The local NBC affiliate KARE has a recording of what seems to be police scanner audio from the moments before St. Anthony police officers stopped Philando Castile on Wednesday. “The two occupants just look like people who have been involved in a robbery,” a man can be heard saying on the tape. “The driver looked more like one of our suspects, just ‘cause of the wide-set nose.”
KARE notes that it has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the tape, but that a license plate number mentioned matches Castile’s car, and that the locations mentioned correspond to the stop as well. Shortly after the officers pulled Castile over, Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot him and killed him, apparently as he reached for his wallet. The audio is below, followed by a transcript. (KARE redacted Castile’s plate number.)
Officer: I’m going to stop a car...I’m going to check IDs. I have reason to pull it over.
The two occupants just look like people who have been involved in a robbery. The driver looked more like one of our suspects, just ‘cause of the wide-set nose.
A minute and a half later on the recording, according to KARE, an officer frantically calls dispatch, mentioning shots fired.
Officer: Shots fired, Larpenteur and Fry.
Dispatch: Copy. You just heard it? You just heard the shots fired?
Officer: Code 3! Shots fired.
Dispatch: Copy. Shots fired, Larpenteur and Fry. Do you need medics?
Officer: Code 3!
Dispatch: Copy. Medics, Code 3 to Larpenteur and Fry.
Officer: One adult female taken into custody. Driver at gunpoint.
During a press conference Friday, Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown revealed that the fourth suspect in the Dallas attack died not by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, as had previously been reported, but by a bomb detonated by police officers. It appears to be the first time law enforcement has used such a tactic on U.S. soil.
Police tracked the man, who has been identified as 25-year-old Micah Johnson, to a parking garage in downtown Dallas at the El Centro community college campus. The confrontation, which reportedly involved the exchange of gunfire, lasted “several hours” into the early morning.
Though details are still scant, Chief Brown said at a press conference Friday morning that police killed Johnson with a robot bomb early Friday morning after he refused to surrender.
“Negotiations broke down. We had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect. We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device for it to detonate where the suspect was,” Brown said. “Other options would have exposed our officers to great danger. The suspect deceased as a result of detonating the bomb. The reporting that the suspect killed himself is not accurate. We confirmed that he’s been deceased because of the detonation of the bomb.”
Police routinely employ robots in confrontations with suspects, usually to disable explosives, but this case appears to be the first where officers deliberately used one to kill a suspect. (Chris Dorner, who allegedly killed at least four people during a rampage in 2013, was trapped in a burning cabin after police used robots to launch smoke bombs inside; their intent did not appear to be to kill him via robot.)
It’s unclear if the Dallas police has ever considered such a method before, or what their guidelines for killing a suspect with a robot entail. A voicemail and email left with the Dallas Police media relations unit had not, at press time, been returned.
Over the last six years, according to a new audit from the city comptroller, New York City has missed out on $59.2 million in tax revenue because it forgot to stop giving tax breaks, intended for senior citizen homeowners, to recipients who had died. From the Associated Press:
The Department of Finance is required to reevaluate each senior’s qualifications for the tax break every two years. The report found it had not done so for the past ten years.
A total of 3,246 properties continued to receive tax breaks after the homeowner had died.
“It’s a problem that we inherited, and we are fixing it,” Sonia Alleyne, a spokesperson for the finance department, told Gawker in a statement. “About 10 years ago, DOF stopped doing renewals for all of its exemption programs. The FY17 Adopted Budget allocates $1.6 million in baseline funds for 26 additional staff for the Homeowner Tax Benefits Unit to administer the initial and renewal exemption applications to ensure continued eligibility for benefits and compliance with State and local statutes. We are in the process of hiring the staff. As we implement the renewal program, we will revoke the benefits for all unqualified property owners prospectively.”
The man was found hanging by a rope from a tree in Piedmont Park in a section of the city just north of downtown. Prior to the completion of an autopsy, Atlanta police ruled the death a suicide and stated that there were no signs of “foul play.” But Reed acknowledged in a statement that a black man found dead in the manner of a lynching calls for extreme scrutiny:
I am deeply saddened by the loss of a young man’s life last night in Piedmont Park. This disturbing event demands our full attention. The Atlanta Police Department (APD) is conducting a robust investigation into his death and I have asked to receive regular briefings on the status of the investigation. We have also referred the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Everything we have seen suggests that there was no foul play involved, but I want to state clearly and unequivocally that we will not prejudge the circumstances surrounding this young man’s death. APD will share all evidence discovered in the course of the investigation. We ask for the public’s support and cooperation as we work to resolve this matter.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the still unidentified man was found dead around 4 a.m. Thursday morning. He is believed to be between 25 and 35 years old, and per a police report was found wearing earbuds and carrying a backpack.
The police ruling the death a suicide appears to have been made based on the following circumstances. Via the AJC:
According to the police report, the man had marks on the front of his jeans and light pollen on the front of his shirt — marks consistent with climbing a tree. Next to the tree was a large, wheeled garbage can, green in color with a black top. “I then examined the top of the garbage can and noted shoe prints were near the top edges of the can,” police said. “The shoe prints appeared to be fresh and were the same pattern as the shoes the male was wearing.”
The AJC also notes that police have been unable to verify claims on Twitter that a local branch of the Klu Klux Klan was passing out flyers at Piedmont Park the afternoon before the man was found dead.
Spokespersons for both the Southern Law Poverty Center, which monitors white supremacist groups in America, and the FBI were both unable to comment on the incident to the AJC.
In December 2014, the FBI agreed to investigate the death of Lennon Lacy, a black 17-year-old who was found hanging from a swing set in Blandenboro, North Carolina. His death was initially ruled a suicide, but after his family voiced suspicions about the incident—such as that shoes that did not belong to Lacy were found on his body—the Department of Justice agreed to investigate. Per an article published in The Guardian last month, the DOJ said it “found no evidence to suggest that Lacy’s death was a homicide.”
Facebook stood by their claim that a technical glitch was the reason why a Facebook Live video of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old Minnesota man, bleeding after being shot by police was briefly removed. In a call with Gizmodo, the company denied a report that a police officer was responsible for the video being removed.
The video of Castile dying, filmed by his girlfriend, quickly went viral. Then, the video was mysteriously removed. An hour later, Facebook restored it, citing a technical glitch. Since then, the video has sparked national outrage over police treatment of minorities.
Facebook declined to elaborate on how a technical glitch caused the video to be removed, calling it complicated.
The Supreme Court may have struck down abortion regulations that would have shut down all but five clinics providing termination of pregnancy services in Texas, but there’s always going to be new abortion regulations in Texas. The latest requires the fetal tissue to be buried or cremated, regardless of the period of gestation, the AP reports.
Since Texas state agencies don’t need legislative approval to adopt new regulations, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has already ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to propose the regulation and plans for it to be in effect by September. Abortion providers would be responsible for the burials.
“Governor Abbott believes human and fetal remains should not be treated like medical waste, and the proposed rule changes affirms the value and dignity of all life,” Abbott’s spokeswoman has said, clarifying the motivations of the state-mandated mourning rituals. Since Abbott also believes that termination of pregnancy should be illegal even if the mother’s life is in danger and supported blocking affordable healthcare for women in a state with some of the country’s highest rates of cervical cancer, the “all life” part is highly suspect.
Similar rules are already in effect in states like Arkansas, Georgia, and Ohio, and in Indiana similar regulations are on hold after on a temporary injunction. The bill, which would have required the patient to be given a remains disposal form and the fetal tissue to be sent for cremation or burial at a funeral home, also banned termination of pregnancy motivated by genetic abnormalities.
This week The Politico published what was either an extremely dumb mistake or a Donald Trump-authored piece of slash fiction—a story identifying Ivanka Trump as Donald Trump’s wife.
That Donald Trump thinks his own daughter is fuckable is an established fact. “My daughter, Ivanka. She’s 6 feet tall, she’s got the best body,” is a real thing he once said. “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, I’d be dating her,” is another. So let’s chalk this one a Freudian slip, as opposed to a weird error that somehow slipped through a triple byline that was presumably edited before publication.
And in proof that even the dumbest clock can be right twice a day, Breitbart caught the story, which initially identified Ivanka as Donald’s wife and also misspelled RNC chairman Reince Priebus’s name.
“With Republican National Committee chairman Reince Preibus and his wife Ivanka in attendance, the billionaire real estate tycoon met with the full House GOP conference at RNC headquarters,” Politico’s Rachael Bade, Heather Caygle, and John Bresnaha wrote.
George Washington, who died 217 years ago of acute laryngitis, will be the first speaker at this year’s Republican National Convention. And as of right now, dead former President George Washington is also the only speaker, according to the official RNC app.
Of course, there should be other speakers. Other speakers like Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Don King, for instance. But until Donald Trump actually releases the official speaker schedule—he’s missed his own deadline twice now—those remain in the theoretical.
Image: Official RNC App
Meaning that, for now, we have no other choice but to assume that Donald Trump has resorted to reanimating the rotting corpse of our first President in the style of Weekend at Bernie’s because absolutely no one else is willing to speak on his behalf.
Hours after the Dallas Police Department sparked a manhunt for Mark Hughes, a protester who was carrying a licensed and unloaded rifle at yesterday’s march through downtown where five officers were killed, a tweet urging followers to “help us find him!” is still online. Hughes was not in fact involved with the shooting, and his attorney said that he’s received “thousands” of death threats after being misidentified.
Maybe you guys should delete the tweet. Just a thought.
Northrop Grumman Andros bomb disposal bot in Dallas in 2015. Image: Stewart F. House/Getty Images
This morning Dallas Police chief David Brown said a bomb detection robot attached with an explosive device was used to kill a suspected gunman apparently involved in the horrific fatal shootings of five police officers.
According to experts, it’s the first lethal use by a civilian police force of a military bomb robot. Similar robots have been used in high-stress situations, such as defusing bombs or even delivering pizzas to prevent suicide, but nothing quite like this.
“It is the first deliberately,” Peter Singer of the New America Foundation, told Gizmodo via email. “There has been sketchy reporting on an accidental case in [Tennessee], where tear gas canister shot during a standoff accidentally started a fire that burned down a mobile home.”
As of this writing, we’re still not exactly sure what kind of robot was used—the Dallas Police Department isn’t releasing more information at this time—but we have a strong idea. Immediately after this morning’s press conference, Singer tweeted that the scenario sounded similar to ad hoc tactics used by US soldiers in Iraq. Their bot of choice? The Marcbot-IV.
Others were quickly convinced that the Marcbot was likely:
Because of the Pentagon’s 1033 program, an initiative that enables the flow of military equipment to civilian police forces, it’s possible for police departments to get their hands on these types of machines. According to an intensive report from Bard College in 2014, bomb disposal robots are often ambiguously labeled “Robot, Explosive Ordinance Disposal,” so we can’t be for certain about a robot’s make or model based only on available 1033 documents.
Here’s a US Army demo of the Marcbot in action:
The report also says that Marcbots and Endeavor Robotics’ Packbots are listed among equipment transfers as part of the 1033 initiative. Gizmodo has also reached out to Endeavor Robotics, makers of the Packbot, and will update if and when we hear back.
However, the Marcbot is relatively simple and cheap (around $8,000) compared to the much more advanced bomb disposal bots from Northrop Grumman that go for as much as $180,000. Evidence gathered from a PDF document labeled “Identification and Utilization of Department Equipment” shows DPD’s three robots with one of them (far right) looking like Northrop Grumman’s Remotec Andros F6. Andros also makes other models, like the Mark 5A-1, which the Dallas PD also reportedly owns.
When searching through the Dallas City Hall purchase directory, all “police investigation robots” were purchased through Remotec, Inc., a robotics subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, and is also listed as equipment in Dallas’ operations manual. Additional reports have confirmed that the DPD has an Andros unit on hand.
Additionally, here’s another photo taken in June 2015 of what looks like an Andros robot in action in the Dallas area.
Bomb robot inspects area in Dallas on June 13, 2015. This robot also looks similar to the Andros F6. Image: Brandon Wade/AP Photo
The Mark 5A-1 and F6 are significantly more advanced than the Marcbot. While the bot used in Iraq is little more than a remote-controlled car with a movable arm, Northrop Grumman’s bots have a wider array of features, including color surveillance cameras, robotic arm with seven degrees of motion, camera extenders, and wheels to help climb stairs (the gunman was cornered on the second floor).
Northrop Grumman declined to comment on whether its robot was used in today’s operation.
We’ll update this post when we know more.
Additional reporting by Michael Nuñez and Mandy Mandelstein
Emails obtained by CNN from an anonymous ex-Ashley Madison customer show customer service reps threatening to have Ashley Madison paperwork sent to the customer’s home if he disputed a charge on his credit card. The source who reached out to CNN said that he asked for a refund after spending $40 to be able to respond to dozens of women who messaged him immediately after he registered for the site. The women never got back to him—because they were in all likelihood fake—which led to this series of garbled messages, both of which are [sic]:
From: Ashley Madison <support@ashleymadison.com> Date: Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 6:19 p.m. Subject: Update on your request [redacted] To: [redacted]
Hello,
If you initiate a charge back all records will be mailed to your home.
We do fight all charge backs.
We will win since it is a Legitimize purchase done by you.
Sincerely, Customer Service
That was followed by:
From: Ashley Madison <support@ashleymadison.com> Date: Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 6:45 p.m. Subject: Update on your request [redacted] To: [redacted]
Hello,
We are not threatening you.
We are laying the facts to you.
When a person disputes a charge towards a company. The credit card company will mail to your home the documents needed from that company in order to complete the investigation of the charge back.
Avid Life Media, the company that owns and operates Ashley Madison, confirmed the authenticity of the emails to CNN, saying, “that past practise stopped when our new CEO Rob Segal and new President James Millership took the helm.”
Ashley Madison’s old CEO Noel Biderman might have defended this practice by arguing it was standard protocol for a company to send such paperwork directly to its customers, but it shows the level to which Ashley Madison actually cared about the alleged sacrosanct privacy of its customers. Of course, the simple fact that the company’s entire database was hacked and released online already proved that.
In 2008, at a gala hosted by Gucci benefiting Madonna’s charity, Donald Trump paid $120,000 for a tour of a France’s Chateau Latour vineyard. As auctioneer Chris Rock described, the tour would include a lunch with “Salma Hayek and her breasts.” According to BuzzFeed News, however, not only did Trump use other people’s money to pay for the trip, he never even went on it.
The money Trump spent came from his foundation, to which he had donated just $30,000 that year. The Trump Foundation’s largest donor that year was the Willard T.C. Johnson Foundation, which gave a quarter-million dollars. BuzzFeed reports:
The trip reportedly included a tour of the famed Chataeu Latour vineyard and a meal with actor Salma Hayek and her husband, the French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, whose family owns the vineyard.
Trump himself didn’t go on the trip, an aide told BuzzFeed News, but said that she did not know what became of the auction prize. Asked if it had been given to someone else, she reiterated that she didn’t know.
Tax experts contacted by BuzzFeed News said that even if Trump gave the trip to a family member or friend, Trump would have had to report the trip on his foundation’s IRS tax forms. Those forms, however do not report any such transactions. IRS rules require nonprofits to report any “self-dealing” — using their money to furnish their executives with money or other benefits.
The Trump Foundation’s tax form from 2008 notes a $107,000 “charitable contribution” to the Gucci Foundation; meanwhile, the Gucci Foundation’s tax form shows a $145,000 donation from the Trump Foundation. The Trump Foundation’s tax form does not include any “self-dealing” disclosures.
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that Trump used his foundation’s money to buy a Tim Tebow football helmet at auction in 2012.
1. Keep an open mind! You never know where a rare Pokémon might be hiding. Don’t be afraid to explore new areas of your town—adventure is what it’s all about!
2. Charge your phone. There’s nothing worse than getting ready to snag a rare critter only to have to have your screen go dark.
3. Buy several additional phones. This way, when one phone dies, just throw it away and turn on another. Dead weight only slows you down.
4. See if you can get a neighborhood kid to play with you. He’ll no doubt have some sick tips, and his mom’s been pretty busy since Mitch started coming around.
5. Don’t forget—kids need snacks! But he’s allergic to tree nuts, and try to stay away from refined sugar.
6. Don’t bring up how the world of Pokémon is actually pretty grim if you really think about it. Buncha kids keeping wild animals in golf balls and forcing them to kill each other for sport. It’s not right.
7. You know. You’d think that at least one Pokémon has to have died while inside their ball at some point.
8. Just imagine it. Ball opens. Squirtle rolls out. Your opponent averts his gaze and pretends to clear his throat as you frantically try to push Squirtle back into its deathbed but you accidentally put him into Pikachu’s ball and now Pikachu is never going to be the same.
Serena Williams avenged her Australian Open loss to Angelique Kerber in claiming her seventh Wimbledon singles title and 22nd Grand Slam championship overall, bringing her into a tie with Steffi Graf for most all-time in the Open Era.
Williams—months from her 35th birthday—exhibited the kind of play that’s been the hallmark of her career, with devastating ground strokes and an incredible service game. The highlight of the match, though, was this 21-stroke rally that highlighted both Serena’s talent and the level of competition presented by Kerber:
Serena will join her sister Venus to compete for Wimbledon’s doubles title.
Speaking at an African Methodist Episcopal church in Philadelphia Friday evening, Hillary Clinton vowed to strengthen bonds between communities and cops and create national guidelines to do so.
I will bring law enforcement and communities together to develop national guidelines on the use of force by police officers. We’ll make it clear when deadly force is warranted, and when it isn’t. And we’ll emphasize proven methods for de-escalating situations before we reach that point.
Clinton delivered her remarks days after the high-profile murders of two black men by police officers. Alton Sterling was shot and killed Monday night in Baton Rouge as two cops held him down, and Philando Castile was shot and killed on Wednesday in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, after reaching for his driver’s license during a traffic stop.
Clinton also spoke about the fatal shootings of five Dallas police officers Thursday night:
When gunfire broke out yesterday, and everyone ran to safety, the police officers ran the other way, into the gunfire. That’s the kind of courage our police and first responders show every single day.
Clinton asked her mostly black audience to acknowledge that “implicit bias” still exists in a country where police force is used against black people at least three times as often as it is against white people.
Clinton told the audience that, if elected president, she would commit $1 billion to fund officer training programs, “support new research,” and make eliminating “excessive [police] violence” a national priority. Clinton said she would also work to reform sentencing laws and push for comprehensive background checks for gun purchases.
On Wednesday, former Fox News co-host Gretchen Carlson’s attorneys filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, who immediately denied the allegations, calling them “offensive and “defamatory.”
But since then, more than a dozen women have gotten in touch with Carlson’s attorney to detail their own allegations of sexual harassment by Ailes, according to New York Magazine. The allegations span a period of 25 years, beginning in the 1960s when Ailes was a producer on The Mike Douglas Show.
New York Magazine spoke with six of these women, two on the record and four anonymously, who shared their stories publicly for the first time. The two women who went on the record are Kellie Boyle, a former Republican National Committee field adviser, and Marsha Callahan, a former model.
Gabriel Sherman, who’s written a book about Ailes, pointed out in New York Magazine that Ailes’ attorneys are clearly aware of these women’s stories and already trying to minimize their impact on Carlson’s lawsuit and public opinion:
Ailes is clearly trying to keep these stories out of the press and the courts. Late on Friday, his lawyers filed a motion in federal court in New Jersey seeking to move Carlson’s lawsuit to arbitration, which would prevent witnesses from being called in court. “Plaintiff’s ploy of filing in Superior Court to justify her shameless publicity campaign against Roger Ailes should not be countenanced,” Ailes’s lawyers argued. Carlson’s lawyers responded in a statement: “Roger Ailes is trying to force this case into a secret arbitration proceeding...Gretchen never agreed to arbitrate anything with Mr. Ailes.
On Saturday, organizers announced they had canceled a march in Cleveland that was scheduled to be led by Al Sharpton on the eve of the Republican National Convention, citing concern for the safety of police officers and participants in the wake of the Dallas police shootings, cleveland.com reports.
The march was slated to be part of a larger event, called “Keep the Promise,” which has the stated goal of calling on Republicans and the RNC to, “articulate clear domestic and global policies on HIV/AIDS, income inequality and other critical social-justice issues.” The event, sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and being held on Cleveland State University’s campus, will feature speeches by Cornel West and “Orange is the New Black” actress Diane Guerrero, and a performance by The Roots.
In other words, there will still be plenty of of pre-RNC sitting, dancing, and swaying in place, just no marching around. Too dangerous.
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told cleveland.com:
In the current uncertain environment nationwide, we are concerned for police officers who would be charged with protecting our marchers and advocates as well as for the safety and wellbeing of our march participants….We feel strongly that remaining on campus at The Holstein Center at Cleveland State University allows us to share our ‘Keep the Promise’ message loudly and clearly without increased risk for police and all participants in the event.
On Saturday night, police arrested several activists and journalists at protests across the country over the highly publicized fatal police shootings of two black men this week. On Monday, a police officer shot and killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as he was being held down by two other officers, and on Wednesday a cop mortally shot Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota as Castile was reaching for his driver’s license during a routine traffic stop. Both murders were documented in videos that went viral.
Prominent Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay Mckesson was arrested at a protest in Baton Rouge at around 11 p.m. Saturday night, along with approximately 100 other demonstrators, according to the Washington Post.
Brittany Packnett, a co-founder, along with Mckesson, of Campaign Zero told the Washington Post that two officers violently arrested McKesson. “They tackled him. One officer hit the top of his body and another officer the bottom,” Packnett said. According to Packnett, Mckesson was “clearly targeted” by police.
Packnett told the New York Times that as of 5:15 Sunday morning DeRay was still in custody and physically unharmed, and speculated that he is being held for obstructing traffic.
Mckesson, who had been live-streaming the protest on his phone, had his phone knocked out of his hands when he was arrested, ending his coverage of the protest.
Edward Snowden tweeted messages of solidarity with Mckesson and reporters who are also arrested Saturday night:
Journalists were arrested at protests in at least two cities. Among those arrested at Baton Rouge was a journalists from local television station WAFB.
Police also arrested Ryan Kailath, a reporter with New Orleans public radio station WWNO, on one count of simple obstruction of a highway, The Advocatereports.
Two journalists WHAM, a television station out of Rochester, New York were taken into custody at a protests in the city’s downtown area, according to WHAM.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown detailed the moments leading up to the death of Micah Xavier Johnson—the 25-year-old Army veteran who fatally shot five Dallas police officers on Thursday night before police killed him with a robotic bomb—in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Brown justified his department’s decision to end two hours of negations with Johnson by killing him with an explosive, saying Johnson was “determined to hurt more officers” when he died.
During the standoff, Brown said that Johnson was taunting police, laughing, singing, and wrote a message with his own blood on the wall, the letters “RB,” the meaning of which remains unknown.
Johnson affirmed that he made the right call in detonating a robotic bomb to kill Johnson, the first reported instance of such technology being used by American law enforcement, saying he’d, “do it again if presented with the same circumstances.”
Brown also revealed to CNN that Johnson had kept an extensive cache of weapons at his home:
Our search of the suspect’s home in Mesquite leads us to believe, based on evidence of bomb-making materials and a journal, that this suspect had been practicing explosive detonations and that the materials were such that it was large enough to have devastating effects throughout our city and our North Texas area.
