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Beatings and Sexual Assaults Making a Comeback to New York Subways

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Whenever you travel to the Big Apple, just remember not to take the subway. The extra cost of a cab is worth your life, even as state and city officials sacrifice the value of your life to street thugs in order to empty the prisons.

Even before the full enactment of New York’s criminal justice reform, the predictable consequence of undeterred violent crime is already rearing its ugly head. Last Thursday, two female tourists were savagely beaten at a Brooklyn subway stop and robbed while nobody did anything to help. Surveillance video shows two suspects repeatedly beating them on the platform stairs and threatening them with a knife and taser before running off with their belongings. Welcome to New York City; enjoy your stay in America!

In a separate incident on a Manhattan subway platform a few days earlier, surveillance video shows convicted rapist George Shaw, 54, sexually assaulting an unsuspecting 18-year-old female. Shaw was convicted in 1996 of raping and sodomizing four females, including three underage girls. He was released from prison last year, and now he is accused of forcibly grabbing this subway passenger from behind. Frankly, we should be thankful Shaw was behind bars even for 22 years. 1996 was at the height of the incarceration era. Today, even someone convicted of four rapes would likely serve much less time in New York before being paroled.

As I’ve reported before, this is part of a broader trend of returning violence to subways in New York and elsewhere. According to NYPD data, there were 1,185 transit misdemeanor assaults citywide from Jan. 1 to Nov. 17, which reflects a 10.9 percent increase from the same time last year. This is largely due to Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s refusal to enforce public order laws and fare jumping, which often reveal perpetrators of even greater crimes. That’s why the number of sex crimes on NY’s subways has increased for four years in a row. The number of subway “hate crimes” is also up 50 percent this year over last year.

This is all before New York’s new “criminal justice reform” law take effect, and anyone accused of transit assault will be out on bail pending trial. Then again, the girl who was sexually assaulted at the subway should be thankful it was there and not in her home, because this same law will now grant the defense the opportunity to return to the scene of the crime during the trial. For a rape victim in her home, that means returning the suspect to the victim’s bedroom.

The breakdown of public order and the escalation of violence in public transit is happening everywhere criminal justice deform has been tried. In San Francisco, where theft and street vagrancy have essentially become a way of life, crime is skyrocketing. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “Homicide, rape, assault and robbery have doubled on BART [the Bay Area Rapid Transit system] in the last four years — from 234 incidents in 2015 to 481 incidents last year — after six years of relative stability.”

As California empties its prisons, the streets are the scenes of criminal behavior. The L.A. Times reports that car thefts in some California cities are at “crisis levels,” as prosecutors say their “hands are tied” thanks to new pro-criminal policies in place. Car burglaries spiked in San Francisco by 24 percent from 2016 to 2017 and by 20 percent in San Jose from 2016 to 2018. So if you want to avoid the crime in the subways by using your own car to get around the city, just remember that the one-sided justice system has given the criminals a long reach into your private vehicle as well.

Subway violence has also increased in Seattle and Minneapolis, two bastions of criminal justice “reform.” The number of serious crimes on Minneapolis’ green line is up 34 percent this year. The Twin Cities have become a stronghold for criminal justice “reform” as crime spikes across most categories, with St. Paul on pace for a record year of homicides. Transit crimes are up 6 percent this year in Chicago, despite the deployment of thousands of new cameras. After all, cameras only serve as a deterrent if those caught committing crimes on the footage are actually punished.

Republicans have a golden opportunity to discuss safe communities and neighborhoods and run against Blue America’s culture of pro-criminal laws and the ensuing consequences of violent crime, burglary, theft, and homelessness. Yet instead of making this a top agenda item, top Republicans continue to support the Soros agenda on crime just as rigorously as Democrats. Bill Lee, the Republican governor of Tennessee, has promised to “empty our jails.” He claimed, “We have to be creative and innovative and disruptive and challenge the way we’ve been doing things forever.”

Actually, Governor Lee, there is nothing creative or innovative about implementing the Soros agenda on crime. We are seeing the innovation in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Minneapolis. Yes, it certainly is disruptive, and perhaps innovative from the criminals’ standpoint. But where does that leave us law-abiding citizens? (For more from the author of “Beatings and Sexual Assaults Making a Comeback to New York Subways” please click HERE)

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Anti-Prison Anarchy Is Spreading: It’s Way Beyond ‘Soft on Crime’

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Stathos Hugunnie was wanted in connection with two stabbings in a housing project in Long Island City one day in April 1997. When police showed up, Hugunnie fired eight shots, striking NYPD officer Peter Bueti three times in the chest, which would have killed him if not for his protective vest. After being released from prison two years ago, he was picked up again on drugs and firearms charges. Yet he was released on just $5,000 bond. This, folks, is the real criminal justice dysfunction that needs “reform,” but victims and law enforcement don’t have the same lobbying power criminals do.

Although New York’s new law abolishing cash bail won’t be enacted until January 1, judges are already getting a head start by either applying it now or setting bail at a very low rate, even for repeat violent felons. Hugunnie was charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal weapons possession, and criminal use of a firearm for the 1997 incident. Back then, criminals were actually locked up, so he served 20 years in prison.

According to the New York Post, “On Nov. 7 at 6 a.m., detectives from Queens North carried out a search warrant and found the would-be cop killer in another apartment in the Queensbridge Houses, loaded down with multiple firearms, ammunition, and grams of both heroin and crack cocaine.”

Liberals always say they want to combat gun violence, but they love to let out the most violent gun felons of all on the streets. Consequently, someone like this, who almost killed a cop and was then caught illegally possessing firearms, was let back out on just $5,000 bond. “This is the type of person New Yorkers are going to be encountering on our streets in increasing numbers: vicious criminals who are being spit back out by our criminal justice system,” said Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch, as quoted by the Post. “We must fix our broken parole system before perps like Hugunnie create more victims.”

This is the sort of “criminal justice reform” the public wants, but the political class, including so-called conservatives, think even the current weakened system is not weak enough on criminals. Two weeks ago, the American Conservative Union, the same organization that hosts the supposed annual conservative conference of record, held a jailbreak conference where 100 percent of the focus was on the needs of the criminal and not on all the victims needlessly harmed by repeat offenders let out of prison. . .

Who needs Soros electing anti-prison prosecutors in San Francisco and northern Virginia, when “conservatives” seem to agree? We see how harmful the Soros prosecutors have been in their quest to decriminalize public order laws, a big project of AOC’s “squad.” How much more so the release of drug traffickers and gang-bangers?

Many so-called conservatives are motivated, in part, by the assumption that they will somehow pick up new voters from the felons who are released. Jared Kushner reportedly told a group of donors as much at a GOP summer fundraiser in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It’s akin to their suicidal and circular logic that if Republicans out-left the Democrats on amnesty for illegal aliens, they will somehow pick up more votes. A recent jailbreak story from New York demonstrates the laughableness of this view.

José “Catano” Jorge was originally held without bond after he was charged with killing someone by distributing fentanyl-laced heroin in NYC. Last week, though, he was released without any bond pursuant to the new bail law, and according to the NY Post, he announced in Spanish as he left the courthouse, “Cuomo for president!” According to the New York Daily News, when Jorge’s lawyer tried to hush him up, Jorge said, “It’s in my heart, man. It’s in my heart, bro.”

Yes, indeed, there are a lot of vices incorrigibly embedded in the hearts of violent career criminals. Voting Republican is not one of them. This is the army of violent punks that “conservative” criminal justice deform will unleash on our streets.

Ironically, people who actually understand crime, even Democrats, comprehend the consequences of jailbreak more than supposed conservative organizations. A pair of law-and-order Democrat prosecutors in northern Virginia who were defeated by Soros candidates in primaries were recently profiled by the Daily Caller Foundation about their concern with this growing anti-prison movement and their shock that even Republican politicos don’t seem to care or understand what’s happening.

“The weird thing is, as a result of Soros pouring money into low-turnout primaries, center-left voters are unquestionably more closely aligned to the Republican candidates than they are to these radical challengers,” said Jonathan Fahey, the independent who was defeated by Soros accolyte Steve Descano in the Fairfax County DA race. “If the citizens were informed they’d never vote for this.”

The longtime incumbent Democrat prosecutor who was defeated by Descano, Ray Morrogh, endorsed the independent Fahey, but voters upset with Trump simply voted party line up and down the ballot.

Descano “is completely unqualified for the office of commonwealth attorney,” Morrogh said in a video. “The only case he tried, he disgraced himself when the judge reversed the conviction because [he] lied in closing argument. This man is not fit to hold office in Fairfax County.”

Unfortunately, citizens are not being informed of what is quietly happening on all aspects of criminal justice because all of the monied GOP interests agree with the false Soros premise about race and incarceration. Thus, rather than running endless soft-on-crime ads against the Left, which would appeal even to center-left voters disenchanted with Trump’s personality but who still want stable and safe suburbs, the host of CPAC joins with the Soros agenda. We now have a radicalized Democrat Party and a compromised Republican Party. Where does that leave the average citizen? (For more from the author of “Anti-Prison Anarchy Is Spreading: It’s Way Beyond ‘Soft on Crime’” please click HERE)

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NYC Caves on Gun Law to Avoid a Second Amendment Showdown at SCOTUS. Will It Work?

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When the Supreme Court comes back to work in the fall, it’s currently scheduled to take up its first big gun rights case in a while, but not if the city of New York has its way.

The question to be decided in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. [NYSRPA] v. City of New York, New York — which the Supreme Court agreed in January to take up — is whether New York City’s laws about transporting a licensed, unloaded, and locked firearm to a residence or shooting range outside the five boroughs is consistent with the Second Amendment.

Now, however, New York City claims that because it finally eased the restrictions on transporting firearms for the city’s licensed gun owners, there’s no longer a controversy that requires the Supreme Court’s review of the matter.

“Independently and together, the new statute and regulation give petitioners everything they have sought in this lawsuit,” the city’s legal team argued in a court document in July.

“Time and again, therefore, this Court has ordered cases dismissed … where intervening developments seemingly mooted a case but plaintiffs nonetheless implored the Court to decide it,” the city added. “Put another way, [the Supreme Court] may not ‘rule on a plaintiff’s entitlement to relief’ simply because he ‘won’t take “yes” for an answer,’” the city suggested, citing a previous opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Lawyers for the NYSRPA responded to the city’s position with a letter saying that the case should still go before the Supreme Court.

“Whatever the merits of respondents’ mootness arguments, there is no reason to validate respondents’ efforts to deviate from the ordinary procedures for bringing those arguments before this Court,” the letter says.

The Supreme Court, according to the Washington Post, has told both parties involved to continue filing briefs on the matter and that the court will decide before the October session begins whether to hear the case or not.

The city’s policy reversal came after the city successfully defended the regulations in both federal district and appeals court, the Post pointed out, suggesting that the city doesn’t think it has much of a chance of success in front of the current court, with Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

If the court still decides to press ahead and hear the case despite New York City’s mootness claims, a final decision would come out well before the 2020 general election and possibly during primary season. (For more from the author of “NYC Caves on Gun Law to Avoid a Second Amendment Showdown at SCOTUS. Will It Work?” please click HERE)

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New York Ends Religious Exemptions for Vaccine Mandates

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On Thursday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed a bill into law that will immediately end religious exemptions for vaccine mandates.

Cuomo said he signed the bill in order to protect the public in the midst of one of the worst measles outbreak in decades, which he categorized as a “public health crisis,” reported CBS New York.

The outbreak first sparked in October, the outlet noted, and spread in parts of New York City, particularly among Orthodox Jewish communities.

“Rockland County declared a countywide State of Emergency relating to the ongoing measles outbreak,” reported NBC in March. “Effective at the stroke of midnight, Wednesday, anyone who is under 18 years of age and unvaccinated against the measles will be barred from public places until this declaration expires in 30 days or until they receive the MMR vaccination.”

With the passing of the law, parents will be forced to vaccinate their children before they can attend school in the state, and religious exemptions won’t get them out of it. Parents and teens have morally objected to certain vaccines based upon ties to abortion. Now, the only acceptable exemptions from the mandate will be for medical reasons, such as a child’s weakened immune system. (Read more from “New York Ends Religious Exemptions for Vaccine Mandates” HERE)

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The Anti-Religious Crusade Continues: Chick-Fil-A Banned From ANOTHER Airport

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Yesterday it was announced that Chick-fil-A would be coming to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, located in Cheektowaga, N.Y. Chick-fil-A has only recently started opening locations in Western New York, where I live, and the prospect of them coming to BNIA, an airport I have flown out of many times, was a brilliant move. Many restaurants in the food court have been obviously underwhelming travelers. Chick-fil-A, with their popularity and growth, would be a perfect addition to the airport. . .

Likely due in part to his intervention, less than a day after the announcement, the decision to bring Chick-fil-A to the airport was reversed by the NFTA.

Assemblyman Ryan released the following statement following the NFTA’s reversal:

“Earlier today I spoke with the vendor of the Buffalo Airport food court project, and they informed me they will not be opening a Chick-fil-A as a part of their airport project. A publicly financed facility like the Buffalo Niagara International Airport is not the appropriate venue for a Chick-fil-A restaurant. I applaud the decision that has been made to remove Chick-fil-A from the plans for this project.

We hope in the future the NFTA will make every effort to contract with businesses that adhere to anti-discriminatory policies, and we’re confident another vendor who better represents the values of the Western New York community will replace Chick-fil-A as a part of this project in the very near future.”

(Read more from “The Anti-Religious Crusade Continues: Chick-Fil-A Banned From ANOTHER Airport” HERE)

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Ocasio-Cortez Joins De Blasio in Call to Punish Asian Students

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The battle over the admissions standards at New York City’s elite public high schools has heated up again. After having failed to change the standards last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio is back at it, this time with some backup from celebrity freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As usual, their impassioned pleas about the lack of black and Hispanic students completely ignores that it is Asian, not white, students who would bear the brunt of the proposed changes.

At issue is the fact that these hyper-competitive high schools consider only a test score in deciding admissions. This meritocracy has created some of the best high schools in the world. They would have you believe that wealthy white parents game the system by hiring expensive tutors, but while they might, it’s not working. In fact, wealthy white kids are not dominating this process at all. . .

Her math is correct, but what she fails to mention is that while Asian students make up only 15 percent of all students in New York, they are a whopping 74 percent of students at Stuyvesant, the school she references. She claims this is inequity and represents a racial wealth gap. But exactly what systems does she believe that New York City has in place that can explain the extraordinary achievements of Asian students? Are Asians getting better schools? More resources? In what way are Asians the beneficiaries of a racial wealth gap? . . .

The biggest problem with Ocasio-Cortez and de Blasio’s position is not that it is unfair to high-achieving Asian students (it is), but that changing the admission process at elite high schools does absolutely nothing to solve the underlying problem. The real problem is that black and Latino kids are not currently achieving in ways we historically know they are capable of.

Changing the rules at Stuyvesant may result in 30 or 40 black students instead of 7, a big increase. Those students may do well, and the mostly Asian students they would displace may also do well in non-elite schools. But so what? This is a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. De Blasio and Ocasio-Cortez will congratulate themselves for diversifying Stuy, but the unfathomable failures we see in educating black and brown kids in New York City will be left unchanged. (Read more from “Ocasio-Cortez Joins De Blasio in Call to Punish Asian Students” HERE)

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White House Blames New York’s Sanctuary City Stance After Illegal Alien Bites ICE Officer’s Finger Off

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The White House condemned New York City’s sanctuary stance after an illegal immigrant bit off an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent’s finger.

“New York’s dangerous ‘sanctuary’ policies are directly responsible for the egregious and violent harm suffered by this courageous ICE officer,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told The Daily Caller Wednesday.

On Mar. 14, court papers revealed that Cristopher Santos Felix was charged with assault. The New York Post reported that Felix entered the U.S. in June 2015 on a visitor’s visa. Officers went to his home 11 days prior to arrest him for staying in the U.S., “’longer than his legal authorization permitted.’” The officers took off the handcuffs, allowing Felix to put on some clothing.

Felix, “became combative,” struggling with the officers in his bedroom. When an officer tried to restrain him, the suspect bit his ring finger off. . .

“Communities are safer when law enforcement works together, yet sanctuary city policies continue to hinder the coordination needed to keep dangerous criminals off our streets,” the spokeswoman said. “The officer’s injury was the direct, foreseeable and entirely avoidable result of New York’s criminal alien sanctuary policies. Proponents of sanctuary policies claim they make communities safer, but in many cases they are causing more harm than good.” (Read more from “White House Blames New York’s Sanctuary City Stance After Illegal Immigrant Bites ICE Officer’s Finger Off” HERE)

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Man Charged With Killing Pregnant Woman Won’t Be Charged With Abortion Due to New York’s New Law

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New York’s new law allowing late-term abortion has resulted in the dropping of abortion charges against a man arrested for murdering his pregnant girlfriend.

Jennifer Irigoyen was a 35-year-old real estate broker, a classical pianist, a professional Latin ballroom dancer, a certified Spinning instructor, and a licensed Zumba instructor. She was the mother of a 12-year-old boy from a previous relationship and five months pregnant at the time of her death.

This amazing woman’s life — and the life of her unborn child — was cut short after they were both stabbed to death in her Queens apartment building, according to Gothamist. Surveillance video from the apartment building showed Irigoyen being murdered, according to the superintendent, who told the New York Post that the woman screamed, “He’s got a knife! He’s going to kill the baby!”

Irigoyen’s boyfriend, 48-year-old Anthony Hobson, turned himself in to the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood, New York, and was arrested for the murder. He was initially charged “with murder, tampering with physical evidence, abortion, and criminal possession of a weapon,” according to Gothamist, but the “abortion” charge was later dropped.

The Post reports that the abortion charge was dropped because of a new state law that allows abortion up to the minute of birth. Even though Irigoyen wanted her baby, it was not considered a life under the new law. A spokesperson for the District Attorney told the Post the abortion charge “was repealed by the Legislature, and this is the law as it exists today.” (Read more from “Man Charged With Killing Pregnant Woman Won’t Be Charged With Abortion Due to New York’s New Law” HERE)

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Democrat Proposes Abortion Bill More Disgusting Than New York’s

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The furor over Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inhumane pro-abortion bill in New York, which allows abortion up to 24 weeks, has yet to subside. But on the heels of his signature, a lawmaker in the state of Virginia has introduced an even more radical piece of legislation. Virginia House of Delegates member Kathy Tran (D-Fairfax) has offered up a bill would allow a mother to get an abortion at the very end of her third trimester. Subcommittee Chair Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) had to hear it to believe it.

In the video, Gilbert asks Tran up until what point physicians be allowed to perform an abortion. She was very candid.

“Through the third trimester,” she said. “The third trimester goes all the way up to 40 weeks.” . . .

Pro-lifers are shocked that the extreme is suddenly becoming the new normal.

(Read more from “Democrat Proposes Abortion Bill More Disgusting Than New York’s” HERE)

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WATCH: Here’s What a Late-Term Abortion Procedure Actually Looks Like. It’s Horrifying.

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This week, New York Senate Democrats passed the euphemistically-named Reproductive Health Act, legislation which allows abortion up to the moment of birth, loosens restrictions on who performs them, and removes the fatal procedure from the state’s criminal code.

The truth is, the reality of abortion is so gruesome that abortion activists rely heavily on euphemism and secrecy. For example, it’s been shown time and again that self-described “pro-choice” folks change their mind about abortion after they’re shown what the fatal procedure actually entails — and, no, it’s not remotely comparable to a “dentist appointment,” as we are commonly told by left-wing activists.

So how exactly is a late-term abortion carried out? What will it look like when abortionists in New York state kill the unborn from 25 weeks to birth? In short: infanticide.

Dr. Anthony Levatino, a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist who performed over 1,200 abortions before he became pro-life, explains the horrifying procedure in a video for pro-life organization Live Action.

“At this point, the baby is almost fully developed and viable, meaning he or she could survive outside the womb if the mother were to go into labor prematurely. Because the baby is so large and developed, the procedure takes three or four days to complete,” says Levatino (video below).

(Read more from “WATCH: Here’s What a Late-Term Abortion Procedure Actually Looks Like. It’s Horrifying.” HERE)

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