NBA G League expands to Mexico City

On December 12, 2019, The NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that their G League, a minor league, will expand to Mexico City. The team will be named the Capitanes, which will be the first team outside the U.S. and Canada. The team has actually been around since 2016, which currently competes in Mexico's Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional. The Capitanes will make their debut beginning the 2020-21 Season.

As a basketball enthusiast, I am excited to see that the NBA G League will expand to an international country to give others an opportunity to showcase their talent and will hopefully make their way to the NBA. Not only is this exciting, this is an extreme milestone for the NBA which illustrates their commitment to basketball fans across Latin America. Though this is only the beginning, this can potentially be something big and successful for the NBA. I hope to see them expand to more countries and give more opportunities to those who might've not come as close to the NBA as those who are in the G League.

Thirteen-Year-Old Faces 2nd Degree Murder?!

Tessa Majors, a college freshman at Barnard College was stabbed to death in Morningside Park, in New York. Her killer, thirteen year-old has been arrested and faces second-degree murder, robbery and a weapons-related charge, however, as of Friday, he was not charged as an adult.

Beilock shared why she wanted to attend Barnard, Majors wrote: "As an avid feminist, I have striven towards bridging my community gender divide by being outspoken in my classes, taking an intense course on social justice and campaigning for a congressional candidate. i enjoy taking difficult classes and feel invigorated when forced outside of my intellectual comfort zone. I embrace the culture of positivity and growth at Barnard." Majors seems like someone genuine and who strived and desired to contribute change to the world. My first thought when I read about Majors was, where is this thirteen-year-old's mother. It is crazy to think that he stabbed her several times, just to rob her.

As first semester is coming to an end, I decide to put apply the knowledge I have learned. Since this incident just happened, there is not enough evidence or information to conclude charges for this thirteen-year-old boy. This case reminds me of both Lionel Tate, and Brown V. Ferguson. The reason behind the resemblance of Tate is that he is young to be charged with second degree murder and to be fair, he cannot be in prison with much older men. Though, there is no doubt that he deserves a long term sentence perhaps in juvie, then to an adult prison. Charging him with second-degree but not as an adult reminded me of Officer Wilson because there was clearly is huge debate about his charges. I have a hard time deciding on the charge because the young boy premeditated to rob someone and the fact that he stabbed her demonstrates to me that his plan was to stab his victim. However, he did not  plan to stab her specifically, which is why it is hard to come to conclude charges for him.

It is clear that he is way too young to be in prison, which is why he was not charged as an adult, I have somewhat faith for the justice system to realize what he did was wrong and inhumane.

President Trump's Jealousy Continues...

Sixteen-year-old activist, Greta Thunberg, was named "Person Of The Year" by Time Magazine.

Thunberg has been the biggest voice who has addressed the biggest issue the planet has been facing this year and while many people admire her and her achievements, others do not. President trump tweeted, "So ridiculous. Greta must work on her anger management problem, then got to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill, Greta, Chill!" It is inevitable that President Trump dislikes Thunberg due to her goals at such a young age. Though many other celebrities sided with her, like former First Lady, Michelle Obama. She tweeted, "... don't let anyone dim your light. Like the girls Ive met in Vietnam and all over the world, you have so much to offer us all. Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on." This tweet was powerful, hearing from a very inspirational and amazing human being.

I personally think that it is amazing that a sixteen-year-old girl created a world-wide movement for climate change. She once stated, "We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow," The fact that she wants to motivate everyone to make a change in the world is very inspirational. As the President of the United States, Trump should be siding with Thunberg by wanting to change the world. President Trump's jealousy will continue to be alive while Thunberg continues to make history. It is devastating to see that while the American Society has been teaching us to reinforce our education by using our voices to make a difference, we are being shut by the people who should be helping. I hope Thunberg grows to be a women working in the government to help change the issues that are clearly not being addressed. 

China and Muslims Camps

China currently has around 1 million Muslims who are being detained in “ internment camps “ in the Xinjiang region which are being called “Though Transformation Camps”. Created to prevent extremism from spreading within the country. The camps denied being a harmful place and mistreating people ( Muslims) who are being detained. They allow interviews in the camps and it seems like such a joyful place where people take dance and art classes as they are also being brainwashed. However, there have been reports of people showing abuse in the camps. Women are being (gang) raped and forced to abort, people are being beaten and they are being food-deprived or they are being forced to eat pork which goes against their beliefs. They were being threatened to be sent to worse camps if they spoke up when journalists came by to visit.

1. https://www.businessinsider.com/muslim-woman-describes-horrors-of-chinese-concentration-camp-2019-10

2. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/25/secret-documents-reveal-how-china-mass-detention-camps-work.html

3. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/world/asia/china-xinjiang-muslim-camps.html

Pit Bulls Account for 66% of Total Fatal Dog Attacks

In a recent study by vHomeInsurance.com, it was revealed that over 66% of dog maulings are by Pit Bulls. After a statistic as shocking as this, it made me question whether Pit bulls should still be allowed. Pit Bulls have been breed for years to be aggressive dogs and even fighting dogs. In more recent years dogfighting has decreased significantly, however, Pit bulls still are very aggressive. Unfortunately, this has resulted in many fatal attacks over the years. When it's in the pet's nature and DNA to attack, like many Pit Bulls, is the owner still at fault?

This connects to the case we watched in global: the SF Dog Mauling. Marjorie Knoller is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder after her dogs attacked and killed her neighbor, Diane Whipple, 33, in their San Francisco apartment building in 2001. The dogs were Presa Canarios and were notorious for being aggressive dogs. However, this shocking case was the first time this breed of dog ever mauled someone so viciously. The court ruled that Knoller had full responsibility for her dogs and served the punishment for the attack. Although owners hold all responsibility for their dogs I believe that there could be an effort made to prevent the selling/giving of aggressive dog breeds, such as Presa Canario and Pit bulls. The environment a dog lives in has an impact on their aggressive nature, but the DNA and nature of certain breeds also play a role. I believe that for the future aggressive dog breeds could be potentially blacklisted. 

https://www.thechestnutpost.com/news/pit-bulls-account-for-66-of-total-fatal-dog-attacks-revealed-in-a-new-study-by-vhomeinsurance-com/

When They See Us

In the When They See Us American drama miniseries, a jogger named Trisha Meili was assaulted and raped in New York’s Central Park in 1989. Five young boys (known as the Central Park Five): Kevin Richardson, Anton Mcray, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise; were charged with the crime. The series displays how the Central Park Five maintained their innocence and spent years fighting the convictions hoping to be exonerated. The story spans a quarter of a century from when the teens were first questioned about the incident in the spring of 1989, going through their exoneration in 2002 and ultimately the settlement reached with the city of New York in 2014. The District Attorney labeled the five as “animals” and saw them as suspects before it was even confirmed that they had anything to do with the case. There was a media firestorm in which front pages of newspapers depicted the five as “bloodthirsty”, “savages”, and “human mutations”. This highlighted racial tensions in NYC and played into the preconceived notions about African-American youth. One concept that we explored this semester and can be applied to this case is the Critical Race Theory. It was easier for the city to accept that the five did this because there was a stereotype regarding minorities that were black and latino being more violent. The NYPD supported this by trying to justify that the five were “Thugs”.


During the questioning, the boys were told that if they cooperated, then the police would let them go. Promises for cooperation are considered illegal but the NYPD persisted to investigate these despite not knowing the facts. The actual perpetrator of the crime was being investigated by the same NYPD detective that was on this case. Somehow-they were too blinded by the grandiose press upon this case that they could not connect the dots and see that all the physical damage done to the victim matched with the actual perpetrator’s tendencies. Let’s take a step back though. The NYPD detectives were pressured by the New York County District Attorney to “get the perpetrator”. Conveniently there were people who seemed to be near the scene of the crime-the Central Park Five. The District Attorney was being pressured by the city to catch a perpetrator. When this type of case happens and there are convenient person(s) to blame, our society puts a spotlight on the people in the justice system to find the actual perpetrator guilty. When no one is found guilty, the people in the justice system are seen as incompetent. When one is a District Attorney, they are desperate to avoid being called incompetent-as this may cost them their job.When people are under pressure, it is often that they will get caught in tunnel vision and would not be able to perform with a sense of perspective. In this case, we saw how the DA ignored the plain facts and coerced the five into admitting guilt. Ignoring the plain facts is a form of lying. There is another form of lying that appears in this documentary: deflecting. The prosecution had a weak offense because they had no physical evidence or eyewitnesses. They found hair, but the hair analysis was notoriously unreliable. There were inconsistencies in their stories as well. There wasn’t even DNA evidence. When the cop was interviewed by a different prosecutor towards the end of the documentary, they were convinced they did the job and got the right person so they were resistant to new information being presented. Their reputation and career was at stake. Again, this is another form of lying: delusion. We looked at all of these forms of lying earlier in the semester in Stephanie Ericsson’s essay, The Ways We Lie. Stephanie Ericsson asserts that we “must consider the meaning of our actions” when deciding whether or not we have lied. In this case, the prosecutors, detectives, and DA lied because they were desperate. They had something to lose if they didn’t lie: their reputation and their career. I can understand how it would be hard to maintain perspective if a whole city depended on you to serve justice, and it would be easy to make a mistake. However, this is no excuse. I think it comes around full circle to this idea: it only takes one person not doing their job to the best of their ability to mess up the justice system. There is a moral and ethical wrong in police placing heavy burdens upon individuals that are innocent to admit that they are guilty just because they want to find someone to blame.

That wasn't very (David) Cash money of you

When we discuss the concept of Individual Responsibility in Global connections, we must consider what it means to legislate morality. In fact, moral reprehensibility is not a crime. In order to be charged, one must actually do something that was involved in the crime. In the case of David Cash, he did not do anything when he witnessed his friend who restrained a young girl in a bathroom stall. His individual responsibility at the minimum should have been to respond in some way to the situation. If Cash had physically seen his friend murder the girl, then Cash could be prosecuted as a perpetrator. On the other hand, if Cash had at least done something to alert the security, then he would have been considered an up-stander. Since Cash did nothing, he is to be considered a bystander to the extreme. Furthermore, this is an example of the bystander effect. After the incident, Cash and his friend rode roller coasters and headed home. When questioned, Cash justified his inaction with the reason that he didn't care about people that he didn't know. Even if Cash was unaware of what action to take during the sight of his friend, the murder may have been prevented if he had just said something to an advisor, his friend, or someone else. It did cross his mind that he could have reported his friend, but because they were best friends, Cash did not want to turn him in. Appearing to lack remorse, being emotionally obtuse and dense, Cash could not realize the weight of his inaction. Even a year later, Cash didn't think about how he could apologize to the victim's family for his inaction. He did not even take steps learn from what he did and didn't do.

We currently live in an age where apologies seem to almost be forced out of people with all ranges of influence: social media influencers, politicians, tech company giants (for example: Mark Zuckerberg), and more. Here's the catch: we don't have to have thousands of followers to make a difference. As Uncle Ben said in Spider-Man, "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility". We must realize that just as we can choose do nothing, we can also choose do something. It doesn't have to be as heroic as running into a burning building to save a child. It can be alerting an authority that someone needs help or talking to someone who seems to have had a bad day. More than ever, it is important to recognize our individual responsibility and impact on the internet and offline.

Fatal Stabbing of a Barnard Student

18-year-old Freshman at Barnard, Tessa Rane Majors was walking through Morningside Park Wednesday evening, when she was stabbed to death. Majors was only a few blocks away from her college campus. After the attack, she stumbled up a flight of stairs to street level before collapsing at the park security booth. She was found unconscious with "multiple stab wounds about the body". “The passing of Tess Majors is an unthinkable tragedy that has shaken us to our core,” Barnard College President Sian Leah Beilock said during a community gathering Thursday. “We are all grieving, and trying to grasp the senseless tragedy that took Tess from us.”

The police arrested a 13-year-old boy as the murderer. The boy was observed by police Thursday in the lobby of a building near the Manhattan neighborhood where the stabbing occurred one day earlier. He was wearing clothes matching the description given for the suspect in the Barnard student's killing. The police arrested him and recommend charges of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon against the boy. The suspect is only 13-years-old so it brings up the question of whether he should be tried as an adult or a minor.

In global, we have watched the boys in Central Park 5 and the documentary on Lionel Tate. In the Central Park 5 series, a similar event unfolded, where young boys were accused of violent crimes in a city park. After watching that documentary and now looking at what is happening in the news with the Barnard student stabbing, it makes me wonder if it is possible for someone as young as the 13-year-old to commit an act so horrible. Could the police be pointing the blame on an innocent teen, based on racial targetting, once again? I really doubt they are but after the Central Park 5 movie, it makes me wonder. In the Lionel Tate documentary, it was debated whether Tate should be tried as an adult or a minor. Tate and the suspect in this murder were both only 13-years-old. Does their young age give them any protection? In my opinion, when people commit something so horribly wrong, such as Tate or as this boy, their age doesn't matter. And I believe at the age of 13 you should be somewhat responsible for your actions, especially those that are this severe. 

Was Justice Achieved in the Carter v. Massachusetts Case?

If I were to determine whether justice was achieved in this case, I would lean towards yes. I believe that just behavior/treatment was given to Michelle Carter. Although she did not physically force Conrad into the truck, Michelle had a considerable amount of influence over him and Conrad had a history of suicide attempts, which makes her case difficult to judge. Evidently, Michelle was nowhere near a mentally healthy state.  Michelle was struggling with her own issues: a severe eating disorder, isolation, lack of attention, suicidal thoughts, and serious self harm. Both Conrad and Michelle were on psychiatric drugs which had side effects of increased risk of suicidal ideation, behavior, and impulsivity. Conrad even told Michelle that there was nothing that she could do to prevent him from dying. Under this circumstance, Michelle’s logic led her to believe that if there was nothing that she could do to prevent him from dying, then maybe she should try to support what he wants by helping him to die. Michelle had countless issues going on in her life which show that she was not in her right mind. This kind of logic is not rational from the standpoint of a mentally person, but she was not mentally healthy. She also had an extreme obsession with the TV show, Glee; she also acted as if both cases were the same by saying lines verbatim to Conrad. She was unable to differentiate fantasy from reality, so it is questionable whether she was able to understand the consequences of anything she was doing. On the other hand, there is still some evidence that she knew that what she was doing was wrong. Michelle texted Sam Boardman that she “could have saved him, but didn’t.” She also texted a friend that she had sex with Conrad. These texts point to her personal issue of a lack of attention. If she knew that this incident would spark people to comfort her, thereby giving her attention, then it shows that she has some ability to reason that she could have done something to save him, and that she has a motive to not save him. In court, the judge believed that beyond a reasonable doubt, the actions Michelle Carter constituted wanton and reckless behavior which killed him. Conrad was struggling with his issues and had everything secured for the suicide attempt however, he broke that chain of self causation by taking himself out of the vehicle. When Michelle realized that he exited the truck, she instructed him to get back in the truck where she knew that it became a toxic environment unsuitable to human life. I agree that she did engage in wanton and reckless conduct, and that 2 and a half years of prison was appropriate for her crime.

Los Altos Jewelry Store Robbing

     



        On December 2nd, a Los Altos jewelry store in downtown Los altos called Marcel Jewelry design was robbed. A truck broke through the front of the building and they crashed the front the wall of the store. The thieves stole an estimate of $200,000 worth of jewelry from the display case. The thieves used hammers to smash the display cases, grabbing as much jewelry as they could and then ran out in about 60 seconds. This is not the first time that the store has been hit, in fact, it has been robbed 3 times in the past few months. The past 2 times that someone has tried to rob the store they have been unsuccessful and this is the first time in 42 years that thieves have been successful in robbing the store. In the past, there have been other jewelry stores that have been broken into, and it causes a big mess. The owner said, "I see a big mess that I need to clean up and a lot of money to fix the windows and everything."
        Other people gave their input and talked about, how this is not the first time a break-in has happened in downtown Los Altos that was successful. Another jewelry store had a whole safe taken from them in Downtown Los Altos and the alarm didn't even go off. People now have their concerns and feel like the Los Altos Police Department isn't doing enough to keep them safe. They talk about how this has now become a reoccurring event, and how it is only going to keep getting worse and worse if no actions are taken to stop it.



https://abc7news.com/video-truck-slams-through-bay-area-jewelry-store-during-burglary/5731932/

Strange federal crimes

18 U.S.C. §1657: It's illegal to consult with a known pirate.

21 USC §333 & 21 CFR §102.39: It's a crime to sell onion rings resembling normal onion rings but made from diced onion, without saying so.

27 USC §§205, 207 & 27 CFR §4.64(a)(8): It's a federal crime to advertise wine in a manner that suggests it has intoxicating qualities.(That's right - it's illegal NOT to false advertise)

15 U.S.C. §§330a & 330d: Attempting to change the weather without telling the Secretary of Commerce is illegal.

18 U.S.C. §1857: It's a crime to knowingly let your pig enter a fenced-in area on public land where it might destroy the grass.(May have been important a couple centuries ago.)

All of this just goes to show how obsolete some laws have become as the world has developed. What lawmakers from the early stages of the US found important and relevant to society are not necessarily useful, sometimes even detrimental, to what is important today.

Trump's Twitter Statistics

Donald J. Trump as tweeted a grand total of 47,085 times. Since his presidency, he has tweeted 13,123 times(A lot less than I expected, considering the total number of times). Trump's record for most tweets in a day is 123, mostly comprised of republican retweets over the impeachment hearings.

He currently has approaching 67,500,000 followers, but his estimated amount of fake followers is roughly 61%, around double that of other political figures. 72% of his followers have also been inactive for over 120 days.

My conclusion: There are a lot of bots on Twitter - Trump just has an abnormally large number of them. How much does this actually affect Trump and other political figures? I have no idea.

Another Michelle Carter

Inyoung You, is a 21 year old woman who was charged with involuntary manslaughter. It was revealed that she had sent several abusive texts such as "FUCK YOU GO KILL YOURSELF.." to her boyfriend, who later killed himself on May 20th. It was also said that You was abusive, mentally, physically and psychologically. You's defense was also that she was mentally fragile herself. Just like the Michelle Carter case we learned about earlier in the semester.

Supremacists v. Progressives

iZombie

• 4 years after the zombie outbreak, humans are mad at zombies for taking over Seattle and creating more and more of themselves
• One human in particular forms a gang called the Deadenders whose goal is to kill all the zombies
• in retaliation the zombies go rouge and take matters into their own hands by putting zombies in high positions of power outside of Seattle to protect themselves
• Soon domestic terrorist attacks start happening and a civil war breaks out between the zombies and humans

This puts a twist on the classic white supremacist versus progressive citizen of our world. We learned about the Supremacist who committed acts of domestic terrorism inspired by a book, The Turner Diaries. And just as the Zombies retaliated and the Humans fought thus resulting in a civil war, we too have had a civil war due to differences in appearance. Our civil war was against the north and south over the enslavement of black citizens, which is still a highly controversial topic in America today. Although not indefinite to all Supremacists, the civil war and its topic of slavery is still the basis to their need for power. Some white supremacists feel it is the white man's place to rule the world and have anyone who doesn't look like them, serve them. Not to say that Humans wanted Zombies to be their slaves but they definitely wanted to eradicate them because of the "danger" they imposed. And that is still a very common thought for white supremacists. Some feel that if they allow for minorities to reach high places of power or be treated equally then they will somehow be replaced and forgotten. No one wants to be replaced but that is no justification on how we treat other people or even the matter of the truth. There is no truth to this allegation, in the fictional world or non-fictional world. Both sides decided it was violence that was going to save them when in reality it just divided them further instead of reaching a consensus. 10 years after the civil war broke loose between the zombies and humans, it was decided that there would be an island specifically inhabited by zombies. Although not the solution since there were still Deadenders who wanted them eradicated and in fact divided them even more by admitting that they were not to be living on the same continent as the humans implying that they are too dangerous. 

in conclusion, there wasn't a solution found in this fictional show and clearly there hasn't been a solution found in our real world because there are still people who feel that if there isn't segregation then they will never have the power they think they deserve. 

Race and Police Brutality

Oakland, California - It was the early hours of 2009 New Year's Day. Oscar Grant, an African American father of a 4 year old girl, was on his way back from a New Year's celebration at 2:00 am. A fight broke out along the BART train which caused the police to be called to the Fruitvale Station. Officer Johannes Mehserle and officer Anthony Pirone responded to the call. Officer Pirone used offensive and aggressive language to pull the men off the train. Through all the insults and the abuse, Oscar Grant stayed calm and told his friends to stay cool and cooperate. That was not enough to save him from what was to come. A series of events instigated by Officer Pirone's hostile behavior led to the officers assaulting Grant. Pirone punched and kneed him, Grant was pushed down and Pirone kneed him in the face and finally, Officer Mehserle pulled out his gun and shot him in the back.

This incident created anger and protests among the black community. It was one of the first shootings to have been filmed and shown to the world. Grant's cooperative and calm behavior showed that the shooting was completely unprovoked and uncalled for. The racial slurs and offensive language used by officer Pirone caused the events to escalate and lead to unnecessary police brutality. This was a crime that had happened before and had happened often but this one was filmed for the whole world to see.

A similar case of police brutality was that of Michael Brown. Both cases demonstrated an unprovoked act by the police towards black men and both created an outcry by the black community. The unfortunate killing of Brown and Grant at the hands of a white police officer were both blamed on racial motives. 

Source: https://www.kqed.org/news/11744106/bart-releases-report-with-new-details-of-officers-roles-in-oscar-grant-killing