Free Republic

A message from our Corporate Vice President, Anti-Semitism has come too close to home. Last week a synagogue in my neighborhood was spray-painted with Swastikas and the words “Hamas.” Today, Rabbi Yoseph Raksin, an American, was killed several blocks away from my house simply for being Jewish. Jews across the World are being targeted simply due to their religion. America was founded based upon the principal of religious freedom, and these attacks threaten the foundation of our great country. Enough is enough! As ardent supporters of 2nd Amendment rights and the right to self-defense, I am proclaiming that Jews must...

According to Police Chief James Godfrey on Friday, August 24 officers of the Baxley Police Department met with the school resource officer (S.R.O.) at the Appling County High School in reference to a threat. On arrival the S.R.O. told officers that two students had told him of a threat that was sent to them on their Facebook page, and that the sender told them to stay away from school on Monday, because he was going to shoot it up. Officers interviewed several students and conducted an investigation. Agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation assisted in investigating the computer trail...

This is related to a previous post From January 30th. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2666031/posts I have a type 07 FFL (manufacturing and dealer), and one of the hottest selling items lately has been converted Saiga 12 shotguns. Due to a recent "study", Russian American Arms is no longer importing Saiga shotguns (according to my distributors). We have three distributors who deal directly with RAA, they're all on hold pending the outcome of the ATF paper recently released. ATF is accepting "comments" through May 1st, but the distributors are already pulling the product line. According to Ellet Brothers and RSR group, they're prepared to...

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. -- Federal agents on the hunt for criminals on Thursday raided the wrong house while searching for drugs. Police and federal agents raided 50 marijuana grow houses around Florida on Thursday, calling it "Operation D-Day." They seized $7 million worth of pot plants, but they also kicked in the door of Noel Llorente's Opa-locka home and found nothing but bewildered homeowners. "I was frightened for my husband because they threw him on the ground," Llorente's wife said. "I was scared. Llorente said he was just leaving for work when unmarked cars pulled up, Drug Enforcement Administration agents jumped...

MIAMI (AP) -- A 20-year-old with a weapons cache that included four AK-47s was arrested after threatening to re-enact a Virginia-Tech style massacre over the Internet, authorities said Thursday. Oregon authorities learned of a March 25 Internet message allegedly posted by Calin Chi Wong in which he threatened to re-enact the Virginia Tech killings. Two days later, Homestead Police searched the home Wong shares with his parents and found the weapons in stacked on shelves in plain view, Det. Antonio Aquino said. Wong had 13 firearms in all, more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition, some that could pierce armor, and...

An off-duty Coral Springs firefighter shot Sunday night after a dispute over a go-kart is recovering, his girlfriend said. Robert Wood, 42, remains sedated at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. He has undergone two surgeries after being shot in the stomach. ''He will likely remain in the hospital for a few days,'' his girlfriend, Jennifer Veasey, said. The man suspected of shooting Wood is Ronald Khan. Khan, 35, of Hollywood, was arrested hours after the shooting. He is out of jail on $10,000 bond. On Tuesday, police released the 911 calls for help following the shooting. ''He's been shot by...

A rookie Miami-Dade police officer was shot and wounded in Cutler Ridge Sunday night and a suspect was in custody, authorities said. The officer, Robert Gonzalez, 31, was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was in serious but stable condition, according to police spokesman Juan Villalba. Authorities said a suspect was under arrest. The shooting came after the officer got out of his police car in a warehouse district to investigate a suspicious person. The suspect ran and during the foot chase, he turned and fired several times at the officer who was hit three...

A Miramar police officer arrested a 35-year-old man Tuesday after catching him having unprotected sex with an 11-year-old girl, according to a police report. Donald Edward Johnson was arrested and charged with sexual battery on a victim under 12 years old. Police said Johnson, the alleged boyfriend of the victim's mother, confessed to having had a sexual relationship with the girl since she was 8. The girl told police that Johnson would come to the home when the mother left to work the night shift. He would command her to take off her clothes and then engage in unprotected sex,...

A man in his 20s died after a Coral Gables police officer Tasered him on Friday morning in Coral Gables. Miami-Dade Detective Carlos Maura said the man had been disruptive at a party and resisted arrest. About 2 a.m., police officers responded to a call about a scuffle at University Inn Condominium, 1280 S. Alahambra Cir., near the University of Miami. After the man became disruptive inside the apartment, a security guard attempted to remove him from the property. The confrontation spilled outside. Maura said the man was being belligerent, so a police officer used a Taser stun gun to...

The four masked men who terrorized South Florida Monday morning with knives, a handgun and a paint ball gun modified to looked like an assault weapon are anonymous no longer. Police have charged Hollywood men Jonathan Cognet, 20, and Daniel Stephan Tulloch, 19 -- as well as two Broward County 17-year-olds -- with a string of robberies, including that of three students on their way to school. A Hollywood police officer on motorcycle pulled over the gold Toyota used in the heists at U.S. 441 and Seminole Way at about 7 a.m., directly in front of the Hard Rock Hotel...

A 12-year-old Lauderhill boy has been charged with first-degree murder in the baseball beating death of a toddler who was left in his care, authorities said Sunday. The boy, who was arraigned in juvenile court Sunday, had been left alone with his 10-year-old brother and a 17-month-old girl at a Lauderhill home on Friday, authorities said. The 12-year-old became upset because the toddler was making noise while he was trying to watch TV. The 12-year-old grabbed a baseball bat and struck the little girl several times in the head, according to Lauderhill police spokesman Lt. Mike Cochran. About 1:15 p.m.,...

Draped in a sleeved, lacy peach dress, pearl necklace and earrings and wearing minimal makeup, Natasha Calixte looked her age. Fourteen. She lay in a white metal casket Thursday topped with 20 white carnations. Her father's ashes rested in an urn at her feet. ''It doesn't feel like she's dead right now,'' said friend Pauline Salomon, 15, furrowing her brow at Natasha's waxy hands folded over a carnation. But Natasha's life ended in a very grown-up way. An unknown gunman shot her dead as she drove a stolen car on Christmas Eve in North Miami-Dade. On Thursday, mourners -- mostly...

After a goat was raped and killed in a Panhandle town, animal activists, police and citizens were almost as shocked to find out that bestiality isn't a crime in Florida. But it might be soon. A Sunrise state senator and a St. Petersburg representative have filed legislation to make it a first-degree felony to have sex with animals or promote or advertise bestiality. ''It's true. It's sick. There needs to be a law,'' said Democratic Sen. Nan Rich, a longtime crusader for children and animal rights. ``There are 30 states that make this a crime. Florida isn't one of them.''...

An 11-year-old boy playing hide-and-seek was killed minutes before the new year began when a neighbor fired a semiautomatic weapon into an abandoned couch the boy was hiding behind outside an Opa-locka apartment complex, Miami-Dade police said Tuesday. The boy, Joshua Arroliga, was shot several times, including once in the head, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspect, Zenon Fernandez, 49, fled from the apartment complex parking lot, but later turned himself in to North Miami police. He was charged with one count of manslaughter. Neighbors said they knew that Fernandez had a gun, but it's not clear...

A year ago on New Year's Eve, bullets fell from the sky, killing two South Florida men. Corey Baker, 35, the father of five, and Audley Ebanks, 69, whose widow and two daughters miss him so much they won't be in South Florida Monday night, died after they were hit by bullets randomly fired into the air. Exactly one year later, police have few answers to give the victims' families. And since celebratory gunfire is so common in South Florida, and since the shooters probably have no idea they hit anyone, the cases will probably remain unsolved. ''I was hoping...

For thousands of South Florida's illegal immigrants, the new year offers more uncertainty, discontent and, for many, resigned departure. From farms in Homestead to day laborer pickup sites in Florida City and Fort Lauderdale, migrant workers are struggling to find work as Homeland Security steps up enforcement after a firestorm of public opinion derailed an immigration overhaul in Congress. That proposal, which failed in the summer, would have eventually legalized millions of undocumented workers. Adding to the turmoil: a slowing economy. More than two dozen South Florida employers and undocumented workers interviewed by The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald...

On the way to work today at 0615, I passed a huge crime scene on Old Cutler road. There were at least 7 vehicles, including the crime scene van. Rolls of yellow tape everywhere. I found out it was a home invasion that resulted in a home-owner being shot. Last week, I was on the way to work at about 0130, and saw two squad cars rolling through the area slowly, scanning with their searchlights. They stopped in front of the house and went in while I was driving by. Another co-worker who takes the same route also saw squad...

Benito Valdez had settled in for the night security shift, listening to Spanish radio on a chair outside a Hialeah juice bar when he saw shadows coming toward him. That's when the 71-year-old's training in the Cuban navy kicked in. Two thugs -- who between them had at least one gun, a Halloween mask and a pair of fuzzy black slippers -- approached Valdez and told him not to move, police said. Keeping his seat, Valdez rotated slightly and kicked his left leg at the man holding the gun. Valdez then fired at least two shots in the air from...

In what sounds like a scene out of Prison Break, a Broward Sheriff's Office inmate fashioned a fake bomb out of socks, newspaper and radio wires and threatened to blow it up if jailers didn't let him go. Then the violence got real. The man produced a shank -- a homemade knife -- and tried to stab a detention deputy. He also grabbed the deputy's pepper spray and sprayed it. The inmate was subdued by a team of deputies, but not before inflicting minor injuries on two of them. One of the injured, the original deputy, suffered cuts and the...

Two robbers, one of them armed with a gun, messed with the wrong 70-year-old. The septuagenarian, a security guard who works nights, kicked the gun out of the hand of the armed man, drew his own weapon and chased both men away. The robbery happened about 3 a.m. Monday at the El Palacio de los Jugos in Hialeah at West 24th Avenue and 78th Street. The security guard watches the store and the parking lot. The two men, wearing Halloween masks, came at him from behind with a gun. After disarming the man with a swift kick, the security guard...