Friday, August 7, 2020

A NATION UNRAVELS - MURDER UP IN AUSTIN NEARLY 70%

 Austin Voted to Defund the Police, its Murder Rate Rose 67%

Defund the police and the death rate will follow.

 
Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

The Austin City Council voted unanimously to defund the police.

"We don't need somebody who's a sworn officer and a gun in order to be able to accomplish what the community needs done," Mayor Steve Adler falsely claimed.

Austin's proposed budget targeted millions in cuts. These included 100 vacant police positions, delaying the next cadet class, delaying the replacement of duty weapons, and there were proposals by some Democrats council members to shut down the police academy, cut the bomb squad budget, and even demolish the city’s downtown police headquarters.

The proposed budget also includes a 3.5% tax increase.

Politicians limited the ability of police officers to use force against criminals and barred them from using pepper spray and tear gas against the violent mobs of Black Lives Matter rioters.

Now Austin is number one with a bullet after its homicide rate increase passed every major city.

Overtaking more violent cities like Chicago, left behind at number two, Philly at number six, and New York at number eight, Austin had the highest percentage homicide rate increase. Like the ‘Miracle on Ice’ in the 1980 Winter Olympics, Austin is the underdog that came from behind to blow everyone away with its ability to rack up bodies even faster than vegan soy hot dogs.

Austin’s percentage rate increased 64% over the year and 67% in June.

It just goes to show that even an underperforming bunch of criminals can really accomplish great things when the politicians get behind them and get the cops off their backs. If you don’t believe that defunding the police works, just stop by an Austin morgue.

Adelaido Bernabe Urias, a 68-year-old Mexican immigrant, was pushing his ice cream cart past a housing project when Marquis Davis, Jermaine Jones, and Devlon Wardy, allegedly pretended they wanted to buy ice cream from him, demanded money, and then shot the elderly man.

When some Karen called the police, the dying Mexican ice cream vendor told officers that he had been shot by three black men becoming an accomplice to the system of racist policing.

The perps were caught after the Austin Greater Crime Commission and the Austin Police Association, who had spoken out against police defunding, put up the reward money.

The Austin Justice Coalition, advocates for police defunding, didn't bother contributing their funds to catching Urias’ murderers. His life was not the kind of life that ‘matters’ to them.

Jermaine Jones had posted a photo with a gun on his Facebook page before the murder.

The police had busted Marquis Davis a few days before the murder for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but fortunately they let him go because the enlightened progressives of Austin understand that bail is racist and criminals must be freed from prison so they don’t get sick.

Davis didn’t catch the Wuhan Virus in prison. Instead he may have killed someone’s grandpa.

The thug was freed with an ankle monitor. Pro-crime progressives insist that an ankle monitor is just as good as locking up a criminal behind bars. Urias could not be reached for comment.

The Mexican immigrant started selling ice cream after being laid off during the pandemic. Now the ice cream man is gone. And that’s the price we pay for a society that is kinder to criminals and crueler to their victims. We can have ice cream men or criminals on the loose, but not both.

There is lots of good news from Austin.

Not only were murders up 67% in June, but justifiable homicides had gone up 200%. When you defund the police, some people won't lie down and die for the thugs.

Robberies were up 50%, aggravated assaults were up 10%, and incest was up 100%.

Over the year so far, extortion is up 113%, stolen property is up 71%, prostitution is up 138%, and bribery is up 100%. How these may be interrelated is left as an exercise for the reader.

Between the incest and the extortion, the robberies and the bribery, the stolen property and prostitution, things are great. And that’s before defunding the police has even really kicked in.

Austin progressives have finally made sure that the police won’t be shooting anyone.

Like Maurice Pierce, who was shot and killed at a traffic spot ten years ago after he grabbed a knife from a police officer's belt and cut him. Pierce had been one of the suspects in Austin's infamous yogurt shop murders, in which the charred naked bodies of four teenage girls were found in a burned shop. After the latest police reform measures, Pierce would still be alive.

None of this has caused advocates of defunding the police to rethink their position.

"The City has started down the path toward ending this injustice but we have further to go and we must stay the course to redefine public safety in Austin," City Manager Spencer Cronk had boasted.

It’s safe to say that public safety in Austin has been redefined. And staying the course will really redefine it. Defunding the police has helped put Austin alongside Chicago on the growth list of homicides. And while Austin is still lagging its older more murderous brother by a lot, violence is a growth industry and the hipster hellhole is showing real promise.

Austin's Democrat leaders have claimed that they are just giving the "community" what it wants. But most Austin residents are opposed to defunding the police and getting rid of cops.

A poll by the Greater Austin Crime Commission found that 53% of city residents don't want a reduction in the number of cops. Nearly half of city residents think that Austin is on  the wrong track and only a third think it's going the right way. The right way being straight to hell.

But as long as they keep voting for radicals, nothing will change. Except for the worse.

Before this year, playing a word association game with Austin would have produced answers like, “annoying hipsters", "vegan bakeries", and "obscure indie bands."

Now that word association game has another answer: murder.

Defund the police and the death rate will follow.


Video: Portland Rioters Throw Paint on Elderly Woman’s Face for Defending Police Station

elderly woman in Portland
Portland Police Bureau
2:35

Portland protesters aggressively confronted two elderly women who reportedly tried to stop some of the flagrant criminal activity — throwing paint on one of them — the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) confirmed.

Portland hit its 70th night of protests late Thursday night into early Friday morning — the day after violent protesters attempted to set the East Precinct on fire. Despite condemnation from Mayor Ted Wheeler (D), protesters targeted the building again, vandalizing security cameras with spray paint. One demonstrator successfully dismantled a security camera, the police affirmed. Authorities added that members of the group hurled cans of spray paint at the East Precinct.

The PPB reported that “two elderly community members attempted to stop the group from vandalizing the building with paint and were subsequently hit with the paint.” Videos show protesters aggressively confronting one woman, who was covered in what appeared to be a white liquid:

Another video shows protesters smashing the wall of a barrier next to an elderly woman in a walker who was holding a “BLM” sign — the same woman who appeared to attempt to put out a fire, referenced by the PPB:

Several thank-you notes on blue hearts from community members which were affixed to the front of East Precinct were used as an accelerant for the garbage can fire. An elderly community member came forward in an attempt to extinguish the fire. As she did this, group members stood in her way. As the group attempted to keep the fire ignited, several others in the group shined lasers at the security cameras affixed to East Precinct and continued tagging the building with graffiti. Shortly after, PPB with the help of OSP began dispersing the crowd.

Portland police declared an unlawful assembly, as they did the night prior, due to the violence in the area:

According to journalist Andy Ngo, protesters also set their sites on a residential area, as several videos show:

PPB said protesters hurled glass bottles, heavy rocks, paint, commercial-grade fireworks, and eggs at officers as they tried to disperse the crowd. Members of the group also shined lasers in officers’ eyes.

Police said “several” arrests were made as a result of the criminal activity “including an individual who had a loaded handgun.”

“Information on arrests will be provided as it becomes available,” the PPB added.

August 7, 2020

Black Americans, vote your values



We make the common error of mistaking the noise generated from the clanging gongs of "woke" activists (read: terrorists) and media sycophants as indicative of the attitudes of the broader segment of the populace that they purport to represent.

Black Lives Matter and Antifa have been on a multi-city crusade to "defund the police," presumably on behalf of black people, and other persons of color in Democrat-run cities.  Turns out, not so much.

In a recent Gallup poll, black Americans voted overwhelmingly (61%) to retain current local levels of police presence in their communities, with 20% wanting to see an increased presence.  Eighty-one percent of black respondents voted to maintain or increase, not defund, policing in their communities.  

It's ironic that BLM and Antifa, both predominantly run (and manned) by suburban, Millennial white leftists, have the temerity to advance what they think is in the best interest of non-white people.  

Turns out that thinking non-white people understand the importance of law and order and the responsibilities that police have in trying to maintain order.  It is not a perfect system, and it is wrought with opportunities for improvement, but, as black people (seemingly) understand, dismantling it under the guise of "social justice" will fall hardest on non-white people and communities.   

Where liberalism has flourished — NYC, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Portland, Seattle, D.C. — the state of black (and more broadly lower/middle income) America is in decline.

New York City has seen a 130-percent increase in violent crime, impacting persons of color almost exclusively.   

In Minneapolis, murders have increased 95 percent.  Almost all victims and perpetrators were non-white persons.  This past week saw the Minneapolis City Council vote overwhelmingly to dismantle the police.  Police have advised residents to "be prepared to give up your property."

In Louisville, black militants have resorted to mafia-style tactics, issuing demands to local merchants (including a Cuban restaurant) to meet race-based hiring quotas or pay an offset, unless "you want your business to be f----- with."

It is a pivotal time in America for thinking non-white people.  Take a step back, look at the diverging trajectories of liberal versus conservative ideals, and vote for the party and the candidates who will advance the values that elevate and protect your families and your communities.

Whether local, state or national, a vote for Democrats is a vote to defund police and to turn America, and particularly the inner city, into the wild west.  Elections have consequences.  Choose wisely, my friends.

PATHOLOGICAL LIAR DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE ACTUALLY WILL MAYBE HELP THE AMERICAN WORKER AS JARED KUSHNER OPERATED TRUMP'S OPEN BORDERS AGENDA FROM THE BASEMENT

 

In Ohio, Donald Trump Makes Six Promises to American Workers for His Second Term

CLYDE, OHIO - AUGUST 06: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to workers at a Whirlpool manufacturing facility on August 06, 2020 in Clyde, Ohio. Whirlpool is the last remaining major appliance company headquartered in the United States. With more than 3,000 employees, the Clyde facility is one of the world's …
Scott Olson/Getty Images
4:39

President Donald Trump made six promises to American workers Thursday if he is reelected in November.

During a speech to workers at a Whirlpool manufacturing facility in Ohio, President Trump boasted that he had kept all of his 2016 campaign promises to the American worker, including his promise to replace the NAFTA trade deal and end former President Barack Obama’s proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“I didn’t back down from my promises, and I kept every single one,” he said.

Not content to rest on his success, however, Trump outlined his agenda for American workers if elected to a second term.

Defeat the China Virus:

“First and foremost, we will defeat the China virus,” Trump said to the workers gathered for his speech.

“It’s bad, and we have made tremendous strides. We are attacking the virus from every angle and through this aggressive strategy, we will win the war and it will happen sooner than people think,” he added.

The president pointed to the efforts of his administration to push ahead with vaccine developments and increasing the production of masks, gloves, respirators, and medical equipment.

Rebuild American manufacturing:

“My second promise to you is this,” Trump said. “We will rise from the current adversity of this horrible invisible enemy and we will be more prosperous and resilient than ever before.”

Trump said he would maintain a climate for growth with low taxes, fewer regulations, and using the Defense Production Act to mobilize the industrial capacity of the United States.

Build America into a Center of Medical Manufacturing

“My third promise is to build on these gains to turn America into the premier medical manufacturing, pharmacy, and drugstore of the world,” Trump said.

The coronavirus pandemic, Trump explained, proved that America could never count on other countries to deliver critical medicines, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment during a pandemic.

“We cannot rely on China and other nations across the globe that could one day deny us products in a time of need,” he said. “We can’t do it.”

The president signed an executive order requiring federal agencies purchase their essential drugs and medical protective gear exclusively from the United States. As the federal government is one of the largest customers of medical goods, it would help boost American manufacturing.

“We’ll be making our product here, safely, beautifully, inexpensively,” Trump said. “We’re reasserting American economic independence.”

Move Millions of Manufacturing Jobs Back to America

“My fourth promise to American workers: Beyond our medical supply chains over the next four years, we will onshore millions of new manufacturing jobs, across many other critical sectors that are vital to our national security and prosperity,” he said.

Trump said that the United States would still need to manufacture items like electronics, machines, tools, air and space parts, vehicles, and iron and steel in order to be secure. He also said he would continue enacting policies to drive up the development and manufacturing of important items.

Using Tariffs to Fight for Fair Trade

“My fifth promise to American workers is to bring back American jobs and factories using every tool at my disposal, including tariffs,” Trump said.

To illustrate his point, Trump announced that he had signed a ten percent aluminum tariff on Canada.

“I love properly put on tariffs, because they bring unfair competitors from foreign countries to do whatever you want them to do,” Trump said.

He also previewed a future announcement that would “have a tremendous impact” on trade.

“To be a strong nation, America must be a manufacturing nation and not be led by a bunch of fools,” he said. “That means protecting our national industrial base.”

Put Workers First

“My sixth and final promise today is to forever uphold the commitment I made from the beginning,” he said. “I will always put American workers first, always.”

Wrapping up his speech, President Trump said he would work for all workers, unionized or not, and said he would continue fighting China for fairer trade.

He reminded the audience that former Vice President Joe Biden repeatedly let them down in the administration led by former President Barack Obama.

“The Obama and Biden administration were a joke, and they were happy to let China win, your jobs disappear, and your factory to close,” he said.

THE RUTHLESS DEALINGS OF HIGH TECH MONSTERS - AMAZON'S MODERN SLAVER BEZOS, NEO-FACIST MARK ZUCKERBERG

 

Internal Emails Shed Light on Big Tech’s Abusive Business Practices

This combination of 2019-2020 photos shows Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. On Wednesday, July 29, 2020, the four Big Tech leaders will answer for their companies’ practices before Congress at a hearing by the House Judiciary subcommittee on …
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer
4:13

A recent report from NBC outlines what a huge number of emails from tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google could mean for possible antitrust cases against the companies.

NBC New York writes in an article titled “What a Trove of Emails From Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google Could Mean for Potential Antitrust Cases,” that following the recent testimony of the CEO’s of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, internal emails obtained by Congress as part of an antitrust probe into the firms provide even further insight into the operations of the tech giants.

A curated selection of 1.3 million internal documents released by the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel are part of a year-long investigation into the tech firms and include emails and chat logs between executives at the firms.

The documents reportedly show the companies strategizing ahead of major company decisions, such as Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram or Amazon’s decision to undercut the price of diapers to compete with Diapers.com.

Alicia Batts, a partner in the antitrust and competition practice at Squire Patton Boggs, commented that its not uncommon for these sort of documents to surface in a merger investigation. “It’s an indication to look deeper but not necessarily an indication you won’t be able to close [the deal],” she said in an interview with CNBC. “When you have both documents that show a company is planning to harm competition and the economic data or the economic model support that it’s possible, that’s when the documents are given the most weight.”

NBC outlined some of the most interesting revelations from the documents relating to each of the companies, several of which can be found below:

Facebook

 Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom feared Zuckerberg entering “destroy mode” if he didn’t sell: As Zuckerberg began to court Instagram for a potential deal, Systrom messaged one of his investors, Benchmark Partner Matt Cohler, in February 2012 for advice on how to politely rebuff an offer. Systrom seemed adamant in wanting to stay independent to see how far he could take Instagram on his own. But he wanted Cohler’s advice on whether Zuckerberg would “go into destroy mode” if he rejected an offer.

″[P]robably,” Cohler responded, ”(and probably if we just don’t engage at all).”

 

Amazon

– Amazon undercut Diapers.com’s prices before buying it:A top executive, then-vice president of worldwide corporate development Douglas Booms, identified Diapers.com as Amazon’s ”#1 short term competitor” in a 2009 email. “As I’ve mentioned to each of you, I think, we need to match pricing on these guys no matter what the cost,” Booms wrote.

 

Apple

Apple argued to Congress that it “treats every developer the same,” and that “the rules apply to everyone.” But its internal messages show otherwise. As previously reported by Breitbart News, Apple offered a sweetheart deal to Amazon to get its Amazon Prime Video app on Apple Devices. The proposed deal included Apple charging a far lower percentage to Amazon than to typical app developers.

 

 

Google

– Executives saw a potential deal with YouTube as a way to prevent Yahoo from buying it: As Google executives pondered whether to buy YouTube, one key consideration appeared to be thwarting Yahoo from snatching up the video service.

Huber, the SVP of geo and commerce at the time, wrote in a 2005 email, “I think we should talk to them, if nothing else to make it more expensive for Yahoo. They’ll also eventually need a monetization/ads model, so we should use ours instead of anything from Yahoo (if they don’t go acquisition soon, and we maintain reasonable relations with them).”

 

Read more at NBC New York here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com

Columbia Prof Tim Wu: Big Tech’s Real Business Model Can Be Found in Its Emails

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 23: With an image of himself on a screen in the background, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill October 23, 2019 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg testified about Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency …
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
3:40

As tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are investigated by Congress over antitrust allegations, troves of internal company emails reveal how these companies rose to the top and provide compelling evidence that they violated antitrust laws. Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu believes that the Masters of the Universe have built a business model on buying the competition, and destroying those that will not sell.

In a recent article for the New York Times, Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu outlines some of the key pieces of information gained from internal emails from Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon as the companies face a rigorous antitrust investigation by Congress. The documents details how the companies, Facebook and Amazon in particular, may have violated antitrust laws while becoming market leaders in their fields.

The Times article notes internal emails from Facebook which appear to show that Facebook had a common tactic to “control” smaller companies that posed a threat to the social media giant.

Wu writes:

Exhibit A is Facebook, whose documents are the most damning. Emails from Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, strongly suggest that since about 2008 he has had a method for controlling what in a 2012 email he called “nascent” companies that posed “very disruptive” threats to Facebook. His method has been the buyout or the aggressive cloning of features to compel a company to sell itself to Facebook. He foresaw that there would be a limited number of “social mechanics,” or areas of innovation in social media, each of which would have one winner. “Instagram can hurt us,” he wrote in 2012, right before acquiring the company and eliminating the threat that its photo- and video-sharing technology posed to Facebook.

Amazon similarly outlined how the company addresses competition and its aggressive approach to rivals:

Amazon doesn’t come off much better. Its documents show an apparent willingness to lose money to keep competitors under water. Early on, because of low pricing, Amazon lost more than $200 million from diaper products in a single month. It ran its chief competitor, Quidsi, into the ground. (Quidsi owned Diapers.com.) Then Amazon bought the weakened company. This approach, like Facebook’s acquiring of competitors, is how John D. Rockefeller built up Standard Oil in the 1870s. It’s “join us — or face extermination.” Likewise, Amazon has admitted to sometimes selling its smart speaker, Echo, below cost, presumably on the theory that collecting huge amounts of data on users and securing direct access to their homes will present an insurmountable barrier to potential rivals.

Internal emails from Google appear to show that the company actually had very little interest in the video-sharing platform YouTube but chose to purchase it simply out of fear that it would threaten the company’s monopoly on search. Google bought YouTube for $16.5 billion in 2006. All of this appears to show a pattern of big tech firms simply buying away their problems.

Wu notes that while the recent antitrust subcommittee hearings are a good step in the right direction, concrete action must be taken to prevent these Silicon Valley tech firms from continuing to operate monopolies in the world of Big Tech.

Read more at the New York Times here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmai