(AP Photo/David Duprey)

Ariel Castro, the man accused in the rape and abduction of three Cleveland women over 10 years, was ordered held on $8 million bond by Judge Lauren Moore. Appearing in court handcuffed and in a blue jumpsuit, Castro’s bond was set at $2 million per victim — Amanda Berry, 27, her six-year-old daughter, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. He was charged yesterday on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

According to Reuters, this is the first time Castro, 52, has been seen in public since this horror was brought to light on Monday. The article also says he’s on suicide watch and being kept in isolation in prison.

“The man doesn’t have any money,” his court-appointed attorney Kathleen DeMetz is quoted saying. During the proceedings DeMetz argued that the bond should be lower because he’s lived in Cleveland for 39 years but has no criminal record. Yes, but he held three women captive for 10 of those years undetected.

“Prosecutors requested a high bond during the hearing and described the decade of abuse as a ‘horrifying ordeal,’ in which the women were beaten, bound, restrained and sexually assaulted,” reports The New York Times. Details about the decade-long confinement of the three women continue to come out, with reports now saying they were only allowed out of the house twice during that entire time (to go to the garage) and that Knight was pregnant multiple times, with Castro starving and beating her until she miscarried. The women were chained in the basement of the house until they were allowed to move to the upper floor.

Berry’s child was born in a plastic pool in the house, according to the Times, with Knight saying that Castro threatened to kill her if the baby didn’t survive.

Castro’s two brothers have not been charged with anything related to this crime. Onil, 50, and Pedro, 54, appeared in court this morning on unrelated misdemeanor charges.

Screenshot from WEWS

We continue to feel great about the actions of Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland man who stepped in and helped Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle King finally break free from the horror of a decade-long kidnapping. Honestly, this story is so fantastic and I can listen to Ramsey tell it over and over. Global Grind has a list of the twists and turns of this incredible story. Based on some preliminary information provided by USA Today, the ordeal sounds beyond traumatizing.

Separately, McDonald’s has latched on to the story after hearing Charles Ramsey’s version of events. As he explained it, he stepped into action after hearing Berry while enjoying a meal from McD’s. McDonald’s, sensing an opportunity to capitalize further on the story, sent a tweet to Ramsey:

Note that the tweet came from McDonald’s corporate account, not the restaurant account. The corporate office is where decisions like advertising and marketing are made. It sounds like Ramsey is going to have a spokesperson job coming to him, which he’d clearly be able to handle given how articulate and plainspoken he is in the now famous interview. It reminds me immediately of how quickly Kraft leaped into action when it saw the the viral video of Ted Williams, the man with the Golden Voice, who was discovered homeless asking for change. We also read somewhere that Ramsey could be in line for a reward.

What Charles Ramsey did was wonderful and he deserves every second of his 15 minutes.

Source: Straight From The A

I guess we should have expected this outcome but if I’m being honest I sort of feel a little bad for Artis Hughes, aka, the uppercutting bus driver from Cleveland, OH. After issuing “one of the most talked about uppercuts” ever, as Fox News put it, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has decided to terminate Artis from his position after hitting a female passenger, Shidea Lane, last month.

Channel 5 News in Cleveland posted the statement from RTA, which read:

RTA values its employees and expects employees to follow rules, regulations and policies. Each employee is advised of the rules as part of their employment.

There are certain actions by our employees that are so serious that the employee is subject to immediate discharge.

One of those actions is a use of force against a member of the public.

In the Artis Hughes situation, the customer was out of line and charges have been filed against her.

However, while customers may be challenging or difficult to handle, RTA employees are instructed to exercise restraint and to conduct themselves professionally at all times.**

Mr. Hughes claims that his actions were in self-defense. The evidence does not support that claim.

We expect our employees to diffuse any potential situation. We do not believe that Mr. Hughes took the proper steps to diffuse this situation.

The proper procedure would have been to pull over and stop the bus, then call Transit Police for assistance.

Employees should take precautions in situations such as this one to protect the safety of other RTA customers and the public. Mr. Hughes did not take the proper precautions, nor did he follow procedure.

For the above reasons, Mr. Hughes has been terminated from RTA.

RTA, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and the Fraternal Order of Police have established a joint Labor/Management Committee to discuss and implement strategies to enhance the safety of all employees.

RTA cited for the termination ‘RTA Employee Handbook Dischargeable Offense #5′ which says:

“Use of overt force, such as shoving, pushing, striking of any blows in any manner or fashion against another employee, supervisor, management personnel or such actions against members of the public while in the course and scope of employment or at any time while on company property. The only exception shall be where it is clearly established that the employee acted in self-defense.”

I’m curious if RTA missed the part where Shidea spit on Artis. Granted his response certainly qualifies as excessive force, but she was clearly the initial aggressor. I’m not sure how I feel about this decision. What do you think?

Source: NY Times

Halle Berry doesn’t talk much about Halle, the biracial girl from Cleveland, OH, whose been labeled “crazy” for failings in love. We usually hear about the next movie she’s working on, how she stays forever young at 46, and maybe a thing or two about her being a parent. But in an interview with the NY Times, Ms. Berry is being very open about where she came from and who she’s become over the years, and even a bit about her custody battle with her ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry. Check out some of the highlights of the article as well as the gorgeous photos.

Why she’s made bad choices with men

“My picker’s broken. God just wanted to mix up my life. Maybe he was thinking, ‘This girl can’t get everything! I’m going to give her a broken picker.’ ”

 On Self-esteem not having anything to do with your looks

“Just because they see my face doesn’t mean they see me. A person’s self-esteem has nothing to do with how she looks.

“If it’s true that I’m beautiful, I’m proof of that. Self-esteem comes from who you have in your life. How you were raised. What you struggled with as a child.

“I always had to prove myself through my actions. Be a cheerleader. Be class president. Be the editor of the newspaper. It gave me a way to show who I was without being angry or violent. By the time I left school, I had a lot of tenacity. I’d turned things around.”

 The role her mother played in her development

“My mother helped me identify myself the way the world would identify me. Bloodlines didn’t matter as much as how I would be perceived

“My mother tried hard. But there was no substitute for having a black woman I could identify with, who could teach me about being black.”

 Being biracial

“Being biracial is sort of like being in a secret society. Most people I know of that mix have a real ability to be in a room with anyone, black or white.”

“I come from humble beginnings. I always felt like the underdog. Behind the eight ball. I learned not to be too high on the hog. Even that night I won the Oscar, I had a fundamental knowing, it was just a moment in time. Driving home that night, back to my house, I felt like Cinderella. I said, ‘When this night is over, I’m going back to who I was.’ And I did.”

Why she wants to leave America

“I can’t grow my daughter in L.A. You take a little child who is just trying to learn about the world and have all these people with cameras chasing after her, calling things out to her about her mother. It’s starting to make her feel special and different. I want her to feel special and different, but not for the reason of being my child.”

Source: NY Times

Source: NY Times

What do you think?

Source: getwititmagazine.com

It was all (inappropriate) fun and games last Friday when a video of a Cleveland RTA bus driver upper-cutting an unruly female passenger on his route went viral. But now things have gotten pretty serious. According to The Smoking Gun, both individuals are now facing criminal charges.

Prosecutors today filed misdemeanor criminal charges against both the driver and female passenger who fought last month on a Cleveland bus, a confrontation that included a vicious uppercut that was captured on a passenger’s cell phone.

Driver Artis Hughes, 59, was charged with assault, while passenger Shi’dea Lane, 25, was hit with a disorderly conduct rap.

The criminal cases, filed in Shaker Heights Municipal Court, were lodged one week after video of the September 18 bus incident began circulating online…

Witnesses told cops that Lane appeared “drunk” and became verbally abusive to Hughes after she failed to immediately pay her fare. Hughes told investigators that he “protected myself” after Lane “grabbed me in the throat and spit on me in the face.”

Hughes remains suspended without pay from his RTA job, according to an agency spokesperson. He faces a maximum of six months in jail and a $1000 fine if convicted of the assault count.

Lane’s lesser charge carries a maximum of 30 days in custody and a $250 fine.

Well, I guess this explains why Shidea wouldn’t answer certain questions under the advisement of her lawyer during that Fox interview. But from a look at her Twitter timeline she doesn’t appear to be too worried about this situation. Early this morning she tweeted:

*Insert exaggerated SIGH*

Yesterday, Shidea also said she was just coming back from the doctor and had to get her mouth wired for a week. I’m curious how she was still able to talk to the media. Something tells me that uppercut didn’t teach her much of a lesson about running those gums.

Do you think both parties should be charged in this case?

If you remember the uppercutting bus driver story from Friday, which I’m sure you do, you’ll recall there were a few details everyone was dying to know. One, was the driver a street fighter in his former life; two, what the heck caused that type of altercation; and three, what kind of woman is able to take a hit like that and still get up talking ish?

Well Fox 8 got to the bottom of a few of those questions when they tracked down 25-year-old Shidea Lane and asked her what exactly transpired from her point of view. According to her, the argument began because the driver, 59-year-old Artis Hughes, didn’t think she had money to get on the bus. Shidea said she told the driver she had the money and she was just looking for it and when he wouldn’t give her time to find it, things escalated.

“It’s amazing to see how a man would actually hit a woman that hard,” she said. “I mean, you could have pulled me off the bus, you can’t really touch nobody but, for real, like you really punched me?”

When the interviewer then hilariously asks, “Shidea, you were on the receiving end of one of the most talked about uppercuts, what did that feel like?” she replied:

“It felt like I was on Mortal Kombat. It just hurted. It was almost like a ‘Finish him!’ type of hit.”

My thoughts exactly.

Cleveland’s RTA issued a statement after the incident saying Artis, who has been with the bus system for 22 years, has since been suspended and removed from duty, but he has a slightly different recollection of the incident. In a police statement obtained by The Smoking Gun, Artis says Shidea claimed to have left her bookbag and so he asked her what she was going to do and she said go on. He took her one stop further and when she still didn’t want to pay he told her she was holding everyone up. He says that’s when the argument started and that somewhere along the line, Shidea grabbed him in the throat and spit in his face. I imagine this is the point where he popped off his seat belt and announced, “You going to jail now!” and proceeded to “protect himself,” i.e. uppercut the mess out of that girl.

Shidea is accepting no wrongdoing in the incident though. When asked by Fox if she hit Artis she said she’s advised by her lawyer not to say anything. I’d take that as a yes. Check out the full interview below. Do these details change your opinion on the incident at all?

Source: Leoaffairs.com

Talk about an abuse of power. An Ohio sheriff just gave Deputy Dominic Martucci walking papers after finding out he forced five jail  inmates to dance to Usher’s 2007 hit song “Yeah” in exchange for privileges like using the microwave or telephone.

The incident supposedly happened April 10 or 11 with inmates who were locked up in a disciplinary area. One inmate said he did the worm as Martucci played Usher’s “Yeah!” while another said he did the robot so he could use a phone to contact relatives after a family member’s death. Several deputies also watched the inmates dance when they happened to walk by the cell or were called by Martucci. Some told investigators the dancing lasted a mere few seconds (as if that makes it OK), but several inmates say the show went on for at least several minutes, and it seemed like the deputies were protecting Martucci by being on the lookout for supervisors. An internal report says Martucci also asked inmates to do a “bump and grind” routine if they wanted a recently removed microwave returned to their unit.

Martucci admitted to making a mistake but told investigators he was only trying to ease tension in the jail. They didn’t care. He was fired this week for violating department policies by mistreating inmates, acting inappropriately, and having a cellphone in the jail to play the music. He also was cited for conduct unbecoming of an officer and failing to properly document why the inmates had been put in the disciplinary area to begin with.

Ol’ boy should of taken a lesson from Usher’s lyrics when he said “I don’t know if I take that chance just where it’s gonna lead.” For former deputy Martucci it’s the unemployment office.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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A Cleveland high school senior has turned her pain into a powerful testimony that won her a $50,000 college scholarship from the Maltz Museum’s “Stop The Hate” essay contest.

Gabrielle Jones, a student at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, wrote an essay about the bullying she endured for years at the hands of her peers, and the inner power that she found once she entered high school. In an interview with Channel 3 Anchor Kris Pickel, she explained her painful childhood memories.

“Growing up, I was always bigger than my peers. I was friendless because no one wanted to hang out with the fat girl.

“Kids would throw candy wrappers and Debby Cakes on my seat and tell me to eat it. Every day I would come home and run to my room and cry my eyes out.”

Despite troubling elementary and junior high school experiences, when Gabrielle entered the ninth grade she decided things would be different. That decision led to Gabrielle joining the NAACP and even being elected Student Council Vice President.

“I was not going to allow myself coming into an adult to be a victim of hatred and bullying,” she said. “I found I had a voice and it’s very powerful.”

Gabrielle said she received encouragement from her parents throughout her turmoil, especially her mother who was also bullied, and she said she’s proud of the way she handled her childhood. She also has advice for other teens and tweens who are suffering through the same hatred she did.

“Never retaliate. It’s just not worth it. Don’t retaliate. Pray.” She also added, “Don’t give up. Never give up. You are all unique as fingerprints.”

With $50,000 on hand to prepare for her future, Gabrielle plans to attend law school, and eventually become a judge. Check out this video of Gabrielle reading her inspirational essay here.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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I turn on the television and see Jesse Jackson marching with Walmart workers, Al Sharpton is doing the 24-hour news circuit, and the leader of the New Black Panthers is somewhere defending young black boys against the latest outrage de jour.  As nice as that seems, every protest is centered around the plight of black men, to address the racist penal system, or complain about government entitlements, unequal education, lack of jobs–the list goes on.  There are marches and picket lines for the latest offense, but virtually none of them directly involve the mistreatment of black women through rape and sexual abuse that happens more and more often these days.  Most of the offenses are perpetrated by the boys and men they love and know–many who look like them.  No longer is the bogeyman without. He is within.

(Cleveland Plain Dealer) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio says a pending Cleveland law banning the use of social media to incite disturbances is unconstitutional and should be repealed.  The ACLU said Friday that it had sent a letter to City Council President Martin J. Sweeney, expressing “serious concern” about a law that the council approved Wednesday. A news release from the group called on the council to immediately repeal the ordinance, which still awaits the signature of Mayor Frank Jackson.

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