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'I don't feel safe': African American man quits job after finding noose at work while management dismissed his concerns

Noose at job
© Justin Campbell / @Jcampbellnews / Twitter
An African American man in Louisiana quit his job after management dismissed his concerns over finding a noose strung up near his break area.

Jason Allen from New Orleans discovered the noose after arriving to work at the Kearney Companies in Baton Rouge.

"The first thing I thought and came to mind was slavery and black people being hung and intimidation," the machine operator told BRProud.com.

The general manager is reported to have laughed when he mentioned the noose.

"He got out of his company truck laughing and smiling saying someone has a sick sense of humor," Allen said.

It's illegal to publicly display a hangman's noose in the state of Louisiana. Allen and colleagues contacted authorities over the incident. If caught, the perpetrator could face a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Comment: See also: Racism on display: Noose found in DC African American museum & N-word scrawled on celebrity LA home


Sheriff

Missouri cop gets off with boating violation after handcuffing college kid, watching him drown

Anthony Piercy and Brandon Ellingson
Even after claiming he was responsible for the boy's death by watching him drown, this cop is getting off with a slap on the wrist citation

Nearly two years after Trooper Anthony Piercy was charged in the death of Brandon Ellingson, who drowned in the Lake of the Ozarks with his hands cuffed behind his back, the case has been closed. Predictably, the offending officer is getting off with less than a slap on the wrist.

For handcuffing a college student, negligently casting him into a lake, and watching as he drowned, Trooper Piercy pleaded guilty to a simple boating violation.

On May 31, 2014. Trooper Piercy arrested Ellingson under suspicion of OWI and negligently placed the wrong life jacket over the handcuffed 20-year-old's torso. Piercy then drove his patrol boat away from the scene at a high rate of speed. Ellingson was thrown from the craft when it struck a sizeable wake, the life jacket came off, and he drowned with his hands still in cuffs while Piercy callously watched on.

"He's an evil person," Ellingson's father Craig told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. "The reason we decided to go to the plea deal was it was tainted down there," in Morgan County, Missouri's court system.

Comment: For more on Sgt. Randy Henry, see: Whistler-blower cop demoted, transferred and forced to undergo psychological evaluation after drowning death of young Iowa man


Arrow Down

Debt & childcare costs drive US fertility rate to historic low

Baby
© Rick Wilking / Reuters
The US fertility rate has edged down to a record low, as young Americans choose to postpone or not have children. The US has seen a steady decline in fertility since the 2007 economic recession.

The so-called general fertility rate in the country is 62.0 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The trend is driven by a decline in birth rates for women in their 20s, whereas the birth rate for those in their 30s and 40s has increased — but not enough to make up for the lower numbers in younger women.

Even though among other developed nations the fertility rate in the US remains relatively high, births have been in continuous decline since the economic recession of 2007, shows data from the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of CDC.

Comment: See also: The U.S. has the worst record of maternal deaths in the developed world, 60 percent are preventable


Handcuffs

UK man jailed for assaulting Muslim teen with bacon

london bacon attack
© Metropolitan Police / YouTube
A man has been jailed for six months after slapping a Muslim teenager across the face with an open packet of bacon.

Alex Chivers, 36, can be seen covering himself with the bacon before he runs up to the girl, who was walking along a road in Enfield, north London, with her mother, and striking her across the face with the pork product, which is considered haram by the Islamic faith.

In the attack, Chivers also called the women "ISIL scum," in reference to the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), and told them they "deserve" it.

The Metropolitan Police said although the teenager was not injured, she was upset by the incident.

"The victim was out with her mother and getting on with her day when Chivers abused her and then set upon her with something he knew would both upset and offend her.

Comment: Some facts: ISIS is bad. The vast majority of Muslims aren't ISIS. Some troglodytes like Mr. Chivers would be doing themselves and all the rest of us a favor if they could stop and think for half a second. Assaulting some random teenager because you're an idiot puts you in the loser category, right there next to all the gullible losers who think ISIS is a cool thing. But we can't expect gullible losers to be able to think that clearly.


Heart - Black

Michigan mother accused of trying to torch her car with 11-year-old son bound and locked inside

Sherrie Richter
© Monroe County Sheriff
A mother is accused of trying to torch a car with her 11-year-old son bound and locked inside at a southeast Michigan cemetery.

The Monroe County sheriff's office says 48-year-old Sherrie Richter was arraigned Thursday on assault with intent to murder and arson charges.

The sheriff's office said preliminary investigations show Richter bound the boy's wrists, locked him inside the car and tried to set two fires in the vehicle at Roselawn Memorial Park, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of the Ohio state line.

She then freed the boy. The mother and son were later found walking in the cemetery.

The boy was taken to a hospital as a precaution and released.

Attention

'Epidemic proportions': Trump promises 'federal help' to stop violent crime in Chicago

U.S. President Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump says he is sending "federal help" to fight the "crime and killings" in Chicago.

The president made the announcement via Twitter Friday, saying violent crime had reached "epidemic proportions" and citing the figure of 1,714 shootings in Chicago this year.

Trump has yet to specify what type of federal assistance he plans to provide.

Trump has been critical of the city's crime rates in the past, warning he would "send in the Feds!" shortly after his January inauguration to fix the "horrible 'carnage' going on."

Comment: See also: "Chicago is a war zone": Suicide rate of police surges to 60% above national average


X

Innocent man kidnapped and raped by Las Vegas cops for legally refusing to show ID

Solomon Silk Galloway’s violent arrest by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
© KTNV’s 13 Action News
Just this week, KTNV's 13 Action News televised the GoPro footage from Solomon Silk Galloway's violent arrest by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. Galloway was recording when officers pulled over his car for allegedly speeding. Even though he wasn't driving the car, he quickly became targeted by Vegas police.

Galloway told officers he did not consent to a search of his vehicle and, as a passenger in the car, he was not legally bound to identify himself when cops demanded his ID. However, Vegas cops did not care about his rights, so they jerked him out of his car, kidnapped him and caged him.

"Do what you got to do, because we gotta find something," the officers can be overheard saying to each other while unlawfully searching the innocent man's car. And, do something they did.

When he was taken back to the police department for legally refusing to ID as a passenger of a vehicle, he was strip-searched and forced to undergo an anal cavity search. Still, they found nothing.

Eye 2

Kindergarten teacher will serve 12.5 years to life for kidnapping 16yo girl and making child pornography

Melvyn Sprowson

Sprowson was convicted of four counts of unlawful use of a minor in the production of pornography, and one count each of first-degree kidnapping and child abuse or neglect.
A former Las Vegas kindergarten teacher will serve between 12 ½ years and life in prison for kidnapping a 16-year-old girl and creating child pornography in his apartment for two months.

District Judge Stefany Miley issued the sentence to 48-year-old Melvyn Sprowson, who repeatedly professed his love for the 16-year-old and described the relationship as a "bad moral decision," the Las Vegas Review-Journalreports.

Sprowson weaved his career as an educator with his religion in a rambling justification for his actions when he addressed the court on Monday.
"This is an issue of age of consent. This is not an issue of me being a criminal and having criminal intent," he said. "One day I will die, and I will wake up in the arms of Jesus. That is my sole consideration in this whole process. The Lord knows what happened. I have a clear conscious before God."

Cell Phone

Low-cost phone & internet federally-funded programs waste millions

Money
© John Pulsipher / Global Look Press
The federally-funded program Lifeline is designed for low-income Americans, but now it's under fire for practices that allegedly include massive waste of taxpayer money. The FCC has expressed its intent to fix the issues in response.

The Government Accountability Office released a monumental report with information on the federally funded Lifeline welfare program Thursday. According to government auditors, $137 million a year is going to fake, dead and ineligible people.

The program, which offers a monthly credit at a cost of $9.25, was initially established during the Reagan administration. Lifeline's goal is leveling the playing field between those who have access to important services in communication, and those who don't, as reported by the Washington Post.

Over 12 million households received $1.5 billion in subsidies in 2016 from Lifeline, according to the report.

The program is funded by fees that are added to the phone bills of all US consumers. It went through some changes in 2016 and was expanded to include mobile broadband and residential internet as services that can be used with the credit, opposed to just helping with the phone side of the program.

Piggy Bank

Even low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries

US consumer
© Getty Images
It turns out that all Americans, regardless of income, spend a large percentage of their income on luxuries.

People who make the most money spend the biggest chunk of their incomes on luxury goods, but even the poorest households spend a significant amount for luxuries, according to an analysis released this week by Deutsche Bank Research.

The wealthiest families (the top fifth of earners) spend around 65% of their incomes on luxury goods and 35% on necessities, according to the study, which looked at spending habits between 1984 and 2014. Middle-income households weren't far behind: They spend 50% on luxuries and 50% on necessities.