TheReverend Al Sharptonwon't be a fixture in the coverage surroundingWalter Scott's April 4th shooting death by white police officer North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager.
According to The New York Daily News, Sharpton was asked to stay away from Scott's funeral by his family.
“The Reverend Al has called and expressed his support and condolences,” said family attorney Chris Stewart. “The family is very appreciative. The funeral is only going to be close family members."
Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager (left) shot and killed Walter Scott during a traffic stop
“They are in mourning and we would never come unless they asked,” Sharpton told The News. “We're willing to be helpful to the family but only when needed.”
Although the Scott has requested that he stay away, Sharpton said he will be in Charleston on Sunday.
"I have been invited to preach in North Charleston, SC, on Sunday and to help lead a healing prayer vigil that afternoon by local clergy who have worked on this case from the beginning."
Slager has been fired from the Charleston Police Department and charged with murder for shooting Scott in the back while he fled.
Do you think Al Sharpton needs to be involved in this case?
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (Associated Press) — Questions persist about the shooting death of a black South Carolina motorist after the release of dashboard video of a traffic stop that led to a white officer being charged with murder.
The dash cam footage released by state police on Thursday showed North Charleston Officer Michael Thomas Slager pulling over motorist Walter Scott for a broken brake light last weekend.
Saturday's traffic stop opens routinely as Scott is stopped in a used Mercedes-Benz he had bought days earlier, footage from the patrol car showed. The white officer is seen walking toward the driver's window, requesting Scott's license and registration. Slager then returns to his cruiser.
The video also shows Scott beginning to get out of the car, his right hand raised above his head. He then quickly gets back into the car and closes the door. After Slager goes back to his patrol car, minutes later, Scott jumps from his car and runs. Slager chases him.
What's missing is what happens from the time the two men run out of the frame of dashboard video to the time picked up in a bystander's cellphone video a few hundred yards away. The cellphone footage starts with Scott getting to his feet and running away, then Slager firing eight shots at the man's back.
The dashboard camera is in stark contrast to the cellphone footage of the later moments of the encounter. On the dash cam video, Slager never touches his gun during the stop. He also makes no unreasonable demands or threats.
"It is possible for something to happen in that gap to significantly raise the officer's perception of risk," Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and criminal law professor at the University of South Carolina.
Police and Slager's first lawyer initially said the officer fired in self-defense during a scuffle over his department-issued Taser. Within days of Saturday's encounter, the eyewitness video surfaced and immediately changed perceptions of what had happened, leading authorities to charge Slager with murder and fire him from the police force he'd worked on for five years.
There is almost nothing in Slager's police personnel file to suggest that his superiors considered him a rogue officer capable of murdering a man during a traffic stop. In the community he served, however, people say this reflects what's wrong with policing today: Officers nearly always get the last word when citizens complain.
"We've had through the years numerous similar complaints, and they all seem to be taken lightly and dismissed without any obvious investigation," the Rev. Joseph Darby, vice president of the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Thursday.
The mostly black neighborhood where the shooting took place is far from unique, said Melvin Tucker, a former FBI agent and police chief in four southern cities who often testifies in police misconduct cases.
Nationwide, training that pushes pre-emptive action, military experience that creates a warzone mindset, and legal system favoring police in misconduct cases all lead to scenarios where officers see the people they serve as enemies, he said.
"It's not just training. It's not just unreasonable fear. It's not just the warrior mentality. It's not just court decisions that almost encourage the use of it. It is not just race," Tucker said. "It is all of that."
As a steady crowd left flowers, stuffed animals, notes and protest signs in the empty lot where Scott was shot, many said police in South Carolina's third-largest city routinely dismiss complaints of petty brutality and harassment, even when eyewitnesses can attest to police misbehavior. The result, they say, is that officers are regarded with a mixture of distrust and fear.
Both Slager, 33, and Scott, 55, were U.S. Coast Guard veterans. Slager had one complaint in his personnel file of excessive force that was ultimately dismissed. Scott had been jailed repeatedly for failing to pay child support. But neither man had a record of violence. Slager consistently earned positive reviews in his five years with the North Charleston Police.
Slager's attorney, Andy Savage, said Thursday that he's conducting his own investigation, and that it's "far too early for us to be saying what we think."
The officer is being held without bond pending an Aug. 21 hearing on a charge of murder that could put him in prison for 30 years to life if convicted.
Slager's file includes a single excessive use-of-force complaint, from 2013: A man said Slager used his stun gun against him without reason. But Slager was exonerated and the case closed, even though witnesses told The Associated Press that investigators never followed up with them. Police say they are now looking at that case again amid questions by the man Tased and eyewitnesses who said authorities never questioned them about it.
"It's almost impossible to get an agency to do an impartial internal affairs investigation. First of all the investigators doing it are co-workers of the person being investigated. Number two, there's always the tendency on the part of the departments to believe the officers," Tucker said.
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Biesecker reported from Raleigh, North Carolina. Associated Press writer Mitch Weiss in North Charleston, South Carolina, and Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, contributed to this report.
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Hot Boy Turk sat down with The Breakfast Club to address all drama.
He discussed Birdman jerking all of the artists who were with Cash Money in the beginning, going to prison, partnership with J. Prince, linking back up with Lil Wayne after Baby keeping them part, overcoming a cocaine and heroin addiction, $1.3 million lawsuit against Cash Money, his wife battling cancer, Young Thug naming his album The Carter 6 and more.
50 Cent's SMS Audio business is building a brand with staying power. From it's previously announced deals with LucasFilms, Intel and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, to just announced partnerships with Marvel and Reebok, the company is swinging for the fences and hitting homers like Willie Mays.
In a new interview with Fortune, the business mogul and SMS Audio President, Brian Nohe, discuss their unique strategy for expansion into areas other companies haven't explored
How does the rapper 50 Cent describe his headphone company SMS Audio?
“It’s cool, because I’m cool, so that makes the whole thing cool.”
That may not sound like the most refined summation of a business. But the artist, whose legal name is Curtis Jackson, has succeeded in other businesses before, from VitaminWater (he made a reported $100 million when the company sold to Coca-Cola) to his G-Unit record label and clothing line (which also had a Reebok shoe deal). While many have jumped into the headphone space—with its storied low costs and high margins—and failed, SMS Audio (it stands for Studio Master Sound) is still here, after four years. How?
Brian Nohe, president of the company (Jackson is founder and CEO), thinks the key is brand partnerships. He uses Beats By Dre—certainly the better-known rapper-founded headphone brand—as a contrasting example. Beats has mainly used television ads, with artists and athletes, as its marketing vehicle. SMS has avoided that so far and focused on corporate partnerships.
“It is a little saturated when they’ve stuck a headphone on every single person in the world,” Nohe said. “You can only plow that ground so much. We’ve taken a different tack, which is association with brands, and co-branding. We believe those relationships, in a corporate sense, are just as good a strategy.”
SMS has existing partnerships with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts (it is the only headphone brand available at Disney World and Disneyland) and with Lucasfilm’s Star Wars. It also has a relationship with Intel, which Nohe says “is spending an enormous amount of money globally on our biotech product.” And now, Fortune has learned exclusively, SMS has cut two more partnerships, with Reebok and Marvel.
While the former makes sense, since headphone marketing is so tied to fitness and sports, the latter may be a surprise. But Nohe and Jackson say it’s about brands that have staying power—whether that’s a tech company, shoe maker, or comics giant. “Those brands don’t go anywhere,” said Jackson. “They’re not going away.”
The Marvel-branded SMS headphones will be at a lower price point, around $99. And SMS says it will keep the Marvel branding subtle. “It won’t look toy-like,” said Nohe. “All that stuff we do, it’s classy. Like on The Avengers headphones, it won’t be a picture of Thor running around. It will be a little symbol, and have the same colorways.” The Reebok-branded headphones, meanwhile, will complement that company’s recent pivot toward a “fit-gen” (fitness generation) image, and be sold at some Reebok store locations and online.
Jackson says he has learned a lot about design. He discovered, from Apple as well as from the “FunToyzCollector” YouTube videos where a woman opens up children’s products (to the delight of Jackson’s little boy), that the act of unboxing is as important as the product within. This is why a package of the SMS Audio on-ear sport headphones contains a lot more than just headphones. It also has a zip-up case; two washable covers for each side; detachable cable with a built-on controller; SMS Audio stickers; and a small sport towel. He has also made sure the product is durable. (In a demonstration at the Fortuneoffices, Nohe grabs a pair and twists it violently, showing that it doesn’t break. “This is why we say it’s better quality, better sound, better value,” he said.)
22-year old Frances Bean Cobain was just one-years old when her father, Kurt Cobain, took his own life. Tired of being worshiped as the leader of the grunge sound, which originated in his hometown of Seattle, and addicted to heroin, Kurt checked out age 27.
Frances sat down withRolling Stone for an interview about being an executive producer of a newHBOdocumentary,Cobain, Montage of Heck. She also offers her opinion on her father's suicide, his band Nirvana
How would you describe Montage of Heck? It's emotional journalism. It's the closest thing to having Kurt tell his own story in his own words – by his own aesthetic, his own perception of the world. It paints a portrait of a man attempting to cope with being a human. When Brett and I first met, I was very specific about what I wanted to see, how I wanted Kurt to be represented. I told him, "I don't want the mythology of Kurt or the romanticism." Even though Kurt died in the most horrific way possible, there is this mythology and romanticism that surrounds him, because he's 27 forever. The shelf life of an artist or musician isn't particularly long. Kurt has gotten to icon status because he will never age. He will always be that relevant in that time and always be beautiful.
There is, with any great artist, a little manic-ness and insanity. Tropic of Cancer is one of my favorite books. And [author] Henry Miller had this work ethic, where he would get out of bed every day and force himself to write five pages. It taught me that if you do the work, you progress. So many people are content to settle. My dad was exceptionally ambitious. But he had a lot thrown on him, exceeding his ambition. He wanted his band to be successful. But he didn't want to be the fucking voice of a generation.
Do you remember the first time you heard a Nirvana record – and knowing that was your father? I've talked to Sean Lennon about this. He had a few more years with his dad that you did. But for him, the records were a road into understanding his father after he was gone. I don't really like Nirvana that much [grins]. Sorry, promotional people, Universal. I'm more into Mercury Rev, Oasis, Brian Jonestown Massacre [laughs]. The grunge scene is not what I'm interested in. But "Territorial Pissings" [on Nevermind] is a fucking great song. And "Dumb" [on In Utero] – I cry every time I hear that song. It's a stripped-down version of Kurt's perception of himself – of himself on drugs, off drugs, feeling inadequate to be titled the voice of a generation.
The irony is that he wrote it before Nirvana made Nevermind. I know. It was projection, to something. There's no way anyone can wrap their minds around that.
Did you feel awkward as a teenager, not being that interested in the music Kurt made? No. I would have felt more awkward if I'd been a fan. I was around 15 when I realized he was inescapable. Even if I was in a car and had the radio on, there's my dad. He's larger than life. and our culture is obsessed with dead musicians. We love to put them on a pedestal. If Kurt had just been another guy who abandoned his family in the most awful way possible . . . But he wasn't. He inspired people to put him on a pedestal, to become St. Kurt. He became even bigger after he died than he was when he was alive. You don't think it could have gotten any bigger. But it did.
After the first screening I attended, there was a guy who saidMontage of Heck was a very interesting film about people he didn't like.
[Laughs] That's a pretty good description.
I found it interesting that the way Morgen told Kurt's story didn't evoke any sympathy for that viewer – that Kurt's art did not resonate with him. All he saw was a personalty he didn't like.
That is an interesting perspective. For me, the film provided a lot more factual information about my father – not just tall tales that were misconstrued, misremembered, rehashed, retold 10 different ways. It was factual evidence of who my father was as a child, as a teenager, as a man, as a husband, as an artist. It explored every single aspect of who he was as a human being.
What was it like hearing his voice? I've been hearing his voice forever, through his music.
I was thinking more of his speaking voice.
His speaking voice is sort of similar to mine. It's sort of a monotone. The depth to it is similar to the way I speak. I don't know what the fuck that is. I wasn't even talking when he was around.
Don't mistake the power of genes. It's very weird how genes are. Dave [Grohl], Krist [Novoselic] and Pat [Smear] came over to a house where I was living. It was the first time [the ex-Nirvana members] had been together in a long time. And they had what I call the "K. C. Jeebies," which is when they see me, they see Kurt. They look at me, and you can see they're looking at a ghost. They were all getting the K. C. Jeebies hardcore. Dave said, "She is so much like Kurt." They were all talking amongst themselves, rehashing old stories I'd heard a million times. I was sitting in a chair, chain-smoking, looking down like this [affects total boredom]. And they went, "You are doing exactly what your father would have done."
But I was glad they came over [smiles[. It was a cool experience, like having a Nirvana reunion minus one. Except for his spawn.
What do you want to do next, now that this film is coming out? In being one of the executive producers, you're stepping into the public at almost the same age your father was when he made Nirvana's first album. The timing is . . .I like to think of it as poetic. Coincidental, yeah. Oddly enough, being 22, it's the first year a fire has been lit under my ass – not because of the documentary, just personally. I have this motivation and ambition that I didn't have before: "I want to go paint this painting." The hardest part of doing anything creatively is just getting up and doing. Once I get out of bed and get into my art room, I start painting. I'm there. And I'm doing it.
Another cop shooting is grabbing the nation's attention.
25-year old Lavall Hall was fatally shot by Miami Gardens police officer Eddo Trimino on February 15. The dashcam footage was just released on Wednesday, April 9, by Hall's family.
Police were initially called to the scene by Hall's mother, Catherine Daniels, who wanted help getting her son in a mental hospital. Unlike other cases involving white officers killing African Americans, Daniels stressed this shooting had more to to with the police officer's lack of training in dealing with the mentally ill.
Catherine Daniels (center) speaks on her son, Lavall Hall's, shooting by cop in Miami Gardens
When police arrived on the scene Hall was reportedly in his underwear and waving a broomstick. Officer Trimino can be heard commanding Hall, who can't be seen in the video, to "get on the ground or you're dead," before firing his weapon five times, striking Hall in the arm and stomach area, killing him.
“After seeing the video it’s clear to me that the incident was avoidable,” Eric Pettus, an executive board member for the NAACP in Miami-Dade, told the Miami Herald. “This was a call that was a mental health issue.”
Hall’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit last month in federal court in Miami against the city of Miami Gardens.
MILAN (Associated Press) — A man on trial for fraudulent bankruptcy opened fire in Milan's courthouse Thursday, killing his lawyer, a co-defendant and a judge before being captured nearly 25 kilometers away as he fled on a motorbike, officials said.
As the shots rang out in the fortress-like tribunal, court employees barricaded themselves inside their offices and took cover under their desks while police hunted for the gunman who moved unimpeded from one floor to the next.
"There was a lot of panic at the beginning when people came running toward us saying there was a person with a pistol who had been shooting," said lawyer Mirko Ricetti, who said he locked himself in a first-floor court room after hearing a shot.
After texting loved ones that they were OK, employees and lawyers were eventually allowed to trickle out of the tribunal, women first, followed by the men who had their court ID cards checked.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the suspect was caught by carabinieri police in Vimercate, near Monza, indicating he had traveled some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the scene before being captured. An ambulance with escort was seen leaving the Vimercate police station, but it wasn't immediately clear if the gunman was inside.
Prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati said the gunman first fired on his lawyer and co-defendant, killing both and seriously injuring a second co-defendant.
Afterwards, he "walked through the building, going down a floor, and killed the judge," Bruti Liberati told The Associated Press.
He said it wasn't clear whether there was any relationship between the gunman and the judge.
He identified the slain judge as Fernando Ciampi, who worked in the civil section of bankruptcy court. The ANSA news agency identified the gunman as Claudio Giardiello.
Bruti Liberati said the gunman was on trial with two others for fraudulent bankruptcy.
Giardiello's former attorney, Valerio Maraniello, told RAI state TV the case concerned a failed real estate business and that Giardiello was "very unusual" and "over the top" in his legal dealings.
The shooting immediately raised questions about how the man gained entrance to the Fascist-era courthouse with a weapon, given that visitors must pass through metal detectors.
The courthouse has metal detectors at the four main entrances, but lawyers and courthouse employees with official IDs are regularly waved through without the additional security screen and accredited employees can drive into the internal garage.
Attornies Mirko and Davide Pupo noted that the metal detector from the lawyers' entrance had been removed several months ago.
Employees who emerged after the shooting suggested that the gunman could easily have gained entrance without passing through the metal detector by entering with his lawyer, though other attorneys said their clients routinely are told to go in via the public entrance.
The deputy interior minister, Filippo Bubbico, said an investigation would determine who was to blame for any security lapse, given also that the gunman wasn't stopped as he moved from one floor to the next to continue the spree, and then was able to flee unimpeded.
"There's no doubt that this episode signals a non-functioning of the protection mechanisms, which must be employed daily and which have worked for years at the Milan tribunal," he told Sky TG24.
Security concerns are particularly high in Milan given the May 1 opening of the Expo world's fair. In fact, the interior minister, Alfano, was in Milan on Thursday to preside over a public security coordination meeting for Expo when the shooting erupted.
Meek Mill went all out for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles in February. The MMG rapper rented a Beverly Hills mansion and threw a party for nearly 1000 people.
There were a couple of problems with the get together though. Meek's landlord had him sign a lease that prohibited parties and guests left the house in bad condition.
Damage included broken glass in the pool, scuffed walls, trash, broken glass doors, a broken front gate, destroyed landscaping, a broken trampoline and more.
The landlord is now suing Meek for damaging the property and breaking the lease, according to TMZ. Check out the photos below.
Here's some new heat from RIZSELFMADE to hold fans over until Dat Made Life 2 drops. He goes in over Meek Mill's"Monster" instrumental. The track was produced by Jahlil Beats.
A$AP Rocky grabs production from Mike Dean and Honorable C.N.O.T.E. for his latest song entitled "M's." Stream the track up top and let us know if you're digging it in the comment section below.
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