Charges against hundreds of NYC rioters, looters have been dropped

 https://nypost.com/2021/06/20/hundreds-of-nyc-rioters-looters-have-charges-dropped/

 Hundreds of alleged looters and rioters busted last year in protests over George Floyd’s murder by police have had their charges dropped, according to NYPD data — figures ripped as “disgusting” by a local business owner.

 Sources in the DA’s offices insisted that in many of the cases, the evidence was not strong enough to secure a conviction. The offices are also swamped with a backlog of cases created by the courts’ prolonged closure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Simple question - aside from the personal feelings of one victim and claims of one former policeman - why is no evidence being reported that charges were dropped in spite of having solid evidence of criminal behavior ?

Most charges against George Floyd protesters dropped, analysis shows

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/17/george-floyd-protesters-charges-citations-analysis

Some prosecutors and law enforcement observers say departments carried out mass arrests as crowd control tactic

In most instances, Detroit officers who wrote tickets were not at the protests and didn’t actually witness the alleged crimes, said the National Lawyers Guild and Detroit Justice Center attorney Rubina Mustafa. Instead of continuing to attempt to prosecute with shoddy evidence, the city earlier this year dropped nearly 300 more citations, but has still pursued dozens of charges against protest organizers. All told, 93% of Detroit cases have been dropped.

 

הרב קוק - תיעוד וידאו נדיר של מרן הרב קוק זצ"ל במגוון אירועים וכן קטעי וידאו ממסע הלווייתו.

8 times Biden, Obama and others condemned Black Lives Matter violence

 https://www.fayobserver.com/story/opinion/columns/2021/01/15/8-times-biden-obama-et-al-condemned-black-lives-matter-violence/4170932001/

 Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, said Wednesday in defending the president against impeachment that Republicans were consistent and condemned all violence from anyone.

“It’s all about politics,” he claimed.

The idea that Democrats did not criticize the violent elements of the BLM and social justice movement last summer is false.

Comparison between Capitol siege, BLM protests is denounced

 https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-race-and-ethnicity-violence-racial-injustice-afd7dc2165f355a3e6dc4e9418019eb5

Black activists are coming out strongly against a growing narrative among conservatives that equates the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol with last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests of racial injustice.

Republican lawmakers defending President Donald Trump made the comparison again Wednesday while building their case against impeachment and accused Democrats of being hypocrites with selective outrage. Their comments mark the latest effort by Trump and the GOP to misrepresent the Black Lives Matter movement as an extremist, violent faction tied to anarchists.

“You can moan and groan, but he was far more explicit about his calls for peace than some of the BLM and left-wing rioters were this summer when we saw violence sweep across this nation,” Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said in defending Trump before the House voted 232-197 to impeach the president for inciting an insurrection.

 But the two events were fundamentally different. One was an intentional, direct attack on a hallowed democratic institution, with the goal of overturning a fair and free election. The other was a coast-to-coast protest movement demanding an end to systemic racism that occasionally, but not frequently, turned violent.

Favorite to Win NYC Comptroller’s Race, Brad Lander Turns on Israel

 https://thejewishvoice.com/2021/08/favorite-to-win-nyc-comptrollers-race-brad-lander-turns-on-israel/

 Brad Lander, who was once targeted in NYC for his strong defense of Israel, has joined the same den of radical leftists, in the name of power and acceptance of his peers.

Did Trump Tell Supporters To Storm US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021?

 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-tell-supporters-storm/

 Claim

In a speech on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol to delay the constitutional process that would affirm Joe Biden’s presidency. 

 

What's True

U.S. President Donald Trump did tell supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, to gather at the U.S. Capitol and try to convince members of Congress to delay the constitutional process that would affirm Biden's presidency.

What's False

Trump did not explicitly tell people to "storm" or "breach" or "break into" the Capitol.

What's Undetermined

It was a subjective call on whether Trump's use of phrases "you have to show strength" and "demand that Congress do the right thing" were meant to condone violence and crimes among right-wing extremists without explicitly encouraging it.

‘Mostly peaceful’ Jan. 6 claim mostly true — and beside the point | COMMENTARY

 https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-0527-goldberg-mostly-peaceful-20210526-x7nr42x655bfhjzkf34e4s27yu-story.html

Those last two findings are crucial because the violence was motivated by these false beliefs. It’s amazing how easily Republicans can see how the rhetoric of BLM activists can create a permission structure for violence, but they become utterly blind to the same point when it comes to violence at the seat of our government.

Turns Out Mo Brooks Was Wearing Body Armor to Trump’s Very Peaceful Jan. 6 Rally

 https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/mo-brooks-body-armor-jan-6-rally.html

 Then, to prove his point about preparation, he revealed a new detail to me: that because of a tip he’d received about potential violence, he’d been wearing body armor at the very same Ellipse speech in which he encouraged rally attendees to “start taking down names and kicking ass.”

“I was warned on Monday that there might be risks associated with the next few days,” he said. “And as a consequence of those warnings, I did not go to my condo. Instead, I slept on the floor of my office. And when I gave my speech at the Ellipse, I was wearing body armor.

“That’s why I was wearing that nice little windbreaker,” he told me with a grin. “To cover up the body armor.”

Did Trump Say to 'Peacefully and Patriotically' March to the Capitol?

 https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-trump-say-peacefully-patriotically-march-capitol-1561718

 The official impeachment resolution points to the moments before the joint session of Congress to certify the election results, Trump reiterated "false claims that 'we won this election and we won it in a landslide'" and "willfully made statements that, in context, encourages and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol." These statements include: "if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore."

 

Trump's team glosses over his Jan. 6 tirade

 https://apnews.com/article/ap-fact-check-donald-trump-capitol-siege-violence-elections-507f4febbadecb84e1637e55999ac0ea

 Donald Trump’s legal team thoroughly distorted his remarks from the rally that prefaced the storming of the Capitol last month, seizing on the one instance when Trump spoke of peaceful protest in his “fight like hell” tirade of anger and grievance.

Trump attorney Michael van der Veen accused House Democratic impeachment managers of showing selectively edited scenes of the violence and Trump’s words Jan. 6.

Yet he ignored the incendiary substance and tenor of that staging speech as well as the president’s words of affection for the attackers later, while they were still hunting for lawmakers and sacking their offices. He ignored the fact, too, that all of Trump’s provocations that day and for weeks beforehand had the lie of a stolen election at their core.

Beit Shemesh synagogue demolished - with Torah scroll still inside

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/311146

The haredi community in Beit Shemesh has slammed the city's municipality for demolishing a synagogue while the Torah scroll was still inside it, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

According to the residents, the municipal workers did not even bother to remove the holy books before demolishing the synagogue.

The synagogue, housed in a caravan built four years ago, serves the community of "Hanikhei Hayeshivot" in Ramah C. Early on Tuesday morning, municipal workers arrived at the site and completely demolished it.

‘Breakthrough’ Infections Do Not Mean COVID Vaccines Are Failing

 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/breakthrough-infections-do-not-mean-covid-vaccines-are-failing/

Endless news cycles and viral social media warn of “breakthrough infections” in people already vaccinated for COVID-19. These reports leave the mistaken impression that protections afforded by the vaccines are not working—and they can fuel reticence among the millions of people in the U.S. who have yet to get a shot. But such infections are not only known to occur after COVID vaccination. They frequently happen following inoculation against influenza, measles and many other diseases.

Pro-Israel Democrat Shontel Brown Defeats Progressive Nina Turner in Ohio Democratic Primary

 https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-pro-israel-democrat-brown-defeats-progressiveturner-in-ohio-democratic-primary-1.10080266

 Voters in Ohio's solidly blue 11th district opted for Brown, a pro-Israel leader in the Ohio party apparatus with strong ties to the Democratic establishment, over Turner, an outspoken progressive who came to national prominence as a Bernie Sanders surrogate. 

Brown thanked her "Jewish brothers and sisters" during her victory remarks, adding how her 2018 trip to Israel gave her insight into the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship.