Tag: new york

NYPD Deploys Counter Terrorism Unit To Protect Wall Street in Response To Gamestop Protests

The Charging Bull statue in Manhattan’s Financial District has become the sight of protests amid a wider financial rebellion happening online. On Friday, a handful of activists were seen in Bowling Green Park, posing with the bull, and holding signs that said “Tax Wall Street Trades.” A thin band of tape was also placed on the statue’s head and rear end, featuring slogans like “Hold the line” and “WSB” — both allusions to the GameStop insurrection against hedge funds organized by Reddit’s “Wall Street Bets” community. A similar fate befell the new Fearless Girl statue, which faces the New York Stock Exchange building. Both the bull and the girl are meant to symbolize the power, bravery and daring of the city’s financial traders.

In response, the New York Police Department (NYPD) mobilized its anti-terrorism unit, sending masked, blad clad police officers wearing armor and carrying assault rifles to protect and secure the area. “The Stock Market has had an interesting week to say the least. We are happy to report that the Wall Street Charging Bull is secure and continues to preside over Bowling Green for the foreseeable future,” it announced. The bull was covered in a blue tarp to prevent further vandalism.

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New York Bill Would Let the State Put People in Detention if Deemed a ‘Significant Threat to Public Health’

New York lawmakers are mulling a bill that would allow the state to detain anyone carrying or suspected of carrying a contagious disease that makes them a “significant threat to public health.”

Democratic Assemblyman N. Nick Perry of New York’s 58th District spearheaded Bill A416, which holds that the government may “order the removal and/or detention of such a person or of a group of such persons” in a “medical facility or other appropriate facility or premises designated by the governor or his or her delegee.” A confirmed carrier would be released only after he or she is no longer contagious, and a suspected carrier could be set free only when the government proves that he or she “is not infected with or has not been exposed to such a disease.”

Those who may have been in contact with the alleged carriers may also be detained and released when they test negative for the malady in question, or if the suspected carrier with whom they interacted is deemed to be negative.

What could go wrong?

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Cuomo Creates New COVID Vaccination Obstacles To Help Fight Racism

Should a clinic administer the vaccine to somebody before their turn, they could face a fine of up to $1MM.

The reasoning behind the executive order appears to be preventing a “black market” for vaccines, or otherwise tying the system to wealth

Instead, Cuomo is creating another obstacle to swift distribution of vaccines, which could risk more of them possibly spoiling. He has also prioritized addicts in state rehabs for vaccination.

At this point, distributing vaccines to people out of turn hasn’t emerged as a problem. Instead, 3 weeks into the most ambitious vaccination campaign in modern US history, far fewer people than expected are being immunized against the virus as the process moves slower than officials had projected and has been beset by confusion and disorganization in many states. Of the more than 12 million doses of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech that have been shipped, fewer than 3MM have been administered, per data from the CDC. As of Sunday, the state of NY has doled out roughly 1/3rd of the nearly 775K doses that have been distributed.

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Proposed Bill Bans Body Armor, Makes Possession a Crime, Forces Citizens to Turn it In or Face Arrest

Lawmakers in New York have proposed one of the most tyrannical and utterly worrisome pieces of legislation we’ve seen. They want to ban citizens from having body armor to protect themselves from bullets. As no one has ever beaten anyone to death with a bullet proof vest, the intentions behind this bill are clear and have no other purpose other than making it easier for government to kill citizens and harder for citizens to protect themselves from bullets.

New York, who has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, now wants to make it a misdemeanor and potential felony for people to purchase or possess a passive means of resistance to bullets.

Unlike other attempts to ban body armor like we’ve seen in the past, this bill does not grandfather people in who already own it. In fact, the bill says that it must be turned over to the state for disposal, or you are guilty. After the passage of the bill, citizens will have 15 days to turn it in before they are declared criminals.

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New York State Assembly Perry wants detention centers for sick

The sweeping powers would be employed in the event of the state government declaring a health emergency due to an epidemic of any communicable disease, the bill proposes. The legislation states that the government must provide “clear and convincing evidence” that the health of others is in danger before ordering a person or group to be detained. People being “removed” will have the right to legal representation and are allowed to supply the telephone numbers of friends or family to receive notification of the individual’s detention.

The law apparently allows the governor or health official to unilaterally approve such detentions but a court order is required within 60 days of confinement, and judicial review is also required if the individual is still in detention after 90 days.

Citizens that are placed in detention will be released once health authorities determine that they are no longer contagious, the proposed law states.

The bill also allows the governor or relevant health authorities to require people deemed potential health risks to submit to medical examinations as well as undergo a “prescribed course of treatment, preventative medication or vaccination.”

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New York Is Sitting On 2/3 Of The Vaccine Doses It’s Received

As we discussed yesterday, Florida has been running into massive problems in trying to get enough doses of vaccine for all the senior citizens signing up to be inoculated. Far to the north, in New York State, pretty much the opposite problem is being encountered. Large numbers of vials of vaccine from both Pfizer and Moderna have been arriving in the Empire State. The problem is, they aren’t being injected into hopeful patients at anywhere near an acceptable rate. As of the end of the year, 630,000 doses have been received, but barely 200,000 have been administered. This has a lot of people, particularly healthcare workers and nursing home residents, asking what the holdup is and who is actually in charge of this mess.

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12,000 NYC Students Banned From School For Not Consenting To Random Covid Testing

Today in “how far can your rights be infringed upon before people start to push back” news…

About 12,000 New York City students are being prevented from attending in-person learning because their parents “failed to sign consent forms for weekly random testing”, Bloomberg reported last week. The students are part of a larger group of 190,000 pre-school through elementary students who returned to classrooms in December. 

While about 60,000 pre-school and kindergarten students are exempt from testing, there are still about 130,000 students who are required to participate in random testing. 

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Taking the Piss: New York Briefly Bans Diners From Using Restaurant Bathrooms

New York City’s outdoor dining patrons who needed to relieve themselves were left out in the cold briefly by a state policy that forbade them from using a restaurant’s indoor bathroom.

On Thursday, the city, through the Office of the Counsel to the Mayor, issued a guidance FAQ to help restaurants understand Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order shutting down indoor dining in the city this past Monday, as well as guidance from the State Liquor Authority (SLA) interpreting that order.

Among those FAQs was a question asking, “If my SLA-licensed establishment is offering outdoor dining, may I allow customers to use the bathroom inside?” The answer was an emphatic no. “No. Customers may not enter the inside of the establishment for any reason,” reads the document.

The same document also made clear that restaurant staff were not allowed to share meals together. Employees were barred from eating or drinking at bars, in dining rooms, or other areas of their workplace that are used by the public. (Better that they eat their shift meal in a crowded kitchen, I guess.)

This FAQ document and the underlying state guidance sparked fierce criticism from restaurant advocates.

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Cuomo signs bill banning sale of Confederate flags

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law aimed at banning the sale of “hate symbols” such as the Confederate flag or the swastika on state property — even while admitting the new edict might clash with the First Amendment and be struck down as unconstitutional.

The new law — effective immediately — prohibits the sale of hate symbols on public grounds including state and local fairs, and also severely limits their display unless deemed relevant to serving an educational or historical purpose. 

But Cuomo said the rule likely needs “certain technical changes” so the Empire State doesn’t get caught treading upon free speech protections codified in the Constitution’s First Amendment.

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NYC UFO sightings in 2020 are up 283% from 2018

UFO sightings across the city are up 31% from last year — 46, compared with 35 — and an eye-popping 283% from 2018’s measly dozen, according to the National UFO Reporting Center.

Brooklyn is tops in tin-foil hatters, with 12 close encounters. Not far behind are Manhattan with 11 and Queens with 10. Staten Islanders claim just eight — despite the borough’s rep for not social distancing. The Bronx is even more grounded, chalking up a mere five.

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