Police unions try to block de Blasio’s stop-and-frisk deal

02.09.2014

A New York City police officer. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Five police unions are trying to block Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed settlement to resolve the federal court case over stop-and-frisk.

The unions filed a motion to stop the settlement, which would impose a federal monitor on the department for three years.

The motion, reported by Newsday this afternoon, was strongly criticized by an advocacy group that has been pushing City Hall to immediately adopt Judge Shira Scheindlin’s recommendations.

The Communities United for Police Reform spokeswoman Joo-Hyun Kang said the police unions are “continuing their baseless legal challenges and seeking to impede the process” and referred to the unions as “obstructionists.”

The police unions have petitioned the court to be granted formal recognition in the case, but have not yet been granted party status.

De Blasio announced on January 30 he was dropping the appeal filed by his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. The announcement was cheered by advocates, but details of how the city would implement Scheindlin’s recommendations still needed to be finalized and approved by the court.

The day after de Blasio’s announcement, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton extended an olive branch to the police unions, saying in a speech, “We will get it right together.”

source

Immigration FAIL: CYFD releases statement in regards to abuse against infant

02.09.2014

A four month old baby is fighting for her life, and police say the physical and sexual abuse done to her was horrific.

“That baby, because of the trauma to her body was rushed to the hospital right away and a full investigation was launched,” Albuquerque Police Department Officer Simon Drobik said. “I literally cannot explain to you what happened because it is so graphic you will not be able to air the charges.”

Officers arrested 19-year-old Elijah Fernandez. They accuse him of abusing his girlfriend’s four month old daughter.

Officers say they were called to an apartment off Copper Avenue Friday night because the baby was not breathing.

Fernandez told police the infant fell off the bed and later said he slapped the baby.

Police say Fernandez was sweating like he had been on drugs when they interviewed him.

CYFD released a statement Saturday, saying:

“This case is an absolute tragedy and surpasses anybody's ability to comprehend how someone can hurt a child in this manner. Our hearts are broken for this innocent 4-month-old child, and we are working with law enforcement to make sure the individual responsible for this crime is prosecuted and sent to prison. There have never been any allegations or referrals to CYFD relating to physical or sexual abuse of this child or another child in the home.  CYFD has never interacted with the alleged perpetrator or known him to be a caregiver of any child in the home. The primary referral CYFD received relating to this family dealt with low levels of THC in the child at birth and there was a second referral related to a doctor-prescribed medication impacting mom’s ability to breast feed. The third referral was because of the mother canceling a follow-up doctor appointment for the baby, which she subsequently rescheduled after CYFD intervened.”

source

BLACK HISTORY MONTH SHOCK: Queens school BANS students from writing about 'bad' civil rights leader Malcolm X: parents

02.09.2014

EXCLUSIVE: Queens school barred student reports on 'bad' Malcolm X, parents say

Teachers at Public School 201 in Flushing wouldn't let their students write about Malcolm X for Black History Month, parents say, and called the controversial activist 'violent' and 'bad.' Some parents feel the teachers are forcing their opinions on students and disrespecting black history.

JOHN PEODINCUK

Parents are outraged over teachers at PS 201 in Flushing, Queens, not allowing their children to write about Malcolm X (right), seen here with Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay.

Queens parents are using any means necessary to stop their children’s teachers from besmirching Malcolm X’s name.

Teachers at Public School 201 in Flushing told fourth-graders last week that the controversial activist was “violent” and “bad.” They also refused to let the kids write about the assassinated icon for Black History Month.

Parent Cleatress Brown, 47, of Flushing complained to Principal Rebecca Lozada on Friday after a teacher forbade her fourth-grade son from writing a report on Malcolm X.

“I’m outraged,” said Brown. “As a teacher, you’re imposing your opinion on a bunch of kids.”

She had her son write about him anyway — and then turn the paper in to her. “That’s called learning,” she said.

Another parent, Angel Minor, said she was “very upset” after her son came home complaining he couldn’t do a report on Malcolm X for his technology class.

“It was disrespectful to our history,” said Minor, 33, whose son is not in Brown’s class.

Children were asked to pick from several prominent black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Malcolm X for the project, Minor said.

“I felt like when he grew up, he wanted to stop segregation so everyone could be equal,” said her son Tyrese Minor, 9.

But his teacher quickly took Malcolm X off the list. The black leader defended the use of violence as a form of self-defense before his assassination in 1965.

SAM COSTANZA

(From left) Frank Brown, 40, Eliakim Brown, 9, and Cleatress Brown, 40, stand with Tyrese Minor, 9, and Angel Minor, 33. The families are upset that the children were barred from writing about Malcolm X for Black History Month.

About 43% of the 477 students at PS 201 are black, according to the school’s website. It earned a “C” on its last city report card.

City Department of Education officials said they were looking into the matter and would not defend it.

“Malcolm X is a historical figure and a hero to many New Yorkers that we believe should be celebrated in our schools,” said agency spokesman Devon Puglia.

Lozada did not immediately return calls for comment.

Eliakim Brown, 9, picked Martin Luther King Jr. for his class project.

“Malcolm X did the same thing as Martin Luther King,” he said. “They both fought for the rights of the world.”

The civil rights movement wasn’t all about MLK, said Sylvia Cyrus, executive director of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History.

“Malcolm X is a figure in American history who helped make change,” she said. “Students should be allowed to write about him.”

This isn’t the first time PS 201 has come under fire.

In April 2012, a kindergarten teacher gave kids a worksheet with a picture of a gun and a robber on it for a spelling lesson.

 The teacher later apologized.

source

Winter Olympics Update: Woman who lit Olympic flame sent racist Obama tweet

02.09.2014

Victor Boyko

ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - FEBRUARY 18: Russian figure skater Irina Rodnina attends the Laureus World Sports Awards at the Mariinsky Concert Hall on February 18, 2008 in St.Petersburg, Russia. (Photo by Victor Boyko/Wireimage) *** Local Caption ***

The job of lighting the torch at the opening ceremony of the Olympics is one of the highest honors an athlete can receive — which is what makes Sochi’s choice this year so peculiar.

That honor went to former Russian figure skater turned politician Irina Rodnina for tweeting out a photoshopped picture of the Obamas, that was considered racist by many. (Via Wikimedia Commons / Dmitry Rozhkov)  

She deleted the tweet, but that didn’t keep it from resurfacing on social media Friday. (Via Twitter /@Deadspin) 

Mashable notes the tweet, showing the president and first lady with a superimposed banana, has clear racist undertones.

“In some parts of Europe, including Russia, it's not uncommon for black soccer players to be insulted with fruit and monkey sounds by fans at matches.”

Rodnina never did apologize and at the time blamed the criticism on a conspiracy.

She told The Guardian, "Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and you should answer for your own hang-ups.”

Given the controversial tweet, it may be hard to imagine why she was tasked with such an high-profile honor, but USA Today's Christine Brennan suggests maybe it was the tweet that got Rodnina the job in the first place. 

"Is it possible that she also was chosen to send a message to Obama, who sent a very big message of his own to Putin in December when it was announced that he was sending three openly gay athletes as part of the official U.S. delegations to the games?"

Interestingly, Rodnina's partner in lighting the flame — Russian hockey great Vladislav Tretiak — also has his share of controversy. (Via Wikimedia Commons / Alexey Chernyadyev)  

Yahoo notes he voted for a law banning some U.S. citizens and prohibiting Americans from adopting Russian children.

When asked about their choice of Rodnina to light the torch, Olympic organizers reportedly stressed her accomplishments as an athlete and said her Twitter account had nothing to do with their selection.

source

No Great Loss: Hard Left Hero heads off to Hell

02.09.2014

Vasil Bilak, hard-line communist leader, dies

AP PHOTO/CTK, JANA MISAUEROVA, FILE

In this March 31, 2000 file photo former Czechoslovak hard-line communist leader Vasil Bilak who paved the way for Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 is pictured in his apartment in Bratislava, Slovakia.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Vasil Bilak, a former hard-line communist leader who paved the way for Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, has died. He was 96.

Slovakia's Communist Party said Bilak died Tuesday in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, where he lived. No cause of death was given.

Bilak was among the communists who opposed Alexander Dubcek's attempts at reforming the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in late 1960s that became known as the Prague Spring. Bilak is better remembered as one of five communist leaders who wrote a letter inviting Soviet troops into the country that crushed the movement in 1968.

"The very existence of socialism in our country is threatened," the letter addressed to Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Communist Party chief, urging him to use "all means you have in your disposal to help."

Bilak was the last living author of the letter.

Vaclav Havel, who led the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ended more than 40 years of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, was given a copy of the letter by Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1992.

More than 100 people were killed in 1968 by the Soviet Union-led invasion of armies from five Warsaw Pact countries.

As a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, he played a major role in establishing the hard-line regime following the invasion. In the 1980s, Bilak opposed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms.

Bilak survived efforts to try him for his role in 1968. In 2011, the Slovak state prosecution dropped the case for lack of evidence.

He was born Aug 11, 1917, in the village of Krajna Bystra in northeastern Slovakia.

source

Tx. governor candidate Davis' using National Democratic Socialist's tactic: Lie and deceive for votes

02.09.2014

AUSTIN, TEXAS (AP) -The Wild West tradition of openly carrying your six-shooter on the street has long been banned in Texas under state law. But the next governor could change that.

Rising Democratic star and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis has joined her top Republican rival in supporting a proposed "open carry" law. It would allow people with concealed handgun licenses to wear a pistol on their hip, in full view, while in public.

Davis has said she supports expanding gun rights in Texas. In a statement to The Associated Press, she said that includes open-carry - a position that puts her at odds with her own party but could keep her from alienating gun rights advocates in a deeply conservative state where the Second Amendment is sacrosanct.

Davis' position now aligns her with her Republican gubernatorial rival, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, marking her latest effort to eliminate it as a wedge issue in the campaign.

The state senator from Fort Worth said such a law should allow private property owners to determine whether weapons could be openly carried on their property. She also said background checks and training requirements would "help ensure that only mentally stable, law-abiding citizens may carry, whether concealed or open."

But her party and influential Democratic colleagues, including a fellow state senator running for lieutenant governor, disagree.

"There is little or no public safety justification for open carry," said Emmanuel Garcia, spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party.

Kellye Burke, who leads the Texas Chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, also opposes Davis' position. She said the open carry of firearms, whether rifles or pistols, "is meant to be a sign of intimidation. It's not about protection."

"I don't think people are aware of it. They just haven't seen it yet. People are completely shocked how strange and lawless it looks to have that kind of firepower in our daily life," Burke said.

History suggests that Davis' position is a pragmatic one. Former Gov. Ann Richards, a Democrat, vetoed a concealed handgun measure, but Republican George W. Bush made it a major campaign issue when he defeated Richards for governor in 1994. Texas passed its concealed handgun law the next year.

Davis, who said she keeps a gun at her home for protection, supported legislation last year to allow college students with concealed handgun licenses to keep their weapons in their cars. She also voted for reduced training requirements to get such a license.

Still, gun rights advocates were skeptical. Texas State Rifle Association spokeswoman Alice Tripp noted Davis' previous calls for more restrictions on gun show sales and past votes against allowing concealed license holders to carry their guns in classrooms and buildings on college campuses.

"Wendy Davis has a very bad record as far as gun owners go," Tripp said, calling Davis an "opportunist."

Abbott spokesman Adviel Huerta expressed a similar sentiment.

"Sen. Wendy Davis' new pro-gun stance may help improve her low grade with the NRA, but it won't help her (be) a straight shooter when it comes to the facts of her anti-gun record," Huerta said, noting that Abbott supported an open-carry bill in the 2013 legislative session.

But veteran Democratic consultant Harold Cook said Abbott supporters have already tried to portray Davis as anti-gun.

"If the issue isn't important to you, then it would be smart to take it off the table by saying, 'Me, too; now let's go back to talking about education and how we fund road building and the stuff the mainstream of Texas is really concerned with,'" he said.

Open carry is specifically allowed in 17 states, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. Many others leave it up to cities and counties to impose restrictions.

But laws in five states - including Texas - and Washington, D.C. specifically prohibit open carry of handguns, according to the gun rights advocacy group OpenCarry.org.

Texas does allow open carry of long firearms, such as rifles and shotguns, with virtually no restrictions. In recent months, rifle-toting Second Amendment advocates have held public demonstrations at the Alamo in San Antonio and near the Capitol in Austin.

Texas has about 600,000 concealed handgun license holders, who must be at least 21, pass criminal background checks and go through a training course. In 2013, state lawmakers relaxed the training requirements, reducing the minimum time required for classroom and shooting range instruction from 10 to 15 hours to four to six hours.

Smuggler's Blues: Bundles of marijuana found hidden in load of cabbage

02.09.2014

A man has been busted with bundles of marijuana hidden between a load of cabbage.

Mission police seized 900 pounds of marijuana from an 18-wheeler.

Police said a tip came in about a load of marijuana being transported in the JR Express 18-wheeler out of San Antonio.

An undercover officer with the drug task force out of Mission then followed him.

The driver was then pulled over on 7 ½ mile line and North Inspiration Road, Cpl. Casas with the Mission Police Department said.
 
Police then discovered the cabbage along with the 40 bundles of marijuana in the tractor trailer.

The driver was arrested and police said he claim he is innocent because according to him, he was unaware the load was being stashed.

source

Man in banana costume with rifle cited by police

02.09.2014

BEAUMONT, TEXAS (AP) -- Police have cited an 18-year-old Beaumont man who riled and worried passing motorists by standing at an intersection dressed as a banana with an assault rifle slung across his back.

Beaumont Police said in a statement on Saturday that officers determined the man was advertising for a local tactical and security store. The rifle had a drum magazine with a 50-round capacity.

Police briefly detained the man and cited him for violating a city ordinance prohibiting soliciting alongside roadways. Police had received multiple reports from concerned citizens.

source

P.C. RINO will challenge Pa. Pitts

02.09.2014

Republican Christopher Gant is planning to challenge U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in the 2014 primary.

The political landscape is changing. Controversial issues like same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization are evolving and public opinion is starting to lean a little to the left.

But the GOP appears to be stuck firmly to the right.

At least that’s what Republican Christopher Gant thinks. And why he believes the future of the party depends on people like him — people with a fresh perspective and modern ideas.

The Reading city resident is serious about his vision for a more inclusive Republican Party and is hoping voters of the 16th Congressional District feel the same way.

Gant has announced his intention to challenge nine-term incumbent Joe Pitts for the Republican nomination to take over the seat in Washington.

The 31-year-old said he will travel across the district talking to members of the GOP about how they can capitalize on what he believes is a failed Democratic agenda.

“Congress is pretty dysfunctional right now and there is a real opportunity for the Republican Party to recruit young voters,” he said.

With that objective in mind, Gant said he would support legislation that legalized marijuana and recognized same-sex marriages.

Results from the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll show that opinion is changing on these two issues.

Thirty-six percent of Pennsylvania voters said marijuana use should be made legal — up from 22 percent in 2006. Fifty-six percent support allowing gays and lesbians to marry — an increase of 23 percent since 2006.

Gant, who is openly gay, said marriage equality is a constitutional right and believes his stance on the issue will help him gain votes.

“The majority of Americans feel the civil right to marry is a decision of love and faith. I cannot deny to the American people what I would not want to deny myself,” he said.

Gant said one of reasons he would fight to legalize pot actually has a lot to do with preserving Lancaster County’s rich agricultural history.

Industrial hemp is in the same plant family as marijuana, but it can’t get you high. The U.S. has only been able to import goods containing hemp, not manufacture them. It’s used in products from handbags to body washes to building materials.

Gant said he hopes to reinvigorate the GOP by creating a forward-thinking, diverse and innovative party. Republicans, he said, have a tendency to look to the past when they should try to solve today’s problems on today’s terms.

But, he said, that does not mean the party should abandon its principals of protecting personal liberty and life, upholding Constitutional rights, promoting a strong national defense and advocating for a smaller federal government that is limited in its ability to interfere with the private sector.

Gant said that if he were elected his first priorities would be to repeal the Affordable Care Act and would make it easier for American businesses to grow and create jobs by imposing tariffs on foreign companies.

National defense would be a top concern as well. He said he would address the root causes of terrorism and seek harsh penalties on organizations and nations that support terrorist groups.

“I may be seen as a moderate because of my views on certain social issues but I actually feel that I’m more aligned with the Constitution than most Republicans right now,” he said. “The First Amendment guarantees people that the government will not interfere with their personal freedom.”

In addition to his conservative perspective, Gant said his hometown connection makes him a better candidate as well.

Pitts grew up Kentucky and moved Kennett Square shortly after his serving in the Vietnam War.

Gant was born and raised in Berks County. He earned a bachelor’s degree in global studies from Penn State Berks and currently works as a caretaker in a private home.

Still, he said, beating an established incumbent is a difficult task.

“I will need wise counsel, campaign contributions and support from the party. But, first and foremost, I’m focusing on getting 1,000 signatures to make it to the primary,” he said.

source