Sheriff Says There Were Paid Protesters At The Vigil For Stephon Clark

Bob Strong / Reuters

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones asserted Monday that there were professional, paid protesters at a Saturday night vigil for Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man killed by police in his grandmother's backyard.

"Unfortunately, in many protests that have developed to this scope, there are professional protesters and professional instigators that infiltrate the protest for their own purposes, as well as participants from out of the region that inflame and antagonize the event," Jones said at a news conference. "That is what happened here, which culminated in many vehicles being struck, objects being thrown, and fires being started.”

When Jones was asked if he had evidence that paid protesters attended the vigil, he replied, "We do have evidence, and we have seen it previously. You’ll notice the same cadre of protesters at every protest, sometimes in other states."

Black Lives Matter and other protests over police violence have long been dogged by conspiracy theories that protesters were paid to incite violence and discontent.

Jones characterized the Saturday night demonstration as mostly peaceful, with one exception: a sheriff's office vehicle struck a protester after marchers surrounded the SUV and began kicking it while yelling at the officers inside. National Lawyers Guild legal observer Guy Danilowitz captured the collision on video.

After the SUV struck Cleveland, another protester ran after it and shattered the back windshield.

The sheriff's office has released no information about the officer in the driver's seat during the incident. The protester, Wanda Cleveland, was released from the hospital later that night with bruises on her arm and the back of her head.

"He never even stopped. It was a hit-and-run," she told the Sacramento Bee. "If I did that I’d be charged. It's disregard for human life."

At the press conference, Jones showed video of the incident from the point of view of the two law enforcement vehicles that became entangled in the protest. Skip ahead to 15:29 for uninterrupted video of the second vehicle hitting Cleveland.

View Video ›

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The Sacramento Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Protests have rocked Sacramento since Clark's shooting, including delaying NBA games. An independent autopsy commissioned by his family found that police shot him six times in the back and twice in the side, sparking a fresh wave of protests over the use of force, especially given that he was unarmed.

The Clark family's lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said that the results contradict the police narrative of what happened the night he was killed.

Police have not yet released their own autopsy.

LINK: Stephon Clark Was Shot Six Times In The Back By Sacramento Police, Independent Autopsy Finds

LINK: Sacramento Police Shot And Killed An Unarmed Black Man In His Own Backyard

LINK: Stephon Clark's Grandmother Says Police "Didn't Have To Kill Him Like That"

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A 24-Year-Old Is Suing Infowars For Falsely Identifying Him As The Parkland Shooter

Screenshots/Infowars

A 24-year-old man from Massachusetts is suing Alex Jones — the bombastic, right-wing internet personality known for fueling and spreading conspiracy theories — and his website Infowars for falsely identifying him as the Parkland school shooter.

Marcel Fontaine, who lives outside Boston and has never been to Florida, filed a $1 million defamation lawsuit against Jones and Infowars, which has peddled a slew of conspiracies, including that the massacres in Sandy Hook and Las Vegas were faked, Pizzagate, and that Chobani, the yogurt company, imported "migrant rapists."

The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Travis County, Texas, where Jones started his career and Infowars is still based.

Alex Stone, of Infowars, poses with former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone and Jonathan Alter in 2016.

Ben Jackson

On Valentine's Day, as the media raced to discover who was behind the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Infowars published an article with Fontaine's photograph, insinuating that he was the man who walked onto campus and killed 17 people.

The article, written by Kit Daniels, was on the site's homepage and blasted across its social media accounts that day as the story developed, the lawsuit states. Its revised titles included “Reported Florida Shooter Dressed as Communist, Supported ISIS,” “Florida Shooter Inspired by ISIS — ALLAHU AKBAR,” and “Reported Florida Shooter Discussed ‘Allahu Akbar’ on Instagram Profile.”

A photograph of Fontaine in a red shirt showing Communist leaders partying sat right in the middle for "several days," his attorney, Mark Bankston of Farrar & Ball, told BuzzFeed News.

"This spread like fire all over the internet," Bankston said. "It was in China, Vietnam, all over the world, and has now amassed billions of clicks. We asked for a statutory correction 30 days ago and they have ignored us. They haven't made a statement or apologized to Marcel."

“Another alleged photo of the suspect shows communist garb,” read part of the article, which was removed without an explanation, statement, or correction, according to the lawsuit.

Numerous other right-wing sites republished the article verbatim, "further increasing the distribution of the defamatory accusation," the lawsuit states.

Larry Pittman, a Republican state legislator in North Carolina, even shared comments about Fontaine and the red shirt at the time, writing "many of these shooters turn out to be communist democrats.”

Neither Daniels nor a representative for Infowars immediately responded to requests for comment.

A current version of the article shows no trace of Fontaine's photo, nor does it mention that it falsely identified a person who had no ties to the massacre.

On Feb. 10, four days before the shooting, someone posted Fontaine's Twitter profile to 4chan, a fringe website, with the title "Antifa/Lefty/Commie Cancer." From there, others posted several photos from Fontaine's social media accounts, including the photograph Daniels used in the original article.

Screengrab/4Chan / Via archive.is

Despite another user commenting below the photo, "I can guarantee that this loser works at the Palladium in Worchester, MA. They play loads of metal shows, far more than any other genre," Daniels included it in his article about the Parkland shooter.

"They published this photo with zero confirmation. They published knowing it was false or with such reckless disregard that they didn't care," Bankston said. "Even doing the most basic thing like a reverse image search would have shown that he had nothing to do with Florida or the school shooting."

As a result, the 24-year-old incurred a wave of harassment and abuse online that still continues regularly and he "now has a lot of problems dealing with his normal routine," Bankston added.

"As it was happening he tried to show a strong face, but he now genuinely fears for his safety at this point," he said. "He is scared. The threats are violent."

A major problem, the lawsuit notes, is that many Infowars readers distrust the government and mainstream media. This deep-rooted suspicion is fueled by Jones and his media empire, which also hawks products aimed at fighting back against "the deep state" and further perpetuates the notion that Jones is the only one telling the truth.

Fontaine is now caught in the crosshairs, the lawsuit states, citing several examples of Infowars readers using his photo to prove that he is part of a "false flag operation," or that he is a crisis actor.

"After experiencing this, Marcel felt it was his responsibility to bring the suit against Infowars," his attorney said. "We believe he was targeted because of his shirt, what he was wearing. It's malicious."

It's the second defamation lawsuit filed against Infowars in recent weeks. In March, Brennan Gilmore, a counterprotester at last year's deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, sued Jones for claiming, without evidence, that he orchestrated the car attack, calling him a "CIA asset."

LINK: Alex Jones Just Can't Help Himself

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Fox News Is Defending Laura Ingraham After She Ridiculed A Parkland Shooting Survivor

Conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Fox News is defending conservative commentator Laura Ingraham after she ridiculed a Parkland shooting survivor in a tweet, sparking an online boycott campaign that caused more than a dozen companies to end support of her show.

In a statement, the co-president of Fox News called the campaign against Ingraham an "agenda-driven intimidation" effort.

"We cannot and will not allow voices to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts," Jack Abernethy, co-president of Fox News said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "We look forward to having Laura Ingraham back hosting her program next Monday when she returns from spring vacation with her children."

The statement comes five days after Ingraham tweeted that David Hogg, one of the most visible and recognizable survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, "whined" about not being accepted to four colleges he applied for.

Later that day, Hogg published a list of companies that advertise on Laura Ingraham's Fox show, The Ingraham Angle, prompting more than a dozen companies to stop running ads on the show, including Jenny Craig, Honda, Office Depot, Miracle Ear, Hulu, Bayer, and others.

Ingraham ended up apologizing Thursday to Hogg in a tweet after several companies had already pulled their ads, saying, "any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA," and adding he was welcome to come back to her show.

Hogg responded by calling the apology "an effort to save your advertisers."

Fox News executives at the time declined to comment on the boycott campaign, and a spokeswoman for the network instead pointed to Ingraham's tweets apologizing for the her earlier tweet.

Then on Friday, Ingraham announced at the end of her show she would be taking a week off "for Easter breaks with my kids."

Ingraham did not address the controversy during her show Friday before going off air, but on Monday tweeted out a story citing Abernethy's statement backing her during the dispute.

LINK: Advertisers Are Dropping Laura Ingraham's Fox News Show After She Mocked David Hogg

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Here's A Reminder About Why You Shouldn't Snort A Condom Up Your Nostril

Relax guys, a bunch of teens aren’t snorting condoms right now—but also, don’t do this!!!!!!!!

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT SNORT CONDOMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Behrouz Mehri / AFP / Getty Images

So, in 2013, a website published a post titled 9 People Doing The Condom Challenge, and some of the YouTube videos included in the article have since been removed. The so-called challenge involves snorting a condom up one nostril and pulling it out of your mouth. Got it? OK.

There are a handful of Instagram posts of people snorting up rubbers. Two of the videos reviewed by BuzzFeed News were shared last month, and another one was from July 2017.

"In all my years I have never seen a woman snort a condom....but at a sublime concert I suppose this is expected!!!" the caption on the footage from last year read.

The bulk of condom snorting videos reviewed by BuzzFeed News on YouTube were from years ago. But that did not stop the MEDIA from recently talking about this "trend" as if a bunch of teens are doing it.

Take this, from Fox News, filed under "Viral." "Tide Pods are so January," the article begins.

Fox News / Via foxnews.com

Huffington Post / Via huffingtonpost.com

My mom's worst nightmare.

USA Today / Via usatoday.com

Dun, dun, DUNNNNN.

sacbee / Via sacbee.com

The LATEST thing in YOUTH.

Daily Mail UK / Via dailymail.co.uk

Dangerous & trendy.

CBS News / Via cbsnews.com

Dara Kass, an emergency medicine physician and spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians, used a number of adjectives to describe condom snorting in the course of her interview with BuzzFeed News, including "gross," "disgusting," and "stupid."

"Do not do this," Kass said. "It is dumb and it has no benefits. It doesn't make any sense."

As for medical danger: "The biggest medical risk is that you inhale the condom or a piece of the condom, and it gets into your airway and it either covers part of your airway or it goes into your lungs, which can put you at risk for pneumonia," she said.

She also warned teens that they won't be proud of having snorted condoms when they're no longer teens.

"When you're grown-up, you're not going to be proud of this," she said.

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Here Are The Most Clever And Powerful Signs From The Oklahoma Teacher Strike

“Don’t let the song fool you, were are not doin’ fine!”

Instagram: @cwoody

Instagram: @jerseyjohnie

Instagram: @monicagmitchell

Instagram: @ryann_michelle

Instagram: @nicolekeithh

instagram.com

Instagram: @paulaadennis

Instagram: @carly_gwartney

Instagram: @micahbgarza

Instagram: @karlyweller

Instagram: @_lizzybethyspam

Instagram: @leebags

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Instagram: @definitelymejb

Instagram: @addimation

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The Drunk Driving "Affluenza" Teen Was Just Released From Jail

Ethan Couch was released after spending two years in jail for violating his probation for a drunk driving crash that killed four people in 2013.

Ethan Couch — who became infamous for using "affluenza" as a defense in a drunk driving crash that killed four people in 2013 — was released from a Texas jail on Monday after serving two years for violating his parole.

Nick Oxford / Reuters

Couch's case garnered national outrage in 2013 after he initially avoided jail time for the fatal drunk-driving crash after his defense team argued that the then-16-year-old suffered from "affluenza" — or the affliction of being too spoiled by affluent parents, which left him without a sense of responsibility.

Ethan Couch in 2013.

Associated Press

Couch slammed his pickup truck into a 24-year-old stranded motorist, Breanna Mitchell, as well as three others who had stopped to help her. They included Hollie Boyles, 52, her daughter Shleby, 21, and 41-year-old youth pastor Brian Jennings. Couch's family agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money to the families of Mitchell and Boyles.

Couch's family also agreed to pay more than $2 million to the family of 16-year-old Sergio E. Molina, who was paralyzed after being thrown out of Couch's truck during the crash.

Couch — whose blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash in 2013 was three times the legal limit — pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter, but was not sentenced to jail. He was instead got 10 years of probation and was ordered to spend time in a rehabilitation center.

AP

But in December 2015, Couch was reported missing after a video posted on social media showed a man who appeared to be him playing beer pong with his friends — a violation of his probation.

US Marshals Service via AP

Mexican authorities arrested Couch and his mother, Tonya Couch, after the two made a phone call ordering pizza in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta in 2015. The two had "carefully planned and timed" their escape to Mexico as evidenced by a "going away party" for Couch, authorities said.

Couch in custody in Mexico in 2015.

Mexico's Jalisco state prosecutor's office via AP

After Couch was extradited to the US, a Texas court sentenced him to two years behind bars for violating his parole.

Couch in his 2016 booking photo.

Tarrant County Sheriff's Department/Handout via Reuters

According to the terms of his current probation, Couch, 20, will have to wear an ankle monitor and an alcohol detecting patch, CNN reported. He will also have a 9 p.m. curfew and video interlock ignition device installed in his vehicle.

Nick Oxford / Reuters

Couch will also serve the remaining six years of his community supervision under the terms and conditions imposed by the court, his attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed News.

"From the beginning, Ethan has admitted his conduct, accepted responsibility for his actions, and felt true remorse for the terrible consequences of those actions," the attorneys said. "Now, nearly five years after this horrific event, Ethan does not wish to draw attention to himself and requests privacy so he may focus on successfully completing his community supervision and going forward as a law-abiding citizen."

His mom, Tonya Couch, was back in the same jail as her son last week for violating her own parole by failing a court-ordered drug test, ABC News reported.

Tonya Couch in 2016.

Rodger Mallison / AP

She was serving parole after being charged with hindering the apprehension of a felon.

Mark J. Terrill / AP

LINK: "Affluenza" Teen Sentenced To Two Years In Jail For Violating Parole

LINK: "Affluenza" Teen's Case Moved To Adult Court

LINK: "Affluenza" Teen Ethan Couch To Be Held In Juvenile Facility As He Awaits Court Date

LINK: Texas Officials Are Searching For "Affluenza" Teen Who Killed 4 In DUI Crash

LINK: "Affluenza” Teen’s Mother Released From Jail

LINK: Massive Uproar Over The Teenager Who Won Freedom In A Drunk Driving Case By Arguing He Was Too Wealthy For Prison

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Thousands Of Teachers Across Oklahoma Just Went On Strike

They’re protesting years of low salaries and reduced spending on students.

Galvanized by the success of teachers in West Virginia, who won a 5% increase from lawmakers after a nine-day walkout, the Oklahoma teachers are asking for a $10,000 raise over the next three years, as well as increased investment in classroom budgets.

In advance of Monday’s protest, teachers told BuzzFeed News they were hunkered down and in it for the long haul. Many said they had spoken with superintendents about using “snow days” or “sick days” to make allowances for the days out, a tactic also used in Kentucky.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.

LINK: Kentucky Teachers Are On Strike Today And Thousands Of Students Have The Day Off

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