Columbia University just told its students that it’s OK for them to break windows, illegally enter a building, block the exits, and imprison employees inside the building.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1825942177962406270
Columbia has ‘waved the white flag’ by failing to expel even one student who occupied campus building: House report
By Carl Campanile
August 19, 2024
Columbia University has not only caved and failed to expel any of the students busted in the occupation of a building during a pro-terror riot, most of them are still “in good standing’’ there, a House report says.
“The failure of Columbia’s invertebrate administration to hold accountable students who violate university rules and break the law is disgraceful and unacceptable,” fumed Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in a scathing statement accompanying a panel analysis Monday.
“More than three months after the criminal takeover of Hamilton Hall, the vast majority of the student perpetrators remain in good standing,” said the head of the House committee, which is investigating campus antisemitism.
“By allowing its own disciplinary process to be thwarted by radical students and faculty, Columbia has waved the white flag in surrender while offering up a get-out-of-jail-free card to those who participated in these unlawful actions,” Foxx said.
She blasted the Manhattan Ivy League school for failing to adequately punish students nabbed during the rule-breaking and lawless behavior that ran amok during recent anti-Israel campus demonstrations.
Foxx issued the startling finding about the university’s “failure” based on disciplinary records obtained from Columbia that found most students have escaped serious punishment such as expulsion and remain in good standing.
Her committee’s analysis found:
Of the 22 students arrested for occupying and vandalizing Columbia’s historic Hamilton Hall on April 30, 18 are in good standing, while three others are on interim suspensions and one on probation.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office ended up dismissing nearly all of the cases against the total 46 people arrested in the riot, citing lack of evidence while noting many of the suspects wore masks to hide their identities.
Twenty-seven Columbia students arrested by the NYPD on May 1 at various off campus locations outside of Hamilton Hall had their cases dismissed by DA Alvin Bragg because of “insufficient evidence” despite their arrests.
On April 29, 35 Columbia students were placed on interim suspensions for failing to leave a protest encampment on the south lawn of the Morningside Heights campus. But Columbia concluded it couldn’t substantiate their participation and lifted the suspensions and dismissed the charges for 29 of the students. Thirty-one of the 35 students are currently in good standing. Two others are on interim suspensions from previous incidents, one who was previously on probation is now suspended, and one is on probation.
Of the 32 students involved in the alumni reunion weekend encampment on the weekend of May 31, all remain in good standing. Three of the students are on probation from a prior incident but remained in good standing.
The records reviewed by Foxx’s panel show that many of the suspected rabble-rousing students hired lawyers and engaged in “alternative resolution” to lessen or avoid severe punishment by their school.
“Breaking into campus buildings or creating antisemitic hostile environments like the encampment should never be given a single degree of latitude—the university’s willingness to do just that is reprehensible,” Foxx added in her statement.
A Columbia spokeswoman said in a statement to The Post that the embattled school “is committed to combating antisemitism and all forms of discrimination and taking sustained, concrete action toward a campus where everyone in our community feels valued and is able to thrive.
“Following the disruptions of the last academic year, Columbia immediately began disciplinary processes, including with immediate suspensions. The disciplinary process is ongoing for many students involved in these disruptions, including some of those who were arrested, and we have been working to expedite the process for this large volume of violations,” the rep said.
But Matthew Schweber, a member of Columbia’s Jewish Alumni Association, slammed his alma mater, saying it is going soft on the disrupters.
“It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham,” said Schweber, lifting a line from the Woody Allen film “Bananas.”
Criticism of the school’s slap-on-the-wrist discipline at least to date is just the latest hit on Columbia.
There is now anecdotal evidence that Jewish students are not applying or enrolling to attend the Ivy League after its anti-Israel protests and Jew-bashing.
For example, for the first time in decades, none of the graduates from the elite Jewish Ramaz high school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has enrolled at Columbia College, the university’s premier liberal undergraduate program.
Embattled Columbia President Minouche Shafik also resigned last week and is heading back to England after leading the elite institution for the past year during its constant and sometimes destructive anti-Israel protests. Dr. Katrina Armstrong, the CEO of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, has been named interim president.
Shafik’s resignation comes just one week after three university deans also resigned from Columbia following the exposure of their “very troubling” text chain that disparaged Israeli and Jewish students’ fears of rising antisemitism on campus.
The protests and anti-Israel vitriol was fueled by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, in which the terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in the Jewish state and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Shop owner reveals heart-wrenching experience after BLM riots ‘destroyed’ his store on Gov Walz’s watch
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shop-owner-reveals-heart-wrenching-173509730.html
Shop owner reveals heart-wrenching experience after BLM riots ‘destroyed’ his store on Gov Walz’s watch
By Andrew Miller
August 12, 2024
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota business owner who watched helplessly as his St. Paul establishment was destroyed during the 2020 George Floyd riots spoke to Fox News Digital about how the state, led by Gov. Tim Walz, failed to protect business owners like him.
“When the rioters first came here they went and destroyed the strip mall on the left-hand side here, I was in my shop,” Long Her, owner of New Fashion Tailoring and Alteration in St. Paul, Minnesota, told Fox News Digital. “I witnessed everything and videotaped. My friend and I stayed in our shop until nightfall, and I was going to go to sleep and watch over my shop, but my friends said, ‘it’s too dangerous, let’s go home’ so we ended up going home that night.”
Her, a Hmong immigrant, recalled that he was “afraid” for his livelihood when he went home that night but hoped that the destruction would be contained to the other side of the street.
When Her came back the next morning to check on the store that he had owned for decades, he discovered his worst fears had come true, and the location was ransacked.
“The next day when I came here to find that my shop was destroyed, as a man, I couldn’t do anything but cry,” Her told Fox News Digital through translator May Lor Xiong, a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota’s 4th Congressional District.
Her said rioters broke down his reinforced door and stole all the inventory in his store, which represented a dollar amount of $200,000.
“They took down the front door with the metal bars, they had some pliers they used to destroy the metal bars. And they came in there and took everything, took all the clothing, all the merchandise and my store,” Her said.
Her told Fox News Digital he tried to contact the police multiple times and received no response. When asked about Gov. Tim Walz’s role in the response taking several days to call in the National Guard, Her said that if Walz is to become vice president, he hopes he has learned from his mistakes in responding to the riot.
“If he gets to become the vice president, he needs to learn how to love the people here and especially Minnesota because of the destruction that happened during his watch,” Her said. “He could be a good person, but he also needs to understand the people, the sufferings that they’re going through.”
Several people who spoke to Fox News Digital said that the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul still have not fully recovered from the devastating riots that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, and Her said it took about two years for his business to financially recover.
“It took me about a year and a half to two years to recover. During that time, a lot of people were scared to go out, and so I lost a lot of customers,” Her said. “People are not coming out to shop, and so I lost a lot of money and customers from that.”
He went on to say that safety was “not a big concern” for business owners in the twin cities before 2020, but after the pandemic, “there’s a lot more people that would shoplift or steal stuff from the store.”
“There’s a lot of homeless people sleeping in this area. It’s making it very unsafe for business owners and even shoppers, and so we need to have more police force to help us in this area, to protect the businesses and the people here.”
Minneapolis is widely considered the epicenter of the defund the police movement, and CBS News reported earlier this year that the city’s police department is understaffed by 200 officers and the police force has shrunk by 40% over the last four years.
“I don’t care what party they’re from,” Her said. “It should be nonpartisan when it comes to the police force and putting more police on the street to help citizens.”
Fox News Digital asked Her if he fears that a situation like the 2020 riots could happen again.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Her said. “I hope it won’t with the lawlessness right here. The freedom that we have here, we love that. But also, a lot of things might happen, dangerous things that might happen to us and we have already witnessed devastation in 2020.”
“We want to make sure that we’re prepared, that whoever is in office needs to make sure when something like that happens, they send the National Guard to protect the people, the citizens and the businesses. So that way we do not have to go through such destruction.”
According to the Washington Post, Kamala Harris tweeted support for a bail fund that bailed out murderers, rapists, kidnappers, shooters, and looters.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 31, 2024
Kamala Harris made this tweet, encouraging people to donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund:
Original: https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1267555018128965643
According to this article from the Washington Post, that charity has bailed out murderers, rapists, kidnappers, shooters, and looters.
The Washington Post wrote:
Kamala Harris tweeted support for a bail fund, but the money didn’t just assist protesters
September 3, 2020
One defendant, Jaleel Stallings, was charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting at police during protests on May 30, county records show. MFF paid $75,000 in cash to get Stallings out of jail, according to MFF interim director Greg Lewin.
MFF also paid $750 toward a bond for Chylen Evans, who was charged with looting a liquor store, clothing store and mobile store.
On Aug. 10, Minneapolis television station KMSP aired a report documenting how, after receiving the torrent of donations, MFF had bailed out a number of people charged with violent crimes, including posting $100,000 for a woman accused of killing a friend and $350,000 for a twice-convicted rapist charged with kidnapping, assault and sexual assault in two separate cases.
After Lyden’s report aired, Lionel Timms, a man whom MFF bailed out on an assault charge in July, was charged with committing third-degree assault on Aug. 14, leaving the victim with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull.
The result of Harris and other social justice warriors helping these violent and dangerous criminals has been absolutely disastrous to the regular, law-abiding people who live in Minnesota.
Insurance experts estimated that the damage caused by Black Lives Matter protestors in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region during 2020 could exceed $500 million.
This article about the Black Lives Matter protestors in Minneapolis is called, “Neighborhoods where stores were destroyed become food deserts overnight.”
As a high ranking government official who is protected by armed guards, Kamala Harris doesn’t have to worry about getting hurt by these kinds of criminals.
And as a person who lives in a safe neighborhood with easy access to grocery stores, she doesn’t have to worry about how to get food from the store to her home.
But for a lot of the regular, law-abiding people who live in Minneapolis, that’s not the case.
Because of the kinds of violent and dangerous criminals that Kamala Harris supports, many of the regular, law abiding people who live in Minneapolis no longer have easy access to get groceries or prescription drugs.
And now Kamala Harris is running for President of the United States.
I wonder what she has in store for the rest of the country.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is refusing to release security video that shows “peaceful protesters” engaging in the unlawful imprisonment of janitors inside Hamilton Hall.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/columbia-university-custodians-union-plans-132451358.html
Columbia University custodians’ union plans to sue school over anti-Israel protests, slams ‘bratty’ occupiers
By Greg Norman
May 9, 2024
A union representing custodians at Columbia University says it is gearing up to sue the Ivy League school for its response to the anti-Israel protests, in which its members allegedly were targeted by “spoiled” and “bratty” agitators who temporarily took over a campus building.
TWU International President John Samuelsen told ‘Fox & Friends’ on Thursday that his rank and file is “particularly incensed at Columbia for not protecting the workers and particularly pissed at those particular protesters that tried to hold our workers in the building” during the occupation of Hamilton Hall early last week.
“Everybody in the building, the entire TWU workforce in the building was fearful and rightfully so. They stormed in… but two of the custodians had to fight their way out. They were explicitly told ‘you’re staying here, you’re not going anywhere, this cause is bigger than you,” Samuelsen said. “Imagine that… kind of smarmy, sort of entitled, spoiled, bratty occupiers of the building come in and tell these blue-collar men and women ‘you’re not going anywhere, you’re staying here because this cause is bigger than you’ when they had to get home to their families. It’s outrageous, it’s an affront to workers everywhere.”
“Columbia should have never put the custodians or the security officer in that position and that is at the heart of the matter,” Samuelsen also said. “Columbia showed an epic disregard and epically failed to protect the workforce.
Hamilton Hall eventually was cleared out by the NYPD last Tuesday, but the TWU said this week that it is “exploring legal action against the university and the Hamilton Hall occupiers.”
In a letter Samuelsen addressed to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, the union is demanding the names of the protesters arrested inside Hamilton Hall, security footage of the hostile takeover and a meeting with Shafik “regarding mitigation steps necessary to avoid future placement of members in harm’s way if the protests resume, and recompense to the TWU members who were subjected to this despicable conduct.”
“The TWU Security Officer, an African-American woman, managed to leave the building before the barricades went up,” he continued. “But she remains shaken by her encounter with the occupying protesters (aka privileged kids) who verbally attacked her in a very aggressive and extremely offensive manner.
“President Shafik, imagine for a moment being in the boots of the blue-collar Custodians and Security Officer. They came to work to earn a day’s pay so they could take care of their families and ended up being held against their will while being subjected to physical and verbal abuse,” Samuelsen also wrote. “Imagine yourself coming to work and being the victim of a serious crime because Columbia University didn’t care enough about you to engage in common sense protective measures.”
Columbia University did not immediately respond Thursday morning when asked by Fox News Digital to comment on the matter.
These rioters should be treated the exact same way as Ashli Babbit
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1746507098467299684
Zero jail time for two Black Lives Matter arsonists who burned down a Wendy’s
2 plead guilty to burning Wendy’s after Rayshard Brooks’ death, get probation
3rd defendant will face trial from federal prison
December 1, 2023
Two co-defendants pleaded guilty to arson charges for burning down a southwest Atlanta Wendy’s during the protests following Rayshard Brooks’ shooting death in June 2020, while a third defendant is scheduled to go on trial next week despite being in federal prison.
Chisom Kingston and Natalie Hanna White each entered negotiated guilty pleas Thursday, according to Fulton County court documents. They each pleaded guilty to two counts of arson and one count of conspiracy to commit arson and received identical sentences of five years on probation and $500 fines.
John Wesley Wade’s trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday, court documents show. He faces the same charges as Kingston and White, but he previously pleaded guilty to federal arson charges. He is being held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Beckley, a medium-security prison in Beaver, West Virginia.
Wade and two other men, Ellie Melvin Brett and Vida Messiah Jones, were convicted of burning five postal trucks outside a post office on Oglethorpe Avenue in southwest Atlanta. They torched the federal vehicles in 2020 after the Wendy’s was burned.
When Wade committed arson against the postal trucks, he was wearing an ankle monitor as part of his bond agreement in the Fulton case, according to federal prosecutors.
Wade was sentenced to five years in federal prison followed by three years of probation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. He is expected to be released in August 2024, records kept by the Federal Bureau of Prisons show, but he could face additional state prison time if found guilty in next week’s trial.
Wade, Kingston and White were accused of committing arson while protesting the shooting death of Brooks by an Atlanta police officer three years ago.
Two officers were called to the Wendy’s that was later burned down after police got a complaint that Brooks was asleep in his car in the drive-thru line. They spoke with Brooks, 27, at length before attempting to arrest him.
When they tried to put him under arrest, a physical fight ensued and Brooks grabbed one of the officers’ Tasers. As he tried to run away, he turned and fired the Taser toward one of the pursuing officers, who fired back with his handgun.
Brooks was hit and killed, and his death contributed to protests in Atlanta and nationwide that followed the killing of George Floyd in police custody.
Jessica Mann, a managing attorney at Shaka Johnson, is a lawyer for Dayjia Blackwell, one of the alleged looters in Philadelphia. Mann said people who oppose crime are racist.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
October 5, 2023
This video footage is from the official YouTube channel of 6abc Philadelphia. It shows a mass looting event that happened at an Apple store in Philadelphia on September 26, 2023:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXDypGspXR8
Watching that video, I really have to wonder: What is the mindset of a person who steals a traceable iPhone, which has GPS tracking, and which can be bricked (i.e., rendered unusable) by the Apple store immediately after it is stolen?
Other stores in Philadelphia were also looted during this mass looting event.
Jessica Mann, a managing attorney at Shaka Johnson, is a lawyer for Dayjia Blackwell, one of the alleged looters in Philadelphia.
I don’t know if Blackwell appears in the above video.
After this multi-store, recent mass looting event in Philadelphia, Blackwell was charged with six felonies and two misdemeanors, including burglary and conspiracy.
Blackwell is an online video streamer known as “Meatball.” She live streamed the recent mass looting event in Philadelphia.
Mann, Blackwell’s lawyer, said:
“It sickens me to witness the media’s complicity in what can only be described as an all-out assault on black and brown people, as their character and actions are mercilessly vilified”
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawyer-influencer-charged-streaming-herself-122928512.html
I can’t speak for other critics of the looters. But it is my policy to never criticize someone for something that is not under their control. Therefore, I make zero criticism of anyone for their skin color. On the other hand, it is my policy to criticize people for the choices that they make. And looting is a choice. Therefore, I will continue to criticize people who choose to loot. And I will not fall for this lawyer’s false accusations of racism.
Furthermore, not all of the looters were black or brown.
6abc Philadelphia published these mugshots of some of the alleged looters. As you can see, not all of them are black or brown.
Source of image: https://6abc.com/philadelphia-pa-looting-center-city-foot-locker/13832625/
This is a photograph of First Deputy Commissioner John M. Stanford, who works for the Philadelphia Police Department.
Source of image: https://www.phillypolice.com/about/leadership/first-deputy-commissioner-john-m-stanford/index.html
This video is from the official YouTube channel of ABC News. In this video, Stanford says:
“This had nothing to do with a protest. What we had tonight was a bunch of criminal opportunists take advantage of a situation, and make an attempt to destroy our city.”
I agree with Stanford.
Surveillance video shows Ta’Kiya Young putting liquor bottles in her bag inside Ohio Kroger store
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmxdOK7qSk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VesUUuaZnw
https://www.yahoo.com/news/additional-bodycam-footage-released-death-201919325.html
Additional bodycam footage is released in the death of pregnant Black mother Ta’Kiya Young
By Samantha Hendrickson
Associated Press
September 8, 2023
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio authorities on Friday released additional bodycam and surveillance footage of the events leading up to the death of Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old pregnant Black mother fatally shot by police in a grocery store parking lot late last month.
Young, who was suspected of shoplifting, was killed by a Blendon Township police officer who fired a single bullet into her windshield after she refused to leave her car and it started rolling toward him. Her unborn daughter did not survive.
Young’s family members held a funeral for her on Thursday. They have called for the officer, whose name has not been released, to be fired and charged in her death. Earlier this week, police released bodycam footage showing the officer firing the gun. After viewing the footage, the family released a statement calling the officer’s actions a “gross misuse of power and authority,” especially given that Young had been accused of a relatively minor crime.
The additional security footage made public on Friday shows Young and two other women walking around the liquor department of the Columbus-area store. Young can be seen putting multiple bottles of alcohol into her purse and a tote bag while out of sight of the cash register. She and the two other women then leave without paying.
Sean Walton, the Young family’s attorney, said earlier this week that his law firm had found a witness who stated that Young had put down the bottles before leaving the store, and therefore had committed no crime. Walton said Friday that he would comment on the new footage after fully reviewing it.
The additional bodycam footage also shows police officers quickly rendering medical aid to Young after she is shot. They break the window of her car, which had rolled into the brick wall of the supermarket, and pull her from the vehicle. The tote bag full of liquor is visible as they drag her from the car.
The two officers then handcuff her as they try to stanch her gunshot wound, following police procedure. Young can be heard moaning as she slips from consciousness. The officers, with the help of an emergency room doctor who happened to be in the parking lot, continue medical aid until paramedics arrive. Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford has said that Ohio law prohibits the release of the officers’ identities because they are being treated as assault victims. One of the officers’ arms was still in the door of Young’s car when it started moving and the other one was still standing in front of it, he said. ___
Samantha Hendrickson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
A George Floyd protestor, who was filmed setting a building on fire, which caused the death of an innocent person, has been sentenced to only 10 years in prison
Rochester man gets decade in federal prison for arson during George Floyd riots
By Mike Bunge
January 14, 2022
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Rochester man who burned down a Minneapolis pawn shop during the George Floyd riots is going to federal prison.
Montez Terrial Lee Jr., 26, pleaded guilty to one count of arson and was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 10 years behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the State of Minnesota says Lee, along with others, broke into the Max It Pawn Shop on East Lake Street in Minneapolis on May 28, 2020. Surveillance video showed Lee pouring a fire accelerant around the pawn shop and lighting the accelerant on fire. The fire destroyed the building. Investigators found a second video which showed Lee standing in front of the burning pawn shop and Lee could be heard saying, “[expletive] this place. We’re gonna burn this [expletive] down.”
The body of a 30-year-old man was found in the ruble of the Max It Pawn building on July 20, 2020. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office attributed the man’s death to “probable inhalation of products of combustion and thermal injury (building fire).”
This case was investigated jointly by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, the Minneapolis Police Department, the Rochester Police Department, and the Minnesota State Fire Marshal Division.
I support holding the left and the right to the same legal standards. So, either reinstate these charges against left wing rioters, or drop the charges against the right wing rioters from January 6.
Government drops charges against all inauguration protesters
July 6, 2018
Photo caption: Police and demonstrators clash in downtown Washington, D.C. after a limo was set on fire following the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
“Federal prosecutors on Friday moved to drop charges against the last 39 people accused of participating in a violent protest on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.”
“The motion to dismiss charges by the U.S. attorney’s office seemingly ends an 18-month saga that started with the Justice Department attempting to convict more than 190 people.”
“More than 200 people were arrested after the protest, during which several store windows were broken and a parked limo set ablaze. Two group trials ended in defeats for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which was hindered by the fact that most protesters wore similar black clothing and covered their faces.”
I’m against shoplifting. But if that’s what the voters of California want, then I have to respect their choice, no matter how ridiculous I think it is.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
August 14, 2023
These videos are from two recent incidents. Both happened in California, which almost never prosecutes shoplifters. Each of these videos shows a large number of organized shoplifters stealing a large amount of merchandise.
I don’t support this kind of behavior. But if that’s what the voters of California want, then I have to respect their choice, no matter how ridiculous I think it is.
KTLA 5, August 12, 2023: “Video captures ‘flash mob’ of burglars swarming Nordstrom in Southern California mall”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo-LIGTHZc8
ABC7, August 9, 2023: “Thieves steal $300K worth of merch from YSL store at Americana in Glendale”
A question for everyone: What punishment would you give for each of the first 10 times that an adult with no weapon steals a parked car?
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
August 10, 2023
A question for everyone: What punishment would you give for each of the first 10 times that an adult with no weapon steals a parked car? In each case, the owner is not present during the theft. In each case, there is video proof of the theft, and thief’s face is clearly visible and identifiable.
My answer:
First conviction: 10 years in prison.
Second conviction: 20 years in prison.
Third conviction: Death by this method of assisted suicide, which is painless, quick, effective, and cheap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarco_pod
Therefore, for my answer, convictions 4 through 10 will never happen.
This awesome five minute video shows that Georgia is the exact opposite of California when it comes to how they treat shoplifters
This awesome five minute video shows that Georgia is the exact opposite of California when it comes to how they treat shoplifters.
I support what the police did in this video. And I don’t for one second believe that this crybaby needs to go to the hospital. If he can carry that giant TV, he can handle being put in handcuffs. And it’s his own fault that he resisted arrest and got pushed down to the ground.
The fact that he is so terrified of going to jail is exactly why he needs to go to jail in the first place. We need to send a message to all potential shoplifters that shoplifting will not be tolerated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1KNrQv2b5M
https://www.yahoo.com/news/georgia-target-shoplifter-caught-red-034209083.html
Georgia Target shoplifter caught red-handed, arrested after dramatic fight with police
By Sarah Rumpf-Whitten
August 9, 2023
A Georgia man, who was seen by Target employees stealing a TV, was caught red-handed after a police officer was waiting to arrest him at the store’s exit. The alleged shoplifter and the responding police officer engaged in a dramatic tussle in the store as well as in the parking lot.
The Atlanta Police Department said in a social media post that law enforcement was called in the evening to a local Target store on Monday, August 7 after the store called law enforcement after a man was stealing an expensive television.
When they arrived, officers followed the unnamed suspect from the store. When the suspect spotted the responding officer, officials say he ran.
Body camera footage released by police shows the officer catching up to the suspect just outside the store and the pair begin to fight.
“I don’t want to go to jail,” the suspect is heard wailing in the body camera footage. “I don’t want to go to f—— jail.”
The pair continued to fight at the entrance of the Target store until additional officers responded to the scene. Footage from police shows the pair grappling on the pavement in front of the store as onlookers watched in horror.
“Please stop, I need to go to the hospital,” the suspect is repeatedly heard saying in the footage.
According to authorities, the man was charged with felony shoplifting and felony obstruction.
The officer and the alleged shoplifter had minor injuries following the altercation, police said.
I wish this happened to every shoplifter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRn6G1aUpis
https://nypost.com/2023/08/02/7-eleven-workers-beat-cali-thief-for-stealing-shelves-of-tobacco/
7-Eleven workers wallop California man who tried to steal trash can full of cigarettes: ‘Whoop his a–!’
By Katherine Donlevy
August 2, 2023
Two 7-Eleven workers in California took matters into their own hands and used a stick to wallop a man who tried to steal a trash can full of cigarettes.
Shocking video of the attempted robbery shows one employee holding the thief down while his colleague relentlessly whacks him roughly 25 times.
“Okay, okay!” the thief screams at his attacker while pleading for mercy.
Before he was taken down by the retail workers, the robber had casually sauntered behind the California convenience store’s register with a 20-gallon trash can in tow.
He nonchalantly grabs fistfuls of tobacco products — including cigarettes, cigars and vapes — and tosses them into the bin as the off-camera workers plead for him to stop.
“Just let him go. There ain’t nothing you can do. They’re not going to do nothing,” the bystander who took the video can be heard saying, seemingly referencing the national string of thefts in which shoplifters raid shelves of supplies before walking out with their loot.
The green-and-black-clad worker switches from a defensive role when the thief tries to push past him and orders him to move out of the way while he continues his heist.
The employee quickly grapples with the robber and tackles him to the floor, just in time for his co-worker to appear and deliver 23 brutal blows with what appears to be a broomstick.
The weapon-wielding employee takes a quick break from the whacking — while his co-worker squeezes in a punch of his own to the upper back of the robber — sending the thief writhing chaotically enough to knock over his trove of stolen goods at the feet of his attacker.
“That’s called whoopin’ your a–! Whoop his a–! Get him!” the bystander says, before asking the thief if he’s ready to give up the heist.
“Yeah, I’m done!” the robber pleads. “I’m going to go.”
In spite of the surrender, the stick-wielding employee delivers two final whacks while the bystander orders the workers to free the robber.
“No more! No more!” the cameraman says as the thief screams in pain.
In subsequent videos shared by the bystander, the employees contemplate calling the police on the thief, but opt to let him walk out empty-handed.
The bystander walks behind the counter and urges the workers to let the man free before berating the man himself, ordering him not to come back to the 7-Eleven or try stealing again.
The thief claims he was beaten so badly that he can’t stand up and walk out on his own, until the bystander calls his bluff.
“You better walk tonight,” he says while leading him out of the store.
Amid his agonized groans and pleas for his freedom, the thief asks whether he can get a soda for the road.
“What kind of s–t you telling me? You do this s–t and you want a soda? No, no, no. Get the f–k out, man,” the bystander says.
Though it is not entirely clear where the incident took place, lottery numbers visible at the beginning of the video indicate it happened in California.
The cameraman claims it occurred in Stockton, a city roughly 50 miles south of Sacramento, but the police department had not heard of the incident as of Wednesday night.
A representative from 7-Eleven did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The theft is just one of many in a growing epidemic of organized shoplifting that has affected cities across the country.
Last month, three women brazenly wheeled out three shopping carts worth of stolen merchandise that they jacked from a Burlington store.
A Bay Area family hardware store announced this week that it lost a jarring $700,000 in merchandise in 2022 thanks to rampant shoplifting.
Retail theft in America has skyrocketed to $94 billion — an alarming 90% increase since 2018, according to the National Retail Federation.
Property Value Collapse Shows Democrat Destruction of Baltimore Is Nearly Complete
Property Value Collapse Shows Democrat Destruction of Baltimore Is Nearly Complete
By John Nolte
July 27, 2023
It’s a short, to-the-point story from a local Fox affiliate, but the news is jaw-dropping. The devastation Democrats have brought to the once-mighty city of Baltimore is about complete.
A mere eight years ago, in 2015, a 30-story downtown Baltimore building sold for $66 million.
Last month the same building sold for $24 million.
Another downtown building, which is currently the home of T. Rowe Price, was once assessed at $171.4 million. Today it assessment sits at about half that amount: $93.7 million.
“The property values are declining rather rapidly,” Economist Anirban Basu told Fox Baltimore. He adds that companies desperate for “staff and safety” are fleeing downtown Baltimore. Well, duh. Anyone who prioritizes “staff and safety” has no choice but to get out of Democrat-run cities.
Basu adds: “The only way for Baltimore to get out of this quandary is to grow its tax base, to add taxpayers, not subtract from that.”
No, the only way for Baltimore to get out of this quandary is to vote for a change of leadership, which will never happen.
So what’s happened to Baltimore since 2015?
What else? The Democrats who run Baltimore allowed rioters to riot and now, like most riot-ravaged cities (Detroit, Watts, Oakland), the city is unlikely to ever recover.
You think I’m engaging in hyperbole when I write that Baltimore Democrats allowing rioters to riot? Baltimore’s then-Democrat mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, admitted in a 2015 press conference that “we gave those who wished to destroy space to do that.”
What were these riots about?
What else? Another race hoax ginned up by the media. Some punk named Freddie Gray died in police custody. Six police officers—three black, three white—were charged with the murder by a corrupt State Attorney named Marilyn Mosby. All six were acquitted. Then Obama’s Justice Department ran in to destroy these officers but couldn’t find a single charge to bring against them.
Naturally, CNN ran in to hose another predominantly black city down with racial gasoline.
At the time, I wrote a piece titled: “Baltimore Is a Democrat Problem, Not America’s Problem.”
Here’s an excerpt:
Democrats run the city of Baltimore, the unions, the schools, and, yes, the police force. Since 1969, there have been only two Republican governors of the State of Maryland.
Elijah Cummings has represented Baltimore in the U.S. Congress for more than thirty years. As I write this, despite his objectively disastrous reign, the Democrat-infested mainstream media is treating the Democrat like a local folk hero, not the obvious and glaring failure he really is.
Every single member of the Baltimore city council is a Democrat.
And this is true of every failed American city. All these “racist “ police departments? They are all run by Democrats.
These cities prove beyond any doubt that the Democrat party’s ideas are only a recipe for failure, despair, chaos, crime, death, and blight. For it is in these cities where Democrata wield the power to enact their ideas without opposition.
One of their ideas, which we saw again during the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, is to give “those who wished to destroy space to do that.” The result of that is permanent devastation. You see, decent people won’t remain in a city led by politicians who put up with rioting. People are remarkably resilient, but what they cannot put up with is lawlessness. People are only resilient when they can adapt, but no one can adapt to lawlessness because lawlessness breeds chaos. How do you adapt to chaos? You can’t. So decent people flee and the urban death spiral begins. Good people leave. Bad people move in. Things get worse. Crime spikes. Property values collapse. More good people leave. More bad people move in.
Don’t pity Baltimore.
Baltimore, like all American cities, has the power to choose its own leaders. Decade after decade, the people of Baltimore, in overwhelming numbers, have voted for Democrats and their disastrous policies.
The people of Baltimore are getting what they vote for.
We should be happy for them.
People should get what they want.
Especially Democrats.
I live here. What the hell do I care what happens to Baltimore?
As a person who believes in incentives, I think this is great, and I hope it sets a new precedent. A judge has ordered vandals to pay restitution equal to approximately 27 times the amount of the damage that they caused. I hope that all future vandals will be held to this same standard.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
July 5, 2023
The Washington Post recently reported the following:
Proud Boys to pay church $1 million for destroyed ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign
D.C. judge ruled members of the Proud Boys vandalized ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign displayed on front lawn of a historic Black church in 2020
By Keith L. Alexander and Rachel Weiner
June 30, 2023
The Proud Boys organization must pay more than $1 million to a historic Black church in D.C. after a judge determined members of the group damaged a Black Lives Matter sign displayed on the building’s front lawn in 2020.
The judge said that replacing the sign and protecting the church cost only $36,626.78.
So a judge has ordered vandals to pay restitution equal to approximately 27 times the amount of the damage that they caused.
As a person who believes in incentives, I think this is great, and I hope it sets a new precedent.
I hope that all future vandals will be held to this same standard.
Minneapolis city council nomination brawlers could be expelled from Minnesota Democratic Party
https://apnews.com/article/minneapolis-fight-dfl-city-council-8c8fb4a25cf33753fd3aef81098535fb
Minneapolis city council nomination brawlers could be expelled from Minnesota Democratic Party
Associated Press
By Josh Funk and Trisha Ahmed
May 15, 2023
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Democratic Party will consider expelling anyone involved in a brawl that broke out at a political event to nominate candidates for a Minneapolis City Council seat.
At least two people were injured in Saturday’s confrontation. The head of the state Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Chair Ken Martin, said on Twitter that he plans to call an emergency meeting later this week to consider banning anyone involved in the assaults from the DFL Party, an affiliate of the national Democratic Party.
Video posted on social media showed the disturbance began after supporters of Minneapolis Council Member Aisha Chughtai took the stage, which caused an uproar among supporters of her challenger, Nasri Warsame. Some Warsame supporters then jumped on stage, shouting, banging on tables and waving signs.
As supporters of both candidates pushed and shoved each other, a party official repeatedly banged a gavel and tried to quiet the crowd but was ignored.
“I was scared some of us might die,” said Bridget Siljander, who was on the stage with other Chughtai supporters when they saw people punching, shoving and pushing each other on the floor.
“It was complete chaos,” Siljander said, adding they were terrified the fight would turn into a stampede and that it felt — in the moment — like an insurrection. Siljander said those who incited the violence should be removed from the party and criminally charged.
Convention chair Sam Doten called the behavior embarrassing and adjourned the event without a nominee being chosen, saying it was no longer safe. It wasn’t immediately clear Sunday how the party would proceed with choosing a nominee.
Federal agents gave orders to destroy evidence for the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot. They also violated client-attorney confidentiality.
Federal agents gave orders to destroy evidence for the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot. They also violated client-attorney confidentiality. Both of these things are crimes on the part of federal agents, as well as gross violations of the rights of those who have been charged in this incident.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/09/classified-info-proud-boys-trial-00086357
‘Spill’ of classified info derails Proud Boys trial
It’s the latest hiccup in a seditious conspiracy trial that has been marked by excruciating delays and extended legal disputes.
By Kyle Cheney
March 9, 2023
Federal prosecutors inadvertently disclosed likely classified material to Proud Boys defense attorneys, Justice Department officials indicated Thursday, a snafu that has derailed — for at least a full day — the most important trial to emerge from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The admission in court by a top DOJ official came in connection with testimony from FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller, one of the lead investigators in the Proud Boys case. Miller has already spent two days testifying about the Proud Boys’ Jan. 6 activities — their march to the Capitol from the Washington Monument and key role in the breaches that led to the broader attack.
As part of her testimony, prosecutors shared with defense lawyers a set of internal FBI messages that Miller had sent and received from colleagues related to the case — a standard production of evidence in criminal cases. To compile those exchanges, FBI headquarters sent Miller a spreadsheet of her messages — culled from a computer network classified at the “secret” level. Miller then reviewed the messages and filtered them to ensure only relevant, unclassified exchanges were included.
Miller sent her final list to prosecutors, who then packaged the messages into an Excel spreadsheet that they provided to defense lawyers. But unbeknownst to them, the messages Miller initially filtered out — including some that DOJ officials say are likely classified — were left in the final document as “hidden” rows in the Excel spreadsheet. Defense counsel stumbled upon them and began grilling Miller about them in front of jurors in the case.
Overnight, Justice Department attorneys told the defense team they were concerned there had been a “spill” of classified information in the hidden messages they accessed. And on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly paused the trial — already in its third month — to determine how to handle the error.
It’s the latest hiccup in a seditious conspiracy trial that has been marked by excruciating delays and extended legal disputes. Prosecutors say Proud Boys chair Enrique Tarrio and four leaders of the group schemed to prevent the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. The group, according to the Justice Department, split into teams that helped engineer the breach of police lines and, ultimately, the building itself, when one of the defendants, Dominic Pezzola, smashed a Senate-wing window with a stolen riot shield.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine, who is supervising the case for the Justice Department, acknowledged the likely “spill” of classified information Thursday morning. She raised particular concerns about a message sent to Miller by another agent who works on covert activity — and who she said did not work on the Proud Boys case — describing a supervisor’s order to “destroy 338 items of evidence.”
“That could impact a classified equity,” Ballantine said.
Defense lawyers cried foul, though, noting that the government’s claims of “classified” material arrived just as the defense sounded the alarm about the content of some of the inadvertently disclosed messages. While Miller testified Wednesday she had produced about “25 rows” of messages, defense lawyers said there were thousands of rows of hidden messages that included contents they contended were directly relevant to their case.
Some of the messages appeared to reveal that FBI agents accessed contacts between defendant Zachary Rehl and his attorney, which led Miller to tell a colleague she thought Rehl would take his case to trial. In another message, an FBI agent tells Miller, “You need to go into that CHS report you just put and edit out that I was present.” After defense attorneys began to press Miller about the attorney-client messages on Wednesday afternoon, prosecutors objected, and Kelly halted the trial to permit the parties to debate the matter.
After hearing arguments Thursday, Kelly ordered defense attorneys to refrain from reviewing or disseminating the messages until the FBI was able to conduct a classification review, a process that Ballantine said could likely be completed by the end of the day Thursday.
The flare-up comes as prosecutors are nearing the end of their case against the Proud Boys. They’ve laid out evidence showing that Tarrio and his allies developed a sense of existential dread about a Biden presidency and quickly embraced Trump’s claims of fraud in the days and weeks after his defeat in the 2020 election. As Jan. 6 neared, the group’s leaders grew increasingly disillusioned with police — who they accused of insufficiently acting to investigate a man who stabbed several Proud Boys at a December 2020 rally in Washington. And they set up a new chapter, dubbed the “Ministry of Self Defense,” that included men they believed would follow orders.
A week before Jan. 6, Tarrio received a document from a girlfriend titled “1776 Returns” that sketched out a plan to occupy federal buildings in order to derail and delay Congress’ proceedings to certify the 2020 election.
Defense attorneys have contended that the group is little more than a glorified drinking club that had no actual plan to either storm the Capitol or prevent Biden from taking office. Miller’s testimony portrayed the group’s march through Washington on Jan. 6 as an organized and concerted advance toward the Capitol that pinpointed weaknesses in Capitol Police defenses and exploited them to help facilitate the breach of the Capitol.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 