Many are outraged after a viral video showed an off-duty LAPD officer firing a gun near a group of kids after the officer grabbed a 13-year-old boy by his hoodie and restraining him. The incident took place near the officer’s home in Anaheim, California.
The cellphone video shows a man in plainclothes holding a boy against his will. The boy repeatedly says, “Let me go” but the man refuses. The man, who never identifies himself as an officer is surrounded by other children as he pulls the boy down the street over lawns. Eventually, the other kids come to the aid of the boy, pushing the officer over a row of hedges. The man, who still has hold of the boy is then seen drawing a pistol from his waistband before a gunshot rings out. No one was injured in the incident.
According to one of the youths, the group was walking home from school when the incident took place. The 13 year old says it quickly escalated and turned physical when the man tackled him and choked him. While the video does not show what happened prior, it starts with the boy being restrained and asking to be let go. He then says “why are you grabbing me, I just said not to talk to a girl like that! You called her a dumb c**t.” The man replies that she shouldn’t have been on his lawn.
Anaheim police say the officer had an ongoing dispute against children who were walking on his lawn. Both the 13-year-old boy and his 15-year-old brother were arrested. The off-duty officer, who has not been identified, was questioned by Anaheim police and released.
Overnight, around 300 protesters gathered near the officer’s home, before marching through Anaheim’s streets and blocking intersections. Some protesters shouted “hands up, don’t shoot” and “no justice, no peace.” Some demonstrators threw rocks and kicked police cars, while others broke windows or residences and cars, according to the LA Times.
There was also a small group of protestors who lingered around the officer’s home chanting “Don’t shoot the children.” The officer’s home and vehicle were vandalized before riot police arrived to protect the officer’s home. Twenty-four people were arrested on misdemeanor charges of failure to disperse.
The LAPD says the officer is on paid administrative leave while the department evaluates if his “use of deadly force complied with LAPD’s policies and procedures.” Anaheim police say they are reviewing other videos of the altercation to get a clearer picture of what happened.
Anaheim mayor Tom Tait and Police Chief Raul Quezada both said they were thankful no one was wounded when the officer fired a handgun into the ground. They also both said they are disturbed by video that shows an off-duty Los Angeles police officer firing his gun during a confrontation with a teenager.
Police Chief Quezada told reporters “As a father and as a police chief, I too am disturbed by what I saw on the videos that were posted on the Internet,” He said he hopes a criminal investigation into the matter, which involved several teens and an off-duty Los Angeles police officer who lives in Anaheim, will be completed within two weeks. No one has been formally charged in the incident.
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Immediately after swearing in Sessions as attorney general, President Trump signed three new executive orders addressing crime and immigration. One executive order seeks to increase penalties on those found guilty of assaulting police officers. A second order directs law enforcement agencies to increase intelligence sharing while going after drug cartels. A third order directs Attorney General Sessions to prioritize fighting “illegal immigration” alongside drug trafficking and violent crime.
President Trump also green-lighted construction of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, a proposal he repeatedly mentioned while campaigning. The wall is just one component of sweeping action Trump took to clamp down on immigration to the U.S. “Building this barrier is more than just a campaign promise, it is a common-sense first step to securing our border. This will stem the flow of drugs, crime, and illegal immigration into the United States. And yes, one way or another, as the President has said, Mexico will pay for it,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
Other actions recently taken by President Trump include:
- Ending federal grant funding to sanctuary cities and states, which opt out of reporting undocumented immigrants.
- Ordering the Department of Homeland Security to allocate funds or establish contracts for the construction or operation of detention facilities.
- Ending the policy known as “catch and release,” under which some immigrants are released from detention while they await a hearing with an immigration judge.
- Prioritizing the deportation of immigrants who have committed crimes.
During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Spicer reiterated earlier statements that the President’s priority would be on criminals. “His priorities, first and foremost, are the people in this country that seek to do us harm,” he said.
Reactions to the immigration actions were swift from eight immigration and refugee-rights groups who joined a conference call to denounce the new orders. They argue that the orders make the U.S. less safe and tear apart families and communities across the country. Advocates said the executive orders are “anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and anti-religious freedom”. None of the advocacy organizations that were on the call had been briefed or received any guidance from the Trump Administration on the orders and future immigration plans.
Advocacy groups are preparing to take legal action and provide lawyers to protect people who are concerned about pending visa applications, hate crimes and continued confusion at the U.S. border. Many mayors of U.S. cities who have adopted sanctuary policies have said they are ready and willing to push back on Trump’s funding plans.
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The Army Corps of Engineers appears ready to approve the final permit required to build the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The Dakota Access project has faced months of resistance from hundreds of indigenous nations and non-Native allies. Policing the protests in North Dakota has cost the taxpayers over 22 million dollars.
North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said that acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer has directed the Army Corps to issue the easement for Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline. The easement allows the company to drill underneath the Missouri River.
Energy Transfer Partners is poised to begin drilling under Lake Oahe as soon as approval is given. Workers have drilled entry and exit holes for the crossing and oil has been put in the pipeline leading up to the lake in anticipation of finishing the project. CEO Kelcy Warren has said the company should be able to finish the project in about three months once the permit is granted.
The 1,200-mile pipeline would carry North Dakota oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. Dallas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners had hoped to have the pipeline operating by the end of 2016, but construction has been stalled while the Corps and the company battled in court over the crossing.
An assessment conducted last year determined the crossing would not have a significant impact on the environment. However, on Dec. 4th, then-Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy declined to issue permission for the crossing, saying a broader environmental study was warranted. The Corps launched a study of the crossing on Jan. 18th. President Donald Trump signed an executive action Jan. 24 telling the Corps to quickly reconsider Darcy’s decision and shortly after court documents were filed that include a proposed Federal Register notice terminating the study.
The Corps has notified the remaining protesters that the government-owned land will be closed Feb. 22nd 2017. The Standing Rock Sioux and supporters fear a pipeline spill could contaminate the river, which serves as a drinking water source for millions.
Water protectors say that if the easement is granted, the government would be illegally circumventing the process of an environmental impact statement, which was ordered in December under President Obama’s administration. Members of the resistance camp Sacred Stone on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota have called for water protectors to come to support the resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline.
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Police have arrested a gunman charged with opening fire at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City during evening prayers. Canadian university student Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, has been charged with 6 counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder in the shooting that left six people dead and 19 wounded.
Witnesses described a gunman dressed in black, opening fire indiscriminately with semi-automatic weapons. More than 50 people were at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre when the shooting began. All the shooting victims were men and those killed ranged in age from 39 to 60. Of the four victims who remained hospitalized, two were in critical condition, authorities said.
Among the six men killed were a butcher, a university professor, a pharmacist and an accountant, according to police. The government of Guinea said in a statement that two of its citizens were among those killed in the mosque attack.
The suspect was arrested in his car on a bridge near d’Orleans, after he called 911 to say he wanted to cooperate with police. Authorities initially named two suspects, but later said the other man taken into custody was a witness to the attack and was released. Officials said they did not believe there were others involved. Police did not give a motive for the attack.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard both characterized the attack as an act of terrorism, which came amid strong criticism around the world over Trump’s temporary travel ban for people from seven Muslim countries. Shortly after Trump’s executive order was issued, Prime Minister Trudeau announced that Canada would welcome refugees banned from entering the United States.
Federal Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters in Ottawa there was no change to “the national terrorism threat level” from medium because “there is no information known to the government of Canada that would lead to a change at this time.”
According to media outlets, Bissonnette was known for far-right, nationalist views and his support of the French rightist party led by Marine Le Pen. The suspect has expressed support for Le Pen and U.S. President Donald Trump on his Facebook page. He was known to those who monitor extremist groups in Quebec, said François Deschamps, an official with a refugee advocacy group.
Bissonnette made a brief appearance in court under tight security wearing a white prison garment. Prosecutors said they do not have all the evidence yet. Bissonnette is set to appear again on Feb. 21. No charge was read in court and Bissonnette did not enter a plea.
The attack was a shock to the community of Quebec City, a city of just over 500,000 which reported just two murders in all of 2015. Incidents of Islamophobia have increased in Quebec in recent years. The face-covering, or niqab, became an issue in the 2015 Canadian federal election, especially in Quebec, where the majority of the population supported a ban on it at citizenship ceremonies.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to drop a series of lawsuits to buy plots of lands in Hawaii after public backlash. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan purchased the 700-acre waterfront estate on Kauai for $100 million in 2014. They filed a series of eight lawsuits to buy out several hundred people’s stake of 13 plots on eight acres partitioned during the 1850s.
Many of the plots of land involved in the suits are “kuleana lands” which were granted to native Hawaiian tenant farmers between 1850 and 1855 and hold special rights including access, agricultural uses, gathering, water and fishing rights.
The suit was met with heavy criticism by some Hawaiians including hundreds who planned to protest outside Zuckerberg’s estate. The suits would have forced hundreds of residents, including Native families, off their land in order to make his Hawaiian beachfront property as private as possible.
He initially defended the move, saying the purpose of the quiet title action was to identify property owners who were unaware of their stake in the land. “Quiet title actions are the standard and prescribed process to identify all potential co-owners, determine ownership, and ensure that, if there are other co-owners, each receives appropriate value for their ownership share,” Zuckerberg’s lawyer, Keoni Schultz, said earlier in January.
Zuckerberg published a letter in the local Hawaiian newspaper The Garden Island saying it was clear the decision to file the suits over his ownership of the beachfront property on the island of Kauai was a mistake. Zuckerberg said he initially misunderstood the quiet title process and hoped to work with the community to find a better solution.
“To find a better path forward, we are dropping our quiet title actions and will work together with the community on a new approach,” he said. “We understand that for native Hawaiians, kuleana are sacred and the quiet title process can be difficult. We want to make this right, talk with the community, and find a better approach.”
“Upon reflection, I regret that I did not take the time to fully understand the quiet title process and its history before we moved ahead. Now that I understand the issues better, it’s clear we made a mistake,” he said. “The right path is to sit down and discuss how to best move forward. We will continue to speak with community leaders that represent different groups, including native Hawaiians and environmentalists, to find the best path.”
In June 2016, Zuckerberg faced criticism for building a 6 foot stone wall enclosing his 700 acre property. Many residents said it blocked breezes and obstructed ocean views. Others argued that while it is his right to build on his property-it did not feel very neighborly.
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Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán pled not guilty in a U.S. federal court in New York City. His attorneys had fought his extradition in part by citing discrimination against Mexicans. His court appearance came just one day after his extradition from Mexico and he is being held without bail. Guzman, 59, arrived at Long Island’s MacArthur Airport Thursday night after being taken from prison in the city of Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua, where his Sinaloa cartel rules.
He is accused of running the world’s largest drug-trafficking organization. There are 17 criminal charges against him, carrying a minimum sentence of life behind bars. Guzman is accused of money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in several US cities, including Chicago, Miami and New York. Charged in a total of six U.S. jurisdictions, Guzman will faced his first set of charges in Brooklyn on a combined indictment from New York and Florida.
While leading the Sinaloa cartel, Guzman is believed to have been running the world’s largest transnational cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine smuggling operation. More than 100,000 people have been killed during a decade-long drug war in Mexico. A U.S. attorney says the government is seeking a $14 billion forfeiture order as part of its prosecution of the notorious Mexican drug kingpin.
According to his indictment and court filings, Guzman grew and sold poppies for heroin as a young boy. His drug trafficking career that began in the 1980s and he came to dominate Mexican smugglers by the speed with which he was able to move drugs into the United States.
After partnering with Colombian producers, they shared in profits of U.S. distribution markets, moving cocaine and other drugs through tunnels under the U.S. border as well as planes, yachts and even a submarine, employing a crew of violent hit men known as“sicarios” and corrupting Mexican officials.
The indictment charges Guzman with running the massive drug trafficking operation that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings. Prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty as a condition of the extradition of Guzman, who’s the convicted leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
Guzman had maintained control and expanded his drug trafficking empire through two prison terms in Mexico. He has escaped twice from a maximum security prison in Mexico, once in a laundry cart and a second time in 2015, through a mile-long tunnel dug into the shower in his cell. He was captured a year ago, just six months after his last escape. Mexican officials say a secret interview with US actor Sean Penn helped locate the world’s most wanted drug baron. US officials have refused to say where El Chapo will be held while awaiting trial, but they vowed to prevent any further escapes.
US attorney for New York’s Eastern District, Robert Capers, told reporters the trial will likely be long and that more than 40 witnesses were ready to testify. US prosecutors assured Mexican officials that El Chapo would not be executed in order to secure his extradition, Capers said. Mexico opposes capital punishment. “Guzman and the Sinaloa cartel had a veritable army, ready to war with competitors and anyone Guzman deemed to be a traitor,” US prosecutors said. He was known to carry a gold-plated AK-47 rifle.
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The Justice Department have announced that Chicago police officers routinely violate civil rights, target communities of color with excessive force and maintain a “code of silence” to hinder investigations into abuses. After a 13 month investigation, the Department of Justice has concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that the Chicago Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
The investigation began in December 2015 after the release of a video showing the death of 17-year-old African American Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by white police officer Jason Van Dyke. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel agreed in principle to negotiate a consent decree for a federal monitor to oversee the Chicago Police Department.
The Chicago Police Department has a legacy of corruption and abuse. The over 161 page report came to light as the department grapples with skyrocketing violence in Chicago, where murders are at a 20-year high, and a deep lack of trust among the city’s residents.
The report cited unchecked aggressions such as an officer pointing a gun at teenagers on bicycles suspected of trespassing; officers using a Taser on an unarmed, naked 65-year-old woman with mental illness; officers purposely dropping off young gang members in rival territory. The report stated that after officers used excessive force, their actions were practically condoned by supervisors, who rarely questioned their behavior. One commander interviewed by the Justice Department said that he could not recall ever suggesting that officers’ use of force be investigated further.
Chicago is among nearly two dozen cities — including Cleveland; Ferguson, Mo.; and Seattle — where the Justice Department has pushed for wholesale changes to police practices.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Mayor Emanuel presented the report at the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago. They laid out the steps the city had committed to take to remedy the problems. Lynch said the Justice Department had reviewed thousands of documents, conducted extensive interviews, and discovered widespread evidence that the Police Department was sorely in need of reform. It does not train officers properly, fails to properly collect and analyze data, and has little support from the community, the report said.
The report described a broad lack of oversight within the department. “We found that officers engage in tactically unsound and unnecessary foot pursuits, and that these foot pursuits too often end with officers unreasonably shooting someone — including unarmed individuals,” the report said. “We found that officers shoot at vehicles without justification and in contradiction to C.P.D. policy. We found further that officers exhibit poor discipline when discharging their weapons and engage in tactics that endanger themselves and public safety, including failing to await backup when they safely could and should; using unsound tactics in approaching vehicles; and using their own vehicles in a manner that is dangerous.”
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President Obama has commuted more sentences than any other president in U.S. History. He recently commuted the sentence of some high profile prisoners. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera and retired U.S. Marine Corps General James Cartwright had their sentences commuted as part of more than 200 commutations issued on January 17th.
Chelsea Manning is now set to be freed on May 17, after Obama shortened her sentence from 35 years to seven. Manning is already the longest-held whistleblower in U.S. history. Manning leaked more than 700,000 classified files and videos to WikiLeaks about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. foreign policy. While serving her sentence she has seen long stretches of solitary confinement and has been denied medical treatment related to her gender identity. She attempted to commit suicide twice last year.
Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera has been imprisoned for almost 35 years with a lot of that time served in solitary confinement. In 1981, López Rivera was convicted on federal charges including seditious conspiracy—conspiring to oppose U.S. authority over Puerto Rico by force. In 1999, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of the FALN, but López Rivera refused to accept the deal because it did not include two fellow activists, who have since been released. Under Obama’s commutation order, López Rivera will be released on May 17th as well.
U.S. Marine Corps General James Cartwright also received a pardon. Last year, Cartwright, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general with 40 years of service behind him, admitted that he lied to the FBI during an investigation into who leaked classified information to a New York Times reporter. The top secret information leaked, was about Stuxnet, a secret U.S. cyberwarfare operation against Iran. He was due to be sentenced this month. Cartwright’s defense team had asked for a year of probation and 600 hours of community service, but prosecutors had asked the judge overseeing his case to send him to prison for two years.
President Obama granted another 330 commutations on the last day of his presidency, January 19th. The majority of the sentences commuted Thursday were for nonviolent drug offenses. Throughout his presidency, Obama has granted 1,715 commutations—more than any other president in U.S. history. Of those, 568 inmates had been sentenced to life in prison.
In Obama’s second-term, he had made great effort to try to remedy the consequences of decades of excessive sentencing requirements that he said had imprisoned thousands of non-violent drug offenders for too long. To be eligible for a commutation under Obama’s initiative, non-violent offenders had to have been well behaved while in prison and already served 10 years, although some exceptions to the 10-year rule were granted.
Obama personally reviewed the case of every inmate who received a commutation. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said the administration reviewed all applications that came in by an end-of-August deadline which was more than 16,000 in total.
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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, January 22nd, 2017 was:
KRISTINA ROSSON
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:
1/16/17
Lotorya Patrick
Sandy Nevels
Sheila Carvell
Nitasha Shank
Alicia Dansby
Adaria Johnson
Holly Cajigas
Marcy Coull
Brandy Marie Willaims
Christine McKinnon
Brittany Deaver
Jade Good
Dean Bruss
Katrina Worford
Jennifer Sparks
Cheryl Hall
Stacy Draeger-Brogan
Michelle Rayeske-Jeske
Fanny Wat
Paula Rousseau
Kendra George
1/17/17
Jessica Miller
Misty Shallcross
Alicia Dansby
Kimberly Snyder
Lisa Jimenez
Lesa Moats
Lori Capobianco
Megan Akins
Derek Jennings
Mary Ann Cody
Wendi Black
Phyllis Hines
Megan Akins
Amy Marie Wilkinson
Holly Cajigas
Michelle Hughes
Alexandria Tinnon
Sheila Carvell
Jennifer Fremont
Jennifer Ramlet
Andrea Workman
Kathleen Hickman
Anna Nichols
1/18/17
Shelby Howke
Pamela White Brearley
Amy Marie Wilkinson
Dale Fish
Steve Hardy
Cassandra L Penley
Raquel Munoz Navarro
Judy Custer
Lesa Moats
Mya Murphy
Jennifer Downing
Brandi Chaney
Amy Hopper
Mya Murphy
Marie Beauregard
Melissa Ann Stura-Bassett
Chrissy Kim
Jade Good
Kristina Harris
Abby Cox
1/19/17
Christine Acoba
Katrina Worford
Beata Tybor
Brett J. Griffith
Laurie Griffith
AmValerie Kuehn
Crystal Hazelwood
Sheila Carvell
Kimberly Snyder
Brittany Deaver
Susanne Killion
Juanita Williams-Jones
Joanie Waterman
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Heather Jacques
Steve Hardy
Phyllis Hines
Brandi Chaney
Priscilla Shimp
Megan Rhyne
1/20/17
Anna Nichols
Jennifer Alice Duran
Christy Hawkes
Megan Rhyne
Kristin Yergey
Gino Nino
Jade Good
Chaunda Zeller
Amy Chavis
Juanita Williams-Jones
Sarah Bellestri Shih
Kathleen Hickman
Amy Marie Wilkinson
Tessa Davis
Lesa Moats
Jennifer Saavedra
Kayla Clemons
Leigh Nichols
Derek Jennings
Brandy Marie Williams
Kendra George
Amy Hopper
1/21/17
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Kendra George
Ralph Gonzales
Lori Capobianco
Nikki Bankert
Dawn Raasch
Luis Vazquez
Paula Rousseau
Amy Hopper
Nitasha Shank
Brandy Marie Williams
Fanny Wat
Jane Peterson
Emily Rice Bowersock
Wayne Gallas
Samantha Brwn
Derek Jennings
Nai Merri
Mikayla Oakes
Anna Nichols
1/22/17
Andrea Timms
Althea Thomas
Kim Floyd
Kristina Rosson
Nicole Matusevich
Beth Cleveland
Carole Jacobs
Priscilla Shimp
Hollie Jahnke
Kiki Roberson
Cheryl Reagin Burns
Joanie Waterman
Lisa David Carr
Crystal Young
Sarah Bellestri Shih
Kristina Harris
Alexandra Vindiola
Jennifer Downing
Beeg Reeb
Brian K Henson
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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