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Post by Blitz on Dec 5, 2021 9:11:14 GMT -5
No jail + no bail + no work with pay + defund the police + woke = FAILURE The only good that could come out of this is that it took only a blink in time to prove the idiotic logic of the Socialist radical left is doomed to fail. And now this... Brutal, brazen crimes shake L.A., leaving city at a crossroadsKevin Rector, Richard Winton, Andrew J. Campa - Yesterday 8:00 AM www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/brutal-brazen-crimes-shake-la-leaving-city-at-a-crossroads/ar-AARsCHdCrews of burglars publicly smashing their way into Los Angeles' most exclusive stores. Robbers following their victims, including a star of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and a BET host, to their residences. And this week, the fatal shooting of 81-year-old Jacqueline Avant, an admired philanthropist and wife of music legend Clarence Avant, in her Beverly Hills home. Custom Printed Champion Men's 6 Oz. Cotton Tagless T-Shirt | Size: S | Red After two years of rising violent crime in Los Angeles, these incidents have sparked a national conversation and led to local concern about both the crimes themselves and where the outrage over the violence will lead. "The fact that this has happened, her being shot and killed in her own home, after giving, sharing, and caring for 81 years has shaken the laws of the Universe," declared Oprah Winfrey, expressing her grief over Avant's killing to her 43 million Twitter followers. "The world is upside down." While overall city crime rates remain far below records set during the notorious gang wars of the 1990s, violent crime has jumped sharply in L.A., as it has in other cities. Much of the violence has occurred in poor communities and among vulnerable populations, such as the homeless, and receives little attention. However, since the start of the pandemic and more rapidly in recent months, crime has crept up in wealthier enclaves and thrust its way to the center of public discourse in L.A. — against a backdrop of COVID-19 angst, evolving political perceptions of what role police and prosecutors should play in society and, now, a holiday season upon which brick-and-mortar retailers are relying to stay afloat. Some wonder if this could be a turning point for California, which for decades has been at the center of the movement for criminal justice reform, rolling back tough sentencing laws and reducing prison populations. Polls in 2020 showed that California voters largely support many of these measures, and both San Francisco and Los Angeles have elected district attorneys with strong reform agendas. However, those concerned about crime and those who believe liberal policies have contributed to its rise have grown more vocal. It is a discourse defined by glaring differences of opinion and, at times, a yawning disconnect between the perception of local crime and the reality on the ground. Dominick DeLuca, owner of the Brooklyn Projects skateboard shop on Melrose Avenue, a commercial corridor that has seen burglaries and robberies spike sharply in recent months, said things have gotten so bad that he carries a gun to work — and desperately wants ramped-up enforcement. "I have never seen anything like it," he said. "In the last two years, I have been broken into three times." At a Thursday press conference, Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said more offenders should be locked up and questioned pandemic-related policies that have allowed many nonviolent arrestees to be released without bail. Moore said arrests had been made in several high-profile "smash-and-grab" burglaries but lamented that the suspects had all been released pending trial. Garcetti said warehousing criminals in jails without rehabilitating them is not a solution, but neither is ceding the streets to repeat offenders. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón, whose progressive policies around prosecution and sentencing many blame for the uptick in crime, was notably absent at the press conference but said through his office that he is working closely with law enforcement partners to hold perpetrators accountable for such brazen crimes. The heightened rhetoric marks a departure from language shared by many of the same officials just last year, after George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer. This has set off alarms among activists who led protests, want to see progressive justice measures enacted and hear echoes of past eras when, they believe, the overhyping of crime led to overpolicing and excessive incarceration. "They're trying to move us backward," said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. "We don't want to move backward; we want to move forward." Abdullah called Avant's killing "horrific and appalling" and said Black Lives Matter mourns with her family. But she said officials must not be allowed to use Avant's death or recent property crime to push for more policing, cash bail or other tough-on-crime measures that she said have been proved not to work. "We need to think about what kind of economic desperation actually creates property crime and how do we get people out of that state," Abdullah said. "How do we create livable wage jobs? How do we create affordable housing?" Abdullah also warned against accepting claims about crime that may not have a basis in reality — which, as it happens, is something police have warned against in recent days, as concern over crime trends has escalated. For example, while the "follow-home" and "smash-and-grab" trends in L.A., including upticks in robberies in corridors like Melrose Avenue, have caused concern, they are not indicative of a citywide surge in property crime. According to LAPD data through Nov. 27, property crime this year is up 2.6% over the same period last year but is down 6.6% from 2019. Robbery is up 3.9% over last year but down 13.6% from 2019. Burglaries are down 8.4% from last year and down 7.7% from 2019. Car thefts are a notable outlier, up nearly 53% from 2019. More concerning is violent crime. Homicides are up 46.7% compared with 2019, while shooting victims are up 51.4%, according to police data. As of the end of November, there had been 359 homicides in L.A. in 2021, compared with 355 in all of 2020. There have not been more homicides in one year since 2008, which ended with 384. In Beverly Hills, police stress that crime is rare — and killings like Avant's even more so. Police Chief Mark Stainbrook said that despite recent incidents, Beverly Hills remains one of the safest cities in the nation. Crime across Beverly Hills this year was down 2% as of the end of October. Violent crime in the past two years is up 23% compared with the two years prior, but the total number of such crimes remains tiny: There were just five robberies in the city in October, and homicides are rare. It's not clear what reforms the concerns about crime in the Los Angeles area will lead to — if any. A crime spike in the 1990s led California to adopt policies that toughened sentences and increased incarceration. The reform movement was an acknowledgment that those policies went too far and caused their own injustices. A poll of L.A. voters released this week showed that public safety is perceived as less of a pressing problem than homelessness, housing affordability, traffic, climate change and air quality. Jonathan Simon, a criminal justice professor at UC Berkeley's law school and author of "Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear," said it is unlikely that crime concerns will completely derail the progressive criminal justice reform movement that began with Floyd's killing. However, such concern could slow those reforms, he said — showing once more "how potent the political value of crime is" and how quickly politicians and others can revert to a "crackdown" mentality. "It's a powerful trope now for 40 years," Simon said. On Friday at Beverly Hills’ Roxbury Park, a handful of child-care providers sat together over lunch. One woman said she had moved her walking schedule earlier each day to feel more secure. Norma Guzman, who has worked for two decades as a babysitter in various parts of L.A., said Beverly Hills does not compare to other areas in terms of the amount of crime. "If I didn’t watch TV, I don’t think I would have noticed the area was more dangerous," she said. "I don’t think it is." But Janette Waight, a nurse who has worked in Beverly Hills for seven years and was strolling through Roxbury Park with her boss' terrier, felt differently. "Over the last few years, this area has become more and more dangerous," Waight said. "It’s not just crime; it’s homelessness, and it’s just a desire from people to look for quick cash rather than work." Ruben Urcis, 90, a 42-year resident of Beverly Hills who walks twice a day along the Beverly Gardens Park walkway, said he was not disturbed by the recent string of high-profile crimes, which he didn't consider anything new. "People might just be noticing this, but it’s happened before," he said, noting that his wife was robbed at gunpoint of a white-gold Rolex more than a decade ago outside their garage. Now she wears a "standard wristwatch of no value," he added. Urcis said the difference with crime now is that it's occurring in public places and being recorded on camera for all to see. "The people in this community don’t feel safe," he said, "but that’s been going on for a long time." Pete Nichols, co-founder of the community group Melrose Action, said Thursday's press conference offered few concrete solutions — one reason the Melrose retail community isn't waiting for City Hall or the LAPD to address crime for them. Instead, local merchants are trying to obtain cameras that read license plates to help police identify burglars who drive through the area. Many local merchants and employees saw the August killing of 26-year-old Shoe Palace employee Jayren Bradford outside that store as a tipping point, Nichols said, and have been chipping in funds for the cameras. "It is a really awful situation," he said.
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Post by Blitz on Dec 5, 2021 9:22:44 GMT -5
And yet another loony Left failure from Left Coast... and she's only a failure because Biden doesn't help her like he helps 'white' people; according to her anyway.* *Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly feels she’s not getting the same support President Biden gives to white male politicians. nypost.com/2021/11/15/kamala-harris-sidelined-amid-tensions-with-president-biden/And now this... A Kamala Harris staff exodus reignites questions about her leadership style — and her future ambitionsCleve R. Wootson Jr., Tyler Pager www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-kamala-harris-staff-exodus-reignites-questions-about-her-leadership-style-e2-80-94-and-her-future-ambitions/ar-AARshLPThe rumors started circulating in July: Vice President Harris’s staff was wilting in a dysfunctional and frustrated office, burned out just a few months after her historic swearing-in and pondering exit strategies. A few days later, Harris hosted an all-staff party at her official residence, where most of her office bit into hamburgers and posted pictures of smiling, congenial co-workers on Twitter, pixelated counterpoints to the narrative of an office in shambles. “Let me tell you about these burgers at the VP’s residence!!” chief Harris spokesperson Symone Sanders gushed in a tweet. “The food was good and the people were amazing.” Her official defense against reports of staff unrest was more searing. She called people who lobbed criticism behind nameless quotes “cowards” and stressed that working for a groundbreaking vice president was a difficult job, but not a dehumanizing one. “We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day,” she told one outlet. “What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I’m like ‘welcome to the club.’ ” Five months later, Sanders is leaving the vice president’s office, the highest-profile member of an end-of-year exodus that includes communications chief Ashley Etienne and two other staffers who help shape the vice president’s public image. Sanders told The Washington Post her departure is not due to any unhappiness or dysfunction, but rather because she is ready for a break after three years of the relentless pressure that came with speaking for and advising Biden and Harris while navigating a global pandemic. 'You are no longer safe in America': Judge Jeanine But the quartet of soon-to-be-empty desks reignited questions about why Harris churns through top-level Democratic staff, an issue that has colored her nearly 18 years in public service, including her historic but uneven first year as vice president. Now, those questions about her management extend to whether it will hamper her ability to seek and manage the presidency. Critics scattered over two decades point to an inconsistent and at times degrading principal who burns through seasoned staff members who have succeeded in other demanding, high-profile positions. People used to putting aside missteps, sacrificing sleep and enduring the occasional tirade from an irate boss say doing so under Harris can be particularly difficult, as she has struggled to make progress on her vice-presidential portfolio or measure up to the potential that has many pegging her as the future of the Democratic Party. “One of the things we’ve said in our little text groups among each other is what is the common denominator through all this and it’s her,” said Gil Duran, a former Democratic strategist and aide to Harris who quit after five months working for her in 2013. In a recent column, he said she’s repeating “the same old destructive patterns.” “Who are the next talented people you’re going to bring in and burn through and then have (them) pretend they’re retiring for positive reasons,” he told The Post. The Washington Post spoke with 18 people connected to Harris for this story, including former and current staffers, West Wing officials and other supporters and critics. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to be more candid about a sensitive topic. The vice president’s office declined to address questions about Harris’s leadership style. Her defenders say the criticism against her is often steeped in the same racism and sexism that have followed a woman who has been a first in every job she’s done over the past two decades. Her selection as President Biden’s vice president, they say, makes her a bigger target because many see her as the heir apparent to the oldest president in the nation’s history. They also say Harris faces the brunt of a double standard for women who are ambitious, powerful or simply unafraid to appear strong in public. Sean Clegg, a partner at Bearstar Strategies, the political consultancy that has advised many prominent California politicians, including an ascendant Harris, conceded that she can be a tough boss, but that she is not an abusive one. “She has put me personally in the position of feeling like Jeff Sessions,” he said, referring to Harris’s sharp questioning of the former attorney general under president Donald Trump about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sessions said her question made him feel rushed, which, he said, “makes me nervous.” But Clegg, who started working for Harris in 2008, said there is a difference between a tough boss and one who excoriates staff. “People personalize these things,” he continued. “I’ve never had an experience in my long history with Kamala, where I felt like she was unfair. Has she called bulls---? Yes. And does that make people uncomfortable sometimes? Yes. But if she were a man with her management style, she would have a TV show called ‘The Apprentice.' ” Staffers who worked for Harris before she was vice president said one consistent problem was that Harris would refuse to wade into briefing materials prepared by staff members, then berate employees when she appeared unprepared. “It’s clear that you’re not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,” one former staffer said. “With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why.” For both critics and supporters, the question is not simply where Harris falls on the line between demanding and demeaning. Many worry that her inability to keep and retain staff will hobble her future ambitions. The vice president entered the White House with few longtime staffers. Among the senior staff in her vice-presidential office, only two had worked for her before last year: Rohini Kosoglu, Harris’s top domestic policy adviser and her former Senate chief of staff, and Josh Hsu, counsel to the vice president and former Senate deputy chief of staff. By contrast, President Biden remains surrounded by staff who have been allied with him for large swaths of his five-decade career. The three men who served as chief of staff when he was vice president — Ron Klain, Bruce Reed and Steve Ricchetti — all work in the West Wing in senior roles. Even much of Biden’s communications team when he served as vice president now serve as the core of the White House communications office. Several of Harris’s former top aides are in senior roles in the administration — they just don’t work for her. Julie Chávez Rodríguez, who worked in Harris’s Senate office before becoming her traveling chief of staff on her presidential campaign, is the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Emmy Ruiz, a senior adviser on the campaign, is the White House director of political strategy and outreach. White House officials argue it’s not unusual that staff would depart at the one-year mark and note there will probably be exits from the West Wing as well. “In my experience, and if you look at past precedent, it’s natural for staffers who have thrown their heart and soul into a job to be ready to move on to a new challenge after a few years,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at Thursday’s press briefing. “And that is applicable to many of these individuals. It’s also an opportunity, as it is in any White House, to bring in new faces, new voices and new perspectives.” Still, the quartet of announced departures were all for jobs that helped shape the vice president’s image to the American people — important roles for one of the nation’s most closely watched politicians, one whose first year missteps have been picked apart in the public eye. As Harris looks for a new communications director and press secretary, several of her former communications aides are working in top roles at government agencies: Lily Adams, her former campaign and Senate communications director, works at the Treasury Department; Rebecca Chalif, her deputy communications director on the campaign, now works as the director of press at the U.S. Agency for International Development; Ian Sams, national press secretary for Harris’s campaign, and Kirsten Allen, deputy national press secretary, are at the Department of Health and Human Services. But the loss of Sanders is the biggest blow. During a 2020 presidential campaign during which the country struggled to address racial inequality and unrest, she was a frequent defender of Biden’s dubious statements and previous missteps on race. She often took the lead on persuading crucial demographics outraged at systemic racism that Biden’s administration would usher in something better. She was an early go-between connecting Biden’s campaign to George Floyd’s family. And as Harris’s chief spokeswoman, she called out racism and sexism in defense of the first woman of color to hold a nationally elected office. On cable news and in late-night conversations with reporters, Sanders deflected criticism that Harris hasn’t done enough to address the issues in her portfolio. While Harris’s reputation is connected to those issues, both her supporters and critics acknowledge that her ability to solve problems is limited by the political capital Biden is willing to expend. Biden, for example, has been reluctant to support wholesale changes to the Senate filibuster, something that would be required to make meaningful progress on immigration reform or voting rights in the current Senate makeup. In March, Biden asked Harris to address the root causes of migration from the “Northern Triangle” countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but critics have tried to brand Harris as Biden’s border czar and tie her to chaos at the United States’ southern border. Her first international trip — to Guatemala and Mexico as part of an effort to address the root causes of migration — was marked by an exchange with NBC News’s Lester Holt in which she awkwardly said she would go to the U.S. border with Mexico — something Republicans and other critics had been calling for her to do for some time. And activists have expressed frustration that Harris asked to be put in charge of the issue of voting rights, then made little meaningful change in one year of the Biden presidency. Sanders has been by Harris’s side through almost all of those controversies, briefing her before important interviews, smoothing things over after missteps. Vice President Harris walks with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, right, and spokeswoman Symone Sanders to board Air Force Two in El Paso in June. In an interview, Sanders said her departure wasn’t related to displeasure with the office. She wanted a new challenge but would not detail what, if any future career plans she has. “I’ve been with the president since before he announced his run for president. I staffed him on the road. I traveled with him for nearly two years and during that time, there were days when on Monday I would get on a plane with Joe Biden. And then the plane would land in Delaware I would drive from Delaware to Washington DC. And Tuesday morning, I would be on a plane with Kamala Harris,” she said. “I’m getting married next year. I would like to plan my wedding. You know, I have earned a break. So me deciding that I’m leaving has absolutely nothing to do with my unhappiness. I feel honored every single day to work for the vice president who gave me an opportunity to be her spokesperson at the highest levels.” Jeremy Barr, Matt Viser and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.
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Post by Blitz on Dec 12, 2021 6:36:55 GMT -5
San Francisco’s vaunted tolerance dims amid brazen crimes By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JANIE HAR apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-sports-business-health-lifestyle-538efc664e9da0d2f0831f3f3ed9a4d7Police vehicles are stationed at Union Square following recent robberies in San Francisco, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. In San Francisco, homeless tents, open drug use, home break-ins and dirty streets have proliferated during the pandemic. The quality of life crimes and a laissez-faire approach by officials to brazen drug dealing have given residents a sense the city is in decline.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg) Police vehicles are stationed at Union Square following recent robberies in San Francisco, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. In San Francisco, homeless tents, open drug use, home break-ins and dirty streets have proliferated during the pandemic. The quality of life crimes and a laissez-faire approach by officials to brazen drug dealing have given residents a sense the city is in decline.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Caitlin Foster fell in love with San Francisco’s people and beauty and moved to the city a dozen years ago. But after repeatedly clearing away used needles, other drug paraphernalia and human feces outside the bar she manages, and too many encounters with armed people in crisis, her affection for the city has soured. “It was a goal to live here, but now I’m here and I’m like, ‘Where am I going to move to now?’ I’m over it,’” said Foster, who manages Noir Lounge in the trendy Hayes Valley neighborhood. A series of headline-grabbing crime stories — mobs of people smashing windows and grabbing luxury purses in the downtown Union Square shopping district and daytime shootings in the touristy Haight-Ashbury — has only exacerbated a general feeling of vulnerability. Residents wake up to news of attacks on Asian American seniors, burglarized restaurants, and boarded-up storefronts in the city’s once-vibrant downtown. San Franciscans take pride in their liberal political bent and generously approve tax measures for schools and the homeless. They accept that trashy streets, tent encampments and petty crime are the price to pay to live in an urban wonderland. But the frustration felt by Foster, who moved from Seattle in search of more sunshine, is growing among residents who now see a city in decline. There are signs that the city famous for its tolerance is losing patience. The pandemic emptied parts of San Francisco and highlighted some of its drawbacks: human and dog feces smeared across sidewalks, home and vehicle break-ins, overflowing trash cans, and a laissez-faire approach by officials to brazen drug dealing. Parents despaired as public schools stayed closed for most of last year as nearby districts welcomed children back to the classroom. Meanwhile, residents and visitors scurry past scenes of lawlessness and squalor. Just steps from the Opera House and Symphony Hall, drug dealers carry translucent bags filled with crystal-like rocks or stand outside the public library’s main branch, flashing wads of cash while peddling heroin and methamphetamine. “There’s a widespread sense that things are on the wrong track in San Francisco,” said Patrick Wolff, 53, a retired professional chess player from the Boston area who has lived in the city since 2005. In a sign of civic frustration, San Franciscans will vote in June on whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a former public defender elected in 2019 whose critics say he’s too lenient on crime. His supporters say there’s no crime surge, and that corporate wage theft is a more pressing issue than cases like that of a San Francisco woman finally arrested after stealing more than $40,000 in goods from a Target over 120 visits. She was released by a judge and arrested again on suspicion of shoplifting after she failed to show up to get her court-ordered ankle monitor. “Where’s the progress? If you say you’re progressive, let’s get the homeless off the street, and let’s get them mental health care,” said Brian Cassanego, a San Francisco native who owns the lounge where Foster works. He moved to wine country five months ago, tired of seeing dealers sell drugs with impunity and worrying about his wife being alone outside at night. The day before he moved, Cassanego stepped out to walk his dogs and saw a man who “looked like a zombie,” with his pants down to his knees and bleeding from where a syringe was stuck on his hip. A woman cried out nearby in shock. “I went upstairs, and I told my wife, ‘We’re leaving now! This city is done!’” he said. Reports of larceny theft — shoplifting from a person or business — are up nearly 17% to more than 28,000 from the same time last year. They remain lower than the more than 40,000 larceny theft cases reported in 2019. Requests to clean dirty streets and sidewalks are the majority of calls to 311, the city’s services line. Overall, though, crime has been trending down for years. More than 45,000 incidents have been reported so far this year, up from last year when most people were shut indoors, but below the roughly 60,000 complaints in previous years. San Francisco’s well-publicized problems have served as fodder for conservative media outlets. Former President Donald Trump jumped in again recently, releasing a statement saying the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to deter smash-and-grab robberies. Elected officials say they’re grappling with deep societal pains common to any large U.S. city. A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, usually both. Some people rant in the streets, nude and in need of medical help. Last year, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19. LeAnn Corpus, an administrative assistant who enjoys figure skating, avoids the downtown rinks and won’t take her 8-year-old son there after dark because of all the open drug use. Still, the city’s urban ills have crept into her Portola neighborhood far from downtown. A homeless man set up a makeshift tent outside her home using a bike and a bed sheet, and relieved himself on the sidewalk. She called the police, who came after two hours and cleared him out, but at her aunt’s home, a homeless person camped out against the backyard for six months despite attempts to get authorities to remove him. “This city just doesn’t feel the same anymore,” said Corpus, a third-generation native. San Francisco residents who are generally uncomfortable with government surveillance have installed security cameras and deadbolts to prevent break-ins, and they have started eyeing outsiders with suspicion. The other night, Joya Pramanik’s husband spotted someone wearing a ski mask on what was an otherwise warm evening on their quiet street. She worried the masked man was up to no good — and it pains her to say that, since what she loves about San Francisco is its easy embrace of all types of characters. Pramanik, a project manager who moved to the U.S. from India in her teens, cheered Trump’s failed reelection bid but says she realized too late that Democratic activists have hijacked her city. “If I say I want laws enforced, I’m racist,” she said. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m not racist. There’s a reason I live in San Francisco.’” Last year, Wolff, the retired chess player, helped launch a new political organization that aims to elect local officials focused on solving pressing problems. Families for San Francisco will elect Democrats, but it’s organized outside the city’s powerful Democratic Party establishment, he said. Wolff hopes to change a civic mindset that no longer expects much in the way of basic public services. In hip Hayes Valley, for example, business owners tired of seeing garbage strewn about and the city not doing anything to address the issue banded together to lease enclosed trash cans from a private company, said Jennifer Laska, president of the neighborhood association. After the lease expired, the association managed to get the city to agree to buy and install new public garbage cans designed to keep trash in and pilferers out. That was four months ago. “We’re still struggling just to get the trash cans actually purchased,” Laska said. In the Marina, a wealthy neighborhood with stunning views of the bay and Golden Gate Bridge, dozens of residents recently hired private security after an increase in auto burglaries. Lloyd Silverstein, a San Francisco native and president of the Hayes Valley Merchants Association, said businesses are considering hiring security guards and installing high-definition security cameras. He rejects the idea that any one city official is to blame for the situation, and he’s optimistic the city will recover. “We have been through big earthquakes and depressions and lots of stuff, but we have a pretty good bounce-back attitude. We’ve got some problems, but we’ll fix them,” he said. “It may just take some time.”
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Post by Blitz on Dec 13, 2021 8:11:05 GMT -5
Now, we've got Socialism's low motivation to have a job and work, inflation climbing higher and higher, gas prices climbing through the roof, and shortages of products on store shelves. Seems like the USA is getting more and more proof that the Left doesn't work!
I'm guessing that the mid-terms will boot many of them out of office!
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Post by Blitz on Dec 16, 2021 20:25:49 GMT -5
Ok, so Harris is locked in the same basement Joe used to campaign from and now this is Pelosi's legacy... punishment free crime, people leaving their trunks open so thieves won't break in, drugs in the streets, tent cities of homeless, needles and human feces littering the streets of San Francisco. I have no doubt the GOP will regain the majority in Congress, both Houses... so that we don't help bad people get worse due to zero risk of incarceration... while the loony left says their good people at heart if only they didn't have to work for a living... ////////////////////////// Bay Area car break-ins are on the rise, prompting some auto owners to leave their trunks open Some people are going to great lengths to avoid having their windows smashed, even leaving their trunks open to show it's empty. By Stephanie Sierra - Wednesday, December 15, 2021 abc7.com/trunk-open-car-break-in-why-not-to-leave-your/11344070/Leaving your trunk open to deter car break-ins? Some auto owners in the Bay Area are trying it, but police warn this is a very bad idea. SAN FRANCISCO -- Some car owners in the San Francisco Bay Area have been going to great lengths to avoid vehicle break-ins, even if that means risking it all. "I'm shocked," said former San Francisco Police Department Deputy Chief Garret Tom. "There's so much that can go wrong here." We've heard of cars being left unlocked, windows rolled down, but now some people are leaving their trunks open too. It's raising eyebrows as reports of car break-ins are on the rise in San Francisco and Oakland. A witness who saw it happen wrote on social media, "Imagine having to clean out your car and leaving it open in public, just so people won't break your windows. Oakland we looking sad man." "It doesn't really surprise me," said Oakland's Interim Deputy Police Chief Drennon Lindsey. Lindsey says these thieves are getting more advanced. "Even if you think I'm just going to put my laptop in my trunk... if it's on, they have technology to detect it in the car," she said. "Even if it's hidden." Smash-and-grab burglars target high-end sneaker store at Westfield Valencia Town Center EMBED <>MORE VIDEOS The owner of Undisputed Sole asked for the public's help in identifying the suspects who broke into the sneaker store. Former SFPD Deputy Chief Garret Tom says in his nearly 40 years on the force, he's never seen people resort to this to protect their windows. "We're in different times... that's unbelievable," he told KGO-TV's Stephanie Sierra as he glanced at the picture. Tom says it's an invitation for even more theft - or perhaps unwanted visitors. "They could steal your batteries, your tires," he said. "They could go into your glove compartment and find out where you live." SFPD has reported a 32 percent increase in car break-ins so far this year compared to last year. The city has also seen a 25 percent spike in auto burglaries. Police say it's a similar trend in Oakland. So far this year, OPD has reported around a 27% increase in both car break-ins and auto burglaries. "We have got to do more to get us through this holiday season," said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Mayor Schaaf is calling on private property owners to consider purchasing security cameras to help with surveillance of these organized groups. With Bay Area car break-ins on the rise, people are going to great lengths to avoid having their windows smashed... Even leaving their trunks open. "Pointing the cameras towards the street and register it with the Oakland Police Department," she said. Both departments have increased patrols in high-traffic areas over the holiday season, but warn we all have to use common sense. "Don't leave valuables in the car, don't even tuck things under your seat," said Lindsey. And definitely, don't leave your trunk open.
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Post by Blitz on Dec 20, 2021 7:18:39 GMT -5
A failed experiment in San Francisco... How San Francisco Lost Its Cool and Panicked About Crime Andrew Boryga, Chris Roberts - Sat, December 18, 2021 www.yahoo.com/now/san-francisco-lost-cool-panicked-020155753.htmlPhoto Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty SAN FRANCISCO—On Wednesday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed made a fiery speech in response to recent increases in thefts and drug sales and use in the city, particularly in the Tenderloin, a notoriously gritty stretch residents say has had similar issues for decades. “It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” Breed said, arguably sounding more like a police union boss than a Democratic politician in a progressive stronghold. “It comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies. And less tolerant of all the bull*$%& that has destroyed our city.” The tough talk represented a stark reversal for Breed, who, shortly after the murder of George Floyd last year, stripped $120 million from the San Francisco Police Department to fund initiatives aimed at improving the lives of Black residents. In the days since, her statements have drawn praise from some residents and business owners in the Tenderloin who say they sympathize with justice reform but that longstanding problems have gotten out of control as crime numbers shoot up nationwide. But they have also drawn ire from detractors who argue Breed risks abandoning a focus on the root causes of crime in a sort of retrenchment that has played out in progressive strongholds across the country since last year’s summer of rage over police violence. Even then, the about face in the liberal bastion of San Francisco is particularly astonishing. “What’s underneath the surface here is that these local recalls are really impacting our city politics in a way that I think is destructive,” John Hamasaki, a member of the San Francisco Police Commission and criminal defense attorney, told The Daily Beast. Hamasaki was referring primarily to the upcoming June recall vote of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Boudin, elected in Jan. 2020, had previously served as a public defender in the city and has quickly come under fire for being soft on prosecuting repeat offenders. Hamasaki also noted viral videos of robberies in the city being shared widely on social media. Given the attention, he said, it seemed Breed was “tacking right.” “It feels political because it doesn’t address the actual problems,” Hamasaki said. Breed did not respond to a request for comment. Boudin also did not respond to a request for comment. During her press conference, Breed pushed back on the idea she was making some kind of “reversal” by demanding more resources for police, among other changes. “I would say that things have changed as it relates to our significant need for law enforcement and so an investment is necessary as a result of it,” Breed said. Chris Canning, Captain of the Tenderloin Station for the San Francisco Police Department, told The Daily Beast he was “grateful” for the mayor’s call for action. He said that while there have been police-led efforts in the past to address issues in the Tenderloin, what feels different to him is what he called an “all-hands on deck approach for a sustained period of time” that would also involve other city agencies and community organizations. San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott said during Wednesday’s press conference that there has been a longstanding struggle to balance enforcing laws in the Tenderloin and getting people help. And while he said there will still be an effort to connect people with needed mental-health and substance-abuse services, there is also now a green light to seek enforcement. “People will not be allowed to smoke meth, to smoke fentanyl, to inject heroin in their arms in public spaces,” he said. But looming behind the relatively unified front—at least this week—between the police department and the mayor were long-standing tensions over justice in a city known both for progressive politics and gilded liberalism. Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, the local cops’ union, told The Daily Beast Breed’s statements were further proof of the “failed experiment” to defund the police and welcomed her words. “I’m glad the mayor has finally publicly acknowledged that things are, for lack of a better word, out of control,” he said. While he agreed that there needed to be more police in the Tenderloin, he said the calls for more bodies would have to be backed up by resources. “Unless they’re going to make that financial investment, right now they’re just placating some of the community that are putting pressure on them,” Montoya told The Daily Beast. “At the end of the day, put your money where your mouth is what I say.” Hamasaki, the local police commissioner, said he was not surprised about the police department’s embrace of Breed, arguing her recent statements were an “early Christmas present” to Montoya and the union, which he accused of overstating problems with crime in the city and the Tenderloin area to call out liberal policies. That is, doing what cop unions tend to do across the country. “Our crime numbers are lower than a lot of big cities in liberal and conservative districts,” he said. “It’s not a reflection on the government. It’s just a reflection of what’s happening across the nation.” “This is not fear mongering. This is reality,” Montoya pushed back, in response. He noted that many issues in the area are not new. “But that’s no excuse not to try and find solutions and address it now.” According to data from the San Francisco Police Department, homicides and thefts have seen rises in recent years in the city across the board—mirroring rises in crime nationwide. According to the agency’s dashboard, the city has seen a 15 percent year-over-year increase in homicides in 2021 and an 18 percent increase in larceny theft. In the Tenderloin area, homicides are up 13 percent compared to 2020, and burglaries and motor vehicle thefts are up about 7 percent each. The rise in certain crimes so far this year comes after an already significant city-wide increase in 2020, where homicides were up 17 percent compared to 2019 and burglaries and motor vehicle thefts were up nearly 40 percent compared to 2019. But what has been more striking, according to city data, is the prevalent drug use and calls for help in the Tenderloin area. According to a recent city report, since Jan. 2020, more than 20 percent of all drug overdose deaths in the city have occurred in the Tenderloin. According to an emergency declaration released by Breed on Friday, overdose deaths in the city as a whole have increased 200 percent since 2018. In 2020, the number of deaths from drug overdoses in San Francisco exceeded the number of people who died of COVID. The proclamation cited an increase in fentanyl use as a large reason for the deaths. According to the proclamation, the substance was a factor in more than 70 percent of the overdose deaths between January and October. In the Tenderloin, the proclamation stated that emergency medical calls for service for a “sick person” have increased more than 150 percent between June and November compared to the same period in 2020, and medical calls for service for all reasons during this time period also increased. On Thursday evening in the Tenderloin neighborhood, a day after Breed’s announcement, the city’s heightened contradictions seemed to be on display. On one street, tents pitched wall-to-wall crowded both sides of the sidewalk, forcing foot traffic onto the street among strewn trash and debris. In another corner, someone sat slumped on a sidewalk next to an overstuffed suitcase spilling its contents, while someone else appeared to be passed out on the bench in a bus shelter. Nearby, however, in the windows of restaurants and bars, affluent-looking urban professionals could be seen socializing as if all of this was completely normal. Those who work in the area every day, like Andrew Bloom, director of operations for Brenda’s Soul Food, a restaurant in the Tenderloin, told The Daily Beast they’ve noticed the neighborhood “nosedive” during the pandemic. Among other things, he cited the widespread selling and consumption of drugs in the street at all times of the day, as well as petty theft and, in some cases, violent incidents. Bloom acknowledged the area has always struggled with drug use and homelessness in the 11 years he’s worked there. But he called the problem “manageable” in the past, and said that’s changed. “The whole neighborhood has just been really worse than ever,” he told The Daily Beast. Bloom described dealers frequently attempting to hawk drugs to him daily, and large numbers of people using hard drugs in doorways, streets, and alleys. “It’s not just like a couple of guys now,” he said. “It’s literally like crowds of people.” Amanda Michael, owner of Jane on Larkin, a cafe in the area, chalked up the change to the increased sale of fentanyl in the area and a lack of drug enforcement and police presence that became more apparent during the height of the pandemic. “It was kind of like this perfect storm,” she told The Daily Beast, adding that more tents began popping up in the streets and she could see drug dealers going from tent to tent from her store window. “It was heartbreaking because you just saw this real downhill turn for a lot of people.” Both Bloom and Michael said they were pleased to hear Breed’s comments this week, but they hoped it would lead to a real change, instead of mere politicking. “I’d like to think it’s real,” Michael said about Breed. Still, she said, she’s worried it might just be “grandstanding.” Of course, some residents are calling “bull*$%&” on the mayor, too. Del Seymour, a longtime resident who leads walking tours in the area and runs a nonprofit to teach coding to many people he says are homeless, said Breed’s talk wasn’t all that stirring to him. “This is like the fifth mayor to have vowed to clean up the Tenderloin,” he said. “So, I’m not really expecting a lot out of this.” Seymour, 75, said that until he turned his life around 13 years ago, he spent many years in the Tenderloin homeless, selling and using drugs in the streets there. Given his own history of arrests, he said, he fears the mayor’s new tune won’t help those struggling with substance abuse in the area. “I really don’t want to see another war on drugs,” he said. “Drug use is a disease, it’s not a crime.” Seymour said he knows the mayor believes this, and cited her investments in treatment centers and social services in the area in the past. But he said the “publicity event” on Wednesday seemed like an effort to “bow down” to special interests. During her press conference, Breed acknowledged that the city has always been a “compassionate” one that prides itself on “second chances and rehabilitation.” She said her new initiatives would also encompass more support for people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. But she also took a strong stance and said the compassion would only go so far: “Our compassion should not be mistaken for weakness or indifference.” Tracey Mixon, 50, a Tenderloin resident who works as a peer organizer for the Coalition on Homelessness, said she agrees with others that things have gotten worse. Particularly when it comes to people dying and being on edge or prone to unpredictable outbursts—and this, she said, can be explained by what drugs are out there. “You can talk sense into a crack user and tell them ‘kids are coming,’” she said. But with fentanyl and crystal methamphetamine as the drugs of choice, it’s not quite so simple. Mixon was deeply skeptical of Breed’s plan and its likelihood of success, however. She said she’s lived in the Tenderloin too long and has seen and heard similar pronouncements before. “There’s been a state of emergency in the Tenderloin for 40 years. It’s always been a state of emergency,” said Mixon, who said she can remember at least “two or three” grandiose announcements of a crackdown before this one. “They do this every few years,” she said. “They make it seem like there’s gonna be something big. From that, it’s like it becomes cool or quiet and a little bit peaceful for a while.” Nonetheless, Mixon said she feels the wrong people will be targeted by Breed’s plans and doesn’t feel that more police is the right approach to deal with the issues. “I get what Mayor Breed wants to do,” she said. “That’s not what we need here.”
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Post by Blitz on Dec 24, 2021 12:10:09 GMT -5
Shocking video shows woman armed with a PICKAXE shoplifting in broad daylight at a Rite Aid in crime-ridden Los Angeles A woman, armed with a pickaxe, was shoplifting at a Los Angeles Rite Aid Shoppers video tapped the bizarre scene on Thursday as the woman walked up and down the aisles with the weapon in hand She reportedly threatened employees and customers and warned that she would come back as she walked out with a basket full of merchandise It comes as LA and cities throughout California continue to be plagued by robberies amid the state's zero bail policies By RONNY REYES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM PUBLISHED: 24 December 2021 www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10341919/Woman-armed-PICKAXE-seen-casually-shoplifting-Rite-Aid-crime-ridden-Los-Angeles.htmlExcerpt: A woman carrying a pickaxe in broad daylight casually walked into a Los Angeles Rite Aid, stole merchandise and threatened store employees and customers, shocking video shows. The bizarre footage captured the moment the unknown woman dragged a basket full of merchandise across the floor of the Rite Aid, in Venice, California, on Thursday morning. She seems to be headed for the door, with basket and pickaxe in hand, before stopping by the counter and telling an employee she'll come back. Police said no was injured during the incident and that they are still searching for the pickaxe-wielding suspect. Detectives said It is currently unknown how much she stole from the shop, Fox 11 reported. The incident comes as LA continues to suffer from a series of brazen robberies plaguing California since November. During the first week of December, LA police arrested 14 suspects alleged to have been involved in 11 recent smash-and-grab robberies at stores last month, where nearly $340,000 worth of merchandise was stolen in strikes on an LA Nordstrom, a Lululemon in Studio City, a Fairfax district store, and a CVS pharmacy in South LA. However, due to city's zero-bail policies, the suspects were all released within hours of being handcuffed and are currently walking the streets while they wait for their cases to go to court.
'If you look at the 14 people arrested, they could have been charged, there could have been bail amounts set, but none of that was done because the district attorney refuses to take a leadership position on this issue,' said Eric Siddall, vice president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys, during an appearance on Fox News on Monday. Siddall blamed Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon office's do-nothing approach to the rampant crime wave currently afflicting cities all across the Golden State. Although burglaries have ultimately dipped over the past few years, homicide rates in LA have skyrocketed over the past two years.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 1, 2022 12:12:05 GMT -5
Terrified Beverly Hills residents flock to buy guns from city's only firearms store as LA crime soars thanks to woke DA's policies Beverly Hills Guns has seen upscale residents from Santa Monica to the Hollywood Hills increasingly buying guns amid a rise in crime Many are self-declared progressives, who've never even held a gun before, but who've been spooked by soaring crime in their ritzy neighborhood Some have also discussed more elaborate security measures, such as armored cars, safe rooms and bulletproof glass Hollywood's violent crime rate is up 25 percent over last year, with the homicide rate doubling and shootings up 54.2 percent over last year The city has been plagued by a rash in slash-and-grab lootings that first began after Black Lives Matter protests ended with a riot on Rodeo Drive More recently, a man taking out his garbage on Thursday was attacked by four or five suspects and his disabled son was zip-tied as they ransacked his home Beverly Hills has now hired two private security firms to patrol neighborhoods alongside the police Residents are also forming their own patrol groups as District Attorney George Gascon faces another recall effort for the rise in crime By MELISSA KOENIG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM - PUBLISHED: 13:54 EST, 31 December 2021 www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10359045/Beverly-Hills-residents-flocking-buy-guns-citys-firearms-store-LA-crime-soars.htmlAs Long Angeles crime spirals out of control, even some of the city's wealthiest residents have flocked to Beverly Hills' only gun store to buy firearms to protect themselves and their belongings. Beverly Hills Guns first opened by appointment only in July 2020, and has seen upscale residents from Santa Monica to the Hollywood Hills increasingly in a panic following some high-profile smash and grabs and violent home invasions in recent weeks, Los Angeles Magazine reports. Many are self-proclaimed progressives who've never even held a gun before, but who've been so spooked by soaring crime in the famously wealthy enclave that they've decided to arm themselves. Some have also discussed more elaborate security measures, such as armored cars, safe rooms and bulletproof glass inside their homes, after some celebrities, including a star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and a BET host were stalked by robbers into their homes. Jacqueline Avant, 81, a philanthropist and the wife of music legend Clarence Avant, was also killed in a home invasion robbery and shooting earlier this month. 'Everyone has a general sense of constant fear, which is very sad,' said Beverly Hills Guns owner Russell Stuart. 'We're used to this being like Mayberry.' He was referring to the peaceful fictional town from The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry RFD. But over the past year, Hollywood's total violent crime rate increased 25 percent with its homicide rate doubling, robberies up 41.6 percent and shootings up 54.2 percent over last year, Los Angeles Police Department shows. That is higher than the crime rate in the rest of the city, which saw homicides climb 12 percent over last year, robberies up 5.3 percent and shootings up 14.8 percent. 'Beverly Hills is definitely a target,' said David Perez, a security expert who previously worked security in the Clinton White House and at the Pentagon. 'We're telling clients "Hey don't go out with flashy jewelry. Try to keep a low profile. Instead of driving the Bentley maybe just take the SUV."' Beverly Hills Guns owner Russell Stuart said he has been selling more firearms to Beverly Hills residents who are frightened by a rise in crime The city's crime spike dates back to widespread looting following Black Lives Matter protests on Rodeo Drive, that left some high-end stores with broken windows, according to the LA Magazine. Those smash-and-grab lootings continued again this year, with the LAPD arresting 14 suspects alleged to have been involved in 11 recent smash-and-grab robberies at stores last month, where nearly $340,000 worth of merchandise was stolen in strikes on an LA Nordstrom, a Lululemon in Studio City, a Fairfax district store, and a CVS pharmacy in South LA last month. A $500,000 Richard Mille watch was also stolen at gunpoint from a diner at the Il Pastaio restaurant last March, and on December 1 of this year, Jacqueline Avant was shot and killed in her Trousdale Estate home during a home invasion. Aariel Maynor, 29, of Los Angeles is accused of killing the beloved philanthropist and attempting to kill her security guard while allegedly robbing her home on December 1. Avant was brought to a local hospital following the home invasion, where she succumbed to her wounds. Following the announcement of her death, Oprah Winfrey tweeted: 'The fact that this has happened, her being shot and killed in her own home, after giving, sharing and caring for 81 years has shaken the laws of the universe. The world is upside down.' Maynor was later charged with one count each of murder, attempted murder and being a convicted felon using a firearm. He was also charged with two counts of residential burglary with a person present. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. On November 22, about two dozen robbers smashed their way into an LA Nordstrom, making off with $5,000 worth of merchandise. A CVS pharmacy in the city was struck just an hour later, where looters stole $8,000 from a cash register Los Angeles police say at least 20 people used sledgehammers to break the glass at a Nordstrom on November 22 and ransack its shelves before fleeing. Fourteen suspects were arrested last week in connection to the brazen heist, but have since been released A map shows the locations of some of the major smash-and-grab robberies that took place last month in Southern California More recently, a man who was simply taking out his garbage was attacked on Thursday night, when multiple suspects broke into his home in Studio City and ransacked the place at around 7.30pm on Thursday. LA police said four or five suspects confronted the man on Alta View Drive and assaulted him, leading him back into his house at gunpoint. There, police say, they zip-tied the man's disabled son and his two caregivers as they ransacked the home before fleeing through the back door. The victim was taken to a hospital for non life threatening injuries, with cops saying they didn't believe the terrifying incident was the latest so-called 'follow home' robbery. It remained unclear as of Friday what was stolen, as the suspects remained on the loose. They are described as four males who fled in Hyundai vehicles. 'We've lived here for 35 years and never had any kind of police activity like this,' neighbor Michael Thatcher told FOX News. Jacqueline Avant, left, a philanthropist and the wife of musician Clarence Avant, was killed in her home on December 1 Oprah Winfrey tweeted about Avant's death saying 'the fact that this has happened... has shaken the laws of the Universe' Now, residents are taking matters into their own hands, with a number of WhatsApp neighborhood groups agreeing to collaborate in the event of civil unrest. 'They designate people to block the streets with private cars and surveil the streets,' Alan Nissel, an assistant professor of law at Pepperdine University told LA Mag. He noted that even some of his most progressive colleagues are deciding to get guns - including many who 'never held a weapon, never considered holding a weapon, but now feel it would be irresponsible not to.' Meanwhile, Beverly Hills officials have hired two private security firms to patrol neighborhoods alongside the police, and in Los Angeles, city officials voted in March to boost police funding by $36 million, after voting last year to slash $150 million from the budget. District Attorney George Gascon is now facing a second recall effort Woke District Attorney George Gascon has also faced rampant criticism since assuming office last year over his progressive policies - such as allowing suspects to go free as they await their day in court. Earlier this month, the head of a union that represents roughly 1,000 Los Angeles County prosecutors slammed District Attorney George Gascon for keeping mum despite the recent string of smash-and-grab robberies plaguing Southern California. Gascon, one of many 'woke' DAs bankrolled by billionaire Democrat donor George Soros, has survived one recall effort and faces another that was launched Monday after he was accused of being soft on crime. 'He's created an atmosphere devoid of accountability,' said Eric Siddall, vice president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys, during an appearance on Fox News. The union head's comments come as organized groups of thieves continue to terrorize cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, brazenly looting retail stores for thousands of dollars-worth of goods, often in front of customers and staff. The LAPD arrested 14 suspects alleged to have been involved in the smash-and-grab robberies, but due to city's zero-bail policies, the suspects were all released within hours of being handcuffed and are currently walking the streets while they wait for their cases to go to court. 'If you look at the 14 people arrested, they could have been charged, there could have been bail amounts set, but none of that was done because the district attorney refuses to take a leadership position on this issue,' Siddall told Fox, slamming Gascon office's do-nothing approach to the rampant crime wave currently afflicting cities all across the Golden State. In a statement sent to the outlet, Gascon's office said that it was looking into the suspects' cases with LAPD officials and 'will hold those responsible accountable.' Billionaire donor George Soros has been quietly pumping millions into the campaigns of Democratic District Attorneys across the country - including Gascon 'Our Organized Crime and Cyber Crime Divisions are involved because often many of these cases can be interconnected and part of these crimes happens online,' an adviser to the prosecutor, Alex Bastian, asserted in the statement. 'These brazen acts hurt all of us; retailers, employees and customers alike. We will hold those responsible accountable.' Many attribute Gascon's more liberal policies to his connection to billionaire Democrat donor George Soros, who seeks to overhaul the criminal justice system by giving millions to a network of woke prosecutors in Democratic races. Gascon raked in more than $2.5 million last year from the Hungarian-American financier, who boasts a reported net worth of $8.6 billion and is most known for giving to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Soros has also donated to the campaign of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to the tune of $1.7 million. In 2016, Soros pumped $3million into seven local district-attorney campaigns, including races in Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. In May, Gascon's opponents organized a recall effort to oust him from office. However, despite garnering more than 200,000 signatures from LA citizens in a matter of months, the campaign fell short in October, failing to amass the needed 580,000 LA County voters needed to remove Gascon. The recent rash of 'flash mob'-style robberies have only made matters worse for Gascon, who is now facing a second recall effort.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 15, 2022 11:13:47 GMT -5
Thieves loot freight trains in Los Angeles with impunity 14 Jan 2022 news.yahoo.com/thieves-loot-freight-trains-los-214224509.htmlBoxes stolen from freight trains in the center of Los Angeles, January 14 2022, and then ditched by thieves who face few obstacles and light sentences if caught (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON) An open box of unused Covid-19 tests is left behind on a section of Union Pacific train tracks littered with thousands of opened boxes and packages stolen from cargo shipping containers, targeted by thieves as the trains stop in downtown Los Angeles (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON) A train carrying shipping containers passes through a section of Union Pacific train tracks littered with thousands of opened boxes and packages stolen from cargo shipping containers on January 14, 2022 (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON) Boxes stolen from freight trains in the center of Los Angeles, January 14 2022, and then ditched by thieves who face few obstacles and light sentences if caught (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON) Fri, January 14, 2022, 4:42 PM·2 min read Dozens of freight cars are broken into every day on Los Angeles's railways by thieves who take advantage of the trains' stops to loot packages bought online, leaving thousands of gutted boxes and products that will never reach their destinations. According to the tags found Friday by an AFP team on a track near the city center -- which was easily accessible from nearby streets -- many major US mail order and courier companies such as Amazon, Target, UPS and FedEx are being hit by the thefts, which have exploded in recent months. The thieves wait until the long freight trains are immobilized on the tracks, and then climb onto the freight containers, whose locks they easily break with the help of bolt cutters. They then help themselves to parcels, ditching any products that are difficult to move or re-sell, or are too cheap, such as Covid-19 test kits, furniture or medications. Rail operator Union Pacific has seen a 160 percent rise in the thefts in Los Angeles county since December 2020. "In October 2021 alone, the increase was 356 percent compared to October 2020," UP said in a letter to the local authorities, seen by AFP. The explosion in looting has been accompanied by an upsurge in "assaults and armed robberies of UP employees performing their duties moving trains," the letter said. The phenomenon spiked recently with the peak of activity linked to Christmas shopping. According to figures reported by UP, more than 90 containers were vandalized every day on average in Los Angeles County in the last quarter of 2021. To combat the trend, Union Pacific says it has strengthened surveillance measures -- including drones and other detection systems -- and recruited more security staff for its tracks and convoys. Police and security agents have arrested more than 100 people in the last three months of 2021 for "trespassing and vandalizing" Union Pacific trains. "While criminals are being caught and arrested, charges are reduced to a misdemeanor or petty offense, and the person is back on the streets in less than 24 hours after paying a nominal fine," said a spokesman for the rail operator. "In fact, criminals boast to our officers that there is no consequence," he said. Union Pacific wrote to the Los Angeles County attorney's office at the end of December asking them to reconsider a leniency policy introduced at the end of 2020 for such offenses. The operator estimates that damages from such thefts in 2021 amounted to some $5 million, adding that the amount in claims and losses "does not include respective losses to our impacted customers" or the impact on Union Pacific's operations and the entire Los Angeles County supply chain.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 20, 2022 8:20:43 GMT -5
Theodore Roosevelt statue removed from outside New York’s Museum of Natural History Adela Suliman - 1h ago www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/theodore-roosevelt-statue-removed-from-outside-new-york-e2-80-99s-museum-of-natural-history/ar-AASY3GtA statue of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was removed overnight Wednesday from its spot outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The towering bronze statue depicts Roosevelt riding a horse, as two nameless African and Native American men flank him on foot. It has provoked strong debate in the city, as many criticized the apparent subservience of the pair to the White man in the center — calling the scene a symbol of racism and colonialism. “The statue was meant to celebrate Theodore Roosevelt … as a devoted naturalist and author of works on natural history,” the museum website has said about the removal. “At the same time, the statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the Museum and members of the public have long found disturbing.” The Roosevelt statue last summer. © Kathy Willens/AP The Roosevelt statue last summer. Roosevelt’s father was one of the founders of the museum. The “Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt” was commissioned in 1925 and designed by James Earle Fraser. It has stood on the steps outside the museum since 1940. 30歳以上のPC所有者なら絶対プレイすべきゲーム! Ad Total Battle - Tactical Game Online 30歳以上のPC所有者なら絶対プレイすべきゲーム! In June 2020, the museum announced it had the permission of New York City — along with the blessing of Roosevelt’s great-grandson — to remove the monument. Statues have become lightning rods for passionate public debate over whom the United States chooses to honor in its public spaces and how it seeks to record its history. The push to remove statues gained momentum in the United States and elsewhere following the racial reckoning and Black Lives Matter protests that came after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. Theodore Roosevelt statue, flanked by African and Native American men, to be removed in New York Former New York mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said in June 2020 it was “the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue” because it “explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior.” President Donald Trump called the decision “ridiculous” on Twitter at the time and urged authorities not to remove it. The museum’s decision was also approved a year later by the New York City Public Design Commission. New York City owns the statue and the property on which it was built. The museum also created its own exhibit to address the questions and criticism surrounding the monument. The Roosevelt statue will be on long-term loan to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library due to open in 2026, in North Dakota, where Roosevelt spent time in the Badlands. The presidential library was termed “a fitting new home” by New York City officials when the decision was made last year, noting it could be “appropriately contextualized” there. Library trustees agreed the statue was “problematic in its composition” and said in a statement they would be establishing an advisory council comprising representatives from Indigenous and Black communities, historians, scholars, and artists to determine next steps. The president’s great-grandson Theodore Roosevelt IV has previously welcomed the decision to remove the monument and called it “problematic” but said there were lessons to be learned from “difficult, complex, and inclusive discussions” about its future. Thomas Jefferson statue removed from New York City Hall after complaints that it honored an enslaver Statues of Confederate leaders, Christopher Columbus, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have been set ablaze, vandalized or torn down by protesters in some places. In 2017, the Roosevelt statue itself was doused in red paint by a group called the “Monument Removal Brigade,” which said the statue represented “patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.” A monument of Jefferson was removed from New York City Hall last year after officials voted unanimously to banish it from the council chambers over the former president’s history as a enslaver. In D.C., a debate continues to grow over calls for the removal of the Emancipation Memorial featuring Abraham Lincoln, which sits in Lincoln Park, steps away from the U.S. Capitol. The removal of the Roosevelt statue in New York. © Caitlin Ochs/Reuters The removal of the Roosevelt statue in New York. Roosevelt was president from 1901 to 1909. He was the first president to invite an African American, Booker T. Washington, to dine at the White House, and he pushed for a “square deal” for people of all races and classes, supporting unions while cracking down on monopolies. Yet he also believed in the superiority of White, Western culture and supported the eugenics movement. Before becoming president, Roosevelt wrote enthusiastically of conquering the “squalid savages” on the Western frontier in his 1889 book, “The Winning of the West.” Even some of his supporters concede that not unlike the country he led, Roosevelt had a complicated and at times troubling history. 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Post by bjspokanimal on Jan 20, 2022 12:45:15 GMT -5
The crime statistics in the 2nd posting above this one are misleading because not only are the police arresting fewer criminals for infractions that they know won't be prosecuted, but fewer of them are being prosecuted as well.
The same thing is happening in the Seattle metro area, where a number of crimes have essentially been de-criminalized. The police are not responding to increasingly serious crimes that they know won't be prosecuted by left-wing prosecutors.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 20, 2022 21:08:38 GMT -5
The misleading part makes it even worse for failed loony Left.
Even though it’s painful, my guess is the pain is worth it becuz the Right will win a majority in all of Congress.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 22, 2022 9:41:29 GMT -5
Another example of absurd loony left logic. Beat up oil, increase obstacles to production and supply... then beg for more. And now this... Biden rattles his saber at oil producers as prices surge to 2014 high Justin Sink and Jennifer Jacobs 1/18/2022 www.worldoil.com/news/2022/1/18/biden-rattles-his-saber-at-oil-producers-as-prices-surge-to-2014-high/(Bloomberg) --The Biden administration is working with oil-producing countries to ensure supply rises to meet demand, according to the White House, as prices surge to the highest level in seven years. The White House plans to continue to monitor prices in the context of global growth and hold discussions with OPEC+ countries as needed, National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement on Tuesday. “We continue to work with producer and consumer countries, and these steps have had real effects on prices and ultimately tools continue to remain on the table for us to address prices,” Horne said. Increased gasoline prices have been a major driver of inflation during Biden’s term, and the White House has sought to contain costs for motorists. Rising prices are hurting Biden’s approval rating and make it harder for Democrats to keep control of the House and Senate in November’s elections. In November, Biden announced the release of 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a move coordinated with India, Japan, South Korea and China. The administration sold 18 million barrels of oil from the reserve that it expects will be delivered to the market in February and March, Horne said. Biden has also asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate “potentially illegal conduct” by oil and gas companies. The White House has said that increases of prices at the pump even when crude oil was lower suggests the possibility of anticompetitive behavior. Biden is committed to working with other countries to bring down the cost of oil, and ultimately gasoline prices, Horne said. Oil is surging as robust demand and strained supplies make physical markets run hot in the world’s largest consuming region. Futures in New York climbed to $85.74 a barrel, the highest since October 2014. Traders are paying higher and higher premiums for cargoes in Asia, as fears fade over the demand impact from omicron, while supplies are tightened by a range of outages from Libya to North America. Earlier in the week, Yemen’s Houthi fighters said they had launched a drone strike that caused an explosion and fire on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. The United Arab Emirates is the third-largest producer in OPEC. Unrest in Kazakhstan and Syria has also fanned worries of constrained supply, while post-pandemic demand has held steady despite the emergence of new variants. The administration has said that it has worked in coordination with members of OPEC+ -- including Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- to help address price pressures. Still, oil-producing nations have struggled to ramp up output after implementing sharp production cuts during the pandemic. Some lawmakers have urged Biden to ban U.S. oil exports, though industry experts have warned that such a measure would backfire by throwing international markets into turmoil. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last month the idea was no longer under consideration within the administration.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 26, 2022 7:12:07 GMT -5
Guns stolen from rail cars spark LAPD concern Rachel Uranga and Richard Winton - Los Angeles Times (TNS) 8 hrs ago 1/26/22 www.hastingstribune.com/ap/national/guns-stolen-from-rail-cars-spark-lapd-concern/article_d8a2c8f5-ae59-5caa-b21b-96d3dae43368.htmlLOS ANGELES — Guns are among the items that have been stolen from cargo containers on railroad tracks in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Monday. “People were ... breaking into these containers and stealing firearms, tens of firearms,” Moore told the Police Commission. “That gave us the great concern as a source again of further violence in the city as people were capitalizing on the transport of these containers with having little or no policing or security services there.” Moore said that on Thursday, the day Gov. Gavin Newsom showed up to help bag debris and decry the thefts, the LAPD arrested six people who had been under surveillance for crimes related to the train break-ins. advertisement The issue gained national attention earlier this month as images of the debris left on the Union Pacific tracks by thieves went viral. But that did not stop the stealing, Moore said. “Despite all the attention brought to this, and despite the ongoing efforts by Union Pacific to solve some additional security elements, we still have people that are still drawn to this location,” he said. The rail line runs about 275 miles of tracks in Los Angeles County, where since December 2020 an average of 90 containers a day have been burglarized, Union Pacific said. Most of those have occurred in two rail yards, including the one in Lincoln Heights. Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for the 160-year-old railroad, said Union Pacific has brought in dozens of special agents to help and “will continue to monitor and clean up the tracks.” She declined to comment on the stealing of firearms from the containers. The thefts set off a volley of accusations last week between Union Pacific and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. advertisement After the railroad company said the theft problem was made worse by Gascon’s approach to prosecuting criminal offenders, the district attorney chastised Union Pacific for having poor security. “It is very telling that other major railroad operations in the area are not facing the same level of theft at their facilities as UP,” Gascón said in a letter Friday. “We can ensure that appropriate cases are filed and prosecuted; however, my office is not tasked with keeping your sites secure and the district attorney alone cannot solve the major issues facing your organization.” Gascon said that since 2019, law enforcement agencies have presented 181 cases to the DA's office for prosecution, including 47 last year. In about half of the 2021 cases, his office filed felony or misdemeanor charges of burglary, theft and receiving of stolen property. The rest were declined either due to lack of evidence or because the offenses involved low-level drug possession or homelessness. According to Moore, Union Pacific has agreed to more regular cleanings of the area, but the fact that the debris was left for so long created a “free-for-all,” he said. He said the LAPD is working with the Department of Transportation on physical improvements to the Lincoln Heights site that would deter would-be rail burglars.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 26, 2022 7:17:51 GMT -5
Another big fail for team Biden's agenda that tramples the Constitution and Bill of Rights... Here's the brief version of the 10 rights: 1 Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. 2 Right to keep and bear arms in order to maintain a well regulated militia. 3 No quartering of soldiers. 4 Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. 5 Right to due process of law, freedom from self-incrimination, double jeopardy. 6 Rights of accused persons, e.g., right to a speedy and public trial. 7 Right of trial by jury in civil cases. 8 Freedom from excessive bail, cruel and unusual punishments. 9 Other rights of the people. 10 Powers reserved to the states. And now this... Biden administration to withdraw Covid-19 vaccination and testing regulation aimed at large businesses By Liz Stark Updated 4:30 PM ET, Tue January 25, 2022 www.cnn.com/2022/01/25/politics/vaccine-mandate-osha-withdrawn/index.html
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Post by Blitz on Jan 26, 2022 7:22:03 GMT -5
Yet another 'well-intentioned' loony left failure... San Francisco's open air drug market. I'm going to guess some of the crime reduction mentioned is due to non-enforcement of laws and also police not bother to arrest people that are just going to be let out of jail with no bail. I did not post every photo, so if you want to see them all click the link. This is Pelosi's district too... and she's running again to continue her good work and be part of the solution. //////////////////////////// Pelosi says she will run for reelection in 2022 BY CRISTINA MARCOS AND MYCHAEL SCHNELL - 01/25/22 05:31 PM EST thehill.com/homenews/house/591339-pelosi-says-she-will-run-for-reelection-in-2022/////////////////////////// Inside San Francisco's open air drug market that proves why city's woke effort to connect homeless addicts to rehab is NOT working - as users shoot up, pass out and scatter their needles www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10439965/Photos-new-linkage-SF-facility-populated-drug-users-shooting-broad-daylight.htmlThe new linkage center, aimed at connecting homeless addicts with rehab facilities, opened on January 18 The center is located at 1172 Market Street at the United Nations Plaza in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco and is equipped to serve up to 100 people at a time Photos taken by DailyMail.com show an illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight San Francisco never approved the creation of a supervised consumption site at the linkage center and the site is in violation of state and federal laws The open air drug market was first reported on by journalist Michael Shellenberger, who said in his Substack blog that he'd witnessed a drug deal and blatant drug use at the site The center is part of Mayor London Breed's Tenderloin Emergency Intervention plan to address public drug use and overdose deaths in the neighborhood Breed generated national news media coverage last December when she announced the crackdown on open air drug use in the downtown Tenderloin neighborhood In addition to helping connect people with service, the center will also help people living on the streets get access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry The center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week A new 'linkage center' aimed at connecting homeless street addicts with drug rehab facilities opened in San Francisco last week - but distressing images show an open air illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight. Images taken by DailyMail.com show a woman slumped over in a wheelchair, her pants down around her ankles, preparing to inject a needle into her thigh. The woman sitting on the ground next to her has a needle to her neck. Many others are sitting on the ground among trash, empty food containers and dirty blankets, as they fumble in with drug paraphernalia in the cold weather. The center, which opened on January 18, is part of the San Francisco Mayor London Breed's Tenderloin Emergency Intervention plan introduced last year. The linkage center is located at 1172 Market Street, in the United Nations Plaza. The supervised drug consumption area is an outdoor fenced section of the linkage center - just blocks away from the city's court house, San Francisco City Hall and the Civic Center. Aerial footage of the area shows the city's Pioneer Monument overrun with homeless tents. In December, Breed declared a state of emergency in Tenderloin and announced a sweeping crackdown on open air drug use and drug dealing in the downtown neighborhood - one of the city's poorest and most drug-infested areas. The Tenderloin has long been an epicenter of homelessness and drug use, but city officials said the problem has worsened as the national opioid crisis escalated over the course of the pandemic. Announcing a crime crackdown, Breed argued that San Francisco officers should get aggressive and 'less tolerant of all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city', as she went back on her plans to defund the police. 'It's time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,' she said. 'And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies.' But, the photos taken by DailyMail.com this week shows that streets in the area are not anywhere close to being cleaned up, and a far cry from being a safe neighborhood. A woman is slumped over in a wheelchair, preparing to inject a needle into her thigh, at a new 'linkage center' that opened in San Francisco last week, aimed at connecting homeless street addicts with drug rehab facilities A group of women sit on the ground at a new linkage center in San Francisco where hundreds of people were seen using and dealing drugs, including the woman pictured seen with a needle to her neck +44 The center, which opened January 18, is aimed at helping connect people to services, but distressing images depict an illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight Drone images show the site with dozens of people openly dealing, smoking and injecting drugs on the plaza. A San Francisco police cruiser rolled past but did nothing +44 View gallery The linkage center is located at 1172 Market Street, in the United Nations Plaza, the city's largest open air drug market. The supervised drug consumption area is an outdoor fenced section of the linkage center, where many people were seen fumbling with drug paraphernalia The center is equipped to serve up to 100 people at a time who are suffering from drug use and mental health issues, connecting with long-term and short-term services like health care and housing The center, which opened on January 18, is part of the San Francisco Mayor London Breed's Tenderloin Emergency Intervention plan for a sweeping crackdown on open air drug use and drug dealing in the downtown Tenderloin neighborhood The plan came in the midst of a local, state, and national debate over whether the city should open a 'supervised drug consumption' site as a tactic for reducing drug overdose deaths +44 The center is equipped to serve up to 100 people at a time who are suffering from drug use and mental health issues, connecting with long-term and short-term services like health care and housing Mayor Breed and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have advocated a supervised drug consumption site, and purchased two properties in the Tenderloin to serve people suffering from addiction +44 The linkage center (in blue) is located at 1172 Market Street, in the United Nations Plaza in Ssan Francisco's Tenderloin district. The supervised drug consumption area is an outdoor fenced section of the linkage center. Photos taken by DailyMail.com show people on the streets in the Tenderloin district (marked in red) also taking drugs. This is happening just blocks away from San Francisco City Hall and the iconic Pioneer Monument Signs point to the entrance of the linkage center in the Tenderloin area At a press conference at the time, Breed said that the city was in 'crisis' and that the streets were 'nasty' as more crime and drug overdoses littered the streets. 'We are in a crisis and we need to respond accordingly,' she said on Friday. 'Too many people are dying in this city, too many people are sprawled on our streets. 'We have to meet people where they are.' Breed said that rapid drug intervention is needed because about two people a day are dying of overdoses, mostly from fentanyl, in the Tenderloin and the city's South of Market neighborhood. 'The work that we have in place after our assessment allow us this ability through this emergency declaration to move quickly, to move fast, to change the conditions - specifically of the Tenderloin community' she said. 'This is necessary in order to see a difference.' The move came after Breed performed a dramatic U-turn on the 'defund the police' strategy as she called for 'more aggressive policing' to replace 'bulls**t progressive policies' and said she would ask for more money to be given to the police to stamp out drug dealing, car break-ins and theft. On January 18, the day the site opened, Mayor Breed issued a list on her web site of the services available at the linkage center; they did not include a supervised consumption site The illegal supervised drug consumption site at the linkage center, where a half-dozen people were witnesses smoking fentanyl in an outdoor area on the site, and two people passed out at a table A man sits on the ground next to a fence that surrounds the linkage site in San Francisco where witnesses have seen hundreds of people dealing and using drugs Drone images show people using drugs within the fence of San Francisco's new Linkage Center, which is an essential component of San Francisco's Tenderloin Emergency Initiative aimed to link addicts to services Trash litters the area at the linkage site which opened on January 18, is part of the San Francisco Mayor London Breed's Tenderloin Emergency Intervention plan introduced last year +44 Signs posted to cars near the linkage site announce 'nothing to steal' as crime continues to rise in one of the city's poorest and most drug-infested neighborhood People at the linkage center cling to one another in drone images captured just after the center opened in January Mayor Breed said that the city was in 'crisis' and that the streets were 'nasty' as more crime and drug overdoses littered the streets. Pictured are people sprawled out at the new linkage site where many have been witnesses dealing and using drugs Despite Breed's promise to crack down on rampant crime and homelessness, people are still living on the streets in the Tenderloin neighborhood The emergency declaration paved the way for the city to cut through red tape that delays the public response to deteriorating conditions in the Tenderloin and quickly provide shelter, counseling and medical care to people suffering from addiction, Breed and city officials said. There will also be more coordinated enforcement of illegal activities, street cleanups and other infrastructure improvements to make the neighborhood safer, they said. Shortly after, she announced the opening of the 'linkage center,' which is aimed at connecting homeless street addicts with drug rehab facilities. The center is equipped to serve up to 100 people at a time who are suffering from drug use and mental health issues, connecting with long-term and short-term services like health care and housing. Mayor Breed and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have advocated a supervised drug consumption site, and purchased two properties in the Tenderloin to serve people suffering from addiction. 'Our work in the Tenderloin requires all of our City departments and community partners working together to address the major challenges we know exist,' Mayor Breed said in a release last week. 'As part of that work, this Linkage Center will help us create a space for people who are struggling with addiction and other challenges to get immediate support, and then transition into longer term care and housing. This is hard work, and I appreciate everyone joining in partnership to make a difference for the people of the Tenderloin.' But the city never approved the creation of a supervised consumption site at the linkage center and the site is in violation of state and federal laws. The blatant drug use at the site was first reported on by journalist Michael Shellenberger, who wrote in his Substack that two undercover reporters had witnessed a drug deal as well as half-a-dozen people smoking fentanyl in an outdoor area. An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told them that two people had overdosed and had to be revived within the first week of the site opening. A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco - many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin - are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both. In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry Many people at the site were seen buying and selling drugs at the site after Mayor Breed announced a crime crackdown, arguing that San Francisco officers should get aggressive and 'less tolerant of all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city', as she went back on her plans to defund the police. An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told Daily Mail that two people had overdosed and been revived within the first week that the the site was open +44 View gallery An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told Daily Mail that two people had overdosed and been revived within the first week that the the site was open Signs posted to cars near the linkage site announce 'nothing to steal' as crime continues to rise in one of the city's poorest and most drug-infested neighborhood Some people rant in the streets, nude and in need of medical help. Last year, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19 +44 Drone images show dozens of people sprawled out at the linkage site, many in wheelchairs and on crutches +44 When confronted with evidence that the linkage center housed a drug consumption site, spokespersons for Urban Alchemy and for Mayor London Breed declined to comment +44 An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told DailyMail.com that two people had overdosed and had to be revived within the first week of the site opening +44 People at the site are seen using and selling drugs, slumped over, and sitting among trash that litters the area +44 View gallery Witnesses reported seeing people take their clothes off, rant in the streets and even saw two people overdosed. Last year, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19 When confronted with evidence that the linkage center housed a drug consumption site, spokespersons for Urban Alchemy and for Mayor London Breed declined to comment. When the two undercover journalists visited the area just days after the site opened, there were hundreds of people openly dealing, smoking and injecting drugs on the plaza. A San Francisco police cruiser rolled past but did nothing. Last November, Mayor Breed introduced legislation to allow safe drug consumption sites in San Francisco, a goal she has pursued for years. State Supervisor Scott Weiner introduced a bill in the state legislature to legalize such sites for San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. New York City recently established two safe consumption sites, in East Harlem and Washington Heights. The sites are illegal under federal law, but to date the Biden administration has taken no action against them. On January 18, the day the site opened, Mayor Breed issued a list on her website of the services available at the linkage center; they did not include a supervised consumption site. Signs point to the entrance of the linkage center in the Tenderloin area The center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and have the capacity to serve 100 people at a time +44 View gallery The center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and have the capacity to serve 100 people at a time In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry, according to the release +44 View gallery Mayor London Breed launched an emergency police intervention in December aimed at curbing open drug use, brazen home break-ins and other criminal behaviors taking place in San Francisco's crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood +44 View gallery Mayor London Breed launched an emergency police intervention in December aimed at curbing open drug use, brazen home break-ins and other criminal behaviors taking place in San Francisco's crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood +44 View gallery Crime in San Francisco has been a serious issue in the past year. Since the start of the month, the city recorded three homicides - up from two in the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, overall crime so far this month has decreased by 21.8% compared to the same time period last year San Francisco is grappling with lawlessness that has seen the city overrun with crime over the past two years. Across the entire city last November, there were 3,375 reports of larceny theft, the majority being car break-ins, with SFPD's Central District seeing the most car smash-and-grabs, at a total of 876. This month so far, there has been a 50 percent increased in homicides with three reported between January 1 and January 23, compared to only two during the same time frame last year, but overall crime has decreased by 21.8 percent, according to crime statistics released by the San Francisco Police Department. Assault in the city has decreased by more than 10 percent from 151 cases last year at this time to 135. Larceny theft cases have also decreased about 15 percent with cases so far this month at 1,282, which are down from 1,517 from the same time last year. Robbery cases decreased about 24 percent and rape cases decreased 22 percent. A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco - many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin - are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both. Some people rant in the streets, nude and in need of medical help. Last year, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19. The linkage center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and have the capacity to serve 100 people at a time. In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry, according to the release. The center will also provide services like COVID-19 vaccination and testing as well as HIV and Hepatitis C testing. The center is being overseen by both the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Department of Emergency management, with assistance from city departments and several community organizations. The linkage center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and have the capacity to serve 100 people at a time The site is surrounded by a fence of the open air illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry, according to the release +44 View gallery In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry, according to the release A woman is seen using a water bottle to shower off outside a tent at the linkage site. A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco - many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin - are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both The emergency declaration paved the way for the city to cut through red tape that delays the public response to deteriorating conditions in the Tenderloin and quickly provide shelter, counseling and medical care to people suffering from addiction, Breed and city officials said +44 View gallery The emergency declaration paved the way for the city to cut through red tape that delays the public response to deteriorating conditions in the Tenderloin and quickly provide shelter, counseling and medical care to people suffering from addiction, Breed and city officials said A fence surrounds the open air illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight +44 View gallery The center (pictured) being overseen by both the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Department of Emergency management, with assistance from city departments and several community organizations +44 View gallery
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Post by Blitz on Jan 27, 2022 11:11:21 GMT -5
As Violent Crime in L.A. Rises, Demand for Private Security Among the Wealthy Soars Brenda Gazzar - Thu, January 27, 2022 www.yahoo.com/entertainment/violent-crime-l-rises-demand-141500570.htmlThe rich and famous in Los Angeles are increasingly relying on private security to help protect their families and their homes amid rising violent crime in the Los Angeles area, security professionals say. “We’ve been getting calls left and right from Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Woodland Hills — all these nice high-premiere areas, nice neighborhoods. Individuals that say, ‘Can I get a security guard to stay overnight from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. just to make sure they’re parked in my driveway in a marked vehicle to deter trespassers and burglars?’” Ray Nomair, CEO of Los Angeles-based OnGuard Inc., told TheWrap. Nomair noted his security agency has been busier than usual following a spate of well-publicized home invasion robberies and burglaries in recent months, including the shocking murder of Jacqueline Avant, the wife of music mogul Clarence Avant and a pillar of the Los Angeles philanthropic community who was gunned down by an intruder in her Beverly Hills home last month. A string of celebrities have become victims of home invasions. The Hidden Hills home of “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, was broken into earlier this month while the couple was away, with a million dollars in jewelry reportedly taken. “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Dorit Kemsley was held up at gunpoint and robbed at her Encino home in October 2021. And hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre’s Brentwood home was targeted in an attempted burglary in January 2021, while the rapper was hospitalized. Because the whereabouts of celebrities and influencers are often publicized in tabloids and on social media, they and their property can be at greater risk, security experts say. With high-profile crimes making national headlines, Nomair said he’s seeing more people hire private security to protect their homes while they’re out of town. OnGuard offers both armed and unarmed guards as well as marked vehicle patrols. “A couple has gone on vacation for four months. One of our guards is literally house-sitting in Beverly Hills,” he said. David Chandler, president of the California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards and Associates, noted that many clients want more security coverage now than before. “There’s more people in the gated communities (in Southern California) that are more affluent or are of celebrity status who may have not thought too much of security, only using security part-time, that are now looking to go full time,” he said. home invasion Lori Loughlin, Dr. Dre and Dorit Kemsley have all been reported victims of home invasions or attempted burglaries in recent months (Photos: Getty Images) Chandler’s Palm Desert-based private security firm, The Company, has seen an uptick in interest in his services for executive and celebrity protection via undercover bodyguards. “A lot of companies are taking on more executive protection work than they have in the past,” he said. Between the pandemic, the growing homelessness crisis and breathless news coverage of high-profile crimes, he said people are scared and feel that local police departments are “overtasked.” “There’s no more proactive policing. They just don’t have the time or money for it,” Chandler said. “You have to hire private security if you want to protect yourself or protect your property.” According to Chandler, some Hollywood stars and social media influencers hire friends, acquaintances or unlicensed guards to accompany them, something he warns can potentially put them at risk. A security officer’s role is to both prevent crime and to observe and report crime. “You want someone who knows what they can and can’t do, how they can operate within the law,” Chandler said, noting that there are slightly more unlicensed security guards than licensed security officers in the state. “You always have to be worried of a civil lawsuit or criminal lawsuit, which will cost you more money.” This growing interest in private security comes as Los Angeles leaders confirm crime is on the rise. Earlier this month, city officials reported that violent crime increased in 2021 for the second year in a row. While burglaries and sexual assaults were down, overall violent crime rose 3.9% citywide. Most notably, homicides jumped 11.8% and shootings increased 13%. Property crimes in the city were up 4.2%. The LAPD has fewer officers on the force than in prior years due to budget constraints and a hiring freeze. However, it has shifted its personnel to focus more on violent crime, particularly shooting violence and robberies, the department said in its 2021 annual report. “The good work of this department, of our strategies to address violence helped bring what was looking to be a 25% or 30% increase in homicides (earlier in 2021) down to just 11.8%,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters at a Jan. 13 news conference. LAPD Mounted Unit officers patrol Hollywood Boulevard outside the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” studio (Getty Images) LAPD also removed nearly 9,000 firearms from the streets last year, which is a record for the department since statistics have been tabulated, according to the report. Despite the seizures, Garcetti admitted, “Guns are everywhere much more than we have seen in past years.” In a study of 2021 homicide rates in 22 top U.S. cities, Los Angeles tied with Louisville, Kentucky, for the fifth highest percent increase, according to Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. While many U.S. cities saw increases in homicides, the “good news” is the rate of growth of homicides in L.A. and other cities appears to be slowing, Rosenfeld said. The bad news, he said, is that Los Angeles’ 12 or 13 percent increase is still worrisome. While the 397 homicides recorded last year are the highest the city has seen since 2006, the figures are still far below what the city experienced in the mid-1980s and ’90s, when homicides climbed as high as 1,100 or 1,200 per year, according to Jorja Leap, professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Leap also stressed that violent crime still tends to occur in poorer neighborhoods rather than in affluent ones. While homicides like that of 81-year-old philanthropist Avant in December garnered widespread media attention, there are far more violent deaths in South Los Angeles. Among them, a Taco Bell employee who was shot dead at a drive-thru after he refused to accept a counterfeit bill earlier this month, she noted. “For every one Jacqueline Avant, there are probably 50 to 100 (homicides) in poor areas,” Leap said. The city of Beverly Hills has reportedly hired private security companies to help police with patrols following a slew of attempted retail crimes during the pandemic. Ahmad Hamidi, owner of the Irvine-based Secure Guard Security Services, said the company saw an uptick in demand for residential, warehousing and distribution center security shortly after the pandemic began due to criminal activity. His company leased “a lot more patrol vehicles” to show the community and any possible criminals that there is a good security presence, he said. Alejandro Garcia-Galicia was killed by a customer while working the drive-thru at a Taco Bell in South L.A. on Jan. 8 (GoFundMe) “Our biggest issue with residential security in the L.A. area is mostly transients breaking in trying to either sleep the night or get a bite to eat or try to cause trouble,” he said, adding that they also sometimes break into shipping yards to open containers. “They’re just trying to make a couple of bucks so they can survive a couple more days. It’s not malicious…They’re more of a nuisance than a threat to our clients.” Crime does historically ebb and flow, UCLA’s Leap noted. However, the ongoing pandemic and resulting uncertainty, the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody and subsequent civil unrest, plus the easy availability of guns have all contributed to people feeling more anxious. “That’s why crime is out of control,” she said. “It’s this socio-emotional setting we find ourselves in. It’s a steady drumbeat of uncertainty.”
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Post by Blitz on Jan 29, 2022 10:16:40 GMT -5
It's not like this is some new environment that doesn't have wells all over the bottom of the GoM already... And now this... U.S. Judge Scraps GOM Lease Sale Due To Climate Impact by Bojan Lepic|Rigzone Staff|Friday, January 28, 2022 www.rigzone.com/news/us_judge_scraps_gom_lease_sale_due_to_climate_impact-28-jan-2022-167732-article/A federal judge invalidated the results of Gulf Of Mexico oil and gas Lease Sale 257 which offered up more than 80 million acres. A federal judge has invalidated the results of a Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale concluding that the Biden administration failed to account for the auction's climate change impact. The ruling can be considered as a major win for environmental groups that sued to block what they deemed an “illegal lease sale.” Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of Healthy Gulf, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth on August 31 last year against Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management following the notice of Lease Sale 257. The lawsuit argued that the 2017 environmental analysis that the Biden administration relied on to hold the sale is fatally flawed. According to Earthjustice, the sale was not only counter to the administration’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent to 52 percent by 2030 and meet U.S. climate commitments, but it was illegal and based on previously debunked environmental analysis. The offshore sale was the largest in U.S. history and offered up more than 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico at auction. Oil and gas companies ultimately bid more than $191 million for rights to drill across more than 1.7 million offshore acres. It is worth noting that the fossil fuel industry is already sitting on 8 million acres of leases on public waters. Judge Rudolph Contreras, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, sided with the plaintiffs in the case, who argued that the Department of the Interior relied on a faulty analysis that underestimated the planet-warming greenhouse gases and associated environmental effects from future drilling and development of the leases. The court held that the Interior failed to accurately disclose and consider the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the lease sale, violating a bedrock environmental law. Contreras faulted the administration for excluding foreign consumption from its greenhouse gas emissions analysis and for ignoring the latest science about the role of oil and gas development on global warming. Earthjustice claimed that the D.C. District Court decision holds the Interior accountable for grossly underestimating the climate impacts and risks to Gulf communities before deciding to hold the largest oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history.
“We are pleased that the court invalidated Interior’s illegal lease sale. We simply cannot continue to make investments in the fossil fuel industry to the peril of our communities and increasingly warming planet,” said Earthjustice’s Senior Attorney, Brettny Hardy. “This administration must meet this critical moment and honor the campaign promises President Biden made by stopping offshore leasing once and for all. Interior should use its next 5-year leasing plan to protect our coastal communities and public waters and offer no new offshore leases.”
“Today, we can look forward to the day when we stop selling off our public waters for pennies on the dollar when a just transition to a clean energy future is critical to our very survival. Now, the Gulf can be seen as a viable field for offshore wind energy that will power our future,” Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of Healthy Gulf, added.A spokesperson for the Interior Department, Melissa Schwartz claimed that there was nothing that the administration could do since Lease Sale 257 had to be held to comply with the injunction imposed in the District Court of Louisiana litigation. She added that the Court’s decision concerning the deficiencies of the sale would be reviewed.
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Post by Blitz on Jan 29, 2022 10:25:01 GMT -5
This judge was appointed by Obama and had to recuse himself from the Michael Flynn case... he 'might' be a bit of an activist! westerncaucus.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1894WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, members of the Western Caucus issued statements slamming U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia Rudolph Contreras' decision in the case of WildEarth Guardians v. Zinke which has halted responsible energy production and jobs on more than 300,000 acres of land in Wyoming. ////////////////////////////// Here's his wiki page... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Contreras
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Post by bjspokanimal on Jan 29, 2022 14:19:55 GMT -5
They were highlighting one of the people on Biden's short list for the Supreme Court last night. She's an activist with a law degree and she was carrying on about white supremacy in the clips.
Amazing how far left the former democrat party has veered!
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Post by Blitz on Feb 3, 2022 6:39:50 GMT -5
They were highlighting one of the people on Biden's short list for the Supreme Court last night. She's an activist with a law degree and she was carrying on about white supremacy in the clips. Amazing how far left the former democrat party has veered! She's from Miami, so I saw her 'frontrunner' status lauded on the local news here. They were all gaga over her while citing her civic achievements and being civic mind from an early age and now such a success making the big show, so to speak... Ketanji Jackson is a favorite for Biden's historic Supreme Court pick David G. Savage - Wed, February 2, 2022 news.yahoo.com/ketanji-jackson-favorite-bidens-historic-110037123.htmlKetanji Brown Jackson testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations. U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been the favorite for the next Supreme Court seat since President Biden won the 2020 election after promising to make history by appointing the first Black woman to the high court. (Tom Williams / Associated Press) U.S. Appeals Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the front-runner for a historic Supreme Court nomination, graduated with high honors from Harvard College, was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and a law clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer. But she credits her years as a high school debater and national champion with setting her on a path to success in law. "Of all the various things that I’ve done, it is my high school experience as a competitive speaker that taught me how to lean in despite the obstacles," she told law students at the University of Georgia in 2017. "I learned how to reason and how to write," she said, adding it gave her "the self-confidence that can sometimes be quite difficult for women and minorities to develop at an early age.” Jackson, 51, never stopped leaning in. She has been the favorite for the next Supreme Court seat since President Biden won the 2020 election after promising to make history by appointing the first Black woman to the high court. President Obama first appointed her as a federal district judge in 2013 and considered her as a possible nominee to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia when he died suddenly six years ago. Last year, the Senate confirmed her 53 to 44 as Biden's choice for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court has often been a stepping stone to a Supreme Court nomination, including for Scalia and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Brett M. Kavanaugh as well as Merrick Garland, whose nomination was blocked in 2016. Those who know Jackson say she always drew praise and respect. "Even among that rarified crowd of law clerks, she stood out — not only because of her sharp intellect and keen ability to identify and analyze legal issues, but also for her natural leadership skills," said Sonja West, a University of Georgia law professor. She "knows how to bring people together, build their trust and bring down the temperature in the room. Yet she also has a fearless confidence in her opinions." Jackson met her husband at Harvard. Dr. Patrick G. Jackson, a surgeon, was the sixth generation of his family to go to Harvard, the judge said, and his brother is related by marriage to former House Speaker Paul Ryan. The Jacksons have two daughters who are 21 and 17. Jackson was born in Washington in 1970, the daughter of two schoolteachers. But she and her parents moved to Miami three years later. Her father went to law school at night and later became an attorney for the school district. Her mother rose through the ranks and became the principal of Miami's high school for the arts. She has a strong rooting section among her debate team friends from her Miami high school. They include Stanford law professor Nate Persily, who described her as "a star in the making." Miami's former U.S. attorney, Ben Greenberg, was her prom date as well as debate partner. In her senior year in 1988, she was the student body president and won the national oratory title at the National Catholic Forensic League Championship in New Orleans. "All of us high school debaters were idealistic and had dreams of either arguing in the Supreme Court or being a Supreme Court justice. But if we had to vote who was the most likely to end up on the court, Ketanji Brown Jackson would have been the unanimous choice," said David O. Marcus, a prominent criminal defense attorney in South Florida. "She was so smart, dynamic, charming and friendly — and a star debate champion. Our old high school debate crew is rooting very hard for her." After law school, Jackson clerked for a federal district judge and the U.S. appeals court in Boston before moving to Washington. She worked for a time at two law firms, as a public defender and as a top official of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines on prison terms. Progressives cite those experiences as strong reasons for choosing her. They say the justices have been overrepresented with corporate lawyers and top government officials, yet none since Thurgood Marshall has represented criminal defendants. "We've never had a justice who worked as a public defender," said Christopher Kang, chief counsel for Demand Justice and former deputy counsel for Obama. Rachel Barkow, an NYU law professor and former Scalia clerk, met Jackson when they were Harvard law students. "I think she’d make an outstanding Supreme Court justice," Barkow said. "She’s smart, fair-minded and as decent a human being as you will ever meet. And I think it’s terrific she brings a perspective in criminal law from her work in the federal public defenders’ office and from her time at the [Sentencing] Commission that is lacking on the current court." Jackson's legal views are not yet clear. She filed her first opinion for the D.C. Circuit Court on Tuesday, a 3-0 ruling that rejected a change in federal labor rules that would have prevented unions from challenging new personnel policies. For the most part, the appeals court decides regulatory disputes, and Jackson does not have a track record of rulings or other writings on controversies such asabortion, guns or religion that divide the justices along ideological lines. She did, however, write a long and strongly worded opinion in 2019 rejecting former White House Counsel Donald McGahn's claim of "absolute immunity" from testifying before a House committee. The Trump White House simply refused to honor subpoenas issued by Congress, and Jackson said doing so violated the separation-of-powers principle written into the Constitution. "Blatant defiance of Congress' centuries-old power to compel the performance of witnesses is not an abstract injury, nor is it a mere banal insult to our democracy," she wrote in Committee on the Judiciary vs. McGahn. "It is an affront to the mechanism for curbing abuses of power that the framers carefully crafted for our protection." And for that reason, the president does not have the right or authority to order all of his former aides to refuse to testify, she said. "Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that presidents are not kings. ... Rather, in this land of liberty, it is indisputable that current and former employees of the White House work for the people of the United States, and that they take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." In December, she joined a three-judge ruling of the appeals court that rejected former President Trump's claim of "executive privilege" over White House documents that were sought by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Last month, the Supreme Court turned down Trump's appeal of that decision, with only Thomas registering a dissent. Jackson's judicial experience — eight years as a federal district judge and less than one year on the appeals court — is more than that of several justices and less than others, depending on the measure. Among the current members of the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Obama's first nominee, had the most experience in total, with six years as a district judge and 11 years on an appeals court. Obama's second nominee, Justice Elena Kagan, had the least. She was a former dean of the Harvard Law School and the U.S. solicitor general, but had never been a judge before joining the court in 2010. Before their nominations, Thomas had served one year on the appeals court, while Roberts served two years and Justice Amy Coney Barrett three years. In the past, presidents have chosen nominees for the high court for reasons of geographic or political balance, religion, race or gender, not because they were the most qualified lawyer in the nation based on some objective measure. President Nixon had been determined to put a Southerner on the court, even after two of his appeals court nominees from the South were voted down. In 1971, he nominated Lewis Powell, a lawyer from Richmond, Va. The same day, he filled a second seat by choosing an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, William Rehnquist, who had graduated first in his Stanford law class. Neither had been a judge before, but Rehnquist went on to serve for 33 years, including 19 as the chief justice. President Reagan had promised to choose the first woman for the high court. His aides said there were no well-qualified Republican women on the U.S. appeals courts, so he nominated a mid-level state appeals court judge from Arizona named Sandra Day O'Connor. She was, it was noted, a top graduate in the same Stanford law class as Rehnquist, and she went on to serve for 24 years as one of the court's most influential justices. Marshall was a legendary civil rights lawyer and the first Black justice. When he retired in 1991, only one Black Republican had been appointed to a U.S. appeals court in the last 10 years. He was a 43-year-old agency official with a limited legal background. But when President George H.W. Bush announced his nomination of Clarence Thomas, he dismissed the suggestion that race played a role. "The fact that he is Black and a minority has nothing to do with this since he is the best qualified at this time," Bush told reporters.
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Post by Blitz on Feb 3, 2022 6:48:26 GMT -5
Here's an article about her husband a 6th gen Harvard graduate and a surgeon... Dr. Patrick Jackson, MD - (5/5 stars Patient Experience Rating General Surgery, Washington, DC - MedStar Georgetown University Hospital Male 21+ Yrs Experience She's also related to Paul Ryan by marriage. And now this... glamourfame.com/patrick-g-jackson-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-husbandExcerpt: Ketanji Brown Jackson has been a prominent member of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia as the District judge. There's no better judge than putting the bad guys behind bars, especially when ordering such action. Ketanji Brown and Patrick Jackson Are Married Since 1996 and Have Two Kids Ketanji has been extremely lucky, but not too much. She did do more of the hard work to get to where she is now. The judge was appointed by unanimous confirmations without any Republican opposition in the Senate two times. On the other side of her life, she's been very lucky to find such a respected husband. Sure there might've been criticisms over their race, but who would even dare to question their love? The couple got married in 1998. They have two lovely daughters. You won't find any details of their kids on the internet, that's for sure. Brown's family is full of talented personalities. Her father is a retired lawyer and, her mother is a retired school principal. Meanwhile, her brother, a former police officer, is now a law student. Related by Marriage to Former US House Speaker and Congressman Paul Ryan While the connection to Paul Ryan is a little too personal, Ketanji and Paul are on the opposite side of politics. Nevertheless, he fully condemns her to be highly competent at her job and even recommended her for the bench of the district court in 2012 by testifying on her behalf. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, for her integrity is unequivocal. She's an amazing person, and I favorably recommend her consideration.
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Post by Blitz on Feb 3, 2022 8:54:57 GMT -5
Yay... ESG/Woke greenie policies that sound really great on the news but don't work in the real world. Much of this problem is due to the UK getting rid of LNG storage facilities*... I guess because they are not needed... until they are needed? But when they are needed it's too late! This 54% INCREASE is coming after a previous 12% increase too. //////////////// February 3, 2022 - United Kingdom Britain scrambles $12 billion to help households with 54% energy price hike By Kate Holton and Susanna Twidale www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-has-profound-problem-with-rising-energy-bills-business-chief-says-2022-02-03/The sun rises behind an electricity pylon in Manchester, Britain, January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Phil Noble Summary UK households face 54% jump in energy bills from April Regulator sets price cap for 22 million homes Government sets out $12 billion package of support LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Energy prices for millions of Britons will soar from April after the regulator hiked its price cap by 54%, forcing the government to stump up 9 billion pounds ($12 billion) of fresh support for hard-hit households. Responding to the record global gas prices that have sent almost 30 British energy suppliers to the wall, Ofgem said the price cap on the most widely used tariff would rise to 1,971 pounds a year from April, the same month that taxes rise and general inflation is set to peak at 6%. The Bank of England also raised interest rates again on Thursday, adding to the pressure on households. read more Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, whose financial support during the pandemic may run to as much as 410 billion pounds, said he had no option but to intervene to take the "sting out of a significant price shock" for millions of people. The government will now provide state-backed loans to energy providers to spread the higher costs over five years, worth 200 pounds to consumers, while a 150 pound rebate on local taxes will also apply to around 80% of households in England. Governments across Europe have spent tens of billions of euros to shield consumers from record high energy prices, either removing taxes or supporting the most needy, after gas and power costs spiked when economies reopened from COVID-19 lockdowns. In Britain, a six-month price cap has limited the immediate impact on consumers, forcing the pain on to suppliers instead, with more than 25 going out of business since the start of 2021. Analysts said Sunak's attempt to delay passing on the full hit to consumers was a gamble however, with prices seen high well into next year and beyond, and with major European gas supplier Russia locked in a dispute with the West over Ukraine. Benchmark wholesale European gas prices rose more than 300% last year. Craig Lowrey at Cornwall Insight said the British government's move was not a viable long-term solution. "Without changes, we predict the winter cap will see payments rise to over 2,000 pounds a year for the average customer. Any tools intended to reduce the immediate impact of these record high prices will mean that they are ultimately borne over a longer period," he said. SOARING COSTS Jonathan Brearley, chief executive of Ofgem, said the energy market had seen an unprecedented increase in global gas prices, a once in a 30-year event. "Ofgem's role as energy regulator is to ensure that, under the price cap, energy companies can only charge a fair price based on the true cost of supplying electricity and gas," he said in a statement. Ofgem also said on Thursday it would look at changing how often it can update the price cap, to ensure it reflects the true cost of the market. Unite, the country's biggest union, said the new price cap would turn the cost-of-living crisis into a catastrophe for millions of people. "This will plunge at least one in four families in Britain into fuel poverty," it said. Those households who use prepay metres, often among the poorest, will see the cap rise to 2,017 pounds. Charity National Energy Action has warned that higher energy prices will likely push a further 1.5 million households into fuel poverty, meaning they are unable to afford to heat their homes to the temperature needed to keep warm and healthy. Analysts at BofA said the average Western European household spent around 1,200 euros on gas and electricity in 2020. British households spent an average of 1,370 euros a year on their energy, lower than German and French households at 1,526 euros and 1,406 euros respectively but higher than Italian, Spanish and Portuguese households. ($1 = 0.7379 pounds) ///////////////////////////////// *Excerpt: U.K.’s Lack of Gas Plan Leaves Country at Mercy of Global Market Kwarteng fails to address how U.K. will secure affordable fuel Britain has dearth of gas storage after closing its Rough site www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-21/u-k-s-lack-of-gas-plan-leaves-country-at-mercy-of-global-marketPhotographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg By Isis Almeida - September 21, 2021 As U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng addressed parliament Monday on the energy crunch facing households, he left a key question unanswered: how will Britain secure enough gas this winter without paying the sky-high prices that have put multiple companies on the ropes? At the crux of the problem is a lack of sites to stockpile the fuel, following the U.K.’s decision to close its biggest storage facility -- accounting for about 70% of capacity -- back in 2017. That’s left it reliant on the vagaries of the world market, competing with top buyer Asia for every molecule of liquefied natural gas offered for sale.
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Post by Blitz on Feb 4, 2022 10:34:22 GMT -5
The satire in this article is painful to read as it highlights how the utopian socialists woke world works against its own objectives and assumptions that people are good, leaders are good, and everyone will choose to work even if governments pay them not to work. I believe in the goodness of man, as long as there is a big stick to whack-a-mole the bad side when it pokes its ugly head up. It's always the liberal-minded peace-maker Western gov leaders that get us into wars. In reality, talking tough with the tools to be tough, is what keeps the scumbags in hiding. This is the only peacemaker that really works in the real world outside of the utopian halls of liberal institutions: And now this... Richelieu’s ghost almost solves America’s problems ‘Russia and China, mon ami, are doing the West a favor,’ said the cleric, hovering above my living-room carpet By SPENGLER - FEBRUARY 4, 2022 asiatimes.com/2022/02/richelieus-ghost-almost-solves-americas-problems/Portrait of Cardinal Richelieu by Philippe de Champaigne and workshop. Image: National Gallery London Archive “Russia and China, mon ami, are doing the West a favor,” said Cardinal Richelieu – or, rather, a virtual-reality avatar of Richelieu hovering a couple of feet above my living-room carpet. I had first consulted the Ghost of Cardinal Richelieu in the lower depths of the Paris sewers, conjuring his shade with a magnum of Chateau Petrus lapped out of a brass spittoon instead of the sheep’s blood with which Odysseus nourished the shade of the seer Tiresias. The experimental Oculus headset I obtained covertly from a Metaverse engineer made the journey unnecessary. The CGI cardinal still sounded like Maurice Chevalier, but the image in cheerful pastels lacked the sneer of cold command in Phillipe de Campaigne’s portrait. “I don’t understand,” Eminence, I stammered. “Putin and Xi are humiliating the West. Putin is threatening to take over Ukraine and Xi is pushing the United States out of the South China Sea.” “You Americans understand nothing about the world. Putin and Xi are saving the West from its own follies,” he countered. “That makes no sense at all!” I protested. “You Americans understand nothing about the world. What precisely is it that Putin requires?” Richelieu sniffed. “Merely that Ukraine does not accede to NATO. And what is NATO? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization – a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Soviet Union, you Americans expanded NATO to include Albania, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and the Baltic States, little countries a thousand miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and too dispersed to defend. If you can’t defend everyone in an alliance, you can defend no one.” “Why do you think the Germans have all but dismantled their military?” continued Richelieu. “Because you Americans turned NATO into a bloated, indefensible swamp. You are as stupid as the Austrian Hapsburgs, who acquired Spain, Flanders, Naples and Sicily with clever dynastic marriages. They had twice the population of France during the Thirty Years War, and all the silver of the Indies, but France bled them dry and erased Spain for all time from the list of great powers.” “But surely NATO still has a mission,” I protested. US President Joe Biden tries to reassure NATO. Photo: AFP / Olivier Hoslet Richelieu’s virtual mustache twirled furiously. “A mission! A mission! It has every mission! Here is NATO’s official statement of mission regarding what it calls ‘human security’: ‘The concept of human security is one such result. Human security is a multi-sectoral approach to security that gives primacy to people and includes topics like combatting trafficking in human beings; protection of children in armed conflict; preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence; protection of civilians; and cultural property protection.’ It is tasked with protecting people against ‘cyber threats and climate change.’ It is an orphanage, a morals police, a museum curator, a nunnery, a traveling circus—but it is not a military organization!” “But surely it is still a military organization, too,” I insisted. “It is a tasteless pantomime, a show,” railed the Cardinal. “NATO does not have a single unit above battalion strength to oppose the 280,000 well-armed and well-trained soldiers of the Russian Army. What threats can Washington direct at Russia? Economic sanctions, when the Germans have closed their nuclear power plants and will freeze without Russian gas? Or when China will buy all the energy that Russia can ship overland, out of the reach of the American Navy?” “What will happen?” I whispered. “Idiotic question! What will happen is whatever best suits Russia’s interests! If common sense prevails in the West, Putin will get what he wants – what he thought Russia already had in 1991 – and that is a guarantee that Ukraine will stay out of NATO. Otherwise, Putin will get what he wants by other means. Putin thinks what I did during the Thirty Years War—commit ground forces only as a last resort. I paid the Danes to fight the Austrians, and when they failed, I paid Gustavus Adolphus to invade the German Empire, and only when the Swedes were bled dry did I send French troops.” Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle, 1628, by Henri Paul Motte. Photo: Wikipedia “But why, Eminence, do you say that Putin is doing the West a favor?” “Because, you silly American, he will push NATO back to its core territories and its original mission. Why did Washington turn NATO into a transnational agency of everything and everybody? It was obsessed with universal perfection, with the End of History, with the imagined millennium of liberal democracy and free markets, with the remaking of the world in America’s image. “The same millenarian madness is destroying America from within; if you attempt to legislate that no one shall fail, then no one will succeed, either. A sharp slap from Putin might help America wake up from its utopian pipe dream and do something about its own problems.” “Eminence, isn’t China violating the human rights of its Uighur minority? You said Xi is doing America a favor as well. How can that be true?” Richelieu’s avatar blew steam out its cartoon ears. “Let me count the ways,” he said. “To begin with, China is keeping America’s economy afloat: Its exports of durable goods to the United States now exceed the orders for durable goods at US manufacturers. Without imports from China, America’s inflation would be far worse than it already is. “Second, China and Russia are cleaning up the mess left by America’s meddling in the Muslim world. Washington is outraged by China’s treatment of its Uighurs. But the separatism of the Uighurs is a side-effect of American blunders. First, you destroyed the Iraqi state, to the great benefit of Iran, and forced Iraq’s Sunnis to embrace non-state actors like ISIS. “Then you overthrew Qaddafi and shipped his Libyan armory to the Sunni rebels in Syria. You overthrew your own ally Mubarak in Egypt, and you supported the Muslim Brotherhood regime that replaced him. Then you fled Afghanistan, leaving US$80 billion of your weapons in the hands of the Taliban,” said the cardinal. “You ignited a Sunni insurgency from Noshaq to Nabi Yunis, and destroyed the balance of power that contained Iran. Do you imagine that this went unnoticed in Xinjiang? The so-called Arab Spring raised the hopes of Uighur separatists; thousands of them fought with the Sunni jihad in Syria. Of course, your Western sensibility revolts at China’s way of forcing assimilation on minorities. Police patrol as Muslims leave the Id Kah Mosque after morning prayer on Eid al-Fitr in the old town of Kashgar in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Photo: AFP / Johannes Eisele “But recall that Chinese who write with the same characters still speak hundreds of mutually-unintelligible dialects, which is to say that the Yue, Hakka and Wu and scores of other minorities have preserved their ethnic identity better than the Welsh, Bretons, or Wends. Your wars to bring democracy to Iraq, Afghanistan Syria and Libya killed perhaps a million civilians all told. One pities the Uighurs under the hard hand of Beijing, but pities even more the Afghans who will starve to death this winter.” “Of course,” the Cardinal added, “the Russians and Chinese are angels of mercy next to your humble servant. I starved whole provinces into cannibalism; when the Thirty Years War came to an end there were half as many Germans as when it began.” “Please, Eminence—tell me what America should do now!” I implored. “You foolish Americans – always in search of the simple solution!” Richelieu hissed. “In fact, there is one simple thing that you can do today that will solve all of your problems …” Before the avatar could finish the sentence, sparks flew from the headset; the cardinal vanished and in his place there appeared a dirigible-size CGI image of Donald Trump. The avatar of the former president shouted and gesticulated, but his words were drowned out by the theme from “Rocky.” I awoke among a pile of empty cans of Bud Light.
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Post by Blitz on Feb 16, 2022 5:39:18 GMT -5
Unfrickn-believable! A person arrested multiple times for assault and other crimes gets out of jail, on no bail 6 times and then horrifically stabs a 35 yr old female multiple times after following her back to her NYC apartment. Can you say there are idiots in charge and this hypocrisy has to end! The far-Left deserves a mid-term election blood bath for this lunacy. Here's a photo of the victim: And now this... Woman fatally stabbed inside NYC apartment after being followed: cops February 13, 2022 - By Kevin Sheehan, Larry Celona, Joe Marino, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Steven Vago nypost.com/2022/02/13/woman-stabbed-to-death-inside-nyc-apartment-cops-say/A woman was stabbed to death inside her Chinatown apartment early Sunday after her alleged killer followed her home — and her final moments were caught on chilling surveillance footage. Video obtained by The Post shows the suspect tailing the 35-year-old victim, Christina Yuna Lee, on the street as she enters her Chrystie Street apartment building, following close behind as she opens the front door and strolls into the hallway. Minutes later, a neighbor across the hallway from the victim’s sixth-floor apartment at 111 Chrystie St. called 911 around 4:30 a.m. after hearing her screams during the brutal stabbing, law enforcement sources said. NYC stalker suspect A neighbor called 911 about 4:30 a.m. Sunday after hearing the woman screaming. Victim being stalked The victim was unknowingly stalked by a random man following a night out, police said. On Sunday February 13th 2022 at approx. 4:30AM an incident took place inside 111 Chrystie Street. Police radio transmissions mentioned a woman screaming, a male climbing out onto the fire escape with something in his hand and blood on him. The male then retreated back into the building. Officers on scene set up a perimeter and called for the Emergency Service Unit who went in and apprehended the male at approx. 6:00AM. EMS was requested to the top floor forthwith but never came out of the building with any patients. The suspect was removed to Bellevue Hospital. A neighbor across the hallway called 911 after hearing the victim screaming. Seth Gottfried for NY Post “We’ve got cameras on every floor and in the front here,” the owner of the building said. “She got out of a cab right here and he followed her. He grabbed the front door just before it closed. He followed her all the way up, hanging back, staying one floor behind her all the way up to the sixth floor. 00:14 01:22 “Then, he waited until her door was just about closed and he went in.” Yuna Lee was found in her bathtub “bleeding from multiple wounds to the body” — while her alleged killer was discovered hiding under a bed, according to a source and an NYPD spokesman. Suspect charged in the fatal stabbing of woman inside NYC apartment Play Video “So much blood,” the building’s owner said. “My wife said I should call someone to clean all the blood but I’m going to clean it up myself. It’s the least I can do for that poor girl.” One of Yuna Lee’s sixth-floor neighbors who called 911 recalled the victim’s desperate pleas for help. “She was calling for help, screaming for help. I woke up to it. It was awful,” the 21-year-old neighbor said. “‘Help me! Call 911!’ — that’s exactly what she said over and over and over again.” Responding cops found the suspect, identified by sources as Assamad Nash, 25, inside the apartment and covered in blood. Nash allegedly tried to flee the grisly scene via the fire escape before barricading himself inside — prompting the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit to bust down the door, according to sources. “There was a male inside refusing to exit the apartment,” a police spokesman said Sunday. FDNY medics pronounced the victim dead at 5:55 a.m. On Sunday February 13th 2022 at approx. 4:30AM an incident took place inside 111 Chrystie Street. Police radio transmissions mentioned a woman screaming, a male climbing out onto the fire escape with something in his hand and blood on him. The male then retreated back into the building. Officers on scene set up a perimeter and called for the Emergency Service Unit who went in and apprehended the male at approx. 6:00AM. EMS was requested to the top floor forthwith but never came out of the building with any patients. The suspect was removed to Bellevue Hospital. The 911 call was prompted by “a disturbance in the apartment.” Seth Gottfried for NY Post Cops found a bloody knife in the apartment and believe it came from Yuna Lee’s own kitchen, sources said, adding that both Nash and the victim were stabbed. Officers, who were nearby when the call came in, rushed to the scene and tried to break down the victim’s door — as she screamed for someone to call 911 inside, sources said. They even tried using a sledgehammer at one point but were initially unable to get inside until ESU showed up. One cop who was on the roof at the time spotted Nash on the fire escape trying to flee, the sources said. He spooked him into going back inside the apartment — where he was found hiding under a bed, according to the sources. On Sunday February 13th 2022 at approx. 4:30AM an incident took place inside 111 Chrystie Street. Police radio transmissions mentioned a woman screaming, a male climbing out onto the fire escape with something in his hand and blood on him. The male then retreated back into the building. Officers on scene set up a perimeter and called for the Emergency Service Unit who went in and apprehended the male at approx. 6:00AM. EMS was requested to the top floor forthwith but never came out of the building with any patients. The suspect was removed to Bellevue Hospital. (Seth Gottfried for NY Post) NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit discovered a man covered in blood. Seth Gottfried for NY Post Sources said Nash, 25, is a homeless career criminal with three open cases and a record of several escapes from police custody. The victim, who was Asian, was a digital producer and previously lived in New Jersey, sources and neighbors said. “She’s from New Jersey, been here less than a year,” the building’s owner said Sunday. “Such a sweet girl.” On Sunday February 13th 2022 at approx. 4:30AM an incident took place inside 111 Chrystie Street. Police radio transmissions mentioned a woman screaming, a male climbing out onto the fire escape with something in his hand and blood on him. The male then retreated back into the building. Officers on scene set up a perimeter and called for the Emergency Service Unit who went in and apprehended the male at approx. 6:00AM. EMS was requested to the top floor forthwith but never came out of the building with any patients. The suspect was removed to Bellevue Hospital. (Seth Gottfried for NY Post) Police arrested the suspect outside the apartment. Seth Gottfried for NY Post One neighbor who heard the victim’s screams called them “horrifying.” “It sounded like something you would hear out of a movie or of a domestic violence,” said Andrew Oakes. “I didn’t think anything of it. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s strange,’ until the police came. “It wasn’t until I heard banging on the door and lots of people running up the stairs.” Police are investigating whether the slaying was a hate crime. “It’s all under investigation,” an NYPD spokeswoman said. A police spokesman said the 911 call was prompted by “a disturbance in the apartment.” The victim's body being removed from the apartment building by NYPD. The victim’s body being removed from the apartment building by NYPD on February 13, 2022. G.N.Miller/NYPost Mayor Eric Adams denounced the attack in a statement Sunday. “I and New Yorkers across the city mourn for the innocent woman murdered in her home last night in Chinatown, and stand with our Asian brothers and sisters today,” the mayor said. “While the suspect who committed this heinous act is now in custody, the conditions that created him remain,” Adams added. “The mission of this administration is clear: We won’t let this violence go unchecked.” The victim was found in a bathtub “bleeding from multiple wounds to the body." The victim was found in a bathtub “bleeding from multiple wounds to the body.” G.N.Miller/NYPost Nash has three open cases in Manhattan dating to last year, including 27 counts of criminal mischief from an arrest last month, and two busts from last year for possession of stolen property and assault. In the assault case, Nash is accused of slugging a straphanger in the right eye at the Grand Street station on Sept. 28 while the victim was swiping a MetroCard for a woman, sources said. The suspect was busted in Midtown on Jan. 6 for allegedly damaging dozens of Metrocard machines at three different subway stations dating back to Dec. 8, according to a criminal complaint. Front cover NY Post 2/14/2022 Nash allegedly used an object to jam the slots on the machines that accept bills. He was released without bail in the assault case but skipped out and was arrested two months later on a warrant. He was again released. Sources said Nash was also charged with assaulting a woman in May 2021, but that case was later sealed. In January 2021, he was charged with 27 counts of criminal mischief for damaging MetroCard machines, and also hit with charges of escape and resisting arrest, the sources said. The police are investigating whether the murder was a hate crime. The police are investigating whether the murder was a hate crime. G.N.Miller/NYPost In all, Nash has more than a half-dozen other arrests dating to 2015, sources said. At a press conference near the scene Sunday, Asian American community leaders called the attack “gruesome” and demanded action from the city. “This is so gruesome and so horrible and so cruel,” state Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, who broke down in tears while speaking, said at Sara D. Roosevelt Park near the scene. Flowers and police tape at the scene of the stabbing scene at 111 Chrystie St. William C. Lopez/NYPOST “We have to make sure that our city has to stop saying sorry, that our state stops saying sorry,” Niou said. “Our communities deserve answers and we haven’t been given any.” The Big Apple has seen a series of violent acts against Asian Americans in recent months — with Sunday’s fatal attack just the latest. “Why are violent mentally ill individuals, those with a criminal past, attacking us?” said Ben Wei of the advocacy group Asians Fighting Injustice. “This individual has at least six priors and open counts against him,” he said. “What has failed in this system to allow this to happen?” Additional reporting by Tina Moore and Sam Raskin
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