Hasta La Gadget!

NEW YORK (AP) — The city of New York has agreed to pay a Brooklyn man $75,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming he was choked and unable to breathe during a 2013 encounter with police.

A federal judge approved the settlement last week, and New York City Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci said that “based on an evaluation of the case, it was determined that the settlement was in the best interests of the city.” Attorney Jeffrey Rothman said Monday that the settlement for Kevin Dennis-Palmer Sr. was “another example of a black man choked and beaten down into the ground.”

Paolucci did not immediately respond Monday evening to an email seeking comment on Rothman’s characterization of the case.

The lawsuit was filed in May before the death of Eric Garner last summer, whose treatment by police and a grand jury decision not to indict any officers prompted nationwide protests.

Garner, a large man suffering from asthma, died after a New York police officer placed him in an apparent chokehold during an arrest in July for selling loose cigarettes. A widely seen video showed Garner gasping: “I can’t breathe,” as he was wrestled to the ground in Staten Island by police.

The Dennis-Palmer settlement was first reported by the Daily News.

Rothman said the circumstances were similar to the Garner case. He said Dennis-Palmer, 28, was approached by two officers outside his home as he was trying to parallel park his car. According to the lawsuit, he was ordered out of the car but could not immediately get out because of his large frame.

The suit says officers tried to pull him by his collar through a window and pepper sprayed him and slammed him to the street when he emerged from the car with his hands up. The suit says one of several officers who arrived at the scene lifted him up by his neck, choking him, as other officers struck him on the head and back.

Dennis-Palmer, suffering from asthma, had difficulty breathing and screamed, the lawsuit says.

“I’m yelling, ‘I can’t breathe — you’re choking me!” Dennis-Palmer told the newspaper.

The suit said charges were brought against Dennis-Palmer alleging that his car was stopped because his windows were illegally tinted and that he resisted turning over driving credentials.

Rothman said the charges were later dropped, and Dennis-Palmer was treated for a swollen eye and cuts to his wrist and head.

It is easy to start up a website or a blog. All you’d need to do is sign up for it, and in most cases it is free. This means that anyone can start up a website in a matter of minutes and start posting whatever they want, meaning that if governments want to start taking down websites, they would have a pretty hard time trying to catch up.

That being said, the French government wants to give it their best anyway. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve will be meeting his German counterpart on Tuesday where they will discuss and push for a united front in the removal of terrorism-related content from the internet.

He is also hoping that with their combined efforts, it will also be sufficient to pressure US tech firms to follow suit. According to Cazeneuve, “It is at the European level that we will be able to convince a certain number of Internet companies of the need to move more quickly with us.” He also commended companies like Facebook and Google for moving quickly in the wake of the Paris shootings, but added that it could have been faster and more efficient.

British Prime Minister David Cameron also recently spoke up in the wake of the attacks, claiming that he was considering banning encrypted messaging apps as such apps could hinder the work of law enforcement officials trying to gain access to evidence and information that could help stop future threats, but what do you guys think? Does this seem like an uphill battle?

France Wants To Scrub The Internet Of Terrorism-Related Content , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Adding to the list of vehicles it is investigating, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced that it is probing a previous Ford recall to see whether it should be expanded to cover quite a few additional vehicles. Ford has previously recalled 3,000 trucks in October of 2013 over troubles with the exhaust gas temperature sensor, and the NHTSA … Continue reading

In a speech given at the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers, Pulitzer Prize winning author and activist Alice Walker asks the rhetorical question: What does it mean to be black in America? To which she gently replies:

“We are like orchids.”

She proceeded to reflect on a time in her life where at a certain age she began to notice that she was receiving a lot of orchids. She admits not really knowing what to do with them; a flower she described as, “Mysterious, fragile and foreign.” She was simply unsure of how to take care of them. Yet after many sad cycles of receiving these beautiful flowers, only to see them begin to deteriorate within a couple weeks, she became determined to understand how to take care of the mysterious flower these orchids proved to be. She was astounded to find out that these flowers were in fact, miraculous; having grown “casually, elegantly and profusely” from mere logs and other unsuspecting places for a flower to grow. So you see, she repeated softly “We are like orchids.”

America is indeed “unsure of how to care for us.” We are miraculous in that we are a magnificent flower that grows in spite of the most unlikely and adverse conditions. Protests, movements and riots even are not sparked by Black people because we are violent. It is actually quite the opposite. It is because of our unique burden both historically and presently, as Alice Walker so accurately stated, “To be black, means to care.” We care. We care about everything. Alice Walker’s words are extremely necessary at this time, given that in the media us blacks in America are left feel that there is something wrong with us. Prompted to look at our conditions as individual failings. The symbolism of blacks as orchids is clarifying and at the same time extremely valuable as we wish to forge meaning and build an identity not just as Blacks in America but for Americans as a whole.

The recent annihilation of our value as human beings in this country has done more than eradicate black men and boys. It has ignited our memory of the cultural history of this country which was never really left behind at the scarred backs of slaves, or this concept that racism occurred as an event suspended at a moment in time. Instead the racism on which this country was built lingered in other less visible yet powerful places. It seemed bigotry’s instinct to hate was subdued almost. And just when we thought we were safe, just after inaugurating the first black president not once but twice. And witnessing the numbers of blacks attending college increase, and therefore progress socioeconomically. We were reminded one killing at a time followed by one indictment after another how we are really seen in this strange, highly contradictory and many times hypocritical democracy.

Given the recent events, our memory has been ignited. And, like letting a secret slip, the revelation of racism in America has stirred the pot again, especially for those Martians here on Earth who were unaware that racism still existed. The win-lose acculturation of the founding fathers of this country was never intended to weave us into the cultural fabric of America equally, justly nor with dignity but solely at the advantage of the oppressor and we have again been reminded of that harsh reality. The Black cultural revolution of the 60’s and 70’s blossomed from similar social injustices we have witnessed today. Today however with the country significantly more racially diverse, the movement is shifting from a solely Black cultural revolution to an American cultural revolution.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge, on this day, the black cultural revolution of which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was so influential. The film Selma, although beautifully directed and accurately casted was so eerily timed. Aside from the political implications of the film, the act of protest was a strong theme, showing both the thoughtful strategy and organization behind the tactic. The film while based on historical events does not make you feel as if you are watching something outdated, but rather as if you are watching today’s news. At a time where many question the effectiveness of marching and protesting Selma convinces even the most avid skeptic. The solidarity and strong unified presence of such demonstrations does just that…demonstrate our stand on injustice as citizens explicitly. It is also imperative obviously, that other measures be taken at the local and federal level both in policy and in community to insure justice and peace, but it’s the sum of all parts that make a whole. This is evident in the film as well. There was not one tactic that solved an issue but a culmination rather. And the act of protesting whether peacefully or not is effective in making clear what our concerns are. Today during this holiday we often reflect and access how far we have progressed racially in this country. Yet the truth is we still have a way to go. Not to discourage, but rather to encourage the passionate youth, veteran leaders, pessimists, racists and even keyboard clickers like me. Race in America is too like the orchids, mysterious and fragile, despite what seems foreign to one another we must nurture each other to continue to grow.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Brown University officials on Monday announced that two fraternities on the Ivy League campus have been sanctioned for hosting unregistered parties last fall, including one where two students reported drinking punch laced with a date-rape drug.

School leaders announced the discipline against Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Chi in a statement to the media and a letter to members of the university community. Brown officials said both fraternities created environments that “facilitated” sexual misconduct. No members of the fraternities are accused by the school of sexual misconduct, and none of them face criminal charges. Phi Kappa Psi will lose university recognition for four years, including the loss of housing on campus, effective immediately. School officials said the fraternity hosted a party in October and two students reported drinking a beverage containing a date-rape drug.

Both students reported rapid intoxication followed by memory loss, and one of them reported being sexually assaulted. Brown officials said the assault was non-consensual contact that did not happen at the fraternity and did not involve a fraternity member, but was the result of the student’s incapacitation.

One of the students tested positive for gamma hydroxybutyrate, a date-rape drug also known as GHB, Brown officials have said.

Sigma Chi was put on probation and its university privileges have been suspended until the fall of 2016. Brown officials said the fraternity cannot sponsor social events, has lost access to the chapter room, lounge, library and basement, and is ineligible to conduct recruitment, rush or initiation processes.

School officials said Sigma Chi hosted an unregistered party in October where a student reported an incident of non-consensual sexual contact, but the student wasn’t able to identify the person who touched her.

“The measures we are taking … reflect our interest in preventing sexual assault by addressing the campus climate at Brown,” said Brown Executive Vice President Russell Carey and Vice President Margaret Klawunn in a letter to the campus community. “All Brown community members need to be involved in preventing sexual violence, and all student organizations are expected to ensure that adequate security measures are in place to promote safe events and activities.”

Carey and Klawunn also announced a comprehensive review of alcohol policy and regulations for social events.

Officials with the national chapters of Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Chi and an official with the Brown chapter of Sigma Chi did not return messages seeking comment Monday. A phone listing for the local Phi Kappa Psi chapter couldn’t be found.

Phi Kappa Psi members in a letter to The Brown Daily Herald last fall said that news involving the two students who reported the date-rape drug incident took them by surprise and they were confident “that in no way did any member of Phi Kappa Psi engage in or perpetrate such atrocious and criminal behavior.”

Brown officials said the sanctions against both fraternities were upheld on appeal and the national chapters were informed.