Page 22 - Florida Sentinel 6-22-18

National
First Black Female President-Elect Of American Medical Association
Another Racial Incident At The Waffle House -- This Time In Florida
CHICAGO, IL — Patrice A. Harris, M.D., a psychiatrist from Atlanta, Ga., has been elected as the new president- elect of the American Medical Association (AMA) by physi- cians gathered at the Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates in Chicago.
Dr. Harris has diverse ex- perience as a private practicing physician, public health ad- ministrator, patient advocate and physician spokesperson. During her entire career, Dr. Harris has been a leader in organized medicine to ensure the voice of physicians and pa- tients is represented in health care transformation.
“It will be my honor to rep- resent the nation’s physicians
Dr. Patrice Harris, will be the first Black woman to lead the majority white medical as- sociation.
at the forefront of discussions when policymaker and law- makers search for practical so- lutions to the challenges in our
nation’s health system. I am committed to preserving the central role of the physician- patient relationship in our healing art,” said Dr. Harris.
First elected to the AMA Board of Trustees in 2011, Dr. Harris has held the executive offices of AMA board secretary and AMA board chair. Dr. Harris will continue to serve as chair of the AMA Opioid Task Force, and has been ac- tive on several other AMA task- forces and committees on health information technology, payment and delivery reform, and private contracting.
Following a year-long term as AMA president-elect, Dr. Harris will be installed as the AMA president in June 2019.
FORT WALTON BEACH, FL — The Waffle House restaurant chain finds itself in the news again after a cellphone video surfaced this week showing police in Florida handcuffing a Black couple who complained they were being overcharged for orange juice.
After the video of the cou- ple being detained at a Florida Waffle House went viral, on Tuesday police in the beach community posted body cam- era video of the incident and said their officers committed "no misconduct" but that the "situation could have been handled differently by both parties.”
The bodycam footage comes after arrests of Black customers at Waffle House restaurants in several states have raised alarm, and spurred a discrimination in- vestigation by a high-profile civil rights attorney.
Employees at the Waffle House in Fort Walton Beach called police, the May 2 video shows, after the couple ques- tioned their $27 check for a meal they said the menu priced at $18. Orange juice was listed on the menu for $1, they said, but they were charged $2.50.
The man and his girlfriend try to explain that they are waiting on an employee to fix their bill, but the officer keeps asking the man to come out- side and "talk to me like a man." The man comes toward him and the officer says, "back up.”
A little less than two min- utes after the officers arrive, the man comes outside, hold- ing his hands in the air. His girlfriend comes with him. She is recording the interaction on a phone.
The man attempts to ex- plain that he was disputing the Waffle House bill, which he and his girlfriend believed contained an overcharge, but officers keep insisting he pay his bill "or you're gonna go to jail."
One officer then points a Taser at his chest, then puts the man in handcuffs. His girl-
friend asks the officers to come inside and talk to the employee, but instead they in- form the man he is being ar- rested for theft and put him in the backseat of their cruiser.
At this point, the officers have not yet interviewed the employees at the Waffle House.
The man's girlfriend goes back into the restaurant and then comes out and says the employees won't talk to her until the officers come in. She is placed in handcuffs and put against the police cruiser.
One officer then interviews the Waffle House employee in charge who explains that the charge was correct. The em- ployee said they "tried multi- ple times to explain" that to the couple, but "they kept yelling and arguing," and when the waitress threatened to call the cops, the man said go ahead.
The employee told the po- lice they wished to press charges for non-payment of the bill.
"The problem is you guys wanna run your mouth," says the officer. “
The woman explains they didn't even get their food.
The officer then chastises her for arguing over $1 when her boyfriend had lots of cash on him.
While the two remain handcuffed and sitting in the back of separate police cars, the officer whose body camera is recording the incident con- firms that the couple did not get their food. But, apparently frustrated that the handcuffed man interrupted him, the offi- cer says to the other officers, "If you want to take him, take him. I don't care."
Fort Walton police later re- leased body camera footage to “set the record straight.”
Waffle House said in a statement that it would “be doing additional training for the team members of this restaurant on the proper way to handle situations like this.” The chain acknowledged “our employee could have done more to de-escalate the dis- pute before calling the police.”
White Man Asks Woman If She And Daughter Had Showered Before Getting Into Hotel Pool
PASADENA, CA — A Black mother and her 5-year-old daughter were assailed by a white man at a ritzy California hotel demanding to know if they had showered prior to using the pool.
Texas resident, Carle Wheeler who was a guest at the Pasadena’s Westin Hotel, took her daughter to use the hotel’s pool, when the unidentified white male who said it was important people shower prior to getting into the water, ‘because people carry diseases.’
The incident led to other pool users expressing discon- tent, with the white hotel pa- tron wearing a striped blue shirt insisting in captured video footage that he was ‘per- fectly’ within his rights to ask. Says the man in the video upon being approached by Wheeler and hotel staffers, ‘I simply asked if they showered.
Carle Wheeler and her daughter, 5, were accosted by white guest at Westin Hotel.
I’m sorry’.
According to Wheeler, the
seemingly racist man claimed to be a health inspector.
Wheeler also said she was upset with how the manager handled the situation, saying they didn’t question the white man and let him leave.
The hotel has since said that white man is not an em- ployee of the hotel or a health
inspector.
Wheeler said she and her
daughter checked out early Monday.
‘We do not condone the comments or behavior directed toward our pools guests,’ the hotel said in a statement.
The hotel said Wheeler’s stay was comped. They also said the man seen in the video is not allowed back.
Black couple were handcuffed by police after Waffle House employee allegedly overcharges them for OJ and they wanted to know why. Officer points taser at man. 2 other incidents of racial incidents at Waffle Houses in Alabama and Tennessee have all occurred this year.
FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2018 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 13-A