Violent protests erupted in Chicago after police officers shot and killed a 37-year-old African-American man on the South Side of Chicago. Harith Augustus was a well-known barber and the father of a 5-year-old daughter. Hundreds took to the streets to protest his killing. Protesters and police clashed with protestors throwing rocks and bottles, some filled with urine at officers. Four people were arrested, several officers were treated for minor injuries and two patrol cars were damaged.
The day after the protests, police released a 30 second clip with no sound of an officer’s body-cam footage. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said it was the quickest he had ever ordered such video released and that he hoped to dispel rumors Harith Augustus, 37, was unarmed. He also said he hoped making the 30-second clip public would prevent another violent confrontation between residents and officers. “The community needs some answers and they need them now, we can’t have another night like last night.” Mr Johnson told reporters. He said Mr Augustus’s family was in favor of releasing the video for the same reason.
The edited clip of body camera video shows at least three officers approaching Augustus as he is talking to another officer outside a store in the city’s South Shore neighborhood. The first officer points at his waistband and Augustus backs away while reaching into his back pocket. As Augustus pulls his wallet from his pocket, three officers try to grab his arms. Augustus tries to get away, backing into a police cruiser as his shirt flies up, showing the gun. The footage pauses and zooms in on the weapon, which police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said was done to ensure a semi-automatic handgun in its holster and two bullet magazines tucked into Mr Augustus’s waist could be seen clearly.
Augustus then runs into the street as a police SUV drives up. He spins away from the SUV and darts between the SUV and the police cruiser as he reaches towards his waist. At that point, an officer opens fire, hitting Augustus multiple times. Augustus did not fire his weapon and the footage does not show him pulling the gun out of its holster. Police also released a 50-second, slow-motion clip showing Augustus reaching towards his waist. It was not clear if he was going for the weapon but it does appear he was grabbing for something at his waist.
Records show Augustus had a legal permit to carry a firearm and no recent arrest history. Augustus was known in the Grand Crossing neighborhood as “Snoop” — worked at a barbershop and had a five-year-old daughter. A police spokesman said more videos will be released within 60 days but declined to say how many different angles exist or whether any of the officers’ cameras captured audio.
While the snippet of video released seems to have calmed some tensions, some pointed out that Augustus, a quiet man with only a few minor arrests from years ago, appeared to be trying to show the officers some sort of identification during the street stop, possible his firearm permit. Experts on use of force have focused on how Augustus tried to evade arrest, twisting away from officers and fleeing into the street with his right hand hovering near his holstered gun. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the city agency that investigates police-involved shootings, will try to determine if the officers followed policy and if any training issues need to be addressed.
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A New York City lawyer has found himself in hot water after his racist tirade went viral. The footage shows a man now identified as Aaron Schlossberg – dressed in a white dress shirt and gray slacks, berating an employee at the Fresh Kitchen eatery in midtown Manhattan because the staff was speaking Spanish. In the video, Aaron Schlossberg, a lawyer in Midtown Manhattan makes racist remarks to Spanish-speaking patrons and threatens to call immigration enforcement after overhearing customers and staff speaking Spanish.
“Your staff is speaking Spanish to customers when they should be speaking English,” he says. “Every person I listen to: He spoke it, he spoke it, she’s speaking it.” “My guess is they’re not documented, so my next call is to ICE to have each one of them kicked out of my country,” he said. “If they have the balls to come here and live off my money — I pay for their welfare. I pay for their ability to be here. The least they can do — the least they can do — is speak English.”
Since the video went viral, Schlossberg has lost his office space and is now at risk of being disbarred. Corporate Suites, who rented an office space to Schlossberg, released a statement saying it had terminated an agreement to provide meeting space, mail handling and telephone services to Schlossberg. “Corporate Suites has a diverse and global community of business professionals working in a rich environment with mutual respect,” spokesman Hayim Alan Grant said in a statement. “We found Mr. Schlossberg’s statements offensive and contrary to our community norms.”
New York Congress member Adriano Espaillat has said he’s filed a grievance against Aaron Schlossberg and several other videos have now surfaced showing Schlossberg in a handful of other politically charged videos. In one video, at a protest against a Muslim activist last year, rallier’s held signs and icons connected to a alt-right, the far-right movement associated with racism, sexism and anti-Semitism. A man that appears to be Schlossberg, is heard cursing at the person taking the video and chanting, “Milo,” for right-wing media personality Milo Yiannopoulos.
Another video allegedly shows Schlossberg yelling at protesters outside of Trump Tower in a “Make American great again,” hat. YouTube vlogger Willie Morris drew even more attention when he posted a video of what he said was a random encounter with Schlossberg in New York in 2016. Morris said the Fresh Kitchen video jolted his memory about the incident. “I let it go and pretty much forgot about it until I was scrolling through Twitter yesterday and randomly saw a thumbnail and thought, ‘No freaking way!'” Morris said.
According to Morris, he was walking down the street when a man coming from the opposite direction made eye contact, walked faster toward him and shoved him with his briefcase. Morris included his own commentary to the video he posted. In it he said, “He immediately … starts yelling mostly racist and xenophobic stuff. I was so shocked, I’ve lived in NYC for five years and have never had anything like this happen. I was waiting for someone to jump out and scream, ‘Gotcha!’ ” In the video, a man can be seen asking Morris, “What country are you from?” and then saying: “I’m going to call the police. You don’t run into me. I’m a citizen here, you’re not. You’re an ugly f***ing foreigner. F*** you.” Morris, who was born in Massachusetts, holds up his passport at the end of his commentary.
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After more than three decades of medical work by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan, it’s pulling most of its staff out of Afghanistan after a string of attacks on its employees. The decision came after seven ICRC employees were killed in a series of attacks this year. On December 19 2016, ICRC employee Juan Carlos was abducted as he travelled from Mazar-e Sharif to Kunduz and held hostage for a month. In February 2017, six Red Cross employees were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northern Jowzjan province. Two others were abducted and later released.
Last month, Red Cross physiotherapist Lorena Enebral Perez was killed by a patient in Mazar-e Sharif. Perez helped people who had lost limbs or had other forms of disability, learn to stand, walk or feed themselves again. She was targeted by one of the patients, a man who had suffered polio as a child and had been coming to the rehabilitation center for 19 years, ever since he was two years old. He shot her with a gun he had concealed in his wheelchair.
The ICRC country head said the “painful decision” meant people in the north would no longer get help they needed. She said they would not leave Afghanistan but they have to limit the risks faced by its staff as threats continue. “After internal discussions with our highest level at the headquarters, we have reached the conclusion that we have no choice but to drastically reduce our presence and activities, and in particular in the north of Afghanistan.”
The ICRC’s operation in Afghanistan is the their fourth largest worldwide, with about 1,800 staff offering medical assistance, helping disabled people and visiting inmates in jail as well as enabling them to keep in contact with their families. In some areas, particularly in the north, the ICRC is the only international group offering such services. Many other humanitarian organizations have pulled out of Afghanistan in recent years as Taliban and Islamic State militants have stepped up attacks.
Head of delegation, Monica Zanarelli, announced the reduction. “After 30 years of continuous presence in the country, we are reducing our presence and operations.” She went on to say that it’s hard to say whether they are being specifically targeted or if these are random attacks that they have suffered.
The ICRC is laying off staff and closing two of its offices, in Faryab and Kunduz provinces, while its sub-delegation in Mazar-e Sharif will be “seriously downsized.” Those three ICRC offices cover nine provinces in the north and north west of Afghanistan. Activities run out of the Mazar office will now be limited to the ICRC’s Re-establishing Family Links program (tracing separate family members, facilitating phone calls to detainees and arranging family visits) and cooperation with the Afghan Red Crescent Society. The orthopedics center in Mazar, which treats those who have lost arms and legs and need prosthetic limbs as well as those with other disabilities, will remain open for now, but the ICRC is looking for others to run it. All other activities out of Mazar will be stopped, including the ICRC’s assistance programs.
Most international humanitarian organizations, including the ICRC, have already modified their operations to try to protect staff while continuing to reach the most vulnerable. The ICRC has a reputation for neutrality and service built up over decades but has had to accept that it can no longer work safely in parts of Afghanistan. Many believe it is a sign of just how brutal the conflict in Afghanistan has become.
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In an effort to broaden the company’s “social interaction” with our clients and FaceBook fans, Daily Trivia Questions are posted on both of our business pages. Here are the weekly standings for this past week, and the winner of the Sunday night Weekly Drawing for an AmEx gift card!
Congratulations – To this past week’s Trivia Contest Winner!! Our latest contest winner for the weekly FaceBook HealthInsurance4Everyone/Health & Life Solutions, LLC Trivia Contest, drawn randomly by computer late Sunday evening, April 2nd, 2017 was:
KAREN BONDEHAGEN
Fort Atkinson, WI
Winner Of A $25.00 AmEx Gift Card
Each day, fans of either of our company FaceBook pages (HealthInsurance4Everyone or Health & Life Solutions LLC) are able to test their skills with our Daily TRIVIA QUESTION. The first 20 winners who post the correct answer to the TRIVIA QUESTION, will then get entered into the weekly drawing held late on Sunday evenings for a $25.00 Am Ex Gift. Card
Weekly Gift Card winners will be posted in our blog at this site. Remember to become a FaceBook “fan” on either of our company pages to enter and post your answers.
Here are the daily contestants from last week’s Trivia Contest that were entered into the Sunday drawing:
3/27/17
Dean Bruss
Vickie Gipson
Crystal Young
Alisa Jones
Tonya Velazquez
Valerie Kuehn
Christina Domingue
Cheryl Hall
Christine Acoba
Teena Sierson
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Tracy Shafer
Jonnalyn Gates
Andrea Timms
Tera Wardrip
Jennifer Sparks
Shona Ortenblad
Johnna Loth
Phyllis Hines
Jane Peterson
3/28/17
Susanne Killion
Rebecca Fauteux
Sheila Carvell
Juanita Williams-Jones
Kimberly Foster
Phyllis Hines
Rhonda Nicholson
Julie Cutshaw
Kristina Rosson
Heather Jacques
Jennifer Kinner
Steve Hardy
Brandi Chaney
Dean Bruss
Nelle Bailey
Sherri Kidwell
Melissa Turner Baker
Lisa Dion
Kathleen Hickman
Kevin Cusack
3/29/17
Sandra Sue Blanton
Jennifer Downing
Jane Peterson
Justin Wilcox
Sheila Vives
Kim Floyd
Sarah Bellestri Shih
Demetris Crutcher
Mary Achio
Stephanie Caldwell
Alysia Jackson
Alexandria Fields
Anna Nichols
Amber McGrath
Eva Biggs
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Anne Delos Reyes-Villafuerte
Christina Domingue
Carla S-Paige Williams
Kristina Harris
Kayla Hernandez
3/30/17
Jennifer Ramlet
Christy Hawkes
Sheila Carvell
Brandy Marie Williams
Jennifer Sparks
Kathleen Hickman
Maria Bouchard
Dean Bruss
Althea Thomas
Kayla Clemons
Michelle Hughes
Cheryl Ralley-Messick
Cheryl Hall
Beth Cleveland
Lori Capobianco
Christine Domingue
Angela Hendricks
Tera Wardrip
Leslie Wagner Hobson
Melissa D’Ornellas Curtis
Alisa Jones
Alicia Johnson
Lauren Bradley
Glenna Zanaglio
3/31/17
Brittany Marie Thompson
Kimberly Snyder
Dean Bruss
Sheila Carvell
Lauren Bradley
Tammy Alcorta
Kristina Harris
Melissa Barnes Walker
Christy Hawkes
Angela Hendricks
Jodi Stevens
Rhonda Nicholson
Phyllis Hines
Amber McGrath
Brandy Marie Williams
Allyson Becker
Abby Cox
Nitasha Shank
Kayla Clemons
Belinda Haas
Ashley Stamey Phillips
4/1/17
Kristina Rosson
Preeti Chand
Bobbie J Rittenhouse
Jamie Shapiro
Alicia Dansby
Timothy Simpson
Mya Murphy
Lauren Bradley
Cassandra Berholtz
Linda Pearson
Althea Thomas
Kayla Hernandez
Christina Dimingue
Sherri Kidwell
Thomas Ryan
Lotorya Patrick
Angela Nicole
Megan Rhyne
Sheila Carvell
Dana Dilaura
4/2/17
Jennifer Ramlet
Cheryl Hall
Joanie Waterman
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Nai Merri
Karen Bondehagen
Jacqlyn Gummert
Kayla Clemons
Brandi Chaney
Geri Rus
Holly Cajigas
Mary Achio
Jean Simmons Homfeld
Rachel Munoz Navarro
Lisa Dion
Tina Casto-Shafer
Trish Marks
Chris Maxwell
Sarah Harrison
Michelle Hughes
Be sure to watch both of our FaceBook pages for your chance to win and enter again next week, with questions posted daily on HealthInsurance4Everyone or at Health & Life Solutions, LLC!!
Remember that if you try your hand at answering the Trivia Question several days each week, your odds of winning the Sunday weekly drawing are much better. You may also find that if you “Like” both of the business pages, you will receive faster notifications of the other players as they post their answers to compete with you!
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