A Pennsylvania children’s doctor is dead after a crazed man broke into his home at night and attacked him and his wife with a knife. 
Dr. Idris Evans and his wife woke up just after midnight on Thursday in their home in Edgewood to find themselves attacked by a knife-wielding man in his underwear and claiming to be God, <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/man-charged-with-edgewood-double-stabbing-that-left-upmc-doctor-dead-his-wife-critically-injured/YM2VVCJPIBDVRGFZSTKAMX7VLI/">according</a> to court documents. Evans, a 46-year-old doctor at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, died from his wounds and his wife was hospitalized with serious injuries. 
The couple&#8217;s young children escaped to a neighbor&#8217;s house as they fought back against their attacker.
“It was a very violent scene. The bedroom furniture broken, mirrors broken. It was a very graphic scene,” said Allegheny County Police Department Assistant Superintendent Victor Joseph.
<div id="attachment_1185687" style="width: 690px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1185687" class="size-full wp-image-1185687" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/evans_idris-resized-2.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="600" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/evans_idris-resized-2.jpg 680w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/evans_idris-resized-2-300x265.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/evans_idris-resized-2-653x576.jpg 653w" sizes=" (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" />Evans: University of Pittsburgh.</div>
Police identified a 32-year-old man named Elijah Hemingway as the suspected murderer. He has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and criminal trespass.
Joseph said investigators believe Hemingway entered through a rear window of the home. Court documents <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/man-charged-with-edgewood-double-stabbing-that-left-upmc-doctor-dead-his-wife-critically-injured/YM2VVCJPIBDVRGFZSTKAMX7VLI/">obtained</a> by WPXI show that Evans’ wife described their attacker as “psychotic” and rambling about being God. 
Hemingway was found in a nearby yard with cuts on his hands. Police arrested him and took him to a nearby hospital to be treated for his wounds. 
&#8220;I was going to walk out in the backyard, and then all of the officers rushed through the backyard, so I just kind of stayed back, and they proceeded, I would say a good hour they were back there, and they found him. It&#8217;s pretty dark back there. Once they found him, he appeared to be bleeding and incapacitated,&#8221; neighbor Sandra Trappen <a href="https://www.wtae.com/article/upmc-childrens-doctor-dies-stabbing-allegheny-county-edgewood/73868670">told</a> Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News 4.
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/25/us-news/pennsylvania-dr-idris-evans-stabbed-to-death-by-intruder-suspect-elijah-hemingway/">reported</a> that Hemingway had previously been arrested for burglary and theft back in February but that he had been released on non-monetary bail. 
Joseph said police are working to identify if there was any relationship between Evans and Hemingway. Evans’ wife reported him referring to their attacker as “Elijah” but said she didn’t know if their assailant said his name earlier during the incident. 
The UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh <a href="https://www.wtae.com/article/upmc-childrens-doctor-dies-stabbing-allegheny-county-edgewood/73868670">said</a> it was “deeply saddened” over the incident. 
“Dr. Evans was a dedicated caregiver and valued member of our hospital and university communities,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with his family, loved ones, and colleagues during this difficult time. We ask that their privacy be respected.”

Children’s Doctor Brutally Murdered By Maniac Claiming To Be God

elijah hemingway

idris evans

murder

pittsburgh

upmc childrens hospital of pittsburgh

A suspect is on the run after a car slammed into the gates of the Pittsburgh FBI office early Wednesday morning in what officials described as an “act of terror.” 
The FBI is searching for a man named Donald Henson, who authorities say crashed his vehicle into the main entrance fence at around 2:40 a.m. FBI Pittsburgh Assistant Special Agent in charge Christopher Giordano said that Henson is “dangerous” and has a history of mental health issues. 
&#8220;We look at this as an act of terror against the FBI,&#8221; Giordano <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/suspect-sought-after-carrams-fence-fbi-office-pittsburgh-125652585">said</a>. &#8220;This was a targeted attack on this building. Thankfully no one was hurt.”
Giordano said that Henson exited the car after the collision and draped an American flag over the gates before leaving on foot. He said that officials believed he was a former member of the U.S. military. 
“We don’t have any indication that he is armed. We do believe that there is a mental health problem and a history of mental health issues with the subject so we would consider him dangerous,” he said. “We just have no reason to believe right now, from here, that he had a weapon.” 
Giordano added that Henson had previously made an incoherent complaint to the FBI, which didn’t result in any federal action. 
&#8220;In scouring our indexes, we did find that he visited the field office a couple of weeks ago to make a complaint that didn&#8217;t make a whole lot of sense,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We ran down everything that he came down with. It didn&#8217;t have a federal nexus. We contacted him to let him know there wasn&#8217;t a federal offense that we were able to charge.&#8221;
Witnesses <a href="https://www.wtae.com/article/im-blown-away-right-now-witnesses-describe-crash-into-fbi-building-gate-in-pittsburgh/66136309">said</a> that the man exited the crashed vehicle, shouted, and fled.
“He got out and went around the passenger side and pulled something out of the passenger side. I thought it was a gun but it happened to be a flag and he just set it on that fence and started yelling out some words and just took off,” Nakeisha Brown told a local ABC News affiliate. 
Authorities say anyone who spots Henson should call the FBI or their local police department. The suspect is from Penn Hills, a township located approximately 12 miles from Pittsburgh.

MixCollage-17-Sep-2025-07-04-AM-8717

‘Act of Terror’: Suspect Flees After Ramming Car Into FBI’s Pittsburgh Office

'Act of Terror': Suspect Flees After Ramming Car Into FBI's Pittsburgh Office

domestic terrorism

pennsylvania

terrorism

U.S.

President Donald Trump is slated to meet with tech and energy executives in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, shortly after Google announced a major investment in American energy.
Executives from Google&#8217;s parent company Alphabet, along with officials from Meta, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil, and other companies, will gather at the Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, where Trump is expected to join them for discussions on making the United States the world leader in artificial intelligence, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/trump-joins-tech-energy-executives-amid-ai-push-2025-07-15/">reported</a>. Trump is also expected to announce $90 billion worth of AI and energy investments in Pennsylvania in what Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) is calling &#8220;the next industrial revolution.&#8221;
&#8220;We are really creating something unique here in Pennsylvania today,&#8221; McCormick told CNBC. &#8220;There&#8217;s never been a gathering of the CEOs of energy investing and artificial intelligence coming together to talk about how we win the energy revolution and also [how] we win the AI revolution.&#8221;
&#8220;Today, we&#8217;ve got about 60 CEOs of the biggest companies in the world, we&#8217;ve got commitments of more than $90 billion of investment in data centers, in energy production, in transmission, in distribution, and investing in skilled workers,&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
PA is uniquely positioned to lead— we have abundant energy, an incredible skilled workforce, remarkable technologists and technology, and under President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>, we have the right leadership to move forward.
Today, we’re securing over $90 billion of investment in PA. <a href="https://t.co/bWn1bxNEvj">pic.twitter.com/bWn1bxNEvj</a>
— Senator Dave McCormick (@SenMcCormickPA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenMcCormickPA/status/1945110846390063180?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Google announced on Tuesday that it would invest $25 billion in data centers and AI infrastructure in multiple states. The big tech company also announced that it would invest $3 billion in updating two hydropower plants in Pennsylvania to support its growing AI infrastructure, CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/15/google-to-invest-25-billion-in-data-centers-ai-infrastructure-in-pjm.html">reported</a>. Asset management firm Blackstone also announced a $25 billion investment in energy infrastructure in Pennsylvania. The investments come as PJM Interconnection, the largest power grid in the United States, is struggling to keep up with the massive demand from new data centers.
As companies and the government seek a solution to the issue, the Trump administration is considering an executive order to help big tech companies more easily connect to power grids and secure land for their massive AI projects, according to Reuters.
Trump&#8217;s meeting with tech and energy executives also comes as the White House is making progress toward its goal of reducing dependence on China for rare earth minerals, another major economic and national security concern for the administration. Apple <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/apple-agrees-to-500m-deal-to-buy-rare-earths-from-american-company-reduce-china-dependence">announced</a> on Tuesday that it agreed to a $500 million deal with MP Materials to purchase rare earth magnets used in iPhones and other products from the American company.

Donald Trump

Trump To Meet With Tech And Energy Giants After Google Announces Huge Investment In U.S.

artificial intelligence

big tech

business

donald trump

energy

trump administration

President Donald Trump said on Friday that U.S. Steel will partner with the Japanese company Nippon Steel, and remain headquartered in Pittsburgh.
The partnership comes after Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-revives-possible-sale-of-u-s-steel-to-japans-nippon-steel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> a review of the possible sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel in April. Former President Joe Biden blocked the $14.9 billion sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns and risks to U.S. supply chains. Now, the two companies will form a &#8220;planned partnership&#8221; that will result in 70,000 jobs, according to the president.
&#8220;I am proud to announce that, after much consideration and negotiation, U.S. Steel will REMAIN in America, and keep its Headquarters in the Great City of Pittsburgh,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;For many years, the name, &#8216;United States Steel&#8217; was synonymous with Greatness, and now, it will be again. This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy.&#8221;
U.S. Steel is facing major losses, reporting a net loss of $116 million in the first quarter of 2025, but the steel industry remains an important part of the economy in America, <a href="https://www.zippia.com/steel-worker-jobs/demographics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">employing</a> over 44,000 people.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memorial Day Sale – Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
In December, one month before Biden blocked the deal, Trump said he also opposed the sale to the foreign company, vowing to &#8220;make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again.&#8221; The White House confirmed that Trump received a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviewed the proposed deal between the American and Japanese steel companies, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-23/trump-backs-us-steel-nippon-partnership-following-cfius-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Trump reportedly spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba over the phone on Friday, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Japan&#8217;s top trade negotiator to discuss tariffs. It&#8217;s unclear if either of those conversations included talks about the U.S. Steel-Nippon deal. Trump added that he will speak at a &#8220;BIG Rally&#8221; in Pittsburgh on Friday, May 30.
&#8220;The bulk of that Investment will occur in the next 14 months. This is the largest Investment in the History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;My Tariff Policies will ensure that Steel will once again be, forever, MADE IN AMERICA. From Pennsylvania to Arkansas, and from Minnesota to Indiana, AMERICAN MADE is BACK. I will see you all at US Steel, in Pittsburgh, on Friday, May 30th, for a BIG Rally. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!&#8221;
Tim Pearce contributed to this report.

U.S. Steel

‘Made In America’: Trump Says U.S. Steel Will Remain In Pittsburgh, Partner With Japanese Company

economy

japan

Steel industry

Steel workers

Former President Barack Obama argued on Thursday that the economy under the Trump administration was only good because former President Donald Trump inherited Obama&#8217;s economy.
Obama made the comment while stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh, the first stop on his battleground state &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/obama-will-blitz-battleground-states-for-kamala-in-final-weeks-of-campaign" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blitz</a>&#8221; for the Democratic nominee.
&#8220;The reason some people think, &#8216;I remember that economy when [Trump] first came in being pretty good.&#8217; — Yeah, it was pretty good because it was my economy,&#8221; Obama told the crowd of Harris supporters. &#8220;We had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him. It wasn&#8217;t something he did.&#8221;
Obama then ripped former President George W. Bush&#8217;s administration, saying, &#8220;I had spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans had left me the last time.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: Obama takes credit for the booming economy under Trump
&quot;Some people think, &#39;I remember that economy when he first came in being pretty good.&#39; Yeah! It was pretty good—because it was my economy!”
 <a href="https://t.co/ny49SjmSV5">pic.twitter.com/ny49SjmSV5</a>
&mdash; Breaking911 (@Breaking911) <a href="https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1844526869452145107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Conservatives blasted Obama on social media for attempting to take credit for the economy under Trump.
&#8220;So then by that logic Joe Biden&#8217;s supposedly amazing economy is Trump&#8217;s. This idiotic sword cuts both ways,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/benshapiro/status/1844541655170404366" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro.
The Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway <a href="https://x.com/MZHemingway/status/1844545820323930268" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>, &#8220;In fact, the Obama economy was *notoriously* sluggish and a big reason why Trump won [the] election the first time.&#8221;
Hemingway&#8217;s husband, Mark — a senior writer at RealClearInvestigations — <a href="https://x.com/Heminator/status/1844538700119548071" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, &#8220;GDP growth in Obama’s last year in office was 1.6%. Trump did not inherit a good economy. This is delusional.&#8221;
From the first quarter of 2015 to the fourth quarter of 2015, the <a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/USA-ECONOMY-TRUMP/01008133219/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GDP growth rate</a> dropped from 3.7% to 0.7%. GDP bounced back slightly in Obama&#8217;s last year in office, and Trump took over with a 2% growth rate in the first quarter of 2017. In Trump&#8217;s first full year in office, GDP growth jumped to 4%. It reached a high of 4.8% in 2019 before the COVID pandemic lockdowns shuttered the economy.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump has focused much of his attention on the economy, blasting the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s record on the issue. Voters also list the economy and inflation, which reached 9.1% under President Joe Biden, as the top issues heading into the election.
At a town hall event in Michigan, a vital swing state, last month, Trump was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-addressing-economic-woes-begins-with-one-issue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> how he would “bring down the cost of food and groceries” as many families struggle to pay their bills.
“We have to start always with energy,” Trump replied. “I don’t want to be boring about it, but there’s no bigger subject that covers everything. If you make donuts, if you make cars, whatever you make, energy is a big deal.”
“And it’s my ambition to get your energy bill within 12 months down 50%,” he added. “If I can do that, we’ve done a hell of a job … [and] interest rates are going to follow.”
Harris has also focused on addressing Americans&#8217; economic woes during her campaign and has largely blamed corporate greed for a rise in prices. In August, Harris <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamala-blasted-after-unveiling-soviet-style-price-controls-to-stop-inflation-kamalanomics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> “the first-ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging,” a policy that was compared to Soviet-style price controls on food.

Barack Obama

Obama Claims Trump’s Economy ‘Was My Economy’

Obama Claims Trump's Economy 'Was My Economy'

2024 election

barack obama

Elections

kamala harris

politics

Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) blew off a reporter in a Capitol Hill hallway, claiming that she didn&#8217;t know anything about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/2-venezuelan-illegal-aliens-who-came-in-under-biden-charged-with-murdering-young-girl-in-texas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jocelyn Nungaray</a> — the 12-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered by illegal aliens — because she lives in Pittsburgh.
Lee made it clear during the brief encounter — a clip of which appeared on Fox News on Wednesday — that she could not get away from the reporter fast enough, and she kept repeating her claim that she did not know anything because she lives in Pittsburgh.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know who she is&#8221;
Rep. Summer Lee&#8217;s response to the brutal kiIIing and rqpe of Jocelyn Nungaray by 2 illegals:<a href="https://t.co/oHfvJpeTvy">pic.twitter.com/oHfvJpeTvy</a>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1806085459438674244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The reporter, waiting for Lee as she approached in the hallway, said, &#8220;Can I ask you quickly about the 12-year-old girl in Houston that was tortured —&#8221;
Lee waved her hand in the reporter&#8217;s direction and interrupted, &#8220;Oh, I don&#8217;t talk to strangers. I don&#8217;t even know who you are, I don&#8217;t know who she is, I live in Pittsburgh.&#8221;
&#8220;Ok, but there was a child who was —&#8221; the reporter tried again, only to be interrupted once more.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1712932862202000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0plT8RRdMy9XUpIhocnjQS">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;I&#8217;m from Pittsburgh, I don&#8217;t know anything about it,&#8221; Lee insisted, turning her back and walking through a door to get away.
&#8220;You don&#8217;t know about the child that was killed by illegal immigrants?&#8221; the reporter asked, but Lee was already gone.
Two illegal immigrants from Venezuela have been charged in Nungaray&#8217;s brutal murder. According to court documents, Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, &#8220;lured&#8221; the 12-year-old &#8220;under a bridge,&#8221; after which they &#8220;remained with her for over two hours, took her pants off, tied her up and killed her, then threw her body into the bayou.&#8221;
Both Martinez and Ramos reportedly illegally entered the United States recently and were released into the interior of the country by the Biden administration after being given notices to appear by border officials.

House Oversight And Accountability Members And Watchdog Group Court Accountability Focus On Supreme Court Ethics

‘I Live In Pittsburgh’: Democrat Rep. Doesn’t Know Anything About 12-Year-Old Allegedly Killed By Illegals

'I Live In Pittsburgh': Democrat Rep. Doesn't Know Anything About 12-Year-Old Allegedly Killed By Illegals

congress

fox news

illegal immigrant

illegal immigration

Violent Crime

It&#8217;s not every day that a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Democratic Republic of Congo attracts international media attention. Normally, Congo flies under the radar, even though it&#8217;s actually one of the biggest countries in the world — it&#8217;s bigger than Mexico, believe it or not. But a couple of years ago, this incredible footage from the capital of Congo was picked up by the Western media. It&#8217;s from the grand opening of a footbridge that was apparently a big deal for the locals. Here&#8217;s how it went:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Bridge Collapses" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nerrMqtJbvQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It&#8217;s a little like the collapse of that bridge in Baltimore, except in this case, a barge didn&#8217;t need to hit anything. All they had to do was cut the ribbon and stand on the bridge, and the whole thing came crashing down on them. Fortunately, no one was hurt in that incident. It got a few laughs on social media and everyone moved on.
In retrospect, however, the collapse of that footbridge in Congo&#8217;s capital was more than just a meme on the internet. It was a practical manifestation of something that Western academics now want to import into this country. There is a concerted effort underway in universities all over the world to &#8220;decolonize&#8221; mathematics, engineering, and science in general. It&#8217;s been generations since Congo was under Belgian rule, so presumably that footbridge is a great example of decolonized engineering. And now the West wants to emulate it.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1349-dumbing-down-education-in-the-name-of-decolonization" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
I first noticed this trend when I came across a recent <a href="https://science.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/maths-has-no-borders-professor-rowena-ball-brings-indigenous-mathematics-anu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> from Australian National University, which according to Wikipedia, is supposedly an impressive institution. The gist is that a professor in Australia named Rowena Ball is trying to get the concept of &#8220;Indigenous Mathematics&#8221; off the ground because Aboriginal people struggle with European mathematics, otherwise known as real mathematics. The article includes this remarkable line:
<blockquote>Numbers and arithmetic and accounting often are of secondary importance in Indigenous mathematics.</blockquote>
That seems to make as much sense as saying that words are of secondary importance in linguistics. Or that maps or of secondary importance in the science of cartography. How can you have mathematics without numbers and arithmetic, exactly? Read on, and Professor Ball will tell you: 
<blockquote>Mathematics is primarily the science of patterns &#8230; and recognising and classifying those patterns. &#8230; One interesting example that we are currently investigating is the use of chiral symmetry to engineer a long-distance smoke signalling technology in real time. If you light an incense stick you will see the twin counter-rotating vortices that emanate − these are a chiral pair, meaning they are non-superimposable mirror images of each other.</blockquote>
The article goes on to explain:
<blockquote>A memoir by Alice Duncan Kemp, who grew up on a cattle station … in the early 1900s, vividly describes the signalling procedure, in which husband-and-wife expert team Bogie and Mary-Anne selected and pulsed the smoke waves with a left to right curl, to signal &#8216;white men&#8217;, instead of the more usual right to left spiral. &#8230; To create and understand these signals, you have to be a skilled practical mathematician, Professor Ball says.</blockquote>
It&#8217;s not hard to see what&#8217;s been conflated here. Yes, it&#8217;s possible to argue that the act of lighting the incense stick and producing &#8220;counter-rotating vortices&#8221; does, in a way, implicate mathematics and particularly geometry. As does literally everything that happens in the physical world. It&#8217;s like saying LeBron James is a skilled mathematician because his three-pointers make nice parabolas. He&#8217;s not thinking in his head about the parabolic equation when he&#8217;s playing. He probably doesn&#8217;t even know what a parabolic equation is. 
In the case that Professor Ball is talking about, there&#8217;s nothing really &#8220;mathematical&#8221; in any traditional sense about generating smoke signals, and frankly, depending on the size of the vocabulary of the signaling system, it&#8217;s probably something you could train apes to do — even though they have no understanding of language, much less math. It&#8217;s like saying a child successfully flying a kite is doing math. It&#8217;s nonsense. You might as well say that simply by walking across the room you are engaged in mathematics.
These are very simple phenomena we&#8217;re talking about. Throwing a basketball and lighting an incense stick is not rocket science. Your brain is doing &#8220;complex calculations&#8221; when you shoot a basketball, sure. Or even when you walk across the room. And because our mathematics is so sophisticated and precise, we can describe the physical phenomenon to a great degree of sophistication and precision. But that&#8217;s only because our mathematics can penetrate reality to that degree. 
You don&#8217;t have to wonder how precise African folk math or whatever can get in describing that stuff — to say nothing of the math and mathematical physics required to build stuff like nuclear reactors, rocket engines, computers, et cetera. That stuff absolutely requires not just numbers, but advanced and highly abstract theories.
But highly abstract theories are out of style now — and not just in Australia. Braindead oversimplification is the name of the game. Here for example is a recent TedX talk delivered by a woman who teaches mathematics in Canada. She&#8217;s also a vice principal in the Ottawa school district. Listen to her understanding of what mathematics is all about:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Math" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qHRiYNSfcCY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Well, I guess there&#8217;s some good news here. I must be a genius mathematician myself because I made coffee and picked out my own clothes this morning. This will come as news to all of my grade school math teachers, who graded my math exams in a manner that conveyed a certain lack of faith in my mathematical prowess. But if only they’d known that I already passed the math test just by getting dressed before I came to school. If only I’d been as brain damaged as academic elites are today. Then maybe I would have thought to make that argument myself.
Anyway, a little over a year ago there was an <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-sinister-attempts-to-decolonise-mathematics/">in-depth column</a> in The Spectator about this movement to discredit and undermine serious academic disciplines, especially math. It was written by John Armstrong, who teaches at King&#8217;s College London and previously taught at Oxford. He&#8217;s an actual mathematician with actual credentials. And he summed up the problem with this whole push to &#8220;decolonize&#8221; math pretty simply.
<blockquote>The fact is that colonialism is irrelevant to the validity of mathematics. The Mayan civilization was doing sophisticated mathematics in the Americas long before Christopher Colombus arrived on the continent. &#8230; The digits 0123456789 we use today were first written in India and inspired by Chinese mathematics. They were popularised by Persian and Arab mathematicians and then made their way to Europe via the Moors’ conquest of Southern Spain. Admittedly the Moors’ conquest of Spain was a form of colonialism, but apparently not the type of colonialism we are meant to be interested in.</blockquote>
So what do these activists mean when they say they want to &#8220;decolonize&#8221; math, given that the entire idea of de-colonizing math is completely incoherent? The Arabs were colonizers, too. And why are Australians, of all people, so interested in promoting this idea?
One possibility is that by some estimates, as the Twitter account I/o points out, aboriginal Australians happen to have, on average, the second lowest IQ out of any demographic group on the planet. That&#8217;s the sort of thing that&#8217;s supposed to be unsayable, but it&#8217;s impossible to talk about certain groups struggling academically without bringing up the intellectual elephant in the room. There might be a reason why there aren’t many Aboriginals working at NASA. It&#8217;s an important point because it means that decolonization, practically speaking, entails dumbing down these subjects or destroying them altogether.
Mainly we see with the &#8220;decolonization&#8221; agenda the embarrassment that liberal Westerners feel about the fact that their ancestors were far more advanced — in just about every way, and by every available measure — than the native people they conquered. The liberal Westerner is constantly looking for ways to even out the score. And we&#8217;re seeing that more and more in this country as well.
The once-respected Nature magazine, for example, recently <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00240-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> an editorial (with no byline) that reads: &#8220;Why we have nothing to fear from the decolonization of mathematics.&#8221;
What&#8217;s amazing is that, if you read the whole editorial, you won&#8217;t actually find a definition of what &#8220;decolonization&#8221; means in this context. You won&#8217;t find anything close to a definition, actually. The most you&#8217;ll discover is that according to Nature, decolonization:
<blockquote>&#8230;shows that the roots of discovery and invention are shared between many world cultures, which can be particularly empowering for people from historically marginalized groups. Decolonizing science is the antidote to exceptionalism, the idea that any single culture or civilization possessed special abilities in advancing science.</blockquote>
But as we just established, some cultures and civilizations did, indeed, advance science and mathematics more than others. Some of them were colonizers, and some of those colonizers were not white. And regardless, none of this has anything to do with mathematics. Maybe you can argue this belongs in some elective history course somewhere. But it has no place affecting courses on the fundamentals of mathematics, which is exactly what&#8217;s happening in this country.
Pittsburgh Public Schools, for example, recently <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/pittsburgh-public-schools-change-math-instruction-more-equitable/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a plan to make mathematics instruction more &#8220;equitable.&#8221; What does that mean? Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 Pittsburgh Public Schools" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/egX-7nQ4Jt0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It&#8217;s not about getting the right answer anymore in Pittsburgh&#8217;s math classes. It&#8217;s about the &#8220;journey.&#8221; The next time your bridge collapses, remember that. Your death isn&#8217;t what&#8217;s important. What matters is that the incompetent engineer who built the bridge had high self esteem. Yes, you might be lying on the ground, mangled and dying, with a giant metal beam spearing you through your stomach, but as you lay there expiring, just think about the “journey” that those bridge engineers were on. That should give you comfort.
It&#8217;s the same thing the Canadian teacher said in her TEDx talk. The goal is for everyone to feel like a mathematician, regardless of ability. None of this has anything to do with actually teaching math, of course, which is the point. Students can fail math courses — and they&#8217;ve been doing a lot of that in Pittsburgh. But it&#8217;s harder to fail a course that begins with the assumption that every student is gifted in mathematics, no matter what their test scores or actual mathematical aptitude might say.
The other underlying factor that drives all of this superficial decolonization rhetoric and activism is a deep insecurity about actual knowledge on the part of those circulating this garbage. And it&#8217;s very well-founded insecurity, especially when it comes to ignorance regarding history.
Everything is a cartoon with these people: cartoon history, cartoon philosophy, etc. It&#8217;s barely high-school debate talking points stuff — it&#8217;s more elementary school level thinking — which does make it easier to incorporate into lower education, incidentally.
But to be clear, this isn&#8217;t just happening in Pittsburgh. It&#8217;s easy to pick on Pittsburgh, for a lot of reasons. As I&#8217;ve said <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxm9BTAJCBU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">before</a>, the city is falling apart. But this effort to &#8220;decolonize&#8221; math has serious financial backers, and schools everywhere are adopting similar approaches.
In 2018, Bill Gates&#8217; foundation <a href="https://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-8826" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created</a> something called the &#8220;Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction,&#8221; intended for use in grades 6 through 8. The &#8220;pathway&#8221; <a href="https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/1_STRIDE1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trains teachers</a> who:
<blockquote>In order to embody antiracist math education, teachers must engage in critical praxis that interrogates the ways in which they perpetuate white supremacy culture in their own classrooms, and develop a plan toward antiracist math education to address issues of equity for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students.</blockquote>
Why would Bill Gates want to promote nonsense like this? It&#8217;s hard to say. No one appears to have asked him. But we do know that, in the years since 2018, math literacy in this country has <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/us-students-math-scores-decline-pisa-assessment-mental-health-concerns-1849812#:~:text=Despite%20stable%20performances%20in%20reading,that%20participated%20in%20the%20assessment." target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted</a>. In 2018, something called the &#8220;Program for International Student Assessment&#8221; measured the average 15-year-olds&#8217; math aptitude in this country at a score of 478. By 2022, that score had dropped to 465. Meanwhile, data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that U.S. math and reading scores are at their <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lowest level</a> in decades.
You can blame that on COVID and wonky gain-of-function research if you want (which Bill Gates also <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/rand-paul-bill-gates-ties-gain-function-research-funding-danger-mankind" target="_blank" rel="noopener">funded</a> through the W.H.O., by the way). But there&#8217;s not a serious person alive who thinks that any of this decolonization propaganda is actually helping these scores move in the right direction. It&#8217;s doing the opposite, by design.
This is every bit as serious an attack on this country as the airport and bridge raids that I covered yesterday. This is an attack on our ability to build airports and bridges in the first place. And unless we want our bridges to function like Congo&#8217;s in the near future, it needs to end.

professor writing on the board while having a chalk and blackboard lecture (shallow DOF; color toned image)

Dumbing Down Education In The Name Of ‘Decolonization’

Dumbing Down Education In The Name Of 'Decolonization'

Anti-Racism

Colonialism

Congo

education

Mathematics

Matt Walsh

opinion

Readers Pass

woke culture

President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on his administration to consider tripling the tariff on Chinese steel, reminiscent of the trade policy of his predecessor and chief rival in 2024, former President Donald Trump.
Biden spoke at United Steelworkers headquarters in Pittsburgh, pitching union members on stricter trade policy on China to protect American jobs. During his address, Biden called on United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai to consider tripling the tariff on Chinese steel, which currently averages 7.5%, according to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/17/president-biden-moves-to-triple-tariffs-on-chinese-steel-and-aluminum/73346915007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USA Today</a>.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-calls-for-steep-hike-to-tariff-on-chinese-steel-dd131264">reported</a> that the increase &#8220;would be in addition to a separate 25% tariff on steel and a 10% duty on aluminum imposed under the Trump administration.&#8221;
Biden has borrowed Trump’s strategy to confront China after criticizing it during the 2020 campaign. In 2019, Biden <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/07/11/joe-biden-slams-trump-china-trade-war-in-foreign-policy-speech.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserted</a> that Trump’s trade policy regarding China has delivered negative results for Americans.
“President Trump may think he&#8217;s being tough on China. All that he&#8217;s delivered as a consequence of that is American farmers, manufacturers and consumers losing and paying more,” Biden said during a speech in New York. “His economic decision-making is so shortsighted and as shortsighted as the rest of his foreign policy.”
While Biden said the U.S. needed to “get tough” on China, the then-candidate argued that the best way forward would be to strengthen ties with the Communist-run country.
“China can&#8217;t afford to ignore half the global economy if we&#8217;re united. That gives us substantial leverage to shape the future rules of the road on everything from the environment to labor to trade to technology to transparency,” Biden said.
Biden appeared to walk back that campaign stance on Wednesday, the reversal coming as Trump has sought to make inroads with staunchly pro-Democrat unions.
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The Teamsters union, a reliable source of support for Democrats, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/02/21/teamsters-trump-biden-union/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave</a> $45,000 to the Republican National Committee through the union’s political action committee in February. The donation is the maximum amount the PAC can give.
The donation itself isn’t as significant as what it could represent for the future of the union’s support. Teamsters’ political committee donated the money after Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-teamsters-union-washington-0689d1d586a9b0760610ae619086691f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">met</a> with the union’s executive board in what the former president described as “a very productive meeting.”
Biden’s Wednesday speech also comes as steel industry labor leaders have protested against a potential sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese-based Nippon Steel Corporation. The Biden Department of Justice last week <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/10/doj-opens-formal-investigation-us-steel-takeover-00151615" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> an antitrust investigation into the sale, a move that could have negative impacts on the United States’ relationship with Japan.

Joe Biden

In Reversal, Biden Turns To Trump’s Playbook To Get Tough On China

china

Communist China

Executive

joe biden

Yesterday I went into some detail about the unfolding crisis in Haiti. The prime minister is stranded in Puerto Rico and has now <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68541349">officially resigned</a>.
The streets are now ruled by a warlord named &#8220;Barbecue.&#8221; Police officers are nowhere to be found, even at the country&#8217;s national prison complex, where the doors are currently wide open.
All of this is relevant mainly because, for years, leftists have pretended Haiti is salvageable. They didn&#8217;t do that simply to contradict Donald Trump, although that&#8217;s a big part of it. Their primary motivation is to transform this country into Haiti. Unchecked, one-way migration is one way to do that. Another way is to adopt Haiti&#8217;s approach to policing — which is to say, to stop policing entirely. Beginning last year, criminals in Haiti understood that they could commit crimes with impunity. No one would even attempt to arrest them.
As Human Rights Watch put it in a recent report, &#8220;There have been no prosecutions or convictions of those responsible for killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence, or their supporters, since the start of 2023.&#8221;
That&#8217;s what a total stand down of law and order looks like. It was telegraphed, and as expected, anarchy followed. So you have to wonder — especially in the aftermath of BLM and &#8220;defunding the police&#8221; — how long until something like that happens here? How long until criminals in America understand that they can commit serious crimes, and no police officers will even bother to show up?
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1325-the-city-of-pittsburgh-takes-the-purge-as-an-instruction-manual" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
If you&#8217;ve followed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pittsburgh-police-cuts-staff-between-3-7-a-m-no-longer-respond-if-not-in-progress-emergency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the news</a> out of Pittsburgh this week, you know that this moment is already here. The city has announced that police officers will simply stop responding to the vast majority of crimes — including burglary and harassment — as long as there&#8217;s no &#8220;in-progress emergency.&#8221; Additionally, between 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m, as few as 20 police officers will be on-duty to cover the entire city of 300,000 people. This is as close to a real-life implementation of the Purge as we’ve seen. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: Pittsburgh police will no longer respond to certain calls &amp; will instead be redirecting people to a telephone unit.
Those crimes include thefts, harassment, criminal mischief, burglary alarms, etc.
Additionally, there were be only 20 police officers patrolling the… <a href="https://t.co/H5dqLud72W">pic.twitter.com/H5dqLud72W</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1766896286224003248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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What this means is that, if someone breaks into your house in Pittsburgh, and you call 911, they won&#8217;t come. Even if your alarm is going off, and your alarm company is notifying the authorities, they don&#8217;t care. The police chief in Pittsburgh has clarified that for burglaries, under this new policy, they need some sort of &#8220;second verification&#8221; in order to ensure that the burglar is on the premises at that moment, before police will even consider driving out to your house.
In other words, it&#8217;s like logging into your bank account. They need two-factor authentication so that they can really be sure that there&#8217;s a burglary going on. Your alarm just counts as one factor. Additional factors, according to the police chief, could include video footage of the burglar in your house. Or it could be a photo of broken glass with the burglar standing around next to it. Or perhaps you can get the burglar to pose for a picture holding that day’s newspaper. Maybe you can take a quick selfie video with the burglar where he looks at the camera and says, ‘Hey folks, just here burglarizing this home real quick. Sorry for the inconvenience!’ But outside of situations like that, the Pittsburgh police will just tell you to leave a report with their answering machine.
Of course, if the burglar is smart, and breaks into your home between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., then it probably doesn&#8217;t matter even if you have the selfie video of the burglars in your home — because there will be only 20 cops in the entire city who can get to you. So the people ransacking your home can take their time. This has all been announced, publicly, by the city of Pittsburgh. You have to wonder why anyone in the city would bother paying taxes at this point — especially since the government in Pittsburgh created this problem in the first place.
After the George Floyd riots of 2020, the mayor implemented a two-year freeze on all police hiring. That&#8217;s not an overstatement. The mayor at the time, Bill Peduto, just shut down the police academies.
As CBS News reported in 2022, &#8220;The sound of bagpipes graduating a new police class hasn&#8217;t been heard in years.&#8221; To justify this decision, Peduto appeared on NBC News, where for some reason he answered questions from a bunch of college students. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="MWS Clip 02" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QwXm-eVXGlI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It&#8217;s an amazing clip to watch in retrospect. The mayor tells this random college student that emotions are very high post-George Floyd. He recognizes that everyone&#8217;s not exactly thinking rationally. But instead of suggesting that maybe it&#8217;s a bad idea to shut down police academies, he basically issues a threat. He says that &#8220;police reforms&#8221; — by which he means gutting the police department — are going to happen one way or the other. The only thing the police union can do is get on board to minimize the damage, on the road to creating this utopia in Pittsburgh. Four years later, we see exactly what that utopia looks like.
If you listen to officials in Pittsburgh, they&#8217;ll offer another excuse for the breakdown of law and order in their city. They&#8217;ll say they simply can&#8217;t afford police officers. They&#8217;ll tell you that tax revenues are down because, post-COVID, a lot of downtown office space is vacant. The value of the buildings has plummeted. That&#8217;s true, to an extent. The city has been taking in less revenue because of lockdown policies, which were implemented by the city of Pittsburgh. But as an explanation for why there are no police in Pittsburgh anymore, it doesn&#8217;t make any sense. You can take one look at Pittsburgh&#8217;s budget and come to the conclusion that there&#8217;s a lot of waste that could be trimmed in order to put more officers on the street.
For example, let&#8217;s take a look at Pittsburgh&#8217;s fiscal year 2022 operating budget. There&#8217;s more than $700,000 budgeted for salaries for something called the &#8220;Office of Equity.&#8221; In all, the office&#8217;s budget exceeds a million dollars. Among other things, that taxpayer money is used to pay an &#8220;executive director&#8221; for the &#8220;gender equity commission,&#8221; who makes $76,000. It includes a &#8220;chief equity officer&#8221; making $120,000. It also includes unspecified money for &#8220;immigration engagement,&#8221; so that when people arrive in Pittsburgh from Haiti, they know where to file for welfare benefits. And by the way, it&#8217;s not just the &#8220;Office of Equity&#8221; at Pittsburgh that employs equity officers. The office of the city clerk also has an &#8220;equity, diversity, and inclusion policy analyst,&#8221; who makes something like $62,000 a year.
There&#8217;s also millions of dollars for the office of city planning, including hundreds of thousands of dollars devoted to saving the climate. That includes tens of thousands of dollars for so-called &#8220;climate resilience analysts,&#8221; like this woman:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Climate Action Plan 3.0" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VcUqkRhYV6E?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
That video is from several years ago. Not to spoil anything, but the city of Pittsburgh&#8217;s &#8220;climate action plan&#8221; has not done anything to address alleged climate change in any way. We know that because, even if you removed the entire city of Pittsburgh from the planet — which, as a Baltimore Ravens fan, I wouldn’t object to nothing about the climate would change. Even using the most unhinged, eco-nutcase model you can find, there is no conceivable way that the city of Pittsburgh can &#8220;address climate change.&#8221; But they hired useless employees like this person anyway, to categorize all of Pittsburgh&#8217;s various &#8220;greenhouse gas emissions.&#8221; Apparently that was more important than hiring police officers, in a city that&#8217;s down to fewer than two dozen cops in the middle of the night.
And this is just scratching the surface. Pittsburgh also has an “LGBTQIA+ Commission,&#8221; which was budgeted tens of thousands of dollars a year. That commission has apparently done nothing in three years. According to the outlet Public Source:
<blockquote>Pittsburgh’s LGBTQIA+ Commission, created in 2020 by former Mayor Bill Peduto, started with the promise of action on behalf of the queer community of Pittsburgh. Three years later, external displays of action have been on the sparse side — even at the admission of some of its members. &#8230; While some fruitful conversations have been held to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community within the city and the commission has made strides on developing its internal structure, the commission’s 20 meetings thus far have lacked public engagement and it hasn’t conducted a single study.</blockquote>
This is a commission that was established around the time that the police academies were closed. And they&#8217;re completely dysfunctional. They&#8217;ve wasted all that time and money. It goes without saying that the city could shut all of these &#8220;equity&#8221; initiatives down without causing any harm to any resident of the city of Pittsburgh. If they had done that, they could&#8217;ve saved millions of dollars over the past three years. And when you&#8217;re down to 20 police officers, millions of dollars is a lot of money. It can double the size of your police force. But instead of cutting all of this garbage, the leaders of Pittsburgh chose to cut policing, and fund &#8220;equity&#8221; instead.
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One of the many ironies here is that &#8220;equity&#8221; entails an obsessive concern with &#8220;safety.&#8221; Leftists are always telling us that certain groups are &#8220;unsafe&#8221; and how we need to make them feel safer at every opportunity. But they always mean &#8220;safety&#8221; in some kind of esoteric, ambiguous sense. Actual practical, physical safety isn&#8217;t valued at all — at least not the safety of the average family affected by this insanity.
This has gone on for years, and major cities have become much more dangerous as a result. It&#8217;s so bad that Taco Bell just had to close all of their indoor dining facilities in Oakland. That&#8217;s a pretty stark level of civilizational decline, when you can&#8217;t even keep Taco Bell open.
But very soon, Pittsburgh will reach an even deeper level of decay. Residents won&#8217;t be worried about climate change, or LGBTQ justice. Instead, they&#8217;ll be worried about their safety, in the literal sense. That&#8217;s because, three years after Pittsburgh&#8217;s mayor promised &#8220;reforms,&#8221; change has finally arrived. And particularly between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., everyone living in Pittsburgh will know exactly what that change looks like.

Shooting At Pittsburgh House Party Leaves 9 Injured And 2 Dead

The City Of Pittsburgh Takes ‘The Purge’ As An Instruction Manual

The City Of Pittsburgh Takes 'The Purge' As An Instruction Manual

crime

haiti

police

police reform

Pittsburgh police will no longer personally respond to calls that aren’t considered “in-progress emergencies” after recent department policy changes.
Calls not considered “in-progress emergencies” will be <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/big-changes-pittsburgh-bureau-police-staffing-are-effect/ME4OY4CRSVG4HHDA53GFEYENSU/">assigned</a> by dispatch to a telephone recording unit. The city&#8217;s website states, &#8220;Creation of an enhanced Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU) operating from 7-3 a.m. daily, including weekends. Dispatch will assign reports to the TRU for calls that do not require an in-person response by officers. TRU will NOT be assigned to any &#8220;In Progress&#8221; call where a suspect may be on scene, any crime where a person may need medical aid, any domestic dispute, calls with evidence, or where the Mobile Crime Unit will be requested to process a scene.&#8221;
In addition, between 3 and 7 a.m., when reportedly far fewer 911 calls are made, no desk officers will be present at the six police stations in the city. Instead, call boxes linked to 911 have been installed. During some overnight shifts, there may be only <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/big-changes-pittsburgh-bureau-police-staffing-are-effect/ME4OY4CRSVG4HHDA53GFEYENSU/">22 officers</a> to cover the entire city.
“It’s enough to cover the entire city in those hours when we have 8% of the time people are calling &#8230; I’m confident in the decisions that we make, that it impacts this bureau and this city in much better way than we have in the past,” Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto stated.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Pittsburgh police will no longer respond to certain calls including theft, harassment, criminal mischief, and burglary alarms.
Between 3AM-7AM there will be no officers at any police stations.
Buy guns. Buy ammo. 
The police will not protect you. <a href="https://t.co/ZoQbkREQUs">pic.twitter.com/ZoQbkREQUs</a>
&mdash; Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1766897488202768818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Scirotto cited staffing shortages after the city plunged to 740 police officers; at the start of 2023, the city had 835; a full staff is considered 900.
Scirotto said that prior to the changes, roughly one-third of officers worked overnight, but about two-thirds of the call volume came between 2 p.m. and 2 a.m. “So we’re running one shift ragged, under-resourcing it, and over-resourcing another,” he said. “That was why I thought this exercise was so important.”
“Average night, we’d have seven officers out on the road in each zone, so [we had] like 42 officers, generally,” Scirotto told the <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2024/03/03/pittsburgh-police-changes-staffing-safety-shifts-wellness-scirotto/stories/202403010078#:~:text=The%20changes%2C%20launched%20last%20week,better%20focus%20on%20officer%20wellness.">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</a> last week. “We cut 12. People think I cut 112.”
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Bob Swartzwelder, president of the Fraternal Order of Police #1, criticized the plan, saying, “They’re running out of manpower very, very quickly, and they’re getting very taxed.” He acknowledged there could be 25 to 30 officers working during the 3-7 a.m. shift, but said they are executing specialized work. “I think the strategy at this point is a hope and a prayer that they can base everyone on data,” he said. “It may pan out to be correct. It may be disastrous.”

Police block street for protesters during the If Not Now

Pittsburgh Police Cuts Staff Between 3-7 A.M., No Longer Respond If Not ‘In-Progress Emergency’

domestic violence

General

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police announced Friday that a new police Telephone Reporting Unit will respond to calls that &#8220;do not require an in-person response by officers.&#8221;
Officers will still respond to &#8220;in progress&#8221; emergency calls &#8220;where a suspect may be on scene, any crime where a person may need medical aid, any domestic dispute, calls with evidence, or where the Mobile Crime Unit will be requested to process a scene,&#8221; the police bureau <a href="https://pittsburghpa.gov/press-releases/press-releases/6386" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a press release.
However, this means that calls for things like burglary alarms, theft, criminal mischief, and harassment will be handled by the call center or online reporting methods, <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-bureau-police-confirms-major-changes-11-investigates-first-told-you-about/JLZ2XPCHOJC5RCAPQUUDLL2QDQ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to an investigation by WPXI.
The Telephone Reporting Unit will operate from 7 to 3 a.m. seven days a week.
Chief Larry Scirotto said he wants to slash the police bureau&#8217;s calls from about 200,000 calls a year down to about 50,000.
Pittsburgh&#8217;s police bureau also said that officers will stop working eight-hour workdays and instead work four 10-hour shifts each week so that they will have three consecutive days off.
That change is meant to &#8220;enhance officer wellness.&#8221;
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&#8220;An additional day away from work each week to focus on family, friends, or outside pursuits is key to creating a healthy workforce and contributes to the Bureau&#8217;s goal of not only recruiting new officers, but retaining them for the long haul, &#8221; Chief Scirotto said.
Both policies took effect on Monday.
Another potential plan <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-bureau-police-confirms-major-changes-11-investigates-first-told-you-about/JLZ2XPCHOJC5RCAPQUUDLL2QDQ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">involves</a> having the Pittsburgh Parking Authority handle all parking complaints, which Scirotto said is the top complaint the police bureau receives.
“That allows our officers to be engaged in community in a way, now they’re at the YMCA instead of sitting on the 10th Street bypass with a bike complaint,” Scirotto said.
The new policies have been met with concern from residents, the police union, and members of the city council.
“When it comes to harassment and things of this nature you better have a police officer there. That’s what the public expects. That’s what I expect out of our city,” <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-bureau-police-confirms-major-changes-11-investigates-first-told-you-about/JLZ2XPCHOJC5RCAPQUUDLL2QDQ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Councilman Anthony Coghill.
The police union president blamed an understaffed police bureau.
“The staffing plan designed by police command is a direct response to a seriously understaffed police department,&#8221; Bob Swartzwelder, president of Pittsburgh&#8217;s Fraternal Order of Police union <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/pittsburgh-bureau-police-confirms-major-changes-11-investigates-first-told-you-about/JLZ2XPCHOJC5RCAPQUUDLL2QDQ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
&#8220;Only time will tell if the plan works or the Chief will need to pivot and modify his plan quickly. The FOP will be watching carefully for any contract violations that develop especially when non-emergency events come up such as St. Patrick’s Day, parades, large concerts, July 4th etc. In short, the FOP believes that the police department is seriously over-committed and under-resourced,” the head of the city&#8217;s police union added.

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Pittsburgh Police Won’t Send Officers For Some 911 Calls

Pittsburgh Police Won't Send Officers For Some 911 Calls

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Police said Monday that they are investigating the death of former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Adam Johnson, 29, who died during an Elite Ice Hockey League game on Saturday.
Reports and graphic video indicate Johnson collided with another player during a game in England and suffered a cut to the neck from a skate, NHL.com <a href="https://www.nhl.com/news/former-pittsburgh-penguins-player-adam-johnson-dies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The South Yorkshire Police, who were called to the scene on Saturday, are investigating the incident.
&#8220;Our officers remain at the scene carrying out inquiries and our investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident remain ongoing,&#8221; a statement said, according to Fox News. &#8220;We would encourage the public to avoid speculation regarding the incident while we continue our inquiries.&#8221;
Johnson&#8217;s team, the Nottingham Panthers, have called the fatal collision a &#8220;freak accident.&#8221;
&#8220;The Nottingham Panthers are truly devastated to announce that Adam Johnson has tragically passed away following a freak accident at the game in Sheffield last night,&#8221; the team said in a statement posted Sunday. &#8220;The Panthers would like to send our thoughts and condolences to Adam&#8217;s family, his partner, and all his friends at this extremely difficult time.
&#8220;Everyone at the club including players, management and ownership are heartbroken at the news of Adam&#8217;s passing,&#8221; the Panthers added. &#8220;Our thoughts are also with the fans and staff of both clubs, especially those who attended or were following the game, who will be devastated following today&#8217;s news.&#8221;
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The Nottingham Panthers are truly devastated to announce that Adam Johnson has tragically passed away following a freak accident at the game in Sheffield last night. <a href="https://t.co/lhSOkDu03Q">pic.twitter.com/lhSOkDu03Q</a>
&mdash; The Nottingham Panthers (@PanthersIHC) <a href="https://twitter.com/PanthersIHC/status/1718550740028039300?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The Elite Ice Hockey League, likewise, called the incident a &#8220;freak accident.&#8221;
&#8220;The Elite Ice Hockey League is heartbroken to confirm that Nottingham Panthers forward Adam Johnson sadly passed away following a freak accident in Saturday’s game between Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Panthers,&#8221; the league said, adding that further games over the weekend would be postponed.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Elite Ice Hockey League is heartbroken to confirm that Nottingham Panthers forward Adam Johnson sadly passed away following a freak accident in Saturday’s game between Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Panthers. <a href="https://t.co/9MtTzvmojM">pic.twitter.com/9MtTzvmojM</a>
&mdash; Elite Ice Hockey League | #EIHL (@officialEIHL) <a href="https://twitter.com/officialEIHL/status/1718553486143476031?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Johnson&#8217;s girlfriend, Ryan Wolf, was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/girlfriend-dead-ex-nhl-player-shares-heartbreaking-message-police-investigate-freak-accident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> at the game and witnessed the injury. She ran onto the ice after the collision.
&#8220;My sweet angel,&#8221; Wolf wrote in the post honoring Johnson via Instagram. &#8220;I’ll miss you forever and love you always.&#8221;
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The Pittsburgh Penguins also issued a post about Johnson&#8217;s passing.
&#8220;The Pittsburgh Penguins join the entire hockey world in mourning Adam Johnson, whose life tragically ended far too soon,&#8221; the team said Sunday. &#8220;We offer our deepest condolences to Adam&#8217;s family and friends, as well as all of Adam&#8217;s past and present teammates and coaches. Adam will always be part of the Penguins family.&#8221;
&#8220;It was our honor to watch him fulfill his dream of playing in the National Hockey League,&#8221; the Penguins added.
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Pittsburgh Penguins Left Wing Adam Johnson

Police Investigating Death Of Former Pittsburgh Penguin Forward After Fatal Collision During Game

Police Investigating Death Of Former Pittsburgh Penguin Forward Adam Johnson After Fatal Collision During Game 

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