Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 4-13-18

National
‘Black Panther’ Toys High In Demand; Low In Supply
Black Students From Parkland High School To Speak At Anti-Gun Rally With Al Sharpton
NEW YORK — Overshad- owed by their activist class- mates, a group of Black Parkland, Florida school shoot- ing survivors will rally with the Rev. Al Sharpton against gun violence in front of Presi- dent Donald Trump’s New York apartment in June.
Aalayah Eastmond, a jun- ior at Stoneman Douglas High School, announced the rally alongside Sharpton at his Na- tional Action Network in Harlem on last Saturday. East- mond, 16, survived the Febru- ary 14 shooting, which ended with the slaughter of 17 people, by covering herself “with one of her dead classmates,” she re- called.
About 11 percent of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s 3,000 students are Black, but they’ve received al-
Parkland, FL high school student survivor, AAlayah East- mond, 16, and Al Sharpton at a press conference to announce anti-gun violence rally.
most no media attention in the aftermath of the massacre.
The students are also con- cerned because authorities are not listening to their concerns about the beefed-up police presence in their school in- tended to prevent another mass shooting. Many fear that the police will racially profile them. These law enforcement encoun- ters, they worry, could result in police shootings of unarmed
Black students.
The June rally, which coin-
cides with New York state’s Gun Violence Awareness Month. It will also focus on combating gun violence in urban communities. Demon- strators will start at Trump In- ternational Tower on Columbus Circle and march toward Fifth Avenue and Trump Tower, where the president has an apartment.
While supporters were sure that Black Panther would smash the box office, toy man- ufacturers felt quite the oppo- site. According to the New York Post, several companies underestimated the Marvel/ Disney film’s impact and now has to deal with a short supply and high demand for toys in- spired by the action-packed movie.
Global Toy Experts chief executive, Richard Got- tlieb, said while “the African- American community was very excited” for Black Pan- ther’s release, stores were taken aback by the “broad public demand.” Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, said con- sumers should expect a new influx “in the next few months.”
Target Settles Racial Discrimination Lawsuit
Target settled a racial dis- crimination suit over its back- ground check hiring process. The lawsuit highlights the un- fair bias against Black job seek- ers with a criminal record, compared to Whites in the same situation.
The retailer agreed on Thursday to pay $3.7 million in the class-action suit, which was brought on behalf of thousands of Black and Latino job appli- cants who’ve been denied posi- tions at Target since May 2006, USA Today reported.
Target routinely rejected job seekers for offenses that were
irrelevant to the positions that applicants sought, the suit al- leged.
“Target’s background check policy was out of step with best practices and harmful to many qualified applicants who de- served a fair shot at a good job,” Sherrilyn Ifill, presi- dent of the NAACP Legal De- fense and Education Fund, said in a statement.
Howard University Student Protest Ends With Demands Met
The Howard University stu- dents that were on a multi-day protest sit-in have reached an agreement with university ad- ministrators.
The sit-in, which lasted for nine days and was led by the student group HU Resist, ended on Friday. Close to 400 students had occupied an ad- ministrative building after finding out about a major mis- appropriation scandal of fi- nancial aid fund for low-income students.
"This is a long time com-
ing," HU Resist student organ- izer Alexis McKenney said at a press conference Friday.
University officials are said to have agreed to many of the students’ demands, including an overhaul of the school's sex- ual assault policy, the creation of a food bank, freezing under- graduate tuition rates at cur- rent levels, reexamining on-campus housing for stu- dents, and a review of policies allowing campus police offi- cers to carry weapons, NPR re- ports.
Black Panther toys
Alabama Teen Sentenced To 65 Years For Burglary That Led To Cop Killing His Friend
MILLBROOK, AL — Last month, 18-year-old Lakeith Smith was convicted of felony murder in the shoot- ing death of 16-year-old who was actually killed by a Mill- brook, AL police officer.
The conviction is the result of prosecutors charging Smith under Alabama’s accomplice li- ability law. The legislation al- lows for people to be charged with felony murder if criminal activities between the defen- dant and the deceased led to the death.
In this case, Smith (who was 15 at the time) was al- legedly breaking into houses with 16-year-old A’Donte Washington and three other people in 2015 when Mill- brook, AL police officers were
Lakeith Smith, now 18, was sentenced by an Alabama judge to 65 years for burglary that resulted in his friend being killed by police.
called. Washington was fa- tally shot during the confronta- tion with police.
At his sentencing hearing, Smith drew the ire of Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds for what he viewed as Smith’s lack of remorse. Ultimately, Judge Reynolds sentenced Smith to 65 years in prison stemming from several charges.
The 18-year-old declined a plea deal that would have given him 25 years. His defendants, Jadarrian Hardy, Jhavarske Jackson, and Le’Anthony Washington have all entered guilty pleas. Jackson was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
In 2016, a grand jury de- termined that the officer who shot and killed A’Donte Washington was justified in doing so.
NY Police Release Videos That Showed Mentally Ill Man Minutes Before He Was Fatally Shot
BROOKLYN, NY —- In an attempt to calm simmering anger over New York police of- ficers fatally shooting a men- tally disturbed black man, a montage of security videos was released Thursday that showed him minutes earlier thrusting a metal object that looked like a gun into the faces of several people — including a woman holding the hand of her child.
A final video snippet showed the man raising the object in a two-handed shooting stance as police arrived, the edited video frozen just before officers un- leashed 10 shots that left 34- year-old Saheed Vassell dead. His weapon turned out to be nothing more than an L- shaped section of pipe.
The shooting in Brooklyn on Wednesday evening prompted two nights of protests among many who felt police should have known that Vassell, a fixture in the Crown Heights
Saheed Vassell, who suffered from severe mental illness was well-known in his neighborhood. A security video showed him pointing an object, that looked like a gun at people walking along the street in Brooklyn. Mass demonstrations were held in NYC after the shooting, and the crowd asked for accountability.
neighborhood, had emotional problems.
But Mayor Bill De Blasio didn’t lay blame on the officers, who were not from the local
precinct and were passing through at the time. He said they had no information that the person they were con- fronting was mentally ill.
More than 350 students occupied the administration building at Howard Univ. for 9-days. The sit-in ended last Friday, after the leaders met with the school president and board. Alexis McKen- ney was one of the organizers of the protest.
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