Category: Opinion

An Illinois woman assisted in the capture of her robbers by crashing into their car, authorities said.

The woman was in a parking lot near her vehicle in Peoria when five women approached her just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 27.

The group assaulted the woman and stole several items from her vehicle before fleeing the scene, officials said.

The woman pursued them and crashed her vehicle into theirs at an intersection, police said.

One suspect suffered non-life threatening injuries in the crash, the police release said.

Five women ranging from 18 to 22 years old were arrested.

All five suspects face charges of mob action; four suspects face an additional charge of aggravated battery; one faces a third charge of theft, and another faces a third charge of burglary of a motor vehicle, according to the release.

Peoria is about 155 miles southwest of Chicago.

A Montana woman shot and skinned a Siberian husky she mistook for a wolf on a hunting trip, and then posted the graphic pictures on social media, sparking public outrage as well as a police investigation.

Amber Rose Barnes, 36, of Miller City, faced swift backlash after she boasted about the kill on Facebook.

“So this morning I set out for a solo predator hunt for a fall black bear, however, I got the opportunity to take another predator wolf pup 2022 was a great feeling to text my man and say I just smoked a wolf pup #firstworld #onelesspredatorMT,” she wrote above five photos of her posing with the bloodied pooch.

In one picture, the skinned husky is laid out on her truckbed as she smiles while stroking the pup’s lifeless head with one hand and clutching her rifle with the other.

https://youtu.be/3tFHsDuLXDo

Readers quickly responded to the horrific mistake and informed Barnes that she had in fact killed man’s best friend, not a wolf.

“Amber Rose here hunted, shot, AND SKINNED a HUSKY.. not a wolf, an obvious #HUSKY,” an angry Twitter user pointed out.

One critic dubbed her the “Montana dog butcher” and another called her a “psychopath.”

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release stating that on Sept. 23 a local had picked up 11 husky and shepherd mix dogs that had been abandoned in the Doris Creek area of Flathead National Forest about 60 miles south of Glacier National Park – the same spot where Barnes was hunting.

Animal Control later located more dogs in the area.

“During this investigation, we were advised through Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks that one of the dogs may have been shot,” the release says. “The person who is believed to have shot the dog has been identified. The case is under investigation.”

But in a later Facebook post, Barnes doubled down and insisted she acted in self-defense.

“This animal was growling howling and coming at me like it was going to eat me,” she wrote. “Yes, I made a mistake because I did think it was a hybrid wolf pup but I was not aware of 19 dogs being dropped 11 miles into the wilderness either way yes I would still have shot it because it was aggressive and coming directly for me!”

She also claimed she had obtained the license required to hunt wolves prior to the trip. Barnes pleaded with her critics to remove their posts slamming her.

“There are no charges…against me as I did NOT break any laws!!! I’m not a cruel individual just…killing people’s pets!” the post reads.

The plea for public understanding was not well received.

By Tuesday morning, Barnes had deleted the controversial Facebook posts and set her account to private.

Meanwhile, police are trying to track down the people who dumped the dogs in the forest. Many of them were infected with parvovirus, which can be deadly if untreated, according to authorities.

Australian former professional surfer Chris Davidson died Saturday after he was punched outside of a pub in South West Rocks, New South Wales. He was 45 years old.

Police found Davidson unconscious on the sidewalk outside the pub after he had been punched in the face by another patron. Davidson was transported to a local hospital, where he died shortly thereafter.

A 42-year-old man was arrested in connection with Davidson’s death and charged with assault causing death. He was denied bail in the Port Macquarie Bail Court on Sunday.

Davidson grew up in Sydney and shot to fame after beating world champion surfer Kelly Slater in the 1996 Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, Australia.

Tributes to Davidson have poured in online, with the World Surf League writing that the organization “and the surfing community at large, are saddened to learn that former CT surfer Chris Davidson, of Narrabeen, Australia, tragically passed away on Saturday. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Rip Curl shared that Davidson was “a supremely talented surfer who inspired a generation when he burst onto the scene as a teenager.”

A Texas couple discovered an injured and abandoned baby girl in a shed outside their Livingston home Saturday morning.

“I went and opened the door, and the baby was looking up at me,” homeowner John McClain said.

“I turned around and told my wife, ‘Call 911. There’s a baby in there.’ She was like, ‘Huh?’ She said, ‘What are you talking about?’” McClain added. “I told her, ‘Call 911.’”

The baby girl’s father had left her in the shed before stealing a neighbor’s car.

“I’m a mom, you know, and how could someone just leave a baby?” McClain’s wife Katharine said.

It was a strange chain of events that led up to the baby being discovered.

At 3:30 a.m. Union Pacific Railroad called the police in Lincoln, Texas reporting that a train had possibly struck someone on the tracks. No one was ever found but, police found a pair of pants, a mobile phone, and boots.

Four hours later, a caller reported that his car had been stolen from his home by a thief who was not wearing pants.

The McClains called the police after hearing a loud noise. Surveillance footage shows the same suspect trying to break into their son’s trucks before stealing their neighbor’s car. Later that morning at 9:30 a.m., the baby girl was discovered in the shed.

The father, 43-year-old, Jason Guynes, has been charged with felony injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, felony child endangerment/abandonment, and felony vehicle theft, according to Livingston Police Department.

He is being held on a combined bond of over $2000,000.

The 8 month old baby girl is in the hospital recovering from a broken leg.

A newly released police video shows the terrifying moment a train slammed into a police officer’s car while a suspect was handcuffed in the backseat on Sept. 16.

The Fort Lupton Police Department released body camera and dashcam video Friday which showed the nightmare that unfolded when suspect Yareni Rios-Gonzalez was left inside the patrol car. Rios-Gonzalez’s vehicle was stopped by police just past the railroad tracks, but the police officer stopped their vehicle on the tracks, and then placed Rios-Gonzalez inside. The suspect was defenseless when the train plowed into the police car.

Rios-Gonzalez was a suspect in a road rage incident and was placed in the cruiser that was parked on the tracks while police searched her truck for a weapon. Only minutes after the suspect was cuffed and put into the police cruiser, the train could be heard blowing its horn before striking the vehicle. The car was pushed dozens of feet into a field, and the side of the vehicle was crumpled by the force of the impact.

The video footage captures audio from the police officer’s panic-stricken call for medical assistance.

Rios-Gonzalez was aware that the train was racing toward her, but she was completely helpless and her efforts to escape were futile.

“When she was in the back of the car, she was able to see the train coming,” Paul Wilkinson, an attorney for Rios-Gonzalez, said. “She was frantically trying to escape, trying to open the doors, but she was handcuffed,” he said. Wilkinson reported that his client was screaming for help before the impact.

“I don’t know if they just couldn’t hear her or if they were too busy searching her car, but she saw it coming and prepared for the worst,” Wilkinson said.

“She’s obviously very upset,” he added. Explaining that Rios-Gonzalez’s numerous injuries include nine broken ribs, a broken arm, broken teeth, and injuries to her head.

The officer who parked the police car on the tracks has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, according to Platteville Police Chief Carl Dwyer.

Rios-Gonzalez remains in hospital and is expected to survive.

Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry has defended his beloved “Madea” character over criticism that it taps into demeaning black stereotypes.

In 2009, fellow director Spike Lee alleged that Perry’s character Madea, which has appeared in more than ten films, represents “coonery buffoonery.” Perry has defended the origins of the character, insisting that “Madea” is inspired by and honors black people he grew up around as a child. Perry previously responded to Lee’s accusations by telling him to “go to hell.”

“There’s a certain part of our soAddressesciety, especially Black people in the culture that…they look down on certain things within the culture,” Perry said. “For me, I love the movies that I’ve done because they are the people that I grew up with that I represent and they, like, my mother would take me in the projects with her on the weekends, she played cards with these women.”

“So when someone says, you’re harkening back to a point in our life that we don’t want to talk about or we don’t want the world to see—you’re dismissing the stories of millions and millions of Black people and that’s why I think it’s been so successful because it resonates with a lot of us who know these women,” Perry added.

https://youtu.be/4HvYQMwqkKk

“What is important to me is that I’m honoring the people that came up and taught and made me who I am. Their stories deserve to be told too,” he concluded.

Perry also noted that during the Harlem Renaissance, black artists and writers, such as Zora Neale Hurston, were criticized for their portrayal of southern black dialects.

Last week, Perry’s latest film, “A Jazzman’s Blues,” was released on Netflix, featuring stars Joshua Boone, Amirah Vann, and Solea Pfeiffer.

Thousands came together at the Stockton 99 Speedway on Saturday for the funeral of Ralph Hubert “Sonny” Barger, longtime president and founding member of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office warned on Friday the event could potentially become dangerous.

Funeral attendees cried, shared stories, and remembered the 83-year-old Modesto native who died on June 29 from cancer.

“Even though he was blind in one eye, and he packed his oxygen, well, when his kickstand went up, you better catch up,” one speaker said.

Sheriff Patrick Withrow urged residents at a press conference Friday to avoid the area of the speedway and said rival organizations to the Hells Angels would likely be in the area.

The Sheriff’s Office, Stockton Police Department, and California Highway Patrol maintained a highly visible presence in the area, he said.

Medical assistance was requested at the service for two attendees on the infield of the track.

There were about 7,000 people in attendance for Barger’s funeral, according to Tony Noceti, the president of the business that operates the speedway. Some came from various parts of California, others sported club colors from New Jersey, Minnesota and Nebraska.

People gathered in front of a stage where Barger’s family and friends spoke. Barger was a founding member of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels, which started in 1957.

Barger was the public face of the club, which has chapters across the world and is considered a gang by the Department of Justice. He authored several books and contributed to several films and was a consultant and had a role on the television show “Sons of Anarchy.”

Barger was convicted in 1988 of conspiracy to kill rival club members and blow up their headquarters.

The funeral was set to take place from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., to include speakers, a slideshow and performances by the Fryed Brothers Band.

A number of Texas police officers are under investigation after a video was posted on social media showing an officer grabbing a student and hurling him into a cafeteria cart during a fight.

The fight, which involved several students, unfolded Wednesday inside the Nimitz High School cafeteria in Irving, Texas.

The video shows students squaring off and brawling with one another as officers moved in to break them up.

One officer is seen grabbing a student and pushing him out of the way while another officer was grabbing a student and slamming him into a cafeteria cart and pushing him to the ground, the video shows.

Irving Police Department officials said in a statement on Thursday that the officers used force sparking an internal investigation.

“The [department] reviews every use of force to ensure policies and procedures are appropriately applied,” the statement read.

One officer, whom the department didn’t name, “will be reassigned” during the investigation.

Johnny Depp is indeed dating one of the lawyers who were present for his defamation case, but it’s not Camille Vasquez.

Johnny is dating attorney Joelle Rich, who represented him in the UK trial that he lost. Johnny apparently hasn’t held the legal loss against her, as sources have confirmed they are together.

Rich is married but in the midst of a divorce. She and her estranged husband share 2 children.

Although Rich was not part of the Virginia trial team that represented Depp in his victorious defamation case against Amber Heard, she was present in court to “support” him.

Many who followed the Virginia trial were positive a romance was brewing between Johnny and Camille, something that angered Camille who called the speculation “sexist.”

As for Rich, she’s a UK lawyer. Her bio says she “works to defend clients’” reputations against false and defamatory allegations in print, online, and on social media.” It goes on to say she has “particular expertise in protecting individuals’ privacy from unwarranted intrusion and media attention.”

Hoodlums were caught on video Saturday night plundering a Philadelphia Wawa.

The video shows suspects pouring into the gas station sandwich shop, screaming at each other, and stealing merchandise. A woman can be seen twerking on top of shelves as the mob threw food all over the store.

“You’re all stupid, for real,” the clerk who recorded the incident can be heard saying. “You’re all ugly, stupid, broke.”

Amid the chaos, a customer asked, “are y’all making our sandwiches, or y’all gonna keep recording?” The sandwich maker replied, “it’s gonna be a little while.”

https://youtu.be/ghMb9xHU31s

Once the dust settled, the store was left in shambles with piles of destroyed goods in aisles and ruined products scattered around the floor.