The Daily Moth 6-3-2019
12 killed in Virginia Beach mass shooting; Texas Governor bans red-light camera lights; Trump visits Queen Elizabeth II, tweets criticism against London Mayor and AT&T; Maleah Davis’ remains found and identified; El Salvador’s new President Nayib Bukele uses sign language during inauguration speech; Deaf VRS users post videos of them harassing interpreters
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Monday, June 3. Ready for news?
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12 killed in Virginia Beach mass shooting
On Friday afternoon in Virginia Beach, a city government employee carried out a mass shooting at a municipal building, killing 12 people.
The gunman worked for the city for 15 years and had sent an email that morning saying he wanted to resign. He went into the building at 4 p.m. and shot at people on three floors using two .45 caliber handguns, extended magazines, with one of them having a sound suppressor.
Police officers responded within two minutes, but it took a total of 36 minutes to stop the gunman, who died in a shootout.
Out of the 12 who died, 11 were city workers. One was a contractor. They came from a variety of experiences and backgrounds. One worked for the city for 41 years, while another just started a few months ago.
One of the victims, Ryan Keith Cox, is hailed as a hero because he left from his hiding spot under a desk to help others to safety.
The gunman’s name was DeWayne A. Craddock. The New York Times reported from an unnamed source that he recently started to act strange and that last week, he was in a violent altercation on city grounds and was told he would be disciplined. Many who knew him were shocked that he carried out the shooting.
This is the deadliest mass shooting in 2019 and the worst one since 12 people died in a mass shooting at a bar in Southern California in November.
An analysis on USAToday said getting the sound suppressor would have taken the gunman several months and some money, which suggests he could have planned this shooting for several months. The suppressor doesn’t “silence” the gun, but lowers the sound by 20 to 35 decibels. One survivor said he thought it was a nail gun at first.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/01/us/dewayne-craddock-virginia.html
Victims: https://heavy.com/news/2019/06/virginia-beach-victim-victims-names-photos/
Cox: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/02/728986386/virginia-beach-shooting-survivor-says-victim-laid-down-his-life-to-save-colleagu?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190602
Police Response: https://wtkr.com/2019/06/02/virginia-beach-police-release-timeline-of-response-to-mass-shooting/
Suppressor: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/02/virginia-beach-shooting-gun-suppressor-sign-planned-attack/1322858001/
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Texas Governor bans red-light camera lights
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R ) tweeted a video to announce he has signed a law that will ban red-light traffic cameras in the state. The ban takes effect September 1.
The red-light cameras will take an image of a car’s license plate if they run a red light. Then there will be a fine of $75 in the mail.
chron.com reported that there has been a debate on the cameras, with critics saying it is unconstitutional and causes accidents, while supporters say it helps with safety and generates funds for the city.
The Texas Senator who sponsored this bill said red light cameras violate the Constitution because they presume that the registered owner of the car committed a violation when it might be someone else.
KXAN reported that the cameras gave the city of Austin $5.6 million in fines over eight years.
Not all red-light cameras will be removed on September 1 because an amendment allows cities to leave them until their contracts with private vendors expire.
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Texas-governor-signs-law-banning-red-light-13917111.php?cmpid=hpctp
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1134944087965077507
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/gov-abbott-signs-bill-banning-red-light-cameras/2045750386
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Trump visits Queen Elizabeth II, tweets criticism against London Mayor and AT&T
President Trump and First Lady Melania visited England’s Queen Elizabeth II on an official visit. They had lunch together. Trump also met with Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla. He later had a state banquet with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Trump was busy on Twitter as well, criticizing London Mayor Sadiq Khan for being nasty to him and that he reminds him of a shorter version of NYC Mayor de Blasio.
Khan wrote a column prior to Trump’s arrival that it was un-British to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump because his policies were similar to European dictators in the 1930s and 40s.
Trump also attacked AT&T and CNN, encouraging people to stop using or subscribing to AT&T to force them to make changes to CNN, which is owned by AT&T’s WarnerMedia. Trump said when the world watches CNN and its “negative and fake news,” they get a false picture of USA.
Trump will be in Britain for three days and then visit Ireland. There are large protests planned for tomorrow in London.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-begins-uk-visit-meeting-queen-sparring-with-london-mayor
Khan Column: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/01/donald-trump-state-visit-red-carpet-unbritish
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
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Maleah Davis’ remains found and identified
The remains of Maleah Davis, a 4-year-old girl from Texas who has been missing since May, was found in in a bag in Arkansas on Friday. Today police confirmed that it was Maleah.
Maleah’s mother’s former fiance, Derion Vence, was arrested in May on suspicion of tampering with a human corpse. He was the one who reported her missing and told police that a group of men abducted her, but police found evidence that pointed to him as being responsible.
A community activist, Quanell X, visited Vence in jail and was told that Maleah’s body was in Arkansas. Her remains was found in a garbage bag off the road. There was a mowing crew that hit the bag and displaced her remains. It took several hours to gather the evidence.
Quanell X said that Vence explained that Maleah died in an accident and that he dumped the body.
The mother, Brittany Bowens, was out of town at the time of the disappearance with Vence taking care of her.
The girl’s father, Craig Davis, said he visited her daughter’s apartment but that Vence refused to let him in.
Maleah’s death is still a mystery. CNN reported that she had several brain surgeries to treat an injury and that she and her two brothers were removed from her home for several months by child protective services and was returned in February.
Some protesters have blamed the mother for having something to do with the death, but she said she did not have anything to do with it.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/02/us/maleah-davis-missing-a-month-later/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maleah-davis-case-remains-found-arkansas-identified-those-missing-4-n1013211
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/03/us/texas-maleah-davis/index.html
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El Salvador’s new President Nayib Bukele uses sign language during inauguration speech
El Salvador’s new President Nayib Bukele was inaugurated on Saturday and he used sign language in a part of his speech.
A Deaf man from El Salvador, Carlos Ovidio Osegueda, sent “The Daily Moth” information about this. He said it was the first time in history a president used Salvadorian Sign Language.
[Video clip of Bukele signing at a ceremony. A sign language interpreter is silent in a PIP screen]
An organization based in El Salvador that serves Deaf people, EnSenas, also shared the a of Bukele signing.
[Clip of Bukele signing]
EnSenas told “The Daily Moth” that he basically said that we all need to work together to get a better country and that is a responsibility of all the people: farmers, fishermen, teachers, students, housewives.
There were people who commented that the interpreter in the bottom right screen smiled the whole time President Bukele signed.
Osegueda said that Bukele said he was committed to providing people with disabilities the same opportunities in society as other Salvadorans.
Bukele is 37. His wife’s name is Gabriela. He used to be a mayor of the capital city, San Salvador.
News reports explained that he wants a closer relationship with the U.S. and will work to improve the country, calling it a “sick child.” He said one of his priorities is to stop gang violence and killings.
EnSenas El Salvador: http://bit.ly/2wzgA0e
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3012759/our-country-sick-child-we-all-have-take-care-it-nayib-bukele
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Deaf VRS users post videos of them harassing interpreters
A person sent “The Daily Moth” two screen recordings of two different Deaf people calling Sorenson VRS interpreters to harass them.
The first video showed a male calling a SVRS female interpreter. The interpreter asks if he is ready to call, but the Deaf user asks the interpreter to twerk (show her butt and dance). The interpreter doesn’t understand at first. The Deaf user repeatedly asked her to twerk, then the video cuts out.
The second video showed another male calling a male SVRS interpreter. The male was holding what appears to be a marijuana blunt and offered the interpreter it. The interpreter asks if he is ready to make a call, but the Deaf person ignores him and continues to offer the blunt. This continues until the video stops.
Both videos were posted on a closed Facebook group with almost 15,000 members called “Deaf World Kiss Fist Vloggers.”
I reached out to the founder of the page, Joseph Kolb, and asked him if the videos would be taken down because it could be considered sexual harassment or harassment.
Kolb said the interpreters should be the ones who report the harassment and that it has absolutely nothing to do with him or DWKFV.
I asked if the videos would be taken down based on sexual harassment.
Kolb said he didn’t hear any complaints from SVRS interpreters but that if the company contacts him, maybe he will take it down.
I reached out to Sorenson and they provided a comment.
“VRS is an important communication resource and should not be abused or used for personal entertainment. Harassing or abusing interpreters in any way is a violation of our user agreements. These actions are a waste of resources and taxpayer funds. Sorenson takes abusive calls very seriously and has an internal process to address them immediately. We hope and encourage VRS users will partner with interpreters to ensure a successful call experience. We are currently communicating with those involved in the video.”
Thank you for commenting.
One anonymous person familiar with the VRS industry told me that interpreters often deal with abuse from customers.
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!