Free Republic

New York City schools will add two Muslim holidays to the calendar this year, Mayor de Blasio is announcing Wednesday.“Today we’ll announce the addition of Eid al-Adha & al-Fitr to @NYCSchools holiday schedule, a change that respects the diversity of our city,” Hizzoner tweeted.

Another anti-Semitic cab driver has been unearthed in the Big Apple, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday, after one cabbie told a 51 year-old Jewish woman that "all Jews must die." On Sunday morning, Jewish news columnist Baila Sebrow hailed a cab from Manhattan's Carlton Hotel - but when she entered the cab, she was instantly asked whether she was Jewish. After answering in the affirmative, Sebrow was told that "all Jews must die," and the driver then began driving "really fast" - so much so that she was afraid he would total the car, she stated. Sebrow, terrified,...

Cops should “take a deep breath’’ — and close their eyes — when dealing with angry people, according to the NYPD’s new “retraining’’ program. The potentially dangerous advice is part of a $35 million “smart policing’’ primer by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton that most of the cops who have gone through it say is completely useless. One cop who sat through two full-day programs called them “not realistic’’ and “pretty silly.” At one point during the lectures, the cop said, those in attendance were given breathing exercises to learn how to calm down — even...

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is “comfortable” with himself. So the city learned during the biggest crisis to hit a New York mayoralty in recent memory. “I’m comfortable with the fact that I’ve always tried to tell the truth and stay true to my values,” de Blasio said in mid January, as police officers across New York City continued a work slowdown that had brought discretionary police activity to a virtual standstill. De Blasio’s breezy self-assurance was revealing but unfortunate, since it was his belief in his own mission as social-justice truth-teller that had pushed the police into...

I haven't seen official snowfall totals yet, but judging from a glance out the window, it looks as if New York City might have gotten about 6 inches Monday night. Meanwhile, the entire city is shut down. Schools, government, public transportation, private transportation, and — by virtue of the lack of transportation — most offices and businesses. It's just absurd. I've lived in New York for almost my whole life — 48 years and counting. I have seen the city weather many actually large snowstorms, including a 26-incher just a few years go. The city stayed open through all of...

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this afternoon that he is shutting the city’s streets, schools and parks tonight until further notice as the city braces for a blizzard of historic proportions. (SNIP) Alternate side parking will be suspended through Wednesday, perhaps longer, and there will be no garbage pickups at least through mid-week. The mayor asked that citizens not attempt to clear their cars in the next several days, and not shovel snow into the streets or bury fire hydrants. He also advised that New Yorkers remain indoors throughout the duration of the storm. Non-authorized persons caught driving in non-emergency...

Bill de Blasio on Blizzard Bust: ‘Better Safe Than Sorry’ By Jillian Jorgensen | 01/27/15 8:29am After a much-hyped blizzard-that-wasn’t, Mayor Bill de Blasio said this morning that he was glad the city had prepared for a worse storm and that New York would be getting back to normal quickly. “We thought we were going to get something much bigger,” Mr. de Blasio told CNN “New Day” anchor Chris Cuomo (who happens to be the brother of Gov. Andrew Cuomo). Forecasts of two or even three feet of snow led Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo to essentially shut the...

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who bent state government to his will for more than 20 years as one of New York's most powerful and canny politicians, was arrested Thursday on charges of taking nearly $4 million in payoffs and kickbacks. The 70-year-old Democrat was taken into custody by the FBI on federal conspiracy and bribery charges that carry up to 100 years in prison and could cost him his political seat. He was released on $200,000 bail.

De Blasio: Sheldon Silver is a ‘man of integrity’ By Michael Gartland Mayor de Blasio said Thursday that he knows Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to be a “man of integrity” and rejected calls for him to step down from his leadership post while facing corruption charges. “Although the charges announced today certainly are very serious I want to note that I’ve always known Shelly Silver to be a man of integrity and he certainly has due process rights and I think it’s important that we let the judicial process play out,” the mayor said at City Hall.

**SNIP** “It won’t help with the police unions, certainly,” said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “They don’t like Al Sharpton; never have. They see him as an enemy, and furthermore, they see him as a lawbreaker who owes millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.” “Politically, it is unfortunate that he seems to want to keep being identified with Sharpton so explicitly, given Sharpton’s reputation out there,” added Doug Muzzio of Baruch College. “So the mayor is, in a sense, being truthful to himself, but that not be the wisest thing politically.” Political experts pointed out that it is unlikely that Mayor...

As the jihad steps up in intensity and Islamic jihadist Zale Thompson attacked NYPD officers with an axe just weeks ago, de Blasio’s New York may scrub a report on Islamic jihadists because it offends Muslims. De Blasio is setting up New York for much, much more jihad.

Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio is not distancing himself from Rev. Al Sharpton anytime soon. De Blasio’s office announced on Saturday he will be giving a speech on Monday at the National Action Network’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Policy Forum. The event is taking place in Manhattan.

NYC Mayor de Blasio has yet to publicly confirm his attendance at Al Sharpton’s annual forum Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day....raising questions about whether the Mayor might distance himself from the reverend. de Blasio faced intense criticism from police union leaders, and hasn’t been seen publicly with Mr. Sharpton, a frequent police critic. Last year, de Blasio announced Rachel Noerdlinger, former Sharpton aide, as chief of staff to Mrs. de Blasio. de Blasio gave his wife total control of the multi-million dollar "Mayor's Fund." Noerdlinger has since left after objections about her live-in--- a man w/...

According to statistics obtained by The Wall Street Journal, the NYPD’s operational “slowdown” continues. Though the rates of arrests and citations are beginning to accelerate compared to the week of December 22 to 28 when they were down 90 percent from the year prior, New York City police activity remains relatively low. The reduced police activity is largely seen as a protest in response to the actions of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who angered police when he implied that racism played a role in the death of Eric Garner and the grand jury’s subsequent decision not...

Most New Yorkers didn’t approve of police officers turning their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio at the funerals of two officers shot to death in their patrol car, or of the comment by a union leader that the mayor had “blood on his hands,” according to a poll released Thursday. The Quinnipiac University poll found that 69 percent disapproved of the silent protest among police at the funerals of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu and 77 percent considered union leader Patrick Lynch’s comment “too extreme.” …

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said on Monday that giving identification cards to illegal aliens allows them to feel like citizens and enjoy some of the same benefits as actual citizens. "We don't want any of our fellow New Yorkers to feel like second-class citizens,” de Blasio was quoted as saying in a National Public Radio website article. “We don't want them to feel left out.”

New York City shouldn’t exist. Its population of waiters waiting to become actors, professors waiting to write bestsellers, muggers waiting to become drug kingpins, welfare cases waiting for American Idol and cyclists waiting to become international humanitarians are the natural constituency of the left. Like every major city in the last fifty years, New York City is caught between a progressive death wish to embrace every single insane policy of the left from midnight basketball for crackheads to a 99 percent tax on everyone who has a job and the common sense competence that keeps it afloat. Every election is...

NYC Police Commissioner says cops are in a slowdown. Bratton says he still doesn’t know the root causes, but police brass are taking steps to make sure street cops fall in line. Bratton called in borough commanders....says he fully expects normalcy by next week. He attributed the slowdown partly on cops enforcing recent protests, and working in pairs to ensure their safety after two cops were assassinated by an anti-cop maniac.

New York City shouldn’t exist. Its population of waiters waiting to become actors, professors waiting to write bestsellers, muggers waiting to become drug kingpins, welfare cases waiting for American Idol and cyclists waiting to become international humanitarians are the natural constituency of the left. Like every major city in the last fifty years, New York City is caught between a progressive death wish to embrace every single insane policy of the left from midnight basketball for crackheads to a 99 percent tax on everyone who has a job and the common sense competence that keeps it afloat. Every election is...

Not long after Mayor Bill de Blasio sat beside the Rev. Al Sharpton at a July summit meeting on police reform, a political adviser gave the mayor a blunt assessment: You have a problem with the cops. Rank-and-file officers felt disrespected by the mayor, the adviser explained, and were dismayed to see Mr. Sharpton, a longtime critic of the New York Police Department, embraced at City Hall. But Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, rejected the notion that officers disliked him. His message, the adviser later recalled, was clear: Everything was under control. That confidence would last until late last month,...