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Ralph Yarl: Another victim of America’s unjust racial bias and Stand … – The Arkansas Traveler

On Thursday, April 13, in Kansas City, MO, 16-year-old Black male Ralph Yarl was shot by 84-year-old white male Andrew Lester on Lesters porch. Yarl mistakenly rang Lesters doorbell on Northeast 115th St. instead of his intended address of Northeast 115th Terrace.

Yarl was picking up his younger twin brothers from a friends home and went to the wrong house. Lester thought he was trying to break in and shot the young boy twice, once in the head through his homes glass door and once in the arm while he was on the ground after telling Yarl, Dont come back around here, according to NBC.

Yarl miraculously survived the traumatic brain injury he sustained from the first shot and ran three homes down the street before finding his aunt, Faith Spoonmore, who finally helped him.

Clay County, Missouri prosecutors filed two felony counts against the white homeowner: assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. Authorities are investigating whether or not Lester is protected under Missouris Stand Your Ground law.

Stand Your Ground laws are instated in at least 28 states. The law essentially says individuals have the right to use appropriate force, including deadly force, to protect themselves against an intruder in their home. However, this law is associated with higher homicide rates and disproportionately negatively affects the Black community because it leaves the danger levels up to the armed individual, even when there is none.

Missouri's own Stand Your Ground law states that a person may use deadly force to protect himself, or herself or her unborn child, or another against death, serious physical injury or any forcible felony.

This law also includes threats to property, which Lester attempted to use as his reason for using deadly force. Lester said he was scared to death and claimed to have seen a large, 6-foot Black male at his door. Lester claimed Yarl tried to enter his home, but there was no evidence because Lester fired shots through the door, according to Time Magazine.

In 2013, the Urban Institute conducted a study that analyzed the percentage of justified homicide cases from 2005 to 2010. The probability of a white person killing a Black person and the legal system considering it justified is 281% greater than a white person killing another white person.

Missouri attorney Bill Tacket said it seems unlikely Lester will be able to effectively use Stand Your Ground as a reason. The law would only have applied if Yarl threatened the mans safety. There was no real threat either and this will weaken Lesters possible defense, according to NBC.

He also claimed that violence was his last resort but was incredibly afraid because of Yarls size. In actuality, Yarl is 5-foot-8 and 140 pounds. These wild misinterpretations of Black young mens sizes are a vicious cycle and are used as an excuse when committing acts of violence against them.

In an American Psychological Association journal, the studys researchers asked participants to judge the size of Black men compared to white men of the same age range and size. The study participants saw Black men as larger and stronger than they were and gave Black children the characteristics of adults. This troubling discovery confirms the idea that violence against Black men is justified because they are deemed more dangerous than their white counterparts, according to APA.

In similar instances to what happened to Yarl, this racial bias is even more prevalent among law enforcement. In 2014, a police officer shot Black 12-year-old Tamir Rice. The president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmens Association supported the officer by describing Rice as a 12-year-old in an adult body. That same year, police officer Darren Wilson killed Black 18-year-old Michael Brown. Brown compared the struggle with Wilson inside Browns vehicle before the deadly shooting to a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan, according to the Washington Post.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas puts it perfectly when he said,People need to reassess their biases and fears and recognize that Black people are not villains, that Black kids are not a threat. There was no reason to fear this boy.

I have rung the wrong doorbell myself when picking up my own siblings from a friends house. It makes me sick to my stomach. This is something parents will have to teach their kids now: to not ring an unfamiliar homes doorbell. How will a child discern between a safe and unsafe home? How will a child never make the mistake of going to the wrong house again? Intruders do not ring doorbells, but that did not stop Lester from letting his racially motivated fear and prejudice from shooting first and thinking second.

Shooting should not be someones first instinct when faced with this situation. It is time to rethink our countrys dangerous and deeply ingrained racial stereotypes and gun rights.

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Ralph Yarl: Another victim of America's unjust racial bias and Stand ... - The Arkansas Traveler

Attorneys Of OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney Claim She Stabbed Boyfriend To Death In Self-Defense – MadameNoire

Attorneys of former OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney alleged that evidence proved the fatal stabbing of her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli, was in self-defense.

I think that the fact that the detective in this matter did not arrest her for four months while they investigated the case. Its very telling,saidFrank Prieto, one of Clenneys lawyers, in an interview withLaw & Crime published May 16.

According to the outlet, Prieto and the clients other lawyer, Sabrina Puglisi, argue that Clenney was a battered woman. The attorneys disclosed that three instances where Clenney was a victim in her relationship with Obumseli would be presented during trial.

The 26-year-olds lawyers called the lawsuit a money grab. Still, Obumselis family claimed there were over six instances between January to March 2022 wherein those around the couple called the police because of Clenneys alleged behavior toward their late loved one.

The forensic evidence is clear that Christian was not an aggressor in any way and that theres one aggressor in this case, said Obumseli family representative Michael Haggard.

Obumselis killing allegedly came after an argument between him and Clenney in an apartment complex in Miamis Edgewater neighborhood. Prosecutors alleged that Clenney once said, I really dont know if this was justified at all regarding her decision to stab Obumseli. The 26-year-old has reportedly offered inconsistent statements about the fatal incident.

Miami-Dade law enforcement officialschargedthe former OnlyFans model with second-degree murder in August 2022.

She currently remains behind bars without bail as she awaits her trial. A status conference will go down in July, but a trial date hasnt been set.

According to Floridas Stand Your Ground law [Section 776.012], a state citizen is justifiedin using deadly force as a means of self-defense if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony or to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another.

Read more about the case below.

RELATED CONTENT:Christian Obumselis Texts And Recordings Reveal Girlfriend Courtney Clenneys History Of Racist Rants, Beatings & Stabbings

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Attorneys Of OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney Claim She Stabbed Boyfriend To Death In Self-Defense - MadameNoire

5 Years After A Mass Shooting At Santa Fe High In Texas, Critics Say Lawmakers Have Done Little – HuffPost

Its been five years since a boy fatally shot 10 people and wounded 13 others at Santa Fe High School in Texas, and despite an ongoing outcry from the victims and local residents, along with calls for stricter gun measures, lawmakers have done nothing to improve the states mass shooting crisis, critics say.

On Thursday morning the fifth grim anniversary of the shooting President Joe Biden remembered the victims and called out Congress for failing to pass any significant gun control legislation.

One of the lasting tragedies of the shooting at Santa Fe High School and too many other devastating school shootings is the refusal by Congressional Republicans to enact meaningful legislation to stop gun violence, part of Bidens statement says. Guns are the number one killer of kids in America, and its within our power to stop this epidemic. Yet, from Columbine to Newtown to Parkland to Uvalde to Nashville and so many other shootings in between, our schools are routinely scenes of gun violence instead of the safe spaces they should be.

Biden went on to say that he is trying to maximize the impact of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which expands background checks and establishes new criminal offenses.

Little has been done to enact gun control since the mass shooting, especially in Texas. Since the Santa Fe mass shooting, Texas has been the site of some of the countrys highest-profile massacres, including the one in Uvalde that killed 21 peoplea year ago and, most recently, the one at an outlet mall inAllen, north of Dallas, that left nine people dead. Still, lawmakers tweeted their condolences for the Santa Fe families but didnt offer any plans for gun control.

GOP Rep. Randy Weber, who represents Santa Fe in Congress, tweeted Thursday that the Santa Fe mass shooting forever changed the city.

Today marks the 5-year anniversary of the shooting at Santa Fe High School, where 10 innocent lives were lost at the hands of evil, Weber tweeted. We will never forget that tragic day that forever changed Santa Fe, Texas.

Weber spoke on the House floor Thursday, saying there are steps to secure Texas schools without infringing on our citizens Second Amendment rights, such as enhancing school security systems and hiring retired police officers to serve as school resource officers.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted he would double the number of police officers at schools to keep students safe.

Five years ago today, Santa Fe was shaken to its core and forever changed, Cruz tweeted. Eight beautiful, young lives and two dedicated educators were taken from us and many others were injured in a tragic act of evil.

I will continue fighting to enhance school security and to double the number of police officers on campus to keep our children safe.

Rhonda Hart, whose daughter, Kimberly, was killed in the Santa Fe shooting, tweeted on Wednesday that Texas politicians dont care about gun control.

As tomorrow is the five year mark I feel need to say this: Cruz, Abbott, Patrick, and [Weber] have done nothing for families of Santa Fe, she tweeted.

Dan Patrick, Texas lieutenant governor, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not put out statements. Abbotts Twitter feed was full of tweets about reckless open border policies.

Allison Anderman, senior counsel of Giffords, an organization fighting for gun safety, told HuffPost that Texas has a lot of mass shootings because of its population, guns per capita and its extremely weak laws that create more gun violence, including a Stand Your Ground law that emboldens people to shoot first and ask questions later.

In Texas, gun laws have expanded the areas where people can openly carry firearms, including at airport baggage claims, in parking areas and at houses of worship.

The state legislature is still dominated by people who are very extreme on the issue of guns, so until the state elects different people to represent them, people who want to make a change on this issue and are unwilling to accept the status quo of doing nothing, then its going to be an uphill battle, Anderman said.

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5 Years After A Mass Shooting At Santa Fe High In Texas, Critics Say Lawmakers Have Done Little - HuffPost

Elon Musk wanted own bathroom at Twitter to avoid waking bodyguards – Business Insider

Elon Musk left a California court with two of his bodyguards. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Elon Musk wanted a bathroom built next to his office in Twitter's headquarters so he didn't have to wake up his bodyguards in the middle of the night to go pee, a new lawsuit claims.

Six former Twitter employees filed the suit against Musk and X. Corp, Twitter's holding company, in the District Court of Delaware on Tuesday.

It accuses the defendants of violating 14 counts, including fraud, breach of contract, and labor-rights laws. But it's also full of details about what's been going on inside the social-media company under the billionaire's leadership.

A Twitter engineer told the BBC in March that at least two bodyguards followed Musk around its San Francisco headquarters, including to the restroom.

The lawsuit says that Steve Davis, the Boring Company CEO, told Joseph Killian a plaintiff who worked at Twitter for 12 years and oversaw office design to start work on a new restroom closer to Musk's office.

Musk wanted the facilities next to his office so he "didn't have to wake his security team and cross half the floor to use the bathroom in the middle of the night," the suit says.

Last month, the billionaire told the BBC that he sometimes slept on a couch in the library at Twitter's headquarters. Musk also told CNBC on Tuesday that he slept for about six hours a night.

The suit says Killian told Davis that he would start getting the permits for Musk's restroom, but the suit paraphrases him responding: "We don't do that; we don't have to follow those rules."

According to the suit, he instead suggested Killian hire an unlicensed plumber to build the toilet since others wouldn't want to jeopardize their license by working on a project without a permit.

Insider reached out to Twitter for comment. It responded with its standard poop-emoji auto-reply.

Elon Musk did not directly reply to Insider, but tweeted about this story after its publication, calling the claim about his bathroom an "absurd scenario."

"Even were this absurd scenario true, my 'bodyguards' being asleep instead of thwarting assassins would be of far greater concern to me than shortening my trip to the [toilet]," he said.

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Elon Musk wanted own bathroom at Twitter to avoid waking bodyguards - Business Insider

Elon Musk says the laptop class needs to get off their moral high horse when it comes to remote work – Fortune

Chief executives, trying to bring employees back to the office, argue that working from home leads to less engaged and less productive workers. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk is going one step further, calling the practice morally wrong in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday evening.

Musk argued that tech workerswhom he characterized as the laptop classwere unfair in demanding privileges that other people, like service workers or factory employees, could not enjoy. Youre going to work from home, and youre going to make everyone else who made your car come work in the factory? Youre going to make people who make your food that gets deliveredthey cant work from home? Musk asked. Does that seem morally right?

People should get off their goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bullshit, he said. Theyre asking everyone else to not work from home while they do.

During the U.S.s stay-at-home orders in the early days of the COVID pandemic, white-collar workers were able to hunker down while workers deemed essentialoften lower income or from minority populationshad to venture outside to go to work. In-person work sometimes led to COVID outbreaks in sectors like the meatpacking industry where working from home was not possible.

Musk has long been a critic of remote work. Last June, the Tesla CEO ordered staff back to the office full-time, even as other companies were gingerly tryingand often failingto get employees back in the office just a few days a week. Musk cited fairness in an internal email, noting that asking corporate employees to come in for 40 hours a week was less than [what] we ask of factory workers. (Musk also joked on Twitter at the time that Apple employees who refused to come into the office were being lazy.)

Musk also ended Twitters permanent remote work policy last November, in one of his first acts as the social media companys CEO, though he later softened his demands when more employees than expected were willing to quit over the issue.

Teslas CEO has also praised those who went beyond standard working hours, celebrating employees in the companys Shanghai factory for burning the 3:00 a.m. oil even as U.S. workers are trying to avoid going to work at all, in an interview last May. Teslas Shanghai factory at the time operated under a closed-loop system amidst Chinas tough COVID-prevention regime, with workers sleeping and eating on-site to prevent any disruption to production due to an outbreak.

Musk claimed on CNBC that he took only two or three days off a year, and otherwise did at least some work seven days a week with only six hours of sleep a night. (Musk was seen partying at a music festival in Mexico last weekend hours before a meeting with Emmanuel Macron, joking with the French president that he had to sleep in the car beforehand.)

Bosses and employees are still debating how long workers should be in the office. More companies are pushing for employees to come in at least part of the time. CEOs argue that working from home hurts company culture, and claim that fully remote workers lose opportunities for feedback and mentoring, hurting their growth.

Employee surveys consistently report that workers think they are more productive at home.

The battle may be reaching an equilibrium around hybrid work, where employees come into the office for part of the week. The number of U.S. firms demanding in-person work five days a week dropped over the past three months, from 49% to 42%, according to data from Scoop Technologies, an analytics firm tracking workplace strategies.

Still, companies are trying to get their employees to come in more often.

On Tuesday, AT&T CEO John Stankey told Bloomberg Radio that the telecoms company would require managers to work in-person three days a week, starting as early as July in some cases. The company will also be closing some of its offices, potentially requiring some employees to relocate.

Also on Tuesday, asset manager BlackRock asked employees in an internal memo to start coming in four days a week, up from three, arguing that remote workers missed both teaching moments and market-moving moments while at home.

See you in the office! BlackRock wrote, according to the Financial Times.

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Elon Musk says the laptop class needs to get off their moral high horse when it comes to remote work - Fortune