2016: The year to forget

Jonika Ringling, Editor-in-chief|January 5, 2017

Zoo officials shot and killed 17-year-old western lowland gorilla, Harambe, May 28 in the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden after a 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla’s enclosure. Change.org ran a petition titled “Justice for Harambe” calling for the authorities to charge the toddler’s parents with Harambe’s death, resulting in 517,435 signatures but no charges. Hashtags including #justiceforHarambe and #RIPHarambe engulfed social media.
CBSnews.com

A plane crash heading towards Columbia killed 71 people Nov. 28, including the majority of the Chapecoense Brazilian soccer team. Six people survived the crash — three soccer players, two crew members and one journalist. The cause of the crash was a shortage of gas.
ABCnews.com

England voted to leave the European Union June 23 and the term “Brexit” (Britain exit) emerged. Citizens of England voted 53.4 percent to 46.6 percent leave the EU, but Brexit has yet to take place and still may not. Prime Minister Theresa May plans to put Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the official process for leaving, into effect by the end of March 2017.
Theweek.co.uk

Omar Matten, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others June 12 in what was deemed a terrorist attack/hate crime inside the Orlando gay nightclub, Pulse. After a three-hour standoff, Orlando police shot and killed Mateen, a 29-year-old who allegedly pledged his allegiance to ISIS. The incident was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the worst terrorist attack on the U.S. since 9/11.
CNN.com

The F.B.I. released its annual report of hate crimes for 2015 on Nov. 14. The bureau reported a total of 5,818 hate crimes in 2015 — a 6 percent increase from 2014. The hate crimes included assaults, bombings, shooting, threats, property destruction against minorities, women, gays and others. The report for 2016 is expected to follow suit showing an overall increase in hate crimes. Since the November election, hate-crime monitors, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center of CITY, have reported an increase in verbal or physical abuse targeting minorities. Some supporters of President-elect Donald J. Trump said they too have been victimized.
NYtimes.com

The epidemic of fake news has been on the rise in 2016. Hyperpartisan Facebook pages are constantly feeding followers false or misleading information. On a few occasions made-up or false stories have been featured in Facebook’s trending box. The tech company is actively trying to correct the problem.
CNN.com

Though dabbing originally started in August 2015, 2016 was the year of the dab. During the 2016 presidential campaign Hillary Clinton controversially ‘hit the dab,’ doing the dance with talk-show host Ellen Degeneres. U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez also dabbed at the end of a debate for the U.S. senate in MONTH.