Black People in the News

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom

Man on trial accused of burning two-year-old WA girl using boiling water and cigarette lighter​

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two-year-old girl lost some of her fingernails after the man tasked with caring for her allegedly held her hands in boiling water, causing burns of such severity, she required skin grafts, the District Court in Perth has heard.

WARNING: This story contains details that readers may find distressing.

Jaycob Anfernee John Yarran, 25 is on trial charged with causing grievous bodily harm and doing an act causing bodily harm for allegedly using a cigarette lighter and boiling water to burn the toddler.

Mr Yarran was looking after the girl and her four-year-old sister in a home in Maddington, in Perth's southern suburbs, in September 2019 when the alleged abuse took place.

Prosecutor Alan Dungey said when the toddler was taken to hospital, she was found to have "extremely severe" scalding to her hands.

He also told the court the burns went through "all the layers of her skin" and some fingernails fell out and that without grafts, she may have lost the use of her fingers.

She was left permanently scarred and there would need to be frequent medical interventions in the future, the court was told.

The prosecutor said Mr Yarran’s explanation for the injuries was that an accident happened when he was cooking noodles.

His account was that he heard a "clatter" and "splash", and he saw her with "noodles around her hands" and then she slipped and "face planted".

He then called his girlfriend, and they soon took her to the hospital.

Cigarette lighter also allegedly used​

The prosecution also alleged a cigarette lighter was held against the girl's skin as she had "imprint burns" on her face and body, the type of which were typically caused by a
hot metal object.

Mr Dungey said Mr Yarran agreed the relatively minor burns were caused by cigarette lighters, and said he had left some around the house within reach of the girls.

He denied he had caused any of the burns.

The court heard from Mr Yarran's girlfriend, who said she hadn't left the children in his care before and she had never seen him inflicting burns on them.

In pre-recorded evidence, she said he was "really good with the kids" and they were "always happy to see him" and he had also never been cruel to her pets.

She said after they took the two-year-old to hospital, the girl was very distressed and it was Mr Yarran who held her and calmed her down, "even when they were doing the dressings".

She said there were cigarette lighters in the house because she used to smoke, and Mr Yarran still did.

Accused's explanation 'a lie' says prosecutor​

Mr Dungey said there would be expert evidence that the lighter burns could only have been inflicted on the girl if she was restrained, and her four-year-old sister would not have been able to do it.

Expert evidence would also show that splashing could not have caused the severe hand burns, which were more likely the result of a child becoming "trapped" in hot water.

Those injuries were of "equivalent depth on both hands", Mr Dungey told the court, and "in layman's terms, you might call them glove injuries".

Mr Yarran's explanation to the police was "a deliberate lie", the prosecutor told the jury, and while it was "inconceivable to fathom" why such things happened, sometimes children were physically abused.

The court has been shown a video of a police interview with Mr Yarran recorded at the home, where he showed officers a pot on the stove and explained how it may have been pulled over.

He also showed police the shower where he said he took the girl, and a basin where he said he held her under cold water.

Judge Alan Troy told the jury that given the age of the girl and the severity of the injuries, it was likely they would have a reaction.

He said their decision had to be made based on the facts.

The trial is set down for four days.
 

The Question

Eternal
I saw this story come across my RSS feeds, and knew as soon as I saw the name 'Christopher Darnell Jones', even without an accompanying photo, that I'd see it show up here before long.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
That one's a case where the punishment should fit the crime.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom

Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield partner to create ear-shaped, cannabis-infused edibles​


The first version of 'Holy Bites' is cherry punch flavor, which Tyson joked in an ad is the flavor of Holyfield's ears​

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Boxing legends Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield have partnered up for an interesting TYSON 2.0 project that gives a nod to an infamous incident during one of their fights in the '90s. They are creating edibles in the shape of an ear, which they are calling "Holy Ears."

"It's a privilege to reunite with my former opponent and now long-time friend, and turn years of fights and knockouts into a partnership that can make a positive impact and heal people," Tyson, co-founder and chief brand officer of TYSON 2.0, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, TYSON 2.0 released "Mike Bites" which were also ear-shaped edibles with a missing chunk. Now, Holyfield wants to get involved. The first version of "Holy Bites" is cherry punch flavor.

In an ad, Tyson joked about how that is the flavor of Holyfield's ears.



They fought two times through their professional careers. Holyfield won the first one in 1996 by TKO in the 11th round. The second meeting -- the 1997 heavyweight world title fight -- had a controversial and bloody result.

In the heat of the moment, Tyson bit Holyfield's ear and took off a chuck. He then spit it out. The gruesome moment surprisingly did not stop the fight. Tyson was only given a two-point deduction and was allowed to continue -- until he bit Holyfield's other ear and was ultimately disqualified.

In an interview in 2020, Tyson explained his actions by saying he "lost consciousness" and bit him because he "wanted to kill him." It was a crazy moment in sports history, but Holyfield didn't hold a grudge.

"Mike and I have a long history of competition and respect for one another. And that night changed both of our lives. Back then, we didn't realize that even as power athletes, we were also in a lot of pain," said Holyfield in a statement. "Now, nearly 20 years later, we have the opportunity to share the medicine we really needed throughout our careers. I'm honored to join the Carma family and partner with Mike and the TYSON 2.0 team to launch Holy Ears, and soon my own line of cannabis products."
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom

Gabrielle Union: ‘Don’t be that ‘happy Negro’ in white spaces’​

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“I started my career being the Black friend in a bunch of teen movies,” says Gabrielle Union, “and it’s assumed that I had to do these white-centred films to be worthy for hire.”

In her early years, Union carved out her niche as the bitchy hot girl in high-school movies starring white women – though she didn’t have much choice on roles back then.

“When you’re at that point in your career as a struggling actor,” she says, “you do become a ‘pick me’ girl to pay your bills.”

She was a glorified extra in Save The Last Dance, and Chastity, the best friend-cum-traitor in 10 Things I Hate About You. But it was Bring It On that made her a star. She played Isis, the lead dancer in a rival cheer squad from an all-Black inner-city school.

Union was quick-witted and assertive as Isis, but she’s since expressed regret at how she “muzzled” the character in an attempt to make her “the appropriate kind of Black girl”.

So when she returned to acting after a break, and took on lead roles in predominantly Black films like Two Can Play That Game, she was nervous about how Black audiences might view her.

Would they look at Chastity and Isis and say she had sold out – that she had rejected her Blackness for money, recognition and social standing in white society? She needn’t have worried. They welcomed her with open arms.

“They were like, ‘We’ve been here all along,’” she says. “If you show respect, and support causes that impact the community, they’ll always be there… Why would I search for [white] validation from people who wouldn’t spit in my direction if I was on fire? Why would I base my whole life’s work on that?”

Union says all this with a smile. Even apologetically seated, trying to keep warm on this relatively mild London day – “It’s usually colder than this?!” she asks – she’s an animated presence, intense and forthright when it’s needed. She’d be deeply intimidating if she weren’t so personable.

The past few weeks of her life have been hectic. Union travelled across the African continent and brought in her 50th birthday in Zanzibar (she also looks like she’s drunk from the fountain of youth, by the way, but more on that later), then travelled back to LA for the premiere of her new film Strange World.

Now, two days later, she’s shivering in London to promote it. She’d thought of skipping LA and flying straight to London, but “it was Kaav’s birthday at the same time as the premiere, so we wanted to celebrate that at home in LA”.
Union wanted to play a parent who “loved out loud” just as she does. Her 14-year-old step-daughter Zaya is trans, so “it appealed to me”, she says, “because I’m playing a demonstratively loving mother to an LGBTQIA+ child”.

Besides, in other bankable films she’s starred in, like Bad Boys II and Think Like A Man, “I’m either shooting someone or naked with someone, so this makes a change. It’s been nice to be in a film that Kaav can engage in.”

At the same time she was voicing Strange World, Union was filming The Inspection, in which she plays a homophobic parent to a child who is closeted in order to be in the military. “It’s a very dark and emotionally challenging role, and [my character] certainly wasn’t a good parent.”

Strange World helped to offset the gruelling task of playing a mother who was against everything that Union represents, but it’s not by accident that she took on a role that showed the spectrum of intolerance. Firstly, she’s an actor.

“On occasion, you get projects that feed your soul and sometimes the activist in me gets fulfilled as well,” she says. “It’s also not a hard sell when it comes to casting, because they know [what I stand for] in real life.”

Being a vocal trans ally might be difficult at a time when trans rights are being increasingly “debated”. But it’s not in Union’s nature to shy away from injustice. “I usually occupy a space of militance,” she says.

“With some people, there’s no changing their minds, so you may as well know what you want to say and how you want to say it.” It’s important, she says, “to tell the truth, in interviews, on social media…”

Her interviews are forthright; clips of her often go viral – simple and clear vignettes on the importance of supporting equality, and appreciating where Black people – Black women – have come from.

Black creators in positions of power in Hollywood are a small but growing minority, and in order to escalate this number, Union pays her power forward to up-and-coming talents.

“We have to empower people. Don’t be that ‘happy Negro’ who is just happy to be in white spaces, who is just happy to be invited to the party,” she says. She emphatically cites the people who empowered her as a young struggling actor: “Tichina Arnold, Jennifer Lewis, Regina Hall, MC Light, Queen Latifah, Angie Martinez, Tisha Campbell-Martin”.

Campbell-Martin, in fact, paid for 10 sessions of therapy for Union when she couldn’t afford it. “She wasn’t interested in watching me crumble. She kept an eye on me to make sure I wasn’t falling in life.”

After a 25 year-long career, Union now finds herself in their position. She owns a production company, I’ll Have Another, whose ethos is “for us by us”, which seeks to tell stories of marginalised communities by the people who have actually experienced marginalisation. (“Really?!” she laughs, when I note that the antebellum slave epic The Color Purple was directed by the white Stephen Spielberg).

She’s particularly impressed by Insecure creator Issa Rae, who founded Hoorae Productions and who Union says has created an empire emboldening Black creators at all stages in their career. “There is no sport without Black folks, there is no entertainment, no industry… there has to be solidarity because we have the numbers and we can make change if we stick together.”

Before they travelled to Africa for that extended birthday trip, Union’s family all did their ancestry test. “D is basically all Yoruba, all Nigerian, not even little pieces of anywhere else,” she laughs. It put them on good footing as they travelled the continent, from South Africa to Tanzania, but it was her family’s experience in Ghana that proved life-changing.

First they received Ghanian names (“Sarfoa for me and Kwesi for D”), before they headed to Last Bath, where slaves bathed before being taken into slave ships.

“Kaav” is her four-year-old daughter Kaavia Union-Wade, whom she shares with her partner, retired NBA star Dwyane Wade (she is also step-mother to his two eldest children, Zaire and Zaya).

Kaavia has 1.2 million Instagram followers – or internet aunts and uncles – who have followed her young life since she was born. A-listers usually shroud their kids in secrecy to avoid rampant invasiveness, but Union has chosen openness. Maybe it’s because Kaavia was the result of years of fertility struggles, which she talks about candidly (Kaavia was conceived via surrogacy).

Taking on her role in Strange World was in part inspired by motherhood. In the wacky adventure film, which follows a family of explorers as they try and track down the rare resources that can save the world, she plays Meridian Clade, the mother of the film’s teen hero Ethan.

While the film covers generational strife, trauma and environmentalism, what’s making headlines is that Ethan (Jaboukie Young White) is the first out gay teen character in an animated film. And it’s not just that: his sexuality isn’t a storyline – there’s no coming out, no tears, no trauma. He fancies his classmate but it’s treated just like any teenage infatuation.

“We had a chance to physically get into the river and say our prayers and call to our ancestors… a few years ago they had done a ceremony so that I could have my child, and they did a similar ceremony for my husband and I this time round.”

She can’t quite articulate what happened next (“magic seems too simplistic”), but she tries anyway, “We were all separate from each other and in the distance I see D with his arms outstretched as one of the chiefs pours water on him… next thing I know he lets out a scream. Some people are crying, some are silently weeping, some are anguished. It’s a boiling day, and as we walk out of the water, the skies open up and it’s a torrential downpour out of the blue.”

Whatever happened only strengthened her resolve to centre her life and work on the causes she believes in. She’s acutely aware of the legacy she wants to leave behind for her kids, and in that river in Last Bath, “I felt like I was being fortified and forged in the fires of my ancestors”, she says.

“I’d never been more clear. My soul has never felt cleaner or lighter. It’s my superhero origin story. If you thought I was a troublemaker before, you have no f***ing idea what’s coming.”
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom

Police Issue Arrest Warrant for Friend of Woman Who Died on Vacation in Cabo San Lucas​

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Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, a local prosecutor, announced the update in the case Wednesday, stating that Shanquella's Oct. 29 death was femicide — gender-based murder and hate crime.

"This case is fully clarified, we even have a court order, there is an arrest warrant issued for the crime of femicide to the detriment of the victim and against an alleged perpetrator, a friend of hers, who is the direct aggressor. Actually, it wasn't a quarrel, but instead a direct aggression," the local prosecutor said, per ABC News.

He added: "We are carrying out all the pertinent procedures, such as the Interpol alert and the request for extradition to the United States of America. It's about two Americans, the victim and the culprit."

The identity of the alleged assailant was not revealed.

Late last month, Shanquella had arrived at the resort city with six friends to celebrate a birthday just a day before her death, Queen City News reported.

"She told me they had a chef. They were getting ready to eat. They were eating tacos or a salad or something, and I said, 'OK. I love you. Have a good night, and I will talk to you tomorrow,'" Shanquella's mother, Salamondra Robinson, told QCN. "I never talked to my child again."

The next day, Sallamondra received a call from Shanquella's friends who'd gone to Mexico with her, telling her that her daughter had died, according to ABC News.

"They said she wasn't feeling well. She had alcohol poisoning," Sallamondra told QCN. She added, "Each one of the people that was there with her was telling different stories."

Shanquella's death certificate, which was obtained by WSOC-TV, tells a different story and reveals that she died from a severe spinal cord injury and Atlas subluxation complex, a nervous system dysfunction caused by misalignment of the top cervical vertebrae. Alcohol is not mentioned in the death certificate, according to the outlet.

The document also states that the time between her injury and her death was about 15 minutes. A box that asks if her death was "accidental or violent" was answered yes, per WSOC-TV.

Salamondra told ABC News upon hearing an arrest warrant was issued: "I feel so good, that's a good feeling. That's what we have been waiting for, for someone to finally be held accountable and arrested. I just can't wait for justice to be served."

Additionally, the FBI has opened an investigation into the death of the Charlotte, N.C., resident, a spokesperson told PEOPLE.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
Just reading the names of the perps I knew this article was destined for this thread. These people are from Chuckie's neighnorhood, so I'm not surprised.

Is there a book of Weird names for black people I'm not aware of? These are pretty wild.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
Sallamondra, Shanquella, etc. Where do they come up with these names?
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom

83-year-old employee dies after shove during Home Depot theft, suspect sought​

An elderly Home Depot employee who was shoved to the ground by a man allegedly fleeing the store with stolen merchandise has died weeks after the assault, police said. A suspect is still being sought in the now deadly attack.

The disturbing incident, which occurred on Oct. 18 at a Home Depot in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was caught on the store's surveillance footage.

In the footage, the octogenarian employee can be seen approaching the masked suspect as he leaves through the store's garden area with a shopping cart filled with three pressure washers. The suspect can be seen using his right arm to push away the employee, sending him to the ground, while continuing to push the cart.

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The victim died on Wednesday due to complications from injuries he sustained in the assault, the Hillsborough Police Department said. The North Carolina medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide, police said.

The employee was Gary Rasor, who had worked with the company for more than nine years, a Home Depot spokesperson confirmed. He celebrated his 83rd birthday days after the assault in the hospital.

"We are heartbroken by the loss of our associate Gary," Margaret Smith, a spokesperson for Home Depot, said in a statement to ABC News. "He was an amazing friend, husband, father and grandfather, always willing to help anyone."

"Hillsborough associates just celebrated his 83rd birthday with him," the statement continued. "Right now, our top concern is supporting his family and our associates during this difficult time."

Rasor was an Army veteran who throughout his life worked in various industries, including insurance, construction and fencing, before moving to Durham and working at the Hillsborough Home Depot, according to an obituary.

He is survived by his wife, son, two daughters, three stepdaughters, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, according to the obituary.

Police have asked for the public's help in identifying the suspect in the larceny-linked death. The approximately 6-foot-tall Black man fled the scene in a white, four-door Hyundai Sonata with an "obscured" North Carolina temporary tag, police said.

That's the kind of car Chuckie drives :bigass:
 

Oerdin

Active Member
I rented a Hyundai Sonata once. It was a terrible car like I thought it would be but I am positive it wouldn't last as long as a Toyota or Honda.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom

77-year-old woman stabbed to death at her home during car robbery​

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It appeared Bowles interrupted the suspect's robbery of her 2021 Lexus RX350 between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Atlanta Police Lt. Germain Dearlove said at a news conference. She lived in a gated community, according to ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB.

Bowles was stabbed multiple times. Her body was discovered by her son when he came home to visit her for the holidays, Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said.

"This is not a way that a family should have to spend their holiday season, mourning and grieving the death of a loved one," Hampton said.

"Our world has been turned upside down and for really no good reason," her son, Michael Bowles, said, according to WSB. "It was a senseless act."

Bowles' stolen car was driven throughout Atlanta and has since been recovered, police said.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
"Jew soap"? Oh never mind thats his name.

Fucking hilarious.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
 
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