"Bloomberg’s political action committee, Independence USA, was widely credited with bringing an end to the career of Representative Joe Baca, a California Democrat, last year after it spent $3.3 million on television ads and mailers attacking him."
Didn't Bloomie also endorse Scott Brown? Must have been her position on banks that moved him.
Bloomberg defends super PAC anti-gun ads
He only goes after Democrats even though he is a shining example of independent bipartisanship?
Judge refuses to block tougher NY gun law
Related: The Globe and Gun Control
Opponents of N.Y. gun law rally in Albany
He only goes after Democrats even though he is a shining example of independent bipartisanship?
Judge refuses to block tougher NY gun law
Related: The Globe and Gun Control
Opponents of N.Y. gun law rally in Albany
He's spending how much, and he owns a piece himself -- for his own personal protection?
As his cops are searching you?
"Trial over N.Y. stop-and-frisk tactic to begin" Associated Press, March 18, 2013
NEW YORK — The New York Police Department’s practice of stopping, questioning, and frisking people on the street is facing its biggest legal challenge this week with a federal civil rights trial on whether the tactic unfairly targets minorities.
Police have made about 5 million stops of New Yorkers in the past decade, mostly black and Hispanic men. The trial, set to begin Monday, will include testimony from a dozen people who say they were targeted because of their race and from police whistleblowers who say they were forced into making slipshod stops by bosses who were too focused on numbers.
I guess racism is acceptable is some instances.
Also see: NYPD Whistleblower Suspended and Sent to Psychiatric Ward, Report Reveals
American police now “Israeli-DHS trained,” precursor to dictatorship
Now the behavior makes sense.
‘‘When we say stop, question, and frisk, we’re not talking about a brief inconvenience on the way to work or school,’’ said Darius Charney of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the lead attorney on the case. ‘‘We’re talking about a frightening, humiliating experience that has happened to many folks.’’
US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin, who has said in earlier rulings that she is deeply concerned about stop-and-frisk, is not being asked to ban the tactic, since it has been found to be legal. But she does have the power to order changes, which could bring a major overhaul to how the police force and other departments use the tactic.
--more--"
"Trial challenging NYC’s stop-and-frisk policy opens" Associated Press, March 19, 2013
NEW YORK — Many of the 5 million New Yorkers stopped, questioned, and sometimes frisked by police in the past decade were wrongly targeted because of their race, said lawyers Monday for four men who contend they were illegally stopped.
New York Police Department lawyers countered that officers must go where the crime is — and the crime is overwhelmingly in minority neighborhoods.
A civil trial that began Monday in federal court in Manhattan will examine the controversial tactic that has become a city flashpoint, with mass demonstrations, City Council hearings, and mayoral candidates calling for reform.
--more--"
"Witness at stop-and-frisk trial recounts police encounter" by Colleen Long | Associated Press, March 20, 2013
NEW YORK — A 24-year-old nonprofit worker wept on the witness stand Tuesday as he described an unnerving episode of being handcuffed near his home while an officer took his keys and went inside his building.
Powerful testimony.
Nicholas Pert, who is black, is one of about a dozen New Yorkers expected to tell their stories of being stopped, questioned, and frisked by police in a federal trial challenging how police use the tactic. About 5 million stops have been made during the past decade, mostly of black and Hispanic men.
The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of some of the stops, with lawyers arguing the policy unfairly targets minorities.
City attorneys said officers operate within the law and do not target people solely because of their race. Police go where the crime is — and crime is overwhelmingly in minority neighborhoods, city lawyers said....
If I typed that the same voices would be hollering racist at me.
--more--"
And then for some reason the Globe went silent on the issue.
Related: The Silent Streets of New York
Also see: NYC expects 2012 to have fewest murders on record
See? Stop and frisk works!
"Police fatally shoot teen they say was armed" Associated Press, March 11, 2013
NEW YORK — Two police officers fatally shot a teenage boy who they said pointed a gun at them after they approached him on a Brooklyn street, authorities said.
The answer is clear. Gun control for cops!
The 16-year-old, identified as Kimani Gray, was with a group of other males Saturday night, police said, but left when he saw police in an unmarked car. Authorities said the boy was acting suspiciously, and the officers approached him.
According to police, the boy then pointed a .38-caliber revolver at the officers, who responded by shooting him. The teen was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital.
‘‘The cops, they just jumped out of the car so fast,’’ 16-year-old Devonte Brown told the Daily News. ‘‘They started shooting him and he went down; he was bleeding, holding his side, screaming, ‘stop, stop,’ ’’ Brown said.
Akeem Brown, 15, said, ‘‘We didn’t know he had a gun.’’ Police said a loaded .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene. Authorities said the officers were treated for trauma and tinnitus and were in stable condition.
Yeah, the poor cops who planted a gun at the scene.
The shooting was the second involving police and civilians on Saturday.
Another man was shot in the torso on Staten Island on Saturday afternoon when two detectives and a police officer attempted to stop a driver who they believed had a gun. Police say when the officers approached the man’s car, he pinned one of the detectives with his car and was seen reaching for a weapon, at which point another officer fired his weapon.
Happens every day in AmeriKa, folks. Cops blowing people away and no accountability, always absolved.
--more--"
"Police fatally shoot teen they say was armed" Associated Press, March 11, 2013
NEW YORK — Two police officers fatally shot a teenage boy who they said pointed a gun at them after they approached him on a Brooklyn street, authorities said.
The answer is clear. Gun control for cops!
The 16-year-old, identified as Kimani Gray, was with a group of other males Saturday night, police said, but left when he saw police in an unmarked car. Authorities said the boy was acting suspiciously, and the officers approached him.
According to police, the boy then pointed a .38-caliber revolver at the officers, who responded by shooting him. The teen was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital.
‘‘The cops, they just jumped out of the car so fast,’’ 16-year-old Devonte Brown told the Daily News. ‘‘They started shooting him and he went down; he was bleeding, holding his side, screaming, ‘stop, stop,’ ’’ Brown said.
Akeem Brown, 15, said, ‘‘We didn’t know he had a gun.’’ Police said a loaded .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene. Authorities said the officers were treated for trauma and tinnitus and were in stable condition.
Yeah, the poor cops who planted a gun at the scene.
The shooting was the second involving police and civilians on Saturday.
Another man was shot in the torso on Staten Island on Saturday afternoon when two detectives and a police officer attempted to stop a driver who they believed had a gun. Police say when the officers approached the man’s car, he pinned one of the detectives with his car and was seen reaching for a weapon, at which point another officer fired his weapon.
Happens every day in AmeriKa, folks. Cops blowing people away and no accountability, always absolved.
--more--"
Related: In infamous NY case, lessons for cities, police, media today
And for you, readers:
"NYPD, Microsoft create crime-fighting tech system" by Colleen Long | Associated Press, February 21, 2013
NEW YORK — A 911 call comes in about a possible bomb in lower Manhattan and an alert pops up on computer screens at the New York Police Department, instantly showing officers an interactive map of the neighborhood, footage from nearby security cameras, whether there are high radiation levels, and whether any other threats have been made against the city.
Must be under the Israeli embassy(?).
In a click, police know exactly what they are facing.
This hypothetical scenario may seem like a futuristic crime drama, but the technology is real, developed in a partnership between the nation’s largest police department and Microsoft Corp., and the latest version has been quietly in use for about a year.
The project could pay off in more ways than one: The NYPD could make tens of millions of dollars in an unprecedented marketing deal that permits Microsoft to sell the system to other law enforcement agencies and civilian companies worldwide. The city will get a 30 percent cut.
Who said tyranny isn't profitable?
The Domain Awareness System, known as ‘‘the dashboard,’’ instantaneously mines data from the police department’s voluminous arrest records, 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras citywide, license plate readers, and portable radiation detectors, and assembles it in an easy-to-use form.
Right now, it is used only in NYPD offices, primarily in the counterterrorism unit. Eventually, the system could supply crime-fighting information in real time to officers on laptops in their squad cars and on mobile devices while they walk along the beat.
Remember when you were told the tyranny was only going to be used against terrorists, American citizens?
--more--"
Those they have been spying upon:
"Surveillance of Muslims challenged" Associated Press, February 05, 2013
WASHINGTON — The New York Police Department’s focus on Muslims is similar to the political surveillance of the 1960s and ’70s that was banned under a landmark legal ruling, according to a new court filing by civil rights lawyers.
Oh, an outlaw for a law enforcement agency? Great. We've come so far since the bad old '60s and '70s, huh? If anything, it's worse than it has ever been.
They are seeking an injunction against further surveillance of Muslims without evidence of crimes and a new court-appointed auditor to oversee police activities.
Describing continuing surveillance of Muslims as ‘‘widespread and intense,’’ the civil rights lawyers complained that the NYPD has monitored public places where Muslims eat, shop, and worship, and has kept records and notes about police observations despite no evidence of unlawful or terror-related activities.
There never is. Those are all FBI frame-ups.
The lawyers said the NYPD’s actions violate rules, known as the Handschu guidelines, that a court had imposed as part of a 1985 landmark settlement with the NYPD to a lawsuit they filed.
The motion said the NYPD’s actions were so ‘‘flagrant and persistent’’ that an auditor should be appointed.
The NYPD has said the department follows the Handschu guidelines and did not break any laws.
--more--"
Related: NYPD Steps in Shi'ite
NYPD Tracks Shi'ite Into School
NYPD Now a National Police Force
What's New in the U.S.?
Not much, really. Same old, same old.
And for you, readers:
"NYPD, Microsoft create crime-fighting tech system" by Colleen Long | Associated Press, February 21, 2013
NEW YORK — A 911 call comes in about a possible bomb in lower Manhattan and an alert pops up on computer screens at the New York Police Department, instantly showing officers an interactive map of the neighborhood, footage from nearby security cameras, whether there are high radiation levels, and whether any other threats have been made against the city.
Must be under the Israeli embassy(?).
In a click, police know exactly what they are facing.
This hypothetical scenario may seem like a futuristic crime drama, but the technology is real, developed in a partnership between the nation’s largest police department and Microsoft Corp., and the latest version has been quietly in use for about a year.
The project could pay off in more ways than one: The NYPD could make tens of millions of dollars in an unprecedented marketing deal that permits Microsoft to sell the system to other law enforcement agencies and civilian companies worldwide. The city will get a 30 percent cut.
Who said tyranny isn't profitable?
The Domain Awareness System, known as ‘‘the dashboard,’’ instantaneously mines data from the police department’s voluminous arrest records, 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras citywide, license plate readers, and portable radiation detectors, and assembles it in an easy-to-use form.
Right now, it is used only in NYPD offices, primarily in the counterterrorism unit. Eventually, the system could supply crime-fighting information in real time to officers on laptops in their squad cars and on mobile devices while they walk along the beat.
Remember when you were told the tyranny was only going to be used against terrorists, American citizens?
--more--"
Those they have been spying upon:
"Surveillance of Muslims challenged" Associated Press, February 05, 2013
WASHINGTON — The New York Police Department’s focus on Muslims is similar to the political surveillance of the 1960s and ’70s that was banned under a landmark legal ruling, according to a new court filing by civil rights lawyers.
Oh, an outlaw for a law enforcement agency? Great. We've come so far since the bad old '60s and '70s, huh? If anything, it's worse than it has ever been.
They are seeking an injunction against further surveillance of Muslims without evidence of crimes and a new court-appointed auditor to oversee police activities.
Describing continuing surveillance of Muslims as ‘‘widespread and intense,’’ the civil rights lawyers complained that the NYPD has monitored public places where Muslims eat, shop, and worship, and has kept records and notes about police observations despite no evidence of unlawful or terror-related activities.
There never is. Those are all FBI frame-ups.
The lawyers said the NYPD’s actions violate rules, known as the Handschu guidelines, that a court had imposed as part of a 1985 landmark settlement with the NYPD to a lawsuit they filed.
The motion said the NYPD’s actions were so ‘‘flagrant and persistent’’ that an auditor should be appointed.
The NYPD has said the department follows the Handschu guidelines and did not break any laws.
--more--"
Related: NYPD Steps in Shi'ite
NYPD Tracks Shi'ite Into School
NYPD Now a National Police Force
What's New in the U.S.?
Not much, really. Same old, same old.
"Michael Bloomberg gifts to school top $1b" Associated Press, January 28, 2013
BALTIMORE — Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York has pledged $350 million to Johns Hopkins University, mainly to expand its interdisciplinary research on an array of issues including global health and urban revitalization, as his lifetime giving to his alma mater eclipses $1 billion.
The university announced the commitment late Saturday saying it believes Bloomberg, who amassed his fortune creating the global financial services firm Bloomberg LP, is now the first person to give more than $1 billion to a single American university....
They aren't even in New York City, are they?
--more--"
"NYC teachers’ pension fund divests from gun makers" Associated Press, February 16, 2013
NEW YORK — The $46.6 billion pension fund for New York City schoolteachers has sold its stock in companies that make guns and ammunition, city officials announced Friday.
City Comptroller John Liu said the Dec. 14 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., prompted the fund’s board of trustees to review the system’s investments in the gun industry.
He said the board concluded that divestment would be consistent with the fund’s fiduciary standards and overall investment process.
‘‘There is no need to support these companies, whose products can destroy lives and shatter communities in the blink of an eye,’’ Liu said. ‘‘Our investment portfolio gains nothing by doing business with these firms, and this is a sound decision that sends an important message about our commitment to addressing the plague of gun violence in every possible way.’’
I assume they divested from Amerikan war stocks, too.
Pension funds for teachers and public workers around the country began reconsidering their investments in gun makers after the fatal shootings of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown.
Related: The Vile Statistics on Violent Crime
Up and down, just like the stock market.
The New York City Teachers’ Retirement System is the largest pension fund to sell its gun industry holdings so far, Liu said....
--more--"
And do you kids know what you become when a government disarms the people?
"Slavery-math questions cause uproar at NYC school" Associated Press, February 23, 2013
NEW YORK — A school principal says she is appalled by a homework assignment that used scenarios about killing and whipping slaves to teach math.
Adele Schroeter has ordered sensitivity training for the entire staff of Public School 59 in Manhattan following last month’s assignment, the Daily News reported Friday.
A teacher had asked fourth-graders to write homework questions that blended math and social studies, education officials said.
The teacher then used the students’ questions, including the slave-related ones, as homework for the class.
One question stated the number of slaves who died while taking over a ship. It asked how many slaves were still alive.
The other said a slave was whipped five times a day and asked students to calculate how many times a month he was whipped.
A student-teacher said she was shocked by the wording and later refused to hand out the worksheet in another class.
--more--"
Sure died down quick.
Also see: School Bus Drivers Are the Bad Guys of New York City
Where else he did not spray:
"NYC homeless shelters keep 50,000 people a night" by Jennifer Peltz | Associated Press, March 06, 2013
NEW YORK — More than 50,000 homeless people a night — the most in decades— are in New York City’s homeless shelters, a spike that mirrors the largest increase in overall homelessness among the nation’s cities last year, according to a report released Tuesday.
Homelessness has been a troubling aspect of life in the nation’s biggest city for decades. But it has become an escalating crisis in recent years amid a chronic shortage of affordable housing and an unemployment rate higher than state and national levels.
‘‘The state of homelessness in New York City has never been worse,’’ at least since the Great Depression, said the coalition’s president, Mary Brosnahan.
Advocates for the homeless portrayed the rising shelter population as the result of failures by a mayor who pledged to reduce homelessness by two-thirds; instead, the shelter numbers have risen at nearly that same rate since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office in 2002. Bloomberg and the city’s top homelessness official said some progress has been made and advocates’ complaints do not acknowledge the city’s efforts to improve homeless people’s prospects....
What the Globe web version left on the shelter floor:
The total included an average of 21,000 children as homeless families now account for more than three-quarters of the shelter population.
Among them were Jason Winters, his wife and their year-old baby. The family depleted its savings helping his terminally ill mother in Atlanta, then moved to New York because Winters had a job lead, he said. It fell through, and after about three months of subletting an apartment, the couple was out of money.
And yet banks are booming and the corporations are in an age of golden profits.
The family is now in its eighth month in a shelter, living in a room with a bathroom and cooking facilities. Winters, 31, works for a food-delivery company and his wife at a restaurant, and they get some help from food stamps, but it hasn't added up to enough to rent an apartment, he said.
They are WORKING people and HOMELESS? What an AMERIKAN SCANDAL!
For the first time since 1987, the average homeless family now stays in a shelter for more than a year. The number of single people in shelters is also approaching a 1987 high.
How many are vets?
--more--"
Related: N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg: Rich can show up at homeless facilities, ‘and we’ve got to give you shelter’
Bloomberg: “Nobody’s sleeping on the streets” in New York City
Another out-of-touch one-percenter.
Also see:
NYC changes rules on pedicab rates
NYC mayor signs law restricting pedicab fares
Time to take a hike, Mike!
And what does the future hold for New York City?
"a post-Bloomberg world.... extreme weather, particularly in an age of global warming."
Related: Spring snow wallops states in East Coast
Also see:
New Yorkers celebrate Grand Central Terminal, former mayor Ed Koch
NYC seeks ban on cigarette sale display
Bratton has eye on NYC police job
Must be the new mayor:
"Head of New York City Council launches mayoral bid" New York Times, March 11, 2013
NEW YORK — Christine C. Quinn, the New York City Council speaker, declared her candidacy for mayor on Sunday with a glossy biographical video and a walking tour of the city, a signal that her campaign hopes to attract voters with her outsize, off-the-cuff personality — or at least a carefully curated version of it.
Skipping a speech in favor of a day of campaigning, Quinn, a Democrat, opted for an intimate approach to a high-profile moment of her mayoral bid, a contrast to the businesslike style of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, her political ally and the man she hopes to replace in City Hall.
Yet the Christine Quinn who appears in the highly polished video is a far cry from the head-clunking, hard-nosed deal maker who maintains an iron rule over the City Council.
Here, she is seen in a warm, welcoming pose, clad in a fuzzy fuchsia blazer and floral necklace, chatting amiably at the counter of a 1950s-style diner complete with a covered glass cake stand.
Accompanied by piano music, Quinn, 46, reminisces about her father’s union activism and middle-class upbringing on Long Island.
She names legislation she shepherded through the council, highlighted by on-screen graphics like ‘‘good public schools’’ and ‘‘affordable child care.’’ She becomes misty-eyed as she describes her mother’s death from breast cancer when Quinn was a teenager.
Quinn, who married her longtime partner, Kim Catullo, last year, has attracted national attention for the historic nature of her bid to become New York City’s first openly gay mayor.
The announcement on Sunday was essentially a formality for Quinn, who has spent years preparing a bid for mayor.
--more--"
"NYC candidates to skip St. Patrick’s parade" Associated Press, March 16, 2013
NEW YORK — Christine Quinn, a leading candidate to be New York’s next mayor, is also a lesbian and proud of it. And that is why the City Council speaker will not be marching in Saturday’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, an event so entrenched in New York tradition that it is older than the United States.
Quinn’s rising political prominence is bringing a decades-long dispute between parade organizers and gay activists back into sharp relief. And it is raising the prospect of an unprecedented standoff next year if she wins November’s election and becomes the city’s first openly gay and first female mayor.
Quinn, a granddaughter of Irish immigrants, is saddened and mystified that the parade continues to bar marchers from displaying any gay-pride messages, a policy that has spurred protests and litigation going back to the 1990s. It has even prompted the launch of an alternative, gay-friendly Saint Patrick’s parade....
‘‘It’s a shame that an issue is made of something that really is a nonissue,’’ he said in an e-mail message....
You don't see me wasting a whole lot of time on it now.
Irish gay advocates sued in the early 1990s, after parade organizers refused to let them march with an identifying banner. Judges said the organizers had a First Amendment right to choose participants in their event. In the years since, gay activists have protested along the parade route....
--more--"
Good decision.
Related:
"St. Patrick’s Day parade in Southie draws thousands; Many have fun, but police busy" by Jeremy C. Fox and Gal Tziperman Lotan | Globe Correspondents, March 17, 2013
As the traditional parade concluded and crowds began to disperse, the third annual alternative Veterans for Peace parade opened with a New Orleans-style jazz band.
Participants held signs supporting the end of foreign wars and release of soldier Bradley Manning — jailed on accusations of supplying classified documents to the website WikiLeaks — and opposing the Keystone Pipeline project.
Veterans for Peace parade coordinator Pat Scanlon said he was frustrated that the Allied War Veterans Council of South Boston, organizers of the main parade, did not let his group march with them but was pleased with the way the peace parade was treated.
“The whole thing about South Boston has changed: the neighborhood, the culture, the people. It’s much more integrated and inclusive than it was 20 years ago,” he said. “I think everybody here had a good time, and I’m really thrilled to see the LGB community walk in South Boston and have such a wonderful reception.”
--more--"
Also see: 8,000 tourists lead Dublin parade
