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friendly_iconoclast
friendly_iconoclast's Journal
friendly_iconoclast's Journal
September 16, 2017
One officer left standing after indictments of Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force members
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-clewell-gun-task-force-20170905-story.htmlBaltimore Police Det. John Clewell worked nearly two years on the department’s gun trace task force — an elite unit that raided homes throughout the city searching for firearms in an effort to quell historic rates of violence.
We’re “the ‘make stuff happen’ police,” Clewell told a Northeast Baltimore couple whose apartment he raided in April 2015, according to his own account of the incident in charging documents.
Now Clewell is the only member of the task force who has not been indicted on federal racketeering charges.
The rest of the unit has been accused of robbing suspects, filing false paperwork and committing overtime fraud. Seven members were indicted by a federal grand jury in March; an eighth was indicted in August.
We’re “the ‘make stuff happen’ police,” Clewell told a Northeast Baltimore couple whose apartment he raided in April 2015, according to his own account of the incident in charging documents.
Now Clewell is the only member of the task force who has not been indicted on federal racketeering charges.
The rest of the unit has been accused of robbing suspects, filing false paperwork and committing overtime fraud. Seven members were indicted by a federal grand jury in March; an eighth was indicted in August.
August 31, 2017
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/24/biolab-gets-cdc-green-light-for-level-research-but-still-needs-city-approval/xgYk6jljuTOyohcWRySTNI/story.html
It's not just the immediate neighborhood that has to worry; it's about a block from the
Southeast Expressway/I-93 and easily visible to commuters when they're
stuck in traffic during rush hour. Anything airborne that got loose
would get distributed rapidly all over the South Shore...
The siting of the biohazard lab in Boston is equally fucked up:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/07/27/boston-university-biohazard-lab-classic-white-elephant-should-stay-that-way/JJjpKtpLe5N7GHjSGKLXML/story.htmlBoston University’s Biohazard lab is a classic white elephant. Should it stay that way?
By Adrian Walker Globe Columnist July 28, 2014
4-5 minutes
Boston University’s $200 million biohazard lab in the South End is like no other building in the city.
The lab is visible from Albany Street but its entrance isn’t, which is part of the security plan for a place where scientists could eventually perform research on some of the most hazardous materials on earth. Walls and floors are roughly twice the thickness of a normal building.
It is built to withstand hurricanes, and its director brags that it will be the safest building in town if another earthquake ever strikes.
It is a lab, tucked in a densely populated neighborhood, that would operate with the most sensitive of designations, BSL-4. That denotes a lab that does research on deadly substances, ones with no vaccines or treatment. The pathogens, if mishandled, would almost certainly prove lethal.
By Adrian Walker Globe Columnist July 28, 2014
4-5 minutes
Boston University’s $200 million biohazard lab in the South End is like no other building in the city.
The lab is visible from Albany Street but its entrance isn’t, which is part of the security plan for a place where scientists could eventually perform research on some of the most hazardous materials on earth. Walls and floors are roughly twice the thickness of a normal building.
It is built to withstand hurricanes, and its director brags that it will be the safest building in town if another earthquake ever strikes.
It is a lab, tucked in a densely populated neighborhood, that would operate with the most sensitive of designations, BSL-4. That denotes a lab that does research on deadly substances, ones with no vaccines or treatment. The pathogens, if mishandled, would almost certainly prove lethal.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/24/biolab-gets-cdc-green-light-for-level-research-but-still-needs-city-approval/xgYk6jljuTOyohcWRySTNI/story.html
BU biolab gets CDC green light for Level 4 research, but still needs city approval
By Evan Allen and Felicia Gans Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent December 24, 2016
6-8 minutes
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory to operate on Boston University’s medical campus in the South End, according to the Boston Public Health Commission.
Scientists in the National Emerging Infectious Diseases lab would have clearance to study the world’s deadliest pathogens, such as Ebola. The biolab still needs to win approval from the city’s health commission before that research can begin.
By Evan Allen and Felicia Gans Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent December 24, 2016
6-8 minutes
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory to operate on Boston University’s medical campus in the South End, according to the Boston Public Health Commission.
Scientists in the National Emerging Infectious Diseases lab would have clearance to study the world’s deadliest pathogens, such as Ebola. The biolab still needs to win approval from the city’s health commission before that research can begin.
It's not just the immediate neighborhood that has to worry; it's about a block from the
Southeast Expressway/I-93 and easily visible to commuters when they're
stuck in traffic during rush hour. Anything airborne that got loose
would get distributed rapidly all over the South Shore...
August 19, 2017
New England Patriots score big win over Random Fascists...
...and I couldn't be happier!
August 16, 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dov_Lopatyn
If Trump succeeds, Jared Kushner will be faced with a choice:
Will he be Chaim Rumkowski, or will he be Dov Lopatyn? Because any Jew who supports Trump from
here on out is a Judenrat, pure and simple...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Rumkowski
Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski (February 27, 1877 – August 28, 1944) was a Polish Jew and wartime businessman appointed by Nazi Germany as the head of the Council of Elders in the Łódź Ghetto during the occupation of Poland in World War II.[1] He accrued exponentially more power by transforming the Ghetto into an industrial base manufacturing war supplies for the Wehrmacht army in the mistaken belief that productivity was the key to Jewish survival beyond the Holocaust. The Germans liquidated the ghetto in 1944. All remaining prisoners were sent to death camps in the wake of military defeats on the Eastern Front of World War II.[1]
Rumkowski is remembered for his speech Give Me Your Children, delivered at a time when the Germans demanded his compliance with the deportation of 20,000 children to Chełmno extermination camp. In August 1944, Rumkowski and his family joined the last transport to Auschwitz,[2] and were murdered there on August 28, 1944 by the Jewish Sonderkommando inmates who beat him to death as revenge for his role in the Holocaust. This account of his final moments is confirmed by witness testimonies of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.
Rumkowski is remembered for his speech Give Me Your Children, delivered at a time when the Germans demanded his compliance with the deportation of 20,000 children to Chełmno extermination camp. In August 1944, Rumkowski and his family joined the last transport to Auschwitz,[2] and were murdered there on August 28, 1944 by the Jewish Sonderkommando inmates who beat him to death as revenge for his role in the Holocaust. This account of his final moments is confirmed by witness testimonies of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dov_Lopatyn
Dov Lopatyn was the head of the Judenrat in Łachwa, Poland (present-day Lakhva, Belarus) in 1941-42. He refused the demand of the Einsatzgruppen that the Lakhva Ghetto inhabitants line up for deportation, and, on 3 September 1942, he led one of the first ghetto uprisings of the war.[1]
More than half of the ghetto population was either killed in the fighting or taken to nearby pits and shot.[citation needed] A number did escape to the Pripet Marshes, where some joined partisan units. Lopatyn joined a communist partisan unit, and was killed on 21 February 1944 by a landmine.
More than half of the ghetto population was either killed in the fighting or taken to nearby pits and shot.[citation needed] A number did escape to the Pripet Marshes, where some joined partisan units. Lopatyn joined a communist partisan unit, and was killed on 21 February 1944 by a landmine.
July 28, 2017
ADAPT has been doing this in DC for many years-no one should *ever* doubt their determination
July 27, 2017
A stack of $15 worth of magnets from Amazon? Meh.
I'd venture to say a rare-earth magnet salvaged from an old hard drive would work just as well-
those suckers are strong, and also make great refrigerator magnets...
Wired: A 'Locked' Smart Gun Can Be Fired With Just $15 Worth of Magnets
https://www.wired.com/story/smart-gun-fire-magnets/A 'Locked' Smart Gun Can Be Fired With Just $15 Worth of Magnets
For gun control advocates, a "smart" gun that only its owner can fire has promised an elusive ideal: If your phone or PC can remain locked until you prove your identity, why not your lethal weapon? Now, for the first time, a skilled hacker has taken a deep look into the security mechanisms of one leading example of those authenticated firearms. He's found that if smart guns are going to become a reality, they'll need to be smarter than this one.
At the Defcon hacker conference later this week, a hacker who goes by the pseudonym Plore plans to show off a series of critical vulnerabilities he found in the Armatix IP1, a smart gun whose German manufacturer Armatix has claimed its electronic security measures will "usher in a new era of gun safety." Plore discovered, and demonstrated to WIRED at a remote Colorado firing range, that he could hack the gun with a disturbing variety of techniques, all captured in the video above...
...The IP1 purports to limit who can fire it by requiring that the shooter wear a special Armatix watch. If the gun and the watch can't connect via a short-range radio signal that extends just a few inches, the gun won't fire. That's the idea, anyway. But Plore showed that he can extend the range of the watch's radio signal, allowing anyone to fire the gun when it's more than ten feet away. He can jam the gun's radio signals to prevent its owner from firing it—even when the watch is inches away and connected. And most disturbingly, he can mechanically disable the gun's locking mechanism by placing some cheap magnets alongside its barrel, firing the gun at will even when the watch is completely absent.
Plore notes that unlike many gun owners, he's not opposed to the principle of a gun with added layers of electronic authentication. But he says the politicized debate over smart guns hasn't examined the far more basic question of whether they actually provide the security they promise. "If you buy one of these weapons thinking it’ll be safer, it should be," Plore says. "In this case, it was so easily defeated, in so many ways, that it really failed to live up to its side of that bargain...Misplaced trust is worse than no trust at all."
For gun control advocates, a "smart" gun that only its owner can fire has promised an elusive ideal: If your phone or PC can remain locked until you prove your identity, why not your lethal weapon? Now, for the first time, a skilled hacker has taken a deep look into the security mechanisms of one leading example of those authenticated firearms. He's found that if smart guns are going to become a reality, they'll need to be smarter than this one.
At the Defcon hacker conference later this week, a hacker who goes by the pseudonym Plore plans to show off a series of critical vulnerabilities he found in the Armatix IP1, a smart gun whose German manufacturer Armatix has claimed its electronic security measures will "usher in a new era of gun safety." Plore discovered, and demonstrated to WIRED at a remote Colorado firing range, that he could hack the gun with a disturbing variety of techniques, all captured in the video above...
...The IP1 purports to limit who can fire it by requiring that the shooter wear a special Armatix watch. If the gun and the watch can't connect via a short-range radio signal that extends just a few inches, the gun won't fire. That's the idea, anyway. But Plore showed that he can extend the range of the watch's radio signal, allowing anyone to fire the gun when it's more than ten feet away. He can jam the gun's radio signals to prevent its owner from firing it—even when the watch is inches away and connected. And most disturbingly, he can mechanically disable the gun's locking mechanism by placing some cheap magnets alongside its barrel, firing the gun at will even when the watch is completely absent.
Plore notes that unlike many gun owners, he's not opposed to the principle of a gun with added layers of electronic authentication. But he says the politicized debate over smart guns hasn't examined the far more basic question of whether they actually provide the security they promise. "If you buy one of these weapons thinking it’ll be safer, it should be," Plore says. "In this case, it was so easily defeated, in so many ways, that it really failed to live up to its side of that bargain...Misplaced trust is worse than no trust at all."
A stack of $15 worth of magnets from Amazon? Meh.
I'd venture to say a rare-earth magnet salvaged from an old hard drive would work just as well-
those suckers are strong, and also make great refrigerator magnets...
June 23, 2017
"Police chiefs will consider the possibility of offering a gun to every frontline police officer in England and Wales, to counter the threat of a marauding terrorist attack, the Guardian has learned.
A discussion paper on the subject has been drawn up for the next meeting of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which wants to look at how to boost armed police numbers to deal with a crisis, following the atrocities in Manchester and London.
The paper is intended to start a debate on the issue among police leaders at the two-day meeting that starts on 12 July – although it is thought at this stage unlikely that any wider arming will be agreed upon. Routine arming is controversial within policing and many do not support it...
...Traditionally, most police in Great Britain are unarmed – unlike their counterparts in Northern Ireland – but police sources say the longstanding principle is under pressure after four terrorist attacks in three months."
Left unsaid is the fact that this change would be a great way to escalate violence during demonstrations...
Guardian: (English and Welsh) police chiefs to discuss offering guns to all frontline officers
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/23/police-chiefs-to-discuss-offering-guns-to-all-frontline-officers"Police chiefs will consider the possibility of offering a gun to every frontline police officer in England and Wales, to counter the threat of a marauding terrorist attack, the Guardian has learned.
A discussion paper on the subject has been drawn up for the next meeting of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which wants to look at how to boost armed police numbers to deal with a crisis, following the atrocities in Manchester and London.
The paper is intended to start a debate on the issue among police leaders at the two-day meeting that starts on 12 July – although it is thought at this stage unlikely that any wider arming will be agreed upon. Routine arming is controversial within policing and many do not support it...
...Traditionally, most police in Great Britain are unarmed – unlike their counterparts in Northern Ireland – but police sources say the longstanding principle is under pressure after four terrorist attacks in three months."
Left unsaid is the fact that this change would be a great way to escalate violence during demonstrations...
May 31, 2017
CeaseFire ‘violence interrupter’ among dozens charged after gang probe
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that Francisco “Smokey” Sanchez has been charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. Sanchez is a “violence interrupter” for CeaseFire and is part of the Gangster Two-Six Nation street gang, according to law-enforcement sources...
...The Cure Violence organization, which is based at the University of Illinois at Chicago and oversees CeaseFire, defended the program while seeming to acknowledge the charge against Sanchez as a “relapse.”
“Although relapses may occur, we need to see the bigger picture of the amazing work and great successes and contributions of interrupters in Chicago and around the country,” Cure Violence said in a statement.
The complaint against Sanchez describes how police and federal agents obtained a search warrant Wednesday and went to Sanchez’s Brighton Park home at 6 a.m. Thursday. While searching his bedroom, they found a Colt .45-caliber handgun inside a metal container designed to look like a book. The lid of the container was not fully closed, the complaint noted, and the butt of the pistol could be seen through the opening.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/gang-leaders-out-of-supermax-say-they-want-to-help-but-cops-worry/
Gang leaders out of Supermax say they want to help, but cops worry
Frank Main @FrankMainNews | email
Willie “Minister Rico” Johnson, Francisco “Smokey” Sanchez and Melvin “Head” Haywood all did time in Tamms Correctional Center, a Supermax prison where gang leaders were held to keep them from communicating with their underlings.
Now, they’re back on the street after completing prison terms for murder. And they’re communicating with gang members again — but this time as “interrupters” for the anti-violence group CeaseFire. The job pays about $33,000 a year, records show.
CeaseFire has been celebrated for its success in stopping street violence in a widely seen documentary, “The Interrupters,” but many cops still view it with skepticism since some of the group’s employees have been charged with serious crimes while working there.
Gary Slutkin, the founder of CeaseFire, said job screeners for the program make sure employees like Johnson, Sanchez and Haywood are no longer active in gangs. Still, the screeners are looking for employees who can speak to gang members in the language of the streets and can gain their trust, Slutkin said.
https://www.thetrace.org/2017/02/chicago-homicides-cure-violence-interrupters/
On Patrol With Chicago’s Last Violence Interrupters
by Ann Givens
@annthetrace
Chicago outreach worker Francisco Sanchez had been home from work only a few minutes when his cell phone rang again. It was a little after 3 a.m.
You need to head back out, the caller said. Three people just got shot on your block.
Sanchez walked toward the red and blue flashing police lights, looking for familiar faces in the crowd. As a violence interrupter in Chicago, his job is to use his ties in southwest Chicago — and his credibility as a onetime gang leader — to stop shootings before they multiply. In a case like the one he was fielding now, that meant finding out who the victims were, and making sure their friends didn’t hatch a plan to retaliate.
http://www.tiohardiman.com/bio
Tio Hardiman, Executive Director for Violence Interrupters, NFP, has dedicated his life and career to community organizing for peace and social change. In 1999, Mr. Hardiman joined CeaseFire, an award-winning public health model that has been scientifically proven to reduce shootings and killings. In 2004, Tio created the Violence Interrupters Initiative.
In 2004, under Tio’s direction, CeaseFire received additional funding from the State of Illinois to immediately expand from 5 to 15 communities and from 20 to 130 Outreach Workers and Violence Interrupters.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-ceasefire-illinois-director-ousted-after-domestic-battery-arrest-20130603-story.html#nt=featured-content
CeaseFire Illinois director ousted after domestic battery arrest
Carlos Sadovi and Jeremy Gorner
The longtime head of an anti-violence group that works to stem gang shootings in Chicago was dismissed Monday, just days after his arrest on a charge that he beat up his wife.
The University of Illinois at Chicago, which operates CeaseFire Illinois, said the contract of Tio Hardiman as director would not be renewed at the end of the month.
Reached by telephone, Hardiman said he felt betrayed by CeaseFire and its founder Dr. Gary Slutkin, who initially expressed support for him after the arrest on Friday.
“I feel shipwrecked and abandoned,” Hardiman said Monday night. “I feel Dr. Gary Slutkin in particular is dead wrong with all of the heavy lifting I’ve done with CeaseFire during my entire career.”
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-06-05/news/ct-met-tio-hardiman-court-hearing-20130605_1_alison-hardiman-ferdinand-serpe-tio-hardiman
Order of protection issued against anti-violence activist
June 05, 2013|By Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune reporter
A Cook County judge issued an order of protection Tuesday barring fired CeaseFire director Tio Hardiman from any contact with his wife as more details emerged about his arrest nearly 14 years ago for beating another woman.
Court records obtained by the Tribune show that Hardiman's then-wife obtained an order of protection against him in 1999 after she alleged that he had knocked her to the floor and repeatedly beat her on the face, head and body.
In the latest incident, Hardiman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery on allegations he punched and kicked his current wife, Alison, on Friday at their west suburban Hillside home. Prosecutors said she suffered bruises, a cut to her neck and a swollen lip.
Hardiman, who was dismissed Monday from his post heading the anti-violence group, has denied guilt.
CeaseFire has become the new Mayors Against Illegal Guns- and not in a good way:
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/ceasefire-violence-interrupter-is-gang-member-faces-federal-charge/amp/CeaseFire ‘violence interrupter’ among dozens charged after gang probe
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that Francisco “Smokey” Sanchez has been charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. Sanchez is a “violence interrupter” for CeaseFire and is part of the Gangster Two-Six Nation street gang, according to law-enforcement sources...
...The Cure Violence organization, which is based at the University of Illinois at Chicago and oversees CeaseFire, defended the program while seeming to acknowledge the charge against Sanchez as a “relapse.”
“Although relapses may occur, we need to see the bigger picture of the amazing work and great successes and contributions of interrupters in Chicago and around the country,” Cure Violence said in a statement.
The complaint against Sanchez describes how police and federal agents obtained a search warrant Wednesday and went to Sanchez’s Brighton Park home at 6 a.m. Thursday. While searching his bedroom, they found a Colt .45-caliber handgun inside a metal container designed to look like a book. The lid of the container was not fully closed, the complaint noted, and the butt of the pistol could be seen through the opening.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/gang-leaders-out-of-supermax-say-they-want-to-help-but-cops-worry/
Gang leaders out of Supermax say they want to help, but cops worry
Frank Main @FrankMainNews | email
Willie “Minister Rico” Johnson, Francisco “Smokey” Sanchez and Melvin “Head” Haywood all did time in Tamms Correctional Center, a Supermax prison where gang leaders were held to keep them from communicating with their underlings.
Now, they’re back on the street after completing prison terms for murder. And they’re communicating with gang members again — but this time as “interrupters” for the anti-violence group CeaseFire. The job pays about $33,000 a year, records show.
CeaseFire has been celebrated for its success in stopping street violence in a widely seen documentary, “The Interrupters,” but many cops still view it with skepticism since some of the group’s employees have been charged with serious crimes while working there.
Gary Slutkin, the founder of CeaseFire, said job screeners for the program make sure employees like Johnson, Sanchez and Haywood are no longer active in gangs. Still, the screeners are looking for employees who can speak to gang members in the language of the streets and can gain their trust, Slutkin said.
https://www.thetrace.org/2017/02/chicago-homicides-cure-violence-interrupters/
On Patrol With Chicago’s Last Violence Interrupters
by Ann Givens
@annthetrace
Chicago outreach worker Francisco Sanchez had been home from work only a few minutes when his cell phone rang again. It was a little after 3 a.m.
You need to head back out, the caller said. Three people just got shot on your block.
Sanchez walked toward the red and blue flashing police lights, looking for familiar faces in the crowd. As a violence interrupter in Chicago, his job is to use his ties in southwest Chicago — and his credibility as a onetime gang leader — to stop shootings before they multiply. In a case like the one he was fielding now, that meant finding out who the victims were, and making sure their friends didn’t hatch a plan to retaliate.
http://www.tiohardiman.com/bio
Tio Hardiman, Executive Director for Violence Interrupters, NFP, has dedicated his life and career to community organizing for peace and social change. In 1999, Mr. Hardiman joined CeaseFire, an award-winning public health model that has been scientifically proven to reduce shootings and killings. In 2004, Tio created the Violence Interrupters Initiative.
In 2004, under Tio’s direction, CeaseFire received additional funding from the State of Illinois to immediately expand from 5 to 15 communities and from 20 to 130 Outreach Workers and Violence Interrupters.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-ceasefire-illinois-director-ousted-after-domestic-battery-arrest-20130603-story.html#nt=featured-content
CeaseFire Illinois director ousted after domestic battery arrest
Carlos Sadovi and Jeremy Gorner
The longtime head of an anti-violence group that works to stem gang shootings in Chicago was dismissed Monday, just days after his arrest on a charge that he beat up his wife.
The University of Illinois at Chicago, which operates CeaseFire Illinois, said the contract of Tio Hardiman as director would not be renewed at the end of the month.
Reached by telephone, Hardiman said he felt betrayed by CeaseFire and its founder Dr. Gary Slutkin, who initially expressed support for him after the arrest on Friday.
“I feel shipwrecked and abandoned,” Hardiman said Monday night. “I feel Dr. Gary Slutkin in particular is dead wrong with all of the heavy lifting I’ve done with CeaseFire during my entire career.”
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-06-05/news/ct-met-tio-hardiman-court-hearing-20130605_1_alison-hardiman-ferdinand-serpe-tio-hardiman
Order of protection issued against anti-violence activist
June 05, 2013|By Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune reporter
A Cook County judge issued an order of protection Tuesday barring fired CeaseFire director Tio Hardiman from any contact with his wife as more details emerged about his arrest nearly 14 years ago for beating another woman.
Court records obtained by the Tribune show that Hardiman's then-wife obtained an order of protection against him in 1999 after she alleged that he had knocked her to the floor and repeatedly beat her on the face, head and body.
In the latest incident, Hardiman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery on allegations he punched and kicked his current wife, Alison, on Friday at their west suburban Hillside home. Prosecutors said she suffered bruises, a cut to her neck and a swollen lip.
Hardiman, who was dismissed Monday from his post heading the anti-violence group, has denied guilt.
May 30, 2017
"Hope you also visited those men that gave their all." IMO, Rick Best is one of them
And so was 2LT Richard Wilbur Collins III:
https://mic.com/articles/178305/people-are-honoring-richard-collins-iii-rick-best-for-standing-up-to-racism#.oVDv8Jcfg
"Newly-commissioned U.S. Army Second Lieutenant Richard Wilbur Collins III and Army veteran Rick Best were recently killed reportedly combating white supremacy in favor of American ideals in their own country...
...Collins, 23, who was black, was three days from officially graduating from Bowie State University in Maryland when he was fatally stabbed by a white man who authorities say was a member of a suspected white supremacist Facebook group called "Alt Reich."
Collins stood his ground while visiting the University of Maryland's campus with friends that morning when his alleged killer, 22-year-old Sean Urbanski, approached the group, yelling at them to "step left if you know what's best for you."
When Collins refused, Urbanski stabbed him in the chest."
May 19, 2017
The Mad King of Juice: Inside the Dysfunctional Origins of Juicero
https://gizmodo.com/the-mad-king-of-juice-inside-the-dysfunctional-origins-1795330639Juicero began in secret. The startup, a sort of Keurig for cold-pressed plant-water—which made headlines for the $120 million in venture capital it secured from the likes of Google and Kleiner-Perkins between 2013 and 2015, and again when it announced its wi-fi-connected countertop appliance would cost a jaw-dropping $700 on launch—intended to keep its business free from prying eyes, either because it feared corporate espionage, mockery, or both. Was it the future of convenient health food, or an overfunded subscription service for bags of chopped up plants?
Founded in 2013 by Doug Evans, erstwhile CEO of New York juice company Organic Avenue, Juicero coupled a bizarre set of interests: a curdled, monopolized tech industry which has run dry on useful new ideas; the medically-vague but burgeoning wellness industry’s promise to fill a physical and spiritual void, stripped away at least in part by tech itself. Two types of snake oil, expertly blended to suit their flavor profiles—and true to the spirit of both industries, accessible only to the wealthy...
...Evans’ micromanaging style and refusal to defer to his own employees’ expertise caused the company to hemorrhage talent. One former employee watched Juicero churn through three top executives—a CFO, a COO, and a VP of Operations—in under a year. In spite of tremendous funding and an impressive talent pool in its early days, disagreements, especially with Evans led to a “legendary” volume of exits or firings. Evans bragged before launch of having 12 PhDs on staff. Several have since departed according to their Linkedin profiles, and a source claimed around a quarter of those PhDs remain today.
And what Evans wants, allegedly, can range from impractical to humiliating. Several employees related an anecdote in which flies had begun cropping up in the company’s San Francisco office. Evans—a vegan who at one point only allowed his employees to expense vegan meals on business trips—refused to implement a solution that would kill them. “I had to interview companies and ask if they had a catch-and-release program,” an employee recounted. “I went through links to help him understand that even that is not humane. It’s actually more stressful on the pests for you to catch them and relocate them.” Gizmodo could not confirm how or if the issue was resolved, and Juicero declined to make Evans available for an interview...
Founded in 2013 by Doug Evans, erstwhile CEO of New York juice company Organic Avenue, Juicero coupled a bizarre set of interests: a curdled, monopolized tech industry which has run dry on useful new ideas; the medically-vague but burgeoning wellness industry’s promise to fill a physical and spiritual void, stripped away at least in part by tech itself. Two types of snake oil, expertly blended to suit their flavor profiles—and true to the spirit of both industries, accessible only to the wealthy...
...Evans’ micromanaging style and refusal to defer to his own employees’ expertise caused the company to hemorrhage talent. One former employee watched Juicero churn through three top executives—a CFO, a COO, and a VP of Operations—in under a year. In spite of tremendous funding and an impressive talent pool in its early days, disagreements, especially with Evans led to a “legendary” volume of exits or firings. Evans bragged before launch of having 12 PhDs on staff. Several have since departed according to their Linkedin profiles, and a source claimed around a quarter of those PhDs remain today.
And what Evans wants, allegedly, can range from impractical to humiliating. Several employees related an anecdote in which flies had begun cropping up in the company’s San Francisco office. Evans—a vegan who at one point only allowed his employees to expense vegan meals on business trips—refused to implement a solution that would kill them. “I had to interview companies and ask if they had a catch-and-release program,” an employee recounted. “I went through links to help him understand that even that is not humane. It’s actually more stressful on the pests for you to catch them and relocate them.” Gizmodo could not confirm how or if the issue was resolved, and Juicero declined to make Evans available for an interview...
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