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Pic - Mayor Bill de Blasio, at Gracie Mansion with First Lady Chirlane McCray, activist Van Jones, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, plans to dip his toe into presidential politics with the launch of a push for income inequality to become a central issue of the 2016 national elections. "All of this is focused on the notion that we are not having a discussion on income inequality in this country and we are not having that discussion at our peril." GRACIE MANSION — Mayor Bill de Blasio, who supporters describe as a "national hero" among progressives, has dipped his his...

Gov. Cuomo is assuming a key role in resolving cases where unarmed civilians are killed by police, announcing Wednesday that he will name an “independent monitor” to review grand-jury decisions when cops are not indicted.

So, let’s get this straight. At a decisive moment in history when our nation required a strong and unbiased voice from its’ senior law enforcement official, you Mr. Holder, made it your personal mission to join with other racial antagonist and politicize a tragic event, accusing a young white police officer of a racially motivated killing in what we now know was a justified self-defense shooting of a predatory felon. Your behavior is unbelievable. You sir, have sacrificed your integrity on the altar of political expediency. You, Mr. Holder, are the “coward” and hypocrite you so loudly denounce when speaking...

(Reuters) - On the sidewalk of a public housing development in Brooklyn, New York notorious for gang violence and drug activity, the words "Fascist pig, go home!" in black spray paint are fading but still legible. These are the Marcy Houses, 27 brick H-block buildings, each six stories high, that are home to nearly 4,300 people, many of whom are black or Latino. The rapper Jay-Z, who grew up in the complex, described Marcy as "a block away from hell," the place where "news cameras never come," in a song called "Where I'm From."

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appears poised for a presidential run and is currently leading the polls among potential Republican candidates for 2016, but the comments he made in 1994 during his first run for Florida’s highest office may come back to haunt him.The Associated Press reports that Bush described himself then as a “head-banging conservative” and used fiery rhetoric — such as claiming he would do “probably nothing” for African-Americans if he became governor — in his ultimately unsuccessful bid. Bush made that statement in response to a question on what he would for African-Americans if elected to office.“It’s time...

Zoo Won’t Let de Blasio Hold Groundhog After He Killed One Last Year The NYPD isn't the only city organization that has lost complete confidence in the esteemed Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio. After he dropped the groundhog during last year's Groundhog Day celebrations, the Staten Island Zoo has unequivocally banned De Blasio from holding or handling any more of their animals in a celebratory setting. - Mayor de Blasio won’t be killing any more groundhogs — zoo handlers are forbidding the butter-fingered mayor from holding the critter at the annual shadow-sighting ceremony on Feb. 2, The...

For those of us who have managed to survive 2014 with our lives intact and our freedoms hanging by a thread, it has been a year of crackdowns, clampdowns, shutdowns, showdowns, shootdowns, standdowns, knockdowns, putdowns, breakdowns, lockdowns, takedowns, slowdowns, meltdowns, and never-ending letdowns. We’ve been held up, stripped down, faked out, photographed, frisked, fracked, hacked, tracked, cracked, intercepted, accessed, spied on, zapped, mapped, searched, shot at, tasered, tortured, tackled, trussed up, tricked, lied to, labeled, libeled, leered at, shoved aside, saddled with debt not of our own making, sold a bill of goods about national security, tuned out by those...

Taking back the streets was not ­always pretty and did not always go smoothly. Yet progress against the scourge of crime was undeniable from the start, and after two decades under Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloom­berg, a decisive victory was won. Hallelujah! New York, formerly the ungovernable Rotten Apple, was reborn in the ashes of mayhem and murder. Life in virtually every neighborhood got better and better because even quality-of-life crimes were not accepted as inevitable. Investment follows safety, and the city shined like never before. The mayors led, but rank-and-file cops did the heavy lifting, and the ­insignia...

I'm not one for boycotts, but I am one for data. And I like this kind of data. It's just good to have data when spending money. That's all. I mean, if I have no choice in keeping a SIGNIFICANTLY large portion of my money from being squandered by the folks that I've freaking employed up on the Hill (like drunk girls on Spring break with their Daddy's credit cards), I'm going to be as informed as possible with what's left of said money. Thus, the data thing. You know. According to the source article above and the New York...

NY Police Commissioner Bratton sent out a memo...being read at precinct roll-calls ahead of slain Officer Wenjian Liu’s Sunday service. Bratton pleaded with the rank and file to shelve their anger: “The country’s consciousness has focused on an act of disrespect shown by a fraction of those…officers,” he said. Many cops were furious over the directive, which they saw as an attempt to fix the mayor’s bruised ego. “He’s taking DeBlasio's side....to protect him and not make him look bad,” one source said. One cop who participated in the collective back-turn found the Bratton memo sickening: " I feel Mayor...

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is so worried his cops will turn their backs to his boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio, at another NYPD funeral that he sent out a memo to shame them into good behavior, sources told The Post. “A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance,” began the four-paragraph plea, which is being read at precinct roll calls ahead of slain Officer Wenjian Liu’s Sunday service. Bratton won’t punish officers who choose to turn their backs to de Blasio — which was done in droves at the funeral for fallen Officer Rafael Ramos — but he pleaded with...

So it’s come to this: On the weekend New York City buries another of its Finest, Detective Wenjian Liu, the focus is on the mayor — and whether police officers will again turn their backs on him. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton calls the gesture “inappropriate.” Peter King, the Republican congressman from Long Island, doesn’t like it either, but because it is “creating sympathy” for the mayor. Even before the back-turnings, Cardinal Timothy Dolan was saying it’s “unfair and counterproductive to dismiss our mayor and other leaders as enemies of the police.”

In late November, the student government at taxpayer-funded Morgan State University sponsored a conference on slavery reparations for black Americans. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was the keynote speaker. The Nov. 22 conference, called the 2nd Annual Black United Summit International, occurred on Morgan State’s historically black campus in Baltimore, Md. The conference theme was “Re-Claim, Re-Pair, Re-Form, Re-Produce — REPARATIONS Now!” Total attendance was over 2,000, according to EAGnews.org. Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, provided a detailed report about convention activities. Farrakhan’s keynote rant lasted over two hours. At one point, he held up what resembled...

With reports that the NYPD is looking into as many as 63 threats against police officers, or the mayor this week alone, news also comes of a lack of motivation among the rank and file, undoubtedly contributing to a significant drop in arrest numbers across the city. “[There’s] just not motivation,” one police officer told [Vice]. “I’m not writing people summonses if I have a chance of getting my head blown off.” When asked if this was his own choice or a precinct-wide initiative, the officer added, “Seems like the entire department is on the same page.” As the New...

n the wake of the Ferguson grand jury’s determination that there was no probable cause to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, incensed rioters took to the streets of that Missouri city and neighboring towns where they burned and looted a number of local businesses. Those riots were preceded by an anguished speech delivered by Brown’s mother who tearfully lamented the grand jury’s decision before a crowd of supporters. She was joined by her husband and Michael Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, who expressed his grief in a somewhat less constructive way. “Burn this s*** down!”...

They want peace. No really. And the New York Times is just a dispassionate observer looking for reform and change. Not mass murder.But Nicholas Kristof had one of his “Take the Mask Off Moments” when the radical left shows how ugly and unhinged it really is despite its facade of dinner parties and book clubs and that its media outlets promote violence.And so he invited readers to send in poems about the usual stuff. Bunnies. Flowers. Killing all white people and burning America to the ground. And the emphasis was not on the bunnies and flowers.Here’s a deranged screech of...

The family of Garner, along with Sharpton, led a moment of silence at the National Action Network in Harlem on Christmas for Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. The tribute occurred during an event to feed the homeless and senior citizen.The family of Eric Garner joined the Rev. Al Sharpton for a Christmas Day moment of silence honoring two cops murdered by a deranged killer out to avenge the Staten Island man’s death. Garner’s mother, Gwenn Carr, and his widow, Esaw Garner, paused for the moment of silence at the National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, where they were helping...

Opposition to de Blasio reaches new heights By Yaron Steinbuch December 26, 2014 | 10:20am The opposition to Mayor de Blasio reached new heights Friday – with a plane flying a banner reading “De Blasio, Our Backs Have Turned To You” over the Hudson River. Ashley Chalmers, owner of Jersey Shore Aerial Advertising, the company that flew the banner, declined to reveal from the airborne plane who hired him for the flight. John Cardillo, a blogger and former NYPD cop, tweeted that he was contacted by a “coalition of NYPD cops, Detectives, and supervisors” and asked to release their statement:...

Gordon Barnes, the editor-in-chief of The Advocate, penned the disturbing editorial calling for violent protests. A disturbing editorial in a CUNY grad-student newspaper calls for rioters protesting the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown to arm themselves and wage violent war with cops. “The time for peace has passed,” says a revolutionary editorial titled “In Support of Violence” that was penned by editor-in-chief Gordon Barnes in the Dec. 3 issue of The Advocate. The problem with the protesters’ violence in Ferguson is that it is unorganized. If the violence was to be organized, and the protesters armed — more...

New York Rep. Michael Grimm pleaded guilty to a single count of tax fraud Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. The guilty plea comes one month after the congressman, a Republican who represents Staten Island, was elected to a third term. In April, Grimm was named in a 20-count indictment that accused him of under-reporting the payroll and earnings of his Upper East Side restaurant, Healthalicious, which he ran from 2007 to 2010. He pleaded not guilty in federal court and was released on bond. Prosecutors alleged Grimm employed a number of immigrant workers who did not have legal status to...