China sent a spy to work for the NYPD

 

 

NY Post

An NYPD cop and US Army reservist was charged Monday with secretly serving as a spy for the Chinese government who passed on information to a handler involved in “neutralizing” Tibetan opponents in America.

Baimadajie Angwang, who works a community affairs officer in the 111th Precinct in Queens, allegedly began acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China in May 2018 after being recruited by an unidentified “handler” stationed in the Chinese consulate in Manhattan, according to a complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court.

Angwang, 33, allegedly “served as an intelligence asset” whose duties included gathering information on potential opponents of the Chinese government, including members of “religious and ethnic minorities.”

His handler, identified only as “PRC Official-2,” is believed to have been assigned to the “China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture,” a division of the Chinese United Front Work Department that’s responsible for “neutralizing sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of the PRC,” court papers say.

Angwang, an ethnic Tibetan, is accused of reporting on the activities of fellow ethnic Tibetans, including by scoping out “potential ethnic Tibetan intelligence sources in the New York metropolitan area and beyond,” as well as potential troublemakers.

During a wiretapped phone call on Nov. 14, 2019, Angwang informed his handler — whom he routinely greeted as “Boss” — that several ethnic Tibetans were working in the offices of unspecified elected New York officials, according to court papers.

“They are mainly, mainly, mainly, in Queens, at the Queens area state legislator’s office. These offices all have our people working there, because our population is getting larger. They hire them to pull in more votes, to pull in more votes,” he allegedly said.

“But I also feel that some community groups may use their relationships to associate with them, to chant slogans, to utter nonsense. They may, may, may create more work for you.”

Angwang also “asked PRC Official-2 for taskings and volunteered to assist PRC Official-2 by providing information from NYPD systems,” court papers say.

The new Ozone Park

 

A few years ago, I sent the Original Crapper a photo of this modern day McMansion that was developed on the corner of Cohancey St and Albert Rd. in Ozone Park. I was not only surprised that it survived the usual speeding traffic from vehicles coming from the North Conduit and the Belt Parkway exit, but also at how this area metamorphisized into a new suburb.

And judging by the way Hawtree St. has looked for decades with all that unsightly vegetation buttressing the Aqueduct train station, now there is a whole new swatch of potential residential or commercial real estate. Or maybe real affordable housing? (I don't think I'll hold my breath that long)

But so far the most dramatic change to this intersection and new locale is that Hawtree St is now a two-way street. Along with the arrival of a Bolla Market store where the old auto shop used to be.( Even though there is another Bolla Market at the gas station nearby on Cross Bay Blvd. And Pitkin Ave.)

                                                                                                                                                                

  It's almost kinda surreal how all of this over-development manifested from one little ostentatious mansion placed delicately on a busy street corner (along with crossroad fork with one road going back on the Belt and the other a downhill road on Albert) and with still more to come. 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                
To top this off, the city (or someone) decided to put an old-timey sign on the wooden electrical pole and marked it for the original settler's date of 1882. Despite the fact that most of this settlement got completed in the 20th year of the 21st century.

The leadership of Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio gets aptly honored with mural on Brooklyn Street

 

 

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New York's bail reform law has led to a rise in Omerta

 

NY Post

With shootings in the city up 87 percent this year and murder mushrooming by 34 percent, the NYPD needs cooperating witnesses more than ever.

But they are coming up against a wall of stony silence. And cops and prosecutors point to myriad reasons.

“The community helps solve lots of different types of crimes,” Giacalone said. “When the public doesn’t trust the police, the information stops flowing. And that information is vital.”

Police worry that COVID-19 changes like ubiquitous face masks will make it even more difficult to identify shooters.

Then there is the rising tidal wave of gang violence, where scores are settled on the streets and not a court of law. Gangbangers rarely talk.

“It’s a challenging time,” said NYPD spokesman Al Baker. “There’s an anti-snitch culture that’s taken root amid a level of violence that makes people reluctant to cooperate with our investigators. But we work every day with our partners in the city’s district attorneys’ offices to combat this culture and to solve crimes and help ensure public safety.”

Experts say recently enacted laws that endanger witnesses aren’t helping matters.

“The New York State Bail Reform Act has royally screwed up policing,” Sgt. Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC, told The Post, saying the new discovery rules and judges letting criminals go have reversed “decades of progress.”

“Witnesses and confidential informants have little to no protection in regards to the new discovery rules,” he explained. (Reliable confidential informants, also known as CIs, are often paid).

“Old-school policing, where good officers would meet with people on the street to gain information, has dwindled,” he added. “Many witnesses know that their personal information will be available and possibly get out to the defense team.”

Under the new rules, prosecutors must give defense counsel the name and contact information of anyone with information relevant to a case within 15 days of arraignment — ­regardless of whether the person will testify at trial.

One seasoned Brooklyn detective said the new discovery rules have a lot to do with cops being stonewalled. “Witnesses ask if the shooter will get their name and they are told, ‘Probably yes,’ ” he said.

He said he used to have cooperating witnesses in about 75 percent of cases, but “now I would say we get witnesses in less than half of the cases.”

  Impunity City

 This bail reform law was designed to bring down inmate population in prisons, most notably Rikers Island, to make way for four tower prisons in four boroughs that no one wants. Sorry, no sane person wants. The list of crimes that are exempt from judge's decision to set bail are mostly based on the most violent and devastating acts you can commit on your fellow citizens and damage them for life mentally and financially. And a majority of them are burglaries and robberies, which are usually committed with the use of a gun. 

 

Welcome Back To Urinetown

Crappy,

Thank you for the professionalism and Queens focused news.

Not sure if this will fit within the website but here goes: Woodside, and far too many other locations, have become the go to location to, well go.

 

 

 

We have caught drivers (TLC, Uber, and Lyft), random neighbors who could not make it home (so they said), and just those walking through and couldn't hold it, but when its the city subcontractors exposing themselves, we want to make some noise.

We confronted the workers directly.  We called the Operations manager at their company. We emailed the graphic photos to their info email address.  We sent the same photos to Costa's office and NYPD 114 Community Officer.  We even complained to DOT commissioner Polly. 

Attached are four photos, two graphic, of our plight and lack of assistance in breaking this cycle.  This was a problem before Covid-19 and as more return to work without access to public restrooms, our neighborhood is suffering and we are not going to remain quiet. 

 

  

Urinetown left Broadway but perhaps its time charge to pee, just think of the taxable income!

Urine Not Needed

No one has responded so let's make some noise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update: 

 

Act Two: We are in the shit.

It was asked for, we only provide

 

 

 

Mayor Big Slow decides to suspend in person learning at schools again a few days from re-opening

 Politico

New York City schools will not fully reopen on Monday as planned, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday — agreeing to another delay in his push to bring back in-person education in the nation’s largest school district.

Teachers and principals had raised a host of objections to the city’s reopening plans, including safety concerns and a shortage of teachers.

“They had real concerns about specific things that had to be done to make sure our schools could effectively start,” de Blasio said.

Only pre-kindergarten, early education classes for 3-year-olds, and special education classes will open in person on Monday.

Elementary schools and K-8 schools will now open on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Middle and high schools will open on Thursday, Oct. 1.

That cheesy photoshop? A children's book I'm working on. 

Cuomo's COVID comedy is not pretty

 

 Impunity City

Governor Andrew Cuomo  has been in quite a blue mood lately. Although it’s not over New York elected officials bipartisan calls and congressional and senate demands from DC calling for an independent investigation into the motives behind his mandate demanding nursing homes accept COVID19 patients and the immunity law he gave the owners and financial holders of them. It’s also not over the MTA’s running out of funding to maintain and operate the transit system to go along with maniacs breaking train windows for the fuck of it. It’s also not over the mass exodus of the state’s richest people from the big hollow apple and especially those he’s groveling to so they stay put…

No it’s all these young and youngish adults who are flouting the pandemic protocols he put in place back in April (which he did very late) that mandated mask wearing and social distancing while shopping indoors and mingling outside at bars and restaurants. Even though this consensus flouting as been going on since the outbreak began and reaching the tipping point in summer’s eve with people partying down on an Astoria street, Cuomo decided that the only way he could get the narrative through to these maskless party obsessive punks would be through, um, comedy.

Now Cuomo is the last person who should delve into this genre, although as his massive ego and megalomania plainly shows, it’s safe to say that he probably thinks he knows funny more than anyone else who happens to be in his surroundings. Even that COVID 19 mountain grave poster he commissioned to make and is selling now has little side jokes (the boyfriend cliff).

What’s truly interesting about Cuomo’s sudden interest in resorting to humor is that because of his emergency executive powers that Albany’s legislators gave him in order to prevent contagion to keep the curve going back up the mountain is that he won’t let people who are actually funny and rely on comedy for their livelihoods do their jobs...

 

Astoria man blows up his apartment

 

 

 PIX News

 

Parts of an Astoria block were evacuated Tuesday and a man taken into custody after police found "precursor materials" for an explosive at the scene of a house fire.

Officials said the resident of the home's bottom floor — where the fire originated — was taken into custody and transported to a local hospital for evaluation. Police described him as "emotionally disturbed."

Flames broke out at a home on 19th Street near Astoria Park on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. The bomb squad was requested for a suspicious package at the scene.

At the scene, officials found chemicals and other hazardous materials, as well as books and manuals regarding military explosives and booby traps.

While officials did not find a "completed improvised explosive device," the fire could have created a much more serious situation due to the hazardous nature of storing the chemicals near each other, officials said.

Video showed police take a shirtless man into custody. He was found hiding behind the home.

Police said once the hazardous materials are removed from the scene and taken to a secure location, neighbors with homes

Riis Park parking fees will double to $20 next summer

 Rockaway Times

For the first time since 2012, Gateway National Recreation Area is hoping to increase parking fees for the Riis Park parking lot. These parking rates would go into effect for the summer of 2021. 

Currently $10 a day, the proposal calls for a doubling of the fee to $20. In 2016, National Park Service tried to propose a fee increase to $15. It never came to fruition. This season, with beaches being closed due to coronavirus, fees were not collected until July as opposed to the regular Memorial Day weekend start.

The proposed fees for 2021 would include: $20 per day; $100 per season; $50 per oversize car per day and $200 per oversize car per season. Visitors with Senior or Access Passes would be charged half price for parking, as they are currently.

“We are committed to keeping the park affordable but also want to provide visitors with the best possible experience,” said Gateway Superintendent Jen Nersesian.  “The money from the parking fees will help improve our visitor facilities and services.” 

Now that's how you gentrify a beach. Make way for privatization.

Emergency response time by the NYPD increases

THE CITY

NYPD response times to incidents remain snagged three months after protests against police spurred long delays — while other emergency responders are getting to the scene faster than before the coronavirus took hold.

That’s the conclusion of THE CITY’s comparison of medical, fire and police response times so far in 2020, a year defined by sudden and intense demands on those rushing to incidents.

Starting in late March and running through mid-May, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a jump in ambulance calls. Then anti-racism protests that peaked in mid June put the Police Department to the test.

Data from the 911 call system shows that the delays have affected every type of NYPD call, including what police call “critical crime in progress” — encompassing armed violent incidents, robberies and burglaries.

Responses to those incidents — measured from the first call to the arrival of the first unit — took an average of 8 minutes and 5 seconds in the last four weeks of August 2020, compared with 6 minutes and 49 seconds during the same period a year earlier.

Calls of minor crimes typically took 21 minutes and 13 seconds in August of this year to get police to the scene, up from 20 minutes and 44 seconds in August 2019.

 

de Blasio lied, public housing's kids got poisoned

NY Post 

  Newly surfaced documents reveal damning details about the scale and scope of what NYCHA knew of its serious lead issues in housing units with kids — all while Mayor Bill de Blasio downplayed the health crisis.

Local Health Department inspectors found lead in 222 NYCHA apartments across 93 developments — more than a quarter of all complexes citywide — between 2010 and 2018, according to records that City Hall only produced after The Post sued it under the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

Experts have said there is a high likelihood of finding lead in other apartments in a building where it has already been discovered.

Yet NYCHA was able to avoid making any repairs to 158 of the 222 lead-tainted apartments thanks to appeals to the city DOH, the documents show.

Board Of Education's Covid-19 protection supplies for schools won't do quat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 NY Post

It’s PPE to die for.

The city Department of Education is supplying schools with defective thermometers, “low quality” masks, and smelly wipes, a disgusted Queens principal told The Post.

“The s—t they gave us won’t protect us — not the students, teachers or parents,” fumed the educator. “Every principal in NYC is banging their head against the wall.”

“The “cheap, black-market crap” includes touchless, electronic thermometers that registered temperatures at 40, 50 and 60 degrees.

“You’d be dead,” she said. “We keep taking each other’s temperatures like we’re clowns.”

The school leader, who asked for anonymity to avoid repercussions, said the two dozen thermometers sent to her school had no batteries, so she ran to the store and spent nearly $300 of her own money to power them up. They were better left uncharged.

“Why are they spending millions on black-market thermometers with no name brand?” the principal asked, adding that the directions are printed in Chinese. “These are supposed to keep us safe?”

“I really believe this is black-market items from China bought in bulk — hundreds of handheld thermometers we’ll be throwing in the garbage,” the heated supervisor said.

After recognizing the handheld thermometers were faulty, she said, the DOE installed electric thermometers on the walls in the lobby to check students upon arrival.

She is also disgusted by the DOE’s disinfectant wipes.

“They don’t have the high level of alcohol that’s supposed to protect our hands from bacteria.

“I wouldn’t wipe my ass with it,” she said.