Posts Tagged: protests

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Caitlyn Jenner calls Gwen Berry ‘disgusting’ for protesting American flag

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Caitlyn Jenner slammed controversial athlete Gwen Berry for turning her back to the American flag during the national anthem at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

Berry, who took third place in the hammer throw, angered Americans after she protested the national anthem playing during the medal ceremony.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Berry, left, complained that "The Star-Spangled Banner" played as she stood on the podium alongside first place winner DeAnna Price, center, and silver medalist Brooke Anderson, right.

Price broke her own world record during the trials to secure her spot at the Tokyo Olympics this month. However, her achievement was overshadowed by Berry's antics.

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Reddit.com

"They said they were going to play it before we walked out, then they played it when we were out there," Berry said. She added that the American flag and national anthem were offensive to Black Americans.

But Olympic officials asserted the national anthem was played at the same time daily at the trials.

After the public backlash, Berry tweeted, "I never said I hated this country!"

Tony Duffy/Allsport

Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, who won the decathlon event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, ripped Berry for focusing the attention on herself.

Honestly, it's disgusting," Jenner said on Wednesday.

"I love this country, I love this state. I was the first person ever to put the American flag up at the finish line in 1976 and I've very proud of that because I'm proud of my country. I'm proud that my country gave me the opportunity to grow up to be who I am."

"I don't like political statements on the podium. We shouldn't do that. This is the greatest gathering of people and countries in the world... The other two girls ahead of her are so much better, and there's other ones around the world in the hammer throw. So I think that was kind of her last hurrah."

Jenner, who is running for governor of California, was criticized by LGBT+ groups for saying male-to-female transgenders should not compete against biological girls in sports.

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FBI raids home of Netflix actor Siaka Massaquoi who was inside U.S. Capitol during MAGA protests on Jan. 6

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Agents raided the North Hollywood home of Netflix actor Siaka Massaquoi (right) who participated in the "Stop the Steal" protest rally in Washington, DC in January.

Massaquoi was photographed among the Trump supporters protesting the 2020 presidential election in the nation's capitol on January 6, 2021.

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Nearly two dozen armed agents raided Massaquoi's home, terrorizing the actor and his friends just before 6 a.m. on Friday, the L.A. Times reports.

42-year-old Brian Burks and his two minor children were in the home at the time of the raid.

Burks' ex-wife, Luvelle Mendoza, told the Times that her ex-husband was "briefly detained" by agents. She said her two sons, ages three and seven, were also in the home when the agents stormed in with semi-automatic rifles.

"My heart breaks," said Mendoza who worries about the mental trauma to her young boys. "They had to see the big guns and I just think, I wasn't there to console them."

The Times reports that both men are under investigation for their comments on a social media app.

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Massaquoi is best known for his roles in "S.W.A.T." and "NCIS: Los Angeles." He attended political rallies in support of former President Donald Trump in 2020. And he participated in the movement to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.

On his Instagram account, Massaqoui, a registered Republican, said he was within his constitutional rights to protest -- just as Black Lives Matter and Antifa protested by looting and burning down courthouses and police stations last summer.

"I did nothing wrong on the 6th... did nothing violent," Massaquoi wrote on IG.

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Organizations Condemn Black Lives Matter Ban at Tokyo Olympics

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Racial justice organizations are livid that the International Olympic Committee barred Black Lives Matter apparel or kneeling at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

The Olympic Games has long barred protests during the Games. Athletes who failed to comply with the rule faced expulsion from the Games.

The committee will allow apparel with the words like "peace," "respect," "solidarity," "inclusion" and "equality."

Athletes are banned from wearing apparel featuring the words "Black Lives Matter, along with kneeling or raising a fist.

Bettmann/Getty Images

American sprinters Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right) made headlines when they raised their fists at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. The gesture was a symbolic protest against racism in the United States. Smith, the gold medal winner, and Carlos, the bronze medal winner, were subsequently suspended from the Olympic team.

Racial justice organization Color of Change voiced its opposition to the IOC's decision.

The organization called on Olympics sponsors to "keep your promises to Black communities."

"The IOC's oppressive policies cannot stand, especially when its corporate sponsors issued statements supporting Black lives. @CocaCola, @Visa, @Hersheys, @Toyota, @ProcterGamble, @RalphLauren, @Samsung: it's time to keep your promises to Black communities."

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Chilling video shows balcony railing collapse as 7 students fall to their death

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YouTube

Seven college students died when a railing they were leaning against broke, sending them plummeting to the concrete floor below.

The tragic incident happened at the Public University of El Alto in Bolivia on Tuesday.

About 100 maskless students were protesting in a packed hallway outside a lecture hall where a tense meeting was being held.

Fights broke out and some of the students were jostling each other when the railing gave way.

Seven students were pronounced dead at the scene. Five students are in critical condition at a hospital.

Disturbing video footage, captured by a bystander showed the moment before the railing broke. A dozen students fell to the concrete floor while a few students were pulled to safety.

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YouTube

A female student in a blue blouse dangled precariously over the edge before her fellow students grabbed her shoes and pulled her back up.

Two female students fortunately landed on the floor just below where the railing broke.

An investigation has been ordered into the accident.

Engineering standards in the United States require balconies to withstand 100 pounds per square feet of load while railings must withstand 200 pounds of force at any point along the railing.

But construction projects are not up to code in third world countries.

CAUTION: These videos contain graphic images that may be disturbing to some viewers.
 

 

 

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Outrage: Twitter reacts to judge’s refusal to issue arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse

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Kenosha County Jail

A judge in Kenosha, Wisconsin denied prosecutors' requests to raise Kyle Rittenhouse's bail or issue an arrest warrant for the teenager who killed 2 people during anti-police protests last summer.

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Rittenhouse, then 17, was armed with a friend's AR-15 semi-automatic rifle when he traveled to Kenosha during the protests and riots following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

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Rittenhouse (pictured center) was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting death of Anthony Huber, 26 (pictured right), first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Joseph Rosenbaum (not pictured), and attempted first-degree intentional homicide for wounding Gaige Grosskreutz ([pictured left), who was armed with a handgun.

Rittenhouse maintains he shot the three Antifa protesters in self-defense because they were armed with weapons when they attacked him.

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A protester who kicked Rittenhouse in the head was not shot because he was unarmed.

Rittenhouse is accused of violating the terms of his $2 million cash bond after he failed to update his new address when he moved out of his mother's Antioch, Illinois apartment.

Prosecutors had asked Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder to raise Rittenhouse's bond by $200,000 cash, and issue a warrant for his arrest. But the judge declined both requests.

The terms of Rittenhouse's cash bail require him to update his new address within 48 hours of moving.

In an unusual decision, the judge sealed Rittenhouse's current address and refused to provide it to the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office.

The district attorney previously refused to keep Rittenhouse's address a secret.

Rittenhouse moved to a "safe house" after receiving death threats.

Twitter users expressed outrage at the judge's decision.

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Trump Warns Dems: Impeachment is ‘Causing Tremendous Anger’

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After spending a few days golfing at his Florida resort, President Donald Trump returned to Washington, DC, and spoke for the first time since the Capitol riots.

Speaking to a small pool of reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump warned Democrats that their efforts to impeach him for a second time is "causing tremendous anger" among his base.

House Democrats introduced articles of impeachment on Monday, saying they have enough votes to impeach Trump on Wednesday, Jan. 13, just days before his term as President is set to end.

Trump said the impeachment is "a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics."

"We want no violence," he said, before adding that his January 6th speech was "totally appropriate."

5 people died in the clashes at the Capitol building after Trump's fiery speech in DC on Wednesday. Among the dead is a 14-year Air Force veteran who was shot in the neck by a DC cop.

The FBI says armed protests are set to take place in all 50 states prior to the inauguration on January 20.

Trump boasted, "we have support probably like nobody's ever seen before."

Trump was permanently banned on Twitter and Facebook for "inciting violence" in the nation's Capitol.

The President condemned the social media blackout and said he warned his followers he would be banned on Twitter and Facebook.

"This will be a catastrophic mistake for them," he said. "They are dividing and divisive."
 

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Open Post: Police Arrest Trump Supporter Who Ransacked Pelosi’s Office

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Getty Images, Twitter

A MAGA supporter who ransacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Capitol Hill office has been arrested.

A viral photo showed MAGA supporter Richard Barnett with his feet propped up on Pelosi's desk in her office inside the Capitol building during rioting in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, Barnett, 60, was arrested at his home in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Friday.

He was charged with entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry and theft of public property.

Barnett was among a group of protesters who entered the Capitol building and ransacked Pelosi's office, breaking picture frames, and scrawling messages on her desk.

Barnett is one of 26 protesters wanted for rioting in the U.S. Capitol that left 5 people dead, including Ashli Babbitt, a 14-year U.S. Air Force veteran who was shot in the neck by a DC police officer. The officer, who has not been identified, has been placed on leave.

Just days before the DC protests, someone spray-painted messages on the garage door of Pelosi's San Francisco home.

Vandals also left a severed pig's head on her driveway in the early morning hours of New Year's Day.

Police responded to a 911 call of a disturbance at the property at 2 a.m. in the city's wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood. The graffiti read: "CANCEL RENT! WE WANT EVERYTHING."

Protesters also hit the Kentucky home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and spray-painted his garage door with the words: "WERES MY MONEY [sic]," and "MITCH KILLS THE POOR."

The vandalism occurred hours after McConnell refused to pass a bill for $2,000 Covid-19 stimulus checks.

Also on Friday, MAGA supporters mobbed South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham as he arrived at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington, DC.


 

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Trump Promises ‘Orderly Transition’ After Biden Wins Majority Electoral College Vote

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President Donald Trump has promised an "orderly transition" of power after President-elect Joe Biden won the majority electoral college vote on January 6, 2021.

The outgoing President, who has repeatedly accused the Democrats of orchestrating a coup against him and stealing the November 2020 election, issued a statement on Thursday.

"Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20," Trump confirmed.

"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again."

Trump released the statement through his deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino's Twitter account at 3:50 am ET Wednesday.

Trump spoke to his followers via his official accounts on conservative social media platforms GAB.com and Parler.com late Wednesday.

Trump's personal Twitter account was locked for 12 hours after he shared tweets and a video telling MAGA protesters to go home amid riots and bloodshed in Washington, D.C.

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Earlier in the day, MAGA protesters forced their way into the Capitol building and broke through doors leading to the offices of Congressional lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Activists scrawled notes on Pelosi's desk and one protester walked off with her lectern.

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DC police sprayed tear gas at the protesters. One lawmaker reportedly suffered chest pains during the assault on the Capitol building.

Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, of Ocean Beach, Calif., was shot in the face by a DC police officer when she and others forced their way through a locked door.

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KUSI News

Babbitt, 37, was unarmed and on the other side of a locked door when the officer shot her through the door. The officer has not been identified. Babbitt was later pronounced dead.

Prior to the incident, Trump addressed his followers, who gathered maskless on the Ellipse near the White House: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol. We're gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering, so much for some of them, because you'll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong."

After Vice President Mike Pence refused Trump's direct order to block the electoral college vote by Congress, Trump called Pence a traitor and locked Pence's chief of staff out of the White House.

Trump was widely condemned on social media, with calls to have Trump removed from office by impeachment or through the invocation of the 25th Amendment.

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BLM protesters smash Breonna Taylor sculpture in Oakland

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GoFundMe

A bust created in honor of slain Louisville resident Breonna Taylor was smashed and vandalized, presumably by Black Lives Matter protesters, in downtown Oakland, California over the weekend.

Police are investigating the act of vandalism and vowed to get even with whoever smashed the bust in protest of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was shot to death by three undercover cops who served a wrong house warrant on Taylor's Louisville apartment in March.

The ceramic bust, installed 2 weeks ago, was painted brown and featured the words "Say Her Name Breonna Taylor."

The artist, Leo Carson, expressed his disappointment and said the vandalism felt like a personal attack on himself and Taylor.

"At first I was stunned and shocked and hurt and angry," said Carson, an unemployed waiter. "Just a whole flood of emotions. It felt like I was personally attacked and also they attacked Breonna Taylor and the BLM movement."

Carson, who was among those demonstrating in the streets prior to the November 3 presidential elections, spent the next 6 weeks creating the sculpture.

"I was able to take that time and practice and training I have as an artist and put that into service of something much bigger than myself that's happening," Carson said.

Carson created a GoFundMe page to help defray the cost of repairing the bust.

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Owner agrees to sell gas station to Black activist who boycotted his station for 60+ days

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CBS46

A DeKalb County businessman has agreed to sell his gas station after a clerk was caught on camera yelling that he hates the Black community.

The incident happened in mid October at a Exxon gas station on Flat Shoals Road in east Atlanta.

A customer filmed the clerk yelling "I don't give a f*&k about the black neighborhood, okay?" The incident caught the attention of activist Joe Jones who organized a protest outside the station that lasted more than 60 days.

"We sent a clear message that we will no longer tolerate disrespect," Jones told CBS 46 News. The owner, Rahim Sivji apologized, but the protests continued because of alleged racist incidents at the same gas station in the past.

"It is, in fact, a privilege to get Black dollars," Jones said.

Sivji told CBS46 he made the decision to sell the store because he feared for his life.

"They tried to put me out of business," Sivji said in a phone call with CBS46. He added that he lost 70% of his revenue due to the protest.

"It got to the point over here where I'm just thinking either its -- I have to save my life or save my store. I said, okay... hell with my store, I want to say my life."

Sivji signed an agreement to sell the gas station with an option for Jones to buy it for $5 million.

Jones launched a GoFundMe page that raised over $2,000 of a $5 million goal.

He is pleased that the owner agreed to sell. "You know, this is a perfect opportunity to take this situation and try to promote, uh, a situation of Black ownership," Jones said.