Controversial S#!T

Newly released body cam video of an insane police stop -- where the suspect threatens to shoot a cop -- shows both restraint by the officer and how wildly different traffic stops can be based on the color of a suspect's skin.

The incident went down a few days ago in Ohio, when Officer Mike Sigman and his K9 Ben showed up to help the Ohio State Highway Patrol during a traffic stop. The driver, Merak Burr, was instantly uncooperative. Cops notice there's a gun in his vehicle ... a loaded, Beretta 9MM semi-automatic handgun on the front passenger seat.

-- He refuses to put his hands on the steering wheel

-- He refuses to get out of the car

-- He puts his hand on his gun

-- He twice threatens to shoot the cop

-- He closes the car door and speeds away

Officer Sigman exercised incredible restraint, but it's impossible not to think about case after case where a Black suspect is shot and killed for being way less threatening than the nutcase behind the wheel.

The fact that he threatens to shoot the officer several times and then lowers his hands to shut the door and then speeds off ... well, as they say, that'll get you killed.

Prince Charles comes off as a gigantic a-hole in the latest installment of Netflix's "The Crown," and it has royally pissed off his fam and at least one member of Parliament.

The hubbub is over the way Charles is portrayed in his relationship with Diana. The show paints Charles as bullying, cruel and supremely disloyal. Netflix has said it took liberties with the facts, but that apparently has been lost on viewers.

It's interesting ... although Netflix claimed a lot of the show was fiction, it put a video from a Diana documentary on its social media account ... in which you hear Diana tearfully complain Charles was clearly in love with Camilla ... and some folks in Great Britain think all this does is double down on the perception "The Crown" accurately reflects the relationship between Charles and Diana.

The Royals have taken a lot of incoming ... hateful tweets based on people's perception "The Crown" is factual.

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, a member of the House of Lords, called the series a "hurtful, false, misleading and poisonous impression of people in our public life who cannot fight back."

Nothing like a Christmas tree to get the office in the spirit, but an Alabama Sheriff's Office is decorating its tree with mug shots ... and lots of people aren't merry about it.

The Mobile County Sheriff's Office has hung what it calls "Thugshots" -- mug shots of all the people it arrested this past year. The office posted a photo Thursday of the tree -- which also appears to have jail-issued sandals as the star.

The FB post starts with "HAPPY THUG THURSDAY MOBILE," adding ... "We have decorated our Tree with THUGSHOTS to show how many Thugs we have taken off the streets of Mobile this year!"

Right off the bat, the liberal use of the word "thug" rubbed some people the wrong way.

The post goes on to offer a Christmas special for "ALL MOBILE COUNTY THUGS" ... they can come to the property room, pick out some stolen goods ... then get hauled off to jail. They also joked about free COVID tests for all prisoners, along with a "custom fitting" for a holiday jumpsuit.

Of course, in a year in which police brutality has been a lightning rod issue and the relationship between cops and citizens is more strained than ever ... critics called the Sheriff's post insensitive, unprofessional and as one person put it, "pretty trashy."

BTW -- the controversial post comes about a year after 2 cops in the same county posted a separate Christmas-themed photo of a "homeless quilt" made out of panhandler signs.

Teyana Taylor's had it up to HERE with the music biz making her feel "super under appreciated as an artist" ... so she's announcing her retirement.

Teyana made the surprise announcement Friday while touting Spotify's year-round stats feature dubbed "2020 Artist Wrapped" ... praising fans for playing her music all over the world but also railing on the music industry.

Teyana didn't pull punches ... saying she received "little to no real push from the machine, constantly getting the shorter end of the stick" and "being overlooked." She said the list goes on and on, but then tried to keep things positive.

The "Concrete" singer added, "I’m retiring this chapter of my story with the comfort that I can depart with peace of mind seeing that all the hard work & passion put was indeed loved & supported somewhere in the world!"

It's unclear what Teyana's got planned for the future ... but something may be percolating 'cause she says, "Don't worry y'all know all hustlers have the understanding that when one door closes another will open...either that or I'm pickin da locks."

Teyana released 3 studio albums -- "VII," "K.T.S.E." and "The Album" -- with GOOD Music and Def Jam. She also collaborated with tons of other artists ... perhaps most notably when she set the internet on fire appearing in Kanye West's "Fade" music video.

Justin Bieber is slamming a Selena Gomez fan as a "sad excuse of a human" after she shamelessly called on other SG fans to bully his wife, Hailey.

The Biebs actually put the woman on blast, reposting a snippet of the so-called Selena Gomez fan begging people "to f***ing bombard" Hailey's Instagram Live comments section and bully her by saying "Selena is better" and "Go after her, please. Let's all go after her."

JB didn't let it slide, saying ... "This sad excuse of a human just encouraged people on video to literally go after my wife telling people to say that my previous relationship was better so on and so [forth]. I just wanted to share this so people get an idea of what we face on a day to day."

The singer also made a dig at the woman saying, "After watching that I could easily let it steal my joy, but then I think about her life and how miserable she must be to want to spend her life trying to make others feel small."

On the one hand, ya gotta admire Justin going all out to defend his wife, but on the other -- he did just give a troll the biggest platform she's ever had, and she's probably thrilled about it. It's a double-edged sword for the Biebers.

Hailey added her own feelings, saying ... "I would never in a million years wish for someone to be treated this way and I will never condone this kind of hateful behavior."

"Black Panther" star Letitia Wright says she was just trying to raise her concerns about a potential coronavirus vaccine by sharing a video made by a vaccine skeptic ... but she raised a major controversy instead.

Wright, who plays T'Challa's sister, Shuri, got a ton of backlash after posting a link to a baseless anti-vaxxer video Thursday night on Twitter ... and then tweeting her apparent support of its message.

In the vid, the presenter questions the safety and efficacy of vaccines in general, and gives fact-free opinions on what's possibly in the COVID-19 vaccine and why it could be dangerous. Letitia included the prayer hands emoji with her post.

Soon afterward, she began engaging angry Twitter users who called her out for spreading misinformation ... and explaining it away by claiming she was just asking questions.

After some more arguing, she tweeted ... "if you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself....you get cancelled."

Don Cheadle, a fellow MCU star, got involved in the online war of words because angry fans tagged him about Wright's tweets -- and after watching parts of the vid she posted ... he seemed pretty upset with her himself.

He wrote ... "jesus... just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up. i would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won't throw her away over it."

Wright has since backtracked a little from the message in the anti-vaxxer vid, and tweeted a half-apology Friday morning.

Noah Cyrus is taking back a racist remark she fired off, presumably at Candace Owens, when she stepped in the middle of her feud with Harry Styles.

Miley's little sis threw her support behind Styles after his Vogue spread last month -- wearing a dress -- prompted Owens to verbally attack Harry for not being "manly."

Problem is, Noah's choice of words were racially charged -- her IG story post said Styles wears a dress "better than any of u nappy ass heauxz."

If you didn't know, Owens is Black ... something Noah certainly knew, so it's clear she needs a history lesson about the racist undertones of the word "nappy." It sounds like someone gave it to her, because she got a ton of backlash on social media ... and is now apologizing.

She says, "I am mortified that I used a term without knowing the context and history, but I know now and I am horrified and truly sorry. I will never use it again. Thank you for educating me."

Lesson learned ... however, it's not like Harry needed the help, anyway.

He'd already responded to Owens' dig, by sharing a new photo of himself in a powder blue suit eating a banana, captioning it with Candace's own words ... "Bring back manly men."

Owens claimed Styles' clapback is proof she inspires global conversation, tweeting ... "When people try to tell me I don’t have influence, and then [Styles] dedicates an entire post to my tweet."

New York City's best efforts to keep people from congregating in close quarters for the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting may have actually made it worse ... at least in one spot where folks could still catch a glimpse of the tree.

There was no crowd allowed for the 2020 lighting of the famous tree due to COVID-19 being totally out of control, and barricades and NYPD buses were used to keep people at bay. Authorities even tried to keep them from watching the ceremony from far away ... but it didn't work.

As you can see ... those lustful for Xmas lights found a spot between the buses where they could hold up their phones and capture the glory.

There's reason to block big celebrations, because the virus is so out of control the hospitals may not be able to treat everyone who becomes seriously ill.

In New York, where the positivity rate is around 5%, public health officials are urging people with underlying health conditions or otherwise at risk to stay home, except for essential trips.

On the other coast, things are just as bad. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti made it clear Wednesday ... "My message couldn't be simpler ... it's time to hunker down. It's time to cancel everything. And if it isn't essential, don't do it."

The family whose car got flipped in a road rage incident with Trump supporters says they're suffering PTSD from the crash, and it's a good bet someone's about to get sued.

The husband and wife were in the black Mustang that went belly up during the crash in Hermosa Beach, CA -- and through their attorney, they tell TMZ ... what felt like a near-death experience is forcing them to seek professional help.

Alex Megeredchian of Megeredchian Law is repping the couple -- who want to remain anonymous for now -- and says the wife is especially traumatized. He says she's breaking down in tears whenever she has to talk about the accident ... which is why they're seeing a therapist.

Megeredchian says both of his clients suffered significant bruises and cuts ... plus, their baby was in the car and has a big bump on his head.

As we first reported ... the scary confrontation happened Saturday in the tiny beachside community, when 2 drivers in a mini-Trump caravan started beefing with the Mustang driver. As they pulled away from a stop sign, video shows the Mustang lose control, crash into parked cars and flip.

A Jeep involved in the feud did seem to cut off the Mustang.

The couple and their baby were taken to a hospital by ambulance to get treatment, and Hermosa Beach PD says it's still investigating.

John Mulaney's "Saturday Night Live" joke about how Julius Caesar was killed drew the ire of some Donald Trump supporters, but even crazier ... he says it made him the target of a Secret Service investigation.

The comedian's 'SNL' monologue from February included the fact Caesar started leap year to correct the calendar, but then he joked the Roman general was such a "powerful maniac" that a bunch of senators stabbed him to death.

Mulaney then added ... it would be interesting if we brought that back now.

Though he made no mention of Trump, the joke was enough for right-wing sites to call him out for allegedly insinuating a violent act should be done to POTUS ... and Mulaney says the Secret Service contacted him about it.

Mulaney says the agent who questioned him was respectful and quickly determined his joke was harmless and he was not a threat ... but nevertheless, the comedian says he now has an official Secret Service file opened on him.

Gina Bisignano -- the latest "Karen" to let hate speech fly -- received major business backlash for her bigotry on Yelp ... where people loaded her page with negative reviews until postings got temporarily shut down.

Bisignano owns a beauty biz in Beverly Hills called Gina's Eyelashes and Skincare, so after seeing video of her spewing homophobic comments at an L.A. protest of COVID lockdowns ... it seems several outraged Internet users took it out on her shop's Yelp page.

It got flooded with bad reviews, and got so bad so quickly Yelp decided to temporarily suspend the option to leave a review.

If a person tries, they get this message instead -- "This business recently received increased public attention in the news, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news rather than a first-hand consumer experience."

Here's a sample of some of the reviews that were left beforehand though ...

-- "Owner of this salon is a blatant racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, conspiracy theorist, tar faced loser."

-- "If you want tarantula lashes and a corpse complexion, please call this bigot for your next KKK gathering."

-- "This place is great. They help create the illusion of beauty on the outside, so I can hide all my hateful, Q conspiracies, and homophobia on the inside."

Yelp says it's working to investigate whether this batch of new reviews "reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events."

Selena Gomez is no longer the butt of a couple jokes from the new "Saved By The Bell" cast -- after tons of backlash, the show's removing the kidney jokes.

The new Peacock series scrubbed all references to Selena's kidney transplant after the outrage started pouring in Saturday ... but an edited version is already streaming. So, a pretty quick about-face.

As we reported ... eagle-eyed Selena fans noticed 2 references in the reboot to the pop star's 2017 surgery, and they started raising hell on social media over the weekend and even got "RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ" to trend online.

The first reference was cavalier ... 2 high school classmates loudly discussing Selena's kidney transplant in the middle of a hallway.

The second Selena dig was more subtle, but just as offensive to some folks. A wall in the background of a scene had graffiti or paint that read in big bold lettering, "DOES SELENA GOMEZ EVEN HAVE KIDNEYS?"

Lots of folks called the jokes disgusting and said Selena's life-or-death transplant was nothing to joke about.

Jake Paul threw a rager of a party at his Calabasas mansion after knocking out Nate Robinson -- something that's infuriating the Mayor, and which could end up costing Jake.

If you peeped Jake's social media Saturday night -- or that of his brother, Logan, or any of his YouTube buddies -- you probably saw they had a massive bash at what appeared to be his Calabasas crib ... which was packed, and mostly maskless.

COVID was absolutely the last thing on anyone's mind as hundreds of people partied their hearts out ... which is a slap in the face to the Calabasas community, according to Mayor Alicia Weintraub.

She's condemning the party, telling TMZ ... the gathering Jake hosted this weekend was no doubt a super-spreader event just waiting to happen, and that he should be ashamed of himself for allowing it when so many are suffering from the virus.

Mayor Weintraub notes she's aware he was celebrating a massive victory -- but frankly, she says that doesn't matter ... the pandemic's more important.

Ironically, it's actually because of Jake and other influencers and celebs in the area that Calabasas adopted new COVID restrictions this past summer pertaining to parties like this, including a $100 fine for folks not wearing masks in public.

On this specific case ... Mayor Weintraub says neither her office nor the authorities were notified of Jake's blowout as it was happening, which she finds strange considering neighbors have flagged authorities about other Calabasas parties.

As for what will happen now ... it's a little hazy, but it doesn't bode well for Jake. Sources familiar with how the city's typically handled COVID scofflaws ... tell us officials are actively looking into ways to punish Jake.

We're told it's tricky since he wasn't caught violating their ordinances on the spot, but they still might able to ding him -- possibly with a fine, or other methods.

The man arrested while recording cops as they stopped a Black driver claims he got punched by his arresting officer ... and he wants the cop canned and charged for assault and battery.

Joe Bennett's attorney, Sam Aguiar, insists his client did absolutely nothing wrong when he recorded the incident Friday in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, and calls the actions of Officer Cruz "deplorable and unlawful."

According to the lawyer ... when Joe refused to hand over his ID, the cop punched his face in a "fit of rage" and caused his eye to close and blacken.

Aguiar says of the altercation ... "If Officer Cruz was able to snap so quickly in this situation, there is no telling what else he has done in situations where there was actually provocation. Cruz’s actions are demonstrative of a loose cannon who lacks regard for the constitutional protections of citizens."

As we reported ... Joe was actually charged with resisting arrest and menacing in the incident, but his legal team thinks this is outrageous, and the cop is the one who should be charged.

Joe's legal team's calling for Officer Cruz to be dismissed from the Jeffersontown PD and hit with assault and battery charges. They also want Joe's charges dropped.

Tichina Arnold believes there's a real catch-22 with the Grammys right now ... and it may signal the end of the music industry's biggest award having any real significance.

Fresh off co-hosting the 2020 Soul Train Awards, Tichina joined us Monday on "TMZ Live" to address the fallout of some big-name artists -- most notably The Weeknd -- getting snubbed for Grammy nominations last week. She says the major problem is talented artists, whose music is popular, are often a total blind spot for the people in charge of choosing noms.

The Soul Train Awards honored several acts -- like Chris Brown, H.E.R. and Summer Walker -- overlooked for the Grammys' major awards this year ... and Tichina says artists are not only noticing it, but they're fed up.

Halsey, Drake, Elton John and The Weeknd himself have all openly suggested there's a disconnect between the music and most award shows.

TV is something else in Russia, where they're running bits with actors dressed in blackface portraying Barack Obama.

The skit aired as part of a satirical show on Russia's NTV channel ... and it's roughly 90 seconds of pure racism. The actor playing Obama is in blackface, wearing a red bandana and a bunch of bling, plus black gloves and an oversized t-shirt.

It's pretty much stereotype bingo.

The skit's entirely in Russian, but 3 English words come across clearly -- Black Lives Matter. As for what they said about it ... the host begins: "We now go live to the dark side of America's history, Barack Obama."

After the Obama character's BLM chant, the host says ... "Can you please stop shouting? We don't have racism. You could be taken for a gypsy."

There's also a reference to Obama's recently released memoir, with the blackface actor calling the book an achievement because "none of my relatives that came before me could write."