Free Republic

An internal NYPD study found no link between the sharp drop in street stops and a rise in shootings, the Daily News has learned. Shootings rose 6% in 2014 compared with the year before as the number of stop-and-frisk encounters dropped to a record-low 46,235 — a staggering decrease from the high of 605,328 in 2011. Shootings are up again — about 20% in 2015 through Sunday — but the NYPD said the study doesn’t prove a link between the increase in shootings and fewer stops.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Two Iranian nationals seen by a New York police officer photographing city landmarks were just tourists nearing the end of their stay in the United States, Iran's mission to the United Nations said on Friday."It was these two guys on Saturday, June 22, taking pictures of themselves in Battery Park" at the southern end of Manhattan, said Mohammad Hossein Nosrat, mission spokesman. The two, who work as security guards at the mission and do not have diplomatic immunity, took 1 minute 40 seconds of videotape of the park and environs, Nosrat said. At that point, a...

Grub Street never needs a reason to celebrate our city's esteemed roster of delicatessens, but since this week marks the New York release of the new documentary Deli Man, we're going all in on the subject today.There’s an elaborate backstory behind every venerable deli in New York City, but the story behind David’s Brisket House, which has been serving brisket and pastrami sandwiches to the good people of Bedford-Stuyvesant for more than half a century now, is more elaborate and convoluted than most. The original Dave was a Russian Jew who sold the deli to a Romanian Jew, who inherited...

They were four words that became the national rallying cry of a new civil rights movement: “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Protesters chanted it, arms raised, in cities across the country in solidarity for Michael Brown, the black teenager who some witnesses said was surrendering when he was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The slogan was embraced by members of Congress, recording artists and football players with the St. Louis Rams. It inspired posters and songs, T-shirts and new advocacy groups, a powerful distillation of simmering anger over police violence and racial injustice in Ferguson...

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have wondered out loud whether Michael Schmidt, the New York Times reporter who broke the story about Hillary using private email during her time as Secretary of State, might be fearing "retribution" from Hillary's camp. When Joe and Mika interviewed New York Times Schmidt on today's Morning Joe, Scarborough had to work to get Schmidt to say something that was in his own article: that while Colin Powell also used private email as Secretary of State, there were no rules prohibiting that at the time. Later, Joe and Mika later remarked that they were "taken...

Get ready. It looks like the Left is poised to make the case that the NRA is at fault for the potential of any terrorism happening here at home.

--SNIP-- Not all Democrats, however, are clearly siding with the President. New York Sen. Charles Schumer stressed Sunday that a nuclear Iran would be a “huge problem.” “Iran is on the list of terrorist nations. Iran has caused the death, directly or indirectly, of hundreds of Americans with terrorist acts. And they want to dominate the Middle East,” Schumer said on John Catsimatidis' Sunday morning radio show on WNYM, also known as AM 970 The Answer. Schumer said, that if a deal came to pass, it would have to include a “really tough inspection regime, because I don’t trust these...

Robert De Niro owed $6.4 million to the IRS for his 2013 tax return, but it appears he just learned of it. The Oscar winner's tax debt surfaced in documents first uncovered by the Smoking Gun. Mr. De Niro has an estimated worth of over $200 million, and is reputed to spend $125,000 a month on his rental on Central Park West. In that sense, this tax bill doesn't seem so large. But it was unpaid, as the notice to New York City’s Department of Finance revealed. That is what an IRS lien filing is all about. But right away,...

Three men living in Brooklyn were arrested and charged on Wednesday with providing material support to the Islamic State, a terrorist organization that controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and has been actively recruiting Westerners to its fight. One of the men was arrested early Wednesday morning at Kennedy International Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul and then planned to travel to Syria, according to the authorities. The men were identified as Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, Akhror Saidakhmetov, and Abror Habibov. ... (Excerpted per guidelines)

Link only due to copyright issues:http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/dangerous-candidacy-scott-walker

NEW HAVEN — THE recent reunion show for the 40th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” re-aired a portion of Eddie Murphy’s 1984 classic “White Like Me” skit, in which he disguised himself to appear Caucasian and quickly learned that “when white people are alone, they give things to each other for free.”

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,...

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was more than a tad upset with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s criticism of President Barack Obama’s patriotism, saying in his Sunday sermon that Giuliani was a “privileged cracker” and a “devil.” “Giuliani says Obama does not love America,” Farrakhan said, “And instead of apologizing, they say he doubled down, he tripled down, he said, ‘I’m not taking this back. He didn’t grow up like we grew up.’” “How did you grow up, Giuliani?” asked Farrakhan. “A privileged cracker?” After that line got enormous applause, he added: “Or I should say, a...

At the heart of the Giuliani-led critique of the president’s patriotism is the suggestion that Barack Obama has never expressed love for the United States. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, has even challenged the media to find examples of Mr. Obama expressing such affection. Has the president done so? Yes, he has. A review of his public remarks provides multiple examples.

Another day, another attack on the integrity of the Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon, this time in the New York Times. I first became aware of Soon in 2009 when reading through the Climategate emails. One of them was a jocular suggestion by a warmist called Tom Wigley as to how best to smear Soon and his co-author Sallie Baliunas. Might be interesting to see how frequently Soon and Baliunas, individually, are cited (as astronomers). Are they any good in their own fields? Perhaps we could start referring to them as astrologers (excusable as…’oops, just a typo’). You might be...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted President Barack Obama, saying in a recent speech that Israeli Prime Minster Bejamin Netanyahu is a “a man who fights for his people, unlike our president.”

The New York Times kept on its old Rudy the Racist beat, using the former New York City mayor's recent remarks suggesting President Obama doesn't love America to attack him for "aligning more squarely with the hard right" in a front-page story Saturday, "In Remarks on President, Giuliani to the Core" by Alexander Burns (pictured) and Maggie Haberman (who previously filed the Burns & Haberman campaign blog on Politico.) The Times has long specialized in calling out Giuliani, whose mayoralty it strongly opposed, as racially "incendiary." In 2009 it let then-City Councilman (and current NYC mayor) Bill de Blasio say...

For those who first dialed into Rudolph W. Giuliani during his “America’s mayor” phase, right after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — when he wowed the world with his civic leadership, soaring oratory and unifying largess — the former New York mayor’s racially charged comments about President Obama might seem puzzling.

"Our [Palestinian] people have been submitted to the daily and intensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which has led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children."Although Hillary Clinton was sitting on the same stage and receiving a simultaneous translation of Mrs. Arafat's speech, she sat silent.

Meanwhile, Walker, a leading Republican contender for the White House in 2016, said Saturday that he doesn't know whether Obama loves his country. 'You should ask the president what he thinks about America,' the Wisconsin governor told The Associated Press while in Washington for a weekend meeting of governors. 'I've never asked him so I don't know.' Democrats have assailed Giuliani for questioning the Democratic president's love of country, and they urged the potential field of Republican presidential candidates to rebuke Giuliani for his comments. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, another possible 2016 candidate, said he didn't think 'it helps to...