Top 5 Live-WURD Wednesday July 22
1. U.S. hits top terror leader in strike
The leader of a terrorist group bent on attacking the United States and other western targets was killed in a targeted strike earlier this month, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Muhsin al Fadhli, a Kuwaiti-born jihadi with a $7 million bounty on his head from the U.S. government, was the leader of the Khorasan Group — a collection of senior al Qaeda members who had moved into Syria amid the chaotic destruction of the country in recent years.
“His death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of al-Qaeda against the United States and our allies and partners,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a written statement.
According to Davis, the strike occurred on July 8 while al Fadhli was traveling in a vehicle near Sarmada, Syria.
While terrorist groups like ISIS and the al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra are responsible for much of the violence inside Syria, the Khorasan Group was believed to direct most of its energy plotting external attacks in the West.
2. Cops: We can’t name officers involved in beating
SUPPORTERS OF TYREE Carroll gathered in East Germantown last night to demand identification of the dozen or more officers involved in the 22-year-old’s controversial April arrest.
Chief Inspector Myron Patterson and Capt. Sekou Kinebrew from the Philadelphia Police Department’s 14th District heard concerns from residents at district headquarters on Haines Street near Germantown Avenue.
About 40 residents attended the district’s monthly community meeting, mostly to ask for release of the names of the officers involved in Carroll’s arrest on a drug-possession charge. Video that went viral this month shows Carroll surrounded by at least 12 officers, some of whom are seen punching and kicking him.
“I want them to say there’s a right way of policing,” resident Rebecca Subar said during the meeting.
“It would mean so much for you to tell the community that it’s not OK to have a dozen … officers surrounding another person.”
3. Police officer shoots man to death in Cincinnati traffic stop
Cincinnati police are investigating the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a University of Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop Sunday.
The dead man, who was shot in the head, was Samuel Dubose, a 43-year-old father of 13 children, according to CNN affiliate WKRC-TV. A CNN records search showed that Dubose had more than 60 arrests.
Authorities identified the officer as Ray Tensing, who has five years’ experience in law enforcement and who has worked for the University of Cincinnati for over a year. He is white.
According to the Cincinnati Police Department, Tensing saw Dubose driving without a front license plate and tried to pull him over. Police said Dubose continued for about a mile before stopping.
Tensing asked several times to see Dubose’s driver’s license. Police said Dubose handed the officer a bottle of alcohol.
4. Temple faculty union chief calls for trustee to step down over Cosby case involvement
The head of the Temple University faculty union said that board of trustees chairman Patrick O’Connor’s representation of comedian Bill Cosby in a sexual-assault lawsuit posed a conflict of interest and that O’Connor should “seriously consider” stepping down.
Art Hochner, president of the Temple Association of University Professionals, said Monday that O’Connor should have either stepped down from the Temple board before representing Cosby in 2005, or asked Cosby to find another lawyer.
“Certainly Cosby’s reputation and the stain on it spreads to Temple,”
Hochner said. “I think [O’Connor’s representation of Cosby] shows error in judgment as a lawyer.”
Temple did not respond to requests for comment on Hochner’s suggestion that O’Connor resign, nor did it say whether O’Connor had recused himself from board discussions of Cosby’s legal issues. O’Connor also did not respond to calls from an Inquirer reporter for comment.
5. Dashcam video of Sandra Bland traffic stop released
Dashcam video shows the moment 28-year-old Sandra Bland was stopped by Texas trooper Brian Encinia for failing to signal a lane change.
Encinia asks Bland to put out her cigarette. Bland refuses. The trooper demands that she get out of the car, opening the door with his taser drawn.
The two drift out of camera view. Encinia claims that’s when Bland assaulted him. A witness captured part of the arrest on his cell phone.
“You slammed my head into the ground, do you even care about that,” Bland is heard saying in the video. “I can’t even hear.”
Three days later, Bland was found dead in a cell. The medical examiner ruled it a suicide.
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Solomon Jones is an Essence bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is the creator and editor of Solomonjones.com and morning host on 900 am WURD radio. Click here to learn more about Solomon
