Gun seizures jumped 113% in NYC subway this year, NYPD says

 Cops this year have seized 113% more guns in subway busts, troubling data obtained by The Post revealed.

Police recovered 17 guns from people arrested on the city’s rails through March 3, more than double the eight confiscated during the same period in 2023. 

The 299 blades and other sharp weapons grabbed from crooks on city transportation represents a 50% increase from the 199 seized during the same period in 2023, the data show.

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Gun seizures on subways have more than doubled this year.X @NYPDTransit

Overall, cops have seized 53% more weapons — which includes guns and “cutting instruments” — from people arrested in the subway system, confiscating 316 weapons compared to 207 during the same period in 2023, according to NYPD data.

Pre-pandemic, in 2019, just 126 weapons were taken from perps during this period.

“The odds of confiscating a gun is high because criminals are more emboldened than ever to carry a firearm because they know there are no consequences,” said Paul DiGiacomo, president of the NYPD detectives union, blaming the city’s broken criminal justice system.

“The real question is when are state legislators, district attorneys, and the City Council going to recognize and fix the crisis they created,” he added.

The shocking stats come as Gov. Hochul this week deployed 750 National Guardsmen along with 250 state and MTA police to check riders’ bags at busy stations, citing the gruesome, near-fatal slashing of subway conductor Alton Scott, 59, and a 64-year-old postal worker being kicked onto the tracks.

Many weapons seizures this year have come during fare-beating stops, one veteran cop said.

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Gov. Hochul has deployed National Guardsmen and law enforcement to check riders’ bags following a spate of high-profile attacks on the rails.New York Post

“They don’t do enough stopping on the trains with stop and frisk,” the cop said. “They get the knives and guns because of turnstile jumping.”

Mayor Adams announced a push to permanently increase the number of cops on subway platforms to combat the scourge of crime underground, which is up 13% so far this year compared to the same period in 2023, per police data.

The spate of subway violence this year has included three fatal shootings, between Jan. 14 and Feb. 23.

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Three subway riders were killed in fatal subway shootings this year.X @NYPDTransit

“A lot of people are wilding,” subway rider Brian Jacotin, 31, said about the spike in weapons seizures. “If I make it home, it’s by the grace of God.”

The governor and mayor’s plan to add patrols to the subways is a good start, he said.

“If they are going to do this, it has to be long-term. It can’t be until crime goes down [and] then they disperse,” he said.

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Transit crime is up 13% this year compared to the same period last year.Matthew McDermott

An NYPD spokesperson blamed the surge in weapons on the subway system on a lax criminal justice system failing to properly punish criminals for “repeated criminal conduct, however minor in the eyes of some,” emboldening them to bring dangerous weapons onto the rails.

“The increase in weapons seizures can be attributed to the continued work of NYPD officers – who remain committed to the mission of public safety by confronting lawlessness, proactively engaging offenders, and removing weapons at near historic highs from the subway system,” they said.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/09/us-news/gun-seizures-jumped-113-in-nyc-transit-this-year-nypd/

Fans offer condolences to USC coach Lincoln Riley after Biden flubbed murdered student’s name

 He’s not dead yet.

Fans and well-wishers of University of Southern California football coach Lincoln Riley took to social media this week to offer faux condolences after President Biden accidentally mentioned his name during his State of the Union address on Thursday.

During his remarks Biden intended to offer his sympathies to Laken Riley — a Georgia women killed by an illegal migrant — but instead flubbed the slain woman’s name.

“Lincoln — Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.”

And while Laken Riley’s family expressed outrage over the snafu, fans of Coach Riley went to town.

“I hope that everyone is thinking about @LincolnRiley after Joe Biden just announced during the SOTU that he was recently killed by an illegal immigrant. The @USC Football team could all use our support during this difficult time,” said the account Woke Messiah in an X posting.

Chance McClain, a self-described micro-influencer added “Hey @LincolnRiley checking on ya man I was listening to the state of the union and…it didn’t sound good.”

President Biden flubbed Laken Riley’s name for the USC coach Lincoln Riley.AP

Laken Riley has was killed by an illegal immigrant.Facebook / Allyson Phillips

The X account NFL memes posted an image of Riley and quipped “Still can’t believe he’s gone ”

Lincoln Riley himself has not publicly addressed the controversy and did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/09/us-news/fans-offer-condolences-to-usc-football-coach-lincoln-riley-after-biden-flub/

US companies are sellling your personal data — to the government

 U.S. spies and cops are vacuuming up huge amounts of data about Americans from data brokers — a trend that puts us on a dangerous path already trodden out by authoritarian regimes such as China.

In America, we curtail government powers and guarantee civil liberties by limiting the amount of information citizens provide to the state. Police need a warrant to strap a GPS device on your car or listen to your telephone calls. Intelligence agencies and military units are banned from targeting Americans for surveillance and are supposed to focus their attention overseas.

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Pres. Biden has banned countries like China from obtaining data on US nationals.AP

America is built on the notion that too much power and information in the hands of the state is a danger. We want police to solve murders and national security agencies to keep us safe but we don’t want that power to be all-encompassing or panoptic. We recognize that human beings are flawed and power is corrupting and so we have checks and balances, independent courts and sharp limits on government reach.

That’s the basic social contract of the United States — a delicate balancing of public safety and individual liberty. But today, that social contract is changing before our very eyes thanks to the volume of data collected and sold by American corporations. 

Today, police don’t need a warrant to track the movements of Americans through their cell phones or their cars. Intelligence agencies can access U.S. internet browsing data without having to actually hack into anything.

And governments can listen in on the conversations that billions of people are having on social media. They just buy it from the shadowy industry of data brokers that have sprung up to collect information on everyone and everything.

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Sen. Rand Paul is leading a bipartisan effort to pass a bill that would make it illegal for the government to buy your personal data.ZUMAPRESS.com

The apps you put on your phone collect reams of behavioral information about you. The websites you visit track your movements and the search queries that brought you there. Those little banner display ads that are in every app and website collect everything they can about you and your device. 

They then feed the information they gather into a mind-numbing, complex system where tens of thousands of advertisers have access to details about you. Social media sites are filled with fake accounts — planted there by data brokers so they can extract and resell information about what people are saying online.

The market for all this data is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. These data brokers that have contracts with the government range from giants like LexisNexis or Thomson Reuters to obscure vendors with names like Babel Street or Safegraph.

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The law is being led by Sen. Roy Wyden (pictured) in partnership with Sen. Paul.AP

Many of these companies claim the data they’re selling is “anonymized” — or contain no identifiable information like names, phone numbers or email addresses. But you can’t anonymize a data set like geolocation. You’re probably the only person who wakes up every morning at your home and goes to your office. Your patterns and habits give you away.

Think this is an overblown concern? I once convinced a data broker to give me data on the movement patterns of U.S. soldiers serving in Syria. I could soon see where they deployed, how they got there and where they went back to after their tour was over.

All of this poses significant privacy and civil liberties threats to Americans at home. The Biden administration knows this — that’s why last month it banned countries of concern like China and Russia from obtaining data on Americans.

But what they have resisted is limiting the power of government bodies in the United States from obtaining this data. Everyone from top tier intelligence agencies to local police forces are now getting reams of information about U.S. citizens. And because they’re buying it just like any other customer, this is all deemed legal. 

There’s a bipartisan proposal in Congress drafted by Democrat Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) and Republican Rand Paul (R, Ky.). It would stop government agencies — federal, state or local — from buying data on Americans. The Biden administration opposes it.

America is not China. China is a one-party authoritarian state that has tapped technology for the purposes of social control. In regions like Xinjiang, surveillance is deployed against an oppressed minority that Beijing wants to stamp out. 

America is a functioning democracy. We have rule-of-law. We have independent courts. But the amount of data sloshing around for sale is leaving the nation’s sacred social bargain dangerously out of whack.

Byron Tau is the author of “Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State,” released on February 27th.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/09/opinion/us-companies-are-sellling-your-personal-data-to-the-government/

'US Navy Repels "Large-Scale" Houthi Attack Of 15 Suicide Drones'

 On Saturday Yemen's Houthis have launched what international press reports are describing as the one of the group's largest single attacks since the operation to disrupt Red Sea shipping began last November.

The US Central Command, or CENTCOM, described in a statement that a "large-scale" Houthi attack occurred in both the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden involving over a dozen suicide drones.

Coalition naval forces shot down at least 15 drones which CENTCOM said "presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US Navy and coalition ships in the region."

The Houthis have long declared they are directly targeting Western coalition warships in regional waters, along with foreign commercial vessels suspected to be en route to Israeli ports.

The US military statement confirmed that "US Navy vessels and aircraft along with multiple coalition navy ships and aircraft shot down 15" of the inbound drones. "These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure.”

The biggest single wave of Houthi drones launched before that included 18 drones and three missiles, in a January 9th attack.

Friday had also witnessed one of the largest single-day attacks thus far, per an account from the Houthis: 

The attack on Friday targeted the bulk carrier Propel Fortune, which continued on its way, according to the United States military's Central Command. "The missiles did not impact the vessel," the U.S. military said. "There were no injuries or damages reported."

The Houthis said Saturday they were behind the attack. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that along with targeting the Propel Fortune Attack, the Houthi forces also launched 37 drones targeting American warships.

Last month and this month have been particularly devastating as a UK tanker completely sunk after being struck by missiles, and another Gulf of Aden missile strike on the Barbados-flagged ship True Confidence resulted in the deaths of three crew members.

Some have argued that given the Western coalition is clearly ineffective in stopping the Houthi attacks, the only solution to the Red Sea crisis is for a ceasefire to take effect in Gaza:

The attack on the True Confidence was the first ever fatal Houthi strike on a ship. The Shia miliary group linked to Iran has vowed to keep up the attacks so long as Israel continues its war in Gaza.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-navy-repels-large-scale-houthi-attack-15-suicide-drones