Another Thing Banned in NYC – Early Morning Jogs in Central Park

Sometimes I look at how NYC has been transformed in recent years and I just shake my head. It has become so similar to one of those elite communities in Huxley’s Brave New World. Just a haven for cry baby bailed out bankers running amok, tossing their Fed provided fiat all over the place. As I have said before, the city of my birth has become Disney Land for Wall Street, with the NYPD basically a private enforcement arm of JP Morgan and the TBTF banks.

To scared Manhattanites everywhere, fear not. The departure of Mayor Bloomberg has apparently done nothing to stop the city’s evolution into full blown nanny-state.

The latest thing New Yorkers can’t do is jog in Central Park early in the morning. Just to keep you peasants safe…

From the Daily News:

A city cop issued summonses to Peter Shankman and a friend for the crime of jogging in Central Park at 4:30 a.m. The park is closed between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. — even to fitness freaks.

“It’s such a joke, but I’m like, seriously?” Shankman, 41, told the Daily News on Saturday.

“I was expecting to see ‘Candid Camera!’ You’re writing me a summons for exercising?”

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Video of the Day: Veterans Arrested at Vietnam Memorial in NYC

The following is a powerful, touching and very well done video that includes veterans of various wars, ranging from World War II to Vietnam as well as some of our recent imperial adventures. It is entirely clear that this is no stunt, but rather a heartfelt and genuine expression of grief and disillusionment from Americans … Read more

NYPD States you are Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Thanks to a crazed overemphasis on financial parasitism as it’s number one economic export, NYC has already lost much of its heart and soul and no longer resembles the city I once knew and loved.  Unfortunately, this is still not enough for the authoritarians running the city, led by the increasingly insane oligarch Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  The spiritual death of NYC is one of many reasons I decided to leave it for Colorado in late 2010, an emotional move I described in my post:  The Biggest Trade of My Life.

The most recent exploiter of the Boston tragedy is a Sergeant Ed Mullins of the NYPD who stated:

Using a zero tolerance approach to track domestic terrorists online is the only reasonable way to analyze online threats these days, especially after the Boston Marathon bombing and news that the suspects had subsequently planned to target Times Square in Manhattan, Mullins says. The way law enforcement agencies approach online activity that appears sinister is this: “If you’re not a terrorist, if you’re not a threat, prove it,” he says.

Wait, what was that?  I’m pretty sure the most basic tenet of our rule of law is you are assumed innocent until proven guilty.  Apparently not in New York City.  Tim Cushing at Techdirt does a great job reporting on this frightening statement.  He writes:

“Zero tolerance” is never “reasonable.” It never has been and it never will be. In fact, it’s the polar opposite. Zero tolerance policies simply absolve the enforcers of any responsibility for the outcome and grant them the privilege of ignoring mitigating factors. It allows them to bypass applying any sort of critical thinking skills (the “reason” part of “reasonable”) and view every infractions as nothing more than a binary IF THEN equation. 

Believe it or not, Mullins is not done talking. What he says next doubles up on the “dangerous” and “stupid.  “This is the price you pay to live in free society right now. It’s just the way it is,” Mullins adds.

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Take that Bloomberg: Another Gun Manufacturer Refuses to Sell to the NYPD

This is actually a movement that has been going on for quite some time, and frankly I think it’s great.  The worst offenses are possible when a government or country’s military/technology advantage becomes too great versus the people they are trying to subjugate.  Just ask the Native Americans.  I have made my opinions on gun control clear many, many times.  Apparently Serbu Firearms is the 137th company to halt sales to New York law enforcement under a boycott in response to the state’s passage of the SAFE Act.  Here’s what I learned today:

Serbu Firearms, a manufacturer of bolt-action and semi-automatic .50 caliber sniper rifles, is refusing to sell their wares to the NYPD. Their reason, of course, is that owing to unfair gun laws, they will not support law enforcement in New York.

Serbu is one of almost 150 companies that has officially refused to sell to law enforcement in New York following the passage of the SAFE Act, the controversial gun control package that has been met with scorn by gun owners across the nation.

Company founder Mark Serbu said, “Unfortunately, we have a policy of selling to state law enforcement agencies only what is allowed to be sold to private citizens in that state. Since the passage of the NY SAFE act, the BFG-50A is considered an assault weapon and as such is no longer available to private citizens in the state of New York. Therefore we have to respectfully decline to supply your department with BFG-50A rifles.”

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License Plate Readers to Track Every Car Entering New York City

Mayor Bloomberg’s little police state is coming along quite nicely, as the city plans license plate reader cameras “in every lane of traffic on all of the bridges and tunnels that serve as entrances and exits to Manhattan.”  Oh and they also want to add unmanned drones to keep an eye on the plebes. Don’t even think about trying to sneak a 64 oz soda into NYC, Big Brother Bloomie is watching you!

From the Huffington Post:

NEW YORK — The ring of steel is expanding. New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced a “major project” at a budget hearing on Tuesday to install license plate reader cameras “in every lane of traffic on all of the bridges and tunnels that serve as entrances and exits to Manhattan.”

Soon, no one will be able to drive onto or off of the island without potentially being recorded.

Kelly also said the department has mounted a high-resolution camera on an NYPD helicopter and given it “sophisticated down-link technology to provide real-time, high-quality video of incidents as they unfold.” The commissioner has expressed interest in flying unmanned drones to watch over demonstrations as well.

Kelly did not state the cost of the license plate reader program. But along with data from other major NYPD electronic surveillance initiatives — the Argus cameras mounted on streets in neighborhoods and the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative that integrates private cameras from banks and other institutions — the license plate data will be fed into a $30-40 million comprehensive dashboard produced by Microsoft called the Domain Awareness System.

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How in NYC the Homeless Pay $3,000/Month to Live in Tenements

I read a lot of news every day.  It’s become my life and my passion.  Rarely do I come across a story of greed and corruption so absurd that I can’t believe my own eyes as they scroll the page.  This is one of those stories.

This takes the concept of slumlord to an entirely new level.  As New York City struggles to find shelter for its increasingly large homeless population, some landlords are paying off their rent-stabilized tenants in order to overcharge the city on rentals for the homeless.  In some cases, the rent ends up being as high as $3,000 a month for a tiny room without a kitchen or a bathroom.  Yep, you read that correctly.  So next time you wonder why you are paying so much money for your little box in the sky, you can thank America’s growing slumlord industry.  Prepare your jaw to remain open for the next couple of minutes.

From the New York Times:

The city’s Department of Homeless Services pays many times the amount the rooms would usually rent for — spending over $3,000 a month for each threadbare room without a bathroom or kitchen — because of an acute shortage in shelters for homeless men and women.

Indeed, the amount the city pays — roughly half that amount goes to the landlord, while the other half pays for security and social services for homeless tenants — has encouraged Mr. Lapes to switch business models and become a major private operator of homeless shelters. He is by most measures the city’s largest and owns or leases about 20 of the 231 shelters citywide. Most of the other shelters and residences are run by the city or by nonprofit agencies, but his operation is profit-making, prompting criticism from advocates for the homeless and elected officials.

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Tourist Attacked with Hammer in NYC…Mayor Bloomberg Demands Hammer Control Legislation

A Spanish tourist from Barcelona sitting quietly with his wife on a bench in City Hall Park yesterday was bashed in the head with a hammer by a crazed Brooklyn man.  The Spanish tourist, Hugo Alejandro, suffered a fractured skull and is in stable condition. So here I sit, the simple serf that I am waiting … Read more