Tag: new york

New York enacts sweeping new gun ownership restrictions

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a sweeping package of gun control bills into law Monday, calling gun violence “a disease that is tearing our nation apart.”

The state legislature passed and Hochul signed into law 10 bills that will implement new restrictions on gun ownership, including raising the age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle in New York from 18 to 21 years old. Democratic lawmakers claim the new gun control measures will close “loopholes” in existing laws that were exposed by the deadly mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas last month.

In addition to raising the age to purchase a rifle, lawmakers banned the sale of bulletproof armor for anyone not in law enforcement, strengthened the state’s red flag law to take guns away from mentally unstable people, and introduced new requirements for social media companies to monitor and report “hateful conduct” on their platforms.

“Gun violence is an epidemic that is tearing our country apart. Thoughts and prayers won’t fix this, but taking strong action will,” Hochul said in a statement.

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NY Governor Kathy Hochul announces law forcing online platforms to report “hateful” content

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has reacted to a recent mass shooting in Buffalo by signing as many as ten new laws, including one that concerns social media. From the wording of the bills, the focus is not so much on content, as on online conduct.

The new legislation is supposed to prevent future incidents of this type, and cover limiting availability of guns and bulletproof vests, but also ordering social media companies to come up with new rules that would be used to “respond to potential threats.”

Reports say that the Buffalo shooter, an 18-year-old who was previously hospitalized after making threats against a school, also took these threats online in a number of posts a short time before the Buffalo massacre, and that he was also live streaming the deadly event.

One of the bills Hochul signed relates to “online hate” and wants companies behind social platforms to further tighten their policies around content flagged as such.

Hochul said that New York will require social media companies to report “hateful” content.

“And in the state of New York, we’re now requiring social media networks to monitor and report hateful conduct on their platforms,” Hochul announced.

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Authorities investigating if retired federal agent knew of Buffalo mass shooting plans in advance

Law enforcement officers are investigating whether a retired federal agent had about 30 minutes advance notice of a white supremacist’s plans to murder Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, two law enforcement officials told The Buffalo News. 

Authorities believe the former agent – believed to be from Texas – was one of at least six individuals who regularly communicated with accused gunman Payton Gendron in an online chat room where racist hatred was discussed, the two officials said.

The two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation stated these individuals were invited by Gendron to read about his mass shooting plans and the target location about 30 minutes before Gendron killed 10 people at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue on May 14. 

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Jewish woman busted for scrawling swastikas in Brooklyn’s Borough Park

A Jewish woman charged with spray-painting two swastikas on a Brooklyn bus stop took to Facebook after the hate crime and posted “maybe the anti-semites have a point,” the Daily News has learned.

Farnoush Hakakian, 45, was arrested Wednesday and charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime for the May 5 broad-daylight incident in Borough Park.

“I am Jewish. This is my art, this is how I express myself. I don’t agree with Judaism and how the Jewish people are,” Hakakian told investigators when she was arrested, according to a law enforcement source.

She also admitted to drawing the swastikas, the source said.

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New York Taxpayers To Pay $220 Million Next Year For Illegal Migrants’ Health Care

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed into law a $220 billion budget riddled with wasteful spending, including $220 million for free Medicaid for illegal immigrants and a $600 million subsidy for a new Buffalo Bills stadium, according to the New York Post.

Federal law prohibits federal tax dollars from going toward Medicaid for illegal immigrants, so New York taxpayers will pick up the tab for healthcare for up to 20,000 illegal immigrants living in the Empire State.

Those making less than $18,754 would qualify for the program, though many other details regarding eligibility have yet to be announced.

Hochul, a Buffalo resident, pushed for her pet project of giving $600 million to gift the NFL a new stadium, and is part of why the budget was delayed for days.

In addition to state funding, Eerie County will contribute $250 million to the project, making it the largest public subsidy for a stadium in the United States, according to Bloomberg. The NFL and the Bills will only pay $550 million toward the new stadium.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Announces Police Unit to Combat ‘Hate Speech’

One of the governor’s executive orders instructs the State Police to establish a “dedicated unit within the New York State Intelligence Center (NYSIC) to track domestic extremism and increase social media monitoring at the Intelligence Center.”

“The unit will be responsible for developing investigative leads based on social media analyses focused on radical extremist activities motivated threats by identifying online locations and activities that facilitate radicalization and promote violent extremism,” it reads in part.

The issue, however, is the debate over what individuals consider “hate speech,” triggering fears of a slippery slope, given the fact that some radical leftist activists, for example, consider “misgendering” someone as a fundamentally hateful act.

“The horrific and despicable act of terror committed by a white supremacist this past weekend in Buffalo showed that we as a country are facing an intersection of two crises: the mainstreaming of hate speech — including white nationalism, racism and white supremacy — and the easy access to military-style weapons and magazines,” Hochul said in a statement.

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Supermarket Shooter’s Alleged Manifesto Says He Chose Buffalo, NY Because of Strict Gun Control Laws

The suspect who allegedly shot and killed 10 people and injured three more at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket on Saturday may have planned the attack for months, officials said Sunday, while a manifesto that was apparently written by the man said he chose Buffalo because of the state’s stringent gun laws and used an illegally modified rifle to carry out the attack.

Authorities claimed the man, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, penned a 180-page manifesto, which was posted online. Officials told news outlets that the manifesto detailed his desire to attack the Tops Friendly Market and he drove there from several counties away.

“This defendant is accused of traveling to our area and targeting innocent people who were shopping for their groceries on a Saturday afternoon. I continue to pray for all affected by this horrific crime,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said in a statement. “I am committed to obtaining justice for the victims, their families, and this community.”

He added: “My office is working closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our partners in law enforcement into potential terrorism and hate crimes. This is an active investigation and additional charges may be filed.”

In the alleged manifesto, the author appears to claim that he chose Buffalo, New York, because of the strict gun control laws, because it has a high “black population percentage,” and “isn’t that far away” from where he had lived. The Epoch Times could not confirm whether the manifesto was written by Gendron. The Epoch Times has contacted Flynn’s office for comment.

New York state, the author said, “has heavy gun laws so it would ease me if I knew that any legally armed civilian was limited to 10 round magazines or cucked firearms,” likely referring to New York laws restricting magazines to only 10 rounds and laws that limit the purchase of certain types of semi-automatic rifles. New York state residents also need to obtain a permit, which can take months if not years, to buy a pistol under the provisions of the SAFE Act.

“Won’t your attack result in calls for the removal of gun rights in the United States?” the author rhetorically asked himself. “Yes, that is the plan all along, you said you would fight to protect your rights and the constitution, soon will come the time.”

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BUFFALO MASS SHOOTER CITES “GREAT REPLACEMENT THEORY” IN MANIFESTO WITH AZOV’S BLACK SUN ON COVER

Aside from the manifesto that investigators are still combing through to confirm authenticity, The Buffalo News said police in 2021 were notified when Gendron threatened violence to others at his local high school.

“A school official reported that this very troubled young man had made statements indicating that he wanted to do a shooting, either at a graduation ceremony, or sometime after,” a law enforcement official familiar with the case told the local paper. 

At the time, NY State Police investigated Gendron under the section of state mental health laws, and he was referred for a mental health evaluation.

The Biden administration responded to the mass shooting, saying, “A racially motivated hate crime is abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation. Any act of domestic terrorism, including an act perpetrated in the name of a repugnant white nationalist ideology, is antithetical to everything we stand for in America. Hate must have no safe harbor. We must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism.”

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Man confesses to Queens murder, called victim a ‘witch’ who cursed him: NYPD

A man charged in the fatal shooting of a woman in Queens reportedly confessed to detectives, also saying the victim — a psychic who does tarot card readings in her home — was a “witch” who had cursed him to his death.

Authorities say 41-year-old Giuseppe Canzani walked up to 51-year-old Anna Torres’ home, located on 109th Avenue in Ozone Park, around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, knocked on the door, and fired three shots when she opened the door, striking the victim twice.

Torres, whose son is an NYPD officer, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police officials said Canzani told investigators that Torres had tried to kill him with her curses.

“They tried to kill me,” he reportedly said. “I am supposed to be dead already.”

In surveillance video obtained by Eyewitness News, school children can be seen running as the crack of gunfire echoed down 109th Avenue.

Seconds later, a man matching Canzani who appeared to be holding a silver gun in his right hand, was captured casually walking from the home at the corner of 96th Street, before getting into the driver’s seat of a black Chevy Traverse.

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Video Appears to Show Local NBC Anchor Get Busted in Underage-Sex Sting – Station Issues Statement

A group that hunts sexual predators in New York state posted a video on Friday that it says shows a local TV anchorman trying to meet up with an underage boy to have sex with him.

Although not fully identified in the video posted to YouTube by the 607 Predator Hunters, the man looks very similar to Zach Wheeler of NBC affiliate WETM-TV in Elmira, New York, and is addressed as “Zach.” At one point he offers to do a TV spot on the group — “607” is an area code in the Elmira area.

On its Facebook page, the 607 Predator Hunters say its mission is “exposing child predators, protecting our communities.” Members of the group pose as minors online in an effort to entrap predators.

WETM posted a statement on the video on its Facebook page.

“WETM has been made aware of a video posted to YouTube regarding one of our employees. The local group that posted the video claims that the employee engaged in inappropriate behavior. WETM management is looking into the questions raised by the video, and the employee will remain off the air until the situation is resolved. No charges have been filed in connection with the video.”

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