• News

by Wendy Medina

March 26, 2022

California Woman Left With Scars Files Federal Lawsuit Against Hemet Police for Use of Excessive Force

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A woman and her daughter from Hemet in Southern California were violently arrested in front of their home in March 2021. 

Mariah Hereford and her mother Monet Hereford have video footage of the encounter of Hemet Gang Enforcement officers’ brutal handling and arrest of the women, as well as Mariah’s fiancé, Ryan Gadison.

The family have filed a federal lawsuit against the police department, in which they allege excessive force and violation of first amendment rights for slapping the phone out of Mariah’s hand in an attempt to stop recording the altercation. According to NBC Los Angeles, gang unit officers pulled over a car driven by Gadison that didn’t have a front license plate. Upon inspecting the vehicle with a flashlight, an officer asked if he could search the car, to which Gadison refused, as is his right.

“At that point officers forced him out of the vehicle, pinned him against the vehicle, and started to handcuff him,” said attorney Toni Jaramilla. “There was no reason for that.”

Gadison had just arrived at Hereford’s home for dinner. Because of the commotion outside, the women stepped out of the home to aid Gadison and record the incident.

Immediately, the officers handled the situation viciously, knocking the phone and Mariah down to the pavement.

“What she recalls – because she did black out – was the officer pulling her hair and slamming her head to the pavement. He did that several times,” Jaramilla alleged at a news conference on March 8. “She was then frisked inappropriately by a male officer even though there was a female officer.”

The unnamed officer is accused of scarring Mariah’s face after the forceful head slams and while she was down even pulled her chin up so as to choke. Witnesses say the cops also struck the family dogs with a baton and one officer can be seen in the video holding a dog up by its collar.

After being taken to the hospital, Mariah was treated for a “closed head injury; left shoulder pain; low back pain; neck pain; [and] whiplash,” per the lawsuit. According to attorneys, the scene took place with the couple’s four small children watching. 

“This is one of the worst cases of police abuse I’ve seen in my career,” said civil rights activist Najee Ali at the news conference alongside the family.

Though cited and arrested, Gadison and the Herefords have yet to be charged with a crime.

The Hemet Police Department declined to comment on the lawsuit.

• News

by Keka Araújo

March 26, 2022

14-Year-Old Missouri Teen Plunges To His Death On Ride At Orlando’s Icon Park While On Spring Break

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A spring break trip to Orlando went from fun in the sun to tragic for a Missouri family after losing a loved one at a Florida amusement park.

Fourteen-year-old Tyre Sampson fell to his death from the Free Fall drop tower at Icon Park on Thursday night. The teen was visiting the tourist spot with his football team. Fox 35 Orlando reported that emergency services came to the park after a caller phoned 911. Witnesses at Icon Park told Orange County deputies they watched in horror as Tyre fell from the Free Fall.

WFLA obtained a recording of a 911 call where the caller identified that Tyre was unresponsive with blood at his feet. She also revealed that he wasn’t secured properly on the ride. 

Montrey Williams expressed the chaos that ensued once people realized what happened at the scene.

“At first, we thought it was a piece of the ride or whatever until we got a little closer, and it was a person laying on the ground. Everyone was just panicking and screaming.”

The Missouri native was taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

“It appears to be a terrible tragedy,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said at a press conference on Friday. “Our prayers and thoughts are with the family.” 

Police and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services are investigating the incident. The latter agency is responsible for the safety and inspections of rides and other attractions in the state. 

Tyre’s father, Yarnell Sampson, told Fox 35 Orlando that his son expressed fear before riding on the Free Fall. The 14-year-old teen, because of his massive size, was unable to ride most of the rides. He stood at 6’5 and weighed 340 pounds.

“He was panicking when he was going up,” Yarnell said. “When the ride took off, that’s when he was feeling uncomfortable. He was like, ‘What’s going on?’ That’s when he started freaking out, and he was explaining to his friend next to him, ‘I don’t know, man. If I don’t make it down, please tell my Mom and Daddy I love them.’ For him to say something like that, he must have felt something.”

“This one particular ride said, ‘We can take you, come on! Get on!’ No one else allowed him to get on the ride, so I’m wondering what happened between now and then that made them say, ‘Come on, get this ride!”

Yarnell shared with the news outlet that he found out about his son’s death from the devastating video footage that circulated online.

The grieving father wants the public to know how exceptional Tyre was.

“Fourteen-year-old young man. He was an honor roll student. The young man had a bright future,” he said. “Last season, they had a good football season. Went to nationals. Could have been a recruiting trip – wasn’t sure? It was something in that nature. He was a team player. He was the type of young man that’d take the shirt off his back and give it to you.”

WESH spoke with the man who recorded the terrifying video. Ivan revealed that he was with a group of friends seated in two seats from Tyre. He also detailed that though he opted out of riding the Free Fall, a female companion was heard on the video expressing concern over the lack of secondary seat belts with the harnesses. 

“Why doesn’t this have the little clicky click? The seatbelt,” she asked a ride employee.

“In most rides, you have your harness that pulls down on you. But you also have the additional secondary seatbelt,” he said. “This does not have that. And it’s really concerning especially being a new ride, not to have that.” 

Thirty seconds later, Tyre fell to his death.

Ivan said his “heart sank” when he discovered that Tyre was just a kid. 

“When I heard that he was 14 years old, my heart sank. Literally, I’m heartbroken about it.”

“This could have been one of my friends that it happened to,” he said. “It’s not what you would expect from a ride in the heart of Orlando. We’re known for our amusement parks, for our thrill rides.”

The Free Fall at Icon Park stands at 430 feet, and the drop measures 400 feet. As the ride drops, speeds can get up to 75 mph. The attraction opened in December 2021.

Our prayers go out to the Sampson family.

• Arts and Culture

by Wendy Medina

March 26, 2022

South Central LA Artist Lauren Halsey Commissioned To Grace Annual MET Roof Garden Installation

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Hailing from South Central Los Angeles, 34-year-old mixed media artist Lauren Halsey has been chosen to create a full-scale architectural structure on top of the famed Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the museum announced last week. 

Afrofuturism, a politically-charged artistic movement at the intersection of African cultural aesthetic and elements of technology of a reimagined future, sits at the heart of her installation, titled the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I), which explores 1960s utopian architecture, Egyptian imagery and contemporary street art. It is designed to be explored by guests of the Met.

Halsey, a Yale art graduate and prior resident artist at Studio Museum in Harlem, told the New York Times, “It’s a construction project that we’re managing that will exist within the context of the Met… [a] remix of and sampling of Pharaonic architectural symbols — the sphinx, columns, pavers.”

After its run at the New York museum, the installation is planned to travel to Halsey’s hometown of South Central LA, where it will reside permanently. 

“With this installation, Halsey channels The Met’s unparalleled Egyptian Art collections through the lens of Afrofuturism, while also creating a powerful form of documentation of her neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles,” said Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met, per the press release. “Engaging with the past, while also exploring a space of speculative imagination, Halsey offers us a powerful statement about civic space, social activism, and a reconsideration of the possibilities for architecture and community engagement.”

The chairwoman of modern and contemporary art at the Met, Sheena Wagstaff, also sang praises to Halsey’s work. “Halsey’s activist vision offers a portal into the near future. She has created a monument to living architecture, carved exquisitely with a pictographic vernacular that meshes ancient hieroglyphs with the visual motifs of her home and community.”

During the start of the pandemic, Halsey used her 2018-founded community center, Summaeverythang, as a vessel to provide impoverished areas of South Central and Watts free organic produce from locally sourced farms of the region. 

The center’s website pledges to be “dedicated to the empowerment and transcendence of Black and brown folks socio-politically, economically, intellectually and artistically.”

The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey is set to open from May 17 through Oct. 23, 2022 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Legendary recording artist Dionne Warwick graced the stage at BLACK ENTERPRISE Women of Power Summit on Friday, March 25 to accept her Legacy Award.

Limping a little and guided by BLACK ENTERPRISE CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr., the legendary “That’s What Friends Are” For crooner revealed that she fell and injured her leg but nothing was going to stop her from “coming to get my stuff,” meaning the Legacy Award that she was honored with.

Journalist Danyel Smith had the honor of interviewing Warwick and proved to be the perfect host.

Warwick exchanged banter with Smith, starting with explaining that she was supposed to be honored by BE a few years back but a sickness kept at bay. This time around, she was in Las Vegas to perform and was dead set on coming to the Women of Power Summit to share her wisdom and secure her award this go round.

Smith’s authentic love and admiration for Warwick’s music and career got the history-making singer to open up and share some of her life memories on growing up in Orange, NJ to the recording process behind some of her biggest hits.

Warwick recalled growing up in a diverse community in Orange, NJ that unconsciously set the tone for Warwick’s dedication to uniting people through her work. She revealed her initial plans to become a music teacher despite having already received widespread recognition singing with her sister and cousin as The Gospelaires.

After Warwick signed a recording contract in 1962, she recorded her first single “Don’t Make Me Over” and the rest was history. She shared how “humbling” it was to become the first Black woman to win a Grammy in 1968 for her hit “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”.

The “Heartbreaker” singer took the room for a trip down memory lane recalling her successful crossover success among R&B and pop audiences. In just eight years after signing her recording contract, Warwick had 30 hit singles under her belt, close to twenty best-selling albums, and received a second Grammy for her album I‘ll Never Fall In Love Again.

In addition to her success in music, Warwick has been a tireless activist having served as the U.S. ambassador of health for both the Ronald Reagan and George Bush administrations.

Using her 1985 hit single “That’s What Friends Are For,” Warwick partnered with the American Foundation for AIDS Research and raised over $3 million for that cause. She became one of the first major celebrities to join the fight in raising awareness of the AIDS epidemic.

At 81 years old, Warwick is still keeping herself moving with her interior design company with Bruce Garrick, WG Design Lab.

The trailblazing performer is set to open up even more in tell-all documentary feature Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over. The film will be one of the first major releases on CNN+ after its launch this spring.

• News

by Wendy Medina

March 26, 2022

Black News Channel Shuts Down Permanently, Fails To Meet Payroll

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The inception of the Tallahassee, Florida-based start-up news outlet committed to amplifying Black and Brown voices began with a revered mission, however, the Black News Channel has ceased operations as of yesterday afternoon after only two years on the air. 

In a similar M.O. of mass layoffs for the cable news network, following those right before the holidays in December and again at the end of January, the third round of layoffs came without warning nor severance, as well as failure to meet payroll for weeks already worked.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the company of majority stakeholder and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan declared bankruptcy, leaving a majority Black and Brown staff of about 230 abruptly jobless and without pay. The channel itself will air repreats for the remainder of March. 

In a memo sent to employees by BNC’s chief executive, Princell Hair, benefits will last through next week, though without dismissal wage. 

The news comes right after Khan had announced delays on paychecks. Following his $50 million investment in 2019, the Jaguars billionaire refused to continue to fund the start-up after a myriad of problems that ailed the outlet.

“During the past few months, we have endured very painful workforce reductions at all levels of the network as we worked to achieve our financial goal of a break-even business,” read the memo. “This has forced all of you to do more with less, and your contributions have been remarkable. Unfortunately, due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures, we have been unable to meet our financial goals, and the timeline afforded to us has run out,” Princell said.

Primetime host of the Black News Tonight segment, Marc Lamont Hill, took to Twitter to express his frustrations.

The real exclusive is that he’s refusing to give people their paychecks today. Hundreds of employees, many of whom already took significant pay cuts, are now being denied money they’ve already worked for. Khan, a BILLIONAIRE, simply says he doesn’t want to pay it. https://t.co/fhqbbKb5mN

— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) March 25, 2022

In an attempt to save the failing channel, it had been geared for sale to multiple media companies, however no investors were willing to resuscitate. 

According to Nielsen, BNC had an average of 10,000 viewers nationwide despite reaching over 50 million cable households.

Black Americans are still excluded from growing wealth through homeownership. Middle-class households amassed $2 trillion by owning their homes in the last ten years, Finurah reports.

According to the 2021 National Association of Realtors (NAR) report, only six percent of the total home buyers were Black, Finurah reports. 

Black Americans seeking a piece of the American Dream have more student debt than their white counterparts. Black student loan debt is 43% vs. 21% –the median student loan debt for Black households level as $40,000 in comparison to $30,000 for white families, according to NAR.

 

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Black households saddled with mounting student loan debt serve as a tremendous setback in saving for a down payment for a property. In addition, Black applicants are turned away for mortgage loans at a rate 2.5 times greater than white applicants, around 10% vs. 4%, NAR reports.

The Black Americans homeownership rate stands at 42% – is nearly 30% less than the rate for White Americans at 69.8%, according to NAR. 

“Unfortunately, race hasn’t really changed much this year. We’re still seeing pretty consistent, low shares of minority homebuyers,” said NAR’s Jessica Lautz to AFP, Finurah reports. 

But for those who purchased a home in the past decade gained a sizable profit. Homeownership wealth increased to $2.1 trillion, which translates to 26% of the gross housing wealth gains in that period, according to Fortune. 

The wealth gains attributed to the growth of home value appreciation and the median sales prices of a home rose to an annual rate of 8.3% from 2011 to 2021, reports Fortune.  

The cities that witnessed the largest wealth gains for middle-class homeowners for the last ten years are: 

1. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. (+ $103,690)
2. Austin-Round Rock, Texas ($61,323)
3. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tenn. ($55,252)
4. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas ($53,421)
5. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas ($52,716)

Individuals from lower-income households, who make up 27.2 percent of the total homeowners, did not experience the same wealth growth but only earned 4 percent of the wealth gain, according to Fortune. 

This story contains spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of Atlanta.

In the opening scene of the widely-anticipated premiere of FX’s Atlanta’s third season, titled “Three Slaps,” a Black man and white man sit fishing on a boat at night over the murky waters of what is later revealed to be Georgia’s infamous Lake Lanier.

The Black man recalls nearly drowning there as a kid, commenting on a feeling of being “pulled” underneath. “You probably was…It’s a whole town underneath us,” the white man says. “State government built a dam and flooded the place. Anyone who didn’t leave drowned. Town was Black, too. Self-governed Black town… Why do you think so many people die around here?”

https://youtu.be/t72Pbqrkb28

The sequence ends with an ominous monologue about “whiteness” and the Black man being pulled into the waters by black-tinted hands. Donald Glover, the show’s creator and otherwise known as Childish Gambino, starts the season premiere with illuminating the disturbing past of the widely-known “folklore” of Lake Lanier just 50 miles north of Atlanta. According to Oxford American, nearly 500 people have died there since its creation and thus destruction of the predominantly Black town of Oscarville in 1956. 

Built by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Glover uses this location to bring about social commentary on the impact the country’s racist history imbues on contemporary society.

In the next scene the protagonist of the episode, Loquareeous, wakes up at school from the nightmare of Lake Lanier. Inspired by Devonte Hart of the 2018 Hart family murders in California, the epsiode follows the 15-year-old’s fictionalized journey into the care of a foster family led by an abusive white lesbian couple. The white women would go on to drive themselves and their six adopted Black children off a cliff.

A jarring scene which many recognized by the viral image the child this was based on because of the fedora he donned, he notices a cop and rips off the “Free Hugs” sign he was forced to wear at a farmer’s market, pleading to go home. 

The couple reclaims the child and soon after commit the horrific crime.

While the body of Devonte was never found at the scene of the crash, he was deemed dead by authorities, according to People. In Glover’s reimagination, Loquareeous jumps out of the speeding van seconds before it plummets into the eerie Lake Lanier. 

The episode ends with Glover waking up in a hotel room from the nightmare of Loquareeous’s life, bringing the plot full circle. 

Glover’s mastery at creating a captivating story while evoking conversation of deeper issues is something we definitely look forward to in the coming episodes. Catch Atlanta Thursdays at 10 p.m. on FX or next day on Hulu.

breathe. discuss. repeat. pull up next week.

— AtlantaFX (@AtlantaFX) March 25, 2022

• News

by Yolanda Baruch

March 26, 2022

New Orleans School Board Lifts A 1922 Jazz Ban

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The New Orleans school board agreed to reverse a century-old ban on jazz dancing and playing jazz music in schools. New Orleans is credited with developing the musical genre still played in numerous evening venues today, US News reports.

“I’m very glad that we can rescind this policy. I want to acknowledge it. It was rooted in racism,” Orleans Parish School Board President Olin Parker said at the Thursday night meeting. “And I also want to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of our students and especially of our band directors, whose legacy continues from 1922 through present day.”

The creators of this racist law aimed to distance New Orleans school children from the African-Americans who created the city’s signature musical style. However, many ignored the ban when school board members passed it in 1922, WGNO-TV reports.

Some schools continued to teach jazz, and marching bands partnered with dance teams are a considerable component during Carnival season parades, according to AP News.

“In this instance and in this instance only we’re glad that the policy was ignored by our students, by our schools,” said school board member Katherine Baudouin. “Our schools played a major role in the development of jazz.”

Ken Ducote, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Collaborative of Charter Schools, publicized the policy to the board when he read about the guideline in Al Kennedy’s book “Chord Changes on the Chalkboard: How Public School Teachers Shaped Jazz and the Music of New Orleans,” US News reports.

“It’s like if Colorado passed a rule banning students from looking at the Rocky Mountains,” said Ducote.

In 1922 school documents show Mrs. Adolph Baumgartner, a school board member, opposing the stylings of jazz music, according to AP News.

“Jazz music and jazz dancing in schools should be stopped at once,” said Baumgartner during a March meeting. “I have seen a lot of rough dancing in school auditoriums lately.”

“Think of it as an early version of the book ban,” said Kennedy. “It seems like they were more afraid of it being a bad influence than anything else.”

• News

by Wendy Medina

March 26, 2022

Oakland Photojournalist Sarahbeth Maney Immortalizes Historic Image of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court Confirmation

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A photograph that has since gone viral following the historic addition of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings, was taken by none other than a Black woman from Oakland, CA. 

Photojournalist Sarahbeth Maney, 26, captured the now-famous image of the judge and her family, but its most captivating element is the gaze of admiration Jackson’s 17-year-old daughter, Leila, bestows upon her mom. 

“When I saw [Leila’s] face, she gave this expression that really translated just how much she admired her mother,” Maney shared with the San Francisco Chronicle. “I think it was nice to see the daughter’s face in the background, but have her in focus because it’s very specific to her experience and what she was feeling as a young Black woman.”

Jackson sits blurred with a gleaming smile right in front of her husband Patrick and Leila, whose expressions are focused in the image. The moving glance that Maney immortalized resonated with many people, social media erupting with inspirational posts of the image to the celebration of Black excellence, to discourse about how ridiculous it is that in the 21st century this country is still having “firsts.”

http://twitter.com/sbmaneyphoto/status/1506797132002562058?s=20&t=G6ppAIJA6E2bk_q4PQTlXA

Maney, a graduate of San Francisco State University and former intern at the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Flint Journal in Flint, Michigan, now works as a photography fellow for the New York Times, covering politics in Washington D.C.

More often than not, Maney is the only Black photographer in the press pool, something many Black women and men can relate to. In a single shot, the Oakland-native is able to capture such an intimate moment that can literally be for the history books. 

One admirer of the shot on Twitter commented to Maney, “Thank you for capturing this moment. Black joy shouldn’t be revolutionary but the proud, reserved smile captured in the photo elevates the counter story for so many: Even in spite of triggering racism towards black women, they can never steal our joy.”

In her own account of the experience, Maney revealed, “[Leila’s] look also reveals a glimmer of hope for her own future. I understood this and snapped the photo, feeling as if I caught the power of that look… Being in that room, I understood a little of what Judge Jackson was going through. I know what it takes to make a place for myself in spaces that were not designed for me.”

• News

by Yolanda Baruch

March 26, 2022

10-Year-Old Houston Boy With Brain Cancer Sworn In As Honorary Officer At Numerous Police Departments

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Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel, a 10-year-old diagnosed with terminal metastatic anaplastic ependymoma brain and spine cancer three years ago, has become an honorary police officer for numerous law enforcement agencies. His initial goal was to be sworn into 100 police agencies, according to Fox 26.

As a resident of the Houston area, Daniel has now been sworn into more than 400 police departments across the nation as he undergoes cancer treatment, the Community Impact Newspaper reports.

The fifth-grader decided to follow in the footsteps of his military father, Theodis Daniel because he wanted to replicate the synergy he saw when his father communicated with people in uniforms and decided on a career in law enforcement, Fox 26 reports. 

Daniel is on a quest to raise awareness about pediatric cancers while being sworn into numerous police agencies. On March 21, Daniel was appointed the first-ever honorary assistant chief of the Jersey Village Police Department.

On March 22, Daniel took the official oath at the board of trustees meeting to become an honorary sergeant of the police force that serves the Spring Independent School District, according to The Houston Chronicle. 

“Sergeants help shape the next generation,” Spring ISD Police Chief Ken Culbreath said to The Chronicle. “They’re with the ground-level troops helping keep them out of trouble. The sergeant’s position is key to making sure the operations that happen in the field are connected to what’s coming from the chief or administration.”

Congratulations to Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel on becoming an honorary member of the @Spring_ISD_PD! DJ is battling brain and spine cancer, and set a goal to be sworn in by 100 law agencies to raise awareness on childhood cancer. He is now at over 400! #BelieveInSpring 💙 @Shuester pic.twitter.com/9aqckiSdpS

— Spring ISD (@SpringISD) March 23, 2022

Spring ISD Police Officer Jarrod Morton marveled at the youngster’s determination and strength despite his prognosis.

“He’s still going out, meeting people and doing the things he’s wanted to do,” said Officer Morton. “With living with the type of cancer, knowing there’s no cure, he still gets up and goes forth to bring a smile to people’s faces. He can still do whatever he puts his mind to. It’s something that he’s not letting his diagnosis define who he is, he still gets up every day whether he’s in pain and decides to do that job.”

On March 24, Harris County Emergency Services District No. 9 swore Daniel in as an honorary commissioner, according to the Community Impact Newspaper. 

Daniel is carrying on the legacy of Abigail Arias, a 7-year-old who aspired to work in law enforcement before succumbing to cancer complications, officials said. 

Sammy Parks created a  GoFundMe page for Daniel to pay for his medical expenses.