Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) backed criminal activity in New York City on Saturday as she supported those who stormed a subway station and refused to pay the required fare to use the service.
&#8220;Close to a thousand anti-police protesters descended on Downtown Brooklyn Friday night, blocking traffic, vandalizing a city bus and shouting obscene insults at NYPD cops,&#8221; The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/01/anti-cop-protesters-in-brooklyn-blast-fare-evasion-crackdown/">reported</a>. &#8220;The demonstration formed soon after 7 p.m. on the streets near the Barclays Center, with protesters unfurling large banners that read &#8216;F—k the police&#8217; and &#8216;Don’t let these pigs touch us.'&#8221;
In a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez falsely claimed that the United States&#8217; criminal justice system was a &#8220;mass incarceration&#8221; system &#8220;that jails the poor to free the rich&#8221; – a claim that has no factual basis.
&#8220;Ending mass incarceration means challenging a system that jails the poor to free the rich,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. &#8220;Arresting people who can’t afford a $2.75 fare makes no one safer and destabilizes our community. New Yorkers know that, they’re not having it, and they’re standing up for each other.&#8221;
According to the <a href="http://web.mta.info/nyct/rules/rules.htm">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> (MTA), entering its facilities without payment is prohibited:
<blockquote>No person shall use or enter upon the facilities or conveyances of the Authority, for any purpose, without the payment of the fare or tender of other valid fare media used in accordance with any conditions and restrictions imposed by the Authority. For the purposes of this section, it shall be considered an entrance into a facility or conveyance whenever a person passes through a point at which a fare is required or collected. No person shall, for purposes of gaining entry into a facility, proceed over or under any turnstile or otherwise proceed in any other unauthorized manner through an exit gate or through or past any other point at which a fare is required or collected and it shall be no defense to a charge of a violation of this subdivision that fare media, a fare media sales device or a fare collection device was malfunctioning.</blockquote>
The MTA also outlines the penalties for not paying, which essentially amounts to theft. The penalties include criminal prosecution:
<blockquote>Pursuant to section 1204(5-a) of the Public Authorities Law, any person committing one or more violations of these rules shall be subject to either:
(a) criminal prosecution in the criminal court of the City of New York, which court may impose a fine not to exceed twenty-five dollars or a term of imprisonment for not longer than ten days, or both; or 
(b) civil penalties imposed by the transit adjudication bureau in an amount not to exceed one hundred dollars per violation (exclusive of interest or costs assessed thereon).</blockquote>
Ocasio-Cortez was in the news late this week after she came to the defense of former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA), who resigned this week over a sex scandal that included lewd photographs or herself being leaked to the media and allegations that she had a relationship with a congressional staffer – something that is explicitly prohibited by House rules.
Ocasio-Cortez dishonestly suggested that Hill was forced to resign only over the photographs that were leaked because Hill was a woman, which is not true.
The House Ethics Committee announced an investigation into Hill over the allegations that she had a sexual relationship with a congressional staffer.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-misleads-on-hill-scandal-suggests-it-doesnt-happen-to-men-here-are-times-it-did">READ: AOC Misleads On Hill Scandal, Suggests It Doesn’t Happen To Men. Here Are Times It Did.</a>

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ocasio-Cortez Endorses Criminal Activity In NYC While Making False Claim

New York City

President Donald Trump revealed on Thursday evening that his family will be moving from their longtime home base in New York City and changing their permanent residence to his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
&#8220;1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House, is the place I have come to love and will stay for, hopefully, another 5 years as we MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, but my family and I will be making Palm Beach, Florida, our Permanent Residence,&#8221; Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
&#8220;I cherish New York, and the people of New York, and always will, but unfortunately, despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Few have been treated worse.&#8221;
&#8220;I hated having to make this decision, but in the end it will be best for all concerned,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;As President, I will always be there to help New York and the great people of New York. It will always have a special place in my heart!&#8221;
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&#8230;.New York, and always will, but unfortunately, despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state. Few have been treated worse. I hated having to make&#8230;.
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1190079192358105088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The president, who is a lifelong resident of New York, filed a &#8220;declaration of domicile,&#8221; in September, listing his primary residence as his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to documents filed with the Palm Beach Country Circuit Court. First Lady Melania Trump also submitted identical court filings.
Prior to the move, Trump&#8217;s permanent residence was 721 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, more commonly referred to as Trump Tower, which he had called home since 1983. The court filings also list the president&#8217;s &#8220;other places of abode&#8221; as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House&#8217;s address, and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The moves comes as Trump has been facing mounting scrutiny from both New York State Attorney General Letitia James and a Manhattan district attorney over his tax returns. Before she was even elected as attorney general, James vowed to target both the president and the Trump Organization, which many viewed as a political vendetta. However, it is not clear if the investigation has anything to do with the move.
Despite calling New York home, the president has been deeply unpopular in the increasingly blue state. During the 2016 presidential election cycle, Trump lost the state of New York to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by more than 20 points. Clinton also won New York County with more than 85 percent of the vote.
The president has often butted heads with many of New York&#8217;s far-left lawmakers, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, both progressive Democrats. The duo, who are often even critical of one another, celebrated the news of Trump&#8217;s departure from the state.
&#8220;Good riddance. It&#8217;s not like [Trump] paid taxes here anyway&#8230;,&#8221; Cuomo said in response to the announcement. &#8220;He&#8217;s all yours, Florida.&#8221;
&#8220;Don&#8217;t let the door hit you on the way out or whatever,&#8221; de Blasio said. He later added,&#8221;Our deepest condolences to the good people of Florida as Trump attempts to outrun his past (and near future).&#8221;

President Donald Trump And First Lady Melania Depart White House For Orlando Rally

President Trump Announces He&#8217;s Leaving New York

Donald Trump

Florida

New York City’s top police official has warned that looming reforms intended to fundamentally transform the city’s jail system could endanger the well-being of people residing and working in the area.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill recently put the public on notice after the City Council overwhelmingly <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/data/closerikers/">voted</a> to close the notorious Rikers Island correctional complex by 2026 and replace it with four smaller community jails that, collectively, will hold fewer inmates.
“I’m really concerned going forward with the reduced capacity that we’ll be able to keep the city as safe as possible,” O’Neill cautioned in an <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/10/17/nypds-oneill-rikers-plan-is-going-to-put-new-yorkers-at-risk/">exclusive interview</a> with CBS2 New York.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/nyregion/rikers-island-closing-vote.html">reports</a> that “the new facilities will be smaller than first anticipated with a combined daily capacity of about 3,300 people,” adding, the transition “will require reducing the jail population by more than half by 2026.” Opponents of the initiative are apprehensive that the changes might result in a shortage of available cells for future needs. Currently, the city’s jail system is the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/nyregion/rikers-island-closing-vote.html">second-largest</a> in the nation, housing approximately 7,000 inmates daily.
Officials based NYC’s “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191022003614/https:/rikers.cityofnewyork.us/">decarceration plan</a>” on a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/nyregion/nyc-news-rikers-island.html">declining crime rate</a> along with <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/484-19/projected-city-jail-population-falls-3-300-2026">criminal justice reform measures</a> crafted to keep people out of jail, such as a state law that kicks in next year that will <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/08/12/john-miller-bail-reform/">abolish cash bail</a> for most individuals charged with misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.
“Come January 1, there are going to be very few people that are bail eligible, so you’re going to see people that have significant criminal histories, significant firearms histories, and they’re not going to be held in,” Commissioner O’Neill <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/10/17/nypds-oneill-rikers-plan-is-going-to-put-new-yorkers-at-risk/">continued</a>. “That’s going to put people at risk, put New Yorkers at risk, put victims at risk, and put witnesses at risk.”
Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio embraced the years-long effort to close the city jails on Rikers Island, which sits isolated in the East River between the Bronx and Queens. His administration <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/413-18/de-blasio-administration-plans-borough-based-jails-replace-facilities-rikers">unveiled plans</a> last year to replace the facilities with “modern, community-based jails throughout the City … designed to be integrated into surrounding neighborhoods.” Lawmakers approved the final proposal <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/18/new-york-rikers-island-voted-close/">36-13</a> on October 17, deciding to proceed with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/nyregion/rikers-island-closing-vote.html">$8 billion transition project</a> and establish four new borough-based detention centers, one each in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.
Official city websites that have <a href="https://rikers.cityofnewyork.us/">promoted the decarceration plan</a> said the new jails <a href="https://rikers.cityofnewyork.us/nyc-borough-based-jails/">would be</a> “built upon a foundation of dignity and respect,” and:
<blockquote>This borough-based system would strengthen connections to families, attorneys, courts, medical and mental health care, and faith and community-based organizations. Being closer to home and transit would enhance the network of support systems for people who are detained, and help prevent future returns to jail.
The new facilities would be designed to foster safety and wellbeing for both those incarcerated and for staff, providing space for quality education, health, and therapeutic programming. Modern facilities would also serve as a catalyst for positive change in the community and the criminal justice system.
We ask you to join us in reimagining these jails as civic assets that would provide a better life for those who are detained and work in them, support smoother transitions back home, and serve as resources for the community.</blockquote>
“Mass incarceration did not begin in New York City, but it will end here,” Mayor de Blasio <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/484-19/projected-city-jail-population-falls-3-300-2026">said </a>earlier this month. “With the lowest rate of incarceration of any major city, we are proving you don’t need to arrest your way to safety. New York is telling a different story, one where we can keep fathers at home and kids in schools and still be the safest big city in America.”
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/nyregion/rikers-island-closing-vote.html">reported</a> that de Blasio “secured perhaps his most progressive achievement so far as mayor,” noting he has two years remaining in office. However, The Times added: “To make the plan a reality, city officials must place their trust in future elected leaders to share the same vision and see it through on the same aggressive timeline.”
Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreycawood">@JeffreyCawood</a>.

NYPD Announces Fate Of Cop Implicated In Chokehold Death Of Eric Garner

NYPD Commish Warns City’s ‘Decarceration Plan’ Could Put New Yorkers In Danger

Police

On Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) demanded that American taxpayers foot the bill to bail out New York City&#8217;s taxi cab drivers who took out loans in order to pay for taxi medallion costs that were artificially inflated by the Democrat-led city government.
&#8220;These taxi drivers need a bailout because this is not just about predatory collection practices &#8230; this is manufactured financial indentured servitude and it is wrong,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez argued during a congressional hearing on lending. &#8220;We need to bailout these drivers, and I would like to invite my colleagues here on the federal level and our partners on the city level to make sure they get the job done.&#8221;
Taxi cab drivers in the Big Apple are required to obtain a medallion in order to operate in the city legally. Intending to prevent a surplus of cabs, the New York City government has been artificially limiting the number of medallions it will issue. Today, there are currently only 13,587 medallions issued. That is only two medallions more than when the program was first created in 1937, despite a population growth of more than 1 million.
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Taxi drivers in NYC are in crisis. They are trapped in a predatory lending scheme that steals their earnings and has led to a suicide crisis.
We must bail them out. Yesterday, we held a Congressional hearing to hear from drivers and advocates for reform ⬇ <a href="https://t.co/6qSG66pdFN">pic.twitter.com/6qSG66pdFN</a>
&mdash; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAOC/status/1177695155371085825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
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As such, the artificial scarcity created by the Democrat-led New York City government has skyrocketed the cost to obtain a medallion — the price of a medallion soared to over $1 million prior to the bubble bursting in late 2014. Many taxi drivers were forced to take out loans with high fees or interest-only payments in order to continue to operate their cabs. Consequently, more than 950 drivers have since filed for bankruptcy, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/nyregion/AOC-taxi-medallion-bailout.html">The New York Times</a>.
Referring to government assistance as &#8220;a matter of life or death,&#8221; the self-proclaimed radical congresswoman cited a New York Times report detailing a black-car driver who complained on social media that the surge in ride sharing services caused him to work 100 hours a week in order to make a living. He subsequently drove to New York&#8217;s city hall and shot himself in front of the building.
&#8220;Regulatory agencies knew, the city knew, and these suicides are not just an indirect side effect, they are a direct consequence of the neglect of a vulnerable community in New York City,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez said. &#8220;In fact, we have accounts reported right here by The New York Times: one of the drivers drove in front of city hall himself, wrote a note on Facebook saying he could not continue to live, and killed himself right in front of city hall. And we are ignoring this crisis.&#8221;
The New York congresswoman&#8217;s calls for the federal government to bailout the taxi cab drivers comes after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to do it because of the high cost to the city. The mayor&#8217;s office contends that a bailout could cost New Yorkers as much as $13 billion.
&#8220;This, I think, is a matter of financial malpractice and predatory behavior that I think in many ways should be a national scandal,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez said during the hearing. &#8220;It is literally killing people.&#8221;

Ocasio-Cortez Holds Public Housing Town Hall

WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Demands American Taxpayers Bail Out NYC Taxi Drivers: This Is ‘Indentured Servitude’

On Thursday, new acts were added to New York City’s list of what constitutes “hate.”
The NYC Commission on Human Rights announced “new legal enforcement guidance and actions against discrimination based on immigration status and national origin.”
The new crimes include, according to a press release from the commission, “Threatening to call [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] when motivated by discrimination, derogatory use of the term ‘illegal alien,’ and discrimination based on limited English proficiency are unlawful discriminatory treatment under the NYC Human Rights Law.”
The commission also said it was “currently investigating 4 cases involving discrimination based on threats to call ICE in order to harass, threaten, or intimidate a victim.”
It is unclear exactly how an alleged instance of discrimination could be investigated, considering the “he said/she said” nature of the allegations. Either a lot of cases will result in no findings or New York City residents will lose some due process rights in order to determine their guilt. And this says nothing of the First Amendment rights for speech — even objectionable speech.
“In the face of increasingly hostile national rhetoric, we will do everything in our power to make sure our treasured immigrant communities are able to live with dignity and respect, free of harassment and bias,&#8221; Human Rights Commission Chair Carmelyn P. Malalis said in a statement <a href="https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/telling-nyers-speak-english-could-draw-250k-fine-city-says">published by Patch</a>. &#8220;Today&#8217;s guidance makes abundantly clear that there is no room for discrimination in NYC.&#8221;
The commission told the outlet that it was actually investigating seven cases where landlords threatened to call immigration services on tenants for not paying their rent.
The new guidance “defines discrimination on the basis of perceived or actual immigration status and national origin under the New York City Human Rights Law in public accommodations, employment, and housing.”
“The guidance states that the use of the term ‘illegal alien,’ among others, when used with intent to demean, humiliate, or harass a person, is illegal under the law,” the commission said in its press release. “Further, the guidance stipulates that harassing or discriminating against someone for their use of another language or their limited English proficiency, and threatening to call ICE on a person based on a discriminatory motive, are considered to be in violation of the law.”
Those found in violation face fines of up to $250,000, which “can be assessed for each act of willful discrimination, and damages are available to complainants.”
That last part — about providing damages to accusers — could set up the new policy for abuse. Need money? Accuse your employer of discrimination.
Patch provided some examples of how New York City residents could be in violation of the new guidance:
<blockquote>A store owner would violate the law if he tells two shoppers speaking Thai to &#8220;speak English&#8221; and &#8220;go back to your country,&#8221; the guidance says. Forcings [sic] prospective tenants who appear not to be U.S. citizens to put down six months of rent as a security deposit while only requiring one month&#8217;s rent from those thought to be citizens would also be illegal, according to the commission.</blockquote>

Anti-ICE protest

It’s Now Illegal In NYC To Threaten To Call ICE On Someone Or Tell Them ‘Go Back To Your Country’

Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Commuters at a subway station in the Bronx Monday morning watched in horror as a man holding his 5-year-old daughter leapt in front of an oncoming subway train in an apparent suicide attempt. In a remarkable moment caught on video, two of the witnesses who had leapt down from the platform onto the tracks after the train came to a stop found that the little girl had miraculously survived.
&#8220;Dramatic video shows a little girl crawling out from underneath a subway train in the Bronx while commuters looked on in fear,&#8221; <a href="https://abc7ny.com/traffic/man-jumps-in-front-of-train-while-holding-daughter-police-say/5560911/">ABC 7 New York</a> reported Monday along with cell phone footage of the rescue of the girl. &#8220;Her father jumped in front of the train while he held her in his arms. He did not survive, but she is going to be OK.&#8221;
The apparently suicidal man, 45, was wearing a backpack and holding his 5-year-old daughter in his arms when he jumped in front of the oncoming southbound No. 4 train at the elevated Kingsbridge Road station in the Kingsbridge Height section at around 8 a.m. Monday morning.
The action, witnesses say, appears to have been deliberate. While the man tragically died, the little girl sustained only minor injuries.
As the cell phone footage of her rescue shows, two citizen rescuers got down onto the tracks and worked to extricate the girl from underneath the train. When the rescuers pick her up and place her on the platform above, she is able to stand up and appears to be able to communicate with the stunned witnesses on the platform, who quickly encircle her, some raising their hands in relief.
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CHILD SAVED: Video shows good Samaritans come to the rescue of a little girl after her father jumped in front of an oncoming train while holding onto her. Miraculously she is OK and only suffered minor injuries. <a href="https://t.co/pGUMgPJTk5">https://t.co/pGUMgPJTk5</a> <a href="https://t.co/EmRvu7oLQq">pic.twitter.com/EmRvu7oLQq</a>
&#8212; Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7NY/status/1176176979458035713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Dramatic video shows a little girl crawling out from underneath a subway train in the Bronx while commuters looked on in fear. Her father jumped in front of the train while he held her in his arms. He did not survive, but she is going to be OK. <a href="https://t.co/b2qFqB95oI">https://t.co/b2qFqB95oI</a> <a href="https://t.co/u0G4E36BMN">pic.twitter.com/u0G4E36BMN</a>
&#8212; Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7NY/status/1176230315502817286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://nypost.com/2019/09/23/dad-jumps-in-front-of-subway-train-while-holding-5-year-old-daughter/">The New York Post</a> quotes Jennifer Hub, a mother of four who witnessed the shocking incident. The man, she said, was holding the girl &#8220;in his arms&#8221; when he &#8220;jumped on the tracks as the train was coming.&#8221; Hub said that 20 to 30 people where there &#8220;screaming&#8221; and trying to get the train to stop.
&#8220;I watched as that train came around that corner, and I saw as the man jumped and I see the little feet hanging out,&#8221; she said. &#8220;My theory is that the little girl was under the train and small enough she could roll because she only has a few abrasions on her forehead and arm.&#8221;
Another witness, Pamela Ivy, told ABC 7 that she &#8220;heard him telling the wife that, &#8216;You look out for the other two kids, I&#8217;m gonna take her to school,&#8217; and then he said, &#8216;I love you,'&#8221; before leaping in front of the train.
ABC 7 also spoke with the train operator, who described the incident as &#8220;a traumatic event for everyone involved.&#8221;
The father was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders, police telling the press that they believe he deliberately jumped in front of the train.
The girl was quickly taken to the nearby Jacobi Medical Center and treated for minor injuries. Officials say the child&#8217;s mother met her at the hospital.
The two men who leapt down to rescue the girl also suffered minor injuries. They were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital for treatment, authorities say.
The mother of the girl spoke to the press Monday afternoon, thanking people for being there for her and her daughter, who is &#8220;in perfect condition,&#8221; but also asking them to &#8220;respect my pain&#8221; in this difficult moment.
&#8220;Please respect my pain,&#8221; the mother told reporters in a statement translated by ABC 7. &#8220;Thank you for being there, thank you for having my back. Thank you to the 52nd precinct &#8212; I&#8217;m home now and they&#8217;re still reaching out to make sure that I made it home OK, that I eat, that my daughter eats. Thank you, but please respect my pain. The child is in perfect condition, thank you to God and the angels who took care of her. Everything is fine, except the absence of my husband &#8212; thank you.&#8221;
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Niurka Caraballo shares her broken heart after bringing her daughter home safely. Police say her husband jumped in front of an oncoming subway w his daughter in his arms. He was killed. Their little girl miraculously survived <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7NY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ABC7NY</a> <a href="https://t.co/C5oAOI1Juw">pic.twitter.com/C5oAOI1Juw</a>
&#8212; Lucy Yang (@LucyYang7) <a href="https://twitter.com/LucyYang7/status/1176257118308978688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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ABC 7 has also posted video of the child and her family arriving home:
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After a traumatic day, the 5-year-old girl who survived after her father jumped with her into an oncoming train is back home safe and sound. <a href="https://t.co/pGUMgPJTk5">https://t.co/pGUMgPJTk5</a> <a href="https://t.co/yADe4mWyEl">pic.twitter.com/yADe4mWyEl</a>
&#8212; Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7NY/status/1176254404992913408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/new?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#new</a> back home from the hospital after a horrific day! The father of this 5 yr old jumped in front of a subway trian this morning with his little girl. He was killed , she has only minor injuries . Live report at 6 <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7NY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@abc7ny</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/abc7ny?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#abc7ny</a> <a href="https://t.co/sSICCFPN4u">pic.twitter.com/sSICCFPN4u</a>
&#8212; Kemberly Richardson (@kemrichardson7) <a href="https://twitter.com/kemrichardson7/status/1176255494849204225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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This article has been updated to include more information.

subway_train_gi.jpg

WATCH: Girl Miraculously Survives After Her Father Jumps In Front Of Train With Her; Mother Responds

Is there anything New York City won’t ban? The city’s continued war on joy is now taking aim at chocolate milk.
CBS New York <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/09/16/nyc-public-schools-chocolate-milk-ban/">reported</a> Monday that the state’s Department of Education is considering a ban on the chocolatey drink because of the high sugar content. The outlet reported that the city considered such a ban back in 2006 after it banned whole milk.
“Chocolate milk has about 10 grams more sugar than regular milk and children should limit their sugar intake to about 25 grams,” nutritionist Reyna Franco told the outlet.
Childhood obesity is an actual epidemic in the country, but bans and taxes on food and drinks that kids like, such as sodas and juice, haven’t helped. Kids aren’t getting enough exercise at home or at school.
Parents, naturally, told CBS they thought the ban was preposterous.
“The lunches have improved incredibly,” mother Lori Horsely told the outlet. “I don’t think chocolate milk is going to make or break the kids’ eating. I think they should leave it alone, let them have something.&#8221;
“They prefer the chocolate milk, obviously, so if that’s the way you’re going to get the calcium into the kids, I say go for it,” she added.
NBC New York <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Chocolate-Milk-Would-be-Banned-in-New-York-City-Schools-Under-New-Proposal-560536611.html">reported</a> that kids are currently served skim milk or chocolate milk. Skim milk has 90 calories per serving, while chocolate milk has 120 calories per serving, but eight grams more sugar.
“While the idea may be well-intentioned, both parents and experts say that it is not a necessary change. Norma Reid-Archibald, a dietician and nutritionist with NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn, says that the ban is a bad idea because students need the calcium,” the outlet reported.
Reid-Archibald said: “I need them to have another option — there’s calcium, vitamin, potassium. All important.”
She added that city officials shouldn’t be worried “about the sugar for this particular meal … because it’s a minimum part of their overall daily intake that these students are consuming.”
No decision has been made, NBC reported.
“Our priority is the health and well-being of our students, and every day, we offer a variety of healthy, delicious, and free meal options that exceed USDA standards,” the New York Department of Education told the outlet in a statement. “No decision has been made about chocolate milk.&#8221;
San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and Rochester, Minnesota have already banned chocolate milk from local schools. Los Angeles and Detroit previously had banned the beverage but reversed their policies.
&#8220;LA was because of the cost of dealing with the waste which was reduced once chocolate milk was reinstated and Detroit when a new school nutrition director was hired and saw benefits from the nutrition of milk,&#8221; National Dairy Council spokesperson Lisa McComb told NBC.
Obviously, dairy farmers aren’t happy about losing some of their market share. The president of the New York Farm Bureau even sent a letter to Richard Carranza, chancellor of New York City schools, asking him to rethink the proposed ban.
The ban brings to mind <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rachelzarrell/teens-are-sarcastically-tweeting-thanksmichelleobama-with-th">photos of the sad school lunches</a> forced on school children by the Obama administration’s changes to nutrition guidelines.

Chocolate Milk

New York City Is Looking To Ban Chocolate Milk From Schools

Education

On Wednesday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show,” Klavan talks about the difficulty of facing and remembering harsh truths. Video and partial transcript below:
It&#8217;s the 18th anniversary of 9/11, and every 9/11, someone says we will never forget. These words, like the words “unicorn” or “free health care” or “Islamophobia,” are nonsense words: Words that describe things &#8230; that simply don&#8217;t exist. We always forget; we have to forget. It&#8217;s the way societies move forward, and it&#8217;s the way they die, and these things have to be. It&#8217;s God&#8217;s will.
Here are some of the things we learned on 9/11 that we&#8217;ve forgotten. Multiculturalism is crap. There are better cultures, bad cultures, and even worse cultures. Ours is better not because we&#8217;re better people, but because we&#8217;ve inherited better ideas like individual freedom and equality before the law. Those are better ideas than government by Allah, and dressing up women like the Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come so they can&#8217;t fully participate in life. Better ideas make better cultures, and better cultures must be defended by both wisdom and force of arms — or worse cultures will conquer and destroy them.
On 9/11, we also remembered briefly that men must be men. The policemen and firemen who charged into the burning buildings to try to save people were essential men, necessary men — men worthy of our honor and respect because they lived up to the responsibility of their manhood, which reminds us of another inescapable truth. There is only one necessary task of human life, and that is to make and nurture more human life. This is a task that nature has assigned to women. It is in order to protect and preserve that task, and the women who do it, that men must be men. Brave, protective, supportive, and dispassionately wise.
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When societies feel rich and safe and prosperous, they put such truths out of their minds and they turn to fluffy nonsense like “irony” or “pumpkin latte” or “redefining marriage” or letting boys dress up as girls or promising everybody everything for free. The essential divide between conservatives and leftists is that conservatives want society to always live under the restraints of the essential truths, and leftists want to take advantage of history&#8217;s little holidays when some nation like ours becomes strong enough and rich enough to make everyone feel like it&#8217;s safe to forget the rules and party.
There&#8217;s some wisdom on both sides. If your society is so powerful it can spare a few men to do inessential tasks like writing books or musical comedies, that&#8217;s better than everyone having to man the front lines. If you can allow some women to leave off baby-making and child-rearing, maybe some of them will enjoy doing something else more. That&#8217;s fine. It&#8217;s tolerant and kind to accept gay relationships if you&#8217;re living in inessential times, so why not do it. But the gods of the copy-book headings, the gods of the essential truths, are always waiting to return with terror and slaughter as they did [on] this day 18 years ago. And when you denounce motherhood or manhood, when you squander your resources and disrespect your traditions, those gods start sharpening their swords.
This is a very sad world, and one of the saddest things about this world is also one of the most comical: People lie. Everyone lies, everyone lies to himself and to everyone else. We say things that are absurd and ridiculous and then we insist that they&#8217;re true. People lie when they can, and only face the truth when they must. On 9/11, we were forced to face the truth — a lot of truths — and now, by the necessity of human nature, we have forgotten. We always do.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of “The Andrew Klavan Show” on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show">Watch “The Andrew Klavan Show” on-demand.</a>

Rubble At World Trade Center on September 12, 2001.

KLAVAN: The Essential Truths We Have Forgotten

Andrew Klavan

Conservatism

Radical Islamic Terror

Terrorism

It has been 18 years since terrorists flew two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. Babies born after that event are now entering college.
For those who remember where they were and what they were doing when the first plane hit, it’s hard to think of such a horrific moment in history as history, but that is precisely what it is for millions of students now.
TIME <a href="https://time.com/5672103/9-11-history-curriculum/">reported</a> Tuesday on how students are being taught about such a significant moment in history. The outlet interviewed Lauren Hetrick, who teaches U.S. history in Newville, Pennsylvania. Hetrick was a sophomore when the events of 9/11 occurred, and now teaches sophomores about that day. From TIME:
<blockquote>Many teachers who remember what it was like to have been in school at that time use the memory to help their students connect to the topic. Hetrick, who chairs her school’s Social Studies department in Newville, Pa., shows her students the same <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uiSq0jfVpM" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Today show episode</a> she watched that day. She also encourages them to listen to the stories of victims’ families and first responders recorded by StoryCorps, in hopes the personal recollections will make students more engaged “by seeing I’m truly invested in what we’re doing, seeing how much I’m caring about this, how emotional I get.”</blockquote>
Hetrick told the outlet that she has been teaching students about 9/11 since 2008 and used to go home and “break down” after her lessons.
“I was having a hard time detaching. [Teachers] want to form a connection, but we also need to stay professional as historians and have that little bit of detachment. It’s definitely not easy to do,” she told TIME.
The outlet reported that the event is very difficult to teach, as teachers still remember that day and the materials used to inform students are disturbing. TIME also said there is no national guideline for states on how to teach students about the event.
“A 2017 <a href="http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/79299" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">analysis</a> of state high-school social-studies academic standards in the 50 states and the District of Columbia noted that 26 specifically mentioned the 9/11 attacks, nine mentioned terrorism or the war on terror, and 16 didn’t mention 9/11 or terrorism-related examples at all,” the outlet reported.
Another study, led by professor Jeremy Stoddard of the University of Wisconsin/Madison School Of Education, found that “the most popular method of teaching about 9/11 and the War on Terror was showing a documentary or ‘similar video,’” TIME reported.
“The next most cited method was discussing related current events. The third most mentioned approach was sharing personal stories, the way Hetrick does; Stoddard says younger teachers in particular tend to aim to get kids ‘to feel like they felt that day, to understand the shock and horror people felt that day,’” the outlet reported.
The study also found that what happened after 9/11 is not universally taught. While schools discuss the War on Terror, many don’t talk about weapons of mass destruction and for some, the descriptions of the attacks have shortened in subsequent textbook editions.
“A lot of the main themes that we saw way back in 2003 — in terms of, it’s a day of remembrance, a focus on the first responders and the heroes of the day and the actions they took, the world coming together in response to this horrible terrorist attack — a lot of those themes are still very much the way it’s being taught,” Stoddard told TIME. “Middle schools are focusing a little bit more on first responders and heroes of the day. High school is where you would probably see more of an emphasis on the causes, the events leading up to it and maybe more on the response. High–school teachers did talk more about the Patriot Act and surveillance and some of those national-security-versus-civil-liberties types of issues.”

A New York Fire-fighter amid the rubble of the World Trade Centre.

Kids Are Now Being Taught About 9/11 As Part Of History

On Thursday, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44424/hammer-stark-choice-facing-jewish-democrats-josh-hammer">Jewish politics</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43388/hammer-anti-semites-ilhan-omar-and-rashida-tlaib-josh-hammer">anti-Semitism</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50850/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">Israel</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9hH2jloilc">joined</a> &#8220;Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler&#8221; on One America News Network to discuss the <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1170063071752151041">astonishing</a> rise in <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/430477/no-one-cares-about-attacks-against-the-orthodox-because-youve-been/">violent anti-Semitic incidents</a> in New York City in the year 2019.
Over this past week, there have been <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/beating-of-jewish-man-in-brooklyn-is-fourth-anti-semitic-attack-in-one-week">four violent anti-Semitic assaults</a> in Brooklyn, New York. Wheeler and Hammer discussed why it is the case that anti-Semitic violence may be on the rise and, just as importantly, why political leaders — which, in New York City, are nearly exclusively Democrats — seem to barely be paying attention to the harrowing phenomenon.
Wheeler began by pointing out how &#8220;Democrats, on the campaign trail, constantly condemn hatred and bigotry and violence of any kind — and yet, when this [violence] is in their own district and it&#8217;s anti-Semitism that motivates the violence, we hear nothing from them.&#8221;
Hammer responded by pointing out just how dangerous the current phenomenon is, and also stressed how it is imperative that, no matter one&#8217;s personal politics, <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/columnist/294171/why-downplay-hate-crimes-against-jews/">all forms of anti-Semitism</a> must be treated extremely seriously. Hammer singled out feckless Democratic Party leadership for harboring and nurturing toxic anti-Zionism, but also bluntly stated that anyone not treating all forms of anti-Semitism seriously should &#8220;shut up and re-evaluate his priorities,&#8221; Hammer warned:
<blockquote>The Central Council of [Jews] in Germany actually [recently] <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/26/europe/germany-antisemitism-kippah-intl-scli-ger/index.html">advised German Jews to not wear kippahs in public</a> — they literally said you should wear baseball caps for fear of not getting violently assaulted by Syrian refugees. But I didn&#8217;t think we would get to the point where this might be a concern in New York City. New York City has the largest Jewish population of literally any metropolitan area in the world — the entire Jewish population in the broader New York area is almost that of the entire nation of Israel. It is that big. And we&#8217;re getting to the point where it&#8217;s becoming dangerous to literally wear a kippah, tzitzit, or any kind of public demonstration you are Jewish in the city with the world&#8217;s largest Jewish population.
I don&#8217;t know how we got here, but here&#8217;s what we have to do. There are three main types of anti-Semitism in this world. There is far-right, neo-Nazi white nationalist anti-Semitism; there is Islamist, radical Muslim anti-Semitism, and there&#8217;s anti-Zionist anti-Semitism. Anyone who is not taking all three strands seriously should shut up and re-evaluate his priorities, because all three need to be seriously dealt with and combatted. &#8230; Right now, the alt-right, far-right white nationalist strand is the most violent — that&#8217;s what happened in Pittsburgh and at the Chabad of Poway in California, but it is the anti-Zionist strand that is the most pernicious because it is not being quashed. It is not being eliminated, and is only festered and encouraged by the Democratic Party and leftist elites.</blockquote>
Wheeler followed up, asking Hammer whether the reason Democratic politicians are not condemning the rising anti-Semitic violence in Brooklyn is because, were they to do so, they would also have to condemn the anti-Semitism of up-and-coming Democratic stars like Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Hammer responded by discussing how part of the problem is that the identities of the anti-Semitic attackers do not fit a politically convenient narrative for the Left:
<blockquote>So my boss at The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37888/new-york-times-just-made-stunning-admission-about-ben-shapiro">wrote a piece for our site</a> last [November]. The New York Times actually <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/nyregion/jewish-bias-safety-nyc.html">wrote a piece on this last year</a> — they made a stunning admission. The New York Times literally admitted that the reason why anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City are not reported is due to the identity of the attackers — that it doesn&#8217;t fit a convenient narrative. That is just astonishing and you know what? Leftist [Mayor] Bill de Blasio in New York City, I&#8217;m not gonna call him an anti-Semite, but he&#8217;s indifferent at best. At best. It&#8217;s true, he created a new &#8230; task force that allegedly is going to crack down on this, but he&#8217;s at least two years too late.
This year has seen an <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/news/nation/299369/nypd-83-increase-in-nyc-hate-crimes-in-2019/">83% increase</a> in anti-Semitic hate crimes, year-over-year. Jews already, by the way, Liz, we are less than 2% of the U.S. population — according to &#8230; FBI federal statistics, Jews are <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017/topic-pages/victims">58.1% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in America</a>. That is almost shocking: That&#8217;s three and a half to four times more than the second-most &#8220;hate crimed&#8221; group, if we can say, that which is the Muslim community. It&#8217;s just astonishing — this is a huge problem and our politicians are totally feckless and not dealing with it.</blockquote>
WATCH:
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WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: Why Is No One Discussing Rising Anti-Semitic Violence In New York City?

Anti-Semitism

Bill de Blasio

Crime

Hate Crime

Ilhan Omar

Judaism

Rashida Tlaib

Violence

On Friday, a military judge set the trial date for the men accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks that murdered almost 3,000 Americans for January 11, 2021.
The trial will be held at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/911-trial-set-today-men-charged-attacks-including-alleged-mastermind-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-2019-08-30/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&amp;linkId=72899163">CBS News</a>. The leader of the group, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, confessed in 2007 that he had supervised the plot. CBS News noted, &#8220;Judge Colonel W. Shane Cohen issued a 10-page scheduling order Thursday, giving prosecutors an October 10 deadline to provide materials for the case.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/30/us/politics/sept-11-trial-guantanamo-bay.html">The New York Times</a> reported, &#8220;The date set by the judge, Col. W. Shane Cohen of the Air Force, signals the start of the selection of a military jury at Camp Justice, the war court convening at the Navy base in Cuba. It is the first time that a trial judge in the case actually set a start-of-trial date, despite requests by prosecutors since 2012 to two earlier judges to do so.&#8221;
On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four commercial passenger planes. Two of the planes were flown directly into the World Trade Centers in New York City; one crashed into the Pentagon, and the fourth, United Flight 93, crashed into a Pennsylvania field when passengers fought back against the hijackers.
The five men to be tried, including Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Mustafa al Hawsawi, and Ammar al-Baluchi, Mohammed’s nephew, were captured in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003. The Times noted that the men were charged during the Bush administration, but Barack Obama impeded the process and suspended the war court so more protections for due process could be added. Over 30 pretrial hearing sessions have been held to discuss issues of law and evidence.
As John Ryan noted at <a href="http://www.lawdragon.com/2019/06/18/sept-11-case-at-guantanamo-gets-another-new-judge-and-this-one-plans-to-stay/">Lawdragon.com</a>, the first judge to preside over the case was Army Col. James Pohl; he lasted six years, and banned the U.S. government from using statements the five defendants made to FBI agents in 2007. He was succeeded by Marine Col. Keith Parrella, who disliked Pohl’s decision and said that defense teams should file motions to suppress the FBI statements. Parella’s decision reversing Pohl has been challenged by defense attorneys; Cohen, who is not Jewish but Mormon, will have to decide which way to rule. Ryan points out, &#8220;Cohen has never presided over a death penalty case, nor even a multi-defendant case …&#8221;
Asra Q. Nomani, a friend of Daniel Pearl, the Jewish journalist for the Wall Street Journal who was murdered by Mohammed, wrote in the <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/projects/KSM/">Washingtonian</a>, &#8221; .. in March 2007, the US government released a transcript of a military hearing at Guantánamo in which KSM again admitted to murdering Danny. &#8216;I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,&#8217; KSM said. &#8216;For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the internet holding his head.'&#8221;
Nomani also reported that Army colonel Robert Swann, an attorney for the military commission, reading the criminal charges against Mohammed, stated, &#8220;Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others trained the non-pilot hijackers . . . how to slit passengers&#8217; throats by making the hijackers practice on sheep, goats, and camels in preparation for the &#8216;Planes Operation.'&#8221;

World Trade Center Hit in Terrorist Attack

BREAKING: Judge Sets Trial Date For 5 Men Who Masterminded 9/11

A petition to rename the one-block stretch of New York City&#8217;s Fifth Avenue where Trump Tower is located as &#8220;President Barack H. Obama Avenue&#8221; is gaining momentum, amassing over 275,000 signatures and garnering more mainstream media attention.
&#8220;Rename Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower: &#8216;PresidentBarackH.ObamaAvenue,'&#8221; the MoveOn.org petition reads. The petition&#8217;s total signatures now top 276,000, gaining over 60,000 over a span of the last 24 hours.
Addressed to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council, the petition requests that &#8220;the stretch of Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets be renamed &#8216;President Barack H. Obama Avenue.&#8217; Any addresses on that stretch of Fifth Avenue should be changed accordingly.&#8221; That block happens to include Trump Tower.
The petition presents the following background, which includes the claim that Obama&#8217;s administration was &#8220;completely scandal-free&#8221; and touts the killing of radical Islamic terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden during his tenure:
<blockquote>The City of Los Angeles recently honored former President Barack Obama by renaming a stretch of the 134 Freeway near Downtown L.A. in his honor. We request the New York City Mayor and City Council do the same by renaming a block of Fifth Avenue after the former president whose many accomplishments include: saving our nation from the Great Recession; serving two completely scandal-free terms in office; and taking out Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind September 11th, which killed over 3,000 New Yorkers.</blockquote>
In comments to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tower-nyc-address-obama-avenue-petition-more-than-200000-signatures-rename-5th-avenue-president-barack-obama/">CBS News</a>, the creator of the petition, Los Angeles resident Elizabeth Rowin, made clear to any who might&#8217;ve missed it why she started the petition: to &#8220;troll&#8221; Trump.
Having seen a comedian joke online in December about renaming the street after Obama to stick it to Trump, Rowin said she thought that was a &#8220;great idea&#8221; and promptly posted the petition. &#8220;I thought, &#8216;That&#8217;s a great idea and probably no one is going to do anything about it,&#8217; so I decided to do it,&#8221; she told CBS.
While the petition got some news coverage in January, it lost momentum. But after a viral tweet from a man in Scotland this week, said Rowin, the petition started to blow up. &#8220;I really didn&#8217;t think there was a chance that it could happen,&#8221; she told CBS on Wednesday.
&#8220;I think it would be fabulous. I think people feel kind of helpless right now, and it&#8217;s a way to troll him,&#8221; she added. &#8220;If he does hear about it, maybe it would slow him down and distract him.&#8221;
Rowin hopes the liberal leadership of New York City will follow Los Angeles&#8217; lead in renaming a stretch of a street after the former president, but as CBS notes, the city prohibits re-naming streets after people who are still alive. Rowin dismissed the rule as &#8220;arbitrary,&#8221; and maintained that if L.A. could do it, why not New York.
CBS cites City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who said he&#8217;s &#8220;not positive&#8221; that Rowin&#8217;s idea is &#8220;the best way&#8221; to honor Obama. &#8220;I&#8217;m pretty confident we can find a better way to honor the greatest president of my lifetime than by trolling the worst president of my lifetime,&#8221; he said. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio&#8217;s office cheered &#8220;New Yorkers&#8221; finding &#8220;creative outlets for resistance,&#8221; but says the mayor is leaving the decision to the council.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50582/watch-students-sign-petition-ban-oppressive-white-james-barrett">WATCH: Students Sign Petition To Ban ‘Oppressive’ White Stick Figure In ‘Walk’ Signals</a>

Veterans Group Protests Against President Trump Outside Of Trump Tower In New York

Petition To Rename Trump Tower’s Street To ‘Resist’ Trump Gains Momentum

Barack Obama

A new analysis of those who have given political contributions to socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s (D-NY) reelection campaign has reportedly found that only 10 contributors live inside her district.
&#8220;The FEC only requires that political campaigns disclose the names and addresses of individuals who contribute over $200 to their campaigns during an election,&#8221; The Daily Caller News Foundation&#8217;s <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2019/08/13/ocasio-cortez-district-fec/">Andrew Kerr</a> reported. &#8220;The $1,525.50 Ocasio-Cortez received from her New York constituents represents less than 1% of her campaign&#8217;s itemized contributions reported to the FEC in the first half of 2019.&#8221;
While Ocasio-Cortez has outraised all other freshman representatives, the DCNF found that she falls significantly short of the average amount of money that freshman representatives have raised within their own districts.
&#8220;The average freshman representative&#8217;s reelection campaign received $107,141.29 in itemized contributions from their constituents in the first half of 2019, FEC filings the DCNF analyzed show,&#8221; Kerr writes. &#8220;Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s reported in-district fundraising haul of $1,525.50 was just 1.4% of that average.&#8221;
Far-left Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also rank near the bottom of the freshman class in terms of financial support they have received from their constituents.
The DCNF&#8217;s report gives credence to recent polling from within Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s district, which found that Ocasio-Cortez is unpopular among her constituents. A door-to-door poll from Stop The AOC PAC found the following:
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>They don&#8217;t like her. She has a more than 2:1 ratio of unfavorable (50.88%) to favorable (21.37%) in public opinion.</li>
<li>They don&#8217;t trust her. Only 10.75% thought she had their best interests in mind in quashing the Amazon deal – 32.60% said she didn’t.</li>
<li>They don&#8217;t want her. 33.44% are ready to vote against her, and only 13.30% would vote for her.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Poor polling and fundraising from within her own district reinforces the notion that while Ocasio-Cortez has tremendous ability to influence the news cycle and to change what is being talked about it in U.S. politics, she does not seem to have that much political power within her own district.
Earlier this month, Tiffany Cabán, a far-left candidate for Queens D.A., who was backed heavily by Ocasio-Cortez, lost the race for the Democrat nomination to establishment favorite Melinda Katz.
&#8220;The pitched seven-week battle for the Democratic nomination for Queens district attorney finally ended on Tuesday, when Tiffany Cabán, whose bid galvanized progressive activists nationwide and exposed deep rifts within the left, conceded to Melinda Katz, the favorite of the state party&#8217;s establishment,&#8221; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/nyregion/tiffany-caban-queens-da-concedes.html">The New York Times</a> reported. &#8220;The result was a vindication for the Queens Democratic Party, which was left reeling last year after the defeat of former Representative Joseph Crowley by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.&#8221;
In March, left-leaning <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/28/18285533/aoc-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-poll-favorables-media">Vox</a> reported: &#8220;A Quinnipiac poll released on Thursday morning found that 23 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the member of Congress, while 36 percent had an unfavorable view — a -13 overall approval rating &#8230; This new poll isn&#8217;t a one-off finding. Three prior surveys — one in January from Morning Consult, one in February from Fox, and a third in mid-March from Gallup — all found that more Americans had negative views of AOC than had positive ones.&#8221;

New Yorkers Remember Victims Of Mass Shootings In El Paso And Dayton

Virtually No One In Ocasio-Cortez’s District Has Donated To Her Re-Election Campaign, Report Says

When Democratic New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation in 2016 hiking the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by December 2019, he stated that the bill was to serve “the needs of workers and businesses alike.”
New York City businesses are discovering that Cuomo’s intent is bearing bitter fruit.
According to <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/new-york-city%E2%80%99s-15-minimum-wage-now-officially-disaster-71761">The National Interest</a>, “Roughly 77 percent of NYC restaurants have slashed employee hours. Thirty-six percent said they had to layoff employees and 90 percent had to increase prices following the minimum wage hike, according to a <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-01-16/survey-new-york-city-restaurants-cut-employees-close-after-mandatory-wage-increases">NYC Hospitality Alliance survey</a> taken just one month after the bill took effect.”
<a href="v">The Wall Street Journal</a> noted, “New York City’s minimum wage <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-businesses-grapple-with-minimum-wage-hike-11546889446?mod=article_inline">has increased three times</a> for employers with at least 11 employees in the past three years. At the end of 2016, the hourly rate rose to $11 from $9 an hour. In 2018, the minimum wage jumped to $13 from $11 an hour. The rate will increase to $15 an hour for employers with 10 or fewer workers at the end of 2019.”
Susannah Koteen, owner of Lido Restaurant in Harlem, told the Journal, “What it really forces you to do is make sure that nobody works more than 40 hours. You can only cut back so many people before the service starts to suffer.”
Andrew Riggie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance said, “Many people working in the restaurant industry wanted to work overtime hours, but due to the increase, many restaurants have cut back or totally eliminated any overtime work. There’s only so much consumers are willing to pay for a burger or a bowl of pasta.”
Sarah McNally, owner of McNally Jackson Books, told the Journal, “With raising minimum wage to living wage, it feels now like we’re at the bottom of the pay spectrum. There’s absolutely no benefit to being a retail business in New York.”
Thomas Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, added of small businesses in the city, “They’re cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down. It’s not just the rent.”
John Bonizio, owner of Metro Optics Eyewear, echoed, “As a retailer, I was not opposed to the minimum-wage increase because it puts more money or more disposable income into the pockets of people who are my customers. But, what you have to stop doing is picking the pockets of small businesses.”
A survey conducted in February of 197 working economists found 74% opposed raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and almost half (43%) thought that the federal minimum wage should be eliminated altogether. The Employment Policies Institute’s <a href="https://www.epionline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EPI_Feb2019_MinWageSurvey-FINAL.pdf">survey</a> revealed how hostile the economists were toward raising the federal minimum wage with various findings: 88% of economists thought an acceptable federal minimum wage should be less than $15; 66% agreed that an appropriate federal minimum wage would be $10 an hour or less. 84% thought a $15 minimum wage would negatively affect youth employment; 77% believed that the minimum wage hike would have a negative impact on the number of jobs available.

Waiter in coffee shop

New Yorkers Discover Something Bad About Minimum Wage Hike

Minimum Wage

A 38-year-old man was killed and 11 others were shot and injured — many seriously — during an event near the Brownsville Playground in Brooklyn Saturday night.
CBS New York <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/07/27/multiple-people-shot-brooklyn/">reported</a> the shooting occurred during an “old timers week” event near the playground. The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/nyregion/brooklyn-shooting-brownsville-park.html">reported</a> that hundreds had gathered to attend the event. It is still unclear what started the attack or what the motive was.
Community activist Michael Thomas told CBS that attendees at first thought they heard firecrackers, not gunshots.
“We all thought it was firecrackers because, you know, you felt so safe with police presence here. Who’s going to think this is gunfire at an event like this? And then when you start seeing the crowd running and screaming, then that’s when everything clicked on that, you know, that this is gunfire, so the first thing you’re looking for is cover,” he said.
The man who died had been shot in the head; at least six others who were taken to area hospitals were seriously injured.
Footage circulating online after the attack showed police attempting to control the scene.
The attack occurred shortly before 11 p.m. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted sympathy for the victims and vowed to “do everything in our power” to stop gun violence.
“We had a terrible shooting in Brownsville tonight that shattered a peaceful neighborhood event. Our hearts go out to the victims,” de Blasio tweeted. “We will do everything in our power to keep this community safe and get guns off our streets.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">We had a terrible shooting in Brownsville tonight that shattered a peaceful neighborhood event. Our hearts go out to the victims. 
We will do everything in our power to keep this community safe and get guns off our streets.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1155336782600376320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
New York City has some of the toughest gun laws in the country and is one of the toughest states in the country to even obtain a firearm. Residents must be 21 years of age or older and must fill out a 17-page document to apply for a handgun license. There’s also a 13-page application to obtain a rifle or shotgun permit. The applications require multiple forms of identification including photographs, a social security card, a state driver’s license and often an income tax return or utility bill. Applications cost $340 for a handgun, $140 for a rifle or shotgun. Applicants must also pay $90 for fingerprinting.
Applicants are then interviewed and a background check is performed. On top of that, there are different licenses for different firearm uses.
As the Times reported, the section of east Brooklyn where the attack occurred, Brownsville, had seen declining crime even as northern Brooklyn saw an increase. Brownsville previously had been one of the more dangerous parts of the city, but that had declined since the previous year.

One Man Killed, 11 More Injured In Brooklyn Shooting

Shooting

Dante de Blasio is the son of Democratic New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has abandoned his crime-wracked city (but not his public office, tax-subsidized salary or perks) for a quixotic presidential bid to become America&#8217;s social justice warrior-in-chief. Calculated to promote his race card-playing dad&#8217;s campaign, Dante stoked anti-cop hysteria a few weeks ago with a widely disseminated USA Today op-ed. Dante&#8217;s screed came just days after de Blasio declared at the first Democratic debate:
&#8220;I&#8217;m different from all of the other candidates in this race in that I&#8217;m raising a black son in America.&#8221;
De Blasio reminds audiences that Dante is black as often as former GOP presidential candidate John Kasich reminded every unfortunate person within earshot that his dad was a mailman. A Google news search for &#8220;De Blasio black son&#8221; yields nearly 85,000 hits. We get it. We get it. We get it.
Because his pigment and political bloodline give him the special privilege of making blanket assertions about, well, anything, Dante was rewarded with a major media platform to ply a kinder, gentler version of the vile &#8220;Cops=pigs&#8221; narrative to an audience of millions. Police officers are menaces on the streets who pose a greater threat to &#8220;people of color&#8221; than unknown strangers, homeless people and drug addicts, Dante de Blasio argued. He had &#8220;no fear on a night walk until the police came,&#8221; the op-ed declared darkly.
&#8220;We&#8217;re taught to fear the people meant to protect us, because the absolute worst-case scenario has happened too many times. This reality cannot continue.&#8221;
But actual reality smacked NYPD officers in their heads in two viral videos this week that had non-white witnesses in the &#8216;hood laughing and jeering hysterically. In Harlem and Brooklyn, cops were attacked with buckets of water while onlookers hooted, hollered and incited chaos. A brazen young thug, not paralyzed in the least by the anxiety that de Blasio conjured up for his column, hurled a bucket that hit one of the LEOs in the back of the head. Members of the neighborhood mobs where the attacks occurred — similarly unaffected by Dante&#8217;s manufactured disquietude — whipped out their phones to share their glee and cheered like they were watching an episode of &#8220;WWE RAW.&#8221;
&#8220;Who does that in their right frame of mind? People who believe there&#8217;s no consequences,&#8221; a law enforcement source fumed to the New York Post. &#8220;There&#8217;s total anarchy out here.&#8221; Another NYPD supervisor warned: &#8220;Today it&#8217;s a bucket of water. Tomorrow it could be a bucket of cement.&#8221; In 1993, a Housing Authority cop John Williamson was murdered after a Washington Heights mob went wild because NYPD officers were towing illegally parked cars. Someone hurled a 30-pound bucket of spackling compound from a building rooftop that struck and killed Williamson.
Here&#8217;s more of the reality Dante de Blasio and his cop-hating daddy won&#8217;t acknowledge: The Big Apple&#8217;s police force has long been the target of racially driven vigilantes who are frightened of nothing and nobody.
—In the 1970s, the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground orchestrated multiple assaults and robberies that led to the injuries and deaths of NYPD officers and area cops.
—Unrepentant career criminal Larry Davis, known as &#8220;Loco Larry&#8221; on the streets of the Bronx, shot six officers (two in the face) and led cops on a 17-day, five-city manhunt in 1986. Militant black nationalists still celebrate Davis today as an enduring &#8220;symbol of resistance.&#8221;
— Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley ambushed NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, shooting them at point-blank range in broad daylight in 2014 as they sat in their patrol car. He murdered the cops during the summer of Ferguson as revenge over the cop-involved deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
The de Blasios paint a grim picture of an America where racist cops lurk on every corner, lying in wait to execute innocent black men. Meanwhile, on Planet Reality, men and women in blue give their lives to protect and service on increasingly lawless streets. In the past month alone:
—Stone County, Arkansas: Sheriff&#8217;s deputy Sergeant Mike Stephen was killed when a suspect opened fire as he was responding to a call.
—Fulton County, Illinois: Sheriff&#8217;s deputy Troy Chisum was shot and killed execution-style by a suspect while responding to a battery and disturbance call.
—Racine, Wisconsin: Police officer John David Hetland lost his life after he was shot and killed trying to stop a man robbing a bar.
—Sacramento, California: Police officer Tara O&#8217;Sullivan, just six months on the job, was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call.
—Mission, Texas: Police Cpl. Jose Espericueta was shot and killed responding to reports of an armed man.
—North County, Missouri: Police officer Michael Langsdorf died in an execution-style killing in a confrontation with a man trying to pass a bad check at a grocery store. He was shot in the back of the neck while lying face down on the ground.
Five of these officers died in the span of nine days. Where are the de Blasios? Living in La-La-I-I-Can&#8217;t-Hear-You Land — surrounded by armed police details, of course.
Michelle Malkin&#8217;s email address is MichelleMalkinInvestigates@protonmail.com. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

MALKIN: NYC’s Anti-Cop Anarchy: What Say You, Dante de Blasio?

Democratic Party

New York

Race

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City apparently thinks he has the moral authority to say whether or not a sitting U.S. president is welcome back in his home city once his tenure concludes.
According to <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/trump/bill-de-blasio-trump-will-not-be-welcome-back-in-new-york-city-after-presidency/">Mediaite</a>, de Blasio told BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith at an event on Thursday night that President Trump will &#8220;not be welcome back&#8221; in the city he called home prior to his relocation to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
&#8220;I challenge you, Donald Trump, to come to New York City, and I will debate you about what’s right for New York City,&#8221; de Blasio said. &#8220;And BuzzFeed can host it! Because he doesn’t understand New York City. And when his presidency is over, really soon, he will not be welcome back in New York City!&#8221;
The New York mayor&#8217;s comments come shortly after getting into a Twitter spat this week with the president over recent viral videos of NYC denizens dousing NYPD cops with water. Trump claimed the spate of incidences were a product of de Blasio&#8217;s longstanding disrespect for the police.
Indeed, de Blasio and the NYPD have not exactly been on friendly terms since 2015, when two police officers were murdered in retaliation for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. In response to the mayor&#8217;s lack of support, <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/scores-nypd-cops-turn-backs-de-blasio-officer-funeral-article-1.3318292">hundreds of cops</a> turned their backs on de Blasio as he delivered the eulogy for the slain officers at their funerals.
&#8220;The officers’ deaths strained the relationship between city police unions and de Blasio, who union leaders have said contributed to an environment that allowed the killings by supporting protests following the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri,&#8221; The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/04/wenjian-liu-funeral-nypd-police-officers-de-blasio">reported</a> at the time.
&#8220;We love our Law Enforcement Officers all around this great Country,&#8221; Trump said on Twitter. &#8220;What took place in NYC with water being tossed on NYPD officers was a total disgrace. It is time for [de Blasio] to STAND UP for those who protect our lives and serve us all so well. What took place was completely unacceptable, and will not be tolerated. Bill de Blasio should act immediately!&#8221;
De Blasio responded by saying crime has gone down in New York City ever since Trump &#8220;left town,&#8221; which the mayor meant as an insult, seemingly unaware that it also implies crime went down in New York City after Trump became president.
&#8220;Crime’s gone down year after year in New York City and it’s not just because you finally left town,&#8221; de Blasio tweeted. “Here are the facts: New York City is the safest big city in America — and we got there because our NYPD officers and our communities worked together to drive crime to all-time lows. The real work that we’ve done that ACTUALLY protects officers.&#8221;
&#8220;[Trump] knows NOTHING about his hometown. He never lived a real New York City life. He should get off Twitter and stick to what he’s good at: watching TV when he claims to be working,&#8221; de Blasio continued.

Mayor Bill De Blasio: Trump ‘Not Welcome Back’ In New York City

New York Police Department (NYPD)

Officials in New York City still don’t know what caused the massive, hours-long blackout Saturday evening.
For more than five hours, Manhattan’s West Side was completely in the dark. Images of the incident show famous landmark Radio City Music Hall in complete darkness and parts of Times Square without power. Overhead images of the city look like the beginning of a monster movie.
Con Edison, the power company that services the area, doesn’t know what caused the blackout, and said Sunday that it may take weeks to determine the cause.
“Over the next several days and weeks, our engineers and planners will carefully examine the data and equipment performance relating to this event, and will share our findings with regulators and the public,” the company said in a statement. The company also vowed to conduct a “diligent and vigorous investigation to determine the root cause of the incident.”
Alfonso Quiroz, a Con Ed spokesman, said the blackout was due to a “disruption on the transmission side” of the power grid, <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/07/14/con-ed-cant-explain-what-caused-the-manhattan-blackout/">according</a> to The New York Post.
Con Ed president Timothy Cawley <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/07/14/cuomo-sends-warning-to-con-ed-after-blackout-they-can-be-replaced/">said</a> that even though it has been hot in New York City, “in terms of the peak demands that Manhattan exhibits on those hottest weekdays, the demand was very low.”
Mike Clendenin, Con Ed’s chief spokesman, warned that more blackouts could occur during the upcoming heat wave, the Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/07/15/con-ed-warns-of-more-power-outages-to-come-during-heat-wave/">reported</a>.
“We expect that there could be service outages — those things happen during heat waves,” Clendenin said on PIX 11. He said the company was “prepared” for such incidents.
“We know it’s going to be intense,” he said. “This heat wave coming up is something else and we’ve got to get ready for it.”
While initial theories about the cause of the blackout considered a manhole fire, Quiroz said there’s “no evidence of a fire at this point.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio assured residents the blackout was not caused by terrorists.
“This was not a cyber attack and this was not an act of physical terrorism,&#8221; he said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the blackout was “unacceptable” and that he would hold “all parties accountable.” The governor also told CBS that he spoke with Con Ed and was trying to figure out why the company didn’t have a backup system for customers. In several TV and radio interviews, Cuomo threatened Con Ed by suggesting the company’s state-issued operating license could be revoked.
“Con Ed does not have a franchise granted by God — you can look through the Bible,” Cuomo said on WCBS radio, <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/07/14/cuomo-sends-warning-to-con-ed-after-blackout-they-can-be-replaced/">according</a> to the Post.
“We’re getting to the point where Con Ed is going to have to deliver or we’re going to have to find a different delivery mechanism,” he continued, adding that Con Ed could “be replaced.”
CBS New York reported the power outage affected more than 72,000 Con Edison customers, “from Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River and the West 30s to 72nd Street.” CNBC <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/con-edison-apologizes-for-manhattan-power-blackout-as-governor-orders-investigation/ar-AAEjQVF#page=2">reported</a> more than 400 elevators stopped working, several subway stations were forced to close, and Broadway shows were cancelled.
At a press conference, New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill said 2,800 or so people needed to be rescued from stranded subway trains.
The New York Post also reported that no injuries were reported as a result of the power outage, which started just before 7 p.m. and ended shortly before midnight.

What Caused The New York City Blackout?

On Wednesday, an Orthodox Jewish psychotherapist filed a <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/files/SchwartzComplaint.pdf">federal lawsuit</a> against the city of New York after they banned him from counseling clients who wanted to jettison their same-sex attraction.
Dr. Dovid Schwartz, a licensed psychotherapist and member of the Chabad Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Community in Brooklyn, with the aid of the Alliance Defending Freedom, states that the city is violating his freedom of speech and infringing on his religious faith and his clients&#8217; faith.
Schwartz is fighting against a 2018 city council law making it illegal to provide services for a fee that &#8220;seek to change a person&#8217;s sexual orientation or seek to change a person&#8217;s gender identity to conform to the sex of such individual that was recorded at birth.&#8221;
As the <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10695">Alliance Defending Freedom states</a>, &#8220;Notably, the law only prohibits counsel in one direction&#8212;assisting a patient who desires to reduce same-sex attraction or achieve comfort in a gender identity that matches her or his physical body. The law threatens increasing fines of $1,000, $5,000, or $10,000 for first, second, and subsequent violations. By contrast, counseling that steers a patient towards a gender identity different than his or her physical body is permitted.&#8221;
The <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/files/SchwartzComplaint.pdf">lawsuit</a> states, &#8220;The patient-psychotherapist relationship requires giving patients the ability to express themselves without fear of reprisal and allowing therapists the freedom to respond to that expression with understanding; it is the last possible place where the government should be dictating what topics or ideas are off limits. Yet New York City&#8217;s recently enacted Law Number 2018/22 (&#8220;the Counseling Censorship Law&#8221;), reaches into this confidential relationship to prohibit the discussion and exploration of ideas&#8212;and even the patient&#8217;s own, personal goals&#8212;to which the New York City Council objects.&#8221;
Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Roger Brooks asserted, &#8220;All Americans, secular and religious, deserve the right to private conversations, free from government censorship. It is difficult to imagine a more direct violation of freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment than New York City&#8217;s attempt to regulate the private sessions between an adult and his counselor. The city council&#8217;s regulation is unprecedented and threatens to stand between Dr. Schwartz&#8217;s patients and the lives they choose to pursue. As the U.S. Supreme Court noted in its <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/9990">2018 NIFLA decision</a>, &#8216;[T]he people lose when the government is the one dictating which ideas should prevail.&#8217;&#8221;
Some of the clients Schwartz serves want to get rid of their same-sex attraction because they want to live a traditional Orthodox Jewish lifestyle in which they marry a member of the opposite sex and raise a family together. ADF notes, &#8220;A number of patients have pursued and achieved those goals with the aid of his psychotherapeutic services. Schwartz uses no techniques in working with his patients other than listening and talking&#8212;yet the law claims to forbid even that.&#8221;
ADF Legal Counsel Jeana Hallock commented, &#8220;Nearly all of Dr. Schwartz&#8217;s patients share his faith, and they value his counsel about issues of sexuality and family in part because his perspective is grounded in their shared Jewish faith and respect for Torah teachings. The government has no right to dictate the personal goals an adult pursues with his or her therapist. If, for example, a woman&#8217;s life goal includes marrying a husband and starting a family, and she seeks input from a counselor who shares her beliefs, the government simply has no business monitoring these conversations or interfering with these goals, regardless of the city council&#8217;s views about them. The counselor-patient relationship is a sensitive one, privileged under state and federal law, and the city council seriously oversteps its role when it tries to control those conversations, or imposes government views on patients or therapists.&#8221;

Orthodox Jewish Psychotherapist Sues NYC For Preventing Him From Counseling Clients Wanting To Overcome Same-Sex Attraction

Homosexuality

Jews

In today&#8217;s polarized atmosphere, false accusations of racism are often hurled about. A self-righteous Internet mob, inspired by a fabricated TV dramatization, is using social media to publicly humiliate and destroy the reputation and livelihood of an award-winning attorney heralded for her trailblazing advocacy for justice for victims of sexual violence and other forms of abuse. This Internet shaming by impersonal digital mobs is the 21st century weapon of choice in our culture of personal destruction.
In 1989, Linda Fairstein headed the sex crimes unit in the Manhattan District Attorney&#8217;s office and supervised the prosecution and conviction of five teenage black and Hispanic men for participating in the brutal assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a white woman out for a jog in New York City&#8217;s Central Park.
In 30 years of postmortems about the Central Park jogger case, suggestions of prosecutorial malfeasance have been investigated and rejected.
Ava DuVernay&#8217;s four-part Netflix miniseries, &#8220;When They See Us,&#8221; is a fictional tale of supposed white institutional racism, accusing Linda Fairstein and her staff of coercing helpless, innocent boys to confess to the vicious assault of Ms. Meili. DuVernay reinforces her narrative by selectively editing portions of the damning videotaped confessions, using cherubic-looking actors to play the leading roles and manipulating a mountain of facts in the public record. &#8220;When They See Us&#8221; is anything but a documentary.
The teens, part of a thirty-plus pack on a rampage in the park, beating and terrorizing innocent people, were tried for the savage assault of Ms. Meile and other crimes. <a href="https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/06/03/in-defense-of-the-central-park-5-prosecution/">According to Fairstein</a>, jurors convicted the &#8220;Central Park Five&#8221; despite no DNA evidence against them, believing that there was a sixth, unidentified attacker among the horde of rioters. The defendants completed prison sentences. In 2002, an imprisoned serial rapist/murderer, Matias Reyes, volunteered that he was the jogger&#8217;s rapist. This was confirmed by DNA tests, but his claim of acting alone was never substantiated.
The Five then sued the city for malicious prosecution. City attorneys refused to settle the suit, but in 2014, Mayor de Blasio directed them to agree to a $41 million payout.
Fairstein has insisted that copious evidence, readily available to DuVernay, together with an extensive report from New York State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Galligan, who oversaw the trials, proves the teens were treated fairly and that their confessions were not coerced.
Following Reyes&#8217; confession, the District Attorney, without declaring their innocence, set aside the convictions of the Five. He found that no police or prosecutorial misbehavior occurred in their detention or questioning.
The lead NYPD officer on the case, African-American Eric Reynolds, viewed the vacating of the convictions as a miscarriage of justice and <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-news-eric-reynolds-detective-central-park-20180713-story.html">insisted</a> there was absolutely no coercion. He <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-news-eric-reynolds-detective-central-park-20180713-story.html">remarked</a> that the case had become so racially charged that &#8220;everybody who had some kind of an agenda was going to use it for their own ends.&#8221;
Immediately after the Netflix miniseries premiere, the #cancellindafairstein campaign, a digital-age witch-hunt, exploded on social media. Multiple petitions, signed by thousands, appeared on Facebook urging that she be removed from boards of trustees, her awards be rescinded, her books banned (she is a successful mystery writer), and that she be prosecuted for her role in the case.
Fairstein&#8217;s book publisher, Dutton, terminated their relationship. Threats to withdraw donations from organizations about which she cares deeply prompted Fairstein to resign from the boards of a victims-services agency, an organization addressing hunger and malnutrition, and another organization that empowers survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. &#8220;I do not want to become a lightning rod to inflict damage,&#8221; Fairstein <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/central-park-five-prosecutor-linda-fairstein-resigns-from-charity-boards-amid-backlash">wrote</a>, due to <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/04/central-park-five-prosecutor-resigns-from-charity-boards-over-netflix-show-backlash/">&#8220;mob-mentality reaction&#8221;</a> to the series.
A Vassar College student started an <a href="https://www.change.org/p/vassar-college-remove-linda-fairstein-from-vassar-college-board-of-trustees">online petition</a>, signed by tens of thousands, to force the school to remove the alleged racist alumna from its board of trustees. The Vassar administration, after <a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/06/03/when-they-see-us-central-park-five-prompts-vassar-trustee-review/1322218001/">consulting</a> its African-American alumni group to <a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/06/03/when-they-see-us-central-park-five-prompts-vassar-trustee-review/1322218001/">gauge</a> &#8220;the temperature of black alums&#8221; and finding that calls for Fairstein&#8217;s removal were &#8220;strong,&#8221; <a href="https://miscellanynews.org/2019/06/06/news/fairstein-resignation-sparks-debate-on-college-culture-previous-inaction/">asked</a> its board of trustees to investigate. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Fairstein resigned. President Elizabeth Bradley&#8217;s perfunctory announcement of her departure lacked any reference to Fairstein&#8217;s pioneering work or her years of service to Vassar. Vassar appeared more concerned about ridding itself of a public relations problem than standing for the truth.
It is bizarre that many of those same feminists who decry the unfair treatment of sexual assault victims within our criminal justice system joined the digital attack mob.
The fury generated by a made-for-TV fictionalized drama exposes our society&#8217;s inability to separate fiction from reality and reveals the power of social media to create cyber mobs intent on publicly shaming and destroying those the mobs deem unworthy.

Ziva Dahl is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group <a href="https://salomoncenter.org">Haym Salomon Center</a>.

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