Now Under Fed Receivership, NYC Rikers Island Jails Still Have No Plan to Improve Reprehensible Conditions, No Closing Date. Death Toll Passes the 2024 Total in Facility Run by Elite Liberals

/

THIS SNITCH ASS NEGRO AIDING GOVERNMENT CAN’’T GET OUT OF OFFICE FAST ENUFF. PLEASE GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!

From [HERE] With its sixth and seventh detainee deaths of the year coming just minutes apart on June 20, 2025, New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex eclipsed its death toll for all of 2024. Benjamin Kelly, 37, and James Maldonado, 56, were the latest of at least 40 people who have died at the jails—or on their way to the jails, or just after release from the jails—since Mayor Eric Adams (D) took office in January 2022. But that number is suspect; a 2023 analysis by City & State found 120 deaths over the previous eight years, far more than the 68 actually reported by the City’s Department of Correction (DOC). 

As Plato said, however, “death is not the worst thing that can happen to a man.” Mentally ill people incarcerated in Rikers Island’s crumbling structures are “deadlocked” in their cells for extended periods, denied programming and medical care, according to a report by the City’s Board of Correction (BOC), which provides oversight to the DOC. But dysfunction in the DOC is so widespread, according to court documents, that jailers systematically deny prisoners and detainees access to medical appointments and then blame them for not showing up. 

Meanwhile, making good on a long-threatened federal receivership, the federal court for the Southern District of New York has decided to appoint a “remediation manager” to oversee operations at the jail complex, which is slated for closure in 2027. Except that’s not going to happen, either, according to another recent report from an independent commission tasked with carrying out the closure. Replacement of Rikers Island was included in a plan adopted by City lawmakers 10 years ago. But reforms announced then to drastically reduce the number of people in DOC custody have since been rolled back, boosting the jail population from a pandemic low under 4,000 in March 2020 to over 7,000 five years later. 

Most of the about-face has occurred on the watch of Mayor Adams. A former captain in the City’s police department (NYPD), he is being forced to seek re-election in November 2025 as a registered Independent, thanks to Democratic pushback from his reactionary embrace of federal immigration crackdowns since the election of Pres. Donald J. Trump (R). Not coincidentally, the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) under Trump has dropped corruption charges against the mayor, which alleged that he peddled his influence in exchange for bribes paid in luxury travel and cash—some of which he illegally diverted from foreign nationals to his re-election campaign. 

But perhaps the most striking thing about the jail’s crisis is how normal it has become; since the last PLN cover story on Rikers Island 42 months ago, the City Council and Adams are still embroiled in a face off over ending solitary confinement. Although no longer called by that name, the pernicious practice continues to drive suicides in the jail complex, especially suicides of mentally ill detainees. Access to mental health care remains spotty for them, as it does for all those incarcerated on Rikers Island. So does access to other medical care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease created a shortage of guards needed for escorts to appointments. But detainees still aren’t getting to their appointments now because those same guards enjoy unlimited time off, leaving the DOC with a bloated salary budget and no one on hand to show for it.

Yet it’s crucial to delve into the details of this dysfunction, in order to understand what must be done to right the ship that is currently sinking into the East River—not only sinking metaphorically but literally sinking; the entire island was once a landfill, and the ground underneath the jail complex is subsiding as all that ancient garbage composts and compacts. The resulting structural degradation and deterioration is why an estimated 79% of weapons confiscated from prisoners and detainees have been fashioned from pieces of buildings that have crumbled and fallen off. The filth and the stench are nearly as hellish as the pervasive cries of mentally ill detainees and those held in prolonged isolation. 

The DOC has long fought release of information. It took the New York Times three years of legal battles to get the court-ordered release of surveillance video of Michael Nieves’ August 2022 death. The mentally ill detainee was awaiting trial in a psychiatric unit at the jail when he managed to cut his jugular vein with a shaving razor. Nieves, 40, had previously cut himself with another shaving razor while held in a secure bed in the City’s Bellevue Hospital, requiring emergency surgery to save his life. This time he wasn’t so lucky, though; as guards stood by and watched, Nieves bled out and died while waiting for emergency responders.

According to Dr. Robert Cohen, who resigned from the BOC as the video was made public in July 2025, “There has reached a level of dysfunction on Rikers Island that is being recognized.” Whether that is just a wish remains to be seen. But Cohen’s larger point is undeniable: “People may need to be separated from society for some period of time, but they shouldn’t be sent to a place where they could die unnecessarily.” [MORE]

Prosecutors in Liberal Cities Continue Allowing Police to Murder Blacks w/Impunity and Immunity: No Charges for White Akron Cop who Shot Jazmir Tucker, Teen Posed No Threat, Gun was in Zipped Pocket

/

CONTRARY TO YOUR DELUSION, WE’RE NOT ON THEIR TEAM. ELITE WHITE LIBERALS DOMINATE BLACK PEOPLE in all areas of people activity. relevant here is The AREA CALLED ‘THE criminal justice system.’ LIKE DC, NYC, CHICAGO, LA, ATLANTA, MEMPHIS, ST. LOUIS AND SO MANY OTHER PLACES, AKRON HAS BEEN DOMINATED BY DEMOCRATS FOR MULTIPLE DECADES. [MORE]

Most black people live in metro areas, WHICH TEND TO BE PLACES controlled by elite, white liberals. Consequently, if democrats really wanted to protect the so-called rights of its loyal Black constituents- that is, controlling their own cops’ behavior in their relations with its Black residents, then the elite white liberal leadership could and would have done so at some point over the past 40-50 years. HOWEVER, IN ALL SUCH PLACES,the police stop, use force, detain, prosecute and kill blacks in grossly disproportionate numbers. Yet Blacks rarely question this extraordinary phenomenon and inexplicably and strongly believe that elite, white liberals are their political allies who help to ‘protect their rights. [MORE]

From [HERE] A Summit County grand jury Thursday declined to charge an Akron police officer who fatally shot a teenager on Thanksgiving.

An official in the office of the Summit County Clerk of Courts said the grand jury returned a no-bill on one count of murder against Fields.

Earlier this year, Summit County officials turned the case over to Mahoning County prosecutors to handle after a state investigation.

John Juhasz, the criminal chief of the Mahoning County office, said the case “was fairly investigated and fairly presented to the grand jury.”

He said the panel heard from witnesses over a series of days.

Police have said that two patrol officers heard nearby gunshots just after 11pm on 28 November and got out of their parked car to investigate. The officers then encountered Jazmir and ran after him, officials said. One officer fired his assault rifle at the teen, fatally striking him. The boy was later pronounced dead at a hospital and no officers were injured.

The boy was found with a gun in a zipped-up pocket, raising concerns about why lethal force had been used, Malik said: “Why did the officer decide to use his weapon?”

The roughly eight-minute video released by police is difficult to decipher. The sound is off for the first 30 seconds, which is standard when a body camera first turns on. The shooting happens within that timeframe. The footage suggests the officer was chasing Jazmir, raised his rifle and fired at him for about three seconds, potentially shooting about seven times.

The shooting officer’s arms and long gun, however, block the camera’s view, and Jazmir is not visible in the moments before and during the shooting.

Once the sound on the footage begins, that officer and others are heard yelling at Jazmir, who is on the ground, repeatedly telling the unresponsive teen to raise his hands. Between eight and 10 officers ultimately converge on Jazmir about seven minutes after he is shot. At that point, officers handcuff him and search his pockets. Police have not released details about what any of the officers did to try to save his life.

Activists blasted the grand jury’s decision. It comes two years after another Summit County grand jury declined to indict eight Akron officers in the shooting death of Jayland Walker following a police chase.

“God calls us to forgiveness, but God also demands accountability,” said the Rev. Raymond Greene, the leader of the Freedom BLOC in Akron. “What happened today is not accountability, it is complicity.

“Every time a grand jury refuses to hold an officer responsible, the system tells us loud and clear that Black life in Akron is disposable.” 

Fields shot Tucker near Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts on East Avenue. Fields and his partner were filing a report in their cruiser when they heard gunshots, police said.

Fields left the car without activating his body camera, so it did not record audio of the moments before the boy’s death, authorities said. The patrolman ran to the youth and shot him with an assault rifle, police said. His partner, who has not been identified, did not use his weapon. 

It took Akron police officers about eight minutes to give aid to the youth after the shooting. Later, officers found a gun in the boy’s front pocket, which had been zipped. 

Police have said two shell casings that matched Tucker’s gun were found near where the boy was shot.

Fields had been placed on administrative leave. The city said threats have been made against police officers since the shooting.

Following the grand jury’s decision, demonstrators gathered on South High Street, outside the Summit County Courthouse in Akron, to protest.

They carried signs that said, “Justice for Jazmir,” “Your badge is not a shield” and “How many more?” They chanted Tucker’s name, “No justice, no peace” and “Forever 15,” referring to the age at which Tucker died. 

Gary Green, Tucker’s grandfather, was among them. He called the shooting death of his grandson a “murder.”

“This city has been doing things wrong for a long time with police officers, and they’ve been getting away with it,” Green said.

Neuropeon Stephen Miller Claims to “Unleash the Memphis Police!” But Elite Liberals Already Did That. Last Year DOJ Found ‘Predatory Cops Routinely Impose 2nd Class Citizenship on Blacks w/Violence’

/

Miller’s speech, in which he told Memphis police officers that they were being “unleashed” with the full support of the federal government to “go out and get the criminals off the streets,” comes a day after President Donald Trump told military leaders that they should use “dangerous” U.S. cities as “training grounds.” [MORE]

MEMPHIS IS A CITY CONTROLLED BY ELITE WHITE LIBERALS. WHAT DOES “CONTROLLED by” MEAN? MEMPHIS IS HOME TO MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, THE WORLD'S BUSIEST CARGO AIRPORT, SURPASSING HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN 2021. MEMPHIS SERVES AS A PRIMARY HUB FOR FEDEX EXPRESS SHIPPING. AS OF 2014, MEMPHIS WAS THE HOME OF THREE FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES: FEDEX (NO. 63), INTERNATIONAL PAPER (NO. 107), AND AUTOZONE (NO. 306). OTHER MAJOR CORPORATIONS BASED IN MEMPHIS INCLUDE ALLENBERG COTTON, AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL SERVICES (ALSO KNOWN AS ARS/RESCUE ROOTER); BAKER, DONELSON, BEARMAN, CALDWELL & BERKOWITZ; CARGILL COTTON, CITY GEAR, FIRST HORIZON NATIONAL CORPORATION, FRED'S, GTX, LENNY'S SUB SHOP, MID-AMERICA APARTMENTS, PERKINS RESTAURANT AND BAKERY, SERVICEMASTER, TRUE TEMPER SPORTS, VARSITY BRANDS, AND VERSO PAPER. CORPORATIONS WITH MAJOR OPERATIONS BASED IN MEMPHIS INCLUDE GIBSON GUITARS (BASED IN NASHVILLE), AND SMITH & NEPHEW.THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS ALSO HAS A BRANCH IN MEMPHIS. [MORE]

One thing about neuropeon Stephen Miller is that if you give him the mic for too long he will play himself, because he’s like that. Here, dood is a little late to the game. Less than a year ago on December 4, 2024 the DOJ announced its thorough findings that the ‘Memphis Police Department routinely and pervasively deprives Black people of their Constitutional rights and follows policies that grossly discriminate against black people in its highly segregated city.’

The justice department began investigating the police force for the Tennessee city in 2023, after the death of Tyre Nichols, who was brutally tortured and murdered by police during a traffic stop.

In its report from the investigation the department said Memphis police "must correct these issues" that it said were part of a "pattern" of civil rights violations.

The report states, “We have reasonable cause to believe that MPD and the City engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution and federal law. First, MPD uses excessive force. Second, MPD makes unlawful stops, searches, and arrests. Third, MPD unlawfully discriminates against Black people when enforcing the law. Fourth, the City and MPD unlawfully discriminate when responding to people with behavioral health disabilities.”

Memphis has relied on traffic stops to address violent crime. The police department has encouraged officers in specialized units, task forces, and patrol to prioritize street enforcement. Officers and community members have described this approach as “saturation,” or flooding neighborhoods with traffic stops…

Memphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve. Our investigation found that officers use force to punish and retaliate against people who do not immediately do as they say. They rapidly escalate encounters, including traffic stops, and use excessive force even when people are already handcuffed or restrained. They resort to intimidation and threats. They have put themselves and others in harm’s way—officers have unlawfully fired at moving cars and accidentally pepper sprayed and fired Tasers at each other. ..

The report explains that “police officers [are] stopping and detaining large numbers of drivers for minor infractions without legal justification. In a city of about 630,000 people, MPD officers reported making 866,164 traffic stops between January 2018 and August 2023. The number of stops may be even greater. They cited or arrested drivers in at least 296,685 cases, predominantly for minor infractions.

In general, DOJ found on 12/24 that:

  • MPD Escalates Encounters Involving Low-Level and Traffic Offenses, Leading to Unreasonable Uses of Force.

  • MPD Uses Unjustified Neck Restraints.

  • The Memphis Police Department Uses Unreasonable Force on People Who Are Restrained or Under Control.

  • MPD’s Dangerous and Punitive Use of Police Dogs

  • MPD’s Use of Less-Lethal Weapons Violates the Law.

  • MPD Officers Unreasonably Shoot at People and Cars After Placing Themselves in Dangerous Situations.

  • MPD’s Deficient Policies and Training Contribute to Excessive Force.

  • MPD Conducts Unlawful Stops, Searches, and Arrests

  • MPD Makes Unconstitutional Stops

  • MPD Searches People Unlawfully.

  • MPD Unlawfully Searches and Seizes Cars.

  • MPD Makes Unlawful Arrests.

  • MPD’s intrusive and unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrests violate the rights of people throughout Memphis.

  • MPD Unlawfully Discriminates Against Black People in its Enforcement.

  • MPD Engages in Racially Disparate Enforcement.

  • MPD enforces traffic laws more aggressively against Black drivers and in Black neighborhoods.

  • MPD is more likely to cite or arrest Black people for drug-related offenses than white people.

  • MPD arrests Black people for marijuana possession at more than 5 times the rate of white people.

  • MPD disproportionately cites Black drivers for minor traffic offenses.

  • MPD disproportionately cites or arrests Black people for highly discretionary misdemeanor offenses.

  • MPD’s enforcement of low-level, discretionary offenses also impacts Black youth in Memphis.

  • The City and MPD Unlawfully Discriminate in Their Response to People with Behavioral Health Disabilities. [MORE]

'Whoreor' Show: Larry Ellison, Netanyahu, Palantir and Blackrock are Dummy Trump’s Masters who Pull his Strings, Pimp Him Out and Speak Through Him

/

Netanyahu Doesn’t Pull Trump’s Strings? RON PAUL states, Average Americans are concerned about the command relationship between the US and Israel.  There is a growing awareness of the US funded and armed slaughter in Gaza.  In 1967, over 50 years ago, Israelis created an open air concentration camp on the Strip.  It held 2.3 million people by 2023, that number today reduced to around 1.5 million, with the population of Gaza City now killed or removed. Palestinian survivors are crowded into a tiny militarized area in the south without food, water or shelter.  Most of Israel hopes that a third winter and outbreaks of disease will kill them all.  Bibi Netanyahu and his murderous government are also at war with seven or eight other enemies, pot-shotting and assassinating around the region, and perhaps the world – while claiming full US government support.

The Trump campaign was funded by a number of Jewish Zionists who gambled that a Trump in the hand is worth two neoconservatives in the bush.  We find few neocons in Washington who will compliment Trump these days; most, like Iraq war cheerleaders David Frum and Bill Kristol are openly contemptuous.

Critics of neoconservatives were long labeled anti-Semitic, and today Trump is arguably more neoconservative than the original thinkers and politicians who proudly endorsed Netanyahu’s twenty-five year old plan for Greater Israel, and worked for US boutique wars and regime changes to assist in the implementation of the Likud Party’s “Clean Break.”

Trump may or may not understand the nuances of neoconservatism; he’s more people person than academic.  But he’s got a coach today in Netanyahu, and Bibi’s four personal visits to the White House and numerous phone calls have changed Donald Trump in several noticeable ways.

The first and most obvious shift is that Trump is unable, for reasons of personality or money or blackmail or simple fear of assassination, to assert himself with Bibi.  Notwithstanding this recent image of Netanyahu doing a forced reading of an apology to the Emir of Qatar, the relationship between the leader of 9 million Israelis, and the leader of 340 million Americans is that of coach to player, leader to follower, boss to consigliere.  Trump will on occasion denigrate and threaten to fight, fire, sue or otherwise impoverish other countries, his own staff, Republicans and Democrats in the Congress, mayors and governors, and past presidents.  But he is exceptionally mannerly around Bibi.

The second shift, increasingly evident, is Trump’s obsession with war as much – or more than – peace.  The average American may see war as the absence of peace, or the failure of peace, at best a transitional necessity to get back to peace.  This is to be expected, we haven’t fought a war in our own country since 1861, and given the North won, we don’t often hear about the brutal 1864 burning of the Shenandoah Valley by General Philip Sheridan, or General Sherman’s murderous march from Atlanta to the Sea, both on orders by future president Ulysses Grant.  But the average Israeli sees such war and conflict as normalcy.  For Israel, in practical terms, war is peace.

Trump promised the end of wars, but coached by Bibi, he now openly declares total war on foreign and domestic enemies alike.  In the name of “peace” Trump has continued to arm both Ukraine and Israel in two of the bloodiest and entirely unnecessary wars of the 21st century.  Despite promises to end aid to Ukraine, thus saving Ukrainians from dying and sacrificing their very country for a corrupt, pointless, and broken NATO, he is now hinting at providing Tomahawk intermediate range missiles, and much more, so long as NATO pays. Despite promises to reduce Pentagon waste, he boasts the first trillion dollar “defense” budget, and demands a Department of War.  Whatever Bibi needs in Gaza, Trump provides and delivers, be it weapons or cash or Palestinian-free “peace plans.”

Instead of peace talk, Trump increasingly sounds like a mini-bibi, focusing on enemies inside and outside of borders, warning of an America constantly at risk and constantly at war, surrounded by threats so deadly and irrational they can only be dealt with by overwhelming force.  As he said to the generals, “They spit, we hit.”

The third shift is the most disturbing, and that is Trump’s increasingly evident adoption of Bibi’s contempt for “the other,” be that political enemies, whole religions, entire cultures, and simply those who disagree.  Governors who reject federal control of State Guard units to enforce federal edicts in those states are not just internal enemies, but incompetent, and deserving of prison.  Media outlets, whether independent or state, that criticize or snipe at Trump are stupid, lying and fake.  Illegal immigrants become invading enemy units, governments that disagree with or question Trump’s policies are losers and illegitimate.  More than the name calling, which can be seen as “tough guy” talk, a kind of American machismo, we have increasing dehumanization of the enemy in thought and language.  The language of hate and intolerance – from the left where we see it today most clearly, and also from the right – prefigures wars. Language is the footman of war.  It is both revolting and alarming when these words become the day-to-day language of the President, whose first and only duty is to the Republic and the Constitution that binds it. [MORE]

LARRY ELLISON PIMPS TRUMP ALSO. Everything is coming together for Larry Ellison. The billionaire co-founder of tech giant Oracle, on-and-off-again the richest man in the world and a staunch supporter of Israel, is set to take a lead role in reshaping TikTok in the United States. His son, David Ellison, is moving to take over large swaths of the media, including CBS News, CNN, Warner Brothers, and Paramount, reportedly bringing in the Free Press’s Bari Weiss to shape editorial direction.

“The Ellison family is cornering the market on attention and data the same way the Vanderbilts did railroads and the Rockefellers did oil,” as Wired recently characterized it. How they plan to operate that monopoly is on course to be tested out in what President Donald Trump is calling “New Gaza,” the techno-dystopian free trade zone that is to be administered by a Board of Peace led by Trump and Ellison’s longtime political and business vehicle, Tony Blair. Ellison has given or pledged more than $350 million to the Tony Blair Institute, which Blair has used to advance Ellison’s vision of a marriage between government, corporate power, and tech surveillance. Oracle, by providing database infrastructure and cloud-computing services to other huge enterprises like FedEx and NVIDIA, has quietly become one of the most powerful companies in the world. [MORE]

Pfizer CONTROLS DUMMY TRUMP

LARRY ELLISON, BLACKROCK and PALANTIR CONTROL DUMMY TRUMP

The Fast-Approaching Digital Control Grid. A Checklist of Trump Administration Actions to Date

/

From [Catherine Austin Fitts]

A digital control grid is an electronic network of digital telecommunication and information systems that allows individuals to be surveilled, tracked, and made subject to invasive controls applied to their financial transactions and resource use (such as electricity, food, water, transportation)—compromising, if not ending, all human rights and liberties. Control grids operate with significant data collection and AI to apply social credit systems that can be dictated on a highly centralized basis. A digital control grid ends financial freedom, replacing markets with technocracy—a system run by rules created and maintained centrally by “experts.”

Is the Trump Administration building a digital control grid? We provide the following checklist to assess the steps the Administration is (and is not) taking in a variety of areas to facilitate a rapid control grid build-out. We invite subscribers to post suggestions in the Comments section below.

The Big Picture

Plunder: Financing the Panopticon (added August 14, 2025)
Plunder—warfare by economic means—is an ancient story. New technologies (including AI, satellites, and weaponized cryptocurrencies) are emboldening plunderers to create a powerful digital panopticon. These technological innovations increase both the applications of plunder and its profitability.

A Look at the Surveillance State (added August 3, 2025)
“Okay, let’s recap: REAL ID enforced; stablecoins incoming; mRNA Stargate project; TSA biometric overhaul; ICE using facial recognition; Palantir in 30+ federal agencies; Google/Amazon health data tracking; AI surveillance towers scanning highways. Surveillance State: engaged.”

Money

Summary: An all-digital currency and monetary system is essential to institute a digital control grid.

The GENIUS Act
There is support for legislation to create digital stablecoin infrastructure. Presumably, this can be used to create a programmable money system in both the U.S. and globally—in essence, a private CBDC.

More on the GENIUS Act (added July 18, 2025)
Exposing the Darkness Substack: Stablecoins “would likely eventually replace all cash, and would enable governments to freeze the accounts of anyone declared in violation of ‘lawful’ federal or state executive branch regulations, such as the vaccine mandates passed down in 2021 by [HHS]. Trump is doing the exact opposite of what he pledged…. He said he would ban CBDCs … but Stablecoins are in every important respect CBDCs.”

Armstrong Economics: “[E]ssentially, the government is turning the stablecoin into a digital dollar of sorts. The concern here is that this could delve into digitizing all currency and creating a CBDC. The act specifically provides the government with the authority to ‘block, freeze, and reject specific or impermissible transactions.’ This provision is not intended to protect the world against drug smugglers and thieves. This provision is intended to grant government unlimited control over how people spend stablecoins.”

GENIUS Act = Programmable Money (added July 23, 2025)
Posted @solari_the: “Worried about Epstein? Congress & Administration signed into law the Genius Act with NO PROTECTIONS against programmable money. So the genociders and pedophiles will be able to track/turn your money on and off—so guess what happens when they want your kids?”
Also posted @solari_the: “Why Secretary Bessent @SecScottBessent are there no financial freedom protections against programmable money in your stablecoins in the Genius Act? Are you trying to create a global financial kill box for every person on the planet? Could these systems be managed by social credit systems with Palantir type data analytic systems? Would this provide individualized integrated enforcement ranging from financial sanctions and financial kills to actual individual manhunt drone kills? And who would control this extraordinary system?”

[MORE]

ICE Race Soldiers Arrested a Law Abiding, Non-White, US Citizen—Twice—During Alabama Construction Site Raids. Now He's Suing

/

An Alabama construction worker is challenging the Trump administration's warrantless construction site raids after he says he was arrested and detained by federal immigration agents—twice—despite being a U.S. citizen with a valid ID in his pocket.

In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed today in the Southern District of Alabama, Leo Garcia Venegas is seeking to stop "dragnet raids" that target Latinos like himself, without any probable cause besides their ethnicity. 

"It feels like there is nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want," Venegas said in a press release by the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that filed the suit on his behalf. "I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that."

Venegas and the Institute for Justice argue that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies allow immigration agents to illegally raid private construction sites, detain workers without reasonable suspicion, and continue detaining them even after they offer evidence of citizenship or legal status. All of this, they say, violates the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. [MORE]

Contrary to Blight House Rhetoric, More than a Third of ICE Detainees Have No Criminal Record or Pending Charges, data shows

/

Nearly 17,000 immigrants without a prior criminal record  are currently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a group that accounts for the largest share of those in custody, according to government data released last week.

While the Trump administration said it would primarily focus enforcement on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal convictions, detentions have surged since President Donald Trump took office in January, with a sharp increase in those who had neither convictions nor pending charges.

The population of ICE detainees has more than tripled since 2024, as the Trump administration implemented arrest quotas for federal agents as part of its crackdown on undocumented immigrants. At the time, the government said that ICE would be targeting the “worst of the worst,” focusing on undocumented immigrants with either criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

During the first few months of the administration, the number of ICE detainees in all categories increased steadily — the most pronounced change being in detainees with pending criminal charges. At the end of April, ICE maintained that 75% of those arrested were criminals.

Since setting a goal in May to arrest as many as 3,000 people each day, there has been a steep climb in detainees with no criminal record, the detained population of convicted criminals or those with pending criminal charges has continued to climb at relatively the same rate.

These detainees — who made up less than 10% of the population in ICE detention — now account for nearly 40% of those currently being held by ICE. [MORE]

DHS Collected and is Keeping DNA from U.S. Citizens Without Due Process

/

For years, the federal government has been amassing DNA profiles of noncitizens. But recently released Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data reveal that officials knowingly collected the DNA of approximately 2,000 American citizens and added it to a national genetic surveillance database used by law enforcement. 

This genetic collection was made possible by a March 2020 rule change to the 2005 DNA Fingerprint Act, which removed the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) discretion to exempt detained noncitizens from DNA collection. This drastically expanded the number of DNA samples the DHS collects and uploads to the federal database known as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

Between 2020 and 2024, the CBP alone—which is only one of the many agencies under DHS—added between 1.3 and 2.8 million people to CODIS, compared to just 30,000 detainees added between 2005 and 2020, according to Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology. Of this total, CBP provided CODIS with the DNA of between 1,947 and 2,131 U.S. citizens. [MORE]

Wife of Murdered Man Aboard Venezuelan Ship Unlawfully Bombed by Trump Says Husband Was a Fisher, Not a Drug Dealer

/

From [HERE] A woman who identified herself as the wife of one of the at least 17 people extrajudicially murdered by US military strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela said her slain husband was a fisher, contradicting the Trump administration’s claim that the vessels were trafficking cocaine and other drugs.

The New York Times reported Sunday that the unnamed woman said her husband left one day and never returned to her and their four children. The US has attacked at least two Venezuelan boats this month, prompting allegations of criminality.

The Trump administration has offered no hard evidence – such as drugs or weapons recovered from the targeted boats – to support its assertion that the vessels were smuggling narcotics. While the area where the boats were bombed is a notorious drug-running route, it is also frequented by migrants, human traffickers, and people selling subsidized Venezuelan gasoline in nearby Trinidad and Tobago.

Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff who reportedly once pushed for drone strikes on unarmed migrants, played a key role in directing the strikes on the boats, according to reporting by The Guardian.

The attacks on the boats came amid the US deployment of numerous US warships and thousands of sailors and Marines off the coast of Venezuela, a country Trump has repeatedly threatened with regime change in the face of defiant anti-imperialist resistance from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The US has a more than century-long history of meddling in the affairs of Venezuela, one of the world’s leading oil producers. [MORE]

Like All Criminals and Cops, Cloutlaw Trump Engages in Obviously Unlawful Conduct Until a Court Stops Him [which usually takes a while]: Oregon Sues to Stop his Illegal Portland Troop Deployment

/

From [HERE] Oregon and the City of Portland sued President Donald Trump Sunday to stop his order sending federal troops into the city, calling the move “patently unlawful” and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The plaintiffs argue that Trump’s order rests on false claims and illegally commandeers state forces for federal law enforcement.

“Defendants’ deployment of troops to Oregon is patently unlawful,” the complaint reads. “Defendants’ purpose in federalizing those troops — to integrate them into federal law enforcement activities in Portland — also violates the Posse Comitatus Act.”

They warn that Trump is trampling state sovereignty to punish a Democrat-led city he has long targeted.

“Defendants’ actions violate the Tenth Amendment’s guarantee that the police power — including the authority to promote safety at protests and deter violent crime — resides with the states, not the federal government,” the complaint adds. “By singling out a particular disfavored jurisdiction for political retribution, these actions also eviscerate the constitutional principle that the states’ sovereignty should be treated equally.”

The lawsuit landed just as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo confirming that 200 members of the Oregon National Guard have been “called into Federal service effective immediately for a period of 60 days.”

The order directs that guard members operate under U.S. Northern Command, underscoring the seriousness of Trump’s push to put state forces under federal control in Portland despite state leaders’ objections.

Oregon and Portland are asking a federal court to immediately block the order and bar Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from deploying National Guard members in Oregon. [MORE]

Liberal 2nd Circuit Ct Upholds NY's Obviously Unconstitutional Law that Prevents Citizens From Carrying Guns for Self Defense on Public Transportation and Bans Guns Merely b/c a Place is Crowded

/

NY’s new law violates the 2nd Amendment because there is no longstanding historical tradition of regulating peaceable public carry on public transportation, in churches, all government buildings and schools regardless of their nature as required by the new Supreme Court holding. Also, the ban on guns is unconstitutional because the Court explained that merely because a place is crowded does not make it a “sensitive place” worthy of stripping people the right to defend themselves with a handgun.

The Court explained, “When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Only then may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s “unqualified command.”

The sensitive places doctrine is an exception to the general right to the peaceable possession and carry of arms. The Court is guided by the history around the time of the creation of the 2nd Amendment to determine whether a gun is valid because the right to carry arms is considered to be a “pre-existing right.” Said history according to the Court and legal scholars is that carrying “common weapons” was an offense only when done in a manner “apt to terrify” people. [MORE] The Court ruled that there must be a “longstanding” history of “laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.” [MORE]

A three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld the “sensitive area” provision of New York State’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA).

The CCIA bans the carrying of firearms in Times Square and on public transportation. Shortly after New York State lost at the Supreme Court in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the state legislature held an emergency session to pass a response to the historic defeat. Because of Bruen, the Empire State’s “may issue” concealed firearms carry scheme was struck down as unconstitutional. SCOTUS stated that a gun law must be consistent with the text, tradition, and history of the Second Amendment from the founding era. All states had to become “must issue.” The court stated that certain areas could be designated as “sensitive,” such as court and government buildings, but the designation must be used sparingly. It cannot be applied simply because a large number of people gather in a location.

The CCIA did just that and banned firearms in Times Square because of the large number of people gathered there. Many other places were included in the law as “sensitive.” Various lawsuits have emerged, suing New York State over what some have called “thumbing their nose” at the Supreme Court due to the Bruen decision. One of the cases was Frey v. Cheng. The case challenged the CCIA provision that banned the carrying of guns in Times Square and the Subways. [MORE]

Florida Authorities Murdered Victor Jones on 10/1. Despite the Supreme Court Prohibition Against Executing Intellectually Disabled People, He Had to Go b/c He Killed 2 White Folks

/

From [HERE] Tonight, We The People of the State of Florida killed Victor Tony Jones, a man who just nine months ago the State recognized as a victim of abuse at the state-run Okeechobee School for Boys. We killed an intellectually disabled Black man with an IQ of under 75, whose execution should have been barred by law. 

In January 2025, the Florida Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to Victor, formally recognizing him as a survivor of crimes committed by state officials, making him eligible for the long-overdue compensation. In July of 2025, the State deposited this money into his prison account. These reparations and this apology were mere window dressing, as Governor DeSantis signed his death warrant 53 days later.

 Suddenly, once the execution was set, the Attorney General reversed course, refusing to turn over public records relating to Victor’s abuse, at first falsely claiming no records existed. Then, the Attorney General argued that the letter “doesn’t mean he was abused” and remarkably denied that they compensated him. This is unquestionably false, and the State’s formal recognition of the abuse and his classification as a victim would have made a difference to Victor’s jury.

The reason it would have mattered? For decades, the courts dismissed Victor’s testimony of abuse as “not credible.” Prosecutors mocked him at trial, telling jurors he deserved death because he had squandered the “opportunities” Florida gave him when they sent him to a state-run “reform” school. After decades of denying any harm done at these “reform” schools, Florida finally acknowledged one of the most shameful chapters in its history — that it brutalized its young charges and caused them permanent and irreparable harm. This execution exposes the hollowness of Florida’s apology to these victims and deepens its legacy of cruelty and hypocrisy.

We recognize that the 1990 murders of Matilda “Dolly” Nestor and Jacob “Jack” Nestor were horrific and have caused lasting, profound pain for their loved ones. But executing a man whose life was shaped by the lasting effects of state-sanctioned abuse and trauma only compounds cycles of violence while denying the whole truth of Florida’s responsibility. [MORE]

Maurice Hastings Gets Record $25 Million in Wrongful Conviction Settlement. Black Man Spent 38 yrs in Prison After White Cops and Prosecutors Framed him for Rape and Murder of a White Woman

/

Maurice Hastings, a Southern California man who spent 38 years in prison based on a wrongful conviction, reached a $25 million settlement in the civil lawsuit he brought against the city of Inglewood two years ago.

The settlement is the largest ever in California for a wrongful conviction, Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger, the civil rights law firm that represents Hastings, announced Tuesday.

“This historic settlement is a powerful vindication for Mr. Hastings, who has shown remarkable fortitude first in fighting to prove his innocence, and then in showing that he was framed,” Nick Brustin, one of the lawyers, said in the statement. “Police departments throughout California and across the country should take notice that there is a steep price to pay for allowing such egregious misconduct on their watch.”

Hastings was tried twice for the 1983 murder of Roberta Wydermyer, the first trial ended with the jury deadlocked, he was convicted after a second trial in 1988. There was no physical evidence to link Hastings to the crime and numerous witnesses gave him an alibi, as well as him maintaining his innocence. Wydermyer had been sexually assaulted and murdered by a gunshot to the head. She was found in the trunk of her car in Inglewood, Los Angeles. Hastings was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole

Hastings had his conviction vacated in 2022. He spent 38 years behind bars after police had framed him for the rape and murder of a woman during a 1983 carjacking.

One of the Inglewood police officers fixated on Hastings and pinned the crimes on him — despite no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the crimes and rapidly mounting evidence of his innocence, Hastings’ attorneys said. This police officer coerced eyewitnesses to identify Hastings, suppressed exonerating alibi evidence, and falsified witness statements. He also admitted he buried critical evidence that would have supported Hastings’ innocence.

Hastings, 72, said in a federal complaint filed in Los Angeles that Inglewood police arrested the true perpetrator, who matched the description witnesses had provided and who had what was likely the murder weapon, as well as some of the victim’s jewelry in his possession, for a series of car thefts. Yet, they didn’t investigate this suspect in connection with the carjacking.

Instead, Hastings said, the detectives somehow made the witnesses change their mind after they hadn’t recognized his photo initially — he’s 6 feet, 5 inches tall and has a prominent gold front tooth, while the murderer was described as 6-foot-1-inch tall with notable white teeth — and hid exculpatory physical evidence from the victim’s autopsy.

Hastings today lives a quiet life in Southern California, where he is active in his church and volunteers distributing meals to people experiencing homelessness, his attorneys said.

“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said in the statement. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life. I thank God that I’ve made it to the other side of this decades-long ordeal, and I thank my family and legal team for their steadfast support over the years.” [MORE]

Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration’s Push To Deport Critics of Israel Is Unconstitutional. Non-Citizens Also Have Freedom of Speech

/

A federal judge in Boston ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration violated the Constitution with its effort to deport critics of Israel, and affirmed that non-citizens in the US legally have the same right to free speech as Americans.

“This case — perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court — squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in the United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do,” said District Judge William Young, who was nominated by President Reagan.

The ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by several university associations that alleged the arrest of college students and faculty who participated in pro-Palestine protests violated the First Amendment and had a chilling effect on speech.

“In his 161-page opinion, the judge analyzed the Trump administration’s allegations against several non-citizens, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, and rightly recognized that they were targeted purely for their political views and speech,” Jenin Younis, a civil liberties attorney and legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told Antiwar.com.

“He rejected the argument that non-citizens lack First Amendment protections, correctly observing that it serves as a restraint on government, without respect to the immigration status of the speaker,” Younes added.

In his ruling, Young said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and their subordinates “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment-protected political speech.”

Young said Rubio and Noem carried out this policy “in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right.”

The judge added that the effect of the campaign against pro-Palestinian non-citizens “continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.” [MORE]

The FreeDumb and Piece President Rejects the Idea of ‘Policing’ Somalia but Continues Dropping Bombs. Trump's War in Somalia Receives Virtually No US Media Coverage Despite Constant US Airstrikes

/

From [HERE] President Trump on Tuesday rejected the idea that the US military should “police” African countries like Somalia and Kenya, comments that come as he is overseeing the heaviest US air campaign in Somalia in history.

“We’ve brought back the fundamental principle that defending the homeland is the military’s first and most important priority,” Trump told a group of hundreds and generals at the US Marines Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, who were assembled by US War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“Only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far-reaches of Kenya and Somalia, while America is under invasion,” the president added.

Also on Wednesday, US Africa Command announced it launched an airstrike in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region that it said targeted the local ISIS affiliate. The bombing brings the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia so far this year to 80, as the administration has shattered the record for annual airstrikes in the country, which Trump set at 63 during his first term in 2019.

For context, President Biden launched a total of 51 strikes in Somalia throughout his entire four-year term, according to numbers from New America, an organization that tracks the US air war. President Obama launched 48 strikes in Somalia throughout his eight years in office, and George W. Bush launched 12. During his first term, Trump launched 219 strikes in the country.

The US war in Somalia receives virtually no media coverage in the US despite the constant US airstrikes. AFRICOM has been bombing both the ISIS affiliate in Puntland, where it backs local forces, and al-Shabaab in central and southern Somalia.