Month: March 2017

Baltimore County police are reviewing body camera footage of a teen’s violent arrest after officers responded to a fight at a local school.

Police arrived at Woodlawn High School last Wednesday after fight broke out between several teens, one of whom had a knife, the Baltimore Sun reported.

A 14-year-old girl was reportedly arguing with another girl when a 16-year-old boy intervened, allegedly grabbing the 14-year-old by the neck. She broke free and pulled a knife from her bag. When police arrived, they found the boy walking away and the girl with the knife.

Officers arrested the girl without incident, but a bystander captured video of the boy, who appears to be resisting arrest.

The video, posted Saturday on social media, shows the teen sitting on a curb while a female officer attempts to put cuffs on him. When the teen doesn’t cooperate, the female officer and another male officer begin to grab and punch him, and he begins crying.

“Why you hitting him?” a bystander can be heard shouting at the officers.

According to the boy’s father, Alonzo Cox Sr., the teen has impulse control disorder and didn’t know why he was being arrested.

“He made a bad decision, but the procedure they used was not right,” Cox told Fox Baltimore. “My son is not a bad kid. I don’t think he deserved to be beat like the way he was beat.”

The boy was charged with second-degree assault, second-degree assault on police and resisting arrest. The 14-year-old girl was charged with first and second-degree assault.

Both officers were wearing body cameras during the incident. They will continue to work while the arrest is reviewed.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

As Elle Woods once said, “What, like it’s hard?”

The year 2017 turned itself right around when Harvard University selected Rihanna as their Humanitarian of the Year earlier this month. On Tuesday, the “Anti” singer graciously accepted the honor with a touching and hilarious speech in peak Rihanna fashion.

After a handful of guest speakers spoke to Rihanna’s cultural and philanthropic impact, the singer took the stage and addressed her public. 

“So, I made it to Harvard,” she said, opening the speech with a grin and hair flip. Rihanna then went on to explain how watching commercials as a child that encouraged viewers to donate 25 cents to save a life informed her attitudes toward charity.

“I would say to myself, ‘When I grow up, and I can get rich, I’m gonna save kids all over the world,’” Rihanna recalled. “I just didn’t know I would be in the position to do that by the time I was a teenager.”

The Harvard Foundation, which annually honors prominent public-spirited leaders, named Rihanna as the recipient of the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award for her charitable work promoting healthcare and education in the Caribbean. In addition to funding a state-of-the-art center for oncology and nuclear medicine in her home country of Barbados, the singer has set up the Clara Lionel Foundation Scholarship Program to help Caribbean students attending universities in the U.S. succeed. 

“All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return,” Rihanna continued. “To me, that is a humanitarian. People make it seem way too hard, man. The truth is — and what the little girl watching those commercials didn’t know — is that you don’t have to be rich to be a humanitarian, to help somebody. You don’t have to be famous. You don’t have to be college-educated.”

She then went on to hint that she might return to the university one day as a student, so we’ll just be over here quietly raising funds for a “Legally Blonde” (”Legally Rihanna”?) sequel. 

Watch the entire ceremony below and catch Rihanna’s speech at 1:14:00.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

As we celebrate the accomplishments of women during Women’s History Month, it’s essential that we also remember that there is still plenty to be fired up about.

Just over a month into the Trump administration, women saw reproductive rights be chipped at almost weekly, house speaker Paul Ryan said that he plans on defunding Planned Parenthood, and President Trump’s anti-immigration and anti-transgender legislation meant serious trouble for the nation’s most vulnerable women. 

But if there’s one thing American women know how to do, it’s resist. Just ask the millions of women who marched around the country on January 21. Or the civil rights activists who came before them. Or the suffragettes who came before that. 

To honor the revolutionary spirit of American women, we’ve rounded up 71 photos of women protesting throughout U.S. history to show just how strong that spirit is.  

This Women’s History Month, remember that we have the power to make history every day. And in 2017, that feels more urgent than ever. Follow along with HuffPost on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in March using #WeMakeHerstory.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices