The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.4 Surprise Arrests Made In Viral Crime, Jeffree Star Fan Backlash, Ilhan Controversy, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and let's just jump into it. And the first thing I want to talk about today is just wow. So there's a story out of Baltimore that actually started back in December of 2018. Jacqueline Smith, an electrical engineer in her early 50s who was reportedly in her car with her husband Keith, just after midnight on December 1st. According to reports, while on the road they saw a woman carrying what looked like a bundled up baby with a cardboard sign that read, "'Please help me feed my baby.'"

Starting point is 00:00:26 And in an attempt to help this woman and her child, Jacqueline rolled down her window on the passenger side to give her some money. And then a man who appeared to be thanking the Smiths for their generosity approached the car, but he then reached through the window to grab Jacqueline's wallet. This then led to a struggle in which the man

Starting point is 00:00:39 stabbed Jacqueline in the chest and he stole her necklace. And according to Keith, the woman who held the cardboard sign told the Smith, God bless you, before the pair of panhandlers ran off. Her husband then immediately called 911 to report what happened and rushed Jacqueline to the hospital, but ultimately she didn't make it. And in response to this incident, we saw city officials

Starting point is 00:00:54 as well as local and national news reporting on this tragic situation, remembering Jacqueline as a good Samaritan. With Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh stating, "'You've got people who've got warm hearts "'who want to roll down their windows and give to people. This incident that occurred this past weekend is unconscionable. We saw Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle warning people to use caution with interaction with panhandlers.

Starting point is 00:01:12 They're using this ruse as panhandlers to get the attention of their would-be victims. And we also want to caution the public about engaging with panhandlers and recognizing the fact that not all of them have honest intent, not all of them are in real need. Jacqueline's husband, Keith, also made efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of giving money to panhandlers, saying he would try to pass a law banning panhandlers in his wife's name. Something needs to be done because now you don't know whether or not you're gonna give, is this person gonna take your life or they're gonna say thank you for it. And of course in our incredibly connected world, this wasn't just a Baltimore issue, right? This didn't just raise alarms for Baltimore locals.

Starting point is 00:01:52 I mean, there was concern everywhere. I mean, you even saw the likes of Oprah Winfrey promoting this story. I mean, she's a massive philanthropist and she tweeted, "'This story struck my heart. "'I've done this a thousand times, "'but will think twice before ever doing again. "'To JS family, I hope her death

Starting point is 00:02:04 "'gets people woke to change." And in the replies to that, the top tweets showed a divide on this issue, with one user tweeting, I think the fact that this one horrific experience causes us to pause on future giving is very sad. The world is going to get worse before it gets better, but we can't let these events have us questioning our compassion. Then evil wins. But also in this debate, you saw another writing, Yes, we shouldn't question our compassion, but we do to always be safe since there are safer ways to help others I will choose wisely and along with this kind of thinking we saw Kevin Linda mood president and CEO of health care for the homeless

Starting point is 00:02:32 Give his take on the situation dating. Obviously. This is a horrible incident and a crime as with any crime We shouldn't attribute the actions of an individual to an entire group of people the broader realities of homelessness and the conditions that lead people To beg publicly are also tragedies I think we have to be very mindful not to lump everybody into a single category." And obviously I think this debate is fascinating, but Phil, why are we talking about this story today in 2019? Well, finally, thankfully, yesterday, three months after the stabbing, police finally announced that they had made two arrests. But they did not arrest panhandlers.

Starting point is 00:03:03 At a Sunday press conference, Baltimore police chief Michael Harrison said this. Earlier this morning, after a lengthy investigation, 52-year-old Keith Smart and his daughter, 28-year-old Valeria Smith, were arrested in Harlington, Texas, near the Mexican border, and now have been charged with first-degree murder. That's right, they arrested Jacqueline's husband and her stepdaughter. Harrison didn't release many details about this case because he said he didn't want to compromise the ongoing investigation, but he did say that Keith and his daughter Valeria, stepdaughter to Jacqueline,

Starting point is 00:03:33 were arrested by Texas State Police after authorities found evidence that showed Keith may be trying to flee. So they were arrested on warrants from Baltimore and are currently being held at Cameron County Jail. And according to Jacqueline's brother, Marcel, their family had doubted Keith's story from the very beginning as the investigation

Starting point is 00:03:46 focused heavily on Keith and there were no other suspects. Marcel says that Keith moved out of his home, which Marcel claims was owned by Jacqueline two weeks ago. According to Marcel, Keith handed him the house keys and told him he was moving to Florida, which obviously some said, that's incredibly odd. He's in Baltimore, Maryland, says he's moving to Florida, but somehow during the course of that trip,

Starting point is 00:04:03 he found himself in Texas near the US-Mexico border. Hmm, strange. And so now many people believe that Keith and Valeria tried to take advantage of the stereotypes around crime that exist in Baltimore. With Mayor Catherine Pugh saying in a statement, They were responsible for taking Jacqueline's life with unconscionable cruelty and contrived to do so in our city under the guise of random violence exploiting the legitimate fears of our residents. And in reaction to this arrest, many are outraged as the lie has furthered stereotypes against the homeless.

Starting point is 00:04:29 With Baltimore Sun reporting that in the days after the story first broke, panhandlers in the city saw fewer donations and heard more clicks from locking doors. We saw Kevin Lindamood chime in once again, stating that homeless people are often assumed to be violent when they are far more likely to be victims of violence than the perpetrators.

Starting point is 00:04:43 Also adding, this claim was made and then suddenly there was outright fear of vulnerable people on the street. You turned on any news station and you heard people talking about this news story in a very sensational way. But that's also not to say that there's completely nothing to worry about. When this story first broke, you had people sharing other personal experiences that were negative

Starting point is 00:04:59 or they said dangerous experiences that they had with panhandlers. And that's why regarding this part, I mean, you had the Baltimore police chief saying that the evidence shows that a panhandler was not responsible for this murder. But also saying that people should still use caution when giving in this way.

Starting point is 00:05:11 And personally, I think that is sound advice. But ultimately that is the story as it stands right now. And of course I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts around all of this? I mean other than what the actual hell is this story? But still of course, what are your thoughts around it? And then I wanted to talk about a viewer requested story I didn't actually get to on Friday. A large part of it is I think it's this very

Starting point is 00:05:28 interesting thing related to social media and the interactions people have with the people that they watch. At the center of this story you have Jeffree Star, massive online creator, makeup artist, cosmetics creator. And he was at the center of this story where there was a lot of backlash against him because of something that happened with a fan. And it starts out simple enough. There is a Jeffree Star fan that's very excited they get to work at Ulta soon. Just happens to be the same day as a Jeffree Star release. Jeffree Star quote tweets that, says, oh my god, congrats babe.

Starting point is 00:05:50 And then seemingly within the first two minutes of that post, there is an unrelated tweet response of just a person with makeup on. Jeffree Star responds, you don't need to whore yourself out on every single post. I'm congratulating someone on a job. Why the fuck are you making this about you? Bye.

Starting point is 00:06:02 That user tweets, not a good feeling to be talked like that by someone you've looked up to for years. Jeffree Star responds, maybe you will learn some respect now that someone was honest with you. I never had to use anyone to get where I am. I was congratulating someone on achieving something and you made it about yourself. Can't relate. That user then screenshot that Jeffree Star replies, which Jeffree Star has now deleted. They posted the screenshots with the caption, I've been a fan of Jeffree Star for years, spent hundreds of my own hard earned minimum wage dollars on his products, and to be humiliated in such a way doesn't feel good. I go to college, work, and do makeup,

Starting point is 00:06:28 just trying to make something out of myself, I am crying. Jeffree Star also talked about this on his Instagram story, it's like four minutes long, I'm not gonna include it. The user Jeffree was talking about though then tweeted, "'Jeffree really spent five minutes on his Instagram story "'lying and distorting the truth. "'If you are so real and honest, "'why'd you delete the tweets?'

Starting point is 00:06:41 It was also back and forth regarding if this user had actually been spamming tweets. Their version of events was this was just a one-time thing. But the thing is, that's not technically true. If you do a Twitter advanced search of tweets from this user to Jeffree Star, you do see examples of this user posting responses to Jeffree's tweets. Granted, specifically at first, it's to tweets from Jeffree where he's like, Hey, I'm looking for new beauty gurus.

Starting point is 00:07:00 But then, seemingly after not being picked by Jeffree Star, there are examples that are still not deleted from this user where they responded to completely unrelated tweets, self-promoting again. Now if there are more examples of this, they could have been deleted. If you go to sites like socialblade.com, they'll show you like the number of tweets added or deleted in a day.

Starting point is 00:07:16 So you know, if there's a day where it says that there's 20 new tweets, it could have actually been maybe 28, but eight were deleted. But ultimately, here's what I'll say on this matter. One, I respect when people are trying to hustle, get themselves out there, gain an audience, pretty much any way possible. But ultimately, here's what I'll say on this matter. One, I respect when people are trying to hustle, get themselves out there, gain an audience, pretty much any way possible.

Starting point is 00:07:27 But understand, whether you're doing this under a ton of posts, like people are saying that this user did, or just one time, if you're self-promoting in an unrelated way, it's annoying and you're gonna get blocked. Also, the people responding to the situation essentially saying, oh, we gotta cancel Jeffree Star because of this interaction.

Starting point is 00:07:40 No, and I think that Jeffree Star could have been a lot, lot, lot more vicious. Jeffree Star responded to this creator directly instead of what we often see when everyone's trying to highlight something annoying or stupid and quote tweeting As far as this idea that Jeffree Star deleted the tweets and that is an admission of guilt and lying No, I think it's a simple as Jeffree Star was like the point got across No reason to drag this on that or they realize that even addressing the person that was self-promoting ended up getting that person more followers Yes, I think if I could bring this down to kind of one ultimate point,

Starting point is 00:08:06 when you do something online, especially when your name is attached to it, you have to think to yourself, would I actually do this in the real world? Right, so in this situation, would you do the equivalent of Jeffree Star is on stage with a microphone, he's congratulating a fan

Starting point is 00:08:18 in a way that is also self-promotion, and then some other person throws themselves into the conversation, is like, look, I look so pretty. One, would you do it? And two, do you understand there will probably be consequences for those actions? Yeah, regarding the main situation, there's a story. I have my opinion.

Starting point is 00:08:30 I'd love to know your thoughts, whether you agree or not. But two, if there is a main thing I want to get across with this story is that what is happening online and what the real world is, it's more and more the same thing every day. Then, let's talk about the horrible news out of Alabama, because yesterday afternoon, two tornadoes hit Alabama and have killed at least 23 people in Lee County Ages of the victims range from six years old to late adulthood and the death toll is still expected to rise The National Weather Service in Birmingham is assessing the tornadoes and has classified the first as an EF4 on the enhanced Fujita scale

Starting point is 00:08:58 And EF4 storms are considered devastating and can contain winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour And right now while there is no exact count on the number of people who may be injured or missing, East Alabama Medical Center has said that they have taken in 60 people as a result of the storm, only four of whom remain hospitalized. And Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones estimated that the missing persons count could be in the double digits

Starting point is 00:09:17 with Sheriff Jones also saying that he has never seen a storm in Lee County cause this kind of damage before. I would describe the damage that we have seen in the area as catastrophic. There are simply in some locations, the complete residences are gone. The debris field stretches for hundreds and hundreds of yards. I have not seen this type of level of destruction ever in my experience here in Lee County. sheriff Jones couldn't confirm the amount of property damage But he did say he saw dozens and dozens of destroyed buildings and Alabama powers as it currently has 1,800 customers without service Also, it should be mentioned that tornadoes touched down in Georgia and Florida Sunday as well Just really to get across how devastating this is right now

Starting point is 00:09:58 This is the deadliest tornado in the United States in the last six years and more people have died from these storms alone than died From tornadoes during all of 2018. And also hearing all of that, it's not a surprise that Alabama Governor Kay Ivey declared a national emergency throughout the state. And along with that, we saw President Trump tweet that he would be sending FEMA to Alabama. And so right now, searches for people are still ongoing,

Starting point is 00:10:18 damage is still being assessed. As of this morning, over 100 people were sent out to follow the storm's path. And along with that, we've seen canine units being used to find victims, along with Sheriff Jones saying they are looking to use drones to find victims as well. But as of right now, that's the information we have.

Starting point is 00:10:31 Of course, with a story like this, just my thoughts and well wishes to those affected. Also, if you would like to help, you could do things like donate to the American Red Cross of East Alabama, which is providing shelter, food, and water for the families. Also, if you have a friend or family member in the area who is missing, you can go to the Emergency Management Agency's website.

Starting point is 00:10:46 I'm including links to everything, of course, down below. Yeah, that's where we're going to end this one. And then let's talk about West Virginia. On Friday, the Republican Party of West Virginia sponsored an event called West Virginia's GOP Day at the Capitol, and there they invited the public to a series of activities around West Virginia's Capitol. And this event ended up becoming extremely controversial

Starting point is 00:11:02 because of a poster displayed at a table that falsely associated US Representative Ilhan Omar with the 9-11 terror attack. And for those who don't know who Ilhan Omar is, she's a Somali-American US representative from Minnesota who was one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress this past November. As far as the poster, reportedly it was displayed outside the House of Delegates chamber during the event. At the top it featured a photo of New York's World Trade Center on fire following the attacks on September 11th, 2011. It has the caption, Never forget you said.

Starting point is 00:11:27 And just below that you have a photo of Representative Omar with the caption below her picture reading, I am the proof you have forgotten. So initially you had some people saying that this was put up by Act for America. And as far as who they are, they say they are a national security grassroots organization. However, on the other end you have groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center saying that they are an extremist group and calling them the largest anti-Muslim group in America. Regardless of who actually put the poster up, it reportedly remained at the event for some time and reportedly several House Democrats

Starting point is 00:11:52 objected to the poster and got into an argument with Ann Lieberman, who was the House's principal law enforcement official. During that argument, one Democrat said he heard Lieberman call all Muslims terrorists, but on the other side of that, Lieberman said that the accusation was false, but also then submitted a resignation letter later the same day. Also around this specific note, yesterday in a statement on Facebook, Lieberman wrote, "'I know for certain that I said verbatim that quote, "'not all Muslims are terrorists,

Starting point is 00:12:14 "'but that those 9-11 terrorists were all Muslim,' trying to bring the discussion back to his original complaint." But going back to the argument on Friday, reportedly it got so heated that at one point, the House Minority Whip, Democrat Mike Caputouto admitted to kicking open the chamber doors out of anger, which then reportedly injured a doorkeeper. Which on that note, right now the extent of the doorkeeper's injuries are not known yet, but police are investigating and Caputo may be disciplined. So following all of this outrage, we saw people from both parties condemning this poster.

Starting point is 00:12:40 The West Virginia Democratic Party released a statement describing the poster as quote, "'Just the latest display of hate "'from the Republican majority this legislative session.'" And on the other side of this, we saw the West Virginia Republican Party distancing themselves from the poster saying in a statement, "'One of the exhibitors at our West Virginia Republican "'Party Day at the Capitol displayed a sign "'that we did not approve,

Starting point is 00:12:57 "'we're not aware of before the day started, "'and we do not support.'" With West Virginia's Senate President Republican Mitch Carmichael also condemning the sign in a statement and saying that it was not representative of the values that the vast majority of West Virginians hold dear. But then on the other other side of this we saw people in the Republican Party pointing to the First Amendment. People like delegate Diana Graves saying, While I may not agree with everything that is out there,

Starting point is 00:13:16 I do agree that freedom of speech is something we have to protect. Also as far as the target of this poster, Omar, she responded on Twitter saying, No wonder why I am on the hit list "'of a domestic terrorist and quote, "'assassinate Ilhan Omar is written "'on my local gas station. "'Look no further, the GOP's anti-Muslim display "'likening me to a terrorist rocks in state capitals "'and no one is condemning them.'" Also, if you're not familiar with what she's referencing

Starting point is 00:13:37 there regarding the hit list, her name, along with many other Democrats and public figures, kind of anti-Trump figures, they were reportedly on the hit list of a US Coast Guard officer who was arrested for plotting a terrorist attack. And if this on the hit list of a US Coast Guard officer who was arrested for plotting a terrorist attack. And if this is the first that you're hearing of that, I'll link to a video down below.

Starting point is 00:13:49 We actually, we covered when it happened. Also, a thing of note here, because we haven't talked about Omar before, it's been very interesting to watch her career because it appears that she's been kind of in the middle of a few controversies at any given time. Last month, Omar came under criticism from members of both parties after she posted a tweet

Starting point is 00:14:02 suggesting that pro-Israel groups buy off politicians. In that since-deleted tweet, Omar wrote, "'It's all about the Benjamins, baby.'" This tweet gained widespread backlash from tons of people who believed the post was offensive because it used what many took as an antisemitic trope. Omar later apologized for the tweet, but she was still met with significant criticism.

Starting point is 00:14:18 I mean, you saw prominent Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer condemning Omar, Democrats and Republicans calling for her to resign. President Trump also called her apology lame. That's of note not only because it's something that happened but this past Sunday, in the middle of this controversy over the poster, she tweeted out another comment that is being taken as antisemitic again by some people.

Starting point is 00:14:36 Omar suggested that pro-Israel lawmakers have dual loyalties to Israel and the United States, writing, "'Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman. "'I should not be expected to have allegiance "'slash pledged support to a foreign country "'in to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee the people of the fifth elected Me to serve their interests I am sure we agree on that and that tweet specifically was a response to a tweet Criticizing Omar stance on pro-israel lawmakers from Democratic congresswoman Nita Loewy

Starting point is 00:14:58 But despite Omar's comments about Israel and the backlash she receives she has supporters saying the Democrats are being hypocritical Because many of them attack Omar for her Anti-israel stances, but not when she's the target of Islamophobic or racist attack Although on that note one of the last updates around this story is we're now seeing reports like this from Politico saying House Dems will Vote on a resolution in response to Ilhan Omar's Israel comments So there are multiple parts of this story where we're still seeing fallout and even further development But with that said of course like with everything we talked about on this show I'd love to know your

Starting point is 00:15:25 thoughts on this. I know there's a lot, but yeah, sound off. And that's where I'm going to end today's show. Now remember, if you like this video, you like jumping into it with us on the daily, let us know. Hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want to watch more, be sure to subscribe. Definitely ring that bell to turn on notifications. Which on that note, if you miss either of the last two Philip DeFranco shows

Starting point is 00:15:41 you want to catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch those. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco shows, you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch those. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow twice.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.4 Surprise Arrests Made In Viral Crime, Jeffree Star Fan Backlash, Ilhan Controversy, & More

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