#NOTE: I report and block antisemites. Any antisemites who comment on this post I will report and block you. You have been warned.

[fdelopera]

America owes its independence to Haym Salomon, a Sephardic Jewish Patriot

A Jewish American Hero

by Yosef Kaufmann

October 17, 1781. An eerie silence takes hold over the battlefield outside Yorktown, Virginia. After weeks of non-stop artillery shells and rifle fire, the rhythmic pounding of a drum is all that is heard. Through the wispy smoke that floats above the battlefield, a British officer can be seen waving a white flag. General Cornwallis has surrendered Yorktown, ending the last major battle of the American Revolution. The surrender of Yorktown and the nearly 8,000 British troops convinced the British Parliament to start negotiating an end to the war. On September 3, 1783, the treaty of Paris was signed. The war was over.

If not for Haym Salomon, however, the decisive victory at Yorktown never would have happened.

Haym Salomon was born in Leszno, Poland, in 1740. In 1770, he was forced to leave Poland for London as a result of the Partition of Poland. Five years later, he left London for New York City, where he quickly established himself as a broker for international merchants.

Sympathetic to the Patriot cause, Haym joined the New York branch of the Sons of Liberty, a secret society that did what it could to undermine British interests in the colonies. In 1776, he was arrested by the British and charged with being a spy. He was pardoned on condition that he spend 18 months on a British ship serving as a translator for the Hessian mercenaries, as he was fluent in Polish, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian. During those 18 months, Haym used his position to help countless American prisoners escape. He also convinced many Hessian soldiers to abandon the British and join the American forces.

In 1778, he was arrested again and sentenced to death for his involvement in a plot to burn the British Royal fleet in the New York Harbour. He was sent to Provost to await execution, but he managed to bribe a guard and escape under the cover of darkness.

He fled New York, which was under the control of the British army, and moved to Philadelphia, the capital of the Revolution.

He borrowed money and started a business as a dealer of bills of exchange. His office was located near a coffee house frequented by the command of the American forces. He also became the agent to the French consul and the paymaster for the French forces in North America. Here he became friendly with Robert Morris, the newly appointed Superintendent of Finance for the 13 colonies. Records show that between 1781 and 1784, through both fundraising and personal loans, he was responsible for financing George Washington over $650,000, today worth approximately over $13 million.

By 1781, the American congress was practically broke. The huge cost of financing the war effort had taken its toll. In September of that year, George Washington decided to march on Yorktown to engage General Cornwallis. A huge French fleet was on its way from the West Indies under the command of Comte De Grasse. The fleet would only be able to stay until late October, so Washington was facing immense pressure to lead an attack on Yorktown before then.

After marching through Pennsylvania, with little in the way of food and supplies, Washington’s troops were on the verge of mutiny. They demanded a full month's pay in coins, not congressional paper money which was virtually worthless, or they would not continue their march. Washington wrote to Robert Morris saying he would need $20,000 to finance the campaign. Morris responded that there was simply no money or even credit left. Washington simply wrote, “Send for Haym Salomon.” Within days, Haym Salomon had raised the $20,000 needed for what proved to be the decisive victory of the Revolution.

Haym’s chessed continued after the war. Whenever he met someone who he felt had sacrificed during the war and needed financial assistance, he didn’t hesitate to do whatever he could to help.

He was also heavily involved in the Jewish community. He was a member of Congregation Mikveh Yisroel in Philadelphia, the fourth oldest synagogue in America, and he was responsible for the majority of the funds used to build the shul’s main building.

He also served as the treasurer to the Society for the Relief of Destitute Strangers, the first Jewish charitable organization in Philadelphia.

On January 8, 1785, Haym died suddenly at the age of 44. Due to the fact the government owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars, his family was left penniless.

His obituary in the Independent Gazetteer read:

Thursday, last, expired, after a lingering illness, Mr. Haym Salomon, an eminent broker of this city, was a native of Poland, and of the Hebrew nation. He was remarkable for his skill and integrity in his profession, and for his generous and humane deportment. His remains were yesterday deposited in the burial ground of the synagogue of this city.

Although there is little proof, many believe that when designing the American Great Seal, George Washington asked Salomon what he wanted as compensation for his generosity during the war. Salomon responded “I want nothing for myself, rather something for my people.” It is for this reason that the 13 stars are arranged in the shape of the Star of David.

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

IDF’s latest strikes in Lebanon and how media coverage of it in Al Jazeera is biased

TLDR: The IDF has killed Saleh Al-Arouri today, 2/1/2024. Don’t use Al Jazeera as your main source of news and information on the Middle East.

It has been confirmed that it targeted Hamas’ second in command deputy Saleh al-Arouri (along orher Hamas members).

Who is was Saleh Al Arouri?

Saleh Al-Arouri was Hamas’ second in command, and key founder of one of Iz al-din al-Qasam Brigades .

That is the Hamas’ armed forces who committed the October 7th Massacre and many other terror attacks).

The terrorists that invaded Israel on that day graffitied their names & saying along the lines of “the Al- Qasam bridge was here” on walls of invaded houses and outposts (as they were quite proud of the bloody crime scenes..).

* Some Not-So-Fun facts:

-both the Al Qasam brigade and the Qasam rockets shot by Hamas are named after the same man: Izz ad-din al Qasam (1881-1935).

-In case you were wondering,His occupations include: Guerrilla leader, Imam, preacher . He was a terrorist with exteme Islamic beliefs.

Al Jazeera’s biased reporting on the strike

The Al Jazeera report made in English is incredibly biased, they don’t even call him what he was- a terrorist.

“Senior Hamas official”. Imagine the outrage if Bin Ladin would’ve been called “senior Al-Qaeda official”.

Wait never mind some of you idolise him…

Before any of you argues with me - literally do a quick wikipedia search :

Al Jazeera news is known to being biased and not credible. They also have a history of anti - American, anti -Israeli reporting& *extreme* antisemitism…

Considering all of that and the fact that they repeatedly call terrorists martyrs ,I’d take their reporting with a grain of salt.

For further reading:

-The UK government policy paper “proscribed terrorist groups or organisations “ (updated 15/9/2023).

-“Hamas: who are the Qasam brigades”, by Kirsten Knipp, amp.dw.com ,11/01/2023

- Articles on the official IDF website

And yes, even Wikipedia at this point …

***I apologise for not linking everything properly, for some reason I can’t paste links today. Will try to add them in later notes under this post.

****As usual , you’re welcome to add your thoughts and things I’ve missed in the comments.

stay respectful. I will block and delete any cussing and threats.

[quakerjoe]

We keep hearing about “both sides” and “duelling rallies” in the news as though Charlottesville’ s about whether we prefer Coke or Pepsi. This is clearly false equivalence.

Yes, we have two sides. But make no mistake: One “side” wants monuments to slavery and racism taken down from their places of honor and put in museums where they belong. The other “side” uses threats, violence, and terror to put blacks, people of color, Jews, women, LGBT people, and their allies “back in their place.” Whether that “place” is in slave quarters, reservations, concentration camps, the kitchen, the closet, or out of politics, no one should have been put in those places to begin with.

Vox had a reporter in Charlottesville chatting up “both sides” during last week’s “Unite the Right Rally.” Her harrowing video report should set any all doubts about the major threat posed by the so-called “Alt-Right” to rest. And now, there’s a Facebook post from a Charlottesville resident who helped provide medical treatment to those injured. This person also knows some of the counter-protesters and their families. It turns out that while Saturday’s events were horrific, the days leading up to it were scary as well.

Medic on the scene tells us what they saw Charlottesville.

While the poster doesn’t want their name published, they’ve given American News X permission to repost it. The following has been lightly edited for clarity.

“I rarely post politics or anything else on Facebook … But let me be clear. I was acting as a medic in Charlottesville. “Both sides”-ing about it is absolutely unacceptable. Content note: I’m going to get quite graphic here because while I understand that there’s quite a range of political viewpoints among my Facebook friends, I want to get this point through to everyone whatever your politics.

In the run-up to that weekend, some local counter-protest organizers’ families were forced to flee their homes because of violent threats. Some of them had “bodyguards” – friends escorting them everywhere they went that week, even to the grocery store, work, all the mundane places that people go in their normal lives.

On Friday night, a torch-wielding mob chanting Nazi and other racist slogans (e.g. “blood and soil,” and “Jews will not replace us”), some doing Nazi salutes. They then surrounded a small group of college student counter-protesters who held a banner and stood with linked arms around a statue [of Thomas Jefferson] and screamed, “White lives matter” and “anti-white” at them. who had linked arms around a statue and held a banner. They threw fuel at the students, beat them with lit torches, pepper-sprayed them, and punched them (including pepper-spraying a girl in a wheelchair). The police mostly stood by until the Nazis were gone.

Later that night, a medic who was wearing a kippah (a Jewish skullcap) was followed in the dark by one of the Nazis and took it off after that so as not to be targeted. A university librarian who joined the students to try to protect them has now had a stroke. At some point that evening, the torch-wielders also surrounded a black church while chanting racist slogans. All of this not only hurt people that night but set expectations for how these white nationalists would behave the next day.

On Saturday morning, a line of clergy, along with a gradually growing group of other protesters, showed up outside the Nazi rally, facing militia movement members who were carrying assault rifles. Given the iconography, which included swastikas, the Black Sun, and fasces, an ancient Roman symbol of authority and the chants, of involved groups, I don’t have a problem using that word. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking these were mainstream conservative groups that are being described hyperbolically. There was shouting back and forth, and a small early fist fight where a Nazi punched a nearby counter-protester who spilled coffee on him. Nazis were screaming anti-Semitic things at rabbis in the clergy line, and chanting “blood and soil” in response to the clergy singing “This little light of mine.” Eventually, they cleared both sides out of the area.

At one point, some clergy did a peaceful blockade of one of the park entrances, which was forcibly broken by an incoming white nationalist group with skulls painted on their shields. The heavy bi-directional fighting, though, mostly got going after a group of counter-protesters nonviolently blocked the way of an oncoming group of white nationalists, who broke through the blockade with clubs and heavy shields. Some people defended themselves as the white nationalists kept charging and swinging clubs.

After that, there were fistfights and club-fights breaking out all around, Nazis pepper-spraying and tear-gassing counter-protest crowds, plastic water bottles thrown in both directions. A Nazi group that didn’t know where the entrance to the park was added to the street fights. Some clergy ran to shield vulnerable people with their bodies, and those clergies were protected by Antifa-associated counter-protesters — multiple clergy/theologians have said that they would have been “crushed” and maybe killed if Antifa had not protected them. This went on for a long time. For most of this, the police stood around. Eventually, they cleared both sides out of the area.

The town’s synagogue is a short distance from the park. Throughout the day, Nazis paraded by it doing the Nazi salute and shouting antisemitic slurs. The police had refused to provide a guard to the synagogue for some reason, so it had hired its own armed guard. There were threats of burning it down coming in. It had to cancel a Havdalah service at a congregant’s house that evening out of fear of attack.

The march that was attacked by James Fields and a caravan of cars was that afternoon. What street fighting had happened was long-since over by then. It was a happy march, it was not fighting anyone. The car attack came out of nowhere and the aftermath looked like a war zone. It hit the front of the march as the march was going around a corner, and many people weren’t sure what had happened at first, people were screaming about a bomb. In addition to the woman who died, many people had serious injuries.

A medic who was hit had to have emergency surgery to not lose her leg. A 13-year-old girl and her mom were among the injured. The street was covered in blood. The firefighters and paramedics were great. The police, on the other hand, rolled in an armored vehicle and threatened the crowd of survivors with a tear gas launcher. Police officers ordered the medics who were performing CPR on the woman who died to leave her and clear the area. They refused, and bystanders negotiated with the police to leave them alone.

There were several other incidents throughout the afternoon where white nationalists/Nazis/whatever were menacing small groups of wandering counter-protesters with their cars, swerving toward them on the sidewalk like they were going to hit them, that kind of thing, including after the car attack. At one point my medic buddy and I were about 50 feet ahead of such a group and heard screeching car sounds and screams, and ran back, thinking for a second that there had been another terrorist attack and that this time we were the only medics on-site, but fortunately it was just a scare – the driver then “rolled coal” (intentionally emitting a dark cloud of exhaust) at the people on the sidewalk before driving away. There was also an incident at some point where a young black man was badly beaten by white nationalists in a parking garage.

There is no “both sides” here. I mean, first of all, there is no moral “both sides” because anti-fascists and Nazis aren’t morally the same, period. Disrupting Nazis isn’t the same as being one, period. But there was also no “both sides” even beyond that. Mutual street fighting primarily kicked off by an attack from the opposing side, doesn’t compare to mowing people down with a car, to threatening a synagogue and a black church, to stalking someone for being visibly Jewish, to being part of a Nazi-slogan-screaming mob that surrounds and attacks peaceful college kids and could have easily killed one of them if the fuel thrown on a couple of them had been lit by one of the many thrown or swung torches.

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking the Saturday rally was starting out just a rally like others, but with racist assholes. The people organizing counter protests, whose families had to flee town, would probably take issue with that. The black church and the synagogue, the synagogue congregant who had to cancel a religious/cultural ceremony out of fear, and the ones who had to leave the building in groups out the back entrance to avoid attack, would probably take issue with that. The people who were physically attacked, on Friday night, by those in town for the Saturday rally, would probably take issue with that.

Don’t elide the difference in the questions of whether hate speech should be criminalized, and how communities and their supporters should protect themselves when people who are already threatening to kill them roll into town to rally and then physically attack community members before their rally while the police don’t stop it. Don’t invoke the Civil Rights Movement to elide it, or tsk-tsk people who were on the ground in Cville. The Civil Rights Movement had its Deacons for Defense and Justice, and similar groups. Just as importantly, many of the leading lights of the Civil Rights Movement were murdered. If you think the only valid kind of activism in response to racist hate is martyrdom, you need to at least think through the implications of that belief.

I did not have a good weekend and I have no interest in hearing comments about how, despite everything I saw and everything I said here, you think this is a “both sides” thing. If you find my activism unacceptable you are welcome to unfriend me.

“VICE News Tonight” correspondent Elle Reeves interviewed white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville and was also on the scene when James Fields’ car smashed into the crowd. This video is 22 minutes long and has been viewed by over 5 million people because it’s well worth watching. Here is your obligatory warning about graphic language and footage.”

https://youtu.be/P54sP0Nlngg

[rebelwheelsnycshow]

The Accessible Protest Report #1 : If Not Now on 11/12/17

The following is what happened when I went to a protest as a disabled intersectional activist in a motorized wheelchair. Wheelchair accessibility is NOT the only form of accessibility. However, I am focusing on that, as I am documenting my personal experience and thus what I feel qualified to talk about.

Do note that the following report is not intended to shame any group nor demand instant and perfect social consciousness & accessibility awareness. I decided to document my experience (spoons willing), so that groups who are trying, get a shout out and when groups miss the mark, everyone can learn from it.

WHO: If Not Now NYC https://ifnotnowmovement.org

[image description: photo of my protest sign on a wooden floor. it has a yellow background with bold black text. the text reads "I'm so confused. I was always taught as a young Jewish kid that white supremacists & Nazis were the enemy #history & now Zionists & Bannon are sitting at the same lunch table... WHAT?!']

ACCESSIBILITY POINTS: A volunteer with the group took photos of all the curb cuts in the planned route and checked with me before the march to make sure they were wheelchair accessible.

Asked if it would be most accessible for me to be in the front, middle or back of the march Marked event volunteers made sure that I did not get left behind and stayed with the group and seemed fairly aware of the need for curb cuts.

They also livestreamed the event via facebook, for those who could not physically attend. (FB livestream is not accessible to everyone, but I am not sure if there is a live stream service that is?)

livestream url: https://www.facebook.com/IfNotNowOrg/videos/1549837565103206

POTENTIAL POINTS: From what I understand smaller protest signs were available (as well as larger ones), however I did not test them out as I brought my own, and thus can not verify either way if the smaller signs were “wheelchair user friendly”. ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: During the rally and march, they expressed solidarity for all marginalized communities and against all forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, queer/transphobia, antisemitism, etc., but did not mention the disability community nor ableism. I have a feeling though that this was just due to not knowing, rather than intentional exclusion, considering how down they were with wheelchair accessibility.

HALF POINTS: Seeing that the location of the event was the steps of the New York Public Library, I asked the organizers via their facebook event page:

“Q: Will this be towards the bottom of the steps? I ask as I would like to attend, but when protests happen towards the top and even towards the middle, although I have solidarity [for] the events, as an activist in a wheelchair I don't have access to the actual protests. in solidarity - michele “ They replied: “Thank you for asking Michele! The rallying point will be at the bottom of the steps. After the opening rally, we will be marching for a few blocks and then returning to the library, so if you have any questions about access we'd be happy to talk through them before or at the beginning of the action.”

The pre and post march rallies, did take place on the lower portion of the steps, which made it more accessible than if it was at the top or middle, but when I first got there, I did feel a bit isolated from the group as people were chatting with each other on the steps, which I did not have access too. (Though the feeling of isolation was also due to the fact that I didn’t know anyone lol, though the fact that people were socializing on the steps did not help. I will say that a number of people did say hello to me and introduce themselves)

I would have preferred if (during the rallies) the front row, positioned themselves on the sidewalk level, so I wasn’t the only person not on the steps, but I don’t think I clearly communicated that to them, and I appreciate that they were open to dialogue about this and responded pretty quickly to my question.

OUTREACH: When I got home, I left the following comment on their event page “Thank you to the organizers who checked with me if the curb cuts in the marching route was accessible. I deeply appreciate the solidarity... I wanted to share this resource with the group, as I thought it might be of interest since the group does have awareness of accessibility. For anyone who wanted to educate themselves further : https://whatisableism.tumblr.com in solidarity - Michele” COMMENTS: Overall, people were very nice and I didn’t experience any social ableism from people. I didn’t notice anyone gawking at me with the usual looks of pity, disdain or confusion, nor did anyone say to me things like “it’s just SO inspiring to see you here!” (while not saying that to anyone else at the protest who wasn’t in a wheelchair). While I do hope the group will mention disabled people when they reference other marginalized communities, I would protest with them again and have signed up so I am notified of future events. HASHTAGS: #WeFiredBannon #JewishResistance #EndTheOccupation #IfNotNow EVENT INFO: https://www.facebook.com/events/1978807355668582

[shirlleycoyle]

Internal Documents Show Why the NYPD Tries to Be ‘Funny’ Online

On July 17, 2014, the New York Police Department put Staten Island resident Eric Garner into a chokehold while apprehending him for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally. Garner told police “I can’t breathe” 11 times before losing consciousness. Officers did not perform CPR on Garner, and neither did EMT when they arrived at the scene. Garner was pronounced dead in the hospital about an hour after the incident.

This week, exactly five years after Garner’s death, Mayor Bill de Blasio doubled down on his decision to not fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who placed Garner in a chokehold. Pantaleo will also not be held criminally liable. The decision ignores repeated demands for justice from local residents and activists who have organized both in-person and en masse on social media.

That same day, the NYPD Twitter account tweeted about World Emoji Day.

Motherboard has obtained and is publishing an internal guide that may help explain the strategy behind that tweet, and the NYPD’s social media presence across platforms. Police are explicitly told to “be funny” by cracking jokes and using emojis, and to take “victory laps” by sharing evidence of arrests and confiscations. The documents note that the goal of NYPD social media accounts is to “build, and maintain trust between the Department and the communities it serves.”

The U.S. military, and police departments around the country, are known to follow a similar social media strategy. Law enforcement often uses social media to speak in a way that’s cheery and cutesy, belittling and heartless, or some combination of these things. The NYPD is no exception. In 2014, the NYPD tweeted a quote from A Few Good Men which, in the movie, was used to justify a murder. (They later deleted the tweet.) Earlier this year, it triumphantly tweeted about a “clean up” of a homeless encampment in the East Village.

Motherboard obtained seven slide presentations, which include examples of “funny” police tweets, Twitter dos and don’ts, and at one point, a slide is completely dedicated to displaying an image of YouTuber PewDiePie. Motherboard also obtained two “Operations Order” documents that spell out the department’s official social media goals and policies.

Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) put in charge of the NYPD’s social media accounts are explicitly instructed to be both friendly and feared. However, the NYPD has a poor record on civil liberties. A New York Department of Investigation (DOI) report shows that the NYPD has received almost 2,500 complaints of biased policing since 2014. The NYPD closed 1,918 of those complaints. Zero investigations have been issued. A Buzzfeed investigation released last year shows that between 2011 and 2015, hundreds of officers have committed severe acts of misconduct and violence and have been allowed to keep their jobs. This record complicates the way the NYPD presents itself on social media.

NYPD social media policies makes the department’s 119 Twitter feeds into a jarring mix of images: police posing with children, confiscated guns, missing or wanted people, and police dogs. Police want to tell people that they’re charming and approachable, but also powerful and sometimes frightening.

A document titled “Operations_Order_28,” dated June 2017, tells police that the goal of NYPD social media is to “build, and maintain trust” with city residents. Several documents instruct social media NCOs to post pictures of NYPD officers.

A slide presentation titled “Best_practices_prezi” instructs police to be “authentic and funny.” The slide notes that “(expectations are low…)” for humor.

“Funny tweets are more likely to be shared,” the slide presentation says. “Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say in any other public forum.”

“Funny” tweets are recommended because maximizing shares and engagement is recommended per NYPD policy. Operations Order 28 instructs officers to prioritize engagement.

“Develop innovative and informative social media messaging with the goal of cultivating public engagement,” the document reads.

Examples of funny tweets, according to “Best_practices_prezi,” include using a lot of emojis, making jokes about recent raids and arrests, and making joke-infused warnings about possible crimes.

Image: Screen grab from “best_practices_prezi.”

The presentation has a section in which officers are prompted to select a good tweet an a bad tweet. An example of a good tweet, according to the presentation is, “Officers just arrested a naked man in the bison paddock in GG Park. The bison seemed unimpressed.” Meanwhile, an example of a bad tweet is, “Between 11/30/13, 9pm and 12/01/13, 9:45 am on the 1900 block of Clement St, a suspect hopped the fence to the… [link]”

Police are also instructed to avoid making blunders on social media. A slide presentation titled “Twitter_mistakes_prezi” tells police, “Don’t make light of harsh situations,” and to sometimes seek second opinions. It also lists five rules of thumb for police.

Image: Screen grab from “twitter_mistakes_prezi.”

“What may seem inoffensive to you could be offensive to others in your community,” the slide presentation later warns. The examples of content that could be offensive to “others” in your community are outrightly racist.

Image: Screen grab from “twitter_mistakes_prezi.”

A slide presentation titled “Promotional_training_prezi” warns officers, “You are always in the public eye,” and displays the logos of WorldStar Hip Hop and Copwatch, platforms that are known to sometimes share images and videos of police violence and misconduct.

Other documents show that there is no basis of social media literacy required for NCOs that are interested in operating social media accounts.

“It’s not about computers,” the slide presentation says. “Previous knowledge is not required. Yes, it’s risky. But the good outweighs the bad.”

“Promotional_training_prezi” also notes that all “commanding officers and staff are trained” before getting access to social media accounts. Once trained, social media access is heavily delegated.

“How do we approve everything? WE DON’T!” one slide says.

“Promotional_training_prezi” also shows a side-by-side comparison of the social media landscape in 2012 and 2017. An entire slide in the presentation is dedicated to displaying an image of PewDiePie. In 2017, seemingly the same year the presentation was given, PewDiePie used a racial slur on his channel and directed users to an antisemitic channel (which he claims was accidental).

Image: Screen grab from “Promotional_training_prezi”.

The slide presentation also tells police, “AND DON’T FORGET YOUR VICTORY LAP!” This means that police are told to share results of certain investigations. In practice, this often means sharing images of confiscated guns or counterfeit items.

It’s reasonable for any public-facing entity to humanize their workforce. But the NYPD’s attempts to improve its public image with social media don’t address the public’s biggest concern: years of allegations of misconduct.

When reached by Motherboard for comment, an NYPD spokesperson said in an email that the goal of its social media presence is to let police “communicate directly with their residents, hear their concerns, and update them about Neighborhood Policing and public safety issues in real time.”

“Since 2014, the accounts have amassed over 1 million followers, have helped launch hundreds of community events, forged relationships, introduced residents to their own local officers, allowed us to gauge issues of concern from the public, as well as notify them in real time regarding emergencies,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “Use of social media accounts has also helped solve and prevent crimes through tips, awareness and community interaction.”

When asked about the DOI report, the NYPD referred Motherboard to a press release and added the following.

“I want to reaffirm that there is zero tolerance for bias in the NYPD,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “Bias is often tough to prove because you need to show intent. The OIG itself couldn’t conclusively prove bias in 888 cases that it reviewed. But that doesn’t mean the NYPD isn’t taking action.”

One slide presentation argues that social media use can help supplement traditional policing. A slide displays NYPD officers testifying about the impact of social media.

“People I never met before were able to share community concerns and comments,” NYPD Inspector Fausto Pichardo said, according to the presentation. “People would come up to me on the street and say ‘Hey! I follow you on Twitter!’ Before, I would have probably walked by them and they wouldn’t know I was the CO.”

“With social media I can engage my community at any time of the day from anywhere,” Detective Inspector Chris Morello said, according to the presentation. “I get messages from people in real time about what’s happening — they can now be my eyes and ears.”

But of course, NYPD officers also use more covert methods to supplement their policing. The NYPD has used Palantir, a powerful, secretive data aggregation tool that enables law enforcement to learn nearly everything about a person from a simple search query. The NYPD has also tested controversial predictive policing technology, which claims to be able to “forecast” crime by sending police to places where crime has already occurred. It has abused facial recognition technology by submitting celebrity look-alikes of subjects on camera in order to search for positive matches. It has fleets of drones, which have been deployed at events like the NYC Pride Parade, despite the fact that LGBTQ activists have resisted heavy police presence at Pride events.

According to the NYPD, social media is a way to “connect and engage with local businesses, residents, and other members of the community.” However, social media has never been a tool for the NYPD to be transparent about the activity that actively concerns and frightens New York residents. Trust can’t be extracted through tweets.

All of the documents that were used to inform this article are now public and viewable on Document Cloud.

Internal Documents Show Why the NYPD Tries to Be ‘Funny’ Online syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[fdelopera]

Exactly, Anon. Exactly. This is why the Ivy League Universities being turned into Hamasnik terrorist bases is so horrifying. Especially with Jew-hating students attacking Jewish students and professors on campus, with the Universities' sanction. The Universities could shut these Jew-hate riots down. The fact that they don't shows that they want them to continue. They're trying to chase away the Jewish students and professors from these schools. That's always the first step. That's what the Nazis did first, too.

This article is taken from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website. I highly recommend that everyone read the whole article. But even if you read the first paragraph, you'll see the parallels to what is happening on Ivy League campuses today:

.

After Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor in January 1933, the new Nazi government began an effort to completely reorder public and private life in Germany. 

The Nazi regime quickly targeted German universities—among the most elite in the world at the time—for restructuring according to Nazi principles. While the Nazi Ministry of Education initiated reforms, local Nazi organizations and student activists worked to bring Nazi ideals to German campuses. These forces, along with increasing antisemitism under Nazi rule, transformed everyday life at German universities. Throughout this period, students, faculty, and staff made individual decisions that both upheld and opposed Nazi ideology.

With the passage of the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" in 1933, most Jewish professors in Germany were dismissed from their positions. Others, such as Professor Eugen Mittwoch, were able to keep their posts temporarily only due to the political value of their research. After purging Jewish and "politically undesirable" faculty, the regime then targeted the student body with the "Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities." As German authorities continued to "Aryanize" German universities, Jews increasingly lost the opportunity to teach or study. Many non-Jewish Germans sought to benefit from their persecution. 

The daily business of university life continued in the wake of these new policies, but political concerns increasingly influenced the way professors and students worked and studied. The practice of denunciation, as demonstrated by the "Request for the Investigation of Professor Hans Peters," illustrates the danger posed to both students and faculty if they failed to follow new ideological norms. Those willing to voice support for the new regime—whether out of enthusiasm or practicality—often received promotions or other rewards. Meanwhile, many others quietly accepted the new policies and passively benefited from the persecution of their Jewish peers. Very few, such as the small student group in Munich known as the White Rose, took any significant action to resist the Nazi dictatorship.

The Nazi government and its supporters manipulated several aspects of the country's traditional university system to turn German higher education into a crucial source of support for the new regime. For example, the German student population had been largely male long before the Nazi rise to power, and German campuses were dominated by fraternities.  Those organizations maintained traditional military discipline and dress codes, and their alumni groups exercised significant political power both before and after 1933. Fraternities—often working with the Student Council and Nazi Student League—served  as a powerful and violent force for implementing Nazi principles at universities, often going beyond the party platform in their radicalism. A Report on the Camaraderie House for Female Students of Göttingen shows how Nazi student groups used the format of traditional student organizations to train both men and women to become the next generation of Nazi leaders.

Although the regime could rely on many committed student activists, the Third Reich also sought the support of German professors to lend legitimacy to their policies. Because German universities were state institutions, professors' academic careers became vulnerable to the whims and wishes of the Nazi state. While only a small minority of professors had been Nazi Party members before 1933, several prominent professors quickly voiced their support for the Third Reich. In the new German university, political loyalty was valued over academic ability in the assessment of students and in the selection and promotion of professors. Authorities infused university classrooms with Nazi ideology—as shown in the document, "Foundation of the Advanced School of the German Reich". But prioritizing politics over academics affected the quality of German higher education. 

Nevertheless, professors—even enthusiastic supporters of the new regime—often spoke out against some aspects of Nazi policy. The case of Eduard Kohlrausch shows how his opposition to  student-led book burnings caused his removal from the university administration. Dissent against individual policies, however, did not give rise to any concerted resistance movements. German universities as a whole formed a solid base of support for the Nazi regime, contributing valuable knowledge to the development of technology for the war effort as well as logistical support for the Holocaust.

The Nazification of universities overwhelmed the daily lives of students with new requirements, including mandatory lectures, physical exercises, labor duties, and political assemblies. Many students resented those requirements, even if they supported the Nazi Party. In Heidelberg, for example, where the daily life of students was dominated by political instruction and mandatory physical training, large numbers of students withdrew from the university in search of other educational opportunities. As illustrated in the "Memo Regarding Maria-Elisabeth Koch," students also showed varying degrees of enthusiasm for the labor service that was often required of them in territories occupied by Nazi Germany.

The Nazi government's project of remaking German universities was broadly successful, but it produced unintended consequences. The quality of education suffered significantly as classes were regularly cancelled for political assemblies and students' schedules became filled with ideological and paramilitary training. Moreover, purging Jewish faculty deprived German universities of valuable expertise. Within a few years, many observers in Germany and abroad became deeply skeptical about the quality of German higher education in the Third Reich. Propaganda efforts such as the Carl Schurz tour for American professors and students—documented with a slickly produced video—did not prevent protest. The 550th-anniversary celebration of Heidelberg University met with opposition in Europe, even while prominent American universities such as Harvard accepted invitations.

With the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, Allied forces occupying Germany began a long-term effort to remove the influence of Nazi ideology in German society. Many German academics who made significant contributions to the Nazi war effort fled to the United States, where they lived comfortable lives and their expertise was highly valued by American universities and the US military. In postwar Germany, many faculty and students who had benefited from the Nazis' discriminatory policies without being especially vocal or enthusiastic supporters of the regime sought to cast their dissent or their silence as forms of political resistance to obscure their own complicity. Although many Germans denied having supported the Nazi regime, antisemitism persisted in postwar Germany. The case of Hermann Budzislawski shows the difficulties encountered by the relatively few German Jews who decided to return to Germany after World War II.

Sources in this collection document the choices facing students and faculty pursuing their everyday lives in the shadow of Nazism and the Holocaust. Over the course of this period, as antisemitic discrimination escalated to mass murder, the higher education system proved to be a source of support—rather than opposition—to the party's project of remaking German society.

[fdelopera]

Hunter Schafer "protesting" with JVP is the same energy as celebrities shilling for Autism $peaks.

Just like the celebs that don't care that they're platforming a literal eugenics organization, Hunter doesn't care that she's supporting a Messianic organization that is an antisemitic hate-group.

She is supporting an organization run by goys that engages in blood libel, attacks Jews at our synagogues, and spreads dangerous antisemitic conspiracy theories.

She is supporting an organization that engages in cultural appropriation, dresses goys in kippot and encourages them to larp as Jews, and tells goys that they can "self-convert" to Judaism (which is a flat out lie -- converting to Judaism requires years of study under several rabbis, convening a Beit Din, and immersing in a mikvah).

She is supporting an organization that claims it is a "Jewish Voice for Peace" but whose members are mostly non-Jews. The few Jewish members have tokenized themselves for goyishe approval and social media clout. And they are not a voice for "peace" because all they do is attack the Jewish community.

She is supporting a fucking DEPRAVED organization that says that VIOLENT RAPE, TORTURE, AND MURDER is "resistance," so long as the people being raped, tortured, and murdered are Jews.

JVP is neither "Jewish" nor "peaceful."

Hunter is the daughter of a Presbyterian pastor. She is a Christian. And yet, she has just "pretended" to be Jewish for a day. Did she make it clear that she's not a Jew when she got her photo-op with "Jewish Voice for Peace"? No. She did not. She has culturally appropriated Judaism for a fucking publicity stunt.

Hunter Schafer has just shown that she doesn't give a SHIT about Jews.

Hunter, I hope selling your humanity was worth the social media clout.

[fdelopera]

Harvey Milk understood intersectionality

… and now the Queer community is SPITTING on his legacy by attacking Queer Jews, and coalitioning with far-right religious extremists

Harvey Milk was a gay Jewish civil rights leader in San Francisco. He was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

On November 10, 1978 (10 months after being sworn into office), Harvey Milk was assassinated by a far-right religious extremist named Dan White.

In the months leading up to Harvey Milk's murder at the hands of a religious extremist, Harvey Milk gave his famous "Hope" speech. In his speech, he talks about the intersectional "Us's" who need to work together to overcome bigotry.

Now the Queer Community is SPITTING on Harvey Milk's legacy by coalitioning NOT with other "Us's", but instead with Hamas, the Houthis, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

These terrorist organizations are all FAR-RIGHT RELIGIOUS EXTREMIST CULTS.

These cults MURDER queer people.

These far-right religious extremist cults are a thousand times WORSE than far-right religious extremist cults like the Westboro Baptist Church that attack queer people across the US.

Hamas is a CULT that MURDERS queer Gazans. Hamas throws queer people off buildings, stones queer people to death, and shoots queer people in the head.

The Houthis are a CULT that just CRUCIFIED several gay men for being gay.

And the Islamic Republic of Iran is a CULT that TORTURES queer people to death and EXECUTES them for being gay. The Islamic Republic also MURDERS women for the "crime" of showing their hair in public, or even wearing their Hijab "wrong."

And these are the FAR-RIGHT RELIGIOUS EXTREMIST CULTS that the Queer Community is getting into bed with.

These are the FAR-RIGHT RELIGIOUS EXTREMIST CULTS that the Queer Community is uplifting.

And in doing so, the Queer Community is SPITTING on Harvey Milk's legacy.

Harvey Milk, a gay Jewish man, did not GIVE HIS LIFE FOR YOUR FREEDOMS so that you could turn around and attack Queer Jews.

You Hamasniks are PERVERTING the Queer Rights Movement.

You are acting as a TROJAN HORSE, allowing people aligned with far-right religious extremist cults into Queer Spaces.

Here is the text of Harvey Milk's "Hope" speech.

THIS is how you do intersectionality, you bigots.

LEARN FROM OUR QUEER ELDERS. AND WAKE THE FUCK UP.

"Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all of a sudden realizes that he or she is gay; knows that if their parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, their classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryant's and John Briggs' are doing their part on TV. "And that child has several options: staying in the closet, and suicide. And then one day that child might open the paper that says 'Homosexual elected in San Francisco' and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight. Two days after I was elected I got a phone call and the voice was quite young. It was from Altoona, Pennsylvania. And the person said 'Thanks'. And you've got to elect gay people; so that thousands upon thousands like that child know that there is hope for a better world; there is hope for a better tomorrow. Without hope, not only gays, but those who are blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the Us's; without hope the Us's give up. "I know that you can't live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you, and you, and you have got to give them hope."

[fdelopera]

Thank you @flagbridge for the perfect Phantom of the Opera mezuzah! Lego Erik is so dapper. I'll be getting a mezuzah scroll for him, and then he'll be going on my doorpost (he'll be going on either my bedroom or my office doorpost).

If you want an Erik mezuzah, too, FlagBridge has them on her Etsy! And she also makes Christine and Raoul mezuzot, so you can have the main trio on the doorposts of your home!

[fdelopera]

I've been thinking about one of the antisemitic canards that some of you goyim like to shout at us Jews. It goes something like this: "LOL looks like the Jews are becoming like the the Nazis, haha."

And I've been thinking about why you goyim are so incredibly grotesque when you say this about us Jews.

Is it because you are knowingly weaponizing the Holocaust, our greatest tragedy, against us? Yes, that's part of it.

Is it because you are being intellectually deceitful bigots? Yes, that's part of it.

Is it because your bigotry and antisemitism are delegitimizing the Palestinian cause, and making it harder for the Palestinian people to fight for their freedom? Yes, that's a BIG part of it.

But I think the most disturbing part of this lie is where you goys got it from.

Especially you leftist goys.

You got this lie from the Neo-Nazi, Richard Spencer.

You know, the Nazi who famously got punched in the face.

You also got this lie from the Neo-Nazi, David Duke.

Richard Spencer was one of the first white supremacists who popularized weaponizing the Holocaust and Nazism against Jewish people in this way (all while being a whole-ass Nazi himself). He uses logical fallacies and political theatre to advance alt-right ideas.

But then you goyim on the political left got ahold of Richard Spencer's talking points. You copied the homework of an actual Nazi, and ran with his ideas, and here we are.

You leftist goys have been secretly listening in on Nazis for fucks sake!! Despite knowing full well that they HATE people of color. Despite knowing full well that they HATE queer people. Despite knowing full well that they HATE Muslims. Nazis want everyone who isn't a white, cishet, right-wing Christian to fucking DIE, for fucks sake.

Richard Spencer and David Duke stand for EVERYTHING YOU HATE!

Except, apparently, for hating Jews.

You leftist goys have been going to YouTube and listening to Nazi lectures. You've been plugging your ears when Nazis say HIDEOUS things about every other marginalized group, but then when they start talking about Jews, you copy their white supremacist talking points VERBATIM.

How DARE you steal your ideas from Nazis. You are DISGUSTING.

There are so many VALID and LEGITIMATE ways you can protest against the Israeli government and their atrocities and war crimes. There are so many VALID and LEGITIMATE ways you can protest the actions of the Israeli military.

But when you steal your ideas from Nazis, you make it clear that you don't give a SHIT about the Palestinian people.

When you steal your ideas from Nazis, you make it clear that the ONLY thing you care about is seeing Jews get murdered.

YOU HAVE BECOME USEFUL IDIOTS FOR THE NEO-NAZIS AND WHITE SUPREMACISTS.

Great job, goys.

God. You make me so, so tired.

[fdelopera]

This is a reminder that we Jews do have progressive allies. Ritchie Torres is a Democratic Congressman from the Bronx. He is also the first openly gay Afro-Latino Congressperson.

I recommend that Jews and non-Jewish people who support Jews watch this.

And for the depraved, bigoted, Jew-hating morons who have been sending me death threats for the last six months, you fuckers NEED to watch this. And you need to educate your damn fool selves.

[fdelopera]

First of all, I love your blog and I'm glad I followed you. Sending you support and comfort on this difficult day.

Second of all, I saw your tags about 10/7 being the Jewish people's 9/11 (which is true) and it reminded me of a thought that's been bouncing around my head.

I grew up in the greater New York area. 9/11 happened when I was in elementary school and I have very clear memories of the attacks and the aftermath.

For the first few days, people hoped that their loved ones in the twin towers had survived and we just lost. So they put up missing posters in New York City, eerily similar to the hostage posters we have today.

The main difference is that no one would have dared tear those 9/11 posters down.

Maybe it was different because the attack was right in the same city where those posters were put up, maybe it happened but the news didn't pick it up, maybe it's because I was a child then and I'm an adult now. 2001 and 2023-4 are practically different worlds.

Sorry for dumping in your blog, I've just been thinking about this for a while.

Thank you for your message. I love your blog too. And I'm sending you support and comfort, and solidarity! As dark as this last year has been, the thing that's gotten me through has been seeing other Jews fighting back against the antisemitic bigotry we face, and being a light to other Jews.

I was living near NYC during 9/11, too. I was living in New York State, about a half-hour away from the City by train. And I knew a lot of people in NYC who were there during the terrorist attack. I had an older friend whose husband was a firefighter — he wasn't one of the firefighters who died that day during the heroic rescue efforts, but he was part of the crew at Ground Zero in the months that followed, searching for bodies and cleaning up the toxic debris. I don't know what happened to him after that time, but I can only assume that he had the same life-long health complications that other firefighters did — the people who survived the attack but died slowly from the toxins they were exposed to at Ground Zero during the cleanup.

And I know exactly what you mean. The posters of the missing people that families put up, as the families searched desperately for news of their loved ones.

Those posters were sacred. No one in NYC would have DARED take a single one of those posters down.

In fact, no one in America would have dared desecrate one of those posters — and if they had, they would have been publicly shamed and shunned. Everyone across America knew about those posters. Everyone was rooting for the people on those posters to still be alive and to come home, no matter how bleak the chances were for their survival.

And so, it is DISGUSTING to see how fast goyim in the US have seemingly forgotten. These goyim in the US who have filled themselves with Jew-hate and twisted themselves into monsters — they truly revolt me.

Everyone in the US was affected by 9/11. And yet these goyim are now running around like a bunch of zombies, pretending that they have no idea what it's like to live through a terrorist attack. They're pretending like they've never seen posters with the faces of missing people who have been taken away by terrorists.

But we all know that they haven't forgotten. Not really. They’re just pretending that they’ve forgotten so they can have "justification" to sate their thirst for Jewish blood. These goyim are self-absorbed, egotistical monsters who hate Jews, and they want an "excuse" to celebrate when Jews are slaughtered.

Here's the reality — if terrorists attacked NYC again, a lot of these goyim would care about that.

And yes, there are many of them who are so depraved and so brainwashed that they would cheer as terrorists slaughtered their neighbors. They wouldn’t care — unless the terrorists murdered them and their family, of course!

But not all of these goyim are so far gone. Not all of them have descended that deep into the Hamasnik cult. And they would at least care about their lives.

And they would demand for the world to care, too.

And the world SHOULD care.

The world should ALWAYS care when people are brutally slaughtered by Islamist terrorists led by scum like Bin Ladin, Sinwar, Nasrallah, and fucking Ayatollah Khamenei who are trying to burn the world down for their own profit.

The memory of 9/11 should be multi-generational, like Pearl Harbor is. Parents should teach their children and their grandchildren about that day. Everyone should know about those posters. Everyone should know that when you see posters of missing people, you don't fucking rip them down.

And everyone should know that if you rip down posters of kidnapped Jews who have been taken captive by terrorists, that act automatically makes you the worst kind of monster. If you rip down the poster of a Jewish hostage, you are just as much of a monster as if you ripped down one of the 9/11 posters.

One thing I’ve learned about Jew-haters from studying the Shoah is that they do know right from wrong, and yet they choose to do wrong. They are cruel and monstrous, and the reason they attack Jews is for the perverse thrill it gives them. They are malicious. And most of all, they are pathetic.

They are filled with nihilism. That’s been another thing I’ve observed about Jew-haters. They are lazy and spiteful and jealous. And instead of working to make the world a better place for themselves and those around them, they want to rip it all down, because they feel that if they can't get what they want, no one else should have a day of comfort either.

They are attacking Jews because we are a source of good in the world. We are a source of light. They see our hope and our love, they see our connection to our 3500+ years of history, they see our determination to outlive our enemies, and they want to destroy that out of their own nihilism, bitterness, and selfish despair.

And we will survive every single one of them. Long after these Hamasniks are gone, long after the world has forgotten their names, we Jews will still be here.

We will outlive them. Am Yisrael Chai.

[fdelopera]

Harvey Milk in 1978 (realizing that he was likely to be assassinated by far-right religious extremists for being an openly gay Jewish elected official, and knowingly giving his life to the cause of Queer Rights):

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."

The Jew-hating Queer Community in 2024 (coalitioning with the far-right QUEER MURDERING religious extremists in Hamas, the Houthis, and the Islamic Republic of Iran):

It's open season on Jews again! Lock and load, boys! Who cares that these Islamists murder Queer people like us! Let's all go attack some Queer Jews!! I mean (((Zionists)))!!!

.

You Hamasniks all SPIT on Harvey Milk's legacy.

You are TRAITORS to the Queer Community.

You would rather SELL OUT the Queer Community to far-right religious extremist CULTS than listen to Queer Jews.

We Jews will NEVER FORGET your betrayal.