Even though he said he would do it again, they let him out.
Girl, 5, hit with rock while trick-or-treating in Penn Hills; suspect released on non-monetary bond
By Rich Pierce
November 1, 2024
PENN HILLS, Pa. – A little girl was sent to the hospital after she was hit in the head by a rock while trick-or-treating in Penn Hills.
According to police paperwork, a mother and her 5-year-old daughter had just left a house on Dorothy Drive when the mother felt something hit her back. When she turned around, she saw a man pick up another fist-sized rock and throw it. The second rock struck her daughter in the head.
Channel 11 spoke off-camera to a woman at the home the pair had just left. She described the throw as hard and deliberate.
“I heard some commotion last night but wasn’t sure what it was,” Ricky Dixon told Channel 11. He lives across the street. “Life is hard enough for us to be throwing rocks at little 5-year-old girls. What’s this world coming to?”
Police arrested Skylar Smith, 26. According to police, he told them he did it because he was “feeling violent,” “wanted to hurt people,” and would “do it again.”
Smith underwent a psych evaluation at Forbes Hospital before being released back to police.
“Situations like this are really tricky, right? Everybody is dealing with [something]. We’ve got a mental health crisis in this world right now,” neighbor Brayden Lee said. “I just feel really, really awful for her family and I just hope she’s okay.”
The little girl was taken to UPMC East for a CT scan and stitches.
Smith is free on nonmonetary bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 18.
Instead of putting this convicted rapist in prison, Maryland put him in a hotel because they wanted him to commit a second rape
Maryland officials silent about housing juvenile offenders in hotels after alleged rape
By Julian Baron and Jeff Abell
October 25 2024
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Maryland officials continue their silence about housing violent juvenile offenders in local hotels after a foster child was charged with raping a woman at an Owings Mills hotel in April.
Spotlight on Marylandreported Thursday the Randallstown NAACP sent a letter to Gov. Moore earlier this month demanding answers about an incident that occurred in April 2024 at Home2 Suites on Painters Mill Road.
The incident allegedly involved a juvenile who had previously been convicted of rape in Baltimore City. The juvenile was charged with raping a woman at Home2 Suites while housed there, sources familiar with the investigation and the Randallstown NAACP told Spotlight on Maryland.
Home2 Suites confirmed in a statement that the incident involved a minor in foster care and “his assigned caregiver.”
“Home2 Suites Owings Mills previously had an arrangement with Baltimore County Social Services in which the county could purchase room rentals for temporary placement of children in foster care, along with their caregivers,” a hotel spokesperson wrote. “This arrangement is no longer in place.”
The Baltimore County Department of Social Services is a local office of the Maryland Department of Human Services, which falls under the administration of Gov. Moore. He appointed its current secretary, Rafael López, in 2023.
Gov. Moore have yet to publicly comment on the incident despite repeated requests from Spotlight on Maryland. A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Human Services confirmed the agency received a “report from one of our partner organizations about an incident involving a staff member” in April but provided no further details.
“We’re really focusing hard on trying to uplift and keep the quality of life in Baltimore County and especially in Black communities,” Ryan Coleman, the president of the Randallstown NAACP, said in a Thursday interview. “We just can’t have this sort of thing happening.”
Spotlight on Maryland sent several questions Friday morning to leadership of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland about Coleman’s concern for quality of life in Black communities. Those questions included:
Do you believe the concerns of the Randallstown NAACP are legitimate?
Do you believe the state is neglecting the quality of life of Black communities in Baltimore County?
Do you believe the state and its local offices need to be more transparent about the housing of juvenile offenders in areas open to the community, such as hotels?
Do you plan to speak with the administration about this issue?
Those questions have not been answered as of Friday afternoon.
Other elected officials, including Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson, have not responded to requests for comment. Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski, Jr. provided a brief statement to via a spokesperson Thursday but declined to discuss details about the incident.
“The allegations are horrific, deeply disturbing, and, if true, Baltimore County will support every effort to hold individuals responsible and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the spokesperson said.
Robyn Kett is a widowed mother who wants to move her children and herself to live with a convicted armed robber and murderer named Deandre Parsons after he gets out of prison. If he kills her and her children, would that count as a Darwin Award?
Well this takes the cake.
Robyn Kett is a widowed mother who wants to move her children and herself from the U.K. to the U.S. to live with a convicted armed robber and murderer named Deandre Parsons after he gets out of prison.
Usually, in order to get a Darwin Award, a person has to be killed by their own stupidity before they reproduce.
Kett has already reproduced, so technically, she could not get a Darwin Award.
However, she wants to move her children and herself to live with a convicted armed robber and murderer after he gets out of prison.
If Kett did this, and Parsons killed her and her children, could Kett qualify for a Darwin Award?
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1851297528047894799
https://yahoo.com/lifestyle/fell-love-convicted-killer-serving-173515520.html
I fell in love with a convicted killer serving 20 years in prison – here’s why I want a future with him
By Brooke Steinberg
October 28, 2024
Their love is killer.
A British woman has fallen in love with a U.S. prisoner who is serving 20 years for manslaughter.
Robyn Kett came across a Reddit post in June 2024 from a family member of Deandre Parsons, 27, asking if anyone would be willing to be his pen pal.
The family said in the post that Parsons, who killed a man with a firearm, was lonely.
The 33-year-old stay-at-home mom decided to send a message out of curiosity – she had just lost her partner, Nick, 35, to cancer in December 2023 and decided “life is too short.”
“I saw him. I just thought, ‘Why don’t I shoot him a message?’” Kett told South West News Service. “My friend was writing to somebody and said it was different and I was curious.”
She said they “instantly connected,” despite him not being her “normal type.”
“He was really easy to talk to. He seemed genuine,” Kett shared. “It was like I had known him my whole life.”
“You know when you feel something and it just grabs you,” she added.
When Kett and Parsons, both from Connecticut, first began talking, Parsons didn’t say too much about his conviction, Kett said, but he eventually began to open up.
“I Googled him to make sure he wasn’t a maniac,” she admitted.
Parsons pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm in Stamford Superior Court after an armed robbery went wrong. In September 2022, he was sentenced to 20 years, SWNS reported.
“The original charge was felony murder,” Kett explained. “He went to a house to rob weed but a man and his partner and child were there. He didn’t go out that day to harm anybody.”
But Kett doesn’t judge Parsons for being a convicted killer.
“I can’t connect him with the crime. I’m not a judgmental person,” Kett said. “You can’t judge a person because of what they are in for. You don’t know the personal circumstances.”
The pair message every day, and Parsons calls Kett from the prison when he has the chance. He gets 10 messages and six free calls per day, and they use that time to discuss everything from food to TV shows.
“He makes me laugh,” Kett said. “I just ended up falling love.”
She added, “It’s all natural. He told me he loved me before he even saw pictures of me.”
The couple has now been talking for four months, and Kett plans to save up money and get paperwork to approve her visits completed in order to fly to meet the convicted killer in prison next year.
Despite his 20-year sentence, Parsons is up for parole in six years.
“He talks about the future a lot,” Kett said. “I’d move over there. I want a future with him.
“From losing my partner in December I realized life is too short. I didn’t expect to ever find love again,” she added.
Luckily for Kett, her friends and family aren’t judgmental either — they tell her “if you can find happiness, grab it.”
Here’s yet even another example of how the people who run Minneapolis are in favor of violent crime
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
October 28, 2024
In the past, I’ve posted many examples of how the people who run Minneapolis are in favor of encouraging, allowing, tolerating, and not punishing criminals. Some of those examples are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
And now we have the newest example.
NBC News just reported the following:
Minneapolis shooting sparks outrage as suspect is charged but not arrested
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed charges against John Herbert Sawchak in connection with the Wednesday shooting of Davis Moturi.
By Minyvonne Burke
October 26, 2024
A white Minneapolis man was charged with attempted murder Thursday after allegedly shooting his Black neighbor in the neck for touching a tree following an ongoing dispute, but the failure of police to arrest the suspect has angered city council members.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed charges against John Herbert Sawchak in connection with the Wednesday shooting of Davis Moturi.
The office said it received the case on Thursday and immediately charged Sawchak with attempted murder, first-degree assault and felony harassment and stalking, enhanced for racial bias, NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis reported.
At the time of the shooting, Sawchak had three active arrest warrants against him, including one for threats of violence against Moturi, court documents state.
On Wednesday, Moturi was pruning a tree on his property when he was shot. Court documents state that Sawchak shot his neighbor in the neck with a firearm from an open upstairs window.
Moturi fractured his spine, has two broken ribs and a concussion, his wife, Caroline, said in a phone interview Saturday.
Wow. This totally sucks.
But I’m not surprised. Like I just said, I’ve posted plenty of other examples of how Minneapolis is pro-crime. This is just one more example.
I support letting different cities and states experiment with policies that their voters are in favor of, even if I don’t personally agree with those policies. And I don’t live in Minneapolis anyway. So if the voters of Minneapolis want to encourage, allow, tolerate, and not punish criminals, I’m perfectly OK with it, as long as those criminals stay in Minneapolis.
Every city has exactly as much crime as its voters are willing to tolerate. The voters of Minneappolis tolerate a very, very large amount of it.
By the way, you can read my tweets, buy my books, and donate to me at the following three links:
Sacramento City Attorney’s Office warned Target it could face fines for retail theft calls
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article289624876.html
Sacramento City Attorney’s Office warned Target it could face fines for retail theft calls
By Ishani Desai
July 9, 2024
The Sacramento City Attorney’s Office warned a chain retail store that it could face a public nuisance charge due to a large number of phone calls placed to police when thieves repeatedly stole from its Land Park location.
A person with knowledge of the warning, but not authorized to speak publicly due to the fear of retaliation, told The Sacramento Bee that city officials threatened the Target at 2505 Riverside Blvd. in the past year with an administrative fine. A Sacramento police spokesman confirmed the location — a site that prompted heavy ire from Land Park residents due to repeated crimes — when asked about the apparent warning.
The alleged warning issued by Sacramento city officials — and similar actions by other cities across the state — prompted lawmakers to add an amendment to a retail theft bill that would outlaw such threats made by authorities. Pursuing legal actions against businesses for reporting crime brought heavy criticism from law enforcement.
“I … (was) also surprised that anyone would ever attempt to make a nuisance case out of somebody calling to report a legitimate crime,” said Alexander Gammelgard, president of the California Police Chiefs Association while testifying in December at the Assembly’s first retail theft committee meeting. “I don’t think there is a place for that.”
The City Attorney’s Office and the Sacramento Police Department were not aware of any threats of litigation, Tim Swanson, a spokesman for the city of Sacramento, wrote in an email.
It’s unclear why City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood’s office would allegedly resort to issuing such a warning to any business seeking help from police. Swanson did not grant multiple interview requests to the City Attorney’s Office over a period of about a week.
Clark Kelso, a professor of law at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, said “there is no question” that city attorneys have every right to pursue a public nuisance charge against businesses in which owners know the property is dangerous.
However, experts said it’s unclear if the law allows a public nuisance charge when people steal from the store. The retailer is a victim, and could be seeking serious help when confronted with shoplifters, he said.
The alleged warnings by city officials statewide may affect what crime data is reported as businesses contend with the potential of facing legal action for reporting retail theft, a topic spurring heavy debate in California. Lawmakers have said the unreliable data has caused some skepticism about what, if any, legislation should be passed.
Blake Randol, a criminal justice professor at California State University, Stanislaus, found the situation disconcerting because the purpose behind pursuing the action is to stop a person or entity from creating disorder. The responsibility of a city is to help residents and a public nuisance change could deter a business from reporting, he said, while also noting that city officials could issue warnings because they would like to see a decrease in crime statistics.
“What’s problematic is that what Target is complaining about is a legitimate crime concern,” Randol said. “The city does have a responsibility to be more responsive to the public and be responsive to crime control demands from the public.”
Concerns with Target
The crime hitting the Target at Riverside and Broadway has drawn criticism from the neighborhood association.
Land Park Community Association members said the frequent criminal activity at the Target has prompted residents to record instances of crime, according one report by Ch. 13, the Sacramento CBS affiliate. Kristina Rogers, president of the association, also complained in the report about how the crime hitting the business bleeds into the neighborhood.
The offenses aired on local TV stations prompted a plan by City Councilman Rick Jennings II, the City Attorney’s Office and Sacramento Police Department to meet with Target and create a specific safety plan to mitigate incidents, according to internal communications provided via a Public Records Act request by The Bee.
“It would be great to be at the store and show what we have actually (been) working on to address the concern raised most recently in all the news this week,” Alex Garcia, a former director of Target’s governmental affairs, wrote in the email referring to past news coverage. The note was sent to Dennis Rodgers, Jennings’ chief-of-staff.
Both sides collaborated to create a plan called “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design” to address the issues raised in the reports. It included “placement of security measures such as alarms, cameras, and security personnel” and also implementing “light fixtures, landscaping, wayfinding and space activation measures,” according to the internal communications from the City Attorney’s Office to Target.
But the meeting also allowed city officials to discuss their “concerns” with Target and that it has acknowledged its “problems” during a discussion, Jennings said in a statement. The statement notes Jennings’ office has noticed “observed improvements” to address “community concerns” regarding “unlawful activity.”
It’s not entirely clear what “concerns” city officials raised to Target during the meeting. Jasleen Escobar, the director of constituent affairs and engagement, did not respond to multiple requests seeking clarification.
Target also did not respond to requests for comment about the apparent threat and why city officials raised concerns with their practices. Rogers declined to comment further than to say she was glad the city and Target were working together to “problem-solve the theft and crime inside the store and in the parking lot.”
The number of calls for service related to theft, robbery and shoplifting at the three Target locations in the city of Sacramento increased sharply in 2023, according to The Bee’s analysis of police data. At the same time, most calls did not result in police taking a crime report, issuing a citation or making an arrest.
But police did take those actions much more often in 2023 than in prior years, according to data.
Target locations within the city of Sacramento had a total of 375 calls for service related to theft, robbery and shoplifting in 2023, up from about 175 in 2022 and 87 in 2021. The uptick between last year’s data and the same period two years prior was 331%.
Police took about 80 crime reports related to theft, robbery and shoplifting in 2023, up from about 35 in 2022, a 128% increase. Police took an average of 27 crime reports each year from 2018 through 2022.
Police made about 55 arrests related to theft, robbery and shoplifting in 2023, more than double the number of arrests in 2022 (26) and a five-fold jump from the eight arrests made in 2021. Officers issued 18 citations in 2023, up from 6 in 2022 and two in 2021.
Warnings prompt legislation
Doubt also hounds the severity of retailers’ concerns because the crime data doesn’t support a clear picture. Business owners don’t tally shoplifting incidents. And property crimes are underreported as police, facing dire staffing shortages statewide, do not arrive or must prioritize violent crime responses.
The threats of charges — coming as lawmakers were poised to pass bills they believed would stem retail theft while a district attorney-led effort for harsher penalties is planned for the November ballot — affect the ability to fully understand the picture of crime data.
The district attorneys have long blamed what they see as a rise in retail theft and drug crimes on Proposition 47, a 2014 voter-approved measure that made some lower-level crimes misdemeanors and set a $950 felony threshold for shoplifting.
Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, co-authored Assembly Bill 2943, which allows prosecutors to aggregate property crimes. The bill was amended to dissuade cities from threatening retailers seeking help and was slated for a third reading and vote in the Assembly this week.
“The bill would clarify that local law enforcement or a local jurisdiction is prohibited from bringing a nuisance action against a business solely for the act of reporting retail crime, unless the report is knowingly false,” the bill’s amendment reads.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rivas and Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, have been pushing a 14-bill package tightening penalties on retail theft offenses as their answer to the ballot measure. They’ve said their legislation will do a good job of dealing with these crimes, and it’s not necessary to change Proposition 47.
Newsom and Democratic leaders had planned on a drug and theft ballot measure to compete with the D.A.’s effort, now known as Proposition 36. But, last week, Newsom abruptly pulled the initiative from consideration after the governor insisted the effort lacked lawmakers’ votes.
‘Where’s the public harm?’
Rachel Michelin, the president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, said the amendment was included to allow businesses freedom to call law enforcement without repercussions. She declined to discuss the City Attorney’s Office’s apparent warnings to Target.
A city attorney would typically issue a letter or attempt to speak with a business about the potential for a public nuisance charge.
The source with knowledge of actions said the City Attorney’s Office warned Target it could send a letter about issuing a public nuisance charge.
Ultimately a letter was never sent.
Wood, in her capacity as city attorney, could make an argument describing the large call volume and how it detracts from high-priority calls and clogs up a burdened dispatch system, said Kelso, the McGeorge law professor.
A city attorney could bring legal action if the victims were shoppers robbed in the parking lot, Kelso said. The store has a duty to protect the public on its land, he said, and the city would like to ensure residents’ safety.
But, Kelso said, the main legal question that was uncertain was whether the city could pursue public nuisance charges if people were shoplifting from Target.
“If there’s no threats to any members of the public, if nobody is threatened by it … well, where’s the public harm?” Kelso said.
Judge Xander Orenstein under fire for releasing Montour Trail stabbing suspect Anthony Quesen in prior assault case
https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/judge-xander-orenstein-anthony-quesen-non-monetary-bail/
Judge Xander Orenstein under fire for releasing Montour Trail stabbing suspect Anthony Quesen in prior assault case
By Mike Darnay and Ross Guidotti
October 23, 2024
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pennsylvania magistrate judge Xander Orenstein is under fire for releasing Anthony Quesen, the suspect in Monday’s deadly Montour Trail stabbing in a prior assault case.
Quesen has been charged with homicide, accused of stabbing Benjamin Brallier, an off-duty Liquor Control Enforcement agent with the Pennsylvania State Police. Brallier was out for a run along the trail Monday when he was stabbed to death.
Monday’s deadly attack was not Quesen’s first run-in with the law. Last summer, Quesen was accused of robbing someone at Point State Park.
Court documents revealed that Orenstein set a non-monetary bail, which was revoked when Quesen failed to show up for hearings.
In the wake of Brallier’s killing, Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco has issued a statement calling for Orenstein to either resign or for the state legislature to remove them from the bench by impeachment.
“We have long feared that Judge Orenstein’s reckless pattern of letting dangerous suspects back on the street would cost a life,” DeMarco said. “Now it has. And Xander Orenstein must be removed from the bench before the public loses all faith in the justice system.”
Republican state Sen. Devlin Robinson, who is running for reelection, called on the House to begin impeachment proceedings against Orenstein.
Democratic state Rep. Anita Kulik is also calling on Orenstein to resign and a “full investigation by the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court.”
When asked why they issued no bail in the prior assault case, Orenstein directed all media inquiries to court administrators, saying they don’t make statements about ongoing cases, which has been their policy since being elected.
Courts spokesperson Joseph Asturi also provided no comment, only saying that Orenstein handles landlord/tenant disputes, traffic cases, and criminal cases.
Past criticism of Judge Orenstein’s use of non-monetary bail
Orenstein was removed from hearing arraignments earlier this year by Allegheny County President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente because of scrutiny over no-cash bail decisions.
The judge’s actions came after a fugitive warrant was issued for Hermas Craddock, who failed to appear at a bond modification hearing earlier this week.
Despite a lengthy criminal record, Orenstein had released Craddock on a non-monetary bond after he was accused of leading Pennsylvania State Police troopers on a high-speed chase down Route 28, nearly ramming two cruisers and tossing a weapon from his car. Craddock was ultimately taken into custody after escaping to Florida.
Craddock was the second high-profile defendant who would be a no-show for one of Orenstein’s cases.
Orenstein also released New York City native Yan Carlos Cepeda on no-cash bail after his arrest for allegedly trafficking more than a kilogram of cocaine. The Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office said they spent $30,000 sending detectives to New York three times to look for Cepeda after he failed to show up at his preliminary hearing.
Cepeda was arrested once again in New York City and was ruled to be held without bail by a different judge after being taken into custody.
Law enforcement descends on Montour Trail on Wednesday
Law enforcement conducted a massive search on Wednesday of the area where Brallier was killed.
Officers from multiple police agencies began searching the Montour Trail around 8 a.m., looking in the woods, on the trail and other places where the trail crosses Hassam Road. The officers searched until noon.
It was not clear what they were searching for, but investigators were seen carrying brown evidence bags from the scene.
New York state gives children permission to commit as many armed robberies as they want
Baby-faced Tren de Aragua crew at NYC migrant shelter targets Times Square – and they’re getting away with it
By Joe Marino and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
October 14, 2024
A brutal crew of baby-faced Tren de Aragua migrant gangbangers at a city-funded Manhattan shelter are pulling off armed robberies in Times Square — and they’re getting away with it, officials and sources said.
Nearly two dozen young migrant thugs, some as young as 11 years old, are part of a dangerous asylum-seeking brat pack that has graduated from purse snatchings to gunpoint heists targeting New Yorkers and tourists alike, a top NYPD official told The Post.
But they’re managing to stay out of jail because of their ages and the Empire State’s lenient criminal justice laws, Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino said.
“You have individuals that are brazen,” Savino said. “We know they have access to guns, evident by the fact that they’ve done gunpoint robberies and they’ve been brazen enough to showcase pistols in and around their social media.
“This is the first formulated group that we found where this group of about 20 individuals that, in pack format, hang out every day, they post on social media, they boast about their crew,” the chief said. “You see little pockets in and around Times Square and in and around the shelters.
“But as far as a true threshold, it’s been limited to shelters.”
Calling themselves “Los Diablos de la 42” — Spanish for “Little Devils of 42nd Street” — the crew of about 21 gang members has been busted for 50 separate incidents, and yet not one is behind bars, Savino said.
“They committed the robberies [in] all the sexy places, in and around Central Park, in and around Times Square, in and around transit,” he said. “And targeting tourists.”
“They kind of had a graduation of sorts, and a progression where originally it started as snatches and then went to strong-armed robberies, and then started brandishing knives in a pack format.”
Also worrisome for New York’s Finest is the possibility that an all-out gang war could erupt between TdA and one of the Big Apple’s most notorious gangs, the Latin Kings.
According to authorities, a dispute between the two gangs dates back several years to the alleged murder of a TdA member by a Latin King, with the feud still a sore point.
TdA, which grew out of the poverty and corruption that has long plagued Venezuela, established a criminal foothold in the five boroughs in little more than a year.
Law enforcement sources said gang members hid among the millions of asylum seekers who crossed the US border with Mexico since 2022, then scattered throughout the country.
Members are told to get distinctive tattoos that mark them as members, with the body art typically including anchors, clocks, crowns and phrases that included the word “guerrero” — which means warrior in Spanish but also pays homage to Hector “Nino” Guerrero, the leader of the gang in Venezuela.
The gang tats also tend to feature the number “23” or NBA stars Michael Jordan and LeBron James, both of whom wear the number on their jerseys, while others include images of bulls, seemingly a shout-out to the Chicago Bulls basketball team, a city where TdA has flourished, sources said.
In New York, gang members exploited the city’s migrant shelter system, running robbery crews, as well as trafficking drugs, guns and sex workers under the noses of private security guards. according to sources.
The Diablos crew out of the Roosevelt Hotel is guided by an older gangbanger, who recruits youngsters to pull off robberies before bringing back the loot — sometimes as part of an initiation into the gang, sources said.
The group’s members hang out in packs with the younger recruits, and will be there when the kids pull off a crime, perhaps steal a chain from a passerby. Punishment for failing could mean being forced to lick the floor of a city subway car or worse, Savino said.
Communication between crew members takes place online, where they brazenly post exploits, he added.
“They use group chat on their government-issued phones, so you know that that’s what you’re using. And the group app is titled according to their gang, really, and they’re using their government-issued phones.”
Recruiters also pick youngsters, who are unlikely to be charged as adults, to join their ranks.
In August, police suspected that an 11-year-old accused subway mugger from Venezuela who was living at the Roosevelt was tied to TdA.
Once in custody, the boy was given a juvenile card and released.
In addition to the young age of some of the gang members, the state’s criminal justice reforms prohibited bail for misdemeanors and most felonies, which means TdA suspects are often released, according to some in law enforcement.
“It’s a product of bail reform,” Savino told The Post. “We tried to try some in criminal court, somewhat unsuccessfully.”
Here’s more proof that Minneapolis is in favor of crime
Man who got plea deal in fatal carjacking now charged with fleeing police in stolen vehicle
September 19, 2024
A young man who received a controversial plea deal for his role in a fatal carjacking as a teen is now charged with fleeing police in a stolen vehicle, a felony.
After rejecting an earlier plea deal, Judge Michael Burns in December sentenced Husayn Braveheart to time served after he pleaded guilty to attempted assault in the 2019 shooting death of Steven Markey, 39, in northeast Minneapolis. As part of the agreement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty dropped a count of second-degree murder.
Braveheart’s co-defendant Jered Ohsman, who was 16 at the time of the carjacking and admitted firing the fatal shots, is serving 21 years.
Moriarty argued that because Braveheart was 15 when he was involved in the crime and “changed significantly,” he shouldn’t be incarcerated beyond the more than four years he spent in Minnesota youth facilities.
In a December statement, Moriarty said Braveheart “has made enormous strides” while receiving treatment and added that “we believe the treatment will prevent a future crime if it continues.”
In a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, Dakota County prosecutors allege that an Eagan police officer who received a stolen vehicle alert activated his emergency lights after pulling up behind the stopped vehicle on Sunday. Braveheart, the alleged driver, accelerated “to speeds more than 100 miles per hour at times,” “ran multiple stop signs” and maneuvered randomly from lane to lane on highways.
The complaint does not say how long the pursuit lasted, but it noted that officers used stop sticks to bring the vehicle to a halt.
Braveheart in December also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery, for which he received probation. Court records show that he has two probation violation warrants in those cases for “failure to remain law abiding.”
In a brief statement Thursday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said if the new allegations are true, “Mr. Braveheart will be held accountable.”
In its own statement, Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association general counsel Imran Ali, a former assistant Washington County attorney and critic of Moriarty, said Braveheart is putting more lives at risk because he received “no real punishment” under the plea deal and that “Moriarty’s office prioritizes repeat criminals over community safety.”
People are making up excuses for Pittsburgh teenagers who commit crime.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
October 16, 2024
People are making up excuses for Pittsburgh teenagers who commit crime.
Here are two examples:
“More activities for them, instead of coming downtown wreaking havoc,” said Payne.
“There’s nowhere near as much things for these kids to do recreationally. If they turn one of these into a YMCA center or something down here for the kids, I guarantee you there’d be more for them to do,” said Banks.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/11-investigates-exclusive-teens-causing-211541770.html
These excuses are ridiculous. Most teenagers somehow manage to avoid committing crime because their parents raised them properly. The idea that teenagers commit crimes because there aren’t enough government-run babysitting services is ridiculous. These are not toddlers. They are teenagers. They shouldn’t need babysitters. When I was teenager, I was a babysitter – I did not need a babysitter.
The article goes on to say that these same teenage criminals have been committing crimes for months, but they’ve never had to face any consequences. By not punishing these teenage serial criminals, the government is sending the message that their criminal behavior is acceptable and that it will be tolerated. This is the exact opposite of the message that they should be sending.
Zero jail time for 17-year-old drag racer who killed two innocent bystanders
Camille Dennis-Bond sentenced to 15 years for high-speed crash that killed two young adults
March 24, 2023
BURNSVILLE, Minn. — A 21-year-old woman has been sentenced to 15 years for her involvement in a high-speed car crash in April 2021 that killed two young adults.
Camille Dennis-Bond of Burnsville was convicted in December of two counts of third-degree murder, two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, one count of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm, and one count of careless driving.
She was sentenced to 12.5 years and 15 years for the murder charges respectively, and sentenced to just over 3 years for the criminal vehicular operation charge. She’ll serve the sentences concurrently, according to the Dakota County Attorney.
Charging documents said that Dennis-Bond was drag racing on County Road 42 in Burnsville against a vehicle driven by her younger brother. The car driven by her younger brother hit a Honda which had entered the intersection and then “split in half.”
The occupants of the Honda, Tayler Garza of Woodbury and Dalton Ford of Burnsville, died in the crash. They were both 22 years old.
Dennis-Bond’s brother was 17 years old at the time of the crash, and the motion to certify him as an adult was denied by a judge. He was placed on juvenile probation until he turns 21.
Here is absolute proof that Los Angeles Democrats don’t care about the victims of violent crime
https://www.foxla.com/news/la-county-repeat-offender-linked-killing
17-year-old previously tried as a minor for double murder now linked to another killing after release
By Gina Silva
September 28, 2024
LOS ANGELES – Nearly five years ago, Alfredo Carrera and his friend, José Flores Velázquez, were murdered in South Los Angeles simply for standing in a gang’s territory.
“It was devastating, honestly,” says Cynthia Carrera, Alfredo’s sister.
Neither man was gang-affiliated. Alfredo was about to become a father, and Jose, a student at UCI, had just accepted a job with NASA.
“This was cold-blooded murder. And it wasn’t just one person; two innocent people lost their lives for no reason,” said Carrera.
Seventeen-year-old Shanice Dyer, a member of the East Coast Crips, was charged with premeditated murder by then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey and was set to be tried as an adult. However, that changed when George Gascón took office in 2020.
“The public needs to know what’s going on,” said Michele Hanisee, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys President in LA County. She explained, “One of the many blanket policies Gascón implemented on his first day in office was that no crime committed by a juvenile — no matter the circumstances — would ever be transferred to adult court.”
As a result, Shanice Dyer was tried as a juvenile. Despite being convicted of two murders, she was in custody for less than four years. “It’s still very hard. And now we find out that this person has committed another crime, doing this to yet another family,” said Carrera.
The same woman who killed Alfredo and Jose is now accused of murder once again, allegedly aiding and abetting in the murder of 21-year-old Joshua Streeter. Retired LA County Deputy DA Kathy Cady, now a victim’s advocate, said, “George Gascón refuses to take responsibility for the fact that his policies have led to this murder. He hides behind explanations that don’t make sense.” Carrera added, “Gascón’s reform aimed to rehabilitate and give people a second chance, but since the incident, no one has ever reached out to the victims. No one has ever asked, ‘What can we do for you?'”
George Gascón declined our request for an interview, but his office released the following statement:
“Our heart breaks for the victim and his family. This is an unimaginable tragedy. However, it is very unlikely that Ms. Dyer would have been transferred under any administration. Under the law, there are five factors that a juvenile court would have considered and weighed in determining if Ms. Dyer were amenable to remain in the juvenile system. Of those five factors, only one factor, the circumstances and gravity of the offense, weighed in favor of transfer to adult court. All the other factors weighed in favor of Ms. Dyer remaining in the juvenile system. Given this, it is highly unlikely that Ms. Dyer would have been transferred to the adult system even if the court had held a transfer hearing. Those factors include:
She was under the influence of adult men and acted at their direction, which indicates that she did not exhibit a high degree of criminal sophistication;
Her lack of any serious criminal history at the time;
The amount of time and opportunity that remained at that time to rehabilitate her in the juvenile system; and
The absence of any previous opportunities to rehabilitate her in the juvenile system.”
In March 2022, LADA’s Juvenile Alternative Charging Evaluation Committee (JACE) was formed. Since that time, 23 transfer requests have been approved for transfer motions to adult court by JACE.
Of those approved, 5 JACE cases have gone to hearings before the juvenile court.
4 JACE transfer motions were denied by the court.
1 JACE transfer motion was granted by the court.
1 JACE transfer motion is still in progress as of today.
Minneapolis has given a 10-year-old serial car thief permission to steal as many cars as he wants.
10-year-old boy charged after driving stolen car near crowded Minneapolis playground
October 6, 2024
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police arrested a 10-year-old boy for allegedly driving a stolen vehicle near a school playground last month – and it’s not the boy’s first brush with the law, police said.
The Sept. 20 incident was caught on video. The Minneapolis Police Department said it happened at Nellie Stone Johnson School in north Minneapolis when the playground was “crowded.”
“Fortunately, no children on the playground were struck by the driver,” the department said.
Police booked the 10-year-old into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center Thursday. According to the department, this is at least his third arrest and he is a suspect in a dozen cases ranging from “auto theft to robbery to assault with a dangerous weapon.”
“It is unfathomable that a 10-year-old boy has been involved in this level of criminal activity without effective intervention,” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. “Prison is not an acceptable option for a 10-year-old boy. But the adults who can stop this behavior going forward must act now to help this child and his family.”
Police said the boy’s family members are cooperating and “have asked for help to keep their son or anyone else from being injured or killed.”
On Friday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced criminal charges have been filed against the boy, but couldn’t comment further due to his age. O’Hara said charges were also approved against the boy in an August attempted carjacking.
The office says if a court-appointed psychologist deems any offender, including a child, incompetent to stand trial, and a judge agrees with the recommendation, the case “must be dismissed or suspended, and the child must be released from custody.”
“We are facing an urgent crisis in our community related to a small group of children who are not competent to stand trial in the juvenile justice system, but who cannot safely be at home,” an attorney’s office spokesperson said in a statement.
The office says it “cannot charge or prosecute our way out of this crisis,” and adds it’s working with law enforcement, county and state partners in the hope of creating “out-of-home placements” for young offenders with “complex needs.”
“What we need is clear: residential placements with varying levels of security in our community that are resourced and staffed to be able to accept and successfully treat our youth with complex needs,” the spokesperson wrote. “And we need urgent and immediate action to address this issue now.”
O’Hara echoed the need for residential placement for young offenders at a Friday afternoon press conference.
“We’ve noticed this year the age of juvenile offenders who are very active has gotten younger,” O’Hara said. “The system doesn’t have an answer for what to do with someone this young.”
In 2019, two metro facilities for juvenile offenders were closed after being in operation for more than 100 years: Minnetonka’s Hennepin County Home School and St. Paul’s Totem Town.
The closings came after leaders in Hennepin and Ramsey counties decided to move away from the practice of confining child offenders in favor of a new data-driven system emphasizing the use of alternative methods like intensive treatment homes and community- and cultural-specific programs.
Data show since the closures, crimes committed by youths like arson, auto thefts and robberies have increased in the metro between 2019 and 2021.
Critics, like Ramsey County Undersheriff Mike Martin, say the shift away from confinement has backfired.
“We’re failing these kids,” Martin told WCCO in 2022. “The criminal justice system no longer holds them accountable or provides meaningful intervention to them.”
“It is literally a matter of life and death when we’re talking about what’s going on with these young kids,” O’Hara said Friday.
MCF-Moorhead and MCF-Red Wing are two Minnesota juvenile facilities that take in the state’s most violent young offenders. But the rest are mostly sent home after being arrested.
Lisa Clemons, founder and chief executive officer of Minneapolis-based A Mother’s Love Initiative, told WCCO in 2022 that young offenders are emboldened by the lack of consequences.
“They know it’s a revolving door downtown,” Clemons said. “They take full advantage of being juveniles, and we have allowed the lawlessness long enough that they have absolutely no fear.”
Even though there’s a 911 recording of K’Shawn Jimerson confessing to the murder of Michael Gray, he was released after he was arrested. Why didn’t they give him his right to a “speedy” trial, and have him executed within 30 days?
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1841179295080988789
https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-killed-renton-stabbing-suspect-041938762.html
Man killed in Renton stabbing, suspect released 27 hours after arrest
By Jennifer Dowling
October 1, 2024
RENTON, Wash. – A 19-year-old man accused of stabbing a Renton handyman to death on Friday was released from jail just 27 hours after his arrest on $50,000 bail.
Now, the victim’s friends and neighbors are speaking out about his death.
Michael Gray lived with his roommates in a single-story home across the street from the duplex where he was killed.
Gray’s roommates say he was a kind man who was always willing to lend a hand. They say he was a tremendous person, and much more than just a handy-man.
One man said Gray had a knack of fixing physical objects, and used his skills to help and maintain his large network of friends. He was also friends with those who lived in the duplex where he died.
Although his roommates didn’t want to appear on camera, they told FOX 13 Seattle they were shocked when they learned of his death.
One man said he was still working through it. He said Gray never bothered anyone and didn’t deserve what happened.
Roommates also say Gray was a military vet. A neighbor added that Gray “wasn’t perfect, but he was the perfect friend.”
Newly released court documents are also revealing more about what happened the day of the stabbing.
Dispatchers reported that 19-year-old K’Shawn Jimerson called 911 himself to say “he stabbed someone,” and that he would be waiting outside with the knife.
“The 911 caller called and said that they had stabbed the handyman inside the house,” said Susan Hassinger with Renton Police.
When officers arrived, they reported that they found “K’Shawn Konscience Jimerson in front” and saw “blood on Jimerson, but no knife.”
Court documents also say Jimerson had blood on his jeans, his shoes and on his feet.
“Once inside, officers discovered a male subject in the living room of the apartment who was suffering from knife wounds,” the documents read.
Investigators say Gray had been stabbed in the back and on his side. Police told FOX 13 Seattle they have located the knife used in the stabbing.
“Patrol responded to that call. They located the suspect outside. He cooperated and was detained,” said Hassinger.
When law enforcement was asked if they objected to his release, they marked “yes” on the court form, stating, “Jimerson, who is 19, stabbed a 65-year-old man with a large knife during an argument.”
At his court appearance, prosecutors asked for $2 million bail. Despite finding probable cause for second-degree murder, Judge Michelle Gehlsen set bail at $50,000.
Jimerson posted bail, according to jail records below, and has been released.
The investigation into the stabbing is ongoing.
Convicted murderer released in the ’90s agrees to life sentence on 2 new murder charges
https://www.yahoo.com/news/convicted-murderer-released-90s-agrees-214432487.html
Convicted murderer released in the ’90s agrees to life sentence on 2 new murder charges
By Jim Vertuno
September 30, 2024
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A convicted murderer who was run out of several Texas cities when he was released early from prison in 1993 pleaded guilty Monday to two new murder charges in a deal that allows him to serve life in prison and avoid the death penalty, over the objections of the victims’ family members.
Raul Meza Jr., 63, served about a decade in prison for killing an 8-year-old girl in 1982 before he was released under laws at the time that gave him credit for good behavior behind bars.
He was charged in 2023 with killing 65-year-old Gloria Lofton in 2019, and 80-year-old Jesse Fraga, his roommate, in 2023. Meza pleaded guilty to capital murder in Lofton’s death and to murder in Fraga’s death. Meza will not be eligible for parole.
“Our hearts continue to break for the Lofton and Fraga families. We hope this outcome continues to help them with their healing process,” Travis County District Attorney José Garza said in a statement. “As a result of this outcome, Mr. Meza will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole and will never threaten our community again.”
But the families of Meza’s victims wanted him to go to trial and for Garza to seek the death penalty.
“A lifetime in jail will not be equal to the pain,” the families have experienced, Loftin’s daughter, Sonia Houston, said in a statement she read in court. “By accepting this plea, we are giving Raul exactly what he wants.”
Meza was first convicted in the 1982 murder of 8-year-old Kendra Page, who authorities said had been strangled and sexually assaulted. He accepted a plea agreement in which he admitted to the murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but only served 11.
Meza’s early release from prison in 1993 caused an uproar throughout Texas, and he was met by protesters at nearly every turn. Picketers drove him out of six cities, sometimes with threats of violence.
“In my heart, I know that I will not willfully bring harm to anyone,” Meza said during an August 1993 news conference after he had been driven out of the communities.
Austin police said Meza called them in May 2023 and confessed to killing Fraga and implicated himself in the 2019 sexual assault and killing of Lofton.
Neither the Biden administration, nor the city government of Aurora, Colorado, has done anything to stop this armed gang of illegal aliens from terrorizing residents of this apartment building.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1829153230670180515
https://www.yahoo.com/news/video-shows-armed-gang-troubled-070023974.html
Video shows armed gang at troubled Colorado apartment building believed to have been taken over by migrants
By Jasmine Baehr
August 29, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2F4cArA3uc
Potential gang activity was caught on surveillance camera in a Colorado apartment building after what one former resident calls “no accountability” kept law enforcement from assisting.
The video shows many men armed with handguns, and one with a scoped rifle, bursting through the door of the apartment complex for unknown reasons.
The group appears to be Tren de Aragua, or TdA, a transnational gang based out of Venezuela. The gang, with reportedly 5,000 members, has a motto of “real until death,” or “real hasta la muerte.”
TdA is now linked with over 100 crimes across the nation, according to reporting from the New York Post.
Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital that “without a doubt that there is sex trafficking now going on” in relationship to TdA’s activities in the city.
“This is organized. They patrol the property with guns visibly, like they’re not trying to hide them. There’s no repercussion. These are ghosts,” said one resident who spoke with Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity.
The gang has also been seen dealing drugs in the same apartment building, according to this resident.
The resident, who moved out of the overtaken apartment building on Wednesday afternoon with the assistance of City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky and congressional candidate John Fabbricatore, said to Fox News Digital that “I literally had to borrow from everybody I know to get into a new place. And it’s every bit of money I had.”
She also credits Fox News with her move out of the troubled complex, saying “Through the help of Fox News actually, they connected us with the councilwoman who, Danielle Jurinsky, pulled together all the resources to get us some help and get us out of there.”
Aurora Police released a statement via X, saying “we believe reports of TdA influence in Aurora are isolated.”
Nearby Denver Police told FOX 31 on Wednesday that they were “not aware” of any apartment takeovers by gangs in the area.
“There’s no safety net for you because the police are not coming. They say, ‘stay inside and lock your doors.’ I have to work! I was paying rent, these people haven’t been paying rent at all. I’ve been paying rent every month for years,” the resident told Fox News Digital.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Aurora City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky said, “In the entire Denver metro area, it has been like pulling teeth to get anyone, the media, other elected officials, to get anyone to acknowledge the presence of this trend and to acknowledge that there is even a problem.”
“I hope [the police] do something because they could have helped me get out. Literally. Their answer for me was, ‘you ever think about moving?’ That’s what they told me when I was like, and I started crying,” recalled the resident.
“There’s no help coming for any of us. The police have checked out. They’re not on our side.”
I think this parent is raising their child to be a criminal.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1827100347216662824
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/passenger-sends-social-media-sos-005855547.html
“I am currently on a flight from Hawaii to Las Vegas and a child behind me keeps kicking my seat,” Redditor Silverlace22 alerted the room.
“His oblivious father is sitting next to him and does nothing. I don’t want to cause a scene but 4 hours into this and I am ready to go full tilt Karen. I have said ‘ouch’ a few times, but to no avail.
For all practical purposes, Minneapolis has decriminalized shootings and car thefts for people who are 13 or younger
My prediction: Los Angeles will give parole to Nathaniel Radimak, he’ll end up assaulting an innocent person, and the people who gave him parole will have zero concern for this new victim.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1826358720957481219
https://yahoo.com/news/tesla-driver-smashed-cars-pipe-174051007.html
Tesla driver who smashed cars with a pipe in incidents of road rage could be paroled early
By Andrew J. Campa
August 21, 2024
The Tesla driver who became notorious for violent, pipe-wielding incidents of road rage through video captured by a victim may be back on highways sooner than expected.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón described Nathaniel Radimak’s “reign of terror” when he was charged in January 2023.
Now, the 37-year-old could be freed after serving less than a year of his five-year sentence, according to files from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His earliest eligible parole date is listed as August 2024, though the department noted the date was “subject to change.”
Radimak is being held at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown, about 50 miles southeast of Stockton. The minimum- to medium-custody facility also serves as a training center for incarcerated people who aid in firefighting efforts.
He’s been there since Oct. 3, 2023.
Radimak was initially charged with four counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, four counts of criminal threats and one felony count of vandalism, along with two misdemeanor counts of vandalism and one misdemeanor count of elder abuse.
He pleaded no contest and was eventually sentenced to five years for stalking and two years for criminal threats (served concurrently) in state prison in August 2023.
He’s credited with 424 days served awaiting sentencing — 212 days for time served and 212 days for good behavior, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records.
In June 2022, Radimak threatened a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor’s office in Glendale, and then in November he threatened a woman at a storage facility in Atwater Village, Los Angeles County prosecutors said. That same day, he got out of his Tesla, threatened a woman on a freeway and broke one of her headlights.
On Jan. 11, 2023, prosecutors said, he struck another vehicle with a pipe on the 2 Freeway near York Boulevard, an incident caught on dash-cam video. He was also accused of following a car from a Pasadena mall later that day, nearly hitting it with his vehicle, then striking it with a metal pole.
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.
Democrats allowed a known serial killer who murdered 23 people to enter the U.S.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1824495114372387197
Reputed Peruvian gang leader arrested in NY as suspect wanted for 23 killings in his home country
By Associated Press
August 15, 2024
A reputed Peruvian gang leader suspected in nearly two dozen killings in his home country was arrested Wednesday in New York by U.S. immigration authorities.
Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, the leader of “Los Killers” who is wanted for 23 killings in his home country, was arrested in Endicott, New York, about 145 miles (233 kilometers) northwest of New York City, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday.
He is being held at a federal detention facility near Buffalo pending an immigration hearing, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
Torres-Navarro, 38, entered the U.S. illegally at the Texas-Mexico border on May 16.
He was arrested the same day and given a notice to appear for immigration proceedings, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
The agency, known as ICE, said it moved to arrest Torres-Navarro after receiving information on July 8 that he was wanted in Peru.
“Gianfranco Torres-Navarro poses a significant threat to our communities, and we won’t allow New York to be a safe haven for dangerous noncitizens,” said Thomas Brophy, the director of enforcement removal operations for ICE’s Buffalo field office.
Immigration agents also arrested Torres-Navarro’s girlfriend, Mishelle Sol Ivanna Ortíz Ubillús, described by Peruvian authorities as his right hand. She is being held at a processing center in Pennsylvania, according to ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System.
Peru’s justice system confirmed to The Associated Press that it ordered the location and international capture of Torres-Navarro and his partner Ortiz-Ubilluz on July 3.
According to Peruvian authorities, Torres-Navarro is the leader of a criminal organization known as “Los Killers de Ventanilla y Callao” that has used violence to thwart rivals seeking to cut into its core business of extorting construction companies.
Torres-Navarro allegedly fled Peru after the killing of retired police officer Cesar Quegua Herrera at a restaurant in San Miguel in March, Peruvian media reported.
Six reputed members of “Los Killers,” formed in 2022 in an area along the Pacific coast where Peru’s main port is located, were arrested in a series of raids in June and accused of homicide, contract killing, and extortion, the National Police of Peru said.
Torres-Navarro was previously a member of the Los Malditos de Angamos criminal organization, Peru’s Public Prosecutor’s Office said.
He is also known as “Gianfranco 23,” a reference to the number of people he is alleged to have killed.
His girlfriend, Ortiz Ubillús, has a prominent role in “Los Killers,” Peruvian authorities said.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office described her as Torres Navarro’s romantic partner, lieutenant and cashier.
She also has a sizable following on the social media platform TikTok where she showed off their lavish lifestyle, including designer clothes, resort vacations and shooting targets at a gun range.
Internal communications reveal Soros-backed prosecutors ‘undermine law and order in America,’ MRC says
The article includes these links:
https://cdn.mrc.org/static/pdfuploads/Soros+Report_FINAL_PAGES.pdf-1723215421233.pdf
https://mrc.org/sorosdocuments
https://www.yahoo.com/news/internal-communications-reveal-soros-backed-090002671.html
Internal communications reveal Soros-backed prosecutors ‘undermine law and order in America,’ MRC says
By Brian Flood
August 12, 2024
Liberal billionaire George Soros and his son Alex, who has taken control of the family empire, have “worked tirelessly to undermine law and order in America,” the Media Research Center (MRC) alleges in a new report.
The MRC obtained nearly 7,800 pages of internal communications from dozens of Soros-backed prosecutors through multiple public records requests. The conservative watchdog group said its findings “reveal how the Soros machine effectively employs an army of radicalized government lawyers to tear apart the justice system” across America.
“It’s astounding the number of DAs Soros has not only funded across the country, but continues to control their politics and priorities,” MRC founder and president Brent Bozell told Fox News Digital.
The MRC detailed its findings in a report titled “Law & Disorder,” and allows readers to download the internal communications from a variety of liberal DAs, including Alvin Bragg in New York and Kim Foxx in Illinois.
“The Soros machine sets their policies and priorities, staffs their offices with hand-picked leftists, dictates media narratives, lobbies government officials and perverts the American justice system,” MRC researchers wrote.
“The Soros empire spent at least $40 million to elect its prosecutors. It then invested an additional $77,663,316 to 20 leftist nonprofits to coordinate and control the prosecutors, bringing the total Soros spending to at least $117,663,316,” the MRC continued. “At least 30 percent of the U.S. population currently lives under the boot of the Soros prosecutors who were pressured to sign pledges vowing to adhere to various Soros priorities. The Soros machine orchestrated 33 of these ‘joint statements’ and pledges, which were signed by 123 of the 126 Soros prosecutors.”
The MRC also put a spotlight on Fair and Just Prosecution, a network of local prosecutors they claim has worked to “manipulate the rule of law concerning illegal immigration, drugs, abortion, election integrity, capital punishment and laws against childhood sex changes.”
“The little-known group orchestrating the effort among Soros-backed prosecutors is Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP), a radical, soft-on-crime project of the heavily Soros-financed Tides Center. FJP held at least 51 private meetings and published 33 formal statements and pledges that contained signatures from prosecutors within its network between 2021 and 2022 alone,” MRC researchers wrote.
“For just one Soros-backed prosecutor, former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, MRC gathered a remarkable 508 communications between Boudin’s office and FJP in just an 18-month period,” they continued. “That averages out to at least one communication each day.”
The MRC reported that one of “the most damning examples” found in the documents involved five Soros and FJP-backed prosecutors in Texas who “worked so closely together that they created a shared group chat to strategize on refusing to enforce statutes that ran afoul of their left-wing politics.”
The MRC also found documents indicating FJP “coordinated meetings with Soros prosecutors in several states,” including California and New York, in addition to Texas.
The MRC report also said the documents indicate Soros-backed prosecutors built connections with the establishment media through the help of FJP, lobbied other branches of government, and showed hostility toward Trump supporters.
The MRC concluded by making several recommendations for how media outlets and elected officials can better address the Soros empire, including urging journalists to do a better job covering crime and its origins.
“The Soros empire is massively involved in changing the legal system of the United States. Yet, most media outlets rarely cover Soros’s ‘reform prosecutors’ and the harm they have wrought,” MRC researchers wrote.
The MRC also implored reporters to dig into the Soros family as “legacy media coverage of their operations is scant,” and suggested Congress and other elected officials need to get involved.
“Since the Biden-Harris administration will not take action, Congress must investigate how the Soros empire wields power over prosecutors. The Senate should also refuse to confirm any additional nominees to the DOJ or the Federal bench until legal action is taken against the Soros machine,” MRC researchers wrote.
“Governors and state attorneys general should remove law-breaking prosecutors. Where appropriate, AGs should also bring RICO-like charges against the Soros machine and its prosecutors,” the MRC added. “Because the Soros prosecutors have violated numerous laws and ethics rules, complaints can and should be filed with the appropriate bar associations.”
Fair and Just Prosecution executive director Miriam Krinsky dismissed the MRC study.
“As we clearly spell out in our mission statement, Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) brings together elected local prosecutors committed to promoting a justice system grounded in fairness, equity, compassion and fiscal responsibility. FJP supports these elected leaders – and the vision they share for safer and healthier communities – through ongoing information sharing, research and resource materials, opportunities for on-the-ground learning, in-person convenings, technical assistance, and access to national experts. We look to proven models and experts who can offer the best thinking and insights around policies that promote public safety and enhance accountability, transparency and fairness,” Krinsky told Fox News Digital.
“The elected prosecutors we engage with are public servants backed and put in office by the voters and communities they serve, and false narratives to the contrary are predicated on an unfortunate desire to fuel misinformation, fear and division,” Krinsky continued. “In particular, calling any reform-minded prosecutor a ‘Soros-backed prosecutor’ is ill-informed and promotes antisemitic tropes that are incredibly harmful at a time when there is an alarming surge in anti-Jewish bigotry. We take issue with that characterization and any report predicated on a total lack of knowledge about the criminal legal system and the changes needed to make us all safer.”
Bragg, Foxx and Boudin also didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment.
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.”
After one week, no arrests have been made, despite the fact that their faces are on video. They know they won’t be punished. George Gascon sides with violent criminals, not their victims.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1823106163568963881
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7J0t2_ajg
Mob of teens violently assault man, break his leg in downtown Los Angeles
August 11, 2024
As he pulled over and got out of his car, he said the group of roughly 30 teens surrounded him, with the situation turning violent very quickly.
Footage of the incident was captured by a witness who happened to walk up on the mob as they assaulted Uulu, stole items, including his backpack and wallet, out of the vehicle, shattered the windows and stomped on the hood and trunk of his car.
In the video, Uulu is seen barefoot, limping as he’s pushed and punched in the back of the head by several of the teens.
He sustained a broken leg, along with deep cuts and lacerations all over his body after getting kicked and punched while on the ground. The injury to his leg, he said, will require surgery.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 