Marley’s granddaughter: Call to cops put lives in danger
NEW YORK — Bob Marley’s granddaughter said Thursday that she felt like her life was put in danger when a woman saw her and three friends leaving an Airbnb rental in California, got suspicious and called the police.
Donisha Prendergast and her friends, Kelly Fyffe- Marshall and Komi- Oluwa Olafimihan, all of whom are black, plus an additional friend who is white, were leaving the home in Rialto on April 30 when a white neighbor called 911 and reported strangers carrying bags out of the house.
Police officers stopped the renters and questioned them for 22 minutes while they contacted the homeowner.
Prendergast said at a news conference Thursday that she felt she was singled out because she is black. She cited instances where innocent black people have been shot by police.
“Do you not understand how you jeopardized our lives because of your fear?” she asked.
She quoted her famous singersongwriter grandfather: “We don’t need more trouble, what we need is love.”
Lawyers for Prendergast, FyffeMarshall and Olafimihan have said they plan to sue over the incident.
Yale: Cops admonished white student for calling police on black student
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale University police officers who responded to a call about a black graduate student who had fallen asleep in the common area of a campus residence admonished the white student who reported it, a university administrator said Thursday.
The officers interviewed both students and then told the complaining student that the other woman had every right to be there, according to Yale Vice President for Student Life Kimberly Goff- Crews, who said she found the episode deeply troubling.
The black student, Lolade Siyonbola, posted two videos of the encounter Monday night on social media showing police interviewing her for more than 15 minutes. She told police she had fallen asleep while working on a paper.
Siyonbola, who said in the videos that the same student had called police months earlier on a friend who had gotten lost in a stairwell of the building, said she saw the statement from Goff- Crews as “a move in the right direction.”
‘ Net neutrality’ repeal set for June
NEW YORK — The Federal Communications Commission has set June 11 as the repeal date for “net neutrality” rules meant to prevent broadband companies from exercising more control over what people watch and see on the internet. Among other things, the rules prohibited companies such as Comcast, AT& T and Verizon from favoring some services and apps over others.
Report: Dog shoots owner
FORT DODGE, Iowa — An Iowa man says his dog inadvertently shot him while they were roughhousing Wednesday.
Richard Remme, 51, of Fort Dodge, told police he was playing with his dog, Balew, on the couch and tossed the dog off his lap. He says when the pit bull- Labrador mix bounded back up, he must have disabled the safety on the gun in his belly band and stepped on the trigger.
The gun fired, striking one of Remme’s legs. He was treated at a hospital and released later that day.
Remme told The Messenger newspaper that Balew is a “big wuss” and lay down beside him and cried because he thought he had done something wrong.