A mom stated that when she positioned her 10-month-old daughter in entrance of a gravestone at a Detroit cemetery, it fell on her. The child suffered a fractured cranium.
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DETROIT (FOX 2) – A ten-month-old lady is at Youngsters’s Hospital after a gravestone fell on her at a Detroit cemetery.
Jessica McFadden and her household had been at Gethsemane Cemetery to pay respects to her grandmother on Mom’s Day. When she positioned her daughter, Melani, in entrance of the gravestone for a photograph, it fell on her.
“That gravestone was not correctly positioned,” McFadden stated. “I didn’t know if my child was alive below there. I couldn’t hear my child, I couldn’t see my child.”
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When she acquired the stone off of Melani, she noticed that the kid was damage.
“She had an enormous knot, and it was bleeding on the again of her head, and at that second my daughter began vomiting, and she or he went out,” McFadden stated.
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Melani was rushed to the hospital, the place she was identified with a fractured cranium.
“I’m simply actually offended, I assume you would say. I’m actually offended that this occurred to my child, and I wasn’t there to do something about it,” stated Melani’s father, Jeremy McFadden.
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Legal professional Jonathan Marko is representing the McFadden household. He stated that along with the gravestone not being correctly put in, the cemetery just isn’t being correctly maintained due to brief staffing.
“It’s not like lightning struck and this tombstone out of the blue fell down. This tombstone was a catastrophe ready to occur,” Marko stated. “We’ve got preliminary info that due to the staffing shortages they needed to in the reduction of on what they had been capable of do, however that is what occurs after we reduce funding and put a bare-bones operation in our public providers – they don’t function the way in which that they’re presupposed to do function.”
The household stated it appeared different headstones had additionally fallen over.
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The Metropolis of Detroit owns the cemetery and supplied a press release saying partly:
“Town extends its properly needs to the household and hopes for a full restoration for the kid.
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“Headstones are put in by third social gathering corporations employed by particular person households. The cemetery operator has no file of any considerations about this particular gravestone being in peril of falling, nor had it fallen and been beforehand reset.”
The McFadden household stated the gravestone was put in about 5 years in the past. They’re working to substantiate who put in it.
“Due to poor upkeep – this might’ve been all prevented. Had it been correctly positioned, correctly stored, no matter may’ve been achieved, this might’ve been completely prevented,” Jessica McFadden stated.
The NFL is in some hot water legally over its handling of its popular Sunday subscription service, “Sunday Ticket.”
Specifically, a jury of eight recently found that the league broke antitrust laws by selling Sunday Ticket only on DirecTV, plus at an unnecessarily high price.
The jury came to this conclusion by surmising that offering the service on only one provider and with an inflated price limited the number of subscribers and appealed to CBS’s and Fox’s concerns regarding preserving local ratings. Plus, the jury concluded this subscription model enabled the NFL – a multi-billion dollar industry – to get richer.
Subsequently, the NFL is currently on the hook for a staggering $4.8 billion in damages, with $4.696 billion set to go to the residential class and another approximate $97 million headed to the commercial class (i.e. bars, hotels and restaurants). Additionally, under antitrust law, that $4.696 billion figure gets tripled, equating to $14.088 billion in damages.
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So, what does all this mean for the Lions and the rest of the NFL’s 32 franchises? Per ProFootballTalk, it means that each team will have to pay $440.25 million in damages – nearly $200M more than this year’s salary cap ($255.4M per team).
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the league said of the ruling.
“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge [Philip] Gutierrez throughout the trial.”
Many individuals arrested and charged based on facial recognition scan results often feel compelled to plead guilty, especially if they have a criminal record. This situation can lead to longer sentences and increased scrutiny from law enforcement and prosecutors, contrasting with the case of Robert Williams in Detroit City.
Detroit’s recent $300,000 settlement with Williams raises broader concerns about how facial technology is used to solve crimes. It underscores increasing worries about privacy rights and the importance of establishing protections as technology advances.
TOPSHOT – A live demonstration uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition in dense crowd spatial-temporal technology at the Horizon Robotics exhibit at the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES 2019 in Las Vegas on January 10, 2019. (Photo : DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)
Robert Williams Sued the Detroit Police Department After being Mistakenly Identified as Theft Suspect
Detroit has agreed to pay $300,000 to Robert Williams, who was wrongly accused of theft due to flawed facial recognition technology. Williams sued the Detroit Police Department after he was wrongfully arrested in front of his family and jailed for 30 hours in 2020,
The case was dismissed on Friday when the settlement between Williams and the city was filed in federal court. As part of the lawsuit settlement, the Detroit Police Department will also have to change its policies on how police will utilize this technology to prevent future misidentifications.
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The Associated Press reported that Williams, whose driver’s license photo was wrongly flagged as a match to a suspect in a 2018 shoplifting case at a Shinola store, expressed relief at the settlement.
In a press briefing on Friday, Williams expressed optimism that the new safeguards would improve the facial recognition technology and photo lineup policies. However, he preferred that the police would not use the technology.
The settlement, announced by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School, highlighted persistent concerns regarding the technology’s imperfections and its disproportionate impact on Black individuals, such as Williams.
According to the ACLU, Detroit police have agreed to new restrictions barring arrests solely based on facial recognition outcomes. The policy also prohibits arrests based on photo lineups derived from facial recognition searches.
ACLU attorney Phil Mayor said police could use facial technology to generate leads and then conduct traditional investigative procedures to determine whether the identified person committed a crime before making an arrest.
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Read Also: China Proposes Measures for Facial Recognition Use, Demands ‘Individual Consent’
Policy Reforms of the Detroit Police Department
In August, Chief of the Detroit Police Department James White introduced new policies on facial technology amid ongoing litigation, prompted by an incident where a pregnant woman was mistakenly charged with carjacking.
At the time, White emphasized that police must have additional evidence beyond facial recognition technology to establish a suspect’s capability, opportunity, and intent to commit a crime.
Under the terms of the agreement with Williams, Detroit police will review cases involving facial recognition use from 2017 to 2023. They will notify prosecutors if investigations reveal that arrests were made without corroborating evidence.
As Detroit grapples with the aftermath of settling with Robert Williams, the effects extend beyond the city’s borders. This agreement signals a move towards accountability and changes in how facial recognition technology is used, highlighting the need to balance innovation with civil rights.
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Using this technology responsibly to pursue justice is crucial to prevent harm to individuals like Williams and promote fairness in communities.
Related Article: Meta Hit by a Lawsuit in Texas Due to its Facial Recognition Technology, Allegedly Violated the Users Privacy
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