Acting Philly Police Commissioner Christ Philadelphia
Acting Philly Police Commissioner Christine Coulter Apologizes for Wearing Controversial L.A.P.D. T-Shirt in the 90s, Councilwoman Calls for Resignation
After Coulter's statement, Cindy Bass, Philadelphia City Councilor, read from a letter to Mayor Jim Kenney calling for Coulter's resignation.
A hearing on racist social media posts by police officers in Philadelphia City Council took a dramatic turn Tuesday when Acting Police Commissioner Christine M. Coulter apologized for the controversial t-shirt she wore in the 1990s, urging the councilwoman to call for her resignation.
The hearing addressed a report, released by the Plain read Project in June, that showed the results of a biennial review of over 3,000 racist Facebook posts and comments from both current and former officers in Philadelphia and seven other U.S. police departments.
The findings resulted in 72 Philadelphia cops being placed on administrative leave, including the suspension of 13 officers with the intent of being dismissed. at least seven officers resigned shortly afterwards announcement was made.
While giving the opening statement during Tuesday’s hearing, coulter shifted the main focus to herself, by addressing a t-shirt she wore 25 years ago. A photo, first reported by Philly.com, shows a coulter wearing a shirt, "L.A.P.D. We're treating you like a King. Some interpreted the words as referring to the heavily advertised, caught in 1991 by four Los Angeles police officers of beating Rodney King's on camera
Coulter initially said the image was taken during a gathering with other officers at the Jersey Shore when she worked within the 25th District, according to Philly.com. At Tuesday’s hearing, coulter said that she didn’t believe at the time that the shirt was referencing the Rodney King incident. She still apologized for wearing it, however.
“It is obvious that it was a bad decision on my part and I would not wear that shirt today,” she said. “Certainly, as I look into the past week and the hurt and damage it has caused people whom I care about to communities that I always care about, I should have known.”
After Coulter’s statement, Philadelphia councilwoman Cindy Bass read from a letter written to Mayor Jim Kenney in which she called for Coulter’s resignation.
“I don't believe that the Acting Commissioner Christine M. coulter will effectively manage the external relationships necessary to address police and community tensions which are fully required of any commissioner,” Bass said in the letter.
Bass asked for coulter to step down straight off, which drew cheers from the crowd during the hearing.
A representative from the mayor's office told that while Kenney believes the shirt was in poor taste, he's glad coulter is taking responsibility for wearing it. The spokesperson also said Kenney hopes coulter is judged on her nearly 30 years of service rather than one poor decision.
"About all this, my heart was broken," Coulter said. "There are people in this room that I have served in their communities who know my heart and know that I have been serving in black and brown communities for 30 years with everything I have ever had to give, never treating people unjustly or unjustly because of their race. I treated people like gentlemen, even people I had to arrest.
Coulter became Philadelphia's top cop last month after former Commissioner Richard Ross' sudden resignation. He stepped down one day after 2 female police officers filed an amended cause alleging Ross didn’t properly deal with their accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination against other members of the department. Ross was also accused of getting an affair with one of the women.
Coulter was listed as a suspect in the federal lawsuit.
Philadelphia's managing director said an all-out search is on for a permanent police commissioner with the goal of hiring one by the end of the year. the city also released a survey residents can fill out online expressing what they need from a new commissioner.
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Employee Shoots, Kills thief inside subway PCS Store in Southwest Philadelphia, Police Say
Police said only the employee and the suspect were inside the shop at the time. A worker shot and killed a thief inside a subway PCS store in Southwest Philadelphia, according to investigators.
Police said an unidentified man in his late 30s armed with a gun tried to rob the shop on 70th Street and Elmwood Avenue shortly after 4 p.m. Monday.
surveillance video from inside the shop showing the suspect walking inside, displaying a weapon and throwing a bag on the counter in front of the employee. the worker, whom investigators said has a permit to hold, then quickly pulled out his own gun and opened fire, shooting the suspect multiple times.
"Out of nowhere I heard as 10 shots burst," a witness, who didn't wish to be identified
The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:12 p.m. by medics.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson said the homicide unit for the Philadelphia District Attorney's office determined the shooting was justified.
"After reviewing video of the incident the DAO homicide unit has concurred with the Philadelphia police department that this was a justified self-protection shooting according to Pennsylvania law," the spokesperson wrote.
The employee, whom sources say is a Marine soldier, wasn't hurt during the incident and was the only other person inside the shop.
"He ran to the shop nearby," a witness said. "He looked frightened and like he was panicking."
Police said the shop had been robbed twice within the past year before Monday's incident.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The tense encounter that lasted less than 12 seconds was captured on surveillance video.
Police say the suspect was there to rob the place and he likely didn’t recognize the employee inside was armed.
Out of nowhere, I heard about ten gunshots,” an eyewitness said.
Reports of gunfire came on the initial call. Police rushed to the corner of 70th and elmwood Streets in Southwest Philadelphia.
“When they arrived on the scene, they were met by an employee of MetroPCS,” Philadelphia Police Capt. Scott Drissel said.
It turns out that shooting happened inside the MetroPCS cell phone store.
“The guy that works at MetroPCS run out of the store with a gun in his hand,” said the witness.
Around 4:10 p.m. Monday, a man wearing a hoodie can be seen in surveillance video coming into the shop with a handgun. He tosses the bag toward the employee, telling him to fill it with phones. but the robber did not know that the employee was armed.
“He discharged his gun at the suspect numerous times, striking him,” Drissel said.
Police regularly visit the shop. and there is police logbook in there. Officers can typically go inside the shop and meet with the employees there and sign the logbook, Drissel said.
On Monday evening, technicians with the Medical Examiner’s office, homicide detectives, and crime scene analysts combed through the shop.
Those who live, look and work nearby, and some who even know the employee, say they’re glad he's OK.
“He comes in here and buys food. I bought my phone from there. He’s an extremely someone,” a witness said.
“It’s a shame that it had to happen, however, thank God, you know what I mean, he didn’t get hurt,” one girl said.
The store employee has not been charged with anything, though the investigation continues.
Police haven't released the identity of the would-be thief who was killed.
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Lime and Bird are already breaking the rules of the Phoenix E-Scooter
Two companies involved in Phoenix's Electric Scooter program are violating a law designed to prevent sidewalk bloat, a problem that has irritated pedestrians and officials in other cities with shared scooters.
Neither Lime nor Bird scooters require riders to park in one of the 400 designated parking zones.
To get a permit to distribute e-scooters in Phoenix, firms were required to use so-called geofencing technology to preclude riders from ending a session outside of parking zones, which are marked by white poles emblazoned with reflective yellow strips. If the technology works properly, riders who try to park outside a designated zone will receive an alert through a smartphone app informing them that they can't end their session and will still get charged by the minute.
The city's official e-scooter permit declared that "operators should customize their mobile app to inform their Riders once trying to park outside the designated Parking Areas and preclude their Riders from ending their trip outside such locations." If somebody reports a scooter outside a parking lot, the city offers companies 2 hours to move the vehicle or face an $80 fine.
New Times rode at least 3 scooters from each company on Tuesday and attempted to park them well outside selected zones to check their compliance with city rules.
Spin was the only company with a system in place prohibiting us from parking outside a chosen zone. Here's what we tend to saw on the Spin app once we got nearly 0.5 a block away from the closest parking zone:
The app didn't enable us to finish our session until we moved nearer to a parking lot. Still, Spin's geofencing technology seems to be flawed. Its app sometimes misplaced us in a designated parking lot when we were a couple of yards away from the closest one. A representative for the company said that is as a result of Spin uses a radius system to combat GPS technology limitations.
Spin representatives said, "Spin is committed to working by the rules established by cities, and we trust all players in the room to abide by all those rules.
Unfortunately, noncompliance of other scooter operators is something that we have seen more often than not in cities across the country, including Phoenix.
Lime allowed us to illegally park on private property about a block away from the nearest parking zone. When we pressed a button in the Lime app to end our session, we were prompted by a screen asking us whether we wanted to "pause" or "end" the ride:
Reached on the mobile, Lime's spokesman stated that the firm does not allow riders to park in the designated areas of the city. The spokesman said the company representatives confirmed the system with the city officials before launch.
He added that riders trying to park their scooters should obtain a signal telling them whether they are in a designated area.
Emphasizing that this is an "educational era," the spokesman said that Lime will be checking the pictures of parked scooters and possibly fining users who have failed to park properly. He refused to say how much the fines would have been.
Court: Phoenix Business may refuse to make invitations for same-sex couples
In its 4-3 view, the Arizona Supreme Court decided in favor of the Phoenix-based Brush & Nib Studio, a small company that refused to make wedding invitations for LGBTQ couples.
"Freedom of expression and free practice rights, which have been so valuable to this country since its creation, is not limited to soft murmurings behind the doors of a person's house or church, or personal conversations with like-minded friends and family," Justice Andrew Gould wrote for the majority. "These guarantees protect the right of every American to express his or her views in public, including the right to produce and sell words, artworks and paintings that express an individual's sincere religious practices.
With these basic values in mind, today we believe that the City of Phoenix... Unable to apply its Human Relations Ordinance... To force Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, owners of Brush & Nib Studio, LC ("Brush & Nib"), to create custom wedding invitations to celebrate same-sex wedding ceremonies in violation of their sincere religious views. Duka, Koski, and Brush & Nib (' Plaintiffs ') have the privilege to continue to convey such messages under Article 2 of Section 6 of the Arizona Constitution, as well as under the Arizona Free Exercise of Religion Act (' FERA '), A.R.S. § 41-1493.01.
The case-matched enterprise owners against the City of Phoenix, with main components including the ideas of artistic freedom, religious freedoms, and anti-discrimination laws.
The case began on May 2016, after Brush & Nib and its owners claimed that the Phoenix Anti-Discrimination Act violated their artistic and religious freedom. They lodged a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Maricopa County.
In 2015, artist Breanna Koski and calligrapher Joanna Duka established the Brush & Nib Studio. The business focuses on hand-painting and hand-painting for weddings, special events, and home decor. They're also selling ready-made products such as posters and thank-you cards.
The company holders said that Phoenix City Code 18-4(B)(1)-(3) prohibited them from practicing artistic and religious freedom by forcing them to make wedding invitations for same-sex couples.
The Ordinance adopted in 2013 prevents discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or disability. It refers to providing services to all public.
Brush & Nib Studio is depicted by Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy and training group established in 1994 to support what they call religious liberty, marriage, and families, and the sanctity of existence.
The Alliance Defending Freedom has been named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which condemns the alliance for its "anti-LGBT sentiment."
Alliance clients include Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker who declined to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in 2012. The case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, came all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court of Justice. In June 2018, the tribunal held in favor of Phillips in a verdict of 7-2.
The Alliance Defending Freedom announced that it intends to conduct a press conference with the owners of Brush & Nib this afternoon. Today's judgment fulfills a previous judgment of the tribunal against Brush & Nib.
In October 2017, Maricopa Country Superior Judge Karen A. Mullins ruled that the city code in question did not violate the Studio's freedom of speech or the free exercise of religion.
New north Houston bike park aims to be the biggest BMX facility in-country while serving area children
It takes a particular level of grit to dislocate 2 toes, break your hand doubly, suffer multiple minor concussions, and a torn medial collateral ligament — all in the span of 5 years — and still wish to be an expert BMX rider.
Eli Kravetz’s passion for action sports has grownup from the time he designed his 1st bike at age fifteen. Since then, he has become a sponsored bike rider for Lone Star Action Sports and has performed stunt shows across the country at numerous colleges, festivals, and rodeos. He has additionally led bike demonstrations at local schools and NRG stadium.
But it all started in a very skatepark in the Houston suburbs. Kravetz would pay hours there with his friends and members of the Houston BMX scene, that for many years has been spread out from the dirt jump riders at the emmet Hills biking trails to street riders across the greater Houston area too small teams in The Woodlands/Conroe area.
“There’s definitely an extended history of BMX in Houston, that is good,” Kravetz said. “All of the BMX riders are pretty set back and simply relish having a good time riding bikes.”
The Rockstar Energy Bike Park, that opens August. 16 at Kuykendahl Road and Interstate 45, will incorporate all the items local bikers love whereas additionally catering to a national and international bike community.
When it opens, the bike park is one of the largest within u. s.. it'll host the 2020 UCI BMX World Championships in May 2020 and will be certified for professional and sponsored riders to achieve points toward qualifying for major competitions.
Sally Bradford is known as the vision behind the bike park, moreover because of the North Houston Skate Park and Dylan Park, a place for folks of all talents. the chief director of the North Houston Development corporation. has been at the helm of the 3 major projects in this 30-acre area for the better part of a decade.
When the two first parks opened in 2014, bicycles and BMX weren't a part of the planning. a group of bikers showed up at the opening to plead their case, and Bradford did not need much convincing. She knew they needed to have a place of their own, particularly since there was remaining land to develop
From the start, Houston’s biker community was a part of the project by way of a bike committee to provide a knowledgeable recommendation on what would be required for the local BMX community, but also for competitive bikers across the country.
There is a red-clay race track for competitions (with bleachers to seat about 2,000), asphalt pump tracks, street courses, freestyle areas and bowls on the 20-acre tract of land. It’s not just for BMX-style bikes however all pedal-driven bicycles.
The park will feature biking trails to connect to the other parks and surrounding wooded areas, also as a stage and grassy mound that would seat thousands. there will be an event center available to rent, an educational area, native trees and original sculptures on site. a mud pump track is going to be maintained by local bikers who will change up the hills as they see fit, Bradford said
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A property seller was shot dead by a unidentified shooter outside his office in Delhi on Tuesday, in a baldfaced occurrence that has activated analysis of law authorization in the capital city. The police presume animosity could be the explanation for the executing.
Sensational CCTV film from outside the workplace of Narendra Gehlot, a property vendor, showed a man approaching his SUV and starting to shoot at Dwarka's Old Palam Vihar Road. The occurrence occurred at around 4:30 pm.
In the video, the 48-year-old was seen attempting to escape in his vehicle yet it at that point veers and halts abruptly, nearly hitting the shooter. The shooter, who was wearing a protective cap, at that point bounces on to the top of another left vehicle and flames at Gehlot as he attempts to escape by walking. Gehlot was raced to Venkateshwara Hospital where he was announced brought dead by specialists.
Senior cop Anto Alphonso said the unfortunate casualty himself was a blamed trying to murder case.
