Page 25 - Florida Sentinel 6-15-18

National
Philadelphia Police Department Institute New Policy
After Starbucks Incident
PHILADELPHIA, PA —- The Philadelphia Police De- partment instituted a new pol- icy on responding to calls about trespassing on private business property nearly two months after the controversial arrest of two Black men at a local Star- bucks, according to the Huff- Post.
The new policy advises offi- cers to first attempt to de-esca- late and mediate the situation between the property owner or authorized person and the of- fender before arresting anyone. If de-escalation and mediation fail, then the officer must en- sure that the offender under- stands that he or she is not allowed to be on the property before making an arrest. The officer must also witness the property owner or authorized person ask the person to leave and the individual’s refusal.
Officers may decline to ar- rest someone if they determine that the property owner or au- thorized person is “attempting to misuse the enforcement powers of the police,” says a de- partment memo on the new policy.
Philadelphia Police Com- missioner Richard Ross, de- fended police officers who arrested two Black men at a Starbucks in April, saying po- lice were responding to a com- plaint from the business. The backlash has made the depart- ment become proactive.
“Department leadership rec- ognized a need for a policy that would better guide officers when called to investigate and enforce defiant trespass com- plaints,” a June 8 press release from the police department reads.
The department is reviewing its implicit bias training, the press release states.
Unsung Hero:
Civil Rights Champion, Dorothy Cotton Dies
ATLANTA (AP) — Dorothy Cotton, who worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., taught nonviolence to demon- strators before marches and sometimes calmed tensions by singing church hymns, has died. She was 88.
Cotton died Sunday after- noon at the Kendal at Ithaca retirement community in New York, said Jared Harrison, a close friend who was at her bedside. Harrison said she had battled illnesses recently but didn’t specify a cause of death.
Cotton was among a small number of women in leader- ship positions at the Southern Christian Leadership Confer- ence (SCLC) during the Civil Rights era, and she led the At-
Ms. Dorothy Cotton was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s office manager, and organized protest marches and fundrais- ers during the civil rights movement.
lanta-based civil rights group’s Citizenship Education Pro- gram.
“She had a beautiful voice,
and when things got tense, Dorothy was the one who would start up a song to relieve the tension,” said Xernona Clayton, who was Dr. King’s office manager in At- lanta and organized protest marches and fundraisers.
“She had such a calming in- fluence in her personality,” Clayton added. “She had a personality that would lend it- self to people listening to her.”
Cotton became one of King’s closest colleagues and worked at the SCLC for more than a decade.
Cotton also commanded respect from her male counter- parts within the group, said Bernard Lafayette Jr., a longtime civil rights leader who is now chairman of the SCLC’s national board.
Tennessee Grandmother Arrested After Children Videoed Getting Out Of Dog Kennel
MEMPHIS, TN —- A Ten- nessee grandmother is under fire for treating her grandchil- dren like pets by packing them in a cage in the back of her truck’s trunk.
A concerned witness took the disturbing mobile phone footage of 62-year-old, Leimome Cheeks letting her grandkids out of dog kennels, reports the Daily Mail.
The Memphis grandmother has been charged with two counts of child endangerment after police were called and the kids complained and con- firmed the story of being stowed away in the back of the vehicle. The children also com- plained that they were hot and cramped in the kennel.
The girls, 7 and 8 said the grandmother said there was no room in the SUV, so they had to ride in her puppy kennels.
The children, one seven and one eight-years-old also re- portedly said that Cheeks claimed they couldn’t sit inside the truck because there wasn’t enough room. There was also
no operable air conditioning. The kennels apparently be- longed to Cheeks’ two pup- pies, neighbors reported. They also said Cheeks was a
church-going woman.
Man Who Brutally Raped And Killed 7-Year-Old Is Trying To Get Parole
Mom Who Had Baby Kidnapped 18 Years Ago Tells Daughter She Has To Choose
Shanara Mobley won her biological daughter Kamiyah Mobley back 18 years after a kidnapper abducted her, but it may be a lot of love lost since Kamiyah still connects with her fake mom.
Mobley talked to ABC News about her long-lost daughter, Kamiyah and the hurt feelings she has because her daughter still calls and has a relationship with Gloria Williams, the woman who stole her as an infant, mom.
Williams was sentenced to 18 years in prison on last Fri- day for kidnapping baby Mob- ley from a hospital nearly two decades ago and raising the child as her own child.
Kamiyah said she still calls the jail where Williams is held and the mom-daughter relationship is very much alive.
“We actually talked today. I
Gloria Williams (inset) kidnapped Kamiyah Mobley from the hospital. Her biological mom, Shanara Mobley, 36, tells how she gave her daughter an ultimatum making her choose between her biological mom and the kidnapper who raised her.
still do call her ‘Mom,’” Kamiyah Mobley told ABC News.
And Williams is still acting in a “mom” capacity.
But mom Mobley is draw- ing the line in the sand and said the 19-year-old is going to have to choose.
“I shouldn’t have to compete with a kidnapper – she has to pick one of us,” Mobley told the Daily Mail.
Mobley said it hurts that Kamiyah is still connected to the woman who took her pre- cious baby away and caused her years of pain.
Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and killed Sherrice Iverson in 1997.
LAS VEGAS, NV — In 1997, then 18-year old Jeremy Strohmeyer was arrested for brutally raping and killing Sherrice Iverson, a 7-year old Black girl. Now, after over two decades in jail, he is asking for mercy to be released early even though he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
The murder happened at the Primadonna Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada which is now Primm Valley Resort. Iverson was found raped and choked to death inside a bathroom stall.
Strohmeyer was able to avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty to the crime. “I took her in the big stall, the handicap stall. To keep her quiet, I choked her,” he admit- ted to detectives during the ini- tial investigation. He was instead sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Retired homicide detective
Phil Ramos, who was one of the lead investigators in the crime, was upset about the de- cision.
After almost 21 years since the murder, Strohmeyer’s lawyers were asking the court to reconsider his sentence. They claimed that his brain was not fully developed at that time. Now at the age of 39, they want to get the possibility of parole.
One of his lawyers, Ozzie Fumo, argues that Stroh- meyer’s childhood was tumul- tuous given that his mother has a mental illness and he was put up for adoption. He says these factors contributed to his men- tal state.
However, Ramos believes that “he was not immature. He is a cold-blooded killer and he should have been put to death for this crime.”
A judge was expected to re- view Strohmeyer’s case in three months.
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