Tag: new york

NYC Desk-Jockey Cop Used Questionable Overtime to Get Paid Same Amount as Joe Biden Last Year

The highest-paid employee of the New York City Police Department is facing an internal affairs probe after making over $400,000 last year then trying to file for retirement.

Lt. Quathisha Epps, who worked as an administrator, is under investigation over allegations that she fudged her overtime hours and endorsed her own time slips, per an exclusive report from the New York Post.

The staffer supposedly worked 1,627 hours of overtime beyond her usual shifts, putting her average at 74 hours per week. However, unnamed sources told the Post there were “complaints over her coming into work late, leaving early, or not showing up at all.”

Epps raked in $204,000 in overtime on top of her nearly $165,000 base salary, placing her salary near $400,000 and making her the highest-paid employee across the entire NYPD.

The police force has 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian staffers, per official statistics.

And she made more than all of them.

She therefore made more than NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, in whose office she worked. Her boss made a comparatively dismal $292,000.

Epps was suspended after she filed for retirement at 51 years old, a move that will affect her pension and lose her about $12,000 per year since she is leaving just short of 20 years into her time on the force.

But she will still pull in $16,000 per month.

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Luigi Mangione & the Dangers of Terrorism Charges

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unveiled new charges on Dec. 17 against Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

While Mangione already faced second-degree murder and weapons charges, the unsealed indictment reveals an escalation: New York prosecutors have charged Mangione with first-degree murder “in furtherance of terrorism.”

Bragg’s choice to invoke the big “T” word came as a surprise; it’s not often associated with a single, targeted killing. In fact, prosecutors are charging Mangione using a state law hatched after the 9/11 attacks “to combat the evils of terrorism.”

Tacking terrorism onto the indictment allows the district attorney to upgrade the murder charges from the second to the first degree; under New York law, first-degree murder charges are normally reserved for crimes like serial or mass killings or the murder of police officers.

In previous cases, Manhattan prosecutors have used the state domestic terror law to convict people accused of plotting to bomb synagogues or recruiting support for ISIS.

In 2019, a white supremacist pled guilty to New York terrorism charges after he killed a Black man with a sword with the intent of starting a “worldwide race war.”

Bragg said he levied the charge against Mangione because his alleged killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO was intended “to sow terror.”

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Kathy Hochul signs law that fines energy companies $75 billion for ‘climate change’

New Yorkers, beware the law of unintended consequences.

From an item at the New York Post comes the news that Kathy Hochul has just signed a new bill, “modeled after a federal law that holds polluters responsible for abandoned toxic-waste sites,” which establishes the New York Climate Superfund. This endowment will be funded by energy companies that deal in gas, oil, and coal, and the money will finance “resiliency projects,” like initiatives to shore up the coast and mitigate flooding—because obviously as every progressive and mainstream media consumer “knows,” energy that comes from “fossil fuels” cause “climate change.”

As of now, a number of companies operating in New York have been hit with $75 billion in fines, which are to be paid into the fund over the span of a decade. Per the NY Post:

The oil giant Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia could be slapped with the largest annual assessment of any company — $640 million a year — for emitting 31,269 million tons of greenhouse gases from 2000 to 2020.

Aramco — formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. — is owned by the Saudi Royal family.

The state-owned Mexican oil firm Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, emitted 9,512 tons of CO2 and could face an $193 million assessment for generating 9,512 million tons of greenhouse gases.

Russia’s Lukoil could be assessed with a $100 million yearly fee for spewing 4,912 millions of CO2.

The 38 companies identified as carbon polluters include American petro giants such as Exxon and Chevron as well as Shell and BP in the UK, Total Energies IES in France, Petrobras in Brazil, BHP in Australia, Glencore in Switzerland, Equinor in Norway and ENI in Italy.

Another greedy, communistic money grab. What the left doesn’t get as they cheer on the theft is that once it’s normalized for the “ultra rich” it’s then normalized for the “rich”… and then it’s normalized for the upper middle class… then the lower middle class, and so on—it’s a war on wealth, using Saul Alinsky’s infamous line about “rub[bing] raw the sores of discontent” as a vehicle.

Did you know that when the federal income tax started it only applied to less than 1% of Americans? Now look where we are.

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Migrant Charged with Murder for Lighting Sleeping Woman on Fire Chain Smoked Synthetic Drug, Shelter Roommate Claims

The Guatemalan migrant who shocked the world by lighting a sleeping woman on fire in a New York City subway chained smoked the synthetic drug K2, according to his homeless shelter roommate.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, was arrested on Sunday after being spotted by high school students on the subway. He has been charged with first and second-degree murder, as well as arson.

Raymond Robinson, who slept next to Zapeta at the shelter, told the New York Post that the migrant was a heavy drinker who “bugged out” when smoking the K2.

“He said, ‘I’m going out to make my normal run,’ then the next thing I hear what he did on the news,” said Robinson.

Robinson said the accused murderer smoked about $30 worth of the drug per day.

“He smoked K2, drank and bugged out,” Robinson said. “He would bug out and talk to himself when he was high, but he never harmed nobody or himself. When he wasn’t high he’d talk like we’re talking regular.”

Zapeta told police that he was so drunk that he does not remember lighting the woman on fire.

“The migrants mainly get up in the morning, leave and come back drunk,” Robinson said. “He would come back drunk most days.”

The woman was asleep on the train as she was lit on fire by the suspect at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.

As she was engulfed in flames, Zapeta sat calmly on a bench and watched as she died.

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Waste of the Day: Ineligible New Yorkers on Medicaid Cost $20 Billion

An estimated 3 million New Yorkers on Medicaid or the state-run Essential Plan don’t have incomes low enough to be using the programs, according to a new report from the nonprofit Empire Center for Public Policy.

Key facts: New York is projected to spend $113 billion on the two programs in 2025, but one-third of enrollees should not be eligible.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that only 5.5 million New Yorkers had incomes low enough to qualify for coverage last year. But there were 8.5 million people using the state’s health insurance.

That’s especially surprising given that the Essential Plan — established under the Affordable Care Act in 2015 — allows families living at 250% above the poverty level to enroll. No other plan in the U.S. is that generous, according to the Empire Center.

The average nondisabled adult costs the programs $6,600 to cover. At that rate, the Empire Center estimates taxpayers spend $20 billion each year to cover the 3 million people who should not qualify. The expense is split between the state and federal government.

Roughly 44% of New Yorkers use either Medicaid or the Essential Plan, including 60% of those in New York City. No other state has more than 37% enrollment in similar plans, the Empire Center found.

In the last 10 years, 3.7 million new people signed up for the two plans. But the number of uninsured people in New York only dropped by 1.2 million, “a sign that most new sign-ups were people who otherwise would have been insured elsewhere,” the Empire Center said.

New York spends 28% of its budget on health insurance each year.

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Tone Deaf NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Grotesque Timing: Praises “Safety” of Subway on Same Day Guatemalan Migrant Allegedly Sets Sleeping Woman on Fire

The Gateway Pundit reported on a horrific incident captured on video of a man sitting on a bench and watching as a woman he lit on fire inside a New York City subway train as she burned to death.

The woman was asleep on the train as she was lit on fire by the suspect at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.

According to The New York Post, A Guatemalan migrant has been arrested for the henious crime.

A Guatemalan migrant has been arrested for allegedly lighting a sleeping subway rider on fire in Brooklyn on Sunday morning — then watching as his innocent victim burned to death in what the police commissioner called “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit.”

*******

Officials said the 33-year-old suspect came to the US in 2018 from Guatemala. His legal status wasn’t immediately clear Sunday night.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D), in yet another case of tone deaf timing, took to social media the same day to brag about the safety of New York’s subway.

On Sunday morning, Hochul shared on X, “In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day.   Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up.”

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Top-ranking NYPD officer abruptly resigns amid sexual misconduct allegations

The top uniformed police officer in the New York Police Department has resigned amid allegations he demanded sex from a subordinate in exchange for opportunities to earn extra pay.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch accepted the resignation of Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey Friday night, effective immediately, according to an emailed statement from the department Saturday.

John Chell, the department’s chief of patrol, will take over as interim chief of department and Philip Rivera will assume Chell’s duties as the head of the patrol division, the department said.

The department declined to comment on the allegations against Maddrey other than to say it “takes all allegations of sexual misconduct seriously and will thoroughly investigate this matter.”

A lawyer for his accuser, Lt. Quathisha Epps, said the move was overdue.

“This should have been done a long time ago,” attorney Eric Sanders said by phone Saturday. “This has been years in the making, this kind of behavior. This is not shock for anyone who understands how things work in this department.”

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Sex educator clowns and BDSM classical music: How New York City arts group wasted $800K of taxpayer’s money

Taxpayer-funded woke art events, including erotic poetry readings, ‘sex educator clowns’, a BDSM-classical music mashup, and performances in aid of prison abolition, have got a New York government watchdog hot and bothered.

Nonprofit ‘good governance’ group One City Rising (OCR) has sparked a fight with the New York City Council by writing a letter demanding a review of $787,000 taxpayer funds given to an organization putting on the controversial art acts.

The spat is a microcosm of a culture war raging in the US – one side fearing they are under attack from prudish busybodies policing free expression, the other claiming government institutions are feeding ‘woke’ propaganda.

Last year the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs gave $130,000, one of its biggest cultural development grants, to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), a group founded in 1973 to promote the arts in the Big Apple.

LMCC also received $657,600 in New York state government funds in 2023, records show.

One City Rising said there are ‘significant questions about appropriateness, oversight, and fiscal responsibility’ of the cash handouts, which they say are being used ‘for purposes that taxpayers might find objectionable’, in a December 18 letter to NYC Commissioner Laurie Cumbo.

The letter highlighted taxpayer-funded events, including a BDSM-themed ‘concert series celebrating queer identity through classical music and the aesthetics of the Leather subculture’ and a show by a self-described professional clown teaching sex education.

It also pointed to a series of ‘socially-conscious musical works’ by Black and Pink, a group ‘dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating LGBTQIA2S+ people,’ as well as ‘raising money for bail funds across the country.’

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Five-Time Deported Child Sex Predator Released Back to NYC Streets

A Mexican child sex predator who has been removed from the U.S. on five prior occasions was arrested again after being released by New York City authorities.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the latest apprehension of 36-year-old Raymond Rojas Basilio, a Mexican national with a shocking criminal record dating back more than two decades.

During a 4-day stretch in 2002, Rojas Basilio was caught by U.S. Border Patrol on three separate occasions after he made illegal entries near Douglas, Arizona.

Rojas Basilio voluntarily returned to Mexico following each interception.

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered Rojas Jan. 6, 2012, at Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Arizona, when he applied for admission to the U.S. Rojas presented an Arizona Driver’s License and U.S Birth Certificate which CBP determined to be fraudulent. CBP processed Rojas, served him a notice and order of expedited removal and verified his departure to Mexico on the same date,” ICE explained in a press release.

Five days later, the Mexican pulled a similar stunt at Morley Gate Port of Entry in Nogales, Arizona, and was sent back to his home country by U.S. authorities.

Rojas Basilio then illegally crossed the border at an unknown date and time, making him one of millions of ‘gotaways’ lurking across the country.

On Aug. 28, 2023, Rojas Basilio was arrested by the New York Police Department and charged with first-degree sexual abuse with an individual less than 11 years old.

He was then released back to the streets with a future court date.

On Sept. 20, 2024, Rojas Basilio was convicted of forcible touching of the intimate parts of another person.

On Nov. 11, he was sentenced to just 60 days incarceration, six years probation, and ordered to register as a sex offender.

On Dec. 17, Rojas Basilio was arrested at his residence in Queens by officers with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York City.

He is currently in ICE custody amid pending removal proceedings.

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George Mason University Student Charged With Planning ‘Mass Casualty Attack’ Against Jews in New York

A student at George Mason University was arrested this week over claims he was planning a “mass casualty attack” on the Consulate General of Israel in New York, according to court records.

Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, an Egyptian national who is only 18, allegedly operated several social media accounts that were promoting “radical and terrorist-leaning behavior.”

While the accounts were run anonymously, investigators managed to trace it back to Hassan using his provided email address, phone number and IP address.

According to prosecutors, Hassan regularly posted about “revering Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri” and operated “several pro-ISIS and al Qaeda accounts that promoted violence against Jews.”

After developing an obsession with terrorism, Hassan eventually began the process of planning a “mass casualty attack at the Consulate General of Israel using an explosive device and rifle.”

Hassan discussed his plan in great detail with an FBI informant he believed to be an admirer of his ideological mission.

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