QUESTIONS ABOUT MOTIVE FOR HAMMER ATTACK ON CONCOURT BUILDING REMAIN

 

South Africa: QUESTIONS ABOUT MOTIVE FOR HAMMER ATTACK ON CONCOURT BUILDING REMAIN

A 36-year-old man smashed the windows of the apex court building in Braamfontein on Wednesday.

Damaged windows at the Constitutional Court on 5 January 2022. Picture: Nhlanhla Mabaso/Eyewitness News

Nhlanhla Mabaso | a day ago

JOHANNESBURG - There are questions about why a man armed with a hammer went on the rampage and smashed windows and doors at the Constitutional Court.

The 36-year-old man smashed the windows of the apex court building in Braamfontein on Wednesday.

Police said that the suspect arrived and started making noise on the premises before he began using his hammer.

He has been charged with malicious damage to property and will appear in court soon.

The apex court building is one of the most respected buildings in the country.

But the suspect allegedly broke windows and doors, with police firing warning shots - but he was not bothered to stop and police needed to confront him.

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola described the attack on the courthouse as an attack to the country's democracy.

The court attack comes just days after a fire ripped through Parliament.

https://ewn.co.za/2022/01/06/questions-about-motive-for-hammer-attack-on-concourt-building-remain

 

South Africa: Yet another government building under attack: arsonist sets fire at Department of Justice office

Cape Town – Police in Cape Town have opened a case of arson after a fire was reported at the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development building on Friday.

The wooden door leading to the stairwell running alongside the building was set alight.

According to provincial police spokesperson, Sergeant Wesley Twigg officials are investigating the circumstances of the fire.

“Cape Town Central police opened an arson case docket for investigation after a fire was reported in Queen Victoria Street Cape Town. No one was arrested.

“The investigation into the matter continues,” he said.

The fire comes days after Parliament was engulfed in flames.

(https://thecoconutwhisperer.blogspot.com/2022/01/south-africas-parliament-building-ablaze.html)

The office overlooks parliament, which is a few dozen metres away on the other side of the Company Gardens.

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/yet-another-government-building-under-attack-arsonist-sets-fire-at-department-of-justice-office

 

'You're Pissing Me Off!': Meeting of European, Israeli Officials Allegedly Turns Into Verbal Brawl

Two weeks ago, a delegation of over a dozen European diplomats and ambassadors arrived in Israel in order to discuss the situation in the West Bank. However, the atmosphere of the meeting was reported to be rather far from diplomatic.

A recent meeting between an Israeli Foreign Ministry official and a European diplomatic delegation devolved into a shouting match when the participants tried to discuss the situation in the West Bank and the treatment of Palestinians, Walla News has reported, citing three European and Israeli diplomats.

According to the report, the British-led European delegation arrived in Jerusalem in order to lodge a protest against the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, particularly voicing concerns about violence by settlers against them.

Aside from this, the officials were said to have highlighted their objections to settlement building plans and other issues. Concerns were expressed regarding Israel's advancement in the contentious E1 area between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, along with building plans in the Givat Hamatos neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. f

The delegation's concerns, however, met little appreciation from Aliza Bin Noun - Israel's former ambassador to France, now serving as the director of the European Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry, who took part in the meeting.

"After everything the new Israeli government has been doing for the Palestinians, you come to complain?", she shouted at the European officials. "You are pissing me off!"

The European diplomats who participated in the meeting shared with Walla News that the atmosphere of the meeting quickly spiralled out of control and deteriorated. Some of the officials tried to smooth things over but failed, and the discussion ended up in a "major crisis".

Israel welcomed a new government last June. Shortly after being sworn in, the new authorities announced thousands of permits for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to work in Israel and approved many building applications in Area C of the West Bank - a move that has not been seen in years, as noted by The Times of Israel.

https://sputniknews.com/20220107/youre-pissing-me-off-meeting-of-european-israeli-officials-allegedly-turns-into-verbal-brawl-1092089664.html

The Real Truth of January 6

The Real Truth of January 6

We should not be surprised some Republicans got tired of playing by the rules after two decades of Democrats breaking them without consequence.

The truth is a lot of Republicans who condemned the activities of the day have now tried to claim it was something worth celebrating or was not bad. Cowards like Kevin McCarthy, the would-be Speaker of the House, condemned the day, then reversed himself like a supine sycophant to Trump. Now, some Republicans even think Jan. 6 is a cause for celebration like the storming of the Bastille that set off the French Revolution. These would-be Robespierres will lose their heads in the process of trying to take others’. No conservative should ever celebrate the French Revolution.

But there are other truths, too. These truths the press and Democrats would prefer not to talk about. They’d prefer to scream “whataboutism” or claim bringing them up is to excuse or mitigate Jan. 6. Unfortunately for them, to truly understand Jan. 6, we must understand other events and how those were handled.

In 2009, progressive activists stormed the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin State Journal reported it in eerily similar language to Jan. 6. “Thousands of protesters rushed to the state Capitol Wednesday night, forcing their way through doors, crawling through windows and jamming corridors,” reported the paper. Progressives were trying to stop a vote making Wisconsin a right-to-work state, which would undermine labor union powers. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it an “impressive show of democracy” and said she stood with the protesters. The media was mostly matter-of-fact about it and by no means condemnatory.

In Texas, protesters stormed the State Capitol in Austin to stop Republicans from passing a pro-life measure. News anchors and reporters who covered it for the national press almost all explicitly excused the protesters and made Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis a national figure and heroine for feminism. She rode the fame to several electoral defeats in Texas and talking-head gigs on CNN and MSNBC.

In Washington, D.C., progressive activists stormed the United States Capitol to stop the vote on Brett Kavanaugh and to intimidate United States senators. Major news outlets were almost all uniformly on the side of the protesters. Some reporters explicitly cheered on the protesters on their social media accounts.

This does not even include the coordinated and concerted Democratic efforts starting in 2000 to treat any election they lose as illegitimate. Bush was “selected not elected,” and Trump was fraudulently accused of being bought and paid for by the Russians. Stacey Abrams still denies her loss with press complicity, but Republicans are bullied and denounced for denying the legitimacy of 2020.

The bottom line is all of these should be condemned, but we should not be surprised some Republicans got tired of playing by the rules after two decades of Democrats breaking them without consequence. Few in the press or among the Democrats will own up to that. Instead, they will scream at me for telling the whole truth, not just the part they want to hear. Undoubtedly, in November, the press and Democrats will scream voter suppression if Republicans win, ratcheting things further.

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/85369-the-real-truth-of-january-6-2022-01-07

 

‘Worse than the Civil war’: how fixation on Capitol riot makes America ignore its other major problem

Disparate reactions to left-wing protesters at the DOI versus the ones at the US Capitol show how biased the mainstream media truly is.

FILE PHOTO. Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. © Getty Images / Samuel Corum

One year after the US Capitol riot, Washington seems worried about domestic terrorism only when conservatives are perpetrators, but polling suggests no one outside the establishment echo chamber is swayed by the skewed narrative.

As a GOP congressman held up nearly identical photos of federal buildings being breached – one of the US Capitol last January and another of the Department of the Interior in October – Attorney General Merrick Garland sat stone-faced.

Try as he might to provoke the nation’s top law enforcement official to characterize leftist protesters who fought their way into the Department of the Interior (DOI), Representative Greg Steube (R-Florida) couldn’t goad Garland into offering an opinion. While Garland has called the Capitol riot “the most dangerous threat to democracy” seen in his 44-year legal career, the attorney general said he couldn’t make any determinations about what happened at the DOI.

Read more

 Trump ‘rallied the mob to attack’, Biden says in Capitol riot anniversary speech

What Garland said next at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on October 21 stunned Steube. When asked if he believed the DOI rioters, like the Capitol rioters, were domestic terrorists, Garland replied, “I’m not going to be able to reference that specific incident since this is the first I know about it.”

The riot in question involved the storming of a restricted federal government building just about a 30-minute walk from Garland’s office and just one week before the committee hearing. Environmental extremists injured multiple security officers, including at least one who was hospitalized, and 55 were arrested.

If Garland seemed suddenly unconcerned about attacks on federal buildings in Washington, he wasn’t alone. The Washington Post referred to the violent breaching at the DOI as “clashes” between protesters and officers. Other media outlets referred to the rioters as “occupying” the building and being arrested after a “sit-in.”

There was no hyping of the incident like that done over the Capitol riot, which media and political pundits have likened to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Some, such as political strategist Matthew Dowd, have called it “worse” than 9/11. Huffington Post White House correspondent S.V. Date said it was “1,000 times worse,” at least partly because it was led by then-President Donald Trump. Family members of 9/11 victims were outraged by such rhetoric.

President Joe Biden – whose victory over Trump was challenged by the election-fraud protestors who breached the Capitol – went so far as to call the riot the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” Apparently fond of such hyperbole, he later called laws passed by several Republican-controlled states to deter election fraud “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.” He went on to weave the riot and the new state legislation together, suggesting they were rooted in the same ideology.

Such statements might seem outlandish, but the narrative fed a theme: branding opposition to the ruling party as domestic terrorism – in fact, the only real domestic terrorism – and portraying the threats posed by American right-wingers as even worse than overseas terrorists. And a threat that big obviously required a harsh crackdown.

Despite the fact that no one was killed by the Capitol rioters, contrary to false media reports, they’ve been portrayed as racist and bloodthirsty insurrectionists. US Representative Hank Johnson, the Georgia Democrat who once theorized that an expansion of US military operations in Guam might cause the island to capsize, argued that lawmakers would have been murdered if a Capitol police officer hadn’t fatally shot one of the rioters (the only person who was killed that day). “I have no doubt that some of us who look like me would have been hanging from the railings . . . swinging like fruit, strange fruit,” said Johnson, who is black.

Reporters reacted similarly. In fact, six months after the riot, Vice News reported that some of the correspondents who “survived” the incident were still afraid to go back into the Capitol to do their jobs. Erik Wasson of Bloomberg News told Vice that he’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and has researched survival techniques, such as how to use a metal pen as a weapon. Another reporter opted to take early retirement rather than face the trauma of going back into the Capitol. 

Garland’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has prosecuted more than 700 alleged rioters, dozens of whom were held without bail pending trial. Many were locked in solitary confinement. Republican lawmakers have accused jailers of beating and verbally abusing the January 6 suspects, in some cases with racist attacks. Some have allegedly been denied visits with their lawyers and family members.

US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) last month contrasted the treatment of alleged pro-Trump defendants to that of race rioters who torched American cities, causing more than $2 billion in damage, and killed dozens of people in the summer of 2020. US District Court Judge Trevor McFadden said prosecutors were undermining the DOJ’s credibility by failing to be “even-handed” about riots arising from opposite ends of the political spectrum. 

Other judges have enthusiastically gone along with the January 6 crackdown. For instance, Jacob Chansley, the costumed rioter famously known as “QAnon Shaman,” was sentenced in November to 41 months in prison, despite not even being accused of any acts of violence. Prosecutors called for a tough sentence against Chansley to “set an example” and deter any future “assault on our democracy.”

No such example was needed, apparently, in the prosecution of Joshua Warner, a transgender Antifa activist also known as Eva Warner. The DOJ last month dropped charges against Warner after the defendant completed 30 hours of community service. Warner, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting officers at a Portland riot in August 2020, also was busted for alleged offenses at multiple other riots and let go without being charged.

Portland was plagued by rioting for more than 100 straight days in 2020, when Antifa activists laid siege to the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse. Officers were assaulted with hammers, slingshots and other weapons. Warner’s alleged tool of choice was a powerful laser that can cause permanent damage when shined into someone’s eyes.

But politicians and media outlets reacted to the violence in Portland by expressing outrage over the tactics of federal law enforcement under the Trump administration. Mayor Ted Wheeler demanded that federal officers “stay inside their building or leave Portland altogether.” The city of Portland fined the Trump administration $11 million for blocking a bike lane when it erected a fence around the embattled courthouse.

The New Republic characterized efforts to quell the riots as “a historic federal crackdown on dissent.” Ironically, CNN opined that by calling protesters who disagree with him “terrorists, ”Trump had put himself “in the company of the world’s autocrats.” Never mind that the protesters were committing assault, arson and other acts of violence in pursuit of their political cause. Under Trump’s watch, calling violent rioters domestic terrorists was autocratic.

Just as the political violence in Portland was downplayed and largely forgiven, an Antifa activist who bashed the office entrance of US Senator John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) with an axe in December 2020 was spared incarceration. Alexander Starks was sentenced to probation, rather than the 10-16 months imprisonment that he could have gotten, and reportedly gushed on Facebook that the DOJ was kind enough to return his axe. Law professor Jonathan Turley decried the move, saying the axe was returned “as if it was a form of political expression.”

While the DOJ is cracking down on the Capitol trespassers, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has formed a committee to undertake a “9/11-style” probe of the riot’s origins. The apparent idea is to show how Trump and his allies incited the “insurrection,” just as Democrats claimed when the House voted to impeach the former president last January.

An antifa protest. © Getty Images / Win McNamee

The panel has tried to play hardball with Trump allies who have declined to testify in the investigation. Last month, it voted to hold former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress, calling for him to be prosecuted by the DOJ for refusing to cooperate. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon was indicted by the DOJ in November on the same grounds.

The House committee’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), suggested last month that Trump allies who decline to answer his questions by exercising their constitutional right against self-incrimination are essentially admitting to illegal activity. In some instances, he added, invoking the 5th Amendment right “says you are part and parcel guilty of what occurred.”

And just as in the case of the QAnon Shaman, Democrats are seeking to make examples of the Republicans who they believe promote domestic terrorism. Representative Cori Bush (D-Missouri) said last week that Congress should commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riot by expelling those members who helped incite the “violent insurrection.” Presumably, Bush and her colleagues would get to decide which democratically elected representatives are guilty of incitement – and therefore fair game to be thrown out of office.

While vilifying the Trump supporters who breached the Capitol, legacy media outlets have sought to paint other political opposition with the same brush. For example, the media reaction was intense when an Oregon man, Jared Schmeck, trolled Biden by saying “Let’s Go Brandon” during a “Santa tracker” livestream on Christmas Eve. Ron Brownstein, editor of the Atlantic, told CNN that the stunt was “fundamentally about insurrection.” 

Media coverage of the insolent jokester’s use of an anti-Biden slogan was so overheated that some online commentators mocked the press for giving Schmeck more critical and extensive coverage than Darrell Brooks, the Black Lives Matter supporter who allegedly killed six people and injured 62 by ramming his car into a Wisconsin Christmas parade in November.

Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza said Schmeck struck a nerve because he used a slogan that mocks both Biden and the media, and he exposed the president’s lack of mental acuity. “Let’s Go Brandon, I agree,” Biden replied on the livestream, apparently missing the fact that he was the butt of Schmeck’s joke.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace was among those who blasted Schmeck’s insult against Biden, calling it “slow-motion insurrection.” Her guest, author Jason Johnson, called for a DOJ or CIA investigation and said the “Let’s Go Brandon'' phrase is “the cry of people who want to violently take over this country and oppress anyone who is not like them.” 

The statement was one of many examples of mainstream outlets trying to paint anti-Biden Americans as dangerous. When supporters of the riot defendants organized a September rally in Washington, media outlets predicted a possible sequel to January 6. CNN said Capitol Hill was gripped by renewed fears of political violence. NBC News said that as “Trump fans” gathered again in Washington, “the specter of white privilege looms large.”

As it turned out, the approximately 400 attendees were outnumbered by police and reporters. An armed man at the rally was arrested, only to be released after it was revealed that he was a federal officer.

The media’s messaging appears to have done little to change public opinion. A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll released last week showed that 71% of Republicans still believe that Biden stole the 2020 presidential election from Trump. Only 58% of Americans overall said Biden is the rightful president, while 22% of Republicans said the election result was “definitely not legitimate” – results that were almost identical to the responses when the same survey was carried out last April.

The poll showed predictable polarization on the Capitol breach, with 62% of Republicans seeing the participants as “protesters,” rather than rioters, and 68% of Democrat respondents considering them “insurrectionists” and “white nationalists.” A whopping 86% of Democrats support continuing efforts to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of the riot, compared with just 29% of Republicans. 

UMass Amherst professors lamented the survey results, saying the poll showed “Republicans and Democrats living in diametrically opposed realities.” They also knew who to blame, citing “persistent and baseless claims by the former president and his sycophants.” Perhaps just like their survey respondents, the pollsters saw reality through the lens of their political ideology. UMass Amherst ranks as one of the most liberal colleges in Massachusetts.

Another poll suggested that Americans are about equally divided on the seriousness of the Capitol riot. A November survey by Iowa’s Des Moines Register revealed that half of respondents believe the breach was an insurrection and a threat to democracy. Republicans and Democrats were polar opposites on the question, while 50% of independents agreed that the riot was a threat to democracy.

Still another poll found that more Americans are worried about US-based extremist groups than overseas terrorist organizations. The August survey, which was done by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 65% of Americans are highly concerned about domestic terrorism, compared to 50% who are troubled by extremist groups based outside the US.

As for the perceived political bent of the domestic extremists who merit concern — whether the chief bogeymen come from the far left or right — likely depends on the eye of the beholder. Increasingly, political views shape opinions of the alleged perpetrators.

Consider the case of Thomas Sibick, a New York man who was charged as a Capitol rioter but later renounced Trump, saying he loathed the former president. After receiving a letter from the defendant about his change of heart, US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that Sibick be released into the custody of his family, saying he had earned “the benefit of the doubt.”

By Tony Cox, a US journalist who has written or edited for Bloomberg and several major daily newspapers.

.https://www.rt.com/usa/545314-worse-than-civil-war/

Middle East News: Qasem Soleimani statue torched in western Iran

 

Qasem Soleimani statue torched in western Iran

This is not the first time a statue of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani has been torched in Iran.

By TZVI JOFFRE, Jerusalem Post,  JANUARY 6, 2022 

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-691788

Statue of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in Shahrekord, Iran, January 2022

(photo credit: Fatemeh Bayati/Mehr News Agency)

A statue of former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani was torched on Wednesday night by unidentified individuals in Shahrekord in western Iran, according to the Iranian ISNA news agency. 

Soleimani was assassinated by a US drone strike next to the Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020. The second anniversary of the assassination was marked this week.

Video reportedly from the scene on Wednesday night showed the statue engulfed in a pillar of fire in the middle of a roundabout.

Mohammad Ali Nekounam, the representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Friday prayer leader of Shahrekord, compared the burning of the statue to the assassination of Soleimani, saying "this crime in the dark of night is like the same crime in Baghdad airport that in the privacy of the night and at the height of cowardice, and it will make Hajj Qasim position in the hearts more stable."

Statue of former IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in Jiroft, Iran (credit: HOSSEIN NADERI/IRNA)

The statue of Soleimani had just been unveiled on Wednesday morning. The six-meter tall statue was worth about 150 million Tomans or about $35,500, according to ISNA.

This is not the first time a statue of the former Quds Force commander has been torched in Iran.

In August of last year, a statue of Soleimani was torched in the city of Yasuj in southwestern Iran.

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Soros Network of Woke DAs at Work: One Year in Jail for Armed Bank Robbery

Rob a bank with a gun in NYC and get just one year in jail! Disbelief at woke Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg as he downgrades serious crime like burglary, carrying a weapon and drug dealing to avoid putting criminals behind bars

• Alvin Bragg released a memo on Monday telling prosecutors to use prison as a 'last resort' 
• He told them to downgrade some armed robberies to petit larceny cases, and said he would no longer prosecute misdemeanor drugs charges or prostitution
• NYPD unions say he is emboldening criminals, who are already running rampant
• NYGOP Chairman Nick Langworthy called it 'pure insanity' and Curtis Sliwa, the defeated Republican candidate said it's now 'open season on crime' 
• He slammed new Mayor Eric Adams who vowed to be tough on crime, but who is now endorsing Bragg  
• 'Beware of Eric Adams who says one thing and then immediately embraces the guy who is advertising: 'come to the borough of Manhattan and commit crime'

By NATASHA ANDERSON  and JANON FISHER and JENNIFER SMITH, CHIEF REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 

PUBLISHED: 16:25 EST, 5 January 2022 | UPDATED: 19:36 EST, 5 January 2022

 
 
 
 
 
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George Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was greeted with growing backlash over his shockingly soft stance on crime that the progressive prosecutor revealed on Monday, less than 48 hours after new Mayor Eric Adams took office.   

Bragg, the newly minted prosecutor of the Big Apple's main borough, sent a memo to his staff announcing he 'will not seek carceral' sentences for criminals, unless they were guilty of murder or a handful of other crimes he deemed serious enough to warrant prison.  

His sweeping changes call on prosecutors to ditch felony armed robbery charges and instead charge suspects with petty larceny - a misdemeanor which carries a maximum of one year in prison - even when a weapon is involved if the firearm did not 'create a genuine risk of physical harm.' 

Burglaries will no longer be prosecuted as burglaries if the bandit steals from a storage unit or outdoor property that isn't connected to a 'living' dwelling, and quality-of-life crimes such as prostitution, turnstile jumping, weapons possession (of non-firearms) and marijuana possession won't be prosecuted at all. 

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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has vowed not to prosecute some violent crimes and downgrade felonies like armed robberies to the misdemeanor petit larceny if there isn't a 'genuine threat', even if a weapon is involved

Drug dealers will not be prosecuted for felony crimes unless they commit other offenses on top of drug dealing, and prison should be a 'last resort' - despite the mounting number of violent crimes being committed on the streets of New York by repeat offenders who have been let out of jail early. 

NYPD unions, New York Republicans and angry residents were left dumbfounded amid growing fears that the crime-ravaged city will experience the same fate as other progressive-run bastions on the West Coast that have been plagued by looting and lawlessness.  

'Why doesn't Bragg just give the drug dealers business cards telling everyone they're open for business, what their hours are, and what they charge?' Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo said in a statement on Wednesday. 

'Alvin Bragg's memo to his staff specifying his prosecution policy will result in more crime and increased shootings. 

'Where there are drugs, there are guns. D.A. Bragg has made himself the police, the judge and the jury.' 

Curtis Sliwa, the Republican mayoral candidate who lost to Adams by a landslide, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday: 'It's an advertisement for criminals. Come to Manhattan.' 

In an earlier appearance on Newsmax, Sliwa said it created an 'open season' for criminals and that Adams - who promised to be tough on crime - needed to come down harder on the new DA. 

Beware of Eric Adams who says one thing and then immediately embraces the guy who is advertising: 'come to the borough of Manhattan and commit crime. 

Republican Mayoral Candidate Curtis Sliwa 

'Beware of Eric Adams who says one thing and then immediately embraces the guy who is advertising: 'come to the borough of Manhattan and commit crime.

'It's open season. 

'That means smash and grabs, that means shoplifting, armed robbery, somebody can put a gun to your head as a tourist and guess what, he gets a desk appearance ticket. 

'Eric Adams can't have it both ways.'

The Police Benevolent Association president Patrick J. Lynch, who leads the nearly 24,000-member union, said that has 'serious concerns' over the new policies.

'Police officers don't want to be sent out to enforce laws that the district attorneys won't prosecute.

'There are already too many people who believe that they can commit crimes, resist arrest, interfere with police officers and face zero consequences.'

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The Detectives' Endowment Association released this statement saying he might as well give the criminals business cards

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Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said he has 'serious concerns' 

District Attorney Alvin Bragg greeting press

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The union chief said he hoped that Bragg would sit down with the leaders from his union to discuss the changes. 

'We must all pull together towards one goal: a safer New York City.' 

 Business leaders are also worried that these new policies could have detrimental effect on Manhattan's economy.

'New York City’s quality of life must remain competitive if we are to lure back office workers and tourists,' Jessica Walker, president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce said. 'The district attorney’s stance against prosecuting certain low-level crimes may undermine both the perception and the reality that ours is a safe big city.'

 NYGOP Chairman Nick Langworthy called the policy 'pure insanity'.  

 'I fear for the safety of New York residents, businesses owners and tourists. They tried the same reforms in San Francisco that focused on decarceration and what you see very fast is a descent into a free-for-all.'

Richie Greenberg, former mayoral candidate in San Francisco

'This policy is pure insanity by a Soros-funded, woke DA who is opening the door for even more crime and chaos on New York City streets. 

'This, on top of Democrats' end to cash bail, will have deadly results and send even more residents, businesses and tourists fleeing. 

'This is a damning reminder that elections have consequences,' he told DailyMail.com. 

Richie Greenberg, a former mayoral candidate in San Francisco who is now spearheading the effort to remove Chesa Boudin, the city's prosecutor who has abolished cash bail, said he feared for the people of New York. 

'I fear for the safety of New York residents, businesses owners and tourists. 

'They tried the same reforms in San Francisco that focused on decarceration and what you see very fast is a descent into a free-for-all.'

'Criminals come from all around to prey on businesses and the people of San Francisco,' he said.

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'Beware of Eric Adams who says one thing and then immediately embraces the guy who is advertising: 'come to the borough of Manhattan and commit crime' said Adams' former opponent, Curtis Sliwa

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Crime in New York City is so bad that the Mayor Eric Adams called 911 himself this week after watching two men brawl in the street 

ALVIN BRAGG'S MEMO PROMISING NOT TO JAIL CRIMINALS AND ONLY USE PRISON AS A 'LAST RESORT' 

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Bragg's memo said he would seek 'alternatives' to jail time for misdemeanors, and that some felonies should be downgraded to misdemeanors so that the suspects who commit them can escape custody.  

It was a shock to some of those who voted for Adams on his promise that he would crack down on the city's worsening crime problem. 

The new mayor has not commented on the criticism of Bragg's memo.   

On Wednesday, Bragg tried to offer reassurances that he would only let non-violent criminals who stole 'toothpaste' or 'bread'.  

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'We will be tough when we need to be, but we will not be seeking to destroy lives through unnecessary incarceration.  

'In practical terms that means: I've prosecuted gun cases and if you use a gun to rob a store, or any armed robbery, you will be prosecuted. I've prosecuted cases involving assaulting law enforcement, and if you punch a police officer, you will be prosecuted.

'But if you are houseless with an addiction problem and you steal toothpaste and some bread, you will be diverted for treatment to help break the cycle of recidivism.' 

New Mayor Eric Adams (pictured Tuesday) endorsed Bragg for Manhattan prosecutor and claimed on Monday that his policies would help reduce crime

He did not clarify the extent to which the criminals would be prosecuted, or if he would seek jail term for them. 

Some expressed concern over Bragg's ability to unilaterally decide which laws will or will not be enforced. The critics argue prosecutors 'must be allowed discretion,' but not the authority to change entire sections of penal code on their own.

Others allege his apparent looser stance on crime is surprising given he grew up in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood in the 1980s, during an endemic time of 'crack violence' and 'crack turf war-related bloodshed'.

The violence extended beyond drug dealers, with many residents sheltering their children in bathtubs to protect them from stray bullets that would shoot through the walls, the New York Post reported.

Critics contend, given Bragg grew up in that time of violence - which was significantly worse than today's crime levels - that he should want to hold criminals accountable for their actions and protect public order. 

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New York City is currently experiencing soaring crime rates and an increase in shooting incidents not seen since the mid-2000s

Manhattan DA says stop seeking prison sentences for most crimes

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The most recent crime stats put out by the NYPD show that crime continues to tick up in the new year.

Compared to last year major crimes, which include murder, rape, robbery, felony assault and others, have jumped 38 per cent for the week of December 27 to January 2. 

There have been fewer murders in that period - five to last year's 10 during the same period - but grand larceny spiked 84 percent, rape is up 35 percent and robber climbed 21 percent. 

Crime is only up about two percent compared to two years ago, but 15 percent higher than last decade.  

Critics also argue Bragg's policies directly conflict with the views and goals of the newly-elected mayor. 

However, new Mayor Eric Adams endorsed Bragg for Manhattan prosecutor and claimed on Monday that his policies would help reduce crime. 

Adams was an attractive choice for many voters because of his repeated promises to crack down on crime and bring back plain clothes units to disband gangs and tackle gun violence. 

In July 2021 - before they were elected - Bragg and Adams joined famed civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network rally in New York.

Adams, at the time, said he saw his role as mayor as making 'Bragg's job boring'.

'Prosecution rates is [sic] tied to my educational failure rates, Adams said, according to NewsOne. 'If I do my job right, then he will have nothing to do in this office.'

Bragg added: 'The state has the power to take away someone’s liberty. We are going to use that power judiciously and wisely. We’re going to use that for fairness and for safety.'

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The first homicide of 2022 in NYC: A woman was stabbed to death near a diner in Astoria, Queens on New Year's Day at 9pm 

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Famed civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton (left) and Alvin Bragg (right) celebrate a decade of 'PoliticsNation With Al Sharpton' on August 24, 2021 in New York City

Bragg was elected thanks in part to the Color of Change super PAC, a political action committee that received $1million from Democratic super-donor Soros.

Soros has funneled millions into the successful campaigns of other progressive district attorneys across the country.  

The billionaire, one of the most prolific Democratic donors, is most known for giving to Presidents Clinton and Obama but he has also been pumping money into a far-left effort to overhaul the criminal justice system which critics say is creating a lawless America.

Among those he backed is Kim Foxx, the State's Attorney for Cook County, Chicago, where murder is at its highest in nearly 30 years. 

In 2020, Soros donated $2million to a PAC that backed Foxx in her re-election campaign. She won the race and has since offered deferred prosecutions and softball deals to criminals. 

In 2021, there were more murders in Chicago than in any other year since 1994. 

There have been more than 1,000 murders in Cook County, Foxx's district, this year.

Soros bolstered her re-election campaign by donating to the Illinois Justice and Public Safety PAC.  

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George Soros has funneled millions into the successful campaigns of other progressive district attorneys across the country. He has also been pumping money into a far-left effort to overhaul the criminal justice system which critics say is creating a lawless America

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Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, left, was propped up by a PAC that Soros gave $2million to. San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin is pictured, right

The PAC spent over $500,000 on materials to damage one of her challengers. It's a pattern that can be seen in other parts of the country. 

He has also donated to PACs that support Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, who is being widely condemned for not cracking down on shoplifters and violent criminals. 

Soros has also donated to the campaign of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry  Krasner.

He donated $1.7million to Krasner's campaign, according to The New York Post.

Soros also donated to Super PACS that prop up Democratic prosecutors and politicians across Republican states. 

Republican pundits say he has blood on his hands now for the deaths of innocent people like those killed at the Waukesha Christmas Parade by Darrell Brooks, a career criminal who had been bonded out of jail days earlier for other crimes.  

In 2016, Soros pumped $3million into seven local district-attorney campaigns including races in Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas.