POLITICS

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Re: POLITICS

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MARKETWATCH

"Michelle Obama blames Trump for contributing to her depression"


By Shawn Langlois

Published: Aug. 5, 2020 at 5:28 p.m. ET

Former first lady Michelle Obama opened up about her struggles with a “form of low-grade depression” in a new episode of her podcast posted on Wednesday.

She pinned some of the blame on President Donald Trump, but said it runs deeper than that.


‘I’d be remiss to say that part of this depression is also a result of what we’re seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest, that has plagued this country since its birth."

"I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized, or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting."

"And it has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life, in a while.’

That’s Obama explaining her current funk to Michelle Norris, a former NPR host.

“The hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting,” Obama added.

She said she deals with the negativity by sticking to a routine, a tool she picked up during her many years navigating the White House spotlight.

Still, it’s not easy.

“I’m waking up in the middle of the night, ’cause I’m worrying about something, or there’s a heaviness,” she said.

“I try to make sure I get a workout in, although there have been periods throughout this quarantine, where I just have felt too low..."

"I’ve gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, where you just don’t feel yourself.”

Obama, of course, isn’t alone.

A recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that a third of Americans are showing signs of clinical anxiety and depression during the pandemic.

Obama said that family time helps, though her husband and children usually spend the day apart before coming together each evening for dinner and other activities.

“Puzzles have become big,” she said.

“The girls are into them."

"We’re all sitting on the floor around the table where the puzzle is now permanently set up and then we sit down for dinner.”

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Re: POLITICS

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MARKETWATCH

"Biden gets involved in hubbub over cognitive testing: ‘Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man’"


By Victor Reklaitis

Published: Aug. 5, 2020 at 3:27 p.m. ET

‘No, I haven’t taken a test.'

'Why the hell would I take a test?'

'Come on, man.’

— Joe Biden

That line came from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in an interview that due to air in full on Thursday.

After President Donald Trump drew all sorts of attention last month for talking up his performance on a cognitive test typically used to screen for dementia, CBS News reporter Errol Barnett asked his rival in the 2020 White House race if he had taken such a test, as well.

In responding to Barnett, Biden said: “That’s like saying you, before you got in this program, you’re taking a test whether you’re taking cocaine or not."

"What do you think, huh?"

"Are you a junkie?”

“I know you're trying to goad me, but I am so forward-looking to have an opportunity to sit with the president or stand with the president and debates,” the former vice president added.

“I am very willing to let the American public judge my physical as well as my mental fitness and to, you know, to make a judgment about who I am.”

Democratic adviser and Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe tweeted that Biden “handled this bozo just right," referring to Barnett.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative author who received a pardon from Trump in 2018, said on Twitter that “Biden’s response on taking a cognitive test is exactly why Biden needs to take a cognitive test.”

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Re: POLITICS

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MARKETWATCH - The Fed

"Fed’s Mester says labor market is even weaker than data suggests"


By Greg Robb

Published: Aug. 5, 2020 at 6:40 p.m. ET

The U.S. labor market is even weaker than the data indicates, said Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester on Wednesday.

In a virtual speech to the 2020 Liberal Arts Macroeconomic Conference in Pomona Calif., Mester said that over half of the business contacts in her district are pulling back in response to the recent rise in coronavirus cases.

Companies are recalling workers more slowly than originally planned.

And they are “meaningfully altering their plans” by reducing employment, cutting employee compensation or pulling the plug on planned capital expenditures, she added.

“The tone that we’re getting from businesses really has turned down since the increase in the virus cases,” she said.

Cutting wages is going to harm demand, Mester said.

There are almost 18 million unemployed workers, up from 6 million in February.

That means one in 15 Americans over the age of 16 is unemployed, Mester said.

Many workers are stuck working part-time even though they want full-time work, and some are so discouraged they’ve stopped looking entirely and are no longer counted on the government’s official tally.

Data released by ADP earlier Wednesday showed that the private sector pulled back on hiring in July.

On Friday, the July employment report from the Labor Department is also expected to show a slowdown in job growth after strong gains in May and June.

Overall, Mester said U.S. economic growth “has begun to decelerate with the rise in virus cases.”

“These recent developments add uncertainty to what was already an uncertain outlook,” the Cleveland Fed president said.

It remains too early to tell whether this deceleration will be temporary.

But it means the economy will be in the “reopening” phase, rather than the “recovery” phase, for a little longer.

Mester called on Congress to increase spending to help Americans while the economy struggles.

“It is also clear that more fiscal support is needed to provide a bridge for households, small businesses, and state and local municipalities that have borne the brunt of the economy shutdown until the recovery is sustainably in place,” she said.

She said she was hopeful a new coronavirus relief measure would be passed by Congress.

Uncertainty around the measure is one of the risks facing the economy, she said.

Stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 373 points.

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Re: POLITICS

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THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR August 7, 2020 at 11:18 am

Paul Plante says:

So, if Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York has taken an oath to support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the State of New York, and that she would faithfully discharge the duties of the office of mayor of Albany according to the best of her ability, and the City of Albany, NY Charter Article III, “Executive Branch,” Section 301, defines her powers and duties as (d) The Mayor shall take care that the laws of the state, together with all local laws, resolutions and ordinances of the Common Council are faithfully executed and enforced within the City, then why is the mayor advocating for a Marxist faction in America that is dedicated to dismantling what they are calling “cisgender privilege,” whatever that might in fact be, beyond a concept in the minds of these Marxists mayor Kathy is advocating for?

And what does it portend for society here in the United States of America when we have the Democrat mayor of Albany, New York asking us to “foster a queer‐affirming network?”

When the mayor of the capital city of New York is advocating for the fostering of a “queer‐affirming network,” where to foster is to nurture something, for what exact purpose to society is mayor Kathy Sheehan of Albany, New York dedicating herself to nurturing a “queer‐affirming network,” where “affirming” is taken to mean offer emotional support or encouragement?

And what exactly is this “queer‐affirming network” that mayor Kathy wants us to nurture?

And what of her advocacy for freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual, when we have known since at least the time the Bible was written by the Roman Emperor Constantine in or around 325 A.D., which is 1,695 years ago that there are among us many people who are not “heterosexual?”

What purpose is the mayor trying to accomplish here in 2020, given that five years ago in 2015, the United States Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges ruled that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional and that the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples and the refusal to recognize those marriages performed in other jurisdictions violates the Due Process and the Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and that “(U)nder the Constitution, same-sex couples seek in marriage the same legal treatment as opposite-sex couples, and it would disparage their choices and diminish their personhood to deny them this right,” in essence, recognizing the LGBT community as fundamental to American life, which decision was based on the fundamental right to marry and the equality that must be afforded gay Americans?

Given that since at least 2015, if not much earlier, given the time it takes for matters to reach and be decided by the Supreme Court, the alleged and supposed “tight grip” of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual, has been peeled loose by the Supreme Court, which decision is “law of the land” binding on mayor Kathy and the BLACK LIVES MATTER crowd, what exactly is the issue today?

Does mayor Kathy not know of this decision?

But how can that be, given that the City of Albany in New York State already prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression, and New York State’s 2011 Marriage Equality Act also gives same-sex couples the right to marry in New York State and provides them the same rights, responsibilities, and benefits under State and local law enjoyed by opposite-sex couples so that same-sex couples can reap state tax benefits, state and municipal employee benefits, insurance benefits from state-licensed insurance agencies, health care benefits, expanded property rights, parental rights and a wide array of legal rights, and same-sex couples are now able to file joint state tax returns, take spousal deductions on state income taxes, exclude employer contributions for health insurance, exempt property from the state estate tax, and receive other tax benefits previously available only to opposite-sex couples?

Questions for our times, indeed.

But will answers ever be forthcoming from mayor Kathy?

Stay tuned for further developments.

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Re: POLITICS

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MARKETWATCH

"U.S. adds 1.76 million jobs in July as hiring slows after fresh coronavirus outbreak"


By Jeffry Bartash

Published: Aug. 7, 2020 at 9:23 a.m. ET

The numbers:

The torrid pace of U.S. employment growth in the late spring gave way in July to a sharp slowdown in hiring, underscoring the fragile nature of a recovery with the coronavirus still running rampant in many states.

The economy regained 1.76 million jobs last month, just one-third of the revised 4.79 million gain in June.

The official unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell for the third month in a row to 10.2% from 11.1%, the government said Friday.

The U.S. stock market fell in early Friday trades.

The increase in new jobs was slightly above the 1.68 million MarketWatch forecast.

The smaller increase in job creation took place against the backdrop of surge in coronavirus cases in a number of states, including California, Texas and Florida.

Some restrictions on businesses were reimposed and Americans showed more caution in where they went and what they did.

The mild improvement in hiring was a bit weaker than it appeared.

The government’s process of seasonal adjustments showed an exaggerated increase in school employment.

Stripping out government employment, private-sector jobs rose by 1.46 million last month.

The slowdown in hiring — hardly unexpected — will make it harder for the economy to recover quickly.

The U.S. shed more than 22 million jobs during the height of the pandemic.

So far it’s only restored about 9.3 million, leaving more than half of the Americans who lost their jobs in the lurch.

What’s more, an even larger 31 million people were collecting unemployment benefits in mid-July based on the most recent numbers available.

A divided Congress still hasn’t agreed to extend a $600 federal unemployment bonus that expired at the end of July, another potential roadblock for the recovery.

What happened:

Restaurants and retailers added the most jobs in July, but at a slower pace compared to the prior two months.

Restaurants rehired 502,000 workers and retailed raised employment by 258,000.

Restaurants and retailers have been at the epicenter of the pandemic.

They suffered the biggest decline in employment early on, shedding more than 8 million jobs combined.

They’ve brought back about half of those jobs since then, but progress from here on out is likely to be erratic after the latest coronavirus outbreak spurred states to tighten restrictions on business openings and indoor activities.

The number of people employed by government showed an 301,000 increase, but the outsized gained was partly a statistical anomaly.

Many school workers such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers who would normally be laid off in July were sent home after schools closed early in the spring.

The government’s normal process of seasonal adjustments made it look like hiring rose simply because those layoffs did not take place in July as usual.

The federal government also hired more Census workers.

In other key segments of the economy, health-care providers boosted payrolls by 126,000.

Manufacturers added 26,000 jobs.

And construction companies took on 20,000 workers to keep pace with rising demand for houses.

Home builders have been a surprise beneficiary of the crisis.

Mortgage interest rates have fallen to modern record lows and many people are fleeing crowded cities for more space in the suburbs and country.

The energy sector, on the other hand, has also been hard hit by the pandemic.

People are driving and flying far less, reducing demand for oil and gas.

Employment fell by 7,000.

Average hourly wages edged up slightly, rising 7 cents to $29.39 an hour.

Yet massive swings in employment have made the normally slow-changing pay data less useful as a gauge of how much wages going up.

Although the official jobless rate fell again, it’s quite likely the true level of unemployment is higher.

A broader measure of unemployment known as the U6 rate suggests the “real” rate was 16.5% in July, a bit lower from 18% in the prior month.

The U6 rate includes workers who can only find part-time jobs and those who have become too discouraged to look for jobs because so few are available.

The government revised the June employment gain down slightly to 4.79 million.

The increase in May was raised a touch to 2.73 million.

Big picture:

The resurgence in coronavirus cases partly sidetracked a recovery that gained steam in May and early June and indicates a rocky path ahead for the economy.

The U.S. simply can’t return to normal while the coronavirus is still a big threat and millions of people can’t go back to work.

The longer the health crisis goes on, economists say, the more likely that temporary job losses become permanent and the longer it will take for the U.S. to recover.

Some say the process could take years absent a vaccine or other effective treatments for COVID-19.

What they are saying?

"The economic outlook deteriorated markedly from the middle to the end of July as consumers became less willing to spend money, and businesses grew increasingly uncertain about the demand for their goods,” said economist John Leer at Morning Consult.

“As a result, the current employment situation is likely weaker than these numbers indicate.”

Market reaction:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were set to open lower in Friday trades.

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Re: POLITICS

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THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR August 8, 2020 at 6:01 pm

Paul Plante says:

And this brings us back around to Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York being quoted in the Albany, New York Times Union story “As statues tumble, relatives of Gen. Philip Schuyler ask for pause” by Brendan J. Lyons on July 5, 2020 as saying “To me, stating that Black Lives Matter is something that we have to say out loud because of our history,” which again raises the question of exactly what history she is talking about that requires us today to have to say “out loud” (to whom I must wonder) Black Lives Matter, which is kind of a joke when one watches Ray Rice, a Black man, punching his fiancee, a Black woman, in the face in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo1UMV1GATQ

There is Black Lives Matter for you in technicolor.

And that is history, as well.

So according to mayor Kathy, white people have to say Black Lives Matter, which of course they do, given that ALL lives matter to white people, but to the Black folks like Ray Rice, and mayor Kathy ought to be aware of this with all the Black Folks in her city of Albany, a special place filled with people who care, who are kind to one another and love her great city, which is horse****, shooting each other, to the Black folks, Black lives aren’t worth spit.

What is “our history?”

Does it include, say, the Grand Settlement or Great Peace of Montreal which was negotiated between the Iroquois Confederacy and New France on 4 August 1701, which treaty ended over one hundred years of warfare between the Iroquois, Hurons, Algonquians, English, and the French?

When mayor Kathy tells the Albany, New York Times Union that “I think it’s very important that we recognize that 400 years of white supremacy have consequences” and “We have to speak to those consequences and own it in order for us to engage in this civic discourse that we need to continue to engage in to ensure that we are creating a more perfect union,” is she talking about the Great Peace of Montreal on 4 August 1701 which ended over one hundred years of warfare between the Iroquois and the Hurons, who were all but wiped from the face of the earth by the Iroquois?

And that thought takes us back to Hearst Publishing’s own star political correspondent Amy Biancolli of the Albany, New York Times Union and her TWEET to the TWITTERATI on TWITTER on June 23, 2020, where she TWEETED as follows:

For too many people, History = What They Learned As Kids.

And that’s it.

No room for the voices of people of color.

end quotes

I truthfully have no idea what she learned about history as a “kid,” and frankly, based on her ignorance today, it wasn’t much, but what I learned as a kid included that Great Peace, and the more than one hundred years of warfare that led up to it, and I learned as a kid that during the American Revolutionary War, Walter Butler, a New York Loyalist, led a mixed force of Indians and Loyalists to the area of Cherry Valley in what became the state of New York, resulting in the Cherry Valley Massacre, during which more than 40 people were killed and many were captured, which massacre was followed by a second raid in 1780, leading to the temporary abandonment of the village.

And that in turn brings us back to Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York telling the people of America during an interview with Fox News that “(I)f this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it,” and “This country is built upon violence,” pointing to the American Revolution as an example.

And as a child, a “kid” in the parlance of Amy Biancolli, I learned a lot about that violence, which takes us to a speech we learned as children by Colonel Isaac Barré (6 November 1726 – 20 July 1802), an Irish soldier and politician who earned distinction serving with the British Army during the Seven Years’ War and later became a prominent Member of Parliament, known for coining the term “Sons of Liberty” in reference to American colonists who opposed the British government’s policies, who with strong feelings of indignation in his countenance and expression, replied to Mr. Townsend in the following eloquent and laconic manner in March of 1765, to wit:

“THEY (the colonists in this country who rebelled against the King of England in 1776) PLANTED BY YOUR CARE?”

“No.”

“Your oppressions planted them in America.”

“They fled from your tyranny into a then uncultivated land , where they were exposed to all the hardships to which human nature is liable; and among others, to the cruel ties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and, I will take upon me to say, the most terrible, that ever inhabited any part of God’s earth.”

“And yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty , they met all these hardships with pleasure, when they compared them with those they suffered in their own country, from men who should have been their friends.”

“THEY NOURISHED BY YOUR INDULGENCE?”

“They grew up by your neglect of them.”

“As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them in one department and in another, who were perhaps the deputies of deputies to some members of this House, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them.”

”Men whose behavior on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them.”

“Men promoted to the highest seats of justice, some of whom to my knowledge were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own.”

“THEY PROTECTED BY YOUR ARMS?”

“They have nobly taken up arms in your defence.”

“They have exerted a valor amidst their constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument.”

“And believe – remember I this day tell you so, that same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first, will accompany them still: but prudence forbids me to explain myself further.”

“God knows I do not at this time speak from any motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart.”

“However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this House may be, yet I claim to know more of Americans than most of you , having seen and been conversant in that country.”

“The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the King has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated: but the subject is too delicate – I will say no more.”

end quotes

So, when Kathy Sheehan of the Democrat-controlled sanctuary city of Albany, New York tells the Albany Times Union that “I think it’s very important that we recognize that 400 years of white supremacy have consequences,” is she channeling Colonel Isaac Barré (6 November 1726 – 20 July 1802), an Irish soldier and politician who earned distinction serving with the British Army and who during the French and Indian War here in what became the United States of America served under his patron General James Wolfe on the Rochefort expedition of 1757, fighting at both Louisbourg (1758) and Quebec (1759), and who in the Quebec expedition, in which Wolfe was killed, was severely wounded by a bullet in the cheek, losing the use of his right eye?

Is that some of the violence this Hawk Newsome of Black Lives Matter is talking about?

Stay tuned for more on that subject of violence and burning is yet to come.

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Re: POLITICS

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THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR August 9, 2020 at 12:21 pm

Paul Plante says:

So, yes, people, burning down America and committing acts of violence against the people of America as this Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, was threatening, as if he were a modern incarnation of British General Johnny Burgoyne, who made similar threats to the American people in 1777, threatening the people of America with during an interview with Fox News telling us that “(I)f this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it,” and “This country is built upon violence,” pointing to the American Revolution as an example, which takes us back to the American Revolution for a real candid look at some of what this Hawk Newsome and BLACK LIVES MATTER, and by extension, Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York, are threatening us with today, to wit:

On the 17th of June 1775, the battle of Breed’s, now called Bunker’s hill, was fought

An intrenchment was thrown up on the preceding evening, by a body of one thousand men under Colonel Prescot.

The intention was to have fortified Bunker’s hill, but the officers sent to throw up the redoubt, found that less tenable, and built the fortification on Breed’ s hill.

Ground was broken at twelve o’clock at night, and by daylight a redoubt had been thrown up eight rods square.

In the morning, a reinforcement of five hundred men was sent to their assistance.

Although a heavy cannonading was kept up from daylight by the British shipping, the Americans, encouraged by General Putnam and other brave officers, did not cease their labors.

About noon, General Gage, astonished at the boldness of the American militia, sent a body of three thousand regulars, under Generals Howe and Pigot, to storm the works.

Generals Clinton and Burgoyne took a station in Boston, where they had a commanding view of the hill.

The towers of the churches — the roofs of the houses, indeed every eminence in and around Boston, was covered with anxious spectators, many of whom had dear relatives exposed to the known danger, awaiting with almost breathless anxiety the deadly conflict.

Many, and heart-felt were the prayers then offered up, for the success of the patriot band.

About the time the action commenced, General Warren, who was president of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, joined the Americans on the hill as a volunteer.

The British troops, having landed from their boats, marched to attack the works.

The Americans, reserving their fire until the white of the eye was visible, then opened a most destructive one, dealing death on every hand.

Indeed, rank after rank was cut down, like grass before the mower.

The enemy wavered , and soon retreated in disorder down the hill.

Then might doubtless have been heard a stifled murmur of applause, among the eye witnesses in Boston, who believed their countrymen fighting a just cause.

And then too, might have been seen the lip of the British officer and rank Tory, compressed with anger and mortification.

While this attack was in progress, the firebrand of the licensed destroyer, by the diabolical order of Gen. Gage, was communicated to the neighboring village of Charlestown, containing some six hundred buildings, and the whole in a short time were reduced to ashes; depriving about two thousand inhabitants of a shelter, and destroying property amounting to more than half a million of dollars.

The British officers with much difficulty again rallied their troops, and led them a second time to the attack.

They were allowed to approach even nearer than before; when the Americans, having witnessed the conflagration of Charlestown, themselves burning to revenge the houseless mother and orphan, sent the messenger of death among their ranks.

The carnage became a second time too great for the bravery of the soldier – the ranks were broken, and the enemy again retreated, some even taking refuge in the boats.

When the British troops wavered a second time, Clinton, vexed at their want of success, hastened to their assistance with a reinforcement.

On his arrival, the men were again rallied, and compelled by the officers, who marched in their rear with drawn swords, to renew the attack.

At this period of the contest, the ammunition of the Americans failed, and the enemy entered the redoubt.

Few of the former had bayonets, yet for a while they continued the unequal contest with clubbed muskets, but were finally overpowered .

The American loss in numbers was inconsiderable until the enemy scaled the works.

They were forced to retreat over Charlestown Neck , a narrow isthmus which was raked by an incessant fire from several floating batteries.

The British loss in this, which was the first regular fought battle in the Revolution, was, in killed and wounded, one thousand and fifty-four, including many officers, among whom was Major Pitcairn of Lexington memory.

The American loss in killed and wounded, was four hundred and fifty-three; and among the former was the talented , the kind-hearted and zealous patriot, Gen. Warren who received a musket bullet through the head.

Now, is that some of the violence and burning that this Hawk Newsome and BLACK LIVES MATTER, and by extension, Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York, are threatening us with today, as if there are no consequences from those threats?

Sticking with the burning this Hawk Newsome and BLACK LIVES MATTER, and by extension, Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York, are threatening us with today, the British, in 1775, burnt Stonington in Connecticut, Bristol in Rhode Island, and Falmouth in Massachusetts.

And Lord Dunmore, the Royal governor of Virginia, had for some time been arming the slaves who Amy Biancolli of the Albany, New York Times Union TWEETED to the TWITTERATI on TWITTER on June 23, 2020 “For too many people, History = What they Learned As Kids and that’s it – NO room for the voices of people of color,” which is a very ignorant statement as anyone who learned this history in the 7th grade knows, and instigating them to imbrue their hands in the blood of their masters; and on the first of January, 1776, he burnt Norfolk, Virginia.

Is mayor Kathy, the ROYAL mayor of Albany, New York instigating the BLACK LIVES MATTER crowd today to imbrue their hands in the blood of white people in America today?

And that thought takes us back to the 7th grade and the following extract from a letter from Col. Peter Gansevoort (July 17, 1749 – July 2, 1812), a Colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, to Col. Goosen Van Schaick (September 5, 1736 – July 4, 1789), a Continental Army officer during the American Revolutionary War, dated Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix), July 28th, 1777, which we learned about as “kids,” as Amy Biancolli in her ignorance calls us, to wit:

“Dear Sir – Yesterday, at 3 o ‘ clock in the afternoon, our garrison was alarmed with the firing of four guns.”

“A party of men was instantly dispatched to the place where the guns were fired, which was in the edge of the woods, about five hundred yards from the fort; but they were too late.”

“The villains were fled, after having shot three girls who were out picking raspberries, two of whom were lying scalped and tomahawked; one dead and the other expiring, who died in about half an hour after she was brought home.”

“The third had two balls through her shoulder, but made out to make her escape.”

“Her wounds are not thought dangerous: by the best discoveries we have made, there were four Indians who perpetrated these murders.“

“I had four men with arms just passed that place, but these mercenaries of Britain come not to fight, but to lie in wait to murder; and it is equally the same to them, if they can get a scalp, whether it is from a soldier or an innocent babe.”

end quotes

That is the history that I learned as a “kid,” and when I hear this Hawk Newsome and BLACK LIVES MATTER, and by extension, Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York, threatening us with violence and burning today, that is the wide-open lens that I am looking through, which takes us back to that 7th grade history lesson that Kathy Sheehan and Amy Biancolli and this Hawk Newsome of BLACK LIVES MATTER apparently missed, to wit:

In the course of 1777, Lieutenant General William Tryon (8 June 1729 – 27 January 1788), a British Army general and official who served as the 39th governor of New York from 1771 to 1777, became almost a savage – sending out parties to burn buildings and wantonly destroy the property of many inoffensive colonists.

When remonstrated with by Gen. Parsons, he declared that had he more authority, he would burn every committeeman’s house within his reach, and expressed a willingness to give twenty silver dollars for every acting committee man who should be delivered to the King’ s troops.

end quotes

Is that some of the violence and burning this Hawk Newsome and BLACK LIVES MATTER, and by extension, Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York, are threatening us with today, as if there are no consequences arising from those threats?

Does Kathy Sheehan of Albany somehow believe she is a modern incarnation of Governor Tryon?

Stay tuned to this same station for further developments in the breaking news story!

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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR August 9, 2020 at 10:59 pm

Paul Plante says:

And staying with the violence and burning this Hawk Newsome and BLACK LIVES MATTER, and by extension, Kathy Sheehan, the Democrat mayor of the sanctuary city of Albany, New York, are threatening us with today, as if there are no consequences arising from those threats, and going back for the moment to Hearst Publishing’s own star political correspondent Amy Biancolli of the Albany, New York Times Union and her TWEET to the TWITTERATI on TWITTER on June 23, 2020 that “For too many people, History = What They Learned As Kids and that’s it; no room for the voices of people of color,” by taking a look at the actual history taught to us as children, we can see just how ridiculous her comment about “no room for the voices of people of color” really is, to wit:

From The History of Schoharie County: And Border Wars of New York; Containing Also a Sketch of the Causes which Led to the American Revolution written in 1845 by Jeptha Root Simms (December 31, 1807 – May 31, 1883), an American historian best known for chronicling the settlement of upstate New York, to wit:

Scene: the Schoharie Valley during the American Revolution in the year 1780:

Nothing more was heard of the enemy until Sunday night the 21st day of May 1780, when Sir John Johnson, at the head of about five hundred troops, British, Indians and Tories, entered the Johnstown settlements from the expected northern route.

The objects of the invasion doubtless were the recovery of property concealed on his leaving the country, the murder of certain whig partizans, the plunder of their dwellings, and the capture of several individuals as prisoners intending, by the execution of part of the enterprize, to terrify his former neighbors.

end quotes

Focus on that phrase “terrify his former neighbors” for a moment as we consider this thinly-veiled threat by Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York during an interview with Fox News that “(I)f this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.”

Getting back to the narrative, which is American history as it actually happened, not some sanitized version that makes the Native Americans seem like the victims of the white folks, which is the politically correct way of viewing history today through a very tiny lens, we have:

About midnight the destructives (Indians and Tories) arrived in the northeast part of the town, from which several of the Tories had disappeared the day before, to meet and conduct their kindred spirits to the dwellings of their patriotic neighbors: for when Johnson was censured for the murder of those men, he replied that “their Tory neighbors and not himself were blameable for those acts.”

A party of the enemy proceeded directly to the house of Lodowick Putman, an honest Dutchman, living two miles and a half from the court house.

Putman had three sons and two daughters.

On the night the enemy broke into his house, two of his sons were fortunately gone sparking a few miles distant.

Old Mr. Putman, who was a whig of the times, and his son Aaron who was at home, were taken from their beds, murdered, and scalped.

end quotes

Now, this is the history that I grew up with as a child, regardless of what this Amy Biancolli didn’t learn in the 7th grade, and the reason we children, or “kids” as Amy Biancolli calls us, learned this history was so that we could appreciate why it is that we make every effort, unlike Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, to live in peace with each other, because when we don’t, this is what it looks like in full technicolor, which takes us back to that narrative, as follows:

While some of the enemy were at Putman’s, another party approached the dwelling of Stevens, and forcing the doors and windows, entered it from different directions at the same instant.

Poor Stevens was also dragged from his bed, and compelled to leave his house.

end quotes

When this Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, threatens us as he did during an interview with Fox News telling us that “(I)f this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it,” referring to violence during the American Revolution, this is exactly where his threatening words lead us older Americans, which takes us back to the history of that violence, as follows:

A few rods from the house Stevens was murdered, scalped and hung upon the garden fence.

After the enemy had left the dwelling, Mrs. Stevens looked out to see if she could discover any one about the premises.

She had supposed her husband taken by them into captivity; but seeing in the uncertain starlight the alınost naked form of a man leaning upon the fence, she readily imagined it to be that of her husband.

In a tremulous voice she several times called “Amasa! Amasa!” but receiving no answer she ran to the fence.

God only knows what her mental agony was on arriving there and finding her husband stiffening in death.

Dividing his forces, Col. Johnson sent part of them, mostly Indians and Tories, to Tribes’ Hill under the direction, as believed, of Henry and William Bowen, two brothers who had formerly lived in that vicinity and removed with the Johnsons to Canada.

These destructives were to fall upon the Mohawk river settlements at the Hill, and proceed up its flats, while Johnson led the remainder in person by a western route to Caughnawaga, the appointed place for them to unite.

The Bowens led their followers through Albany Bush, a Tory settlement in the eastern part of the town, where, of course, no one was molested, and directed their steps to the dwelling of Capt. Garret Putman, a noted whig.

Putman, who had a son named Victor, also a whig, had been ordered to Fort Hunter but a few days before, and had removed his family thither, renting his house to William Gault, an old English gardener who had resided in Cherry Valley before its destruction, and Thomas Plateau, also an Englishman.

Without knowing that the Putman house had changed occupants, the enemy surrounded it, forced an entrance, and tomahawked and scalped its inmates.

The house was then pillaged and set on fire, and its plunderers knew not until next day, that they had obtained the scalps of two tories.

In the morning, Gault, who was near eighty years old, was discovered alive outside the dwelling, and was taken across the river to Fort Hunter, where his wounds were properly drest, but he soon after died.

end quotes

When this Hawk Newsome, chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York threatens the people of America during an interview with Fox News telling us that “(I)f this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it,” these are the memories of past burnings and violence that he invokes, which again takes us back to the narrative, to wit:

After the murder of Gault and Plateau, the enemy proceeded up the river to the dwelling of Capt. Henry Hansen, which stood where John Fisher now resides.

On reaching the dwelling of Hansen, who was an American captain, the enemy forced an entrance and taking him from his bed they murdered and scalped him.

Proceeding west along the river, the enemy next halted at the dwelling of Barney Hansen, which stood where Benj. R. Jenkins now lives.

Hansen, who chanced to be from home, had a son about ten years of age, who was then going to school at Fort Hunter.

On Saturday evening preceding the invasion, Peter, a son of Cornelius Putman of Cadaughrity, about the same age as young Hansen, went home with the latter, crossing the river in a boat to tarry with him over Sunday.

The lads slept in a bunk, which, on retiring to rest on Sunday night, was drawn before the outside door; and the first intimation the family had of the enemy’s proximity was their heavy blows upon the door with an axe just before daylight, sending the splinter’s upon the boys’ bed, causing them to bury their heads beneath the bedding.

An entrance was quickly forced, and the house plundered.

About twenty of the enemy first arrived at the old Fisher place, and attempted to force an entrance by cutting in the door, but being fired upon from a window by the intrepid inmates, they retreated round a corner of the house, where they were less exposed.

The main body of the enemy, nearly three hundred in number, arrived soon after and joined in the attack.

At this period the sisters escaped from the cellar kitchen, and fled to the woods not far distant.

Mrs. Fisher, about to follow her daughters from the house, was stricken down at the door by a blow on the head from the butt of a musket, and left without being scalped.

The brothers returned the fire of their assailants for a while with spirit, but getting out of ammunition their castle was no longer tenable; and Harman, jumping from a back window, attempted to escape by flight.

In the act of leaping a garden fence a few rods from the house, he was shot, and there killed and scalped.

As the enemy ascended the stairs, Col. Fisher discharged a pistol he held in his hand, and calling for quarters, threw it behind him in token of submission.

An Indian, running up, struck him a blow on the head with a tomahawk, which brought him to the floor.

He fell upon his face, and the Indian took two crown scalps from his head, which no doubt entitled him to a double reward, then giving him a gash in the back of the neck, he turned him and attempted to cut his throat, which was only prevented by his cravat, the knife penetrating just through the skin.

His brother, Capt. Fisher, as the enemy ascended the stairs, retreated to one corner of the room in which was a quantity of peas, that he might there repel his assailants.

An Indian, seeing him armed with a sword, hurled a tomahawk at his head, which brought him down.

He was then killed outright, scalped as he lay upon the grain, and there left.

Leaving the progress of the destructives for a time, let us follow the fortunes of Col. Fisher.

After the enemy had left, his consciousness returned, and as soon as strength would allow, he ascertained that his brother John was dead.

From a window he discovered that the house was on fire, which no doubt quickened his exertions.

Descending, he found his mother near the door, faint from the blow dealt upon her head, and too weak to render him any assistance.

With no little effort the colonel succeeded in removing the body of his brother out of the house, and then assisted his mother, who was seated in a chair, the bottom of which had already caught fire, to a place of safety; and having carried out a bed, he laid down upon it, at a little distance from the house, in a state of exhaustion.

end quotes

And here enters the narrative a “person of color,” to wit:

Tom, a black slave, belonging to Adam Zielie, was the first neighbor to arrive at Fisher’s.

He enquired of the colonel what he should do for him?

Fisher could not speak, but signified by signs his desire for water.

Tom ran down to the Dadenoscara, a brook running through a ravine a little distance east of the house, and filling his old hat, the only substitute for a vessel at hand, he soon returned with it; a drink of which restored the wounded patriot to consciousness and speech.

His neighbor, Joseph Clement, arrived at Fisher’s while the colonel lay upon the bed, and on being asked by Tom Zielie what they should do for him, unblushingly replied in Low Dutch, “Laat de vervlukten rabble starven!”

Let the cursed rebel die!

Tom, who possessed a feeling heart, was not to be suaded from his Samaritan kindness, by the icy coldness of his Tory neighbor, and instantly set about relieving the suffering man’s condition.

Uriah Bowen arrived about the time Tom returned with the water, and assisted in removing the dead and wounded farther from the burning building.

Col. Fisher directed Tom to harness a span of colts, then in a pasture near, (which, as the morning was very foggy, had escaped the notice of the enemy) before a wagon, and take him to the river at David Putman’s.

The colts were soon harnessed, when the bodies of the murdered brothers, and those of Col. Fisher and his mother, were put into the wagon, (the two latter upon a bed) and it moved forward.

The noise of the wagon was heard by the girls, who came from their concealment to learn the fate of the family, and join the mournful group.

When the wagon arrived near the bank of the river, several Tories were present, who refused to assist in carrying the Fishers down the bank to a canoe, whereupon Tom took the colts by their heads, and led them down the bank; and what was then considered remarkable, they went as steadily as old horses, although never before harnessed.

The family were taken into a boat and carried across the river to Ephraim Wemple’s, where every attention was paid them.

When a person is scalped, the skin falls upon the face so as to disfigure the countenance; but on its being drawn up on the crown of the head, the face resumes its natural look; such was the case with Col. Fisher, as stated by an eye witness.

Seeing the necessity of his having proper medical attention, Col. Fisher’s friends on the south side of the river, sent him forward in the canoe by trusty persons, to Schenectada, where he arrived just at dark the same day of his misfortune.

There he received the medical attendance of Doctors Mead of that place, Stringer, of Albany, and two Surgeons, belonging to the U.S. army.

After he recovered, he gave the faithful negro who had treated him so kindly when suffering under the wounds of the enemy, a valuable horse.

Tom afterwards lived in Schoharie county, where he was much respected for his industrious habits, and where at a good old age he died.

After his removal to Schoharie, he usually paid Col. Fisher a visit every year, when he received substantial evidence of that patriot’s gratitude.

end quotes

So much for treating the colored folks as if they were not human.

As we can see, actual history tells us a far different tale than does TWEETING Amy Biancolli of the Albany, New York Times Union.

Why is that, one must wonder?

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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

"Albany nears 100 people being hit by bullets in 2020 - Four people shot Saturday night in continuing plague of violence"

Massarah Mikati, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

Updated: Aug. 9, 2020 6:14 p.m.

ALBANY — It was just before 8 p.m. Saturday when the sound of gunshots split the air in West Hill at least 20 times in a row.

Four people were shot.

One of them, an 18-year-old, died.


Saturday’s shooting, which Albany police say was a drive-by with more than one shooter in the vehicle, brings the city’s total number of gunshot victims this year to 91.

The victim is the 11th person to be killed in Albany so far in 2020, as part of a wave of violence and gun incidents that have hit the city.

“This one is still very preliminary, but what we’ve learned through a lot of our investigations is that the incidents of violence — specifically the shootings — involve people who know each other that are settling disputes or conflicts they have with one another, and that it is a small group of people who are responsible for a majority of the violence in the city,” said Steve Smith, Albany police spokesman.

Two of Saturday’s victims — including the 18-year-old who later died at Albany Medical Center Hospital — were shot in the torso.

Another sustained a gunshot wound in his hand, and the fourth in his leg.

The three survivors, who are 22, 28 and 29 years old, have non-life-threatening injuries, Smith said.

The last homicide happened July 11.

In that case Jose Moreno, 31, of Schenectady was shot and killed around 3:15 a.m. near Grand Street and Ash Grove Place.

So far, 2020 marks the second most violent year Albany has seen in recent history.

In 2018, there were 15 homicides.

However, there is a slight glimmer of hope, city officials say.

“What we are seeing is a reduction in the pace of the violence."

"So the rates of shootings we were seeing a month ago have slowed down,” Mayor Kathy Sheehan said Sunday.

“It’s still too high, we still have a long road ahead of us, but we are seeing a reduction in the rate of these violent crimes.”

According to Sheehan, there has been a 15 percent increase in all violent crime cases — which includes more than just shootings — in 2020 compared to 2019.

But there has been a 12 percent decrease over the past 28 days.

“That is an indicator to me and to those in law enforcement that by reinstating the strategies that we were engaging in prior to COVID-19, we’ve been able to slow the pace, but it’s still too high,” Sheehan said.

One of those critical strategies is 518SNUG, a violence intervention group.

Members of the group typically visit gun violence victims in the hospital to urge families and friends not to retaliate against the aggressor.

During the pandemic, the group didn’t have access to the hospital, but now they do.

Law enforcement has also had a heavier presence in neighborhoods than during the height of the pandemic.

New York suddenly closed schools and businesses in mid-March in an effort to try and stop the coronavirus.

Most businesses have since reopened, and as of now school is scheduled to begin again after Labor Day.

Sheehan said there has also been an increase in outreach from the faith-based community and other community-based organizations.

Sheehan also stressed that while the perpetrators of violence are typically a circle of known individuals, the reason for the high number of victims thus far is because many weren’t intended targets, but rather “in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person who was being targeted for whatever reason.”

Those connections span other Capital Region cities as well, such as Schenectady and Troy, Sheehan said.

Schenectady has been hit particularly hard by violence since July as two innocent female bystanders - one pregnant, the other a young mother - were killed by gunfire.

“The strategies for crime prevention are things that I feel very passionately about, and I know that we could be doing more to prevent crime,” Sheehan said.

“I also believe we need to make sure we are aggressively prosecuting violent offenders who pick up a gun and fire at a group of people and place everyone in our community in danger,” she continued.

“That type of brazen act and disregard for human life is something that is not acceptable in any community.”


At this time the investigation into Saturday night's shooting remains ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call the Albany Police Detective Division at 518-462-8039.

Written By Massarah Mikati

Massarah Mikati covers communities of color and breaking news for the Times Union. She was previously a state reporter for Johnson Newspaper Corp., covering the New York State Legislature for 10 counties in the Hudson Valley, Western New York and North Country. From 2017-2019, Massarah was a Hearst Fellow reporting on immigrants and refugees for the Times Union, then communities of color for the Houston Chronicle. Massarah graduated from The Ohio State University in 2017 with a B.A. in journalism, Middle East studies and Francophone studies. Follow her on Twitter and send tips to mmikati@timesunion.com.

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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

"As shootings rise, young offenders in Albany 'run ragged' - Albany joins other cities across NY seeing surge in gun violence, much of it caused by teenagers"

Brendan J. Lyons, Albany, New York Times Union

July 11, 2020

Updated: July 12, 2020 9:39 a.m.

ALBANY — Tears streamed down the faces of the two mothers as they embraced in a hallway outside a second-floor courtroom at the Albany County Judicial Center earlier this month.

Both women had sons who had been shot in broad daylight, nearly a year apart and allegedly by the same 17-year-old boy from Albany.

The first victim, a 3-year-old toddler, was struck in the arm by a stray bullet in July 2019 as he took a nap in a South End day care center.


He needed surgery to repair the broken arm; the bullet had come within inches of his heart.

The other victim, 21-year-old Nyjawaun Thomas of Troy, was gunned down late last month, just steps from an Albany police station.

Thomas was killed after he climbed from the wreckage of a rented U-Haul truck following a brief car chase that ended with the 17-year-old brazenly firing from his driver's-side window as he drove past Thomas.

He circled back and fired again, but law enforcement officials said Thomas was already dead.

The mothers of the victims were in the courtroom on July 1 as the 17-year-old and an adult co-defendant, 19-year-old Bahkee Green, were sentenced to prison terms of 15 and 10 years, respectively, for the shooting that injured the 3-year-old.

The two teens pleaded guilty to weapons charges, admitting they had driven with two others to the South End last summer and fired a hail of bullets at a group of young men they viewed as their enemies.

The 17-year-old had been arrested for the day care shooting a year ago and was initially charged with attempted murder, reckless endangerment, assault and tampering with evidence.

But his arrest kept him in custody at a juvenile facility only briefly, in part due to New York's bail-reform statutes and a "Raise the Age" law that went into effect over the past two years — creating a new "adolescent offender" category that ensures 16- and 17-year-olds are not automatically prosecuted in adult courts or placed in adult jails, even for crimes of violence.


The statute was intended to ensure young offenders are not unfairly punished, and to provide them with services needed to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into their communities rather than throwing them in prison.

Pressing for those reforms, advocates noted that New York was one of the last states to automatically treat offenders as young as 16 as adults in criminal prosecutions.

The state passed the legislation with reimbursable funding intended to help expand local programs to aid the troubled youths.

But a fallout of the statute has been a veritable revolving door in the youth justice system that has been evident in the city of Albany, which has been rocked by gun violence this year.

Some of that violence has involved cases in which juvenile offenders were placed under the supervision of probation officials rather than incarcerated — with many being re-arrested, often on gun charges, only to be released again.

Although a large number of Albany's shootings this year — which are up nearly 400 percent from 2019 — have involved victims and suspects age 18 or older, there have also been dozens of violent crimes attributed to youthful offenders in the past two years.

Interviews with law enforcement officials and crime victims, and a months-long review of criminal cases handled in Family Court and the Youth Part of Criminal Court in Albany County, reveal numerous instances in which offenders whose release on supervision was fostered under the new statutes were subsequently arrested for committing new crimes, including murder.


Over roughly the past two years, Albany County has handled more than 100 youth and adolescent criminal cases: 31 involving weapons possession charges; 45 robberies; 16 assaults; and seven charges of murder or attempted murder.

In addition, at least a dozen teenage boys and young men involved in Albany shootings and gun cases over the past two years were not incarcerated after their arrests due to the Raise the Age statutes and the more recent bail reform changes, according to police and court records, as well as interviews with law enforcement officials.

Many of the youthful offenders, law enforcement officials said, also have been keenly aware of the relative leniency of the new statutes, and are exploiting them by failing to charge or simply cutting off GPS ankle-monitoring bracelets so that probation officers can't monitor their whereabouts.

Even when they are hauled in front of a judge, they often are put back on house arrest, where parents often struggle to control them.


Daylight shootings

The "critical provisions" of Raise the Age, which was cast in law in the April 2017 state budget by the Legislature and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, took effect in two stages: for 16-year-olds on Oct. 1, 2018, and for 17-year-olds last October.

The statute also mandated that those who commit "non-violent crimes" would receive intervention and evidence-based treatment.

Last summer, after the 17-year-old boy was arrested for the shooting that injured the toddler, the Times Union began tracking his case, and also those of numerous other youthful offenders implicated in crimes in Albany County ranging from gun trafficking to robbery, rape and murder.

The cases all are being handled either in the Youth Part of Criminal Court or in Family Court. Under the new rules, a judge is required by statute to use the least restrictive means of assuring the defendant's return to court; judges cannot consider "dangerousness to the community" in determining whether to set bail.


Most of the defendants have lived in Albany their whole lives, have no documented criminal history and therefore don’t pose a flight risk under the rules.

As a result, most end up under the supervision of probation officers with a GPS monitoring bracelet locked on their ankle.

Although there has been no formal studies on the statutes' impact on criminal statistics, part of Albany's explosion in shootings this year has been at the hands of teenagers released under the supervision of probation officers rather than jailed as adults.

A Family Court judge, after hearing prosecutors' evidence against the 17-year-old boy last summer, determined there was strong evidence that the teenager was one of the two shooters in the car that drove into the South End that afternoon.

The boy's case therefore remained in the Youth Part of Criminal Court, and he was initially held on $50,000 bond.

But after 45 days, prosecutors declined to indict the teen, in part due to what they saw as the likely need to disclose the identity of a witness if they had moved forward.


Instead, Albany detectives continued the shooting investigation, using wiretaps to build a wider case that snared the second gunman involved in the toddler's shooting and implicating several others in other shootings, and also on gun possession and gun-trafficking charges.

The 17-year-old was finally indicted for the toddler's shooting in December — and also for a second shooting that had occurred 16 days earlier, on July 2, 2019, where he and several other teenagers fired guns wildly in a public housing complex in the city's South End.

One of the weapons in that earlier shooting, a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun, was also used in the shooting that injured the toddler, according to court records.

In addition, the boy and some of his friends who were implicated in the pair of shootings were charged with tampering with evidence for returning to the car they had driven into the South End on the afternoon of the day care shooting, then removing weapons from the vehicle and wiping it down.

The evidence implicating the 17-year-old in the two daytime shootings in crowded neighborhoods included eyewitness accounts, Facebook posts, text messages, surveillance footage and even cell phone videos showing him holding the 9mm handgun.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Shanley, when he argued seven months ago for the teenager's bail to be set at $100,000, noted that the teen had been caught tampering with his ankle-monitoring bracelet, stopped attending school and broken his curfew.

"I don't think incarceration pending this matter is necessary to secure his appearance here, nor will it secure the safety of the community, as the electronic monitor certainly deters any potential criminal conduct," the teenager's court-appointed attorney, Eric Schillinger, argued at the Dec. 19 arraignment.

Judge William A. Carter, who handles Youth Part criminal cases in Albany County, agreed and allowed the teenager to remain free under the supervision of probation officers.

"If you mess up once, you will stay in jail until your trial," the judge told him.

"Do you understand that?"

Both Carter and Richard Rivera, the Family Court judge who issued the decision to keep the 17-year-old's case in youth criminal court — and handles many of the cases involving juvenile offenders — declined comment for this story.

Unsecured

Another boy, a 16-year-old boy who was with Green and the 17-year-old boy when the toddler was shot, has been in and out of secure detention after being charged with tampering with evidence.

The 16-year-old was later shot but remained uncooperative, and was charged with falsely reporting an incident.

He was arrested again, for possession of a handgun, and in the wiretap investigation had been caught on his way to sell a gun.

In addition, he was involved in a shooting incident at his mother’s house.

The 16-year-old's case is pending in Youth Part of Criminal Court, and he is currently released under the supervision of probation.

Bahkee Green, who initially faced a seven-year prison term in connection with the toddler's shooting, was released on a $50,000 "unsecured" bond following his indictment — a new provision of the bail reform statutes that prosecutors contend allows defendants in violent incidents to go free after signing what is the equivalent of a promissory note.

But after pleading guilty and prior to being sentenced, Green was re-arrested for weapons possession in connection with another shooting.

His 17-year-old co-defendant also pleaded guilty earlier this year in front of Judge Thomas A. Breslin to weapons possession in connection with the shooting of the toddler, but he remained on house arrest.

He was supposed to be sentenced in April to 10 years in prison — a term that would have begun in a juvenile detention facility — but the proceeding was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the supervision of probation officers, he continued to violate his house arrest conditions.

He became an Uber driver, which was prohibited and had not been approved.

He failed to properly charge his GPS monitoring bracelet at least six times in April and May, prompting his probation officer to order him to report to the office in early May to get a new bracelet.

But the boy didn't show up and also left home after arguing with his mother, according to court records.

He stayed out until 3 a.m. one night, and on May 11 was located in Schenectady in the middle of the night.

On May 17, he appeared in a video posted on YouTube that showed him smoking marijuana and showing off large bundles of cash; a man in a medical mask sat next to him brandishing a handgun.

On May 21, Albany County prosecutors filed a motion seeking to revoke the 17-year-old's release conditions.

The boy failed to show up in court for the hearing, and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

But he remained at large after cutting off his new ankle bracelet.

Seventeen days later, he allegedly shot two men along Central Avenue, striking one of them six times in the torso and the other victim once in the foot.

Both men survived, but the 17-year-old boy was still on the run.

On June 24, he allegedly drove to the South End looking for a man he believed had fired shots at him earlier that month.

He ended up killing Nyjawaun Thomas, possibly in a case of mistaken identity, according to police and prosecutors.

'Fed up'

The victim's mother, Shinequa Thomas, noted that her son had been sentenced to prison for robbery in 2015 when he was just 16 years old.

She cannot understand how the 17-year-old charged with killing him wasn't jailed after being indicted for shooting the toddler.

"All this stuff this boy did, he shouldn’t have been on the street, period," Thomas said.

"If they had done their job properly, my son would still be alive today."

"... I’m so so fed up with the way that this is going on. ... It doesn't make sense how he was still walking the street after all this."

The 17-year-old was arrested in Schenectady two days after Thomas was killed.

On July 1, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting the toddler — an increase of five years due to his additional arrests — and is currently negotiating a plea to resolve the June 9 shooting and the June 24 homicide, according to statements prosecutors made in court.

"There’s nothing that fell through the cracks, but there is a chasm that was created by Raise the Age … and the (new) bail laws," Albany County District Attorney David Soares said.

"The (state) district attorneys association continued to provide warnings as to what would occur."

"… We warned about the fact that young people are carrying weapons and shooting each other, that the process in Family Court was not adequate … and at the time we were told we were fear-mongering."

Soares said for 16 years his office had a program — Operation Speeding Bullet — in which they would seek to have people arrested for shootings or weapons possession incarcerated and only pursue plea agreements that included prison terms.

But that program fell apart when bail reform measures went into effect earlier this year that struck illegal gun possession off the the list of alleged offenses that allow judges to set bail.


Although there have been no formal studies of the spiking crime rates across New York this year — the state's overall crime rate is up 10 percent — statistics show the increase in gun violence in Albany is being mirrored in other cities that have seen explosions in the number of shootings and homicides.

"Because of reform, the new rule becomes: If you have a gun, we have to actually wait for you to kill someone," Soares said.

"Judges can't consider dangerousness."

"Judges can't use their discretion."

"What you have in Albany — and you have it in Syracuse and you have it in Buffalo and you have it in Rochester — this is not a coincidence."

When there are cycles of shootings, Soares said, police and prosecutors had previously used other tactics to lock up shooting suspects or individuals likely to engage in a retaliatory gun violence, including arresting them for drug charges or other criminal activity.

If they were in jail for a few months, he said, the violence would sometimes calm down.

Alice Green, executive director of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, chairs a Zero Youth Detention committee created by Albany County last year — and modeled after a successful juvenile intervention program in Seattle, Wash. — that is examining how the programs and resources available to the area's youth are functioning.

"Certainly Raise the Age cannot be blamed for whatever cases have happened in this period of time, but we haven’t looked at bail reform in terms of understanding the cases and what the impact is."

"We haven’t really looked at Raise the Age as well," Green said.

"What we have been in a habit of doing is blaming certain crimes in certain times on these reforms over this short period of time."

Prior studies have shown that locking up teenage offenders in prisons and juvenile detention facilities does not solve the problem, Green added, noting that racial disparity is at the heart of the reforms, as black juveniles tend to be locked up more than white, middle-class youth.

"This is a community issue," she said.

"When I hear prosecutors say, ‘Oh, we knew this was going to happen,’ they’re basing it on a few cases."

The motivation for the shootings in Albany and other cities is also no longer tied to drug battles or turf wars, as had been the case in much of the 1980s and '90s.

Now, law enforcement officials said, many of the shootings are simply the result of feuds prompted by social media posts or homemade videos.

"It used to be you might not see your 'enemy' for a month or two on the street."

"Now, they are in each others' faces constantly due to social media and text messages," a law enforcement official said.

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn said that it is too early to gauge whether the increase in violence — Buffalo has had an increase in shootings of more than 50 percent this year — can be attributed to bail-reform statutes.

He also said that Raise the Age statutes have not contributed, as far as he can tell, to the increase in gun violence in that region.

But there is a measurable increase in the severity of the crimes being committed by youthful offenders, he added.

"They’re going to Family Court on stolen car cases and on robbery cases, and they're graduating now to grand larceny and to gun possession cases," Flynn said.

"I’m not seeing, here, the graduation to shootings and homicides yet, but I am seeing a graduation to higher crimes."

Syracuse also has seen a spike in crime, with shootings up 55 percent from a year ago and incidents in which people are injured by gunfire up 100 percent.

Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick noted that a little more than two years ago, New York was "the safest large state in America, and at the same time had reduced its state prison population by a remarkable 30 percent."

"That’s an outstanding accomplishment."

"Our crime rates in Syracuse are through the roof as they are in New York City," Fitzpatrick said.

"We wait until the people can’t enjoy a neighborhood, until kids get shot on their way to school, where a kid is more likely to be in a gang than he is to be able to read his diploma."

"And then we try to legislate our way out of it with ridiculous laws."

"... I wish the geniuses in Albany would spend a day at a shelter, at a drug rehab center, at a funeral, at a community meeting listening to people of color begging me to get back their streets."


'Run ragged'

The 17-year-old's mother spoke to the Times Union on July 1 when her son appeared in Family Court on the murder charge, about two hours after he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting the toddler.

She said that she had sought help for her son, including pursuing a Persons in Need of Supervision petition, which places a habitually disobedient juvenile under the supervision of probation officials with treatment programs to help them correct their behavior.

But she said the programs and services offered through Family Court and probation had provided little, if any, benefit.

She said the boy was always different from his six siblings, and that she struggled to control him.

"If he had gotten the therapy and services that he needed, like a lot of these young people ...." Her voice trailed off.

"They just let them run out here and run ragged."

She said that she did not allow her son's friends to come into her home; the first time she met with officials associated with the Family Court case, they cautioned her that she could face a Child Protective Services investigation if she refused to allow him into her residence when he came home after hours, against her wishes.

She said they spoke to her son about attending night school and he went to a therapy program, "but they're not doing nothing in the program."

"They give them crackers and juice, and that's it."

Albany County officials said funding from the state has increased the past two years, including nearly $1.5 million for probation services and staffing.

The state also reimburses the county an additional $454,000 through the county's Department for Children, Youth and Families for supervision and treatment services for juveniles.

"Funding from the state has only increased over the last two years, and the county has not cut any funding from our own programs during that time," said Cameron Sagan, a spokesman for the county executive's office.

Those programs include Project Growth, which focuses on juveniles who owe restitution for crimes.

Sagan said there are also additional programs that help with employment training and job-retention skills, as well as courses to help youths obtain their driver's licenses so they get can to jobs easier.

But the programs and intervention efforts do not appear to be turning back crime, at least not over the past two years in New York.

In 2017, Cuomo hailed the legislation as a "legacy accomplishment."


His office referred comment for this story to the Division of Criminal Justice Services, which issued a statement Saturday noting New York has allocated $300 million to implement the Raise the Age law, including state and local funding for comprehensive diversion, probation, detention and programming services for youth.

"While New York provides support to assist localities with Raise the Age implementation, it's local judges who set conditions of probation and county probation departments that are responsible for ensuring those on probation are complying with those conditions," said Janine Kava, a spokeswoman for DCJS.

Alice Green, who has been involved in Albany's criminal justice initiatives for decades, said the work of the Zero Youth Detention committee has been hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic; its members have been unable to meet for months.

But she cautioned against blaming bail reform or the Raise the Age statute for the state's spike in violence, especially as that relates to youthful offenders.

"Once you take one of these kids and give them long (prison) terms, the research shows that they come back in worse condition then they went in, and it’s a real threat to public safety," she said.

"I don’t see how going backwards helps with this problem."

"This problem of youth violence is certainly much more of a problem in terms of understanding what’s happening with these kids, what’s happening in our communities, and why are there more guns."

Written By Brendan J. Lyons

Brendan J. Lyons is a senior editor for the Times Union overseeing the Capitol Bureau and Investigations. Lyons joined the Times Union in 1998 as a crime reporter before being assigned to the investigations team. He became editor of the investigations team in 2013 and joined the Capitol Bureau in 2017. You can reach him at blyons@timesunion.com or (518) 454-5547.

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