Text Size
  • A
  • A
  • A
Share
Features

FOMO: Pope Shutting Down Philly, No Terrorist Attacks This Week, Rachel Doezal Is Still White + More

By Joshua Albert | June 19, 2015

FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out

This is the second in a series of weekly columns where I break down the biggest stories from around the corner to across the globe—just so that you know what’s going on and don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.

Local:

Honestly, it was pretty quiet around The Riverwards this week. Don’t get me wrong, last weekend was pretty bloody. There was a murder-suicide followed up by a murder blocks away from each other.

On a brighter note, someone added some much need humor to the neighborhood when they changed a  digital construction sign to read “FUCK BITCHES, GET MONEY.” The secret prankster even stuck around long enough to film police trying  fix it.

A few other tidbits?

The Fillmore is going to have a distillery!

Oh Yeah, and a knife fight at Capital Beer.

Philebrity wrote about how we, trolled a water leak that residents were upset about. We even got some professional tips on how to fix a leak: throw a rug over it.

City:

The shit show that will be the Papal visit. Coming this September to a neighborhood near you 

The Pope-who recently called the earth a pile of filth-is coming to Philly in September and bringing a whole lot of headache with him. Why? Because The 2 million people he’s supposed to bring with him are going to cause all sorts of transit problems.

This Week, Mayor (Da Nutta) Nutter, who once got to touch The Pope, held a press conference to tell Philadelphia to “be prepared to walk.” All of you indifferent to the papal visit might be asking yourselves ‘why?’ Long story short, SEPTA is going to be complete mess and cars are will not be permitted in many parts of the city. Luckily Philly Mag put together this pretty handy guide to getting around the city during the chaos. I guess you only need the guide if you’re not renting out your place so you can go on vacation.

 

District Attorney Not To Reopen Case Against Officers Who Shot and Killed Brandon Tate-Brown, despite transparency concerns

On Monday the attorney representing the family of Brandon Tate-Brown in a civil suit against the city held a press conference demanding District Attorney Seth Williams re-open the investigation into the incident that left an unarmed black man dead. Williams and his office decided earlier this year to not file charges against the officers who killed the son of Tanya Brown-Dickerson.  Last week in this column I touched on the case.

Seth Williams sent out a letter to the media stating

“The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office conducted a thorough investigation into the shooting death of Brandon Tate-Brown and the evidence showed – evidence that was corroborated by physical evidence and officer and witness testimony alike – that Brandon Tate-Brown had a gun in the car with his DNA on it, tried to get it on more than one occasion and was shot because he put two Philadelphia Police Officers and everyone else who was at the scene that evening in danger,”

However, the lawsuit is alleging the Philadelphia Police planted the gun. There is some talk that the family could file criminal charges.

Also this week Amnesty International put out a study saying US laws surrounding lethal use of force do not meet world standards. 

 

There was not a terror attack this week in philly

National:

The Charleston Tragedy

I’m sure everyone is up to date on this, but here’s a handy little recap.

Something a little unexpected also came out of this whole tragedy. People have been outraged about how the media handled this. The basic theory behind the outrage is: white people who go on shooting sprees get treated a lot better by the media than people of color who go on shooting sprees

Here are some prominent responses on social media to how media covered the shooting.

And this pretty much sums up that sentiment:

Thank god for Jon Stewart:

Yup, Donald Trump is going to try and be the President of The United States of America.

Real estate mogul Donald John Trump, Sr announced this week that he is entering into the presidential campaign shenanigans.

I feel bad almost even dignifying this news, but how can I know when there’s Cher:

Not-black former president of NAACP chapter still affirming she has the right to be black.

Ex-Spokane, Washington NAACP Chapter President, Sex tape star and delusionist Rachel Dolezal told Matt Lauer in an interview this week that she “identifies as being black.” Dolezal was born white. She elaborated further saying she’s known since she was five that she wasn’t supposed to be white because:

“I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon,” she said. “That was how I was portraying myself.”

Last week Dolezal became an internet punching bag when her parent’s came out and called her fraud, and have been crusading against her ever since. 

Since her slow death spiral began, the internet has been piling it on:

WHO’S YOUR DADDY?  Maury Will Tell You!!!

QUIZ: Are you black?

The blackest thing about Rachel Dolezal is her thousand-dollar hair

Rachel Dolezal Is Just Another Person Driven Insane By Liberalism

World:

A small recap of news from around the globe:

Vacation utopia North Korea is experiencing the worst drought in it’s history. 

Yemen is no where closer to peace as peace talks stall. 

Things in the Dominican Republican are getting tense and farmers in Mexico are protesting for better work conditions.  

The Pope thinks we could all do better about taking care of the planet, wants a revolution.

 

Article Tags
The Spirit | Hyperlocal done differently
Advertise Now

Related News