Free Republic

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis police union president spoke out against Black Lives Matter activists at a press conference following the second probe of a fatal police shooting Wednesday. WCCO reported Lt. Bob Kroll told reporters the group contributed to the “disruption and takeover” of a police precinct in the wake of the Jamar Clark protests. Clark, 24, was fatally shot by officers during his arrest Nov. 15 and his death sparked weeks of unrest. “I don’t see Black Lives Matter as a voice for the black community in Minneapolis,” he told reporters. “The disruption, the, you know, they firebombed the...

CHICAGO (AP) -- Violent crimes - from homicides and rapes to robberies - have been on the rise in many major U.S. cities, yet experts can't point to a single reason why and the jump isn't enough to suggest there's a trend. Still, it is stumping law enforcement officials, who are seeking a way to combat the problem.

"The Democrats have spent our state into the toilet for 30 years" — Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, speaking to reporters Tuesday in Springfield "Nice sound bite! And he's right about the plumbing situation. Without question, Illinois' financial condition is metaphorically akin to unpleasant substances found deep in the commode, and it's getting worse every day the nearly yearlong budget stalemate continues."

A man is accused of choking an 8-year-old girl in the bathroom of a Chicago restaurant. The incident occurred when the girl went into the bathroom in the South Loop Jason's Deli alone on May 7, Fox 32 reported. Police told the TV station that the girl's mother heard her scream and ran into the bathroom to find a man carrying her unconscious daughter into a stall. The man had choked the girl until she lost consciousness, Chicago police say. The man, later identified as Reese M. Hartstirn, was restrained by people in the restaurant until police could arrive. He...

Going Inside The Chicago Police Department’s ‘Strategic Subject List’ May 31, 2016 7:58 AM Audio CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago suffered through an especially bloody holiday weekend, with 69 people shot over the Memorial Day weekend, including six fatalities. Police said the vast majority of the victims were on a watchlist of sorts – what the department calls its “strategic subject list.” CBS 2’s Mai Martinez sat down with the Chicago Police Department’s top brass to talk about how the list works. The strategic subject list uses an algorithm to try to predict who is most likely to be involved in...

Understanding The Changes With the RNC Hispanic Media Director and Beyond… Posted on June 2, 2016 by sundance The Washington Post reports today that Ruth Guerra, RNC Hispanic Media Director, has resigned and will be replaced by Jeb Bush GOPe operative and campaign adviser Helen Aguirre Ferre.Leaving the RNC Ruth Guerra will now go to American Action Network an organization that aides enlistment of, and protection for, Republican House members. Helen Ferre will take up the Media Director position in DC and work with GOPe/RNC leadership including Paul Ryan.Understanding The Shift – To understand what’s going on, a person must first...

Contending that "so-called free speech is delusional," DePaul University sociology professor Dr. Shu-Ju Cheng has resigned her post in protest. The event that spurred Dr. Cheng's protest was the aborted speech of Milo Yiannopolis on the University's campus last week. Despite paying the University for security, student thugs were permitted to seize the stage and disrupt the speech. Cheng was outraged, not that thugs were allowed to drown out views with which they disagreed, but that Yiannopolis was invited "to air his anti-progressive message." "The whole concept of freedom of speech is an antiquated idea derived from dead white men,"...

Welcome To Chicago.Bring your own body armor. How many shootings were there in May? And to think this is the place where they plan to build the Obama Library?, You have to wonder if any construction worker would be having second thoughts now with so many stray bullets flying in all directions. Maybe they need to relocate the planned 200/300 sq.foot Obama library elsewhere? Maybe some place much more safer like Baltimore and Detroit?

The month's toll was fueled by a Memorial Day weekend in which six people were killed and 63 wounded, and a Mother's Day weekend when more than 50 people were shot, eight fatally. That brought the total number of people shot in Chicago so far this year to more than 1,500. At least 250 of them have died. [Snip] Chicago police say the violence has been stoked by gang conflicts and a proliferation of guns, mixed with weak gun law enforcement.

'Justice for Palestinians cannot be attained without the lifting of the occupation,' Cornel West was quoted as saying by 'The New York Times' on Wednesday. The Democrat party is facing a possible dilemma as supporters of the two candidates vying for the nomination gear up for a debate on what to do with its Mideast policy. The Israel issue is threatening to tear the party apart as Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who has mounted a considerable presidential campaign that has earned him greater clout within the left-wing camp, has tapped two individuals to a key committee who seek to...

How did Barack Obama emerge from Chicago in 2008 untainted by political corruption? His rise to power began at the 2004 Democratic Party Convention when Illinois State Senator Barack Obama was catapulted onto the national stage by the alluring force of his oratory. Four years later, in December 2008, Rod Blagojevich, the fourth governor in recent Illinois history to be imprisoned, was arrested by the F.B.I. culminating a long investigation led by the U.S. Attorney (USA) in Chicago. “Blago’s” arrest came just as he was about to meet with someone to negotiate a bribe in exchange for appointing then-U.S. Congressman...

The male ringleader who led a protest against Milo Yiannopoulos at this evening’s event in DePaul University has been identified as student and church minister Edward Ward. Ward stormed the stage during Yiannopoulos’ talk earlier today with a female accomplice, and threatened to punch Yiannopoulos while security stood back and refused to intervene. “The campus left constantly brands people like me as “dangerous,” a threat to student safety and wellbeing. Yet they’re the ones who are happy to threaten a gay British conservative with physical violence. Even more astonishing is the fact that Mr. Ward is apparently a Minister. I...

Colleges are supposed to be laboratories for ideas where debates are encouraged and a diverse set of viewpoints are welcome. Today, only liberalism is allowed and our students are not being educated, but indoctrinated It happened again this week at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Another conservative speaker was harassed by liberal activists. In this case, Breitbart contributor Milo Yiannopoulos was not allowed to finish his presentation to a group of students. He was bullied and threatened and his speech was literally shut down by a group of Black Lives Matter activists. In fact, one of the free speech haters...

A sociology professor at DePaul University announced her resignation in a public Facebook post Friday morning in which she denounced the idea that universities should be “neutral platforms for ‘equal’ exchanges of ideas” and said that “so-called free speech” is “delusional.” ...snip... Yiannopoulos responded to news of Cheng’s resignation by declaring victory. “Splendid. I told you I was winning,” he said. “One down, the rest of the American educational establishment to go.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/27/depaul-professor-offended-by-milo-resigns-calls-free-speech-delusional/#ixzz49sxwahGp

Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopolous wants DePaul University to refund his security costs after his event last night was shut down by anti-Trump activists supporting Black Lives Matter and Bernie Sanders... Before the event DePaul asked Milo him to pay $1,000 for security costs—only, he points out, to then fail to intervene when his tormentors stormed the stage... “What I’m surprised by is that the security, which I paid a thousand dollars for otherwise they threatened they would cancel [the event], refused to remove somebody from the stage who threatened to hit me. It’s so shocking,

On Monday, the Illinois legislature passed a bill lowering the amount the city of Chicago has to pay into police and firefighter pensions in 2016. To do this, the legislature overrode a veto from Gov. Bruce Rauner, confirming what we already knew: It's really, really, really, really hard to agree with Rauner about anything at this point. For no one would it be harder than Mayor Rahm Emanuel, once Rauner's buddy in vacationing and wine-sipping. Rahm became basically apoplectic when Rauner vetoed the pension bill on Friday, saying in a variety of press statements that Rauner's veto would trigger a...

Chicago police beefed up patrols for Memorial Day as more than 60 people were shot during the violent three-day holiday weekend. By Monday evening, at least 62 people had been shot across the city since Friday afternoon, including six who were killed. This surpasses the number of people shot during last year's Memorial Day weekend, though Chicago Police News Affairs said murders are down 50 percent compared to last Memorial Day.

Some police officers who have spoken to The Daily Beast blame arduous paperwork required for street stops—Chicago’s version of stop and frisk—for this year’s uptick in gun violence. Fewer street stops mean fewer guns being taken off the street. One officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity blamed this system for the shooting spike, saying his fellow cops want nothing to do with the spider’s web of legalities involved every time they stop someone they think might be a shooter... ...“Chicago is dead,” Simmons said staring blankly at the street, the lights, the cars, the scene. “I got a...

Here’s something that people on the ground in Chicago are all freaked out about (but of course the media won’t report on it accurately and the police seem to be pretending that it’s not happening): is there a serial killer shooting at cars on the highway into Chicago similar to DC’s Beltway Sniper from years ago? Whenever these shootings are reported on, the media seems to go out of its way to just claim this is random gang violence. But…if that was true then wouldn’t this have always been happening through the years? I find it hard to believe the...

Chicago has some of the most stringent gun controls of any city in the nation and also saw 40 of its residents shot–four of them fatally–by Sunday morning of Memorial Weekend 2016.