Free Republic

Last Sunday, Krystal Lake, a 22-year-old Home Depot employee on Staten Island, was photographed wearing a hat that says, “America Was Never Great.” It's in the same font and style of Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again." Of course, death threats and hate mail targeting her have come pouring in — which, if you think about it, lends itself to her feeling like she was right to wear the hat in the first place. About two months ago, I wrote a column about the word "again" in Trump's slogan. I think it's a racist dog whistle and it...

Sadly, Ms. Lake is unaware of our proud history and what needs to be done to restore our country’s greatness. She does not appreciate our many freedoms and American exceptionalism It is sad that so many of our young people today are clueless about our country’s distinguished history. In a troubling story this week that generated national headlines, a 22-year-old Home Depot employee, Krystal Lake, of Staten Island, New York, was pictured at work wearing a hat that read, “America Was Never Great.” The disturbing image sparked an explosion of online comments from across the nation with people expressing both...

Donald Trump's Staten Island supporters were confident the brash businessman would win in the borough, but even his most staunch allies were pleasantly surprised that the GOP front-runner on Tuesday took the Island with 82 percent of the vote, setting a record for the highest margin of victory for the candidate so far in the national race. (SNIP) On Staten Island, he got 73 percent in the North Shore's 61st Assembly district represented by Assemblyman Matthew Titone; 85 percent in the South Shore's 62nd district, that Ron Castorina Jr. was just elected to; 80 percent in the mid-Island's 63rd district...

Early returns from the New York primary have revealed the existence of a small island — just off the coast of Manhattan — that's populated entirely by fans of Donald Trump.

When Maria Andrews’ mother came home with a load of heavy groceries and found a broken elevator at the modest brick Tysens Park Apartments on Staten Island, she wasn’t expecting to get much help from building management. But then she saw Fred Trump pull up in an elegant black limousine. She put down her groceries and rapped on the limo’s tinted window to complain to the real estate royal who owned her building. To her surprise, the elder Trump came out and helped her carry her groceries up five flights of stairs, Andrews says today — and he stayed for...

The Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Tompkinsville was among several sites under surveillance in that neighborhood by the NYPD, based on a secret department report obtained by The Associated Press. (See full report below.) A tower and crescent moon are silhouetted by the sun at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Tompkinsville. The NYPD targeted the Tompkinsville neighborhood within the 120th Precinct because it had seen a "high influx" of Albanian immigrants from Montenegro, Kosovo and a "small percentage" from Albania. The secret NYPD report said that "Albanian businesses" were concentrated along Victory Boulevard and included hangouts such as social...

A New York lawmaker has proposed a bill that would ban iPhones from being sold in the state, unless Apple provides special "back doors" that would allow law enforcement to spy on users. That's a double dose of the Nanny State: setting rules for what can be bought and sold, while giving the government an easier way to spy on residents' everyday activities. The bill is sponsored by State Assemblyman Matthew Titone, D-Staten Island, and it would mandate that iPhones and other cell phones sold in New York be "capable of being decrypted and unlocked." The bill has support, perhaps...

President Obama discussed initiatives he's put in place to change the tense dynamic between "many communities of color" and the police on the one year anniversary of teenager Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Mo. "I convened a task force on community policing to find commonsense steps that can help us drive down crime and build up trust and cooperation between communities and police, who put their lives on the line every single day to help keep us safe. And I've met personally with rank and file officers to hear their ideas," said Obama in his weekly address. Obama said that...

The NYPD has identified a group of suspicious people who were spotted Friday morning on Staten Island with rifles in their hands, NYPD officials told JP. The group four men and two women, with hijabs, were spotted early Friday morning by a retired NYPD officer in the Midland Beach parking lot with rifles in their hands, in two cars with NJ licence plates. Police were initially trying to determine whether the group were preparing an imminent terror attack, or linked to recent paintball attackers who shot several people last week with paintball guns, police said. The description of the group...

The NYPD is searching for a group of men who are believed to be behind a string of paintball shootings over the past week in the Westerleigh section of Staten Island, police said. At least 7 people were hit with paintballs since July 6, an NYPD official with knowledge of the investigation told JP. The first incident occurred on Monday evening July 6, when a man walking on the street was struck with paintballs from a passing vehicle. In the second incident, an Orthodox Jewish man, identified as 67-year old Abrhaam Revivo, was hit in his shoulder with a paintball...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Republican District Attorney Daniel Donovan has won Tuesday's special election and is going to be Staten Island's new congressman. Donovan vied with Democratic Councilman Vincent Gentile and Green Party candidate James Lane for the seat. The final tally for the election is not yet available, but the Donovan camp declared him the winner of the special election on Tuesday night. The DA celebrated with supporters at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bloomfield.

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...