All posts by Malcontent News Staff

BIPOC, National

New video of Rochester, New York PD pepper spraying Black child emerges

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 22, 2021

Warning: This story contains video of police activity that some may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Rochester, New York Police released another 86 minutes of video of the before, during, and after of a 9-year-old girl in crisis being pepper-sprayed. The disturbing video shows that the mother of the child did not call 911 about her having suicidal ideation or being in a mental health crisis. Instead, the mother is seen chatting with officers about her former significant other having a warrant for his arrest, and that he stole one of her cars.

The video goes on to show the child waits 19 minutes for treatment after being pepper-sprayed, and the EMTs request the cuffs are loosened for being too tight. An NPR report indicates the mother requested a social worker or mental health specialist to come to the call, and officers refused. Hospital officials also denied the child a mental health evaluation.

The mother is now suing the city while three officers are suspended, one without pay over the incident.

BIPOC, Editorial, LGBTQIA, Local, National

Malcontentment Happy Hour: February 22, 2021

Video

Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

The show from February 22, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • Most Tacoma Police Department officers will have body cams by end of the week
  • UW students suspended from attending in-person classes after a snowstorm kegger
  • Rochester, New York Police release 86 more minutes of video of 9-years-old girl pepper sprayed
  • Justice for Elijah McClain inches closer
  • Malcontented Minutes
    • Ohio bomb squad is called on Sprinkles the cat
    • Mashpee-Wampanoag First Nation will keep their tribal lands
    • Mariners president resigns after telling the awful truth about baseball
    • Lake Travis residents in Texas help each other in face of winter disaster
    • Catholic League leaders say Joe Biden’s LGBT obsession is hurting Christians
    • LGBTQ virtual spaces help keep college students connected to combat isolation and depression
    • U.S. shelters for migrant children near-maximum capacity as Biden Administration struggles with “kids in cages’
    • A mariachi band from Houston serenades Ted Cruz outside his home to bring a bit of Mexico vacation to him
    • Mancin Music on TikTok video absolutely shreds Kashmir by Led Zeppelin
    • Kayne West and Kim Kardashian are calling it quits
  • Chad Wheeler arrest video and audio released by Kent Police
  • Walking while Black incident in Plano, Texas
  • Insurrection Update
  • The tale of three vehicular assaults and three different forms of justice in the United States

BIPOC, Five Facts, National

Charges dropped against Plano, Texas Black man walking in street during snowstorm

Five Fast Facts

  • Rodney Reese, 18, was arrested on February 16 for walking in the road in Plano, Texas
  • Someone called 911 to report a Black man stumbling along in the middle of a snow-covered street wearing a short-sleeve shirt and they requested a welfare check
  • Reese repeatedly told officers he was fine and he was walking home from work, police continued to follow him for two-minutes despite denying any aid and then told him he would be detained
  • Officers accuse Reese of resisting arrest but elected not to charge him, and instead charged him with a misdemeanor, being a pedestrian walking in the roadway and arrested him
  • The acting police chief had the charges dropped, saying officers had no cause to stop or detain Reese based on the reason for the call and his response.

PLANO, Texas — A misdemeanor charge has been dropped against a Black man who was arrested last week for walking home on a street during a snowstorm in Texas.

Rodney Reese, 18, was arrested Feb. 16 in Plano and charged with being a pedestrian in the roadway, news outlets reported.

Keep reading at ABC News

National

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale comes to the rescue of frozen Houston residents

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 21, 2021

Five Fast Facts

  • Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has turned his showrooms into shelters.
  • Anyone is welcome to use the beds and sofas in his showrooms, take in a movie or basketball game on his big-screen televisions and sit down to a hot meal
  • Food trucks are on-site to provide food and sanitary stations have also been provided.
  • Since Tuesday, about 350 people a night have taken him up on the offer at two of his three stores.
  • He and his employees made sure that everyone had masks and were safely distanced from each other, then McIngvale passed out blankets and sweatshirts

Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is known for his showmanship, even airing television commercials in which he’s actually wearing a mattress to draw attention to his stores. But McIngvale is becoming more famous for something else: turning his expansive showrooms into lifesaving shelters. He opened his Gallery Furniture stores to people who fled Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019. Now he’s doing it for those who have been hit hard by a deadly winter storm that has left more than 3 million Texans without power and running water in record-setting freezing temperatures.

Read more at the Washington Post

Editorial, National

Insurrection update for February 21, 2021

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 18, 2021

A summary of events from February 15 to February 18, 2021

The fallout from the January 6, 2021, Insurrection continues

  • Former social media icon Donald Trump and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell are at war for the soul of the Republican Party
  • Six U.S. Capitol police officers are suspended with pay and another 29 under investigation for aiding insurrections on January 6
  • Leo Bozell IV, son of the founder of NewsBusters, was arrested for his participation in the insurrection
  • Johnathan Mellis aka Cowboy Screech is angry Antifa is getting credit for the insurrection and he wants the world to know it was Trump supporters who did it
  • Eric Munchel and his mother Lisa Eisenhart are refused bail
  • John Sullivan aka Jayden X is allowed to continue to use Facebook, Twitter, and encrypted communications software by a D.C. judge

Five Facts, Local

Avowed Neo-Nazi arrested for hate crime in Spokane

Five Fast Facts

  • Raymond Bryant, 44 years old, of the Spokane suburb Airway Heights was arrested on February 18 for painting swastikas on a Holocaust memorial and vandalism at the Spokane Synagogue Temple Beth Shalom
  • Bryant was well known by Temple security due to multiple interactions with him, threats against congregants, and continued harassment by him, and the hate group he is a member of
  • Bryant is a member of the anti-Semitic Group 14First Foundation which has taken responsibility for hate crimes, vandalism, and assaults on the Jewish population across the United States
  • Surveillance video caught Bryant painting the swastikas and other Nazi symbolism, along with his 2008 Nissan Altima with “88” and “White Pride” bumper stickers
  • Bryant is facing two felony charges with hate crime tags and bond was set at $2,000

SPOKANE, Wash. — The man arrested in connection to the anti-Semitic vandalism at a synagogue on Spokane’s South Hill is reportedly a member of a white supremacy group and previously harassed members at the temple, according to newly filed court documents.

Spokane police arrested 44-year-old Raymond Bryant on Thursday morning in connection to the vandalism at Temple Beth Shalom on the morning of Feb. 8. Bryant is facing charges of second-degree malicious mischief and malicious harassment, which are hate crimes, according to Washington law. Bryant appeared in court on Friday, during which he was given a $2,000 bond.

Keep reading at KREM 2

BIPOC, Editorial, LGBTQIA, Local, National, Stupid Human Tricks, Weather

Malcontentment Happy Hour: February 18, 2021

Video

Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

The show from February 18, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • Remembering Anias Valencia – NAAM Memorial
  • Seattle police shoot and kill a suicidal man
  • Malcontented Minutes
    • Disney issues cultural advisories on certain movies but excludes Pocahontas
    • Two Florida men claim to be US Marshals to avoid wearing masks
    • Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoon greets a newborn baby gorilla
    • Puerto Rico declares an emergency due to ongoing gender-identification violence
    • Bachelor/Bachelorette host Chris Harrison stepping down amid southern plantation ball flap
    • Ohio man skips a job interview to rob a bank instead
    • Mattress Mack of Houston opens up his stores to freezing Houston residents
    • Los Angeles Schools defund the police to invest in Black student achievement
    • Ted Cruz says “let ’em eat snow” as he takes off for Cancun amid one of worst weather disasters in Texas history
    • US House is expected to pass sweeping LGBTQ reform bill next week
  • Joe Biden gets facts wrong on minimum wage, immigration, and what is going on with COVID stimulus
  • Insurrection upate

Five Facts, Local

Three arrested for murder of teen at Houghton Beach Park

Five Fast Facts

  • 18-year old Cyrus Mason was shot and killed in Kirkland’s Houghton Beach Park on September 16, 2020, during an attempt to buy a firearm
  • Three suspects were arrested this morning after a months-long investigation – two are juveniles and one is an adult
  • The adult is Jowayne C. Kaufman, who was booked into King County Jail at 8:25 AM this morning
  • Cyrus Mason had moved to the area from Idaho and was working on the Microsoft campus as a painter
  • Houghton Beach Park was a trouble spot over the summer of 2020, making the national news when a brawl broke out among teens and young adults flaunting COVID rules – the city responded by closing the park

KIRKLAND, Wash. – Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the deadly shooting of a teenager at a Kirkland park last year, police say.

The three – two juvenile males and an adult male – were taken into custody early Wednesday after an investigation linked them to the killing of 18-year-old Cyrus Mason at Houghton Beach Park on Sept. 16, 2020.

Keep reading at KOMO 4

BIPOC, Five Facts, National

Black couple home appraisal low balled, believe race was a factor

Five Fast Facts

  • Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate Austin bought a home in Marin City, California in 2016
  • They did $400K in renovations and upgrades including adding a second floor and more than 1,000 feet of new living space
  • An appraiser valued the home after renovations at $989,000, which was below comparable homes in the neighborhood – the Austin’s felt the low appraisal was due to their race
  • A white friend agreed to be their stand-in during a second appraisal, including replacing family pictures and items in the home
  • The home appraised for $1,482,000 in the second visit – which can’t be accounted for changes in market conditions between the two appraisals

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) – In the New Year, systemic racism has continued to force inequity in home ownership rates across the Bay Area, and Black families who are in a position to purchase a home often face discrimination.

It is no secret that home ownership is a proven pathway to building wealth in the United States. But in a competitive housing market with some of the most expensive homes in the country, it is tough for Black Bay Area residents to buy a home to start the process.

Keep reading at ABC 7

BIPOC, Editorial, Five Facts, Health and Lifestyle, LGBTQIA, Local, National, Weather

Malcontentment Happy Hour: February 15, 2021

Video

Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

The show from February 15, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • Andy Finseth goes from Seattle Firefighter of the Year to an accused felon, and Dave Preston of Safe Seattle inserts himself into the story
  • Seattle has the biggest snowstorm since 1968, sort of
  • Malcontented Minutes
    • Rupaul’s Drag Race Sherry Pie, aka Joey Gugliemelli, embroiled in a catfishing scandal
    • UFC fighter Julian Marquez asks Miley Cyrus for a date in a cringeworthy way
    • A man hikes over 6 miles carrying a lost dog in the Irish wilderness
    • Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) threatens to block the Senate confirmation of Deb Halland to Secretary of the Interior
    • CDC study indicates ER visits for drug overdoses increased 45% from June 2019 to May 2020
    • Pioneering LGBTQIA+ artist who worked with Madonna, Chaka Khan, and Cyndi Lauper dies of leukemia
    • Dave Chappelle releases a video discussing the hypocrisy of Colin Kaepernick critics
    • A “war” over tips in Cinncinnati nets over $34,000 for restaurant workers
    • Animals at the Oregon Zoo relished playing in the snow
    • Six indigenous artists received $50K grants to support their “bold artistic vision” and protect native American artistry techniques
  • Tacoma “Love” update
  • COVID Five Fast Facts
  • Impeachment closure