Free Republic

A Bronx House Democrat ripped a socialist group as “despicable,” after it gave a half-hearted apology for promoting a virulent pro-Palestinian rally in Manhattan last weekend. Rep. Ritchie Torres noted that the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter’s delayed mea culpa Tuesday for the rally couldn’t “even be bothered to mention, much less condemn, Hamas and its mass murder of Jews,” in a Wednesday X post. “It refers vaguely to ‘loved ones in harm’s way.’ It projects moral outrage only when blaming Israel as the ‘root cause’ of the violence,” Torres said of the statement. “The DSA, despite...

According to the Bronx Historical Society, the first settlement is in modern day "Mott Haven" by East 138th street. The area was initially a part of Westchester county. The annex onto NYC was spurred by regular railroad service between the Bronx and Manhattan that started in 1841. Jonas Bronck's original purchase was all farmland, and the area stayed that way until it became a part of New York City in 1895. People would always say they were "going to the Broncks'," so the name stuck.For more on the Bronck family, check out Artzar's interview with a Bronck's descendant, writer William...

The unhinged Manhattan college professor who threatened to “chop” a Post reporter copped a wrist-slap plea deal in Bronx court on Monday. Shellyne Rodriguez, 46, will dodge jail time and won’t even have a criminal record if she makes it through as little as six months in therapy under the terms of her sweetheart deal with Bronx prosecutors. Rodriguez – who was axed from her Hunter College gig hours after the caught-on-video May 23 assault on reporter Reuven Fenton – pleaded guilty to a count of menacing, a misdemeanor, and to a harassment violation. Her record will be wiped clean...

The Roosevelt Hotel is this way, Mr President. President Biden gave a Bronx cheer to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the rest of the Big Apple while in town for the UN General Assembly this week — failing to set up a meeting with Hizzoner as the debilitating migrant crisis continues to cripple Gotham. The country’s commander in chief has instead spent much of his time attending multiple campaign receptions or holed up at the United Nations Headquarters in Midtown Manhattan – just four blocks from the city’s overrun migrant intake site at the once-iconic Roosevelt. Adams —...

A Bronx car-theft crew behind a major $3 million crime ring was busted after members were caught flashing wads of cash and stolen vehicles on social media, authorities said. Six members of the brazen crew were caught targeting car dealerships, cell phone stores and ATM businesses amid a soaring grand larceny auto rate in New York City, according to Attorney General Letitia James. They pleaded guilty to more than 200 thefts last week and all six were sent to prison, prosecutors said on Friday. In total, the thieves stole a staggering $3 million worth of goods, including at least 54...

A gun violence prevention advocate has been arrested in a major drug and guns bust after being snared in a two-year investigation dubbed 'Operation in Plain Sight'. Michael Rodriguez, 49, was arrested in his home in Yonkers, New York on July 26 after cops seized a cache of illegal contraband including over a kilo of cocaine, three pistols and a shotgun. The activist was also found with $165,000 in cash and $50,000 in jewelry, and is accused of orchestrating a major trafficking ring all while acting as executive director of Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence. Rodriguez was among 15 people...

Investigators found that Bronx anti-gun violence activist Michael Rodriguez was hiding “in plain sight” when they seized illegal guns and drugs from his Yonkers apartment. Orange County New York law enforcement officials announced the arrests of 15 people for an alleged interstate drug trafficking conspiracy on Tuesday. Said to be the main supplier of the drug network was 48-year-old Michael Rodriguez — a Yonkers resident and the director of the nonprofit Good Shepherd Services’ program Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, known as B.R.A.G. The Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said that Rodriguez could now face 12.5-25 years on conspiracy...

"This July 4th, we must remember that we stand on stolen land toiled by enslaved Africans and recommit ourselves to the fight for freedom, equality, & justice so that these ideals are accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few. We are not free until everyone is truly free."

Four shoplifters at a Bronx gas station fled empty-handed in a BMW after beating up two employees who confronted them, leaving one of the workers hospitalized, police said Monday. The wild melee broke out about 11:15 a.m. Thursday at a BP service station shop on Jerome Ave. near Risse St., cops said. The would-be thieves showed up and started taking items but were confronted by a 33-year-old worker, police said. One of the crooks threw a bottle at him and he was also shoved. When his 49-year-old co-worker stepped in, he was shoved and threatened with a knife while the...

According to a Department of Justice press release, 45-year-old Zottola hired 37-year-old hitman Himen Ross, who also received a life sentence, to kill both his father and brother in an effort to keep the family’s two dozen Bronx multi-family rental and commercial properties valued at $45 million. On Oct. 4, 2018, known New York City mobster Sylvester was gunned down in what law enforcement described as a mafia-style assassination at a Bronx McDonald’s drive-thru while ordering a cup of coffee. A reputed associate of New York’s Bonanno crime family, Sylvester was waiting in his vehicle to pick up his order...

Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, were both arrested on Monday morning at their addresses in New York. They have been charged with conspiring to act as agents for the Chinese government, and are expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn. Prosecutors say Jianwang tried to persuade a Chinese fugitive to return home, and continually 'harassed and threatened' the individual in 2018. In 2022 China's government asked Jianwang to locate a pro-democracy Chinese activist living in California. The pair admitted to the FBI that they deleted their communications with a Chinese government official...

A soft-on-crime Bronx judge ripped a grieving mom in court before cutting her teen son’s accused killer free without bail, court records obtained by The Post show. Bronx Criminal Court Judge Naita Semaj on Wednesday refused to delay the arraignment of ex-con Tyresse Minter for just a few minutes so that the heartbroken mom of teen victim Corde Scott could face the accused killer, according to court transcripts. “What does that have to do with what we’re doing here?” Semaj snapped at Bronx prosecutor Christopher Conway when he asked if the judge could wait for mom Karen Glenn to arrive.

Williams' previous sentence was for three years and six months for the first-degree attempted rape of a teenager, and he served three years of that sentence before being released in 2020 on parole. On Saturday, Dashawn Williams, a registered sex offender who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 2015, was arrested in a Bronx, New York hotel for two unrelated, recent rapes he had allegedly committed. The New York Post reports that Williams' previous sentence was for three years and six months for the first-degree attempted rape of the child, and he served three years of...

The Bronx priest whose brother was oddball Genovese crime-family boss Vincent “The Chin’’ Gigante has died at age 90. The Rev. Louis Gigante, who once headed up the South East Bronx Community Organization and served as a city councilman in the 1970s, was known for his vociferous defense of his Mafioso brother. Louis Gigante, who died last week, was described by The Post in 1975 as a “priest who plays power politics instead of bingo.” At the time, he told The Post his old-school party-machine politics were “a question of power. “People have to eat,” Louis said. Born the youngest...

A group of 30 left-wing legislators on Tuesday withdrew a letter sent a day earlier calling on President Biden to negotiate directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his war on Ukraine — after several signatories running for re-election objected to its release nearly four months after it was written.The Congressional Progress Caucus hereby withdraws its recent letter to the White House regarding Ukraine,” the group’s chairwoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote in a statement Tuesday. “The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting.” Though she blamed unnamed employees for the letter’s...

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is planning to send border crossers and illegal aliens, arriving on migrant buses from Texas, to a relatively secluded island off the Bronx neighborhood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skCqTg5TY50

A man accused of punching out a stranger on a Bronx street was taken back into custody on Friday for breaking the terms of his lifetime parole at Gov. Kathy Hochul's nudge after he was previously released without bail. Bui Van Phu, 55, was arrested after state officials contacted the Bronx District Attorney's Office to "talk about the actual charges that were filed" and "make sure that our laws are being properly executed," Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters Friday, the New York Post reported. "I took action in my own hands," Hochul said during an unrelated news conference on Long...

A man released without bail after allegedly fracturing another man’s skull in New York City has been taken back into custody, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Friday. Van Phu Bui, a 55-year-old convicted sex offender, was first arrested on Wednesday in connection with the unprovoked attack outside a Fordham Heights restaurant in the Bronx before 11 p.m. on Aug. 12. He was re-arrested on a parole violation on Friday. Surveillance video shows a man approaching 52-year-old Jesus Cortes from behind and sucker punching him in the head. He says something to onlookers before apparently leaving the scene. Cortes, a Mexican...

A convicted sex offender who allegedly cold-cocked a man on a Bronx street — leaving him in a coma with brain injuries — was freed without bail Thursday after getting his attempted-murder charges reduced in the unprovoked attack. Bui Van Phu, 55, was instead charged by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office with assault and harassment, both misdemeanors, for the brutal knockout punch last Friday that left 52-year-old Jesus Cortes unconscious on the street ... The NYPD had charged Phu with attempted murder after arresting him Wednesday for the attack that appeared to have come out of the blue. .... Phu...