Free Republic

As the sun sets on a Friday evening, preparations for Shabbat are in full swing in South Brooklyn... Inside one of the few grocery stores still open, a man who left Damascus in the 1990s greets one of his regular customers in Syrian Arabic as a Hebrew song plays in the background. The pair part ways with a “Shabbat Shalom.” These Brooklyn streets—home to the largest Syrian Jewish community outside of Israel, with an estimated 75,000 members—echo the spirit of the once-bustling centers of Jewish life in Damascus and Aleppo. Today, Syria’s historic Jewish quarters are a dimmer scene. Only...

An apparently loony, lefty political worker handing out campaign leaflets for a DSA candidate in Brooklyn was arrested after allegedly punching and beating a 98-year-old man with a broomstick and metal chair in a crazed dispute over the reelection flyers, police said. Tashara Abel was stuffing reelection flyers into mailboxes in the lobby of a building at Maple Street and Rogers Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens when the nonagenarian walked in around 4 p.m. Thursday, cops said. The two began beefing over the handouts for candidate and Democratic Socialists of America member and New York State Committee Member Anthony Beckford’s...

A crew of Uzbek wannabe mobsters was busted Wednesday for swiping $4.5 million of cigarettes, high-end cheese and other goodies from warehouses across the Northeast — in a scheme straight out of “Goodfellas,” The Post has learned. Crew leader Murad Khasanov and his cronies allegedly used a modern twist on an old-school mob heist — hacking into computer networks and creating forged invoices to convince warehouse workers to simply hand them the haul without ever needing to point a gun, law enforcement sources said. When they weren’t hitting the road in trucks full of cigarettes, seafood, pricey cheese, meat and...

Several men were caught on video entering a sewer manhole in Brooklyn and then emerging from it hours later Friday morning. Now, police are trying to determine what exactly they were doing underground. snip Police said a 911 call brought officers to the scene, but the men were gone before they arrived. Later Friday afternoon, the NYPD returned to the area to investigate. Crews from the Department of Environmental Protection were also on scene. They lowered what appeared to be a camera with a light into the manhole as they inspected the sewer system. A DEP spokesperson said they are...

A second video of sewer spelunkers emerging from a Brooklyn manhole wearing headlights and carrying shovels has surfaced — but there remain no answers on what they are doing down there. One creepy new clip shows a whole cadre of men exiting from a manhole at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Lynch Street in Williamsburg early Friday morning, according to footage obtained by Williamsburg 360. Video shows one man wearing a headlamp emerging from the ground after pushing off the cover of the manhole – which is located in the center of the intersection. [snip] Men with flashlights and...

Democratic socialist Councilwoman Shahana Hanif lashed out against a pair of Muslim organizers of a massive pro-Israel protest at Gracie Mansion on Tuesday night, seething that she prays they go to hell. Hanif, best known for her frequent anti-Israel remarks, raged in a post on X that she hopes the organizers are condemned “to Jahannam” – the Islamic equivalent of hell. The lefty Brooklyn lawmaker reposted two advertisements for the “Protest Zohran Mamdani” demonstration that specifically featured Muslim speakers. The protest, held a block away from Gracie Mansion, was presented by EndJewHatred. Anila Ali, the president of the American Muslim...

A historic New York City lesbian bar is canceling the 'majority' of its famous Pride events due to noise complaints from its posh neighbors. Ginger's Bar, the oldest lesbian bar in Brooklyn, is located in the lavish neighborhood of Park Slope, known for its gorgeous brownstones and woke politics. The establishment puts on a variety of LGBTQ-friendly events throughout the year, including its annual Pride month celebrations, which attract massive crowds. However this year, Ginger's announced it will no longer be hosting its annual Pride month DJ events due to complaints from its ritzy neighbors, sparking outrage among its fans....

NYC’s traffic cameras are now writing fiction. The famous “Knight Rider” car KITT has been hit with a speeding ticket in Brooklyn — despite sitting on display inside an Illinois automotive museum for years. The Volo Museum, based north of Chicago, said it received a $50 ticket from the New York City Department of Finance tied to its replica of the famous TV car from the 1980s series starring David Hasselhoff. “Well, this is a new one … we got this in the mail today. This is 100% legit,” the museum wrote in a Facebook post on May 7. According...

Let’s make a deal – or not. Gov. Kathy Hochul bungled the announcement of a deal on New York’s long-delayed budget Thursday — as state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie shot down her claims that top Democrats reached an agreement. The budget drama unfolded after Hochul announced the supposed agreement at 9 a.m., releasing the spending plan’s top lines. Roughly two hours later, however, Heastie effectively called the governor a liar. “There’s no budget deal. There’s no deal,” the Bronx Democrat said. “I’m not conferencing anything else until I know what the financial picture is.” Heastie said he walked out of...

Only a few short years ago, most of us would have deemed it unthinkable that an angry mob would turn out to impede the arrest of a career criminal with arrests for assault and drug-dealing in his rap sheet. But now, today, if that career criminal is an illegal alien, and if it is Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) that is doing the arresting, it seems that in any major city we can expect to see an angry mob show up to defend the criminal. The latest example comes to us from Brooklyn, New York, where a riot broke out...

Death of a Salesman follows two days in the life of the Loman family, who live in Brooklyn and have, at long last, very nearly paid off their mortgage. But they have perhaps never felt more insecure. Bills are piling up. Willy’s job as a traveling salesman has stopped paying him a salary. In his 60s, he is beginning to feel his age, and as he works for scant commissions, he’s started to exhibit a faltering grasp on reality, and an increasingly vigorous drive toward self-destruction. His wife Linda — senses terrible possibilities just around the corner. Meanwhile, adult sons...

A mob of about 200 anti-ICE protesters blocked emergency entrances and exits to a Brooklyn hospital Saturday night in a chaotic caught-on-video clash with cops that ended in nine arrests, cops said. The out-of-control activists descended on the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick when they got wind that federal immigration agents were in the neighborhood and had taken a man in their custody to the hospital for medical attention, wrote Democratic City Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, who was at the violent event, on X. The unruly protesters quickly flooded the streets in front of and around the hospital to try...

A maniac with a history of random attacks on women — who also once decapitated a pigeon in the middle of Penn Station — was released again after his latest arrest, for allegedly kicking a 7-year-old boy in an unprovoked Brooklyn attack, according to cops and prosecutors. Jesse Daniels, 23, randomly stormed up to the boy and dealt a swift kick to his left ear that knocked him to the ground around 2:35 p.m. March 6 on Schenectady Avenue near Union Street in Crown Heights, according to cops and video posted online by the neighborhood’s Shomrim Patrol. The boy —...

Riddle of the day: When is deed theft not actually deed theft? Answer: When state Attorney General Tish James tries to have it both ways. That’s what happened Friday when the AG was asked about fellow lefty Brooklyn Councilman Chi Ossé’s arrest. Ossé was cuffed Wednesday as he tried to prevent an eviction he claimed stemmed from “deed theft.” At the time, James’ office issued a statement denying the case involved any such thing. It said the matter involved a property dispute between heirs and relatives of the home’s former co-owners. Yet on Friday, James sang a different tune. “Technically...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFriday, January 27, 2023 Members of Eastern European Organized Crime Group Allegedly Plotted to Murder a U.S. Citizen of Iranian Origin in New York City Who Has Publicly Opposed the Iranian GovernmentA federal court in New York today unsealed murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against three members of an Eastern European criminal organization for plotting the murder of a U.S. citizen who has been targeted by the Government of Iran for speaking out against the regime’s human rights abuses.According to court documents, Rafat Amirov, aka Farkhaddin Mirzoev, aka Pᴎᴍ, aka Rome, 43, of Iran; Polad Omarov, aka Araz...

Mayor Mamdani continues pushing his Islamic faith onto New York City. Today, he did a public prayer with mobs of Muslims by taking over Prospect Park in Brooklyn. On Thursday, he proudly lit Eid Mubarak lights in Harlem. This is an assault on NYC. Mamdani isn’t hiding it.

Man charged with hate crime after ramming Chabad headquarters in New York. 36-year-old charged with hate crimes after ramming his car five times into Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn. Dan Sohail, 36, is the man suspected of driving a car into the doors to a synagogue at Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, five times on Wednesday evening, Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives at the New York City Police Department, said at a press conference on Thursday. The suspect, of Carteret, N.J., "had recently connected with the Lubavitch community," and removed blockades from the same site the prior day, Kenny said,...

Two years ago, Zakia Khan and her son Ahsan Ijaz hosted an NYPD promotion ceremony for the first Pakistani inspector in the New York City police department. After an Imam recited a prayer and everyone, including NYPD personnel, rose and put their hands on their hearts for the Pakistani national anthem, hailing Pakistan as the ‘citadel of Islam’ in the “shadow of Allah.” Last year, Khan pleaded guilty to a $68 million Medicaid fraud scheme involving her adult day care centers, which had been the sponsors of the NYPD event, and earlier this year more members of the Muslim fraud...

Two Brooklyn marketers plead guilty in federal court to taking part in a wide-ranging Medicaid fraud scheme that prosecutors say relied on illegal kickbacks, sham billing, and money laundering connected to two social adult day care centers and a home health care company. Manal Wasef, 46, and Elaine Antao, 46, both of Brooklyn, were admitted to conspiring to commit health care fraud after investigators concluded they helped steer Medicaid recipients to specific providers in exchange for bribes and other illicit payments. Authorities allege the operation resulted in more than $68 million in Medicaid billings for services that were not provided....

Gov. Kathy Hochul is getting ripped over a cringe Lunar New Year video she shot at the request of an alleged Chinese agent, with rival Rep. Elise Stefanik blasting the Democrat as “compromised.” Hochul shot the awkward clip for China’s New York consulate back in 2021 when she was still lieutenant governor as she wished viewers “xin nian kuai le” — or Happy New Year, the newly resurfaced footage shows. “Footage HERE of the video Kathy Hochul so ‘obediently’ filmed for the Chinese Communist Party after her Chinese Communist spy coaxed her into it,” Stefanik posted on X on Thursday...