You Might Want to Rethink

A group of Christian church members went to extreme lengths to remove a black woman peacefully sitting on "their" grass ... and it all played out on video.

The woman's name is Alex Marshall-Brown -- a stunt woman and voice actor here in L.A. -- and on Tuesday, she documented her North Hollywood encounter with the churchgoers ... who seemed to grossly overreact to her chilling out on church grounds.

She was working on her laptop, sitting under a tree and minding her business ... when a couple guys who apparently work for the church came out with a "No Trespassing" sign just for her. Alex questions why they're booting her, but they don't seem to have a good reason.

The men say they don't want strangers on their property, period -- insisting that them telling her to scram isn't anything personal ... that they're just doing their jobs and protecting the church.

But then it took a disturbing turn ... one of the guys dropped the ol' "All Lives Matter" on her.

Alex continued to point out she's not threatening anyone, and that escalating the situation by calling police -- which the men say was already happening -- wasn't necessary.

She noted she was asked by some bike cops to leave at first, or else she'd have a run-in with "Cop cops" -- but our law enforcement sources tell us no one in LAPD was even made aware of this. Instead, it sounds like Alex just had to deal with the church staffers.

She went on to say it's ironic a church, of all places, was being so unwelcoming.

Now, head honchos from this parish -- St. Paul's First Lutheran Church -- have already weighed in, and they say their workers on the ground got this one wrong. The church says they strive to spread the love of God, and they're saddened by the way this went down.

A Disney accessory depicting a noose is now in slightly less circulation after a collectibles site took action -- but the question remains ... how did this ever get made in the first place???

Back in 2006, when "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" was released, the Mouse House also dropped a limited couture jewelry line as part of the promotional rollout. It featured rings shaped out of swords, pendants made to look like locks and keys ... basically, gimmicky 'Pirates'-themed bling that sold like hot cakes.

Now, one of those items was a 14k gold-plated 20" necklace with a noose pendant attached ... and it couldn't be any clearer as to what it is if you look at it for yourself.

Most of these 'Pirates' items sold out while being hawked at stores like Disney's online shop, Kitson and Nordstrom -- but some of the pieces are still floating out there ... including this noose necklace, which was recently spotted on the collectibles site, WorthPoint.

You can't buy anything from there -- it's a company that mines for old collectibles and antiques, providing stats, prices, and photos about any particular item -- including this noose.

When we reached out to WorthPoint to see why they were featuring the offensive and racist item, they told us they'd take it down immediately ... which they did. A rep went on to tell us it probably never should've been up, but might've slipped through their algorithm cracks.

Now, back to the real issue ... how something so racially charged could've ever found its way to the marketplace? We reached out to Disney ... radio silence.

The answer's probably in the movies themselves. If you've seen any of them, you know there are several scenes where people -- including Johnny Depp's character, Captain Jack Sparrow --  are set to be put to death by hanging. It's a recurring theme throughout the franchise.

The father of the late singer Selena is going after a man planning a rally for Donald Trump at her memorial statue ... threatening to sue if he goes through with it.

According to a cease and desist letter sent by Abraham Quintanilla, Jr.'s legal team to Joe Michael Perez ... Abraham owns the rights to his daughter's name, image, likeness and trademarks.

He claims Perez is infringing upon all of the above by organizing his "Trump Supporter Gathering" at Selena's statue in Corpus Christi, TX. It's scheduled for July 11, and Perez is using Selena's name and image to promote it on Facebook.

In the letter -- obtained by TMZ -- Selena's dad says her name and "treasured legacy" have never been associated with partisan politics and claims Perez has associated her with Trump without permission by promoting his event ... which features an image from last month of Perez putting a Trump hat on her statue.

Abraham also says linking Selena to a single politician -- "particularly with the divisiveness and discord commonly attributed to Donald J. Trump" -- is damaging to her brand and her name.

The letter also points to Perez using "Bidi Bidi Trump Trump" as a promotional slogan, claiming it infringes upon her famous "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" song ... and accuses him of using her image to sell merchandise, as well.

Selena's father's warning Perez to delete his Selena-themed July 11 Facebook event page -- and stop selling Selena-related gear -- or else ... a lawsuit's on the way.

Perez tells TMZ, he's ignoring the cease and desist letter and ... "We are going to continue with our gathering on July 11 at the Selena Statue in Corpus Christi, Texas to show support for Trump for all races and ethnicities."

The Trump supporters who tried using black paint to cover up a Black Lives Matter street mural in the Bay Area have just been charged with a hate crime.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office charged Nichole Anderson and David Nelson with misdemeanor counts Tuesday for their alleged actions on July 4, when Anderson was caught on camera covering up a yellow 'BLM' mural with black paint.

The D.A. says Nelson directly aided in the alleged criminal conduct ... and the Martinez, CA couple are both being charged with a violation of civil rights, vandalism under $400 and possession of tools to commit vandalism or graffiti.

Prosecutors are classifying it as a hate crime because under California penal code ... the alleged civil rights violation was motivated by the race of the victim.

As we reported ... the MAGA couple painted over a 'BLM' mural on a street outside their local courthouse, a mural that had been approved by city officials.

Video showed Anderson using a paint roller to spread black paint over the large yellow letters, while Nelson got into shouting matches with bystanders.

The mural was repainted and our law enforcement sources say police tracked down the couple, who were not arrested, and turned the case over the Contra Costa D.A.

This is bad.

NFL star DeSean Jackson claims he's NOT a Jew-hater -- despite posting quotes suggesting a Jewish plot for world domination.

The Philadelphia Eagles WR first posted a screenshot of a book that features a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler -- saying Jews will "extort" and "blackmail" America as part of a greater "plan for world domination."

According to the multiple research websites, including Snopes, the quote is NOT originally from Hitler -- but STILL A HORRIBLE THING TO POST!

There was obvious backlash to the post from people including former Philadelphia Eagles president Joe Banner, who is Jewish.

"If a white player said anything about AA’s as outrageous as what Desean Jackson said about Jews tonight there would at least be a serious conversation about cutting him and a need for a team meeting to discuss. Which would be totally appropriate," Banner said.

"Absolutely indefensible."

Jackson later responded on another IG post -- saying, "Anyone who feels I have hate towards the Jewish community took my post the wrong way."

He added, "I have no hatred in my heart towards no one!"

On his IG page, Jackson also features several tributes to Louis Farrakhan -- a man the Anti-Defamation League has dubbed anti-Semitic over his long history of trashing the Jewish people.

Farrakhan has previously referred to Judaism as a "gutter religion" and praised Hitler as a "great man."

Bun B says he's seeing a lot of people compromise their jobs just to express racism -- like the Houston cops now in hot water over a disgustingly racist social media post.

The Houston-native rapper hopped on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and said he's been told by Houston PD brass they're expeditiously dealing with the 2 cops who commented on an image posted by an ex-officer. ICYMI ... a Houston cop who quit the force on June 18 took to Facebook 6 days later and posted a picture comparing black people to monkeys.

The president of the Houston Police Officers' Union called the post "disgusting," adding "it is not who we are as Houston Police Officers." But, it doesn't end there ... 2 officers currently active on the force commented on the post.

Enter Bun B ... who called out the officers on IG, saying, "You think it’s funny comparing black people to monkeys? We know you work in Houston at the Westside Command Station. Let’s see what your commanders think about this."

Check out the video ... Bun -- who btw is also a guest lecturer at Rice University -- says he's been told Houston PD will be looking into this.

As for why people now feel emboldened to expose themselves as racists ... Bun B says it's no coincidence the current occupant in the White House has essentially given them the green light to pronounce their racism on a larger scale.

Carole Baskin's is making a FORTUNE recording personalized messages, but fact of the matter is she's also left TONS of dough on the table ... 'cause she's turned down lots of requests from people who want her to talk about her missing and presumed dead husband.

Carole tells TMZ ... she's gotten over 600 Cameo requests so far, but along the way, she's had to decline requests from people who are trying to get her to talk about the fate of her missing husband.

She tells us, "I decline their requests to say things that would make fun of my husband's disappearance because that was such a tragic time in my life, and in that of those who loved him."

Joe Exotic's nemesis from the hit Netflix docuseries, 'Tiger King,' tells us she doesn't think the people making those requests are doing it to be mean spirited, but regardless of how long it's been, talking about her missing husband's a sore subject.

As we've reported ... Jack "Don" Lewis hasn't been seen since August 18, 1997. It's still an active cold case even though he was declared legally dead 5 years after his disappearance. Nobody was charged in his death ... but theories have been spinning like crazy since 'Tiger King' aired, with hardcore Joe Exotic fans pointing the finger at Carole. She's repeatedly denied having anything to do with Don's disappearance or death.

The sheriff in charge of the investigation has told TMZ he knows Don is dead and believes there reason to be suspicious of Carole, although he says she's not a suspect at this time.

That, apparently, hasn't stopped people from not only asking Carole -- who charges $200 per request -- to talk about her missing husband but also editing Cameo videos to make it seem like she's incriminating herself. TBH, the videos are terribly edited. Watch for yourself. A Cameo video talking about someone saying "I do" for their wedding was edited to make it seem like she admitted guilt in Don's demise.

BTW, if ya saw her Cameo videos when she debuted on the platform last week, you may have noticed some of the bizarre videos that literally made no sense. Carole's got an explanation: "People ask me to say some really bizarre things that are clearly inside jokes for them and their friends, so I do, with the exception of saying things that I found to be hurtful in the 'Tiger King' series."

D.L. Hughley wants to know why so many Americans are incensed by the tearing down of statues of pretty awful people, whose history of oppression is very clear.

We talked to the comedian and author Monday on "TMZ Live" and while discussing his new book -- "Surrender, White People! Our Unconditional Terms for Peace" -- he made compelling points about so-called heroes enshrined all across this country. Some of which, are being taken down right by protesters demanding racial justice.

D.L.'s on the side of protesters who've topped some of those statues, and demanded cities remove others ... because, as he put it, most of the ones in question salute brutal slave owners or someone who oppressed people of color.

Case in point ... James Marion Sims, who's been hailed as the Father of Modern Gynecology.

As D.L. notes, the guy did shocking experiments on black women -- and without anesthesia -- and yet, he has statues erected in New York, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Hell, he even spits facts about Honest Abe ... who voiced some racist thinking years before he was the Great Emancipator.

If you're unfamiliar with the quote, Abraham Lincoln said in 1858 ... "And inasmuch as they (blacks and whites) cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." That's an actual quote!

D.L. puts it quite plainly -- why the desperate desire to celebrate American history that is steeped in Black pain? And, why do so many people cling to upholding that tradition? It's a fair question.

A bunch of idiots working at a Jimmy John's sandwich shop in Georgia are out of a job after a handful of them made a noose out of their grub ... and then "hanged" one of their own.

This went down in the city of Woodstock, where at least four JJ employees working on the 4th of July apparently thought it'd be funny to do a mock lynching with their supplies. They fashioned a noose out of dough they use to bake bread -- and proceeded to try it out.

One white worker slips the noose over around his neck while another holds the long end up ... as if to show the guy hanging. Two others are filming this ... and everyone's having a laugh about it. The whole thing is gross to watch -- especially how funny they think it is.

You know who didn't find it amusing? Jimmy John's themselves -- because the corporate headquarters responded to the video ... and says all of these fools have been fired.

They write, "We have zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in any form. The franchisee has taken immediate action and the employees have been terminated. The actions seen in this video are completely unacceptable and do not represent the Jimmy John's brand."

Ex-Penn State basketball player Rasir Bolton says he left the program due to racially insensitive comments made by head coach Pat Chambers ... including a reference to a "noose" around his neck.

Chambers is how apologizing -- saying it was never his intention to offend.

20-year-old Bolton says the incident went down in January 2019 ... days after Chambers was suspended 1 game for pushing another player during a timeout.

"A 'noose' around my neck is why I left Penn State," Bolton -- who transferred to Iowa State after his freshman season -- said in a statement on Twitter.

"Due to other interactions with Coach, I knew this was no slip of the tongue."

According to ESPN, Bolton claims Chambers' whole comment went as follows:

"I want to be a stress reliever for you. You can talk to me about anything. I need to get some of this pressure off you. I want to loosen the noose that’s around your neck."

Bolton says he reported the incident to his academic advisor and the athletic department ... only to hear back from the school 6 months later, after he decided to leave the program.

Chambers has owned up to the comment ... and has since apologized.

"I didn’t realize that word would hurt him, and I am truly, truly sorry for that," Chambers told ESPN.

Bolton says he went public to bring awareness to what players have to deal with ... and he wants change.

"I wasn't the first and I know I wasn't the last. Everyone's position to speak out isn't the same, so I am only speaking for myself. There is a serious need for change in the way players are protected and helped across the country when faced with these situations."

"Surface level resources are not good enough. In most cases, it is the Coach who is protected, while the player is left to deal with it or leave."

"BE the change you want to see."

Lizzo has a brief message for the guy who allegedly booted her and some friends from a rental property a wee bit early this weekend -- bite me, and preferably where the sun don't shine!!!

The singer was documenting her sun-filled weekend with her friends, which started at one pad they rented ... but then shifted over to another one a few days later after the landlord at the first place apparently kicked them out.

In response, Lizzo kept calm and twerked on.

She posted a vid of herself dancing at the new digs, and had this to say to the guy she claims cut her stay short ... "This is for the man that kicked me out of my 7-day rental 3 days early yesterday." She adds, "This is for mocking the way that I dance and for using Instagram footage of me and my 6 black homegirls to say that we could ‘hurt him’ and threaten to call the police." There's no additional footage that shows what she describes here.

Still, Lizzo says she knows the dude's watching and that he won't stop her shine, adding this for good measure ... "Thanks for kicking us out cus this house is better anyways. Xoxo 🖕🏾"

Unclear where exactly Lizzo was staying -- kinda looks like the L.A. area to us -- but just a few days earlier, she was showing off her and her girls having a good ass time at what appears to be the first spot.

A statue of Frederick Douglass was ripped from its base and damaged beyond repair in New York ... and the timing makes it look like revenge for the recent toppling of Confederate monuments.

The famed abolitionist's statue was torn down Sunday in Rochester's Maplewood Park, a site along the Underground Railroad where slaves were ushered to freedom with the help of Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Police say the statue was found 50 feet from its pedestal and suffered damage to the base and a finger.

The damage is bad enough that another statue will have to take its place ... according to Carvin Eison, a leader of the project that brought the statue to the Rochester park.

The act of vandalism took place on the anniversary of one of Douglass' most famous speeches -- "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" -- delivered in the city on July 5, 1852.

In the speech, Douglass called the celebration of Independence Day a sham in a nation that enslaves and oppresses Black citizens. Douglass said to a slave, the day "reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim."

Eison believes the statue being toppled might be a retaliatory act due to the "national fever over Confederate monuments right now," and called it disappointing.

An Arizona woman says she was sent by President Trump and a conspiracy theory group to take Target to task for selling face masks ... and to flaunt her alleged high-priced watch.

The Internet has dubbed this gal here "QAnon Karen" after she filmed herself going into a Scottsdale-area Target and knocking down all the face masks on display in one of their aisles. She had to talk herself up before doing it, making it sound like a last stand mission.

She rants and about "not doing it" anymore -- which we think means she's not gonna let face masks be sold anymore??? Who the hell knows, but she went to town on the display.

Some staffer eventually comes over and asks her to stop, but she refuses ... incoherently saying they let "everyone else do it," and then questioning if they're trying to stop her because she's a white, blonde woman. But wait, it gets even more cringe-worthy!

'Karen' ponders whether they're hassling her because she has on a "$40,000 Rolex" ... just utter nonsense, but also hilarious. People have noted that Rollies don't usually shop at and/or terrorize Targets -- not really fair, because Targets are awesome. But again, this woman thinks she was sent by higher powers ... those powers being 45 and QAnon, of which she says she's a spokesperson.

Another video showed the aftermath of all this -- it appears cops tracked her down to her home and arrested her, which she also recorded. You gotta watch that mess on your own.

Elon Musk just dipped his toe into the fashion world -- via his car company, Tesla -- and the man might have a new career on his hands ... 'cause his new streetwear sold out.

The Tesla CEO followed through with a promise he made on Twitter the other day after his company's Q2 profit figures outperformed Wall Street's expectations, sending Tesla stock soaring ... much to the chagrin of short sellers who were betting against EM and co.

The guy said he was gonna roll out a line of Tesla short-shorts as a tongue-in-cheek slight at those same short sellers as well as the SEC (with which he's had beef and legal trouble before) ... and lo and behold, he freaking did it this weekend. Then, he broke his own site.

Elon announced the Tesla short-shorts were for sale Sunday on the company's official site, and they were going for the low price of "$69.420." A few minutes after he tweeted it out, their entire line in every size was sold out. He noticed, saying ... "Dang, we broke the website."

Look, we honestly can't tell if this is just a huge PR stunt with no actual fibers behind it -- but on the face of it, this appears to be a real thing Elon and Tesla sold out of almost as quickly as they launched it. The guy's obviously trolling, but he's doing it at new heights.

4th of July is proving many Americans don't care coronavirus cases are spiking again, which is in line with the White House's new messaging ...  just live with it.

A handful of water-based venues -- including a water park and two lakeside blowouts -- brought out droves of people this holiday weekend in Wisconsin, Missouri and Michigan ... all of which are seeing their own surges in confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses.

That didn't matter to these folks though -- they were ready to get wet and wild for Independence Day, and you can tell by how little mind they're paying to safety precautions.

At the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, WI, hardly anybody was 6-feet apart from each other as they packed the wave pool. And, masks were out the window, obviously -- studies say they're ineffective if they get wet, so a lost cause right off the bat here.

Elsewhere in Missouri ... the same bar adjacent to Lake of the Ozarks -- Backwater Jack's -- forged ahead with their planned Fourth of July blowout, which they dubbed No Ducks Given. Between Friday and Saturday, the place once again resembled a sardine can.

And, in Michigan, another lake shindig was well underway Saturday ... Diamond Lake in Cass County was packed to the gills along its shores with partygoers raging the day away.

We've seen this behavior all throughout the spring and early summer -- ever since America was put on high alert and states went on full-blown lockdowns. While the shelter-in-place orders seemed to flatten the curve, there has been an explosion of new cases in the wake of reopening.

And yet ... the bad and dangerous behavior continues, despite what the CDC and other health officials have to say. The question ... what's next? Welp, President Trump's administration seems to have an answer, according to a new report anyway. It's simple ... live life at your own risk. Thing is ... he's been putting people -- his own supporters -- in harm's way by holding reckless rallies with no social distancing and few masks.

NBC News reports that big wigs in Trump's cabinet are ramping up for the new messaging to the American people ... that the virus is here, and we gotta press forward regardless.

A total of 4 Aurora PD officers are out of a job after the interim police chief fired 3 Friday over a photo scandal ... in which the cops reenacted a chokehold at the site of Elijah McClain's violent arrest that led to his death.

Chief Vanessa Wilson canned 2 of the 3 cops in the picture -- Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich -- after the third officer, Jaron Jones, resigned earlier this week. Jason Rosenblatt, the officer who received the photo in a text, was also fired for replying with a "ha ha" ... according to Wilson.

The 3 cops posed for the selfie October 20 ... near a memorial to McClain, who died after an arrest in August 2019 in which he was put into a carotid chokehold and lost consciousness, and was later given a strong sedative.

Elijah, who was simply walking home with an iced tea he had just purchased, suffered 2 heart attacks on the way to the hospital and lost brain function. He died days later.

Police released 2 photos of the cops clowning around at the memorial site in October. The one where they appear to reenact the chokehold given to McClain was reportedly sent to Rosenblatt to cheer him up.

Shortly after it was announced an investigation into McClain's death was going to be reopened, an internal investigation was launched over the photo. The officers in question had been on paid administrative leave since June 25.