AOC feigns ignorance about the vaccine mandate's effect on workers and parents

 

 NYC For Yourself

I had a very brief conversation with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently that drove this point home. It was at the end of one of her town hall meetings, which I often livestream on my reporting channel.

I have also been reporting on how New York’s vaccine mandates have affected people since 2021, and I’ve been trying to ask AOC about her position on this issue since New York City’s mandates were in full effect. Maybe I’ve missed something, but I have never heard her address the question of mandates in any forum.

AOC and her team have always exercised tight control over interactions with media. I know that because I’m one of her constituents and attended many of her public events before I started reporting on them, going back to her primary race in 2018. At public events like town halls, she takes questions from constituents by having people submit them on slips of paper as they enter. The time she gives to press has always been very limited. 

 So when I wanted to ask about her position on the mandates, I knew the drill. Here’s a question I submitted at a Bronx town hall in January of this year:

Ocasio-Cortez didn’t take my question at that town hall or any of the others where I had submitted it. So I decided to give it a try as a member of the press. At the end of the event, I explained to one of her press aides that I’m an independent journalist and wanted to ask a question.

AOC was simply out of time! she told me, but perhaps I could ask her my question and she could pass it along. I declined that offer and stood by as AOC gave a detailed response to a question from another reporter about whether it was tough to balance being a disruptor with getting things done.

Fate and the press aide smiled upon me a couple town halls later at the July 6 Hunts Point event, and I was granted the opportunity to ask “one question!” of the overscheduled congresswoman. Now my question wasn’t about the government mandates, which were no longer in effect. It was about whether she would support reinstating workers who had been fired for not being vaccinated.

I asked AOC this question for all the reasons you can hear me spell out in the video: Labor rights and civil rights are among her signature issues. She speaks frequently about the importance of bodily autonomy.

She touched on all of these topics at the July 6 town hall, as well as the financial hardships people are facing as they recover from the pandemic. My question was relevant to all of those issues. It should have been right in her wheelhouse.

I was honestly surprised by her inadequate response. Not only did she not answer the question about reinstatement that I had asked, but she seemed only vaguely aware of the facts about mandates in New York.

Her response was about whether there should still be “health care requirements” in place, and she seemed to be saying that she thought there probably should be in some sectors, especially health care and education. So I guess I finally got the answer to my question about her position on mandates.

How could someone who presents herself as an advocate for workers be so unaware of the facts about policies that put tens of thousands of people out of work in her state and forced thousands more to take a pharmaceutical product that they considered dangerous to keep their jobs? 

 Estimates are that nearly 2,000 people in the public sector were fired outright under New York City’s sweeping mandates, while many others were forced into resigning or taking early retirement. It’s impossible to know how many lost their livelihoods in the private sector. An estimated 34,000 health care workers lost their jobs under the state mandate.

Albany DA repressed from bringing data proving the bail reform laws have failed

 

NY Post

Thank you for having me here to testify about public safety in New York state. 

I’m going to open by saying something you’ve all heard before; the reforms passed in 2017 and 2019, although they were well intentioned and brought about important changes, have been extremely detrimental to public safety. 

What you may not have heard before is a hard truth: that these reforms have had their most devastating impact on black and brown communities. If you take an honest look at the data — the increases in crime, the victims of those crimes and the location of the most violent crimes — the connection is quite clear. 

I’ll set the stage by taking a look at our practices before the reforms. For statistical purposes I will highlight a large metropolitan county and a mid-sized upstate county. 

One area that commanded much attention pre-reforms was the percentage of people who were being held on bail post-arrest but pre-conviction. Let’s set the record straight: that was always low, even prior to bail reform. In Albany County, 40% of the beds at the correction facility were occupied by sentenced defendants and defendants awaiting trial on violent felonies. 

One 2019 study of the jail population in Queens County found that 95% of the defendants being held pretrial were being held on felonies, 41% on violent felonies. 

The perception that many people were being held on minor charges on low bail amounts was always absolutely false. In fact, the same Queens study showed that defendants being held solely because of their inability to post bail on misdemeanor charges had an average of more than five felony arrests, seven misdemeanor arrests, seven misdemeanor convictions and almost three failures to appear. 

At some point, repeated violations of the law and disrespect for the process has to be treated with the level of seriousness it deserves. 

When bail reform took effect just over three years ago, thousands of defendants were released from local jails. In fact, some judges actually started a “soft launch,” if you will, by releasing some defendants in November of 2019 in anticipation of the new laws, apparently to avoid the mass release of thousands of incarcerated individuals on one day — and perhaps the bad press that would garner. 

Among those individuals suddenly released were hundreds of accused drug dealers, car thieves, shoplifters, burglars, and robbers statewide. 

Members of law enforcement have often been told that the suspension of services during the overlapping coronavirus pandemic was the driving force behind the increases in crime in 2020. While that was undoubtedly a contributing factor, that is not a holistic explanation for the decline of public safety. 

We actually do have a short window of time to analyze that was post-reforms but pre-COVID. That would be the first 2 ¹/₂ months of 2020. Crime had already started rising — by a lot — by the time the coronavirus hit. 

In New York City alone, crime rose 20%, ending a 27-year stretch of yearly crime reductions. Crime was up across the board. Burglaries up 26.5%; robbery up 33.9%; grand larceny up 15.8%; car theft up 68%; petit larceny up 19%. 

What a coincidence that each of these crimes became a non-bail­able offense in 2020, meaning that all those previously held on bail on these charges were released by Jan. 1, 2020. If you deny that the release of hundreds of car thieves, burglars, drug dealers and petty thieves had an obvious impact on crime in New York, you’re denying common sense. 

You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. 

Additionally, the new law created a new form of release: “non-monetary release.” This allows judges to release a defendant without bail but enables them to impose certain conditions, such as requiring the defendant to report to a pretrial agency, seek employment or wear an ankle bracelet. These conditions could only be imposed if the court found that the defendant was a flight risk. 

This release condition was designed to replace bail, while placing some restrictions on the defendant intended to be more impactful than release on recognizance. These were imposed, essentially, on the defendants who would have had bail set under the old law. If they had a prior conviction or pending case, it would be even more likely a judge would have set bail under the old law. 

If we use the Unified Court System’s pretrial data dashboard, and look at the defendants put into the non-monetary release program, we see the following: 

•  Between Jan. 1, 2020 and June 30, 22, 39.6% of the defendants put into NMR got re-arrested while their case was pending. 

• For those defendants put into NMR who had a prior conviction or pending case (79% of the total), the re-arrest rate was 44.6%. 

• For those defendants put into NMR charged with commercial burglary, the re-arrest rate was 62%. For residential burglary, it was 47%. For grand larceny, it was 56%. For robbery third degree, it was 56%. For petit larceny, it was 67%.

However, even these numbers undercount the full scope of recidivism. They do not count re-arrests during the time between plea and sentence, which can run for weeks or months. They only count one re-arrest, so if a defendant gets re-arrested four times while out on bail, it only counts in Department of Criminal Justice Services stats as one arrest. The implicit assumption in all of this, that a career criminal is arrested every time they commit a crime, is naïve to say the least. 

In the mind of someone who is determined to break the law, the ability to repeat offenses over a short period of time with minimal repercussions serves only to incentivize such behavior. 

Speaking of incentivizing behavior with the removal of consequences, the impact of Raise the Age has been comparably detrimental to public safety. Since the implementation of Raise the Age, Albany County has seen approximately 312 Raise the Age cases, involving only 230 defendants. I only say “approximately” because these numbers can change on a day-to-day basis. 

Thirty-four percent of those defendants have been arrested more than once; 19% percent of those re-arrested were detained as minors. Of those re-arrested, 62% were re-arrested for a violent felony. 

But what do those numbers mean? Those numbers mean that transferring a case to family court often leads to the defendant being returned to the very community that led them down that path to begin with. Violent cases need to remain in the adolescent part to prevent further community harm. 

Back to the bail reform law, we should also look at the literal wording of the law, specifically, the words “least restrictive.” These two words from the Bail Elimination Act are specifically referenced by judges when making a determination on bail. That standard often leads to a demonstrably dangerous person being returned to the same environment and community in which they committed their crimes. This helps neither the community nor the offender. 

I’d like to conclude by saying, despite the wild misconceptions, generalizations and assertions of activists about the intentions of prosecutors, our aim isn’t to lock up as many people as possible, for as long as possible. 

The decade-and-a-half period between the Rockefeller Reforms and Pre Bail Reform in 2020 reflect the greatest gains in public safety in the history of New York state. Prosecutors engaging in intelligence-based investigations and prosecutions applied a tough-on-crime and smart-on-diversion approach that ushered in the age of prison closings throughout New York state. 

We understand the complicated nature of social determinants of crime and agree that those should also be prioritized. 

However, pretending that accountability and the immobilization of criminals isn’t a critical part of public safety is akin to pretending the Earth is flat. 

Just because your echo chamber repeats it, doesn’t make it true.

As a public service in my duty as being somewhat a journalist, here again is the full list of criminal offenses that legislators minimized for the bail reform law that has led to the near 30% rise in crime in New York City:

 2nd degree Burglary of a residence
2nd degree Burglary as a Hate Crime
3rd degree Burglary of a commercial building
3rd degree Burglary as a Hate Crime
2nd degree Robbery aided by another person
2nd degree Robbery as a Hate Crime
3rd degree Robbery
Criminal sale of a controlled substance (multiple counts)
Using a child to commit a controlled substance crime
Criminal possession of a controlled substance (multiple counts)
Criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near a school
Criminal injection of a controlled substance into another person
Criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child
Criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance by a pharmacist
Criminal possession or creation of Methamphetamines
3rd degree Assault
3rd degree Assault as a Hate Crime
Reckless Assault of a child by a day care provider
Reckless Assault of a child
Stalking (multiple counts)
Stalking as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Vehicular Assault (multiple counts)
Aggravated Vehicular Assault
Aggravated Assault on a child under 11 years-old
Aggravated Assault on a child under 11 years-old as a Hate Child
Menacing (multiple counts)
Menacing as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Reckless Endangerment (multiple counts)
Promoting a suicide attempt
1st degree Stalking while committing a sex offense
Criminal Obstruction of Breathing
Criminally Negligent Homicide
2nd degree Vehicular Manslaughter
Aggravated Vehicular Manslaughter
2nd degree Manslaughter
Unlawful Imprisonment (multiple counts)
Unlawful Imprisonment as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Labor Trafficking
Custodial Interference (multiple counts)
Substitution of children
Coercion (multiple counts)
Coercion as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Criminal Trespass (multiple counts)
Criminal Trespass as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Possession of burglar’s tools
Unlawful possession of a police scanner
Criminal Mischief (multiple counts)
Criminal Mischief as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Criminal Tampering (multiple counts)
Cemetery Desecration (multiple counts)
Aggravated Cemetery Desecration (multiple counts)
Reckless Endangerment of property
Tampering with a consumer product (multiple counts)
Graffiti
Possession of Graffiti tools
3rd degree Arson
4th degree Arson
5th degree Arson
3rd degree Arson as a Hate Crime
4th degree Arson as a Hate Crime
5th degree Arson as a Hate Crime
Grand Larceny (multiple counts)
Grand Larceny at a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Grand Larceny of an ATM
Petit Larceny
Petit Larceny as a Hate Crime
Computer Tampering (multiple counts)
Computer Trespass
Unauthorized use of a computer
Unlawful duplication of computer materials (multiple counts)
Welfare Fraud (multiple counts)
Criminal use of a public benefits card (multiple counts)
Criminal possession of a public benefits card (multiple counts)
Unauthorized use of a vehicle (multiple counts)
Auto stripping (multiple counts)
Theft of services
Unauthorized use of a credit card
Jostling
Fraudulent Accosting
Criminal Possession of Stolen Property (multiple counts)
Forgery (multiple counts)
Criminal possession of a forged instrument (multiple counts)
Criminal possession of forgery devices
Criminal possession of a Vehicle ID Number
Forgery of a Vehicle ID Number
Falsifying business records (multiple counts)
Tampering with public records (multiple counts)
Offering a false instrument for filing (multiple counts)
Insurance Fraud (multiple counts)
Health insurance fraud (multiple counts)
Criminal diversion of prescription medications (multiple counts)
Commercial bribery (multiple counts)
Rent Gouging (multiple counts)
Residential mortgage fraud (multiple counts)
Aggravated identity theft (multiple counts)
Bribery (multiple counts)
Perjury (multiple counts)
Bail jumping (multiple counts)
Obstructing governmental administration (multiple counts)
Obstructing governmental administration with a self-defense spray device
Killing a Police Dog or Police Horse
Obstructing emergency medical services
Obstructing governmental services with a bomb
Escape (multiple counts)
Promoting prison contraband (multiple counts)
Resisting arrest
Hindering prosecution (multiple counts)
Making a false sworn statement
Bribing a witness
Receiving a bribe as a witness
Bribing a juror
Receiving a bribe as a juror
Providing a juror with a gratuity
Tampering with a juror (multiple counts)
Tampering with physical evidence
Compounding a crime
1st degree Criminal Contempt – refusing to be sworn in as a witness
2nd degree Criminal Contempt
ALL Gambling offenses
ALL Prostitution offenses
Providing indecent material in minors (multiple counts)
Riot (multiple counts)
Criminal Anarchy
Harassment (multiple counts)
Harassment as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Harassment (multiple counts)
Aggravated Harassment as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Harassment of an employee by an inmate
Criminal nuisance (multiple counts)
Falsely reporting a crime
Pointing a laser at an aircraft (multiple counts)
Harming a service animal (multiple counts)
Public lewdness
Illegal eavesdropping
Dissemination of unlawful surveillance (multiple counts)
Non-support of a child (multiple counts)
Endangering the welfare of a child
Assisting in female genital mutilation
Endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person
Endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person
Endangering the welfare of a disabled person (multiple counts)
Promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child
Possession of an obscene sexual performance by a child
Promoting a sexual performance by a child
Possessing a sexual performance by a child
4th degree Criminal possession of a weapon
Criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds
Criminal possession of a firearm
3rd degree Criminal possession of a weapon
Criminal purchase or disposal of a weapon
Unlawfully wearing a body vest
Unlawfully fleeing a police officer in a vehicle (multiple counts)
Enterprise corruption
Money Laundering (multiple counts)
Money Laundering in support of terrorism (multiple counts)
Corrupting the government (multiple counts)
Criminal solicitation (multiple counts)
Conspiracy (multiple counts)
Conspiracy as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Criminal facilitation (multiple counts)

 

New York Senate shadowban

Reclaim The Net 

 New Yorkers who criticize the state’s Senate on Twitter have been blocked from commenting and seeing tweets, according to FIRE who is representing a New Yorker who was blocked for criticizing the state’s new gun control legislation.

In June, the US Supreme Court struck down a New York State legislation that required people to have a license to carry a concealed firearm outside of their homes. The state’s legislature responded by expediting a new gun control legislation limiting who is allowed to carry firearms among other controls.

New Yorkers upset with the reform took to Twitter to express their frustration. According to FIRE, the state’s Senate Twitter account hid about 90 tweets and blocked multiple users.

Twitter allows accounts to hide replies and block people, which prevents them from commenting and seeing future tweets. The New York State Senate’s account takes advantage of these features to hide criticism of legislators and legislation.

Because the Senate is a government entity, it is going against the First Amendment by blocking users. Several courts have agreed that when a government entity invites public comment on social media, regulating comments and engagement violates the First Amendment. The most notable case was when a court ruled that then-President Donald Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking critics on Twitter.

MTA undermines and represses community and commuter's concerns at town hall meeting

The Wave 

In a setting more akin to a Cold War Soviet show-trial than a NYC Town Hall meeting, MTA officials at Feb. 6’s transit meeting in the YMCA spent time patting themselves on the back discussing their accomplishments and future plans before moving on to pre-screened questions from the audience.

A group of five transit officials sat at a table at the front of the room and began the meeting with a series of stats and charts to show how the MTA has improved service over the year before opening up to a Q&A session. Many in the audience, however, felt the bureaucrats ignored the real questions and censored the voices of those in the room – a fact which led to at least one person to call out “I thought this was America!” during the proceedings. 

 “Tonight was a sham,” said an exasperated John Cori.  Cori, a Community Board 14 executive board member who made the aforementioned “America” statement, spoke to The Wave following the meeting.

“It was censorship, it violated our constitutional rights to freedom of speech by censoring our questions. I put two in, and they both were not read. I was one of the first ten people to put questions in, and the woman went through them, picked and chose what she wanted to give, and gave them the cream-puff questions.”  

“The meeting was mind-numbing because of the way MTA chose to filter the questions, but not surprising” added local transportation advocate Rick Horan. “They like to control the conversation and so the value of this… is a little dubious.”    

 Among the hard-hitting questions that MTA rep Lucille Songhai pitched to the panel were whammies like “can everyone talk about how they got here this evening,” and even then the bureaucrats on the board failed to appease. “We came here on the A-Train of course!” was the answer many gave, an answer which left several in the audience wondering if the blatant pandering had any truth to it. 

 “I will gladly escort you to the station!” an incredulous Glenn DiResto replied from the rear of the room, echoing the doubts of many as to the “everyman” persona the officials were trying to portray for themselves. Like so many other comments of the evening, however, this too was ignored by those on the panel, and Songhai teed up yet another softball for the board.

“You talked a little bit about what you’re doing for people with disabilities beyond elevators. I was hoping that you could talk about one particular aspect that you feel most proud about,” and “who cleans up racist graffiti” were among the other thrillers the MTA decided to regale the crowd with during the Q&A session. And even when they did touch upon questions locals were interested in – questions regarding the possibility of a revitalization of the H-train from Mott Ave. to Beach 116th or the truncation of the Q22, among others, – the officials again failed to deliver.

The H-train, it seems, is nothing more than a pipe dream, as the officials stated that the inclusion of the H-train would create further reliability issues on the A-line because the new train would displace other cars in the terminal. As for the Q22, panelists said that the ridership numbers west of 116th were very low, but officials did say that they were still listening to community input and would take that input into account before rolling out any final changes.

The lack of any solid, productive answers led to more than a few outbursts from the crowd, and local Democratic District Leader Lew Simon at one point – tired of being ignored – made his way to the front of the room and tossed a letter from a local student on the panelist table, urging them to read it and see how their proposals would impact the people of the peninsula.

“This is a petition from an 8-year-old child who rides the Q53 every day,” Simon shouted, reminding the agency reps that their decision was impacting the way local children would get to school. 

 Admin note: A commenter alerted me this post was 2 years old. My fault for not checking it date since I put it up in a rush. 

Mayor Adams normalizes censorship

 

Reclaim The Net 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has used this month’s Buffalo shooting to call for more social media censorship.

Speaking live on PIX11’s Morning Show, Adams was asked by the host Hazel Sanchez what could be done about regulating social media.

“Governor Hochul, she was on PIX11, demanding social media platforms be held accountable. Now, you’ve been calling for that since the suspected Brooklyn subway shooter, Frank James, allegedly posted racist rants online,” Sanchez said. “But social media’s been around and unregulated for a long time. So what kind of change can you see happening?”

Mayor Adams responded, saying that it was time for social media platforms to start using “artificial intelligence to identify words, identify phrases, to immediately remove and censor some of this information.”

Mayor Adams likened the censorship techniques to the removal of President Trump’s Twitter account; “We did it to Donald Trump on Twitter. He was dangerous to the country. So why aren’t we doing it to the everyday people who are using it and is dangerous to our neighborhoods and communities?”

Likening his censorship demands to his similar demands for social media platforms to censor some forms of rap on social media, Adams stated, “The type of violence that’s being promoted on social media is beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed before.

“Particularly in some of the drill music that actually taunts and threaten people. There’s a direct correlation. That’s the type of social media monitoring we believe the social media companies should do.”

Rep. Malliotakis files lawsuit against Bill de Blasio's vaccine mandate and Youtube censors her announcement

 

Reclaim The Net

YouTube took down a video of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis unconditionally without warning or explanation.

The video consists of her news conference in which she announced her lawsuit against the Democrat mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, for implementing a vaccination passport system in the city.

YouTube reinstated the video shortly after being contacted by Reclaim The Net.

Following De Blasio’s order for a COVID-19 Vaccine Passport mandate, Malliotakis has joined the fight against the affront to civil liberties.

The mayor wants to make it illegal for anyone without a vaccine passport to work at or patronize gyms, entertainment venues, and indoor restaurants.

Rep. Malliotakis issued a statement concerning the lawsuit challenging New York City’s vaccination regulations.

“The Mayor’s vaccine mandate is an overreach of government,” said the Representative for Brooklyn/Staten Island . “The government should not be imposing such a mandate on its people and small business owners.”

“We have received calls from countless individuals that we represent – both vaccinated and unvaccinated – who are concerned about sharing personal health information with individuals they don’t know, or fearing they will be left out of society because their doctors recommended they do not get vaccinated due to other medical issues.”

“It is beyond ridiculous that the government is mandating these already struggling small business owners to be the city’s vaccine police.”

New York State Troopers current victim of tech preemptive censorship.

Today a call came in for an injured bald Eagle on Interstate 81 in Jefferson County. Trooper Angela Gilchrist responded and was able to help ENCON officers in saving the eagle. pic.twitter.com/oRb6BsdvjW

— NewYorkStatePolice (@nyspolice) August 16, 2021

 

Keeping on the theme of censorship of government servants, the New York State Police recently posted a story of one of their troopers holding a majestic bald eagle they rescued on their twitter account and QC told me that if you try to post it on facebook it gets labeled as spam. 

In fact, if you repost anything on facebook from their twitter account, it will be labeled as spam anyway.

Could Cuomo's former aide Dani Lever, now working for Facebook and who aided Mario's Son's quest to discredit Lindsay Boylan, have something to do with this?

Amazon puts a stop to open streets

  

Streetsblog

 Another day, another easily avoidable setback for the city’s open streets program.

In the latest evidence that a tiny minority of increasingly aggressive opponents is seeking to stop the widely popular open space program, North Brooklyn volunteers announced that they are “suspending” their efforts to prop up the city program on Driggs Avenue and Russell Street in Greenpoint after all of the city-owned barricades were stolen by a man with an Amazon-branded van on Monday night.

A video of the apparent Amazon worker stealing the barricades was posted on Nextdoor, a neighborhood-focused website, and downloaded by Streetsblog into a handy video (which we shared with Amazon, which has not responded to our request for comment)

 The open streets suspension — announced in a tweet on Tuesday morning — came on the heels of an earlier two-day suspension after a North Brooklyn volunteer being assaulted, two Department of Transportation workers being berated at a meeting, and equipment was vandalized

 Streetsblog has reached out to the DOT for comment and for an explanation of what comes next for the beleaguered open streets initiative. The program brought miles of recreation space to COVID-stricken neighborhoods during the height of the pandemic, but has lost steam as the mayor has promised that it would be a “permanent” fixture of the cityscape, yet has not announced any plan beyond relying on volunteers.

Transportation Alternatives condemned the theft but said it was easily avoided — if the DOT stepped up its game.

“Open Streets require infrastructure that can’t be stolen, can’t be destroyed, and can’t be tossed aside by entitled motorists,” said Erwin Figueroa, the director of organizing for the safe streets group, which has previously urged the mayor to do better. “Permanent infrastructure is what the Open Streets Coalition has been demanding from City Hall. We need Mayor de Blasio to move with much greater urgency, especially after the violence and vandalism over the past week, to implement the permanent solutions that will secure the success of the program. Any delay will cause these unacceptable incidents to escalate and for an extraordinarily popular program to be jeopardized.”

 If Bikeblog and the bike zealots really want this to stop, they should delete their Amazon accounts. And maybe reach out to the tower people near them and demand they delete theirs too. 

Update: 

Gersh Kuntzmen of Streetsblog deleted all my comments and marked a lot of them as spam for some reason. Even though my comment was visible for about 2 days. Just like with twitter, this sniveling coward and editorialist and even their puny readership will fabricate accusations against anyone having a dissenting opinion to their stories or even to respond to others. Truly sickening times we are living in.

Although Gertz apparently thinks that the comments saying that the guy who removed the barricades was NYPD has unquestionable credibility. My response to this hysterical theory was memory holed because I blamed Amazon.

Pussy.

 

AOC tied to Capitol Police investigation of a California resident criticizing her in a tweet

 

 The Grayzone

An anti-war activist was visited by California Highway Patrol officers after posting video of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s bumbling comments on Israel-Palestine. The action, which AOC denies triggering, was initiated by a call to US Capitol Police.

As he waited for a food delivery at his home in Los Angeles on April 8, Ryan Wentz, an anti-war activist and producer for the online viral program Soapbox, heard two men calling his name from over his front gate. When he approached, he realized they were not delivery drivers, but police officers flashing badges of the California Highway Patrol.

The cops informed Wentz that they had received a call from the Capitol Police, the federal law enforcement agency tasked with protecting the US Congress, about a tweet he had sent that allegedly threatened Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Wentz told The Grayzone, “The officers said, ‘We got a warning about a sitting member of Congress. And it was because of your tweet, which tagged them in it.’ And then they just wouldn’t back down from this accusation that I threatened to kill her.”

 The California Highway Patrol indicated on Twitter that it had acted on a call from Capitol Police.

Though AOC’s office has denied falsely informing Capitol Police of an online threat by Wentz, the Democratic congresswoman has in the past asked her supporters to report critics to social media censors.

Whoever called the police on Wentz furnished law enforcement with a patently false allegation, as he has never threatened violence against any member of Congress.

In the tweet that triggered the police action, Wentz merely posted video of AOC delivering a vapid and embarrassingly convoluted answer to a question about resolving the crisis in Israel-Palestine. Describing her answer as “incredibly underwhelming,” he let the congresswoman’s cringeworthy commentary speak for itself.

Impunity City

 Going by my recent difficulty with the Twitter, this incident confirms that the social media platform is no longer a "private company" and has become an arm of the government hell bent to induce and normalize censorship and will shut down any attempt to hold elected officials accountable for their bad policies and idiotic statements. And just like in my case, this person got clamped down for words belonging to another person.

AOC should be less concerned about what she perceives are threats to her brand and her political party and more with the persistent problems and crises that's affecting her district starting with the recent fire that left hundreds homeless in Jackson Heights.

Open letter to a twitter algorithm

Impunity City

Dear Twitter Algorhitm,

Why did you do it?

Why did you suspend my account? How can you determine that what I wrote was directed as a threat to a newspaper? How is it possible that you cannot distinguish between a sardonic joke and an actual threat?

Most of all, how can you determine that I made a direct threat at a corporate news website when they were the ones that printed the actual threat and have my only social media account repressed when they were the one’s who actually tweeted the inflammatory threat in whole first. Clearly to get clicks and RT’s.

 

Twitter also censored Progress New York's services app

  

Progress New York

 The Twitter social media giant has censored the C’est Vrai app, an action that suspends the ability of the Web application from delivering programmable tweets over the Twitter service. The action by Twitter followed its demand to control the content of tweets delivered by the C’est Vrai app.

The C’est Vrai app is a multi-faceted, computer-assisted tool that provides research and information services to Progress New York. The dispute focused on recent content that the C’est Vrai app has been delivering, namely, the location of certain utility outages taking place at the apartment complexes of the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA. Twitter’s restriction prevents the C’est Vrai app from continuing to deliver such content, which was being served in the public interest.

Twitter had objected to the inclusion of the Twitter handles of public officials, in whose districts the apartment complexes were located, respectively. In response, Progress New York described that officials were only tagged for outages in their district and noted that several public officials had acknowledged the C’est Vrai tweets in some form without complaint, including, but not limited to, Borough President James Oddo (R-Staten Island) and New York City Councilmembers Steven Matteo (R-Staten Island), Carlos Menchaca (D-Brooklyn), and Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan).

This was not Twitter’s first action against the C’est Vrai app, and the number of censorship acts by Twitter are increasing, leading to the filing of Federal complaints, for example.

The restriction by Twitter began on 23 September, when the last programmable tweet was published by the C’est Vrai app. Despite arguments submitted by Progress New York in explanation for how the C’est Vrai app programs tweets, Twitter summarily objected to the use of public officials’ tags, writing, “We can only consider a request to reactivate your app after you agree to stop this behavior.” Because Progress New York interpreted Twitter’s response as extortious, Progress New York would not respond to a criminal threat that was intent on undermining Progress New York’s constitutional right to operate a free press. As a result, Progress New York replied, in relevant part, to Twitter, “Progress New York is a news organisation. Regrettably, this is not the first time we have faced extortion or attempts at extortion. We don’t respond to extortion or attempts at extortion.”

Twitter V. The NY Post, the public interest and the unalienable right to know

Impunity City

Let October 14th 2020 go down in history as the day when censorship became policy by a monopolistic social media monolith.

It started off rather innocuously. The New York Post published the long awaited but already well known and confirmed story of presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s pay to play corruption to obscenely enrich himself, his father and an energy company in Ukraine who hired him and paid him over 80 grand a month through email messages procured from a laptop Hunter (or someone close to him) carelessly left behind at a computer repair shop. This expose’ instantly debunked Joe’s persistent claims that he never had contact with any executive from the foreign company Hunter worked for and exposed how the vice president abused his position and duties to get a prosecutor fired in Ukraine that was investigating corruption inside the company Hunter worked for. Which Biden defiantly bragged about doing when he answered a question during a forum on foreign policy only 2 years ago. 

The NY Post followed this up with a flurry of other stories of Hunter Biden using his relation to the second most powerful person in America at the time to acquire more wealth and influence for the companies and acquaintances he associated with. Which were immediately available on the NY Post’s social media accounts…

And then at 2:20 in the afternoon, it stopped.

 

Halloran against internet censorship bill

From Bayside Patch:

Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, is breaking rank with GOP members in the State Legislature, to blast a Republican sponsored bill banning anonymous online comments.

The bill, known as the Internet Protection Act, would require New York-based web administrators to remove comments made by anonymous posters, unless the poster agreed to attach their real names, according to the Huffington Post.

“This is an unconstitutional attempt by New York State to play Big Brother on the Internet,” Halloran told Fox News. “Will it soon be illegal to publish an anonymous novel or distribute an anonymous work of art?”

Google removes blogs critical of Bloomberg and Quinn

This morning, LGBT civil rights activist and political blogger Louis Flores woke up to an e-mail from Google’s Blogger service, informing him that one of his principal political blogs (No Third Term : http://no-third-term.blogspot.com/) was censored by Google. Ostensibly, the No Third Term blog was marked as “spam,” but the blog entirely contains content that has been critical of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But not only was the No Third Term blog deleted by Google’s Blogger service, but Mr. Flores’ entire Blogger account was “disabled.” Consequently, all of Mr. Flores’ blogs have also been removed.

Before sending this press release, Mr. Flores filled out a web form, asking Google to restore his blog.

“I ask all political bloggers to contact Google on my behalf, to demand that they restore my blogs and my account,” said Louis Flores, 38, from Jackson Heights, Queens.

People are encouraged to contact : press@google.com

This morning’s censorship followed just hours after Mr. Flores published a controversial blog post on the Christine Quinn Sold Out blog, which traced back to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn the problems that the Occupy Wall Street social movement have been having with protest permits. Note that the Christine Quinn Sold Out blog and the controversial post (http://christine-quinn-sold-out.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupywallstreet-protest-permits.html) had been temporarily removed/deactivated by Google’s Blogger service.

“If Google believes in doing no harm, it should not allow the censorship of political blogs, whose only aim is to demand accountability from elected politicians,” said Mr. Flores. “But Google has a pattern of doing this. Just weeks before the 2009 mayoral election, Google’s YouTube service censored artist and political blogger Suzannah B. Troy’s entire YouTube account, and in March 2011, Google’s Blogger service censored political consultant and activist Gary Tilzer’s blog, too. This harassment of political activists and bloggers must come to an end.”


UPDATE: Blog has been restored. Thank you for your advocacy.