NYPD to get new tools for the terror war?

As in the war to terrorize the people of New York.

http://wcbstv.com/…

A new report on the NYPD’s firearms training done in the wake of the Sean Bell shooting was drawing fire Monday night.

The report recommends arming the entire department with a controversial weapon.

Police firearms training came under heavy criticism in the aftermath of the Bell shooting when 50 shots were fired at Bell and his friends.

On Monday, a new report had a surprising recommendation to prevent such multi-shot incidents.

The outcomes might have been different if the officers had less than lethal devices other than pepper spray,” said Dr. Bernard Rostker of the Rand Corporation.

The Rand Corp. is a non-profit organization that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis. Rand offers its insight to companies and civil services in business, education, health, law and science, according to its official Web site.

Rand experts recommend that the NYPD issue Taser guns to more of its patrol officers so they can stun victims instead of shooting them.

“Tasers reduce injuries to citizens, reduce injuries to police officers and reduce the use of firearms,” Rostker said.

Given that in the Bell murder the men were inside a car the tasers would have been completely useless. Also considering the amount of lead that flew that night it seems obvious to me that the cops were past the point mentally where tasers would have been an option. I think it’s been shown time and time again that the belief that tasers are harmless mixed with police arrogance and aggression leads to misuse and abuse of the tool. Instead of wasting $12m+ on tasers plus the cost of training why not train the officers not to be so rash. How about teach them to shoot to incapacitate instead of kill?

Perhaps we have some friends in the videogame industry?

Ron Paul wins! and so does the human race

As the Democratic presidential race descends to new depths of personal negativity and John McCain disintegrates,  the cause of human liberty has emerged as the clear winner in the 2008 presidential race.

 

A little over a year ago few people had ever heard of Ron Paul, there were no Ron Paul meet up groups.  Rudy Giuliani was a shoo-in to win the Republican nomination and probably the presidency.  The Republican Party was firmly in the hands of the big government neo-cons and the Libertarian party was as usual pondering its naval.

Cultural change has to happen before political change and as Avery Knapp, leader of New York City’s Ron Paul meet-up puts it “ collectivism won the 20^th century”. 

What a difference a year makes!  Today pretty much everyone, whether they like him or not, knows who Ron Paul is. Twenty-somethings debate non-interventionist foreign policy, the gold standard and elimination of the Fed and the IRS.  By the way they don’t debate “whether” on these issues, they debate “how”.

Of course that debate hasn’t made it through the thick skulls of the vast majority of major party candidates yet or even a majority of voters.  But no one is dismissing the Ron Paul Revolution anymore either. 

Let’s look at a few areas where the Ron Paul Revolution won resounding victories. The internet is considered by many to be the campaign tool of the future and the Ron Paul Revolution buries the competition with 106,000 meet-up group members, in over 1500 meetups.  Mike Huckabee is a distant second with 19,000 members and 496 groups.  But let’s look at what those meetups are doing.  Ron Paul meetups are 10 times more active than Huckabee’s and account for about 90% of all presidential meetup activities.

Candidate            Members         Groups            meetup events

Ron Paul                 106,000          1500            37,000

Mike Huckabee        19,000            496               3,600

Barak Obama             7,000            105               1,000

Hillary Clinton             1,800              36                  334

John McCain                   36                1                      0

Source: http://www.meetup.com/topics/polact/cand/pres/

How about fund-raising?  Of course the party of big money, the Democrats, have their fangs much deeper into corporate America. Clinton and Obama have each raised about $140 million primarily from people connected to financial institutions and law firms.  McCain gets his money from people in similar industries and firms but he has only raised about $50 million.

Compared to the big money crowd Ron Paul, having raised about $32 million, might not look like much.  But as Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney know, money can’t always by you love.   And when an unknown guy who ”had no chance” raises nearly as much as the winner of the Republican nomination you have to ask yourself where it all came from.  It turns out that the guy who wants to bring the troops home from everywhere, and leave health care to the free market gets much of his money from people in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Health Care. 

It’s also worth mentioning that “budget-balancer” John McCain has about  $5.2 million cash on hand and about $5.5 million in debt.  You do the math.  Is that how he’d run the country?   In contrast “crazy” Ron Paul has about $6 million cash on hand and 0 debt.  What? Zero debt?  Excuse me – I’ll have what he’s having.

Sources: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/moneyweb.asp?cycle=2008

What’s wrong with this picture? 

The democrats are busy spewing venom.

The big government Republican nominee has more debt than money and his army consists of a professional campaign staff.  The sitting Republican President is a world-class bozo with record low approval ratings and the neo-cons are in disarray.

On the other hand, the Ron Paul Revolution is flush with cash and bursting with young, energized, committed volunteers who are busy right now expanding their grass-roots decentralized, free market network.  They are preparing for phase 2:  running Freedom Movement candidates, raising awareness and educating the public as to why Human Liberty works better for everyone, and taking action to change outcomes in DC, State Houses and City Halls.

As Arlo Guthrie said if “50 people a day do it they call it a movement.”  This one goes by a few names, the Freedom Movement or perhaps the Second American Revolution and it’s happening now, right before your eyes.  Everyone doesn’t agree on everything.  That’s the beauty of the free market.  But we share a belief in Human Liberty as the best way to improve the human condition.

The majority of the Ron Paul army is Republican or “libertarian-republican” but there is a significant minority of  “libertarian-democrats” as well.   It also includes some members of the Conservative Party and Constitution Party.  We also share critical principles with social liberals.

Major party approval ratings dwindle and the Ron Paul army has declared it’s intention to save the Republican Party, to turn it away from Bush, neo-cons, big spending and war and back to principles of freedom and small government. Meanwhile, Libertarian Party membership is up 25%.    Freedom Movement candidates are starting to build their campaign teams with veterans of the Ron Paul primaries.

People are talking about non-intervention, sound money, free markets and all the other thinsg that go along with Human Liberty.

What’s wrong with this picture? 

Nothing is wrong with it.

Ron Paul wins, and so does the human race.

Naked Capitalism

By Ignacio Gutiérrez
February 18, 2008

Only in America can one earn a fortune for believing in themselves and their dream, be it standing in nothing but underwear briefs, cowboy boots and hat playing guitar in Times Square even through unforgiving weather for ten years and counting such as NYC’s own Naked Cowboy, Robert Burck.

“Everybody likes this story. It’s the American dream versus the sold-out America” says Burck. Hopefully he’ll win the $6 million dollar lawsuit filed against Mars Inc., the makers of M&M’s. They used his trademarked alter-ego in an ad displaying a blue M&M character in his indisputable likeness. Considering the amount of money, time and focus-group testing behind these multi-million dollar campaigns, it’s a wonder why no one from Mars Inc. or Chute Gerdeman, the advertising agency, bothered to contact Burck for permission to parody his character.

And it’s thanks to such short-sighted decisions made by top CEO’s and corporate management in boardrooms across the country that compel people to mistrust the very impetus behind the American dream – capitalism. Ask most people to define it, and you’ll hear some wildly disparate and inaccurate answers.

“It’s the art of making money”. “It’s every man for himself.” “It’s all about greed dude! Like, in that movie Wallstreet…”“It’s nothing but corporate corruption, and evil, and…and …global warming!!”

But its actual meaning is much less sinister. It’s simply an economic system that allows individuals the right to own property and create goods and services from that property in order to sell them for a profit within a free market. How it has become synonymous with consumerism, materialism, imperialism, fascism, corporate cronyism, and a multitude of other “isms” is one of the 20th and 21st centuries greatest misconceptions.

Considering our current economic woes, it’s imperative more people understand its infinite possibilities, as opposed to moralizing that it brings us these problems to begin with. The right to own, but most importantly, the right to create, has been the catalyst for the most effective , efficient and productive ways of solving society’s problems. Until people realize these crucial rights belong to them as much as any corporation, we’ll continue misguiding ourselves to experiment with other systems such as socialism, collectivism, communism and let alone totalitarianism, all proven to fail time and again for the simple reason they undermine the most important “ism” of all, individualism.

One has to admire the gumption of true individuals such as Burck who’ve taken destiny into their own hands, created their own jobs, and refused to depend on or demand government handouts that purport a supposed “common good”. He represents the cowboy in all of us, one whose nakedness is worth singing about.

New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways

http://www.nytimes.com/…

In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.

Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Officials said the operation would begin in March.

Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will come from a pool of up to $30 million taken from $153.2 million in new federal transit grants to the state.

Each team in the operation will comprise a bomb-sniffing dog and six officers: a dog handler and a sergeant and four officers from the Emergency Service Unit who will be outfitted in heavy, bullet-resistant vests and Kevlar helmets and will carry automatic weapons, either an M-4 rifle or an MP5 submachine gun.

Wasted money on the illusion of safety and enhancement of the police state.

New York City Councilman looking to secede

New York Sun:

Emboldened by Mayor Bloomberg’s testimony in Albany this week that the city’s taxpayers pay the state $11 billion a year more than they get back, a City Council member is offering legislation that would begin the process of having New York City secede from New York State.

Peter Vallone Jr., a Democrat who represents Queens, is pushing the idea, and the Council plans to hold a hearing on the possibility of making New York City the 51st state.

“I think secession’s time has definitely come again,” Mr. Vallone, who spearheaded a similar push in 2003, told The New York Sun yesterday. “If not secession, somebody please tell me what other options we have if the state is going to continue to take billions from us and give us back pennies. Should we raise taxes some more? Should we cut services some more? Or should we consider seriously going out on our own?”

This is pretty unlikely. Not only would New York state be a bit crazy to let them go but Article 4 Section 3 Clause 1 doesn’t allow it without Congress’ approval:

New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state, nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress.

However, I fully support their plan. I’m a Free State Project member and some of us feel that if things continue getting worse nationally we will start supporting a New Hampshire secession from the union. That is also unlikely but given NH has the right to revolution in its constitution at least it has some legal legitimacy.

It does seem a bit funny to me that NYC is generally known to be fairly liberal place. A whole lot of socialists here. So you’d think that their wealth being redistributed to the rest of the state wouldn’t be a problem.

The Myth of Giuliani the Manager

Campaign myth #4762: Rudy Giuliani is a good manger

Fact: Giuliani is a poor fiscal manager

- Today’s Daily News headline story: “Poor Rudy - Cash crunch leaves Giuliani campaign aids without pay”.  Ok so he’s putting his remaining $7 million into Florida and a few aids “volunteered” to go without pay.  What will Rudy do with the Federal deficit the next President is bound to inherit from our current ”conservative” administration?   By the way Rudy’s personal net worth is estimated by some to be between $30 and $60 million.

-While Rudy deserves some credit for controlling spending in his first term,  he left poor Mike Bloomberg with a $6 billion deficit. By the way - this wasn’t only due to 9/11, remember the economy was headed south long before 9/11 and City revenues along with it.  Tax-Hike-Mike’s dismal handling of the deficit will be the subject of another post on this blog.

Fact: Giuliani doesn’t set priorities well.

-In Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, Wayne Barrett goes on for chapters about Rudy’s turf wars with the Port Authority, his failure to prepare NYC for terrorist attack even after the first World Trade Center bombing, his inability to cut through bureaucracy to acquire new radios for the Fire Department… the list goes on.

-Meanwhile Rudy picked fights with anyone who couldn’t defend themselves such as cab drivers, street vendors, night clubs, African hair braiders….

Fact: Giuliani can’t manage his team

In Grand Illusion, Barrett also describes how Rudy failed to resolve the turf wars between the Police, Fire Department and Emergency Management which to a great degree led to many of the problems encountered on 9/11.

 This list just scratches the surface.  Take a look at what Jacob Weisberg said in this Slate post.

“This comparison doesn’t make the case for Bloomberg as president so much as it underscores what a scary place a Giuliani White House could be. President Rudy would give powerful speeches denouncing terrorism while assuming extraordinary wartime powers. He’d reject compromise with his antagonists and ignore the nuts and bolts of running a government. After a few years, he’d be on nonspeaking terms with much of his Cabinet, never mind his fellow world leaders. By the time he got done, he might make us appreciate George W. Bush.”

Fortunately Rudy’s chance seem to be dropping fast.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell who would be worse given the choice of Rudy and John McCain.

Of course that isn’t the only choice.  There is still a libertarian choice in the New York primary:  Ron Paul.

Eminent Domain: Just face it Bruce Ratner is more important than you are

And the City’s politicians and bureaucrats just like him better.  And why shouldn’t they - he’s providing tax revenue that helps pay for their salaries and their pensions. Of course so does your tax money - but you have no choice and Bruce Ratner does.  Don’t like it? Who cares?  You are just an ordinary citizen.  Bruce has friend’s in the government.

Eminent Domain is no longer about replacing slums with hospitals (if it ever was). Admit it - It’ s now just the latest trick politicians use to feed their unquenchable thirst for more money and more power over every aspect of your life. 

Michael White has a great piece “Columbia Pulls a Kelo”in yesterday’s New York Sun (online version) that points out how there is money to be made in the business of seizing what you thought was your property.

A few actually seem to believe the process is moral or productive. Mayor Bloomberg once commented that potential federal limits on eminent domain would limit NYC’s ability to control it’s own future.  Our mayor seemed to miss the point that eminent domain rather limits property owner’s ability to control their futures.   Our mayor is famous for thinking he knows best how we all should live.
 
But even good soldiers in the war against personal freedom seem to admit that the process by which government seizes people’s homes and businesses is flawed at best.  In August, Supreme Court Justice Stevens lamented his Kelo position saying that “the free play of market forces is more likely to produce acceptable results in the long run than the best-intentioned plans of public officials.”   DUH!  Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff  - the guy that said the free market and the interests of the city were incompatible -  has now admitted that he never should have agreed to let Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project ignore the City’s ULURP process.   OOPS - None Killed.  A few people lost their homes but who’s counting? We have to assume the government knows best right?  If they don’t like the law - they can just get the Supreme Court to “clarify” it or ignore it altogether.
 
It almost looks as if they aren’t even trying to hide it anymore.  They will take your home or your business - because they can.  Big government costs big money.  Somebody has to sacrifice.  And you can bet it won’t be Bruce Ratner, or the New York Times, or Columbia or Michael Bloomberg or Dan Doctoroff.

Blimp in New York on Saturday… Maybe

The Ron Paul Blimp is “very tentatively” scheduled to fly over the New York City area on Saturday. Weather and $$$ are the big variables.

 

New York Is Ron Paul Country

So sayeth New York Magazine.