Free Republic

Rodney King shot in San Bernardino 10:41 AM PST on Thursday, November 29, 2007 By PAUL LAROCCO The Press-Enterprise Rodney King was apparently shot and wounded on a San Bernardino street corner late Wednesday night before biking home to Rialto to report the incident, police said. King, the 42-year-old man who gained national fame when his 1991 beating by Los Angeles police was caught on videotape, called Rialto police at 11:39 p.m. to report the shooting, said Sgt. Don Lewis. He had been struck in the face and arm with a shotgun, Lewis said. King reported that the shooting occurred...

It first appeared to be an all-too-typical drive-by shooting in San Francisco's troubled Western Addition - distinguished only because it was witnessed by a member of the city's Board of Supervisors. But police now say the incident was far darker: an extreme case of vigilante vengeance involving a father and his 16-year-old son against a supposed street robber blamed for holding up the youth on the way to school. The 39-year-old father, after being summoned to the scene by his son, allegedly ran over the suspected robber in the family car and then urged his son to shoot the prone...

Police: Pa. Boy Stabs Brother Over Game Jul 17 01:16 PM US/Eastern LANSDOWNE, Pa. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed his brother with a steak knife after the 16-year-old refused to turn over a video game controller, authorities said. Jahmir Ricks was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Antwan Ricks at their home outside Philadelphia. The older boy died of a single stab wound to the chest, police said, and a bent and bloody knife was recovered from the home. Lansdowne police said the younger boy told them, "I just stabbed my brother," when they arrived at...

The 800-pound gorilla is back, and as usual folks are pretending the critter ain't in the room. We'll call this particular 800-pound gorilla Joey, in tribute to that 1940s film about the giant ape called Mighty Joe Young. I think it's time Joey got his props. I think it's time we acknowledge Joey. Joey, meet the guys. Guys, shake hands with Joey. "The guys" in this case are those Baltimoreans who, for the past week, have expressed angst and dismay about the appalling way some young black men in this city, addicted to the thug life, dispatch each other with...

A Boston beauty salon was more bloody than beautiful this weekend when a brawl broke out over a customer speaking Spanish. "Speak English! This is America!" one woman reportedly screamed at another at Kathy's Nail Design in the Dorchester section of the city. The remark ignited a massive melee at the salon, with numerous women engaging in manicure-to-manicure combat. "Ten years in this country, I never seen anything like this. The lady says 'Speak English, I don't want to hear Spanish!' and big fight happens," shop owner David Win told the Boston Herald. "There was blood in here and everything....

NEW YORK For nearly three decades, hip-hop relics such as vinyl records, turntables, microphones and boom boxes have collected dust in boxes and attics. On Tuesday, owners of such items _ including pioneering hip-hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Fab 5 Freddy _ will blow that dust off and carry them to a Manhattan hotel to turn them over to National Museum of American History officials. The museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is announcing its plans to embark on a collecting initiative, "Hip-Hop Won't Stop: the Beat, the Rhymes, the...

Darnell Colquitt thought the TV reporters didn’t belong in the Tillicum ’hood and told them so. People tote heat around here, he warned. He started to pedal away on a bicycle, then stopped, turned, and told the reporters what would happen if they were still there when he came back. “You’re dead where you stand,” he said. That, and a hail of racial slurs, earned him a trip to jail Thursday, along with a rare charge from Pierce County prosecutors: a black-on-white hate crime.

The ongoing controversy over the fake CBS documents and the prominent role played in shedding the light on this by Freerepublic.com has caused an unprecendented surge in new memberships on the website. Thursday, September 16, 2004 should be remembered as a landmark day for this website. On that day, more new users signed up on Freerepublic.com than on any single day before. Click here for a running tally of daily new signups that the website keeps. The 390 users signed up on the website eclipsed sign-up spikes caused during other newsworthy events, such as the Florida recount during the 2000...