Page 24 - 3-27-15 Friday's Edition

National
Nielson: Blacks, Asians And
Supreme Court To Decide: Are Confederate License Tags A Matter Of Free Speech?
Confederate Flag
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argu- ments about whether Texas was wrong to reject specialty vehicle license plates display- ing the Confederate flag, the emblem that serves as a painful reminder of the history of slavery to Blacks and a point of pride for some White south- erners,.
The Texas chapter of Sons of Confederate Veterans thinks it should be allowed. They argue that its members’ free speech rights were violated.
The veterans seek to pre- serve the “history and legacy” of soldiers who fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War.
The nine justices will hear a one-hour oral argument in a case that raises the issue of how states can allow or reject politically divisive messages on license plates without violating free speech rights.
A ruling in the case, Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veter- ans, is expected by the end of June.
Houston Woman Shot In Head After Road Rage Incident
KAY HAFFORD
HOUSTON, TX -- Houston resident Kay Hafford, 28, was driving to work Friday when a driver cut her off. Haf- ford honked her horn, and that's when the driver of a white SUV reportedly pulled up next to her and shot Haf- ford in the head and drove off.
According to ABC News, Hafford wasn’t aware that she had been shot when she pulled over to the side of the road to call police to report that the driver had been heck- ling her before he fired.
Hafford was rushed to Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, where doc- tors removed bullet fragments from her brain.
Suspect Arrested For Shooting
Hispanics Top Consumers
Police Officers In Ferguson
NATIONWIDE --- Adver- tisers looking to get the most out of their bucks should be looking to multicultural con- sumers.
According to a Nielson re- port released Wednesday, multicultural consumers are exhibiting tremendous spending power and are the faster growing segment of the country’s “consumer econ- omy.”
The report, The Multicul- tural Edge: Rising Super Con- sumers, looked at the spending habits of African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanic consumers and found that aside from the ap- proximate $3.4 trillion they’ve spent on mainstream products to date, the influ- ence that these consumers of color have on white con- sumers is notable.
Allegedly Confessed
Black Owned Marijuana Dispensary Raided In Alaska
SPENDERS
The Nielson press release goes on to explain that if ad- vertisers want to understand what the spending market will do over the next several years, it will behoove them to get inside the minds of Black, Asian and Hispanic con- sumers.
“The report suggests that by understanding the cultural essence that drives multicul- tural super consumer behav- ior today, marketers and advertisers can better under- stand future market trends,” Nielson’s press release ex- plained.
ST. LOUIS, MO -- An al- leged confidential informant wearing a hidden video cam- era recorded accused gun- man Jeffrey L. Williams admitting that he fired the shots that seriously wounded two police officers during a recent demonstration in Fer- guson, Mo.
Williams was arrested March 15 and charged with two counts of first-degree as- sault, one count of firing a weapon from a vehicle and three counts of armed crimi- nal action. An officer from the St. Louis County Police De- partment was struck in the shoulder. A member of the nearby Webster Groves Po- lice Department was hit below his right eye. Both are now recovering at home.
At a news conference an- nouncing the arrest, St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said that Williams’ confession was key to bringing the charges, but declined to give details of how the admission was ob- tained.
Late Monday, St. Louis
JEFFREY WILLIAMS
defense attorney Jerryl T. Christmas, maintained that Williams is innocent.
“My client reaffirmed to me that he was not the shooter in this case,” Christ- mas said in an email. “The real perpetrator is still at large and that should be our focus.”
Christmas said last week that Williams said “he never fired a weapon” and was recanting his confession. Christmas claimed that of- ficers used excessive force — even pistol-whipped — Williams during the arrest, allegations the St. Louis County Police called false.
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - -- It seems that Charlo Greene—also known as Charlene Egbe, the Alaska TV reporter who quit her job on the air in September to protest the state’s ban on recreational marijuana—has become a target for local po-
liceA. ccording to the Associ- ated Press, Anchorage police served Greene a search war- rant on Friday and ransacked her cannabis club to see if she was selling marijuana ille- gally.
During a de facto press tour to denounce the search, Greene said that her club is a dispensary for card-holding marijuana consumers who are cleared to use the herb for medical reasons.
Greene said that she had the dispensary up and run-
CHARLO GREENE
ning the very next day, vow- ing not to let the police’s “scare tactic” disrupt the mis- sion of her club.
Greene argued that the police should have been fo- cusing their efforts on shoot- ings and a stabbing that recently occurred in the neighborhood instead of try- ing to discredit her marijuana dispensary.
It is no longer illegal in Alaska to use marijuana recreationally, but it is still il- legal to sell it.
Racists Text Messages Lead To Ft. Lauderdale Police Officers Being Fired
Ft. Lauderdale Police Chief Frank Adderley, (right) at news conference on Friday.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Three Fort Lauderdale, Fla., police officers in charge of pa- trolling a predominantly Black neighborhood were fired Friday after a five-month investigation into racially charged text messages from their personal phones, ac- cording to the Sun-Sentinel.
A fourth officer resigned in January before the investiga- tion had been completed.
Officers James Wells, 30, Jason Holding, 31, and Christopher Sousa, 25, were fired, Police Chief Frank Adderley, who is African American, said at a Friday afternoon news confer- ence. Officer Alex Alvarez, 22, resigned in late January while the investigation was under way, the report says.
Group cell phone mes- sages between the officers in- cluded racial, sexist and
ethnically inappropriate im- ages and texts, including dis- paraging remarks against Hispanics and gays, the report says. Texts like, “Id [sic] have that noose ready,” and “[Offi- cer] Holdings we are coming and drinking all your beer and killing [n--gers]” are just a few examples of text exchanges between the men, the report says.
Alvarez also reportedly produced a mock movie trailer called “The Hoods,” po- lice say. The video showed im- ages of President Barack Obama wearing a large gold chain and gold tooth caps, someone wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, an African-Amer- ican man being bitten by a po- lice dog, a bloody floor and a wanted poster for “an escaped slave.”
According to reports, the FBI is now investigating.
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