ADIOS TO NYC'S WORST MAYOR EVER

Good riddance to NYC’s worst mayor ever – Bill de Blasio 

 

By Michael Goodwin

 

New York Post

December 30, 2021

 

           

 

In his novel “Anna Karenina,” Tolstoy writes that “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Something similar can be said about New York City mayors: Successful ones share policies and leadership traits, while the failed ones chart individual paths of doom.

Over the last five decades, Gotham has experienced both. The successful mayors — Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg — stand tall because they took office in times of crises and turned New York’s fortunes around. They had their warts, but each left the city better off than when he started.

Something the late Sen. Pat Moynihan said of Koch could be said of Giuliani and Bloomberg, too. “He gave the city back its spirit,” Moynihan told me.

It was a key insight that illustrates the fact that while policies matter, the best policy without an infusion of indomitable optimism and determination will come to little. A zeal to succeed can also overcome policy mistakes.

Conversely, two of the three failed mayors — Abraham Beame and David Dinkins — had their spirits crushed by the problems they faced. Beame, during his time as comptroller, helped to create the fiscal crisis that swamped his mayoralty, and Dinkins was largely paralyzed as violent crime and disorder soared on his watch.

 

Bill de Blasio was forced to move his final press conference as NYC mayor inside the City Hall rotunda after protesters gathered outside

 

They were decent men, but lacked the right stuff to master the chaos they faced. As a result, the city was worse off when they left than when they began.

All of which brings us to Bill de Blasio. He is a failure, too, but on such a large scale that he belongs in a category of one. Mayor Putz, also known as the Worst Mayor Ever, is unique in all the wrong ways.

 

Mayor Bill de Blasio started off his abominable tenure by taking shots at predecessor Michael Bloomberg (above), who worked hard to reduce crime 

 

He inherited a remarkably safe and thriving city, the culmination of a 20-year-stretch where first Giuliani and then Bloomberg pushed crime to historic lows and ushered in a Golden Age of prosperity.

Instead of following the obvious path forward, de Blasio decided to break what his predecessors had fixed. He leaves a city in such dramatic decline that many people wonder if it can be saved.

De Blasio’s determination to be a wrecking ball was apparent at his inauguration.

The ceremony was laced with insults aimed at the city’s advances and Bloomberg, seated in the front row, was treated like a dog treats a fire hydrant. Harry ­Belafonte called the city’s justice system “Dickensian” without acknowledging that incarceration rates plummeted by 36% under Bloomberg as crime also ­plummeted.

Later, Sanitation Department Chaplain Fred ­Lucas Jr. called the city a “plantation,” an outrageous slur magnified by de Blasio’s comment that he had no problem with the inflammatory remarks.

 

An arrogant Bill de Blasio offered nothing but racist shots at his mayoral inauguration on Jan. 1, 2014 

 

Alas, it was all downhill from there, as New Yorkers soon discovered that the new guy harbored a trifecta of enormous ­defects.

A corrupt mayor would be trouble enough, but de Blasio’s shortcomings didn’t stop with his dicey schemes with donors and unions. He also is glaringly incompetent, which, paired with the dirty deals, put the city behind the 8 ball for much of the last eight years.

To top it off, Mayor Putz is spectacularly lazy, working half-days from Gracie Mansion or a coffee shop in Brooklyn, where he liked to loiter after police chauffeured him to a gym. As time wore on, he failed to show up at City Hall more often than not — even before the pandemic struck. Being mayor was never a part-time gig until de Blasio got it.

 

“Mayor Putz” proudly used taxpayer resources for his frequent gym trips in Brooklyn – even as the pandemic raged on in the Big Apple 

 

In numerous crucial moments, he couldn’t be bothered to make tough decisions. Insiders describe a man who views the nitty-gritty details of management beneath him.
Key policy questions, whether on homelessness, hospitals, education or crime, were left hanging for months because he wouldn’t devote the time to hear competing arguments and make the final choice.

To the extent de Blasio is motivated, it is by a hazy fascination with far leftist ideology. He was so besotted that he and wife Chirlaine McCray snuck onto the prison island of Cuba for their honeymoon. What fun!

Unfortunately, he never grew out of a crush on the Castro brothers and spent most of his mayoralty trying to redistribute other people’s money. Perhaps the most memorable thing he ever said was that “Brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in the world. There’s plenty of money in this city. It’s just in the wrong hands.”

He said that in 2019, six years after he first campaigned on the theme of a “tale of two cities.” Rhetorically, at least, he was consistent.

If the city had any good fortune during his reign of error, it was that de Blasio’s avoidance of actual work meant he leaves with most of his agenda incomplete. For this and this alone we are deeply grateful.

Indeed, his dreamy language and sketchy plans made it seem that the Putz had one concern — crafting an image as a card-carrying progressive so he could someday get another government job. The fantasy was exposed when he ran for president in 2020 and barely registered in any polls.

A likely run for governor next year will almost certainly lead to a second landslide defeat.

Oddly, de Blasio never seemed to like New York and has no passion, love or hate, for the five boroughs. As one observer puts it, “You don’t get the sense he even cares about the city.”

 

de Blasio's wife Chirlaine McCray’s useless ThriveNYC initiative all but swindled more than $1 billion out of the city budget 

 

One sign is his absence from civic life. Unlike all the other mayors before him, de Blasio often failed to show up for the city’s big moments.

Whether it was a tragic event like a police shooting or major accident where a mayor should appear to show a steady hands-on leadership, he mostly wasn’t there. He also avoided glamour events like the Met Gala that celebrate the city’s cultural richness.

He was a no-show at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center. He didn’t stroll neighborhood streets and talk to people, nor did he hold town hall-style meetings.

Of course, when he did appear, he was often late, evidence of a lack of respect for the job and the public itself.

 

New York City’s poorest suffered from endless bloody shootings and crime thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s war on the NYPD 

 

Even the perpetually cranky Bloomberg, who grumbled early on that he wouldn’t waste time on ribbon cuttings, soon discovered that the public expected that their mayor see and be seen.

The results of de Blasio’s sorry act are inescapable. The surging crime, the hatred and routine disrespect for police, homeless encampments and roving maniacs, filthy streets, failing schools, boatloads of money wasted on stupid ideas — these are the consequences of the Worst Mayor Ever.

There are numerous candidates for his biggest failing, but the most consequential was his handcuffing of cops, which was most dramatic during the riots and looting in the summer of 2020, and has continued ever since. Growing out of the protests over the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the mayhem and destruction had nothing to do with police reform and everything to do with crime.

In many ways, his decision was a continuation of de Blasio’s ice-cold relationship with cops that began when he campaigned against the NYPD in 2013. His provocative statement that he advised his biracial son, Dante, on how to behave if police stopped him, rightly infuriated cops.

At the end of his first year, on Dec. 20, 2014, Police Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were assassinated while sitting in a patrol car in Brooklyn. The murderer, a career criminal who committed suicide as cops cornered him, had vowed revenge on police over the deaths of several suspects, including Eric Garner in Staten Island.

The belief by most cops that the mayor helped to create the anti-police, pro-criminal climate led most to turn their backs on de Blasio at the murdered officers’ funeral.

Later, the Putz signed on to the defund the police movement. Although the $1 billion cut in the NYPD budget was less than met the eye, he had again signaled his animus to the men and women who risk their lives to protect all New Yorkers.

His successor, Eric Adams, is a former cop who takes office with the promise of cleaning up the mess de Blasio leaves. He pledges to tackle crime, cut budget fat and show America how to run a city.

Godspeed to Adams and a word of advice: In the face of almost any problem or decision, try to imagine what Mayor Putz would do.

Then do exactly the opposite!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Putz is Yiddish slang for prick.

IT'S NOT WHAT THE COPS DID OR FAILED TODO, IT'S WHAT THE TEEN DID THAT CAUSED HIS DEATH ..... THE HEADLINE IS MISLEADING MAKING IT SEEM LIKE ANOTHER GEORGE FLOYD DEATH

Cedric Lofton: Black teen's death ruled homicide, cops left him face down, handcuffed

 

By Pritha Paul  

 

meaww

December 31, 2021

 

 

Cedric Lofton, 17, of Wichita, Kansas, died while in custody at the Sedgwick County juvenile jail 

 

A Kansas teen died after he was left face down and handcuffed following his arrest for becoming 'aggressive' with officers who responded to a call at his foster home after the teen reportedly behaved in an agitated manner. Cedric Lofton, 17, of Wichita, Kansas, died on September 26 at a Sedgwick County juvenile jail. An autopsy report revealed that he was taken into custody after "running away from his foster home, returning, and then exhibiting erratic and aggressive behavior" toward his foster family. 

According to the release, the Kansas teen ran away on September 21 due to a "mental health crisis," and returned on September 24. After that, the Kansas Bureau of Investigations said that the teen appeared paranoid. Although the authorities tried to convince him to voluntarily seek mental health treatment, he was ultimately taken into custody after he assaulted the officers. He was arrested on suspicion of battery against a law enforcement officer. Following his arrest, he was put in a cell at a Sedgwick County juvenile center for 90 minutes. According to KBI, he became "uncooperative and agitated" when he was taken to the lobby to be processed. Lofton allegedly punched an employee in the head which caused the officers to handcuff him. The authorities put him facedown on the floor after "a lengthy physical struggle."

Cedric Lofton's death

Forty-eight minutes after being released from his cell, Lofton was put in the prone position. He calmed down, fell asleep, and "made occasional snoring sounds." But soon after, the teenager did not have a pulse, despite being given chest compressions and even after emergency services were called in. Lofton was declared dead two days later in the hospital.

The staff who were involved in his restraint were placed on administrative leave during the investigation. Medical examiner Timothy S. Gorrill ruled the teen's death a homicide on December 21. "In my opinion, Cedric Lofton died as a result of complications of cardiopulmonary arrest sustained after physical struggle while restrained in the prone position," Gorrill said in the report. "The manner of death is homicide."

Lesson from George Floyd

A discussion on prone positions was sparked after Lofton's death, which first came into prominence after the death of George Floyd in the police custody in Minneapolis. The specific position can cause breathing difficulty, and limit or cut off the supply of oxygen to the heart and brain, the Washington Post reported. Derek Chauvin was the Minneapolis police officer who held Floyd down on his stomach while arresting him; he was convicted in the death and is serving a 22-year prison sentence. 

Citing that case, the Lofton family's attorney, Steven Hart, said authorities "should know from the Floyd case alone" that the position increased risk of death. "That’s what’s equally disturbing. Authorities can’t plausibly suggest that putting someone in the prone position is a safe thing to do. It’s a conscious disregard for safety — and their life," Hart said. Alon Steinberg, the chief of cardiology at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, told The New York Times in October, "people are dying all the time, and we’re not doing anything about it."

ASKING FOR PROOF OF VACCINATION LEAVES BARTENDER WITH SLASHED FACE REQUIRING 31 STITCHES

Felicite Ogilvy: Bartender's face BRUTALLY slashed after she asks for vaccination card

 

By Tuhin Chakraborty  

 

meaww

December 31, 2021 

 

 

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: Felicite Ogilvy, a bartender from Joe's Bar and Grill, was slashed on her face for asking proof of vaccination from a customer on Monday, December 27. The incident occurred at around 5.15 pm in the evening. According to a Fox13 report, the guy fought with workers when they told him to leave, then hit the bartender with a large stick he was holding. Employees claimed they always make sure to obey King County's health mandate and verify each client for evidence of immunisation, no matter how busy it gets. For bartender Ogilvy, that rule turned into a violent clash. 

Ogilvy said, “I asked him, 'do you have your vaccination card?' and he said ‘I've had the vaccine but I don't have the card’ and I was like OK but you need to have proof of it”. The guy was then told he had to leave the bar but CCTV footage showed him loitering at the door and fighting with employees. “He ended up basically saying ‘You're picking on me, I'm not going to deal with it,’ that's when he became threatening," Ogilvy added. A coworker and even a few customers came over to try to diffuse the situation, but the man refused to leave and fought back with a long stick. 

 

Fox13 Seattle posted this photo of the suspected slasher

“He swung the stick as hard as he could at my face, so not only did it puncture me, he also slit me," Ogilvy told Fox13. She required 31 stitches after the attack because the wound was so deep. She managed to flee the scene in shock while the man dashed to a light rail station and boarded a train. Police boarded the train a few stops later but were unable to locate him. Seattle police are currently following up on leads and have been requested to assist with additional incidents involving public health regulations. “There have been a few cases here and there of restaurants and stores having issues enforcing the mandate," Det. Patrick Michaud of the Seattle Police Department explained, adding, “thankfully these incidents are still fairly rare."

Ogilvy wants consumers to be protected, but believes that asking businesses to strictly follow the vaccination policy has always been a nuisance. “I don't agree with the mandate because it's like why am I getting hurt?" she stated, "why am I the one who has to control this?” Ogilvy intends to return to work as soon as possible. Meanwhile, cops are attempting to identify the individual from the CCTV footage and make an arrest. The need for evidence of immunisation in King County went into force on October 25. It applies to pubs, restaurants, gyms, and activities with 500 or more people, such as live music or outdoor events. Businesses are required to verify everyone above the age of 12 and might face fines if they fail to do so.

WELL DESERVED DEATH SENTENCE

Chinese couple handed death sentence after dad threw his and his ex-wife's toddlers off 15th-floor balcony

 

By Srivats Lakshman  

 

meaww

December 21, 2021

 

 

Zhang Bo and girlfriend Ye Chengchen and the toddlers he tossed off the 15th-floor balcony

 

A couple in China have been handed a death sentence after it was revealed the dad threw his two children out of the 15th-floor balcony of his apartment in 2020. According to local media, Zhang Bo killed his two-year-old daughter and one-year-old son to please his girlfriend Ye Chengchen. Bo's ex-wife and the mother of the children Chen Meilin has slammed him for his action, telling the press "I couldn't imagine what my kids had experienced."

Over in the states, we've covered several cases of child neglect and death in 2021. In late October, the body of Kendrick Lee was found in an apartment with his siblings, as Texas police uncovered the shocking abuse the children suffered at the hands of their mother Gloria Williams and her boyfriend Brian Coulter. According to data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, an estimated 1,840 children died due to abuse or neglect in 2019 in the US. 

Execution by rifle in China

In 1996, China began using lethal injection vans in some jurisdictions, though execution by rifle still occurs in many parts of the country

 

While data from China is harder to get, Bo's actions exploded all over social media and mainstream media. It ended with a death sentence being handed down for both Bo and Chengchen on December 28. It's unclear if the couple will appeal the verdict, but Bo at least seems remorseful, based on several local reports.

Why did Bo kill his children?

According to reports, Bo began meeting Chengchen when he was still married to Meilin. Eventually, he decided to divorce Meilin to marry his new girlfriend, but it would come at a cost. Chengchen and her family reportedly did not want to accept him because he had the children of another woman. It is believed Chengchen heavily pressured Bo into getting rid of his children, going as far as to cut her own wrists. 

"At that time, Zhang was on a video phone call with Ye. She slit her wrists and then Zhang got scared," Meilin told local media. He then dropped the phone and "picked up the two children, and threw them from the balcony." He then ran downstairs and appeared grief-stricken, even crying and banging his head against a wall at the sight of his kids - daughter Zhang Ruixue, and son Zhang Yangrui. Reportedly, the girl died instantly while the son succumbed a while later from his injuries at the hospital. 

Initially, Bo claimed he was sleeping when the children fell out of the window, but the sham was later uncovered in court. He finally conceded to conspiring to kill the children, whom he had joint custody of after the divorce to Meilin. In court documents, the mom revealed Chengchen repeatedly pressurized Bo to get rid of the kids, even telling him in one conversation, "When the kids are gone, I will marry you … Why don’t you kill both since you will be killing anyway?" 

Succumbing to the pressure, Bo organized a gathering of the siblings on November 2, 2020, at his home. He then killed them after the video call in which Chengchen cut her wrists. The mom told reporters Bo cried in court and apologized for what he did, while Chengchen firmly denied all accusations against her. It's unclear when the two will be executed.

TRUCKER, WHO KILLED 4 PEOPLE BECAUSE HE WAS SPEEDING, DESERVES HIS REDUCED SENTENCE OF 10-YEARS

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos's sentence commuted to 10 years, but Internet says still too much

 

By Srivats Lakshman  

 

meawww

December 30, 2021

 

 

Trucker Rogel Aguilera-Mederos (L) and Colorado Governor Jared Polis 

 

Colorado trucker Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was handed some good news ahead of the new year after it was announced his sentence was being commuted. Governor Jared Polis on December 30 announced that Mederos would only serve 10 years in prison, down from the massive 110 years he was initially sentenced to. The move came after widespread public pressure, including from Kim Kardashian, but it seems that even 10 years is too much for some.

Social media is now divided over the decision, with many calling for Mederos to be released altogether. The 26-year-old trucker was initially sentenced to 110 years on December 13 over the 2019 Denver I-70 crash, where four people were killed. That first sparked a Change.org petition with over 4 million signatures, and a public pressure campaign spearheaded by Kardashian. Then on December 19, truckers decided to boycott the state, with several taking to TikTok to announce the boycott. 

It appears that the massive pressure campaign has now worked, with Governor Polis intervening and providing Mederos with some relief. The news has however divided social media. Some are calling for the sentence to be reduced even further, while others think it is an apt decision.

Mederos to be released in 10 years

Polis announced the commutation on December 30, alongside two others, as well as 15 individual pardons and an executive order granting 1,351 pardons for those convicted of possessing two ounces or less of marijuana. He called the sentence "simply not commensurate with your actions" and said, "there is an urgency to remedy this unjust sentence and restore confidence in the uniformity and fairness of our criminal justice system."

Polis did however note that Mederos was "not blameless" and that the 10-year sentence was "just". Under the commutation, Mederos will have to serve a minimum of five years before being eligible for parole, on December 30, 2026. The decision has however met with some stiff opposition, primarily from DA Alexis King who prosecuted the case. King questioned the timing, noting that her office was working to have the sentence reconsidered. The judge granted that request and scheduled a January 13 hearing, which may now be scrapped.

King wasn't the only one displeased by the commutation. One person tweeted, "A disappointing decision - ten years isn't enough for the severity of the accident. For those who say it was an accident, he still needs to be held accountable for his negligent actions." Another commented, "Ignorant people on this thread think this was an "accident". Is it an accident to drive nearly 40 miles on failing brakes, skipping exits to let your brakes cool, and then ultimately skipping the emergency truck ramp? This was willful neglect resulting in the death of 4 people." One user said, "I’d have given him 10 for each victim. He’s still responsible as the driver. Pre Trip etc. He didn’t hit the runaway truck lane or use his jake. He messed up and 4 people are dead. I’m sorry doesn’t cut it."

'Not worth a celebration'

 

                           

Aftermath of the massive wreck that resulted in four deaths

   

Others, however, were still furious that Mederos would have to serve jail time. "This is still so messed up, his brakes stopped working, how is that on him, unless it was his own truck and he neglected to do maintenance on them, but still it’s not like he meant to hurt those people!" one Twitter user commented. Another said, "10 years is too much. Come on..its was an unfortunate accident. His life ruin cause the company did not take care of their trucks?" One user tweeted, "Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence getting lowered from 110 years to 10 years is not worth a celebration. 10 years is still insane for something he was not responsible for. This man should not be getting convicted at all."

It's unclear how the victims' families view Polis' commutation, but they were clearly against the 110-year sentence issued earlier. Several of them reportedly backed King's effort at resentencing, backing lower jail time. King was reportedly aiming for 20-30 years, far higher than what Mederos will now serve.

25 YEARS? ..... THIS IS A POSTER BOY FOR THE DEATH PENALTY

Kazakhstan creep sentenced to 25 years after raping, decapitating, boiling teen’s head 

 

By Yaron Steinbuch

 

New York Post

December 31, 2021

 

 

 

A crazed pharmacist has been sentenced to 25 years behind bars for raping a 19-year-old fashion-design student – then decapitating and boiling her head and ripping out all her teeth, according to a report.

Rakhmanberdi Torebekov, 28, brutalized Ayazhan Edilova in Kazakhstan in March after she apparently went to his apartment in the southeastern city of Almaty to measure him for a suit, East2West News 

A surveillance video captured the lunatic ushering his victim into an elevator shortly before unleashing his barbaric attack.

 

Ayazhan Edilova, 19, was brutally killed, dismembered and boiled by Rakhmanberdi Torebekov, a pharmacist. Pictured is security camera footage showed Torebekov ushering the teenager into an elevayor in his apartment building before he later killed her

 

Investigators believe Torebekov raped and murdered Edilova, who worked in a local tailor shop, because she refused his demand for sex, according to the news outlet.

After killing her, Torebekov sought to cover his tracks by beheading her and ripping out her teeth and nails, the court heard.

“When we saw the photographs of the body parts, we saw that each nail was removed, every tooth was knocked out, and all put into separate plastic bags,” said Almat Mulikov, Edilova’s brother.

“Why did he need to do this if he is not a maniac? If he just needed to hide the killing, why did he knock out every tooth and cut out each nail?” he added. “Why did he slowly cut off her head and boil it in water?”

When cops broke into the pharmacist’s apartment after Edilova’s brother raised the alarm, the fiend reportedly sliced his own throat and was rushed to a hospital.

Torebekov later admitted that he scattered his victim’s body parts in trash cans across the city.

 

Investigators believe Rakhmanberdi Torebekov raped and murdered Ayazhan Edilova, who worked in a local tailor shop, because she refused his demand for sex

Victim’s family has branded Torebekov an ‘evil maniac’ and demands he should never be released from prison

“He killed my sister and spent about 24 hours dismembering her body,” Mulikov told local media earlier this year, according to The Sun.

Judge Erkin Maishinov sentenced the depraved killer to 25 years in the slammer.

SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF IDAHO ..... SHERIFF WAS ALLOWED TO KEEP HIS JOB DESPITE BEING CHARGED WITH TWO FELONIES

Idaho sheriff who threatened youth group with gun must surrender weapons, but keeps job 

 

By Patrick Reilly

 

New York Post

December 30, 2021

 

 

Sheriff Craig Rowland will keep his job after pointing a gun at a teen youth group

 

The Idaho sheriff who threatened a church youth group with a gun and assaulted one of its leaders has been ordered to surrender his firearms to state police but will remain on the job.

Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland was charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and misdemeanor exhibition of a gun in a controversial incident on Nov. 9, when a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints girls’ youth group was going door-to-door in Blackfoot to leave “thank you” messages for community members.

The seven girls – ages 12 to 16 – and an adult chaperone had just taped a note on Broward’s car before ringing his doorbell and running away, according to court documents.

When the group tried to drive away, Broward stopped the vehicle and pulled the adult driver – whom he’s reportedly known for 30 years – out of the vehicle by her hair and pointed his handgun at her head, yelling profanities at her and threatening to shoot her.

The case gained national attention after Rowland disparaged the nearby Shoshone-Bannock Tribe’s Fort Hall reservation in a statement trying to defend his actions. Rowland said he received threats in recent months and worried about people coming to his home.

“I have been doing this job for 36 years, I’ve had drunk Indians drive down my cul-de-sac, I’ve had drunk Indians come to my door,” Rowland said, according to an affidavit released by state prosecutors. “I live just off of the reservation, we have a lot of reservation people around us that are not good people.”

Broward made his first preliminary court appearance on Wednesday.

Prosecutors asked Judge Faren Eddins to order Rowland to take an extended leave of absence. However, Eddins said Rowland was innocent until proven guilty and denied the request.

Rowland agreed to take a leave of absence shortly after the allegations arose in November, but has since returned to the job.

He expected to appear again in court on Jan. 6.

BLACK LIVES ONLY MATTER IF A WHITE COP KILLS A BLACK MAN ..... BLM IGNORES THE KILLING OF A BLACK COP, AS WELL AS THE DAILY BLACK-ON-BLACK KILLINGS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY

Where is the outrage over the killing of Baltimore police officer Keona Holley? 

 

By Heather Mac Donald

 

New York Post

December 29, 2021

 

 

Baltimore police officer Keona Holley was killed in an ambush by Travon Shaw and Elliott Knox. Holley leaves her four children behind

 

It was an iconic moment in the coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol: CNN anchor Don Lemon wept at video footage of police officer Daniel Hodges being crushed in a door by the mob. Officer Hodges survived but suffered headaches for a week.

If Lemon has cried over previous or subsequent attacks on officers, an informal search of the record does not reveal it. The rest of the media were similarly — and uncharacteristically — moved by the Jan. 6 assaults. The New York Times and other outlets ran long reports on the emotional trauma experienced by the Capitol defenders, none of whom was lethally injured in the attacks. In what might be a first in modern media history, the lieutenant who killed the unarmed Ashli Babbitt was even given a sympathetic interview on NBC, after half a year of media inattention to the seemingly unjustified shooting. The interracial aspect of that officer-involved killing (black officer, white victim) was not deemed noteworthy, unlike officer-involved killings where the races are reversed.

On Dec. 16, 2021, Police Officer Keona Holley was assassinated sitting alone in her patrol car at 1:30 a.m. in southern Baltimore. Travon Shaw, 32, a violent felon awaiting trial on a gun possession charge, shot her from behind, according to his accomplice — striking Holley twice in the head, once in the leg and once in the hand. A week after the ambush, Holley was removed from life support and died, leaving behind four children and a stricken police force.

A bystander filmed the aftermath of the shooting and posted the video on Instagram. He can be heard urging viewers not to report the assault, since the police harass members of the community.

Much of the media seem to have taken his advice. The New York Times has not run one story on the murder, though it has published in the interim several long features on police shootings and alleged police racism.

The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post have covered the incident, but elsewhere, the coverage has been thin to ­nonexistent.

 

Footage shows Capitol police officer Daniel Hodges being crushed by protesters during the Jan. 6 riot

The liberal media only cared about the Capitol riots when Trump supporters allegedly assaulted officers, writes Heather Mac Donald 

 

And yet the murder of police officers is, on a per-capita basis, a far more significant problem than fatal officer shootings of civilians. And the killing of police officers by black civilians is a far more significant problem than the killing of unarmed blacks by police officers. As of Nov. 30, 2021, 67 police officers had been feloniously killed by criminals. Conservatively using the 2019 national headcount of 697,196 sworn officers (now undoubtedly lower), 9.6 officers per 100,000 officers were feloniously killed through ­November.

As of Dec. 27, 2021, four unarmed black people have been slain by police officers since the start of the year, according to the Washington Post. The Post’s “unarmed” category includes violently resisting crime suspects. Those four unarmed black people represent .000008 percent of the nation’s nearly 47 million self-identified blacks, or less than 1/100 of one person killed by a cop per 100,000 blacks.

 

The media paid no attention to stores, buildings and police stations being burned down in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd 

 

Historically, black males have made up over 40 percent of cop-killers nationwide, though black males are 6 percent of the population. Conservatively estimating that 40 percent of the cop-killers this year have been black, 26 officers have been killed by a black suspect in 2021, for a rate of nearly four cops per 100,000 officers killed by black civilians. A police officer is about 400 times as likely to be killed by a black suspect as an unarmed black is to be killed by a police ­officer.

Murders of police officers were up nearly 56 percent through the end of November compared with 2020, a year that already saw surging anti-cop violence in the wake of the George Floyd race riots. Like the assassination of Baltimore officer Holley, those killings get almost no attention from the national media, since they occur disproportionately as part of the daily gun violence that afflicts inner cities and that is also beneath media ­notice.

Yet such officer killings strike at the very heart of our civilization. A society that turns its eyes away from attacks on law enforcement (except when they confirm a favored media narrative) is a society that is heading for anarchy. The crime wave of the last two years suggests that we are well on our way to just such a disintegration of law and order.

OK, I GUESS THIS MAKES SENSE

If You Are Stoned, Or A Complete Idiot

by Bob Walsh

The state of Washington is moving to lessen the penalty for homicide committed as part of a drive-by shooting, but ONLY those homicides.  Apparently it is a Racial Justice issue because way more Black folks are convicted of drive-by shootings than White folks, therefore the law must be racist. 

LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW

by Bob Walsh

At the moment the NorCal snow pack is a tad over 250% of normal, with a tad over 70% of normal total yearly snowfall on the ground right now.  That doesn't mean the drought is over but it means things are looking decent as several more storms are due to roll in over the next few days.  All the highway passes from Nevada to California have been closed off and on for the last couple of days, both due to snow and chain reaction accidents from idiots who don't know how to drive in the snow.  That, plus widespread power failures are making things really interesting.  Gas pumps don't work without power and very few gas stations have emergency generators.  I like the snow, but I prefer going to the snow rather than having it come to me. 

BAD MOVE, BAD KARMA, BAD LUCK OR WHAT?

by Bob Walsh

Details out of the teeming metropolis of Antelope, CA are sketchy.  No names yet.  It seems that a woman went to the local slammer and bailed her husband out.  He then went home with her, murdered her in front of their four teenage children and then shot himself in the had.  He is clinically dead on life support in an area hospital. 

LA WILL SETTLE ANY LAWSUIT IN THIS TRAGIC SHOOTING

LAPD cop who shot 14-year-old girl by mistake was told 'slow down' by fellow officer

 

By Tuhin Chakraborty  

 

meaww

December 30, 2021

The attacker assaulted multiple customers before one of the cop opened fire, according to the edited security tapes and body camera footage

 

The Los Angeles Police Department released video and audio evidence that depicted the circumstances leading up to the death of 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta by an officer who was firing at a suspect at a store. The accidental death of the young girl inside the Burlington Coat Factory shop in North Hollywood on Thursday, December 23, was deemed a homicide. She died of a gunshot wound to the chest caused by a stray bullet while she was hiding in the store's changing room with her mother. 

Los Angeles police officers had reportedly pleaded with their colleague, minutes before he fired the shot that killed Valentina, to 'slow down' and 'hold up'. Valentina was shot two days before Christmas while shopping for a quinceanera gown at the store. Valentina's dying moments were documented in the severely edited bundle of surveillance and police body camera footage released by the LAPD. Armed cops enter the store and approach Daniel Elena-Lopez, 24, who is accused of assaulting two women, according to the cops' bodycam videos. Three 911 calls were also released, one of which described "a guy with a gun."

The attacker assaulted multiple customers before one of the cop opened fire, according to the edited security tapes and body camera footage provided by authorities. Before the shooting, one officer can be heard asking the cop to "slow down." Officers discovered "a female who was suffering from various injuries and bleeding" while conducting a search at the store before the shooting, according to LAPD Captain Stacy Spell. "Hold up! Hold up, Jones! Hold up! Hold up!" another officer screams just before three shots ring out. According to authorities, the cop who was carrying the firearm pulled the trigger. Elena-Lopez died instantly after collapsing on the floor. Valentina's mother can be heard screaming in the dressing room near her dying daughter in the background of the video. Orellana-Peralta was struck by a bullet that skipped off the floor and entered the dressing room wall,' according to Capt Stacy Spell.

"They encountered the suspect a short distance away, and an officer-involved shooting occurred," Spell explained. A statement, released by LAPD Chief Michel Moore, expressed regret for the teen's death. "This chaotic incident resulting in the death of an innocent child is tragic," Moore added. The cop who fired the deadly rounds that killed Elena-Lopez and Orellana Peralta is yet to be identified. Meanwhile, Valentina's distraught parents protested outside the LAPD headquarters demanding justice for their daughter.

There was no indication from the video that officers sought to deescalate the situation before the shooting, according to San Francisco police commission member John Hamasaki, a criminal defence lawyer who has been engaged in examining videos of police murders. "Deadly force is the last option on the table," Hamasaki stated according to Daily Mail.

CALIFORNIA TEACHER RECRUITS FOR LGBTQ+ CLUB

Lori Caldeira: Teacher who 'stalked' students to recruit them for LGBTQ club shrugs off criticism

 

By Divya Kishore  

 

meaww

December 30, 2021

 

 

Lori Caldeira has justified herself after 'stalking' students' online searches 

 

A California teacher who confessed to “stalking” her students’ online searches earlier this year to hire them for a school LGBTQ+ club has now defended herself by saying her comments were not meant to be taken literally. Lori Caldeira said that she and her colleague Kelly Baraki of Buena Vista Middle School used to check sixth-grade students' online activity to find kids who can join the LGBTQ club.

At the 2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference, ‘Beyond the Binary: Identity & Imagining Possibilities’, in Palm Springs in late October, Caldeira stated: “When we were doing our virtual learning — we totally stalked what they were doing on Google, when they weren't doing schoolwork.” She also acknowledged the “stalking” while justifying it with how they struggled to get enough students in 2020.

“So we started to brainstorm at the end of the 2020 school year, what are we going to do? We got to see some kids in person at the end of last year, not many but a few. So we started to try and identify kids. One of them was Googling ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ And we're like, ‘Check.’ We're going to invite that kid when we get back on campus,” she said while addressing people at the pair's show – “How we run a ‘GSA’ in Conservative Communities.”

Caldeira also noted, “We have LGBTQ kids who come to us, and they come and spend a year with us and they get all the love and the affirmation that they need. And we give them tools to be powerful and brave and bold.” However, someone present at the conference reportedly got shocked with her statement and recorded it only to give it to freelance journalist Abigail Shrier, who wrote a piece based on it.

The title of the November article was ‘How Activists Recruit Kids’. In the bombshell feature, the journalist wrote: “Last month, the California Teachers Association (CTA) held a conference advising teachers on best practices for subverting parents, conservative communities and school principals on issues of gender identity and sexual orientation.”

She added: “Speakers went so far as to tout their surveillance of students’ Google searches, internet activity, and hallway conversations in order to target sixth graders for personal invitations to LGBTQ clubs, while actively concealing these clubs’ membership rolls from participants’ parents,” while revealing the names of Caldeira and Baraki.

As a result, the school staffers’ ‘You Be You’ LGBTQ club was suspended as well as they were put on administrative leave while an internal probe has been launched. On Tuesday, December 28, Caldeira spoke with The San Francisco Chronicle and claimed to use approved GoGuardian tracking software to “stalk” students. She said, “I see a site that’s emblazoned with rainbows. How am I not going to notice that?”

It was also alleged that Caldeira and Baraki intentionally hid parts of the documentation of the club or its members to restrict parental knowledge of its functioning. Some parents even accused them of trying to become primary influences in their children’s lives. But the teachers refuted it by saying kids already knew several things through social media and instead of raising new concerns, they were addressing pre-existing issues.

“Their parents think we start that conversation, but we don’t. TikTok starts it, Snapchat starts it, Instagram starts it or their classmates start it, and then we just try to answer the questions as honestly and fairly as we can,” Caldeira said, who also added that she and her fellow staffer received death threats amid the controversy and feel terrified to go outside.

NYC SOUNDS LIKE THE OLD-TIME JULY 4TH CELEBRATIONS ..... BANG BANG BANG --- BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Grim Apple: NYC murders in 2021 to near 500 for first time in a decade 

 

By Craig McCarthy

 

New York Post

December 30, 2021

 

 

New York is on track to hit the grim milestone of 500 murders in 2021 as all aspects of crime continue to rise  

 

The Big Apple is on pace to hit nearly 500 murders before the close of 2021 — a bleak milestone not seen in a decade.

As of Sunday — and with five days left on the year — the NYPD has recorded 479 slayings, driven by a startling surge in gun violence across the city, data shows.

The Big Apple hasn’t recorded more than 500 murders since 2011 when there were 515 on the books, according to the data.

In 2012, homicides dropped to 419. In the following years, they plummeted into the 300s each year, except for 2017 when the city recorded 292 murders.

This year’s total already topped the tally of 462 in 2020 — a year that saw a spike in fatal incidents in major cities nationwide as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of life. That trend continued into 2021 with New York City seeing a late-year spike in murders.

Over the last month, nearly double the homicides were reported over the same four-week span — 41 this year between Nov. 28 and Dec. 26 compared to 24 during that same period last year, NYPD data shows. 

 

As of Dec. 26, 2021 the NYPD has recorded 479 slayings driven by a surge in gun violence across NYC

The number of murders in 2021 topped the tally of 462 in 2020

NYC hasn’t recorded more than 500 murders since 2011 when there were 515 

 

The latest homicide statistics don’t include two men who were gunned down in separate incidents earlier this week.

Quelling the mounting number of murders will be just one of the challenges the incoming Eric Adams administration will face when the cop-turned-lawmaker takes the reins as mayor at the stroke of midnight Saturday.

Other major cities across the US have also struggled to reverse the troublesome crime trend. In Chicago, murders were approaching 800 with days left in the year, according to the Chicago Tribune. Philadelphia is expected to surpass 550 homicides, the highest total on record dating back to 1960, according to ABC.

IS THE POST CHERRY-PICKING STORIES TO MAKE BAIL REFORM LOOK BAD? ..... IF SO, SO WHAT!

How much more proof does Carl Heastie need that bail reform has been a horror for NYC? 

 

Post Editorial Board

 

New York Post

December 29. 2021

 

 

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has accused The Post of cherry-picking stories to make bail reform look bad

 

It didn’t take long after New York’s bail-reform laws took effect in January 2020 for crime to surge, yet at the time, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie claimed there wasn’t enough data to suspect a link. Now, after two years under those laws, crime has continued to soar.

Heastie and those in his camp need to take another look at the damage those laws, along with lenient judges and other pro-crime measures, have done.

Consider the horror stories from 2021 alone:  

• In June, 31-year-old Raymond Wilson was free in connection with a burglary case when he broke into a 10-year-old girl’s bedroom and molested her while she slept. He’d already been arrested for burglary more than a dozen times, but because of the new statute, judges couldn’t set bail.
• Isaac Rodriguez was nabbed almost 50 times this year alone but was released back on the streets because his petit-larceny and stolen-property charges didn’t qualify for bail. It wasn’t until Rodriguez was arrested for a June 7 assault on a 39-year-old Jackson Heights man that he was finally put behind bars.
• Ricardo Hernandez was also released without bail after being charged with three hate crimes for pushing an Asian NYPD officer onto Queens subway tracks on April 17. Per the new bail reform, the judge couldn’t do anything about it, saying, “I have absolutely no authority or power to set bail on this defendant for this alleged offense.”
• At just 18, Steven Mendez, a reputed gang member, had already racked up three collars yet was freed on probation before allegedly shooting and killing 21-year-old college student Saiko Koma in October. Bronx Judge Denis Boyle had given him five years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to violent armed robbery.

The overall major-crime number this year rose, too — up 5 percent from last year. The NYPD CompStat program reported more than 98,580 major crimes (murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft) in 2021, vs. 93,231 at this point for 2020.

Shootings are up another 2.4 percent, after doubling last year. And murders are up, too, on track to hit almost 500, compared with 452 cases tallied last year. The city hasn’t seen that many killings in a decade.

Outgoing Police Commissioner Dermot Shea has been resolute in blaming New York’s bail-reform laws and woke prosecutors. “We are in a place right now which, by any definition, is insanity,” Shea told NBC New York. “When you make public statements, ‘I’m not prosecuting X,’ you’re sending a real strong message to the criminal element.”

He’s right. When you refuse to prosecute low-level crimes, as some city prosecutors have, felons see it as a green light to reoffend. Couple this with New York’s lenient bail-reform laws and soft-on-crime judges, and crime is sure to spike. Yet in 2020, Big Apple prosecutors let 6,500 suspected felons off the hook, twice the rate of 2019.

Fixing the bail-reform laws won’t by itself solve the problem. Fortunately, incoming Mayor Eric Adams has hinted he’ll take other necessary measures, too, like restoring some form of stop, question and frisk and reinstating undercover anti-gun officers.

But giving judges more discretion and keeping dangerous perps behind bars are absolute prerequisites. Pray Adams can finally convince Heastie & Co. of that.

THE REVERED DESMOND TUTU CONDEMNED ISRAEL FOR THE 'BLOOD LIBEL' ACCUSATIONS MADE BY THE PALESTINIANS

A Legacy of Light … And Darkness

 

by Stan Goodenough

 

Israel Today

December 30, 2021

 

 

 

South Africa's Desmond Tutu, Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, condemns Israel during a press conference in Gaza City in 2008  

 

He was a good man! From presidents to prime ministers to the Queen of England, to academics, activists and journalists everywhere, the accolade-wave for Desmond Tutu appeared unending as it rolled around the world through the final week of 2021.

Understandably. The 90-year-old South African was a former Anglican Archbishop, a national reconciliator and a Nobel Peace laureate. In his life’s multiple roles, his main and most outstanding achievements were the pivotal part he played in bringing down the apartheid system that ravaged his homeland, and in ushering in a new era for his people.

The New South Africa was born without a bloodbath. For this huge gift, Tutu is rightly to be acknowledged.

His legacy, said US President Joe Biden, will “echo throughout the ages.”

Who, then, would want to sully his memory – this man with his infectious smile and diminutive physical stature that is everywhere revered as a moral titan? What gracelessness motivates this article when, at the time of writing, Tutu’s body lies in state in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, his mourning “Rainbow Nation” yet to put him in the ground?

It’s not gracelessness or lack of feeling that prompts this from me – a countryman of Tutu’s, a confirmed Anglican and an anti-apartheid journalist.

As a young South African raised by parents who recognised apartheid as evil, Tutu and Nelson Mandela were my heroes. Their readiness to sacrifice their freedom and, if necessary, their lives to resist that racist system influenced me tremendously.

But what drives me now is the loud warning of history; of Church history stretching back to that other colossus of Christendom, the German reformer Martin Luther, and of recent political history that followed the death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

As a Christian, I am immeasurably indebted to Luther, who made the Bible available in the common tongue, wresting God’s Word from absolute Vatican control and thereby, in a very real way, liberating succeeding generations of Christians from the chains of Rome. For Bible-believing Christianity, his impact for good cannot be overstressed.

But, hand-in-hand with this blessing, Luther brought a terrible curse, imbedding into the consciousness of Christendom the – by then already 1500-year-old – hatred of the Jew.

How intolerably tragic, and what a cause for shame, that Luther’s very pre-eminence – the hero-worship of him – served to so effectively fuel the mindset that justified centuries of Christian antisemitism, and that ultimately was used to defend the Holocaust. His teachings, written down in “On the Jews and their Lies,” unquestionably generated the atmosphere in which Hitler’s genocide could be done.

When a famous person dies, political movements will vie to become his heir. And they will move quickly. Exemplary to this is what happened after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. While he was outspokenly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, the world leaders that congregated in Jerusalem for his unprecedented international funeral made him the patron saint of what became known as the “Two State Solution.” Each year at the anniversary of his death, this fabricated legacy is trumpeted anew.

In Tutu’s case, there is no need to bend the truth about his political stand regarding his country. It was a global cause celebre. The world was united against apartheid and its celebration of his life is its celebration of the champion of the anti-apartheid movement.

In 1984, Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for his efforts “to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa.”

This was seen as a gesture of support for him and for the South African Council of Churches which he then headed up. (The Nobel Committee would subsequently show itself as a major motivator of the Two State Solution, in 1994 awarding its peace prize jointly to terrorist chief Yasser Arafat and Israeli leaders Rabin and Shimon Peres.)

Tutu taught the Marxist-Leninist-spawned “social gospel” – a perversion of the Gospel of the Kingdom taught by Jesus. His doctrine, the revolution-endorsing Liberation Theology, was a natural outgrowth of the heresy of Replacement Theology imparted by mainstream Christendom for centuries.

Critical of the Marxist-Leninist governments in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc which he hated, he said, “with every fiber of my being,” he nevertheless excused the support of communism by multitudes of South African blacks, arguing that “when you are in a dungeon and a hand is stretched out to free you, you do not ask for the pedigree of the hand owner.”

Precisely that compromising of values would see Mandela betray his incredible legacy as a human rights champion when he embraced the mass Jew-killer Arafat at his presidential inauguration, and aligned the new South Africa with those particularly human-rights-abusing states – Ghaddafi’s Libya and Khomeini’s Iran.

Thus did both of my heroes fall.

The more influential a man is for good, the higher the veneration of him, the greater his responsibility to be careful about other causes behind which he aligns his considerable moral support.

Tutu’s is a life that will be celebrated for decades to come. And with it will be those other causes he championed: “gay rights” and Palestinianism.

After apartheid’s demise, Tutu became “perhaps the world’s most prominent religious leader advocating gay and lesbian rights,” according to his authorised biographer, John Allen. In 2007, he attacked the Anglican Church as being obsessed with the sin of homosexuality and declared: “If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God.”  In 2011, he called on the Anglican Church of Southern Africa over which he had presided to assent to same-sex “marriages.”

The other, more long-term delinquency of this anti-apartheid giant, is that he was also an antisemite. He protested this charge while alive, and cannot defend himself now that he is not. But the historical record stands.

It is not that wanting the Palestinian Arabs to live freely is of itself antisemitic.

The evidence is in the propensity to blame Israel for the suffering of the Palestinian Arabs – something which the Jewish nation state neither brought about nor wishes to perpetuate. It was Tutu’s decision (whether out of a readiness to believe accusations against Israel without properly investigating them; out of ignorance fed by antisemitism, or out of an undiluted form of the prejudice fed by Christendom) to wholly embrace the false Palestinian narrative and reject the biblically-, historically- and legally-correct Jewish narrative that gives the lie to his protestations.

Ironically, he chaired the post-apartheid commission whose motto read: “Truth – The Road to Reconciliation.” But when it came to Israel and the Arabs, while he insisted that he was fighting for reconciliation, he eschewed the truth and embraced the falsehood.

 

                   

Desmond Tutu subscribed to, and perpetuated numerous blood libels – defamations of Israel’s Jews calculated to foment prejudice and justify antipathy towards them. Among them:

• That the West established Israel at the expense of the Palestinian Arabs out of guilty feelings about the Holocaust.
• That Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is in breach of international law.
• That Israel had “colonised the West Bank” and “advanced racist laws.”
• That the Jewish state was guilty of “oppressing another people” in order to “guarantee its existence.”
• That “Israeli politicians are aware [that] they can get away with almost anything because the West feels guilty” about the Holocaust.
• That Israel practices “dehumanising policies.”

And, with outrageous presumption and untruth:

• That “our Jewish brothers and sisters [have] forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history.” That they have “turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions [and have] forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden.”

Blood libels are effective because they are believed. This has been evidenced throughout Christian history.

It’s a question as enduring as it is painful: Why would a Christian, who in so many other areas of his life say he seeks to follow the teachings and example of the Christ he worships, nurse – so deep in his heart – a loathing of and prejudice towards the people from whom Jesus came?

The notoriously anti-Israel African-American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson refered to Desmond Tutu as “the Martin Luther King of South Africa.”

Seen against the unhappy backdrop of Christian-Jewish history, the late Archbishop would more accurately be called the Martin Luther of that country.

The legacy of light he brought to South Africa will surely endure. As it does, however, it will also perpetuate his legacy of darkness against Israel and the Jews.