Things we'd be talking about if the forum wasn't deadFollow

Having worked in graphic design, I need to contradict this story: Every wound with an X-Acto knife is life threatening. Them bitches be sharp.

It did make me laugh, though, that people thought it was performance art.

I've never once had an entry level job, because that would imply said jobs involved gradually moving up and making more money. No. I could have stayed with any of them for the rest of my wretched life and never have made more than $10 an hour.

The first 911 caller reported seeing a man walking down a street shooting a gun in the air. Authorities said they received five more similar calls from witnesses alarmed by what they saw.

A few minutes later, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shot the man to death.

Video captured the encounter Saturday in the South Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood, showing deputies continuing to fire at Nicholas Robertson, 28, after he fell and crawled on the pavement.

Investigators said two deputies fired 33 bullets at Robertson after he refused to drop the gun and walked across a busy street to a filling station where a family was pumping gas.

"When he collapsed, his arms were underneath him, and the gun was still in his hand. There was never a time when the weapon was not in his possession," homicide Capt. Steven Katz said Sunday in response to questions about why the deputies kept shooting the man after he fell.

Authorities released a close-up from security footage showing Robertson stretched out on the ground with a gun in his hand.

Robertson, who was black, was killed as police use of force draws increasing criticism after several deaths of black men by officers have been caught on video in California and throughout the nation.

The deputies confronted Robertson as they investigated 911 calls from the witnesses who said a man was walking down a residential street and then through a busy commercial area holding a weapon and acting strangely.

Witnesses told authorities that Robertson fired six to seven rounds and briefly went into a car wash and a pizza parlor before deputies arrived.

The deputies spotted him in front of a gas station, where two women and three children were inside a car, and ordered him to drop the gun, Katz said. Robertson refused and at one point pointed the gun in the deputies' direction, Katz added.

He said the gun was not loaded but that detectives found two live rounds "in his grasp." The gun was not registered to Robertson and has not been reported stolen. Detectives are trying to track it, Katz said.

Robertson may have been in a dispute with his spouse at home before he went out on the street, but authorities have yet to verify that report, Katz said.

Robertson's wife told the Los Angeles Times that her mother-in-law had called her shortly before the shooting to say Nicholas Robertson was under the influence of alcohol. Nekesha Robertson said she was on her way to get him and had stopped at the same gas station to buy milk before the shooting.

Nekesha Robertson said her husband was a stay-at-home father devoted to the couple's 7-year-old daughter and 6-year-old twins — a boy and a girl — and was not a criminal.

"Anytime you see him, you see him with the kids," she said. "He'd take them to and from school. Help them with homework. He's a daddy — that's his job. He didn't do nothing else."

Other family members said the shooting was not justified and that Robertson may not have heard the deputies' command to drop the gun.

"This man never turned at you and looked at you or pointed the gun at you. Nothing," said Nekesha Robertson's cousin, Monica Reddix. "What they did yesterday was ... point-blank murder."

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell promised the investigation into Robertson's death would be handled "with the utmost professionalism and integrity" and urged anyone with information to come forward.

"There's gonna be criticism anytime there's a deputy-involved shooting. We've seen that in the last two years or so, the sentiment across America has been critical," McDonnell said. "That's why we ... try to be as transparent as we can with the information that we can share."

Robertson's death came the same month that five San Francisco officers shot and killed Mario Woods, 26, after they say he refused commands to drop an 8-inch knife. Police were responding to a stabbing report Dec. 2 when they encountered Woods. Several bystanders filmed the shooting, and their videos circulated online widely.

One man is in the hospital after an officer-involved shooting late Sunday night. It happened at approximately 10:30 p.m. after a Mountain View police officer pursued a vehicle into Denver.

The officer was conducting a traffic stop near 44th Avenue and Yates Street, and told a man to pull his car over. The driver got out with a shotgun and shots were fired by the officer.

The driver is in the hospital with serious injuries, the officer is not injured.

As standard protocol, the officer involved was placed on routine administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Denver Police Department is managing the investigation considering the incident occurred in the City and County of Denver.

Authorities were on scene for nearly eight hours but 44th and Yates were reopened by early Monday morning.

When the Standard hotel opened in downtown Los Angeles in 2002, it signaled a trend that has revamped the city center: youthful sophistication with a touch of glamour.

Taking up the former headquarters of Superior Oil, the hotel — now one of five in a boutique chain founded by Andre Balazs — was transformed with a popular rooftop bar and a lobby decked out in magenta couches.

But early Sunday morning, the modernist 12-story hotel at Flower and 6th streets had become the scene of a fatal shooting and perhaps the latest case in a crime uptick that is sweeping through downtown.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m., gunfire erupted by the hotel entrance and struck four people, according to Officer Rosario Herrera of the Los Angeles Police Department. All four were taken to the hospital, where one person was pronounced dead. As of Sunday night, the Los Angeles County coroner's office had not yet identified the person who was killed.

No arrests have been made, and no suspects were publicly identified by police. Although authorities did not comment publicly on a motive, witnesses said things got out of hand after an apparent argument about some people being kept out of a party.

A 34-year-old man staying at the hotel said the shooting was immediately preceded by a fight in the lobby near the elevator bank. The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he and two friends were walking away from the elevator area when shots pierced through the hubbub.

“We dropped to the floor,” he said, noting that he heard about three rounds fired. He and the friends later fled through the hotel's rear lobby, where guests drop off their cars with valet attendants.

The trio exited the hotel and ran toward its entrance on Flower Street, inadvertently finding the tail end of the shooting, which had spilled out of the hotel onto the sidewalk. “We hit ground again,” the man said. “Everything was like a blur.”

The gunman fled the scene.

One of the victims lay outside the hotel, near a glass door that had shattered, a witness said. Hotel employees said at least two of the victims were found by the elevators.

An employee, who did not want to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to media, said a parking attendant found a handgun about 9 a.m. Sunday in a parking lot nearby.

Guests who had fled the hotel for safety had difficulty returning. Two guests, who declined to be identified, said they did not return to their rooms until after 5 a.m. Hotel staff told the guests they would not be charged for the night.

In a company statement, Standard International Management said it is cooperating with law enforcement. “We are shocked and outraged by the act of violence,” the company said, adding that the shooting was “the latest example of increasing street crime and gun violence in Los Angeles.”

Overall, violent crime in the LAPD's Central Division, which covers parts of downtown, skid row and Chinatown, was up more than 55% through Nov. 21 compared with the same period last year.

To stem the rising crime, the LAPD has added more police officers to the area, including from the department's elite Metropolitan Division.

The GBI and local police are investigating the shooting death of the mayor of Clarkesville, Georgia. Terry Greene died after he was shot at his home Sunday night, according to investigators. Greene was flown to Atlanta Medical Center after the shooting. Staff at the hospital told FOX 5 he died there a short time later.

Monday morning, GBI agents gathered evidence at Mayor Greene's home. Authorities said some sort of "domestic" situation led to the shooting.

In a statement Monday morning, the Clarkesville City Council and City Manager said, "We are all devastated by the tragic loss of our Mayor, colleague and friend Dr. Terry Greene. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family... Thank you for the outpouring of prayers and support."

Investigators would not say Monday morning who fired the shot that killed Mayor Greene. Yellow tape surrounded the home at 12 Asbury Street, with several evidence markers on the front porch. No one else was injured in the shooting.

Dr. Greene was first elected to the Clarkesville city council in 1999 after serving four years on the planning and zoning commission. He was elected mayor in 2005, then re-elected in 2009. He moved to Clarkesville in 1992 and worked as a physician in private practice in Habersham County since then, specializing in internal medicine. He graduated from UGA and the Medical College of Georgia.

The longest I stayed with any of them was probably about 5 years. I never made more than $10 per hour. It wouldn't have mattered if I stayed there for 20 years. There were plenty of folks who had been there about that long and weren't making "good money" and the idea that they ever would is completely absurd.

Especially if you don't have a degree in a useful field.aren't pigeonholed into an already overcrowded field no one is hiring in.