Punk Jews

Profiling Hassidic punk rockers, Yiddish street performers, African-American Jewish activists and more, Punk Jews explores an emerging movement of provocateurs and committed Jews who are asking, each in his or her own way, what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century.

NYPD's Twitter Push Backfires In Hilariously Sad Way

"A push for some social media love by the New York Police Department backfired badly, with Twitter users taking advantage of the invitation to mock the NYPD and other departments nationwide.
The department on Tuesday asked folks to post photos of themselves with its officers, using the hashtag #myNYPD. The response was swift and overwhelmingly negative as tweeters hijacked the hashtag to post photos they said showed police brutality or misconduct.

The 7th Richest Man in America Has Screwed the Poor

Earlier this month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg perfectly described a day in the life of your average homeless New Yorker. “You can arrive in your private jet at Kennedy Airport, take a private limousine and go straight to the shelter system and walk in the door and we've got to give you shelter,"  he said on his radio show, addressing the record rate of homelessness in the city. 

50,000 people, including 21,000 children, are currently crowded into the city's emergency shelters, a 61 percent rise from when the Mayor took office,  according to the Coalition for the Homeless. 

Last month, the Mayor had  assured reporters that "Nobody's sleeping on the streets," a claim easily refuted by a look at the city's homelessness statistics and/or going outside in New York. As it turns out, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) had recently suspended a program making it easier for homeless families to get into shelters when the temperature dips below freezing. The DHS did not share this information widely; it came to light after a  New York Daily News report highlighted the case of 23 year-old Junior Clarke, who told the News that he, his wife, and 4 year-old daughter were turned away from the city's intake center on a freezing day. When they refused to leave, staff threatened to call the police. 

“They tried to make us leave and we refused,” Clarke  told the Daily News. “You know some people leave, walk away and go sleep on the train with their families.” 

As the 7th richest man in America finishes his final term in office, he leaves behind one of the biggest wealth gaps in the country:  income inequality in Manhattan is the second worst in the US, according to  the New York Times. New York's poverty rate has risen to the highest level in a decade, the Times also noted. 1 in 3 New York kids live below the  poverty line. In parts of the Bronx, two thirds of residents live  in areas of extreme poverty. 

See Alternet for full article

'Cannibal' Cop Plotted to Eat 100 Women

A New York City police officer who allegedly planned to kidnap, cook and eat as many 100 women has been arrested following a joint NYPD and FBI investigation.

Gilberto Valle III, of Forest Hills, Queens, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to a federal criminal complaint, as well was using the National Crime Information Center database to access unauthorized data.

The complaint alleges that Valle, 28, exchanged electronic messages with an unnamed coconspirator "about kidnapping, cooking and eating body parts of [Victim 1]."

The complaint alleges that in addition to conspiring to kidnap "Victim 1," he had discussed plans to "kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and eat body parts of a number of women." He had allegedly created computer files pertaining to "at least 100 women and containing at least one photograph of each woman." According to the complaint, he used law enforcement databases to conduct surveillance on potential victims.

ABC News

NYPD police officers repeatedly pummeling man in Jewish synagogue's youth center

Shocking video shows the moment a New York police officer launches into a sustained beating of a shirtless man in the basement of a Jewish youth centre. Two officers were called to the basement of the Aliya Institute youth centre in Brooklyn by volunteer security guard Zlamy Trappler, who found the man sleeping in the centre's lounge.

But the security officer now 'regrets making the call' after witnessing the beating of the man, identified as a man called Ehud Halevi, who sources say was allowed to stay at the centre. The video appears to show the unidentified male officer launch a swinging right-hook punch at the man, which is followed by a two minute 'beating' in which the female officer uses a pepper spray and a truncheon against Halevi, who cowers on the sofa.

See the video on Mail Online

The New York all-seeing surveillance system

New York Mayor Bloomberg is eager to see the project succeed and be implemented across the country, especially since New York City will be getting a kickback on revenue from future sales: “I hope Microsoft sells a lot of copies of this system…because 30 percent of the profits will go to us…I think we can recoup all of our expenses, and maybe even make a few bucks.”
The new technology is reminiscent of the Minority Report-style ‘Intellistreets’ talking surveillance camera system being implemented in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh; a system that records your conversations and barks orders at you.
Rest assured the rush to deploy the technology is more profit-driven than “for the good of the people,” as defended.
Under the guise of public safety, the creation of this technology represents the frantic determination of the upper-crust megalomaniacs to micro-manage and control every aspect of our lives…the public is the enemy.
Learn more on InfoWars

Billionaire Mayor Bloomberg Sues to Keep New Yorkers' Wages Low

The world's 20th richest man declared recently that a living wage bill passed (over his veto) by New York's city council was the next best thing to Communist central planning. Michael Bloomberg, who's also made news recently trying to ban large sodas, today took the next step in proving how serious he is about keeping wages low--I mean, keeping New York City a "business-friendly" climate.

Bloomberg is suing to prevent not just the living wage bill, but a companion "prevailing wage" bill that the City Council also passed over his veto, from going into effect. The living wage bill requires employers that get more than $1 million in taxpayer subsidies to pay their workers at least $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 an hour without them, and the prevailing wage bill would up wages to $20 an hour for certain building services workers in buildings that receive subsidies of over $1 million or where the city leases a significant amount of property.

AlterNet

Students at Stuyvesant Take Issue With Sexist Dress Code

Stuyvesant is one of the best public high schools in New York City; it’s very competitive to get in, and its graduates go on to excellent colleges. And apparently the kids at Stuy were dressing “inappropriately,” and a new code had to be issued and enforced. Here’s the code:

• Sayings and illustrations on clothing should be in good taste.
• Shoulders, undergarments, midriffs and lower backs should not be exposed.
• The length of shorts, dresses and skirts should extend below the fingertips with the arms straight at your side.

How many of these apply to male students at Stuyvesant, do you think? And also, you can’t show your shoulders?

Students at Stuy are pointing out that while the dress code is ridiculous, the enforcement is even moreso — because it’s inconsistent, and seems to be based more on a particular student’s body type than on what they’re actually wearing. Oh and the enforcement also comes with a healthy dose of “You’re gonna get raped wearing that” and “You’ll never find a husband in that”:

More on AlterNet – Also see: Stuyvesant To Female Students: Stop Dressing Like Sluts at Gothamist

American Racist Policing: NYPD Recommended Targeting Muslims

Just a week after news broke that the NYPD showed 1,500 of its officers grossly Islamophobic propaganda, the AP is reporting new evidence that the police department is profiling on the basis of religion, conducting surveillance specifically of Shia Muslim, Iranian and Palestinian communities.

The May 2006 NYPD intelligence report obtained by the AP is entitled, “US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City,” made a series of recommendations, including: “Expand and focus intelligence collections at Shi’a mosques.”

The AP describes the report:

The report, drawn largely from information available in newspapers or sites like Wikipedia, was prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. It was written at a time of great tension between the U.S. and Iran. That tension over Iran’s nuclear ambition has increased again recently.

Police estimated the New York area Shiite population to be about 35,000, with Iranians making up about 8,500. The document also calls for canvassing the Palestinian community because there might be terrorists there.

More on AlterNet

David Icke talks with Luke Rudkowski

David Icke talks with Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change New York at Occupy Wall Street.

Arrests at Occupy Wall Street

Thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of lower Manhattan at November 17, two months to the day after Occupy Wall Street protesters set up camp in Zuccotti Park. At least 175 people were arrested during the morning in a concerted action to shut down New York's financial district. Watch this video produced by Francis Reynolds to see one large group of protesters arrested on the corner of Williams and Pine streets for civil disobedience.

10 Shockingly Violent Police Assaults on Occupy Protesters on Alternet - Probably 97 percent of police act professionally toward protesters. But the other 3 percent are armed and dangerous, and know that they're unlikely to be held accountable.

Wall Street’s Second Occupation: The Rise of the NYPD's Homeland Security State

These last weeks, there have been two “occupations” in lower Manhattan, one of which has been getting almost all the coverage -- that of the demonstrators camping out in Zuccotti Park. The other, in the shadows, has been hardly less massive, sustained, or in its own way impressive -- the police occupation of the Wall Street area.

On a recent visit to the park, I found the streets around the Stock Exchange barricaded and blocked off to traffic, and police everywhere in every form (in and out of uniform) -- on foot, on scooters, on motorcycles, in squad cars with lights flashing, on horses, in paddy wagons or minivans, you name it. At the park’s edge, there is a police observation tower capable of being raised and lowered hydraulically and literally hundreds of police are stationed in the vicinity. I counted more than 50 of them on just one of its sides at a moment when next to nothing was going on -- and many more can be seen almost anywhere in the Wall Street area, lolling in doorways, idling in the subway, ambling on the plazas of banks, and chatting in the middle of traffic-less streets.

More on AlterNet

Yahoo blocked e-mails about Wall Street protests

Yahoo apologized yesterday after people using its e-mail service were prevented from sending messages about anti-Wall Street demonstrations over the weekend.

The company said that an external spam filter had blocked the messages but maintained that it was inadvertent. It said that the problem has since been resolved, though there may be some residual issues. ThinkProgress, which first noticed the problem, posted the following video of someone being blocked from e-mailing a message inviting their friends to visit the "Occupy Wall St." campaign Web site. - CNET News

Filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Monday evening to discuss the media’s coverage towards the tea party being notably larger than coverage given to protests from the left. (Raw Replay)