Tag: new york

Outlawing Misdemeanors? Ask California How That Worked Out

A Grab-and-Go Future

This incident could happen at any Walgreens in San Francisco: A man strolls into the store walks over to the hair display, grabs an armful of shampoo bottles, and simply walks out the door. He felt no need to rush, had no fear, and didn’t bother looking back.

Instead of actually doing something, people stood by and recorded the scene on their phones, shaking their heads; they knew nothing would happen, as he’d simply disappear into the crowd. There’s no point in calling the police; they wouldn’t come, store clerks wouldn’t bother, and the DA wouldn’t prosecute.

In California, petty thefts valued at less than $950 are typically not worth the paperwork involved.

It’s this future that mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is dangling in front of New York City.

California’s Lesson

New Yorkers need to look west before being seduced by Mamdani’s pitch to abolish misdemeanors, because California illustrates a picture-perfect example of what could go wrong.

Proposition 47 reclassified a wide range of felonies after passing in 2014 and increased the threshold for felony theft to $950. It was sold as reform on paper, yet in reality, it became an invitation to corruption. As long as their haul fell under the magic dollar amount, shoplifters learned there was little to fear. Over time, police grew unwilling to waste their time with cases the courts wouldn’t touch.

Fallout was swift: Retail theft spiked, while stores closed. The chains Walgreens and Target took action: Walgreensabandoned entire neighborhoods, and Target locked items behind plastic.

Residents paid the price every day. Earning the nickname “the shoplifter’s charter,” Prop 47 overlooked the fact that people weren’t simply clever slogans; they were commuters, small business owners, and single parents working hard to keep their communities together.

San Francisco’s Warning

San Francisco, always a bastion of progressive experiments, doubled down by voting Chesa Boudin into the position of district attorney in 2019. Like a good progressive soldier, Boudin followed the script by not prosecuting most low-level crimes, and became an advocate for restorative justice over accountability. 

Before long, residents woke up to find shattered car windows, thriving open-air drug markets, and hollowed-out neighborhoods. The once-booming downtown slowly transformed into a brick-and-mortar desert, not only because of COVID-19’s mandates and remote working, but also because nobody wanted to shop or work where crime ran rampant.

The embrace voters gave the reform ultimately faded. Boudin was recalled in 2022, a stunning rejection in one of America’s bluest cities. The people of San Francisco had grown tired of being test subjects in social experiments that worked wonderfully in academia but failed utterly in the real world.

Now It’s New York’s Turn

Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens. He isn’t talking about softening penalties; he’s talking about eliminating misdemeanor enforcement. 

Period.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. This action means shoplifting, petty theft, drug possession, prostitution, low-level assault, and even some incidents of drunk driving no longer draw consequences, unless there is “major” injury or violence.

Mamdani isn’t proposing leniency; he’s surrendering a city.

“E-ZPass for criminals” is the moniker critics have slapped on it, and they’re right. New York already is at war, battling crime in the subway, illegal vending, homelessness, and drug abuse. When misdemeanor guardrails are stripped away, the floodgates are turned wide open.

If California is the cautionary tale, then San Francisco is the warning flare, showing that ignoring “small” crimes leads to a forest fire.

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Attempt By Antifa Thugs to Start a Major Riot Between Black and Jewish Brooklyn Neighbors Completely Blows Up In Their Faces

A heartwarming scene unfolded in Brooklyn last week as a sinister plan cracked up by a group of Antifa thugs backfired spectacularly.

As Townhall reported, a group of these communists invaded a Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights to needle Black residents into assaulting Jewish residents last Wednesday.

The incident occurred at an annual vigil commemorating the 1991 death of Gavin Catto, a seven-year-old Black child killed by a Hasidic Jewish driver in a car accident.

It also followed a mass shooting that resulted in three deaths.

Sensing an opportunity, Antifa thugs went through with a plan they hoped would end in bloodshed. They shouted vulgar anti-Semitic rhetoric, thinking the Black residents would be dumb enough to attack their Jewish neighbors upon hearing such language.

Townhall noted that Antifa wanted to take advantage of the historical racial and ethnic tensions between Black and Hasidic Jewish communities to incite an all-out brawl.

But as the video footage below shows, they received a nasty surprise instead.

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Alleged Deviant Terrorizes Women in NY, but Bail Law Keeps Him on the Streets

A repeat offender, described as looking and acting like a “caveman,” has been menacing women and girls in the New York borough of Queens for three months, the New York Post reports.

The bearded, long-haired man, identified by police as Mallik Miah, 31, has been arrested twice for recent incidents but not jailed because the crimes were not considered bail eligible under the state’s “progressive” bail reform law, police said.

Those incidents follow 41 arrests that began in 2010, “including forcible touching, weapon possession, assault, drugs, and burglary,” police sources told the Post.

“One victim, who asked to be identified only as Jessica, filed a police report after Miah allegedly smacked her on the rear at the 46th Street-Bliss Street subway station in Sunnyside on May 21,” the Post reported.

“The guy was coming up the steps in the little stairwell, and that’s when he reached over and assaulted me,” she told the Post. “I flailed my hands at him and yelled, ‘A–hole!’ and then ran down the stairs, because I was honestly a little afraid that he would throw me down the steps.”

Court records show that Miah, whose last known address was in the Bronx, was arrested and charged with forcible touching. He was released the following day.

Another woman, Jenn Shulte, 51, told a reporter she was riding the N subway one afternoon in June “with her 11-year-old daughter when they encountered Miah.”

“He had kind of a crazed look in his eye,” she told the Post. “He was saying, ‘I know you like black d–k, I know you’ve never had it this good, you don’t know how big it is, I’ll slide it right in.’”

Shulte did not make a police report, figuring there was nothing the police could do about it.

The newspaper’s report narrates more encounters with the man, including chasing customers at a Burlington Coat Factory, harassing women at an Astoria subway stop, and following a mother with her one-year-old while making foul comments.

The Post also quoted Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and John Jay College adjunct professor, who blamed bail reform laws for allowing deviants “back out into the wild.”

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Former Adams Aide Winnie Greco Bizarrely Claims Cash-Stuffed Potato Chip Bag Handed to NYC Reporter Was ‘Birthday Gift’ – But Her Birthday’s Months Away

In a bizarre twist to an ongoing scandal surrounding New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, former adviser Winnie Greco has claimed that a potato chip bag filled with $300 in cash, which she handed to a local reporter, was merely a “birthday gift” rooted in Chinese cultural traditions.

The problem, aside from it being in a shady sour cream and onion potato chip bag, is that the reporter’s birthday is not until November.

The incident unfolded after a reelection event for Mayor Adams, where Greco allegedly gave The City reporter Katie Honan a bag containing an envelope stuffed with cash.

Many obviously interpreted the gesture as a potential bribe or payoff attempt, but Greco insists it was innocent.

When confronted about the secret envelope full of cash by The New York Post, Greco said, “I don’t have purpose, and I treat people everyone is the same. It’s angel, OK, but if somebody want to hurt me because I have love to my community, and I have love to the world, to my family, my people, and somebody try to hurt me, I cannot say nothing.”

“Before I didn’t know how much in my envelope because it’s my birthday gift that’s Chinese culture. Somebody give me my birthday gift, I made big mistake I’m so sorry. Talk to my lawyer.”

When asked to clarify if she believes the reporter was trying to “hurt” her, Greco said, “Yes. Talk to my lawyer.”

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“Chicago Will be Our Next” – Trump Says Chicago, New York, San Francisco Crime Crackdown Incoming and Democrats are Calling Him for Help

President Trump on Friday signaled that he is not stopping his crackdown on crime in Washington, DC, and told reporters that he plans to clean up Chicago, San Francisco, and potentially more Democratic cities across the country.  

President Trump has declared a “public safety emergency” in the nation’s capital, citing high crime and unsafe streets, and he federalized the DC police force last week. He further authorized the use of National Guard troops and deployed federal agents across the city to tackle the rampant crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration crises.

Hundreds of criminals have been removed from the streets, and crime has significantly reduced in the city.

Law-abiding citizens can now walk around freely without fear of being attacked, robbed, or harassed by drugged-out bums.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump fired off a warning shot to Mayor Muriel Bowser during his Oval Office press conference on Friday, apparently threatening her removal.

“Mayor Bowser better get her act straight, or she won’t be mayor very long because we’re taking over with the federal government, running it like it’s supposed to be run,” Trump said.

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The judge has a little explaining to do

It finally happened.  Sensible New Yorkers have come to terms with the damage that “getting Trump” has done to their image as a place to invest money.  After all, why would any investor or business owner want to operate in a state where a “fraud” case can be invented against you?  I have a feeling that a lot of people with wealth in New York started making plans to pack up to Florida or elsewhere.  You can’t blame them for saying:  “They ‘got’ Trump, I’m next.”  Last, but not least, who remembers Kevin O’Leary telling a CNN host:  “What fraud? This is not about Trump anymore”?

As always, we check with Professor Jonathan Turley for some perspective:

For some of us who covered that trial, the most vivid image of Engoron came at the start. He indicated that he did not want cameras in the courtroom, but when the networks showed up, Engoron took off his glasses and seemed to pose for the cameras.

It was a ‘Sunset Boulevard’ moment. We only need Gloria Swanson looking into the camera to speak to ‘those wonderful people out there in the dark!’ and announcing ‘all right, [Ms. James], I’m ready for my close-up.’

The close-up was not a good idea, and, on appeal, it was perfectly disastrous. The court found little legal or factual basis for his fine. The purported witnesses not only did not lose a dime, but they testified that they made money on the loans and wanted new loans with the Trump administration. That did not move Engoron. From the start, he was speaking to those ‘wonderful people out there.’

You did not have to go far. In both the civil and criminal trials of Trump in New York, there was a carnival atmosphere in the street outside the courthouse. It was really not derangement as much as delirium. Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James had injected lawfare directly into the veins of New Yorkers. Pledging in her campaign to bag Trump (without bothering to name any crime or violation), James was elected based on her recreational rather than legal appeal.

Yet, James could not have succeeded if she had not had a judge willing to ignore reality and cook the books on the fines. She needed a partner in lawfare. She needed Engoron.

Even for some anti-Trump commentators, the judgment was impossible to defend, and some acknowledged that they had never seen any case like this one brought in New York.

Yes, no one had seen justice like that before.  Why?  Because there was no justice here.  It was using the legal system to get Trump, or something that our judicial system was not supposed to do.

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“They Stole $550 Million Dollars From Me” – Trump Celebrates Overturned Penalty in Letitia James’s “Fake” Civil Fraud Case

As The Gateway Pundit reported, a New York Appeals Court threw out the massive civil fraud penalty against President Trump on Thursday in New York Attorney General Letitia James’s case.

Trump: We’re having a lot of victories. I had a victory today, you know. They stole $550 million from me with a fake case, and it was overturned. They said this was a fake case. It’s a terrible thing, but that’s a nice victory, you know? I mean, it’s not bad, you know, we all have our limits, but this was a terrible thing they’ve done. It was a witch hunt. And I’ve had more witch hunts than any human being, I think, in history. And here we are, we’re the President of the United States. So, it didn’t work out too well for them, but maybe now it’s turned a little bit.

These are very dishonest people. We have to fight, and we have to win because we have to win. And you people are winners. And I just think it’s really it’s such an honor to be with you. And we’re going to make Washington DC great again. We’re making our country great again. The country is very close to being great. When they say it’s the hottest country in the world, they mean it, and this capital is right now, after four days, five days, it’s at a level that you haven’t seen in a long time, and it’s all because of you. So, I want to thank you all very much. It’s an honor to be with you, and we’ll always be with you. We’re going to be with you for as long as I’m around. You’re going to be treated like there’s nobody more important. And thank you all very much for being here.

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Court Rules New York County Denied Free Speech Rights to Pro-Life Advocates

A federal court has ruled that Westchester County, New York, violated the First Amendment rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors, marking a significant victory for free speech in a legal challenge brought by Thomas More Society attorneys. The decision in Hulinsky v. County of Westchester found the County liable for enacting an unconstitutional provision in its 2022 “Reproductive Health Care Facilities Access Act,” or Chapter 425, which restricted peaceful pro-life advocacy near abortion facilities.

The decision awards plaintiffs Oksana Hulinsky and Regina Molinelli nominal damages for the chilling of their life-saving sidewalk counseling for over two-and-half years as a result of the unconstitutional law, even though the County attempted to avoid liability by repealing the offending provision earlier this year.

This ruling builds on a March 14 decision that rejected the County’s attempt to dismiss Plaintiffs’ claims against part of Chapter 425 prohibiting so-called “interference” with abortion access “by deceptive means or otherwise”—a sweeping and unprecedented restriction adopted as part of the County’s furor over the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs.The Court rightly held the provision “criminalized large swaths of protected speech” on pain of jail, fines, and civil liability, flagrantly violating the First Amendment.

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Pirro Announces Arrest of Woman Who Traveled to DC to Assassinate President Trump

US Attorney For DC Jeanine Pirro on Monday announced the arrest of a woman who traveled from New York to DC to assassinate President Trump.

According to the DOJ, 50-year-old Nathalie Rose Jones was charged with threatening to take the life of, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, and transmitting in interstate commerce communications containing threats to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another.

“She was working to have [Trump] eliminated. She’s now in custody, she will be prosecuted to the fullest extent to the law,” Pirro said.

Per the Justice Department:

Nathalie Rose Jones, 50, of Lafayette, Indiana, was arrested in the District of Columbia on Saturday, August 16, and charged in connection with making a series of threats on social media in which she threatened to kill President Trump, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

Jones was charged in a complaint in U.S. District Court with threatening to take the life of, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, and transmitting in interstate commerce communications containing threats to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another.

According to court documents, from August 2 to August 9, members of the U.S. Secret Service observed that Instagram user account “nath.jones” had posted threatening comments about the President of the United States. The Instagram user called for President Trump’s removal, labeled President Trump as a terrorist, referred to President Trump’s administration as a dictatorship, and stated that President Trump had caused extreme and unnecessary loss of life in relation to the coronavirus.

On Facebook between August 6 and August 15, “Nath.Jones” allegedly continued to post threatening comments about President Trump. In an August 6 post directed at the FBI, Nath.Jones wrote that “I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present.”

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Billionaires For Socialism: The $2 Billion “Grassroots” Operation Behind Zohran Mamdani

How the Working Families Party sells itself as “grassroots” — with IRS-documented, publicly admitted “common control” revealing it’s really a Soros-financed political money washer.

In New York politics, there’s one machine that towers above the rest. No, not the Democratic Party—it’s the Working Families Party, the most powerful minor party in America. Its name sounds wholesome enough—who doesn’t support “working families”? But behind that branding lies a $2 billion tax-exempt laundromat that’s anything but local, grassroots, or honest.

Take Zohran Mamdani, their current belle of the ball. 

After winning his race, he announced on NBC: “I don’t think we should have billionaires.” Hilarious considering Mamdani’s “grassroots” revolution was fueled by over $2 million in PAC and organizational spending, much of it courtesy of the very billionaire class he allegedly opposes.

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