t locate them.
READ MORE: Activists raise money to post alleged sex trafficking victim Chrystul Kizer’s bail
On Tuesday, police responded to a chaotic scene, where an angry crowd was gathering, placing crime scene tape around the house and looking into a van parked outside. A man was then removed from the home. Several videos shared to social media contained graphic language and content as the ordeal unfolded.
(Warning: Graphic video)
In Milwaukee they got word on a guy who was "Trafficking Black girls" they subsequently gave him everything he had coming!#LeaveBlackPeopleAlone #NoAntiBlackRacism pic.twitter.com/EIAnyTH2OC
— #FirstThem NEWS
(@FirstThemNEWS) June 24, 2020
According to Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales, bricks were thrown at police amid shouts to defund them. Officers in riot gear faced down the crowd at one point.
(Photo: Facebook)
The officers left around 3 p.m. and two hours later, around 5:20 p.m., the apparently vacant house was set on fire.
The girls were eventually found but Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales stated in a press conference that evening that there had been little cooperation from the family.
Milwaukee burned down this Pedophiles house today. pic.twitter.com/QtqdFIUyTa
— Sarah McKenzie (@sarah_veenstra) June 24, 2020
“This whole chain of events could have been avoided,” Morales said. Three people, including two teenagers, both 14, and a 24-year-old man, were also reportedly shot but survived with non-life-threatening injuries. Police were not involved in the shootings.
Community activist Frank Sensabaugh, known to the community as Frank Nitty, recounted what led up to the arson in a Livestream and had a different version of events.
(Warning: NSFW Graphic language, audio and video)
Missing kids tracked to this house
Posted by Frank Nitty II on Tuesday, June 23, 2020
“It started with this house, missing kids. When the people called the police, the police came and didn’t do s**t basically, so the people decided themselves to come back to the house. They said people left the house, little kids left the house,” he recounted.
Milwaukee enters the simulation on some vigilante shit against some alleged sex traffickers.. local media reported some young girls were rescued. #Milwaukee pic.twitter.com/QisBhQyk9j
— roberto pedone (@zerosum24) June 23, 2020
“So, when they came to the door, people started shooting throughout the door. Then the police came and arrested the people for shooting through the door. The detective told me he didn’t find any evidence of the missing kids in the house.”
Nitty continued by saying people entered the home and found shorts with blood on them. They believed that person who lived in the house was a sex offender but the police were not certain of that. The response, including officials not issuing an Amber Alert forced them to “take our city back” and take action.
“We have all these Black kids missing,” Nitty said and argued that the police weren’t doing “sh**t about it.”
Police spokesman Sgt. Sheronda Grant said that the girls did not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
She said it is still unclear whether the girls were victims of trafficking.
“That’s something that we are looking into,” she said. “So that’s under review. However, I cannot confirm that that is the case.”
READ MORE: Cyntoia Brown-Long not involved in new Netflix doc on her life
Morales asked residents of the neighborhood for patience as they try to figure out exactly what happened.
“We can’t allow an unruly crowd to determine what that investigation is. What you had today is vigilantism,” he said, adding that there was a lot of disinformation circulating about the incident. “You had people take the law into their own hands and run off of information that has not been proven. We need to investigate that… we need to determine what crimes have been committed,” he said.
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Will Smith, Warner Bros. sued over Richard Williams biopic
Will Smith is amongst those named in a new lawsuit over King Richard, an upcoming movie based on the life of Venus and Serena Williams’ father Richard Williams.
According to a report released by Deadline on Wednesday, Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Richard Williams, Williams’ son Chavoita Lesane, production company Star Thrower Entertainment, and others are also listed as defendants.
In the suit, the plaintiffs, TW3 Entertainment, and Power Move Multi-Media, allege they purchased rights to Williams’ book three years ago from Lesane for $10,000. They are now asking for unspecified damages from the movie and an injunction that would mandate “all profits” for any project using the rights to be put into a trust for their benefit.
“This case presents an unfortunate and tawdry situation: the cold and calculating misappropriation and interference with Plaintiffs’ intellectual property,” says the seven-claim complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday. “Plaintiffs’ good faith and contractually protected efforts to bring an amazing story into visual art form were met with Defendants’ greed and disregard for Plaintiff’s existing rights.”
“Defendant Warner Bros. used Plaintiffs’ ideas and materials in King Richard, and such ideas and materials provide substantial value to Defendant,” the lawsuit continues.
King Richard is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green but due to the industry-wide COVID-19 production shutdown, it’s currently not slated for release until late 2021. In addition to Smith the cast includes Aunjanue Ellis, Demi Singleton, Saniyya Sidney, Jon Bernthal, Liev Schreiber, and Dylan McDermott.
Deadline reports that Warner Bros has declined to comment on the matter and Overbrook did not respond to requests for comment either.
READ MORE: ‘Colorism at work’: Will Smith slammed for playing Serena and Venus’ father
Richard Williams, now 78, is widely credited with being the visionary behind his daughters’ career. Without any formal training, he coached both of them to Grand Slam tennis success in the early years of their careers.
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Ohio seeks to amend slavery law still on the books
With all the racial strife roiling the country in the wake of protests sparked by George Floyd‘s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police, it’s unbelievable that there are still slavery laws on the books.
READ MORE: GA lawmakers pass hate crime bill following death of Ahmaud Arbery
In fact, slavery still remains a clause of the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery with the 13th Amendment but left in an exception that it could still be used as a punishment for conviction of crimes.
That was the premise of Ava DuVernay‘s 2016 documentary “The 13th” which made the case that slavery remained in effect through everything from convict leasing to the school to prison pipeline and the U.S. incarceration rate, the highest in the world.
Ohio is among the states that still has the clause as part of its state constitution reports CNN.
In Article 1, Section 6, Ohio’s constitution says: “There shall be no slavery in this state; nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime.” The potential loophole that could arguably still be used to enslave convicted criminals, has frustrated state legislators, the few who even know of its existence.
Ohio state senator Cecil Thomas used this year’s Juneteenth celebration to propose a joint resolution to remove the offending clause. It would have the language stop at ‘unless for the punishment of a crime.’ In an online statement, the Democratic senator said it was past time for the clause to be changed.
“Words matter,” Sen. Thomas wrote in the statement. “The majority of Ohioans would be shocked to learn that this exception is still in our governing document. As we embark on making structural changes to our laws and policies that adversely impact people of color, it is important that Ohio lawmakers stand together to eliminate this painful reminder of a ruinous time in the history of our country.”
Once the amendment is passed by three-fifths of the Ohio House and the Senate, it will be placed on the general election ballot for a public vote in November.
READ MORE: Repeal of law exposes complaints against officer who choked Eric Garner
Among the states that still have the clause on their books – Minnesota, the state where Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers during an arrest on Memorial Day.
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How This Podcast is Providing African American Content During A Critical Time In the U.S.
The new conversations around race relations sparked by the current protests over racial injustice and police brutality have caused a new surge in interest in Black American history and culture. Amazon’s best-seller list for books has been dominating with the topic of race with black-owned bookstores seeing record sales. This also applies to other forms of media including podcasts.
Black History Year by PushBlack, the country’s largest media advocacy organization for Black Americans, recently debuted at No. 1 on Apple Podcast under history and No. 6 in overall streaming podcasts on the platform in addition to amassing over 20,000 in its first 48 hours of launching. The six-episode series covers topics around the Black experience ranging from young Black millionaires to Black gun ownership. The goal was to engage and educate Black Americans about their history to create a more engaged population of Black voters.
“It was important for us to fill the gap in the podcast world with a series that can educate and activate our subscribers to build their personal power and create lasting economic and political change,” said Julian Walker, interim co-CEO of PushBlack in an email interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“People are looking to amplify Black voices and Black-centered products and services now more than ever as a direct result of the racial injustices that are happening in our communities. During these unprecedented times in our country, Black Americans need an outlet to connect us to our history of struggle and resilience. Our content provides this and more.”
Walker hopes to keep creating content to educate subscribers about their history hoping to bring change in our current political landscape. “We are glad people recognize our platform as an outlet they can turn to during times where reputable and trustworthy information is needed,” he continues.”We will continue to amplify Black voices from our podcast and daily communications.”
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