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Loved ones of a black man fatally shot by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and two law enforcement officers — one black and one white — who were ambushed and killed in the city 12 days later will take part in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day discussion. “I just feel like love is the key. If we just go about this loving one another and not judging one another, I feel as if things will be better,” said Trenisha Jackson, whose husband, Montrell Jackson, described the difficulties of being both a …
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  MIAMI, Florida – Over the weekend WSVN reported that bikers put on a dangerous demonstration while protesting gun violence. The station said several people were sent to the hospital and others were put behind bars because of the incident. The ‘Wheels up, guns down’ ride began a few years ago as a way to promote non-violence during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., holiday weekend, CBS Miami reported. Around 3:30 p.m. Monday riders took to the streets again and were caugh…
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Dozens of riders took to the streets of South Florida Monday for the annual “wheels up, guns down” ride, putting themselves and others at risk, CBS Miami reports. Around 3:30 p.m., riders were speeding through the streets of Miami, popping wheelies and driving recklessly on their motorcycles, dirt bikes and ATVs. Chopper 4 was over the riders as they made their way up NW 27thAvenue, narrowly missing cars and spotted them driving the wrong way on the Gratigny Expressway. That’s…
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For some of the law enforcement agencies that agreed to be on A&E Network’s real-time police show “Live PD,” the goal of being more transparent with their profession under increasing scrutiny clashed with concerns over public image. Police departments in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Streetsboro, Ohio, ended agreements to be on the program since it premiered in October 2016 as some local government leaders concluded the national spotlight on criminal activity overshadowed the positive things happening in their hometowns. Another department, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina, ended its run on the show in August, saying deputies needed a break from the cameras. The show, which airs Friday and Saturday nights, has live camera crews following officers in several police departments as they patrol. There is a delay of five to 20 minutes to prevent the airing of disturbing content or the release of information that could compromise investigations, the show’s producers say. “As the debate over the policing of America continues to be a part of the daily conversation across the nation, Live PD viewers get unfettered and unfiltered live access inside a variety of the country’s busiest police forces, both urban and rural, and the communities they patrol on a typical night,” the show’s website says. In Bridgeport, officials were pleased the program showed the hard work and bravery of city police officers, but complaints started rolling in from businesses, the University of Bridgeport and others interested in attracting people and investments to Connecticut’s largest city, said Av Harris, a spokesman for Mayor Joe Ganim. “If that’s the only thing that’s being publicized nationally about our city, it can have a negative impact,” he said. “We don’t have the Travel Channel doing anything on how wonderful all our economic development projects are.” Bridgeport, a city with pockets of deep poverty that saw homicides double to 23 last year, left the show in December 2016, less than two months after the series began. During the city’s short run on the program, a police sergeant was arrested on a domestic violence charge, which was later dismissed, shortly after she appeared on an episode warning viewers about the dangers of domestic violence. Two people shown on the show later filed lawsuits accusing police of brutality. Another sergeant responding to a call involving a dead baby was shown breaking down in his cruiser as he talked about it afterward, which drew media coverage and praise on social media for showing officers’ sensitive sides. Feedback from most of the two dozen police departments that have appeared on the show has been positive, said Dan Cesareo, creator and executive producer of “Live PD.” “Our only goal is to document policing across America,” said Cesareo, president of Big Fish Entertainment. “We very much are very neutral in terms of what we’re showing.” Concerns about the show appear to be mostly political and not coming from police officials, said Dan Abrams, the program’s host. “Putting a lens on the day-to-day work that police officers do is important. And some of it isn’t pretty,” Abrams said. “I think the notion that it is a bad thing is actually the wrong way to look at it. … You can say that the crimes that occurred are bad.” In Ohio, Streetsboro police left “Live PD” in November after appearing in six episodes. Chief Darin Powers said that while it was good for the public to see what his officers do, there were manpower and overtime issues because officers with “Live PD” crews with them didn’t have room in their cruisers to transport suspects. And local officials became worried about the city’s image. “I personally thought it portrayed our city in a negative light,” said John Ruediger, city council president. “I think every city has its share of problems, and I don’t think it’s always best to highlight those issues. I was personally concerned that any kid featured on the show could end up bullied … especially if their parent is on the show doing something bad.” But in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where police have been doing “Live PD” since April, the public response has been overwhelmingly positive, said Assistant Chief Michael McVoy. “For us, it’s humanizing the badge, No. 1,” he said. “For every 1,000 positive comments or likes or social media hits or fuzzy, warm feelings we get from across the country, there are always five or 10 that say, ‘Hey. Why are you arresting this guy for marijuana possession?’ Stuff like that. Some people don’t see eye to eye with what we do.”
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MIAMI — Serving his one-game suspension last week against the Indiana Pacers was difficult for Heat forward James Johnson, but there was a silver lining. “The hotel in Indiana didn’t have the game,” said Johnson, who was ejected from Tuesday’s 90-89 victory against Toronto following an altercation with the Raptors’ Serge Ibaka, and later suspended. He was not permitted to be in the arena during the Heat’s 114-106 victory over the Pacers on Wednesday. &#8220…
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Update: In a tweet, Devolver Digital confirmed that this Steam sale is being held in conjunction with charitable speedrunning organization Games Done Quick. Devolver says they’ll donate 10 percent of the sale’s revenue to GDQ. GDQ recently kicked off Awesome Games Done Quick 2018, a week-long speedrun marathon dedicated to breaking videogames every way possible and raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.  Original story: Publisher Devolver Digital is running a quick Steam sale to…
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Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter HOMESTEAD (CBSMiami) – A 17-year-old died over the weekend in a shooting at a Homestead park. Witnesses said a group of people was playing football in the park, in the 600 block of SW 14th Avenue, on Sunday around 5 p.m. when shots were fired. Jultavious Williams was hit and died at the scene. “It really hurts because kids can’t come outside and play. This is a park where you walk around and you exercise you bring the kids out to play an…
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PLANTATION, FLA. (WSVN) – Four people, including two minors, were injured after, officials said, shots were fired outside of a recreation hall in Plantation, Sunday morning. Police responded to the shooting at 5225 West Broward Boulevard, near East Acre Drive, just after 4:40 a.m. Investigators said the victims were leaving a private gathering when an unknown male assailant armed with a handgun approached them and opened fire. He then fled the scene and remains at large. According to Plantation…
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A fight outside a Winter Haven homeless shelter ended with a man who suffered fatal wounds to his face. Calvin Ross was arrested in the death of Johnathon Miller, who died of injuries in the fight. The weapon, say cops, was a pick hammer, a tool used mostly in construction or home improvement — one end is sharp, the other blunt. According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, deputies took Ross, 27, into custody around 6:40 p.m. Saturday. Ross was charged with second-degree murder and violat…
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Handwritten letters show a neo-Nazi group leader hasn’t abandoned his “violent ideology” since his arrest on charges he stockpiled volatile explosive material in a Florida apartment where a friend killed their two roommates, federal prosecutors told the judge who will sentence the young man on Tuesday. In a court filing Sunday, prosecutors said 22-year-old Brandon Russell drew a diagram of how to make an explosive in a letter he apparently intended to deliver to another “Atomwaffen Division” member outside jail. The FBI obtained copies of other letters in which Russell drew plans for an “Airborne Leaflet Dropping Device” showing Nazi propaganda falling from the sky, prosecutors said. “In one letter, Russell attached a blurb about a 16-year-old Nazi who in 1962 told a judge, “I don’t care HOW long you put me in jail, your Honor, … as soon as I get out, I will go right back to fight for my White Race and my America!'” The FBI obtained the copies in August, just before Russell pleaded guilty to illegally storing volatile explosive material and possessing an “unregistered destructive device,” according to prosecutors. They’re urging a federal judge to sentence Russell to 11 years in prison — the maximum he faces after his guilty plea in September. “While Russell has a First Amendment right to his beliefs, the evidence shows that Russell’s beliefs cross the line between hateful ideology and hateful ideology that gives rise to violence,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Josephine Thomas. Devon Arthurs, Russell’s friend and former roommate, awaits trial in state court on charges he shot and killed their other two roommates, 18-year-old Andrew Oneschuk and 22-year-old Jeremy Himmelman, both of Massachusetts. Russell wasn’t charged in the May 2017 killings, which exposed the four roommates’ membership in an obscure neo-Nazi group that formed on the internet. Arthurs was co-founder of Atomwaffen, which is German for “atomic weapon,” but he allegedly told investigators he killed his roommates for teasing him about his recent conversion to Islam. Russell served in the Florida National Guard and was wearing his military uniform and crying when police arrived at the murder scene and found him standing outside the Tampa apartment. Arthurs told police that Russell didn’t know anything about the shooting. Arthurs also told detectives he killed his roommates to thwart a terrorist attack by Atomwaffen. He claimed Russell had materials in the house “to kill civilians and target locations like power lines, nuclear reactors, and synagogues,” prosecutors said. “I prevented the deaths of a lot of people,” Arthurs said in a rambling statement. Asked why his roommates would plan such an attack, he responded, “Because they want to build a Fourth Reich.” Russell’s attorney, Ian Goldstein, maintains his client has accepted responsibility for his crimes and is “dedicated to emerging from this situation a stronger person.” “As a 22-year-old former college student and member of the armed forces, the defendant has seen the future he once hoped for evaporate before his eyes,” Goldstein wrote in a Jan. 2 filing. “He has accepted responsibility for his offenses, and looks forward to serving his sentence and attempting to move forward with a productive and law abiding life.” Sentencing guidelines calculated by the court’s probation office call for a prison sentence ranging from 24 to 30 months. Russell’s lawyer asked the court for a more lenient sentence. Prosecutors, however, say the guidelines don’t adequately reflect the seriousness of Russell’s actions, or the danger he still poses. Inside Russell’s bedroom, authorities said they found several firearms, ammunition and a framed picture of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on Russell’s bedroom dresser. Investigators also found a North Korean flag, multiple copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and other neo-Nazi and white supremacist propaganda in the apartment, prosecutors said. “Russell had a place of prominence for the picture of his idol, Timothy McVeigh, someone who turned his ideology into violent action,” wrote Thomas, the federal prosecutor. “A photographic journey through Russell’s apartment_the backdrop of the murder scene_is a chilling confirmation of Russell’s intent to follow in the footsteps of his hero.” Russell set up a “mini-lab” in the garage, where investigators found explosive material stored in a cooler, near homemade detonator components and several pounds of ammonium nitrate, according to Thomas. “Russell showed not an ounce of concern for his own life, his roommates’ lives, or his (neighbors’) lives,” Thomas wrote. In anonymous internet posts, Atomwaffen members hailed Oneschuk and Himmelman as fallen heroes, and assailed Arthurs as a race traitor. A tribute on IronMarch, a website for the “global fascist fraternity,” included swastika-stamped photos of the slain men. Relatives of the two slain friends have rejected those neo-Nazi labels and dismissed Arthurs’ claims as the self-serving rantings of a sociopath. But prosecutors say Russell — even after his arrest — has never disputed he was Atomwaffen’s leader. “The evidence of Russell’s violent ideology and his conduct while incarcerated shows that he has tightly held beliefs that he will continue to promote,” Thomas wrote.
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With a Twitter post threatening to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinians, President Donald Trump has expressed his frustration over the lack of progress in his hoped-for Mideast peace push. But things could deteriorate even further if Trump follows through on the threat. Over two decades of on-and-off peace talks, the U.S., Israel and the Palestinians have created a situation of interdependence, with American mediation at the core of this system. A cutoff in aid would almost certainly harm the P…
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French President Emmanuel Macron came out strongly Wednesday in support of press freedom and announced a bill to combat the spread of fake news during election campaigns. In a speech to journalists at the Elysee Palace in Paris that laid out his agenda for 2018, Macron said that press freedom is “the highest expression of freedom.” He said he’s going to propose soon a new law to combat fake news on the internet during French election campaigns. Websites would have to say who is financing them a…
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The Latest on protests in Iran (all times local): 10:45 p.m. The leader of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group says President Donald Trump’s “hopes” that the protests in Iran will snowball and lead to regime change or chaos will be dashed along with the hopes of the Israelis and Saudis. In his first comments since protests in Iran broke out, Hassan Nasrallah said protesters with legitimate grievances have been exploited by political factions who attached political slogans to their protests…
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An Ohio prison unit housing about 430 inmates will be closed, the inmates moved elsewhere and employees offered jobs at other prisons, the state said Wednesday. Inmates will be transferred from Hocking Correctional Unit in southeastern Ohio by the end of March, according to the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The prison unit is Ohio’s most expensive, costing $65 a day per inmate to operate compared to $21 at similar facilities in Belmont, Richland and Trumbull counties, the state s…
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Sherin Mathews, the 3-year-old girl adopted from India and found deceased in a ditch in Richardson last year, died of “homicidal violence,” the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed on Wednesday. Richardson police issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying the medical examiner’s office listed the child’s cause of death as homicide and the manner of death as homicidal violence, though they didn’t elaborate further. Sherin’s body was found Oct. 26, more than two weeks after Wesley …
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For the first time in years, Indiana’s Republican supermajorities are returning to the Statehouse without a major legislative goal to accomplish during the annual session that begins Wednesday. That leaves a vacuum some plan to fill with contentious issues and debates that GOP leaders have in the past sought to contain. “There’s usually one overarching, bright shiny object that keeps attention focused. And it’s a little bit different this year,” House Speaker Brian Bosma recently told reporters…
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Rohingya refugees in Chicago are facing stress and anxiety after escaping violence in Myanmar. There’s an estimated 1,500 Rohingya Muslims currently living in the city amid the ongoing violence in the Southeast Asian nation, the Chicago Tribune reported . Hasan Korimullah, 15, is among those who have resettled in Chicago. He said he was about 8 or 9 when he witnessed his mother’s death. Hasan said that although he’s lived in the U.S. for two years, he still can’t forget the moment he lost his m…
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At least 81 reporters were killed doing their jobs this year, while violence and harassment against media staff has skyrocketed, the world’s biggest journalists’ organization says. In its annual “Kill Report,” seen by The Associated Press, the International Federation of Journalists said the reporters lost their lives in targeted killings, car bomb attacks and crossfire incidents around the world. More than 250 journalists were in prison in 2017. The number of deaths as of Dec. 29 was the lowes…
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LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Two people including a gunman were killed Friday and another was injured in a shooting at a Southern California law office that authorities called workplace violence. The wounded person was taken to a hospital, said Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, who described the person’s condition as stable. Authorities emphasized that it was not an active shooter situation, despite initial reports they received at about 2:25 p.m. Video showed people running from a two-s…
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New York, NY(Law Firm Newswire) December 29, 2017 – The New York Post has revealed that the girlfriend of Miami Dolphins star Jarvis Landry has recanted her domestic violence accusations. On the night of April 1, police received a call regarding an incident between Landry and Estrella Cerqueira, while their four-month-old child was in the car. At first, Cerqueira informed police that Landry had committed battery against her. However, she subsequently said they only had a verbal dispute. As a…
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A court in the Netherlands banned the Dutch branch of the Bandidos motorcycle club Wednesday, ruling in a civil case that the biker gang is a threat to public order. The ban “is necessary to protect society,” said the Central Netherlands Court. The court also banned members of overseas Bandidos chapters from operating in the Netherlands. Prosecutors hailed the ruling as a victory in efforts to clamp down on motorcycle gangs in the Netherlands. “We are very satisfied,” said Jirko Patist, a spoke…
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Ukraine on Wednesday criticized Russia’s decision to withdraw its military observers from a joint group monitoring the truce in eastern Ukraine, saying it could fuel hostilities. Russia announced the move earlier this week, saying that Ukraine was putting up obstacles and restrictions obstructing Russian officers’ work and recently introduced new demands that made their further involvement in the group impossible. The development is the latest sign of heightened tensions in the area, where figh…
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When she started an urban farm in one of Indianapolis’ roughest neighborhoods, retired chemist Aster Bekele wanted to teach at-risk kids how to garden, and maybe sneak in a little science. Then the city’s homicide rate started soaring, with most of the killings happening around the community center where Bekele and the teens tended their vegetables, chickens and compost piles. After her own son was killed last summer, she found herself teaching a different lesson: how to deal with death. A few miles away, another rough neighborhood was experiencing a change — equally dramatic but just the opposite. The Fountain Square section near downtown, which once saw nearly as many killings as Bekele’s area, was transforming into one of the city’s safer spots thanks to an influx of affluent people drawn to its hip restaurants, bicycle trails and art festivals. The contrast illustrates an Associated Press analysis of homicide data that showed some large cities seem to be getting safer and more dangerous at the same time. Slayings in Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis are becoming concentrated into small areas where people are dying at a pace not seen in years, if ever. Around them, much of the rest of the city is growing more peaceful, even as the total number of homicides rises. “There’s two different worlds,” said Anthony Beverly, who grew up in Indianapolis and now runs an organization called Stop The Violence. “Downtown is just popping. … We struggle.” The AP collected 10 years of homicide data from the cities that had the highest homicide rates in 2016. Reporters used spatial analysis to identify clusters of killings and track the changing geographic patterns over time. The neighborhoods enduring the most violence were largely poor and African-American, as were the killers and the victims. Researchers say the disparity may be linked to increased joblessness, segregation and the growth of the so-called wealth gap. Over the past three decades, the wealthiest Americans have grown markedly richer while low earners lost jobs and struggled and some turned to violence. The trend goes beyond the problem neighborhoods and trendy, low-crime enclaves that are found in almost every city. The inequality between the two realities deepened in recent years, allowing people in the same metropolis to live in one realm with little sense of the other and creating districts of despair where everyone has seen or had someone close to them shot or killed. Daniel Hertz, a Chicago-based policy analyst, has argued for years that citywide homicide statistics are “basically meaningless” because of the big differences. Looking at smaller geographic areas, he said, gives a far more accurate picture. “The conversation we are used to hearing is ‘Is a city safe?'” Hertz said. “But there’s no citywide statistic that tells you the story of a city.” The Rev. Marshall Hatch, whose church is in a West Side Chicago neighborhood that has seen a disproportionate number of homicides, said the findings reinforce the need to deal with the root causes of violence in what he calls “pockets of intense desperation.” “We know these problems tend to compound when they’re not addressed,” he said. “It’s going to be very problematic for cities, because people are not going to just stay in their neighborhoods and commit crimes.” Adding to the dilemma over what’s going on and what to do about it is that the narrowing homicide pattern isn’t happening everywhere. “What we have is an epidemic, and epidemics often happen in ways that are unpredictable,” said Charles Ransford, director of science and policy for Cure Violence, a Chicago-based group that works to stop the spread of violence by treating it as a public health issue. ___ RISING KILLINGS, SINKING INCOME Indianapolis, often called the “Crossroads of America,” is best known as the home of auto racing’s Indianapolis 500. The nation’s 15th largest city saw a record 149 homicides in 2016 and just surpassed that total this year. The most intense violence is happening in a relatively limited area. The city’s three deadliest ZIP codes in 2016 accounted for 43 percent of all homicides. More than 20 percent of the slayings occurred in a single ZIP code on the city’s northeast side, where Bekele lives. The predominantly African-American neighborhood grew steadily poorer in recent years. Lost working-class jobs, many from the shutdowns of plants run by Navistar and Carrier, were a possible factor. The city has 10,000 fewer manufacturing jobs today than in 2007. “All those manufacturing jobs have left so those neighborhoods have really died,” said Jim White, the former commander of a state police post in Indianapolis. “Folks without an education are just left out there.” The concentration of violence extends to Chicago, which ended 2016 with 762 homicides, the highest in two decades. The city has been described by President Donald Trump as resembling “a war zone.” But in almost a third of ZIP codes that have reported a homicide in the last decade, the trend has been fewer killings. Now 60 percent of the killings were in only 10 of the city’s roughly 58 ZIP codes. Chicago’s violence is fueled by gang factions that splintered from the major gangs of years ago. More factions mean more rivalries and more potential for violence. Police estimate the city has some 80,000 gang members, up from about 68,000 five years ago. They also point to gang competition to meet the growing demand for heroin and opioids. One ZIP code on Chicago’s “Heroin Highway,” so called because suburbanites use the expressway to drive into the city for drugs, had 54 homicides in 2016, up from 24 just a year earlier. Similar forces are at work in St. Louis, which had a record number of homicides in 2015, a spike that contributed to the overall U.S. homicide rate increasing more than 10 percent. But most of that increase came from just two ZIP codes, and in seven of the city’s 17 ZIP codes, homicides fell. The danger of the more concentrated violence, Hertz said, is that it can become easy for most people to ignore it, and that can intensify the problem. “It can create this sense of ‘Let’s wall it off,'” he said. People who can leave start to move out if they don’t feel safe, reducing a city’s tax base and the number of students in its schools and increasing the number of vacant properties in a particular neighborhood. It becomes a vicious cycle. A ONCE-DANGEROUS NEIGHBORHOOD DRAWS NEW CROWDS Richard Campi bought his 1872 Italianate home in Fountain Square in 1983, when the neighborhood was one of the riskier ones. “It was a redneck area,” Campi says, recalling a streetscape of junked-out cars in yards, scrap metal businesses and rent-to-own stores. When he put ads in The Indianapolis Star advertising apartments to rent in the house, no one would even come take a look. But things started to change when nearby Fletcher Place, one of the city’s earliest neighborhoods, was designated a historic district and preservation buffs began moving in. A local couple bought the long-vacant Fountain Square Theatre, hoping to capitalize on the nostalgia of an old vaudeville showplace. They reopened the duckpin bowling lanes, and soon hipsters and old-timers started coming to knock over pins and drink craft beers. Galleries and independent businesses followed. In 2011, the Cultural Trail, an 8-mile bike and walking path that links downtown to cultural districts and entertainment hot spots, made its way to Fountain Square, and more college-educated young people with higher incomes streamed in. Bon Appetit magazine came to write about the restaurants. There’s still crime, but it’s not the same. In the Fountain Square ZIP code, homicides fell from nine in 2011 to four last year. The home Richard Campi bought for $23,000 is now worth about $500,000. A TRANQUIL NEIGHBORHOOD TURNS DEADLY The area of northeast Indianapolis where Aster Bekele and her husband bought their home almost 40 years ago used to be so peaceful they sometimes slept in the backyard with their kids. That’s hard to imagine that now, with all the shootings. The neighborhood is roughly 9 square miles of apartments, small homes, vacant storefronts, gas stations and liquor marts that double as grocery stores. “We’re right in the middle of it,” says Bekele, 64, who came to the U.S. from Ethiopia as a college student. Her son, Senteayehou Henry, got into trouble as a young man. In 2002, he went to prison for selling drugs. After he was released, he moved into the home next door and made a living flipping houses, she said. On Aug. 1, 2016, Bekele found her 40-year-old son dead on the floor of his house after his girlfriend arrived and saw the back door standing open. No one has been arrested. These days, Bekele doesn’t take meetings at night so she won’t have to walk from her car to her house in the dark. She can easily distinguish between the sound of gunshots and firecrackers. Twice in a recent three-week span she skipped gardening to take the teens to funerals for people close to them who were killed. While the city’s median household income has increased slightly, this area’s fell by 3.5 percent per year. More than a third of its residents have household incomes below the federal poverty level. THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS The shrinking geographic scope of the problem has made some crime-fighting approaches more feasible. With less ground to cover, authorities are better able to flood a zone with officers. High-tech tools can be effective on a small scale. Take Chicago, where police began using “ShotSpotter” technology, or sensors that monitor for the sound of gunfire and alert police. They say it’s contributed to a drop in shootings this year in some of their previous hot spots because officers can respond more quickly. The Cure Violence group in Chicago employs “interrupters” — often former gang members — who seek out people likely to commit a violent crime and intervene, potentially also stopping a string of retaliations. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett says he wants to put 150 more police officers on the street by the end of 2019, many on foot patrols in small areas. Police Chief Bryan Roach is aiming to have 80 such beats next year, up from 19 now. On the city’s troubled northwest side, a group of ministers and former gang members known as the Ten Point Coalition has earned national recognition for its efforts. Four nights a week, they walk their streets, talking to young people and trying to point them away from trouble. Sometimes that’s through a basketball league. Other times it’s introducing them to the Job Corps, where they can learn trades and later get work. In 2015, the ZIP code where they are focusing their efforts saw 24 homicides. Last year there were nine. “We can’t stop them from doing wrong,” says team leader Wallace Nash. “But we can encourage them to do something else.” John Hagedorn, a criminology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the crime is driven by poverty, chronic joblessness and hopelessness, especially in black communities in the Rust Belt. Cities along the coasts with less violence have seen more investment citywide, not just in the downtowns. In those places, wealth is more widely distributed and there is less racial isolation, he said. “There’s a degree of hope that takes place in these communities where violence is low,” he said. “There’s a sense that life isn’t over.”
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XXXTentacion to be released from jail on house arrest The saga of XXXTentacion — whose rise as one of the year’s biggest breakout rappers is overshadowed by a felony domestic violence case — continues. He was released from jail days after being taken into custody for violating his bond. A judge ordered the MC to be released from custody and placed under house arrest on Wednesday, according to court records.   The South Florida native, born Jahseh Onfroy, had been sent back to jail on F…
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Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Denise Brown has something in common with all the parents whose children’s photos hang from her office wall. “There’s no getting over this. Ever,” she said. It was March 1, 2012, when Brown got the devastating news that her brother had died after a battle with cancer. Her grief still fresh, her phone rang again just a few hours later. This time the person on the other end told her son had been shot. “I…
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