Have you scrolled on Instagram lately only to be accosted with photos of beautiful loaves of bread? Home cooks from all over the world have taken to using their spare time during this pandemic to bake bread. This caused flour and yeast shortages across much of the US.
Jason Whitlock, the Tomi Lahren of Clarence Thomases, is reportedly out at Fox Sports, after they couldn’t come to an agreement on a new contract.
According to an exclusive report by NBC News, Minneapolis police used neck restraints at least 237 times since 2015. 44 people or 15% of those suspects were rendered unconscious.
The report notes that a lack of publicly available use-of-force data from police departments across the country makes it difficult to compare Minneapolis to other cities. However, experts says that the number seems unusually high.
Ed Obayashi, an attorney and deputy sheriff told NBC that police departments across the country have been moving away from the neck restraint option for many years because of its “inherent life-threatening potential.”
“It’s common sense,” Obayashi said. “Any time you cut off someone’s airway or block blood flow to the brain, it can lead to serious injury or death as we have seen in so many of these tragedies. By using this tactic, it’s a self-fulfilling tragedy.”
According to Obayashi, the use of the tactic by Minneapolis PD is “dated” and has mostly been phased out in most police departments.
“The [Minneapolis] policy doesn’t appear to reflect what California and other law enforcement agencies using best practices recognize, which is if officers don’t use extreme caution with this force option, the likelihood of serious injury or death rises significantly,” Obayashi said.
According to NBC, police neck restraint is defined as when an officer uses an arm or leg to compress someone’s neck without directly pressuring the airway. Minneapolis police have stated since the death of George Floyd that the tactic is not sanctioned by their department.
According to NBC News, three-fifths of those subjected to neck restraints were Black, 30% were white, almost all were male and under 40.
Most disturbingly, according to the report, the restraint method was used on teenagers, including a 17-year-old suspected of shoplifting and a 14-year-old.
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The Hennepin County Medical Examiner in Minneapolis has determined that George Floyd’s manner of death was “homicide” but that he also had a heart attack and an opioid in his system.
READ MORE: George Floyd’s independent autopsy determines death was a ‘homicide’
The official cause of death is stated as a “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck compression.” Homicide is listed as well since there were external factors that contributed to his death. It is believed that he may have suffered a heart attack while being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.
On the viral video, now former police officer Derek Chauvin is seen pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck as 3 other officers also apply pressure onto Floyd who lay on the ground.
The medical examiner’s report showed that Floyd had other underlying health issues including hypertensive heart disease. Fentanyl and recent methamphetamine use were also found in the 46-year-old’s system.
Just last week the Hennepin County Medical Examiner announced the preliminary results of its autopsy on Floyd. The updated findings come just hours after Floyd’s family and attorney Benjamin Crump released the conclusions of an autopsy that was done independently.
At a press conference earlier in the day, the manner of death was determined to be from “asphyxiation from sustained pressure.” It was stressed that the officers involved cut off Floyd’s air supply and caused his death.
“He couldn’t breathe — asphyxia due to compression of the neck and the back,” Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner of New York City, told reporters in a video conference. “And that’s homicidal.”
Baden also stated that Floyd was healthy and did not have any preexisting health issues that would have resulted in his death. He didn’t find any evidence of heart disease.
“I wish I had the same coronary arteries that Mr. Floyd had that we saw at the autopsy.”
Baden described the trauma that was inflicted on Floyd’s body that included abrasions to his left eye, left cheek, left shoulder, nose, and mouth. The pathologist faulted the Minneapolis officers.
“These are also very painful kinds of scrape marks,” he said. “Which is evidence of his face being rubbed severally against the ground.”
Crump stated that Floyd, who expressed that he couldn’t breathe, was left to die. As Chauvin pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck until he lost consciousness, the other officers did not intervene. Chauvin has since been charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder. The family is demanding that the officers also be held accountable.
READ MORE: George Floyd’s family condemns violence as he was a man ‘about peace’
“For George Floyd, the ambulance was his hearse,” Crump said.
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(George Floyd photo via Stephen Jackson @_Stack5_ Instagram)
The post Minneapolis ME officially rules George Floyd’s death as ‘homicide’ and heart attack appeared first on TheGrio.
In a series of videos posted on Instagram, a White pregnant woman is filmed calling the police on a Black woman seemingly for sitting in a public park on the Upper West Side of New York City.
The soon-to-be mother identifies herself in the video as Svitlana Flom, who is a restaurateur and supposed socialite.
In the post of 10 short videos, the New Yorker, who in her bio identifies herself as a health care worker, says that Flom called police on her multiple times. “She was too ‘alarmed’ that I was sitting ‘comfortably’ in ‘her neighborhood.’
READ MORE: A word for the Karens and Amy Coopers of America
”She’s playing the Black card,” Flom is heard saying, “She’s filming me.”
According to user Pretty Brown‘s caption, the first call was because the woman thought she was smoking in public. By the third call, the post says, Flom was crying and saying that the woman behind the camera was threatening her and her children.
Flom said she wanted the footage to be erased.
In one of the videos, the Black woman pans the camera and says, “that’s my building. This is my neighborhood. I have the right to be here.”
Even more audaciously, when police finally come near the scene, Flom beckons to the woman filming to walk with her to them. “Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? Me, leaving my comfort to walk with you to the police?”
According to the Daily Mail, Flom co-owns Madison Vivienne, a French restaurant with locations in Southampton and the Upper East Side.
READ MORE: Amy Cooper dubbed ‘Central Park Karen’fired from job after targeting Black man
The incident lasted for over an hour and the woman’s husband, former President and CEO of Jaguar Land Rover Manhattan Gary Flom, walked away early in the confrontation leaving his wife and children. She, however, remained sitting across from the woman filming her.
The Black woman said that she could have “walked away,” but wondered how the woman could feel “so privileged and so comfortable to tell me I should leave?”
Police did eventually arrive and told Flom that there was nothing to be done about a woman sitting in a public park in her own neighborhood.
theGrio reached out to the woman who posted the video but did not hear back from her by the time of publishing this story. An email requesting comment on the video was sent out to an email address listed on Flom’s Instagram page, but a return email indicated the email address is no longer active.
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