Cavaliers’ Iman Shumpert Claims FOX Series Stole His Character – And Girlfriend Teyana Taylor’s

The FOX show “Empire” has shaken up prime-time television on Wednesday nights, says Cleveland.com.

It’s a successful musical drama television series centered on family members competing at all lengths to gain control of Empire Enterprises, a family-owned record label company.

“Empire” provides a genuine glimpse into what it’s like behind the scenes of the music and entertainment industry.

But according to Cleveland.com, maybe the characters are almost too real.

Cleveland.com asked Cleveland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert if he checks out the show and if he thought that he bears a striking resemblance to the character Hakeem (played by Brysherer Gray), the rap artist.  Hakeem is the youngest son of the CEO of Empire.

Hakeem has the mannerisms, the look, and the sound of Shumpert, according to Clevelan.com. He even has a similar high-top fade haircut.

Shumpert told Northeast Ohio Media Group he doesn’t watch the show.

What he would reveal next caught Cleveland.com completely off guard.

In the series, Hakeem has a girlfriend named “Tiana” (played by Seraya McNeill), who’s an R&B singer and dancer signed to the record company.

Ironically, the fictional character “Tiana” has a strangely similar persona to Teyana Taylor, a real-life R&B singer, dancer and actress.

Aside from having the same name and likeness as Taylor, the fictional character, Tiana, has an identical hairstyle.  Teyana Taylor is widely known for her signature appearance.   It’s hard not to see the similarities.

But there’s more.

Shumpert is dating Teyana Taylor, and Hakeem is dating Tiana in the show. They’re a real-life couple and believe “Empire” is hijacking their character without permission or compensation.

“They’re using my girl’s character, her style, her look and she’s not getting anything for it,” Shumpert said. “They didn’t even change her name. They could have at least let my girl audition for the part instead of stealing her character completely.

“And come on man, they’re really using a guy with a flat top like me. Come on. That’s ridiculous,” says Shumpert.

“They never called us. We were blindsided. We found out by our family and fans when the show aired.”

(Updated post)

Joan Jett To Be Inducted Into Cleveland Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

Joan Jett Loves that she and her band The Blackhearts will be inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame when the ceremonies are in Cleveland, Ohio.  Joan and seven others will be in the Rock Hall’s Class of 2015, and they will be inducted into the Hall in ceremonies in Cleveland in April.

“She and the city are intertwined like the fingers of lovers’ hands,” states Cleveland.com.

“Where else should it be?” Jett said in a call to her New York office to discuss her induction into the Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 18, in Public Hall.

“If I’m going to be inducted, Cleveland is where it should be,” she said of the city and its people, for whom she feels such a connection, according to Cleveland.com.

“I guess I’m like them,” Jett said. “I don’t find Cleveland to be a kind of place that puts on any airs, and I don’t either.”

She and Cleveland have a history.  “We played in Cleveland with the Runaways at the Agora Ballroom many times. We found that people seemed to really like us there.

“I have warm feelings about Ohio and rock ‘n’ roll and how they really love it,” she said.

Jett was also in the 1987 movie “Light of Day,” which was filmed in Cleveland at the Euclid Tavern featuring Jett and Michael J. Fox as sibling rockers.

“To do ‘Light of Day’ with Michael J. Fox there was an awesome thing,” Jett said, with a smile.  “We got together a band – Michael plays, and we had other instruments, so the actors could get a sense of what it’s like to play in a band. That is a great thing to be able to do that.”

She was asked how it affected her to work in the “man’s world” of Rock & Roll.

“You can’t take anything for granted,” Jett said. “You just have to put your head down and work. Even knowing the female thing has affected it, I can’t be bitching.”

Joan has a tenacity that meant quitting in the face of naysayers and such was just not an option.

“It’s not in my nature to be told what I can do,” Jett said. “If you’re not hurting anybody and you want to play rock ‘n’ roll, well, a lot of people would tell me that girls can’t play guitar. They should be playing Beethoven, not rock ‘n’ roll, because rock ‘n’ roll is sexual, and up till now, girls weren’t allowed to own their sexuality.”

“Before long, I was in it so deep I didn’t want to do anything else,” she said.

But Jett apparently isn’t looking to change careers.  “I do still enjoy it,” she said. “The part that feels like a job is the traveling aspect, but getting onstage never feels like a job to me. It’s an honor to be able to do this.”

Tamir Rice’s Death Is His Own Fault, Claims City Of Cleveland

TYT Network

The mayor of Cleveland has apologized after the city claimed that Tamir Rice died because of his own actions, according to BuzzFeed. Rice was the 12-year-old boy shot dead by a police officer in November while holding a toy gun.

Speaking at a news conference Monday, Mayor Frank Jackson said that a complaint detailing the city’s defense against a lawsuit filed on behalf of the boy’s family used a poor choice of words. He said he was sorry for the “insensitivity of those words.”

Cleveland Seeks Outside Investigators For Boy’s Shooting

According to the AP, the city of Cleveland is hoping to hand over the investigation of a 12-year-old boy’s fatal shooting by police to an outside agency, as well as future investigations of all deadly use-of-force cases.

Michael McGrath, the city’s safety director and its former police chief, has been in talks with Cuyahoga County officials for the sheriff’s office to handle the inquiry, city spokesman Dan Ball told the Northeast Ohio Media Group for a story Thursday.

For now, Cleveland police investigators are collecting evidence and conducting interviews related to the Nov. 22 shooting of Tamir Rice.

The boy was carrying an airsoft gun that shoots nonlethal plastic pellets when a rookie officer shot him at a Cleveland playground.

Surveillance video released by police shows Tamir being shot less than two seconds after the patrol car stopped near him. Officer Timothy Loehmann told the boy to put his hands up, but he didn’t, according to police.

Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Jeff Follmer recently said that officers had no way of knowing the boy was carrying an airsoft gun that only looked like a real firearm.

Incoming Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish has participated in multiple meetings between Cleveland and sheriff’s officials since the shooting, said Dennis Williard, a spokesman for Budish’s transition team.

Tamir Rice

Here is more info on Tamir Rice.

On November 24, Cleveland officials announced that a grand jury would hear the case of Tamir Rice.  They will decide whether police officers Loehmann or Garmback will be charged with Rice’s death.  Both officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave.

On December 5, Rice’s family filed a wrongful death claim against Loehmann, Garmback, and the city of Cleveland in the United States District Court Northern District of Ohio.

The eight-page claim accused Loehmann and Garmback of acting “unreasonably, negligently [and] recklessly” and that “[h]ad the defendant officers properly approached Tamir and properly investigated his possession of the replica gun they would undoubtedly have determined … that the gun was fake and that the subject was a juvenile”.  It also accused the city of Cleveland for failing to properly train both officers, as well as failing to learn about the Independence city internal memo made of Loehmann.

Also, dozens of people showed up for a morning rally outside the Cudell Recreation Center Saturday morning in Cleveland to remember Tamir Rice.  A contingent of residents from Ferguson, Missouri were also at the rally in Cleveland.

There were also protests in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend.

David Pakman video.

More:

http://www.wtam.com/articles/wtam-local-news-122520/a-rally-for-tamir-rice-13085540/#ixzz3Me6dUiqa

Cleveland Police Demand Apology For Andrew Hawkins’ Protest Of Rice And Crawford Deaths

The union for the Cleveland police demanded an apology from Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins after he walked onto the field with a t-shirt that read “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford” over his jersey.

Rice was the 12-year-old who Cleveland police shot in November after they received calls that he was playing with a toy gun in a park near his home; Crawford was killed by police in August in an Ohio Walmart while holding an air gun. Both were black.

TYT video.

More:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12033545/andrew-hawkins-cleveland-browns-says-t-shirt-warrant-apology-police

Horrible: Media Tries To Dig Up Dirt On Tamir Rice’s Family

The Cleveland Plain Dealer tries to dig up dirt on the father of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot by police in Cleveland who mistook his fake gun for a real one.

Sam Seder video.

Family Of Tamir Rice Files Lawsuit Against Cleveland Police

The family of the 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer over a toy gun have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the officers “recklessly” shot the boy and then failed to give him immediate medical care.

Officer Timothy Loehmann, who fired the fatal shots, Loehmann’s partner Officer Frank Garmback and the City of Cleveland are all named as defendants in the suit.

The suit accuses Loehmann and Garmback of acting “unreasonably, negligently, recklessly, wantonly, willfully, knowingly, intentionally, and with deliberate indifference to the safety and rights of Tamir Rice.”

The suit also accuses the officers of failing “to secure timely medical assistance.” Surveillance video of the incident shows that Rice wasn’t given first aid by the officers until a medically-trained FBI agent arrived on the scene.

The lawsuit also attacks the policies of the City of Cleveland as a whole.

“Defendant City of Cleveland has a policy, practice and custom of using excessive force on African American citizens and that policy practice and custom was the moving force behind the excessive force used on Tamir Rice and proximately caused his suffering and death,” the suit states.

The suit does not specify how much money Rice’s relatives are asking for in compensation and damages but it asks that the issue be brought before a jury.

Cleveland Boy With Fake Gun Dies

According to the AP, a 12-year-old boy brandishing what turned out to be a replica gun died Sunday after he was shot by a Cleveland police officer responding to a 911 call about a person waving a gun in a park.

Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said the officer fired twice after the boy pulled the fake weapon — which was lacking the orange safety indicator usually on the muzzle — from his waistband.

The boy did not make any verbal threats toward the officer or point the gun, but reached into his waistband and grabbed it after being told to raise his hands, Tomba said.

“That’s when the officer fired,” he said.

Police said the weapon was an “airsoft” type replica gun that resembled a semi-automatic pistol. The orange safety indicator had been removed, police said.

http://news.yahoo.com/boy-fake-gun-dies-shot-ohio-officer-170034176.html