Free Republic

Violent crime dropped considerably in the first months of 2024 compared to the same time last year, according to statistics released by the FBI on Monday. Crime reporting for the first quarter of the year showed a 15 percent drop in violent crime overall, including a 13 percent drop in aggravated assault. Serious violent crime like murder and rape both decreased by about 26 percent. The figures were a victory for the Biden administration, which sought to highlight the dip as the GOP focuses on crime ahead of the 2024 election. “This data makes clear that last year’s historic decline...

A radical Italian Antifa activist accused of attacking people with a hammer in Budapest has been elected to the European Parliament, potentially paving the way for her to be freed from custody in Hungary. Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old schoolteacher and “anti-fascist” activist currently under house arrest in Hungary, has won a seat in the EU parliament on behalf of the Green-Left Alliance (AVS) in Italy, ANSA reports. Salis has been accused of being part of a leftist group of mostly Germans who allegedly attacked a group of supposed “neo-Nazis” on February 11th in 2023 as they honoured the Nazi Waffen...

CLEVELAND (WJW) — The woman accused of stabbing a 3-year-old boy and his mother in a local Giant Eagle parking lot went before a judge to be arraigned Monday morning, but what is typically a quick court proceeding became a more lengthy process as the judge asked the defendant multiple times if she had received her indictment. At first, Bionca Ellis, 33, appeared for the hearing via video from the Cuyahoga County Jail. She sat silently with her head down. “Ms. Ellis, why don’t you want to answer these questions?” asked the judge.

The FOX 8 I-Team learned the city of Cleveland is investigating what it calls a “cyber incident.” A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said, “We have not confirmed its nature and scope, we are taking this incident seriously. As a precautionary measure, the city has shut down the affected systems while we focus on securing and restoring services safely.” As a result, Cleveland City Hall is closed on Monday, June 10, along with the offices in Erieview. “These systems will remain offline until we have a better understanding of the situation,” the city said. “We take cyberthreats extremely seriously and...

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, arrested an 11-year-old boy on allegations that the child went on a violent monthlong crime spree, including car burglaries and shootings. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said in a post on social media that it was “disappointing to see a 11-year-old arrested” for crimes that ranged “from burglary to shooting a firearm.” “But this armed individual’s behavior was escalating and he was a danger to the community,” he said in the post. In a statement on Friday, police said the boy was arrested late Thursday. Medina said in the statement he was “grateful that we...

Four indictments and one set of convictions later, a Democrat-led lawfare strategy has failed so far to derail Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House, but it has triggered an avalanche of financial support as the former president hold leads in most battleground states that will decide the 2024 election.No where was Trump’s resilience more obvious than his travels across the West Coast this weekend, where he collected $12 million at a Silicon Valley fund-raiser at the home of a Big Tech executive who used to support Hillary Clinton, scored millions more at events in blue southern California...

Never-before-released details of the behind-the-scenes investigationsHow it Started“Reeeeeeeee.”The noise is coming from my personal Apple desktop computer in the small office adjacent to my bedroom. It’s starting up.On its own.“Reeeeeeeee…chik chik chik chik,” says the computer as it shakes itself awake.The electronic sounds stir me from sleep. I squint my eyes at the clock radio on the table next to the bed. The numbers blink back: “3:14 a.m.”Only a day earlier, my CBS-issued Toshiba laptop, perched at the front of my bed, had whirred to life on its own, untouched by human hands. What time was that?I think it was...

In European Parliament elections Sunday night, the far right surged in nations including Germany and Austria, but nowhere with more impact than in France. The far-right National Rally there clobbered the ruling centrist coalition, so much so that French President Emmanuel Macron called for snap legislative elections. His bet: That voters may be angry at him, but are not truly prepared to allow the pick of Marine Le Pen — the fiery doyenne of French nationalist, euroskeptic, anti-immigration politics — to head a new French government.It’s a bet that may exact a high price.French President Emmanuel Macron called for a...

James Biden on Monday attended Hunter Biden’s gun trial in Wilmington, Delaware. James Biden is President Joe Biden’s younger brother and family business associate. Both Hunter and James Biden were criminally referred to the Justice Department last week for allegedly lying to Congress about the family business. James Biden’s companies received at least 20 wires totaling $1,398,999 through Hunter’s entities, according to the 2020 Senate Report by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson.

Republican Georgia Rep. Mike Collins claimed Sunday afternoon that one of his staffers was robbed at gunpoint in Washington, D.C. Collins took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and claimed a staffer on his team and a friend were allegedly robbed at gunpoint early Sunday by three men in the southeast neighborhood of Navy Yard. While the staffer and other individuals were not identified by Collins, the Republican congressman claimed one attacker had taken a watch while another was punched by one of the victims. “Our nation’s capital has become a warzone because of pro-criminal policies peddled by D.C.’s government....

The U.S. consulate in Sydney, Australia, was attacked early Monday morning by a sledgehammer-wielding suspect who smashed windows and smeared anti-Israel graffiti on its doors. CCTV footage obtained by police shows a hooded figure with their face obscured smashing nine glass windows of the consulate office with a hammer at around 3am, ABC News reports. Two red triangles were also spray-painted over the consulate’s coat of arms on the front door – a symbol Reuters reports has been used by anti-Israel protesters.

DALLAS - Four people were injured in a shooting in Deep Ellum on Sunday morning. Dallas police said patrol officers heard shots near Elm and N. Crowdus streets around 3 a.m. Four victims, ages 17, 26, 28, and 35, were taken to the hospital. The 17-year-old was last listed in critical condition. The other three are expected to arrive.

Allowing a Russian victory in the conflict would deprive America of access to vast mineral resources, Lindsey Graham says In an interview with 'Face the Nation' on CBS on Sunday, Graham accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a "megalomaniac" who is attempting to "re-create the Russian Empire by force of arms," starting with Ukraine. He further claimed that if Moscow wins the current conflict, it will then take over Ukraine's wealth and share it with China. Graham described that prospect as "ridiculous," suggesting it would be better if this "gold mine" were available to the US instead. "They're sitting...

Police traffic stops have become a hot topic lately, with critics claiming that Chicago police disproportionately stop Black and Brown drivers for minor infractions, intending to turn the traffic violation into a vehicle search that could turn up guns or drugs. Some say that the stops are fishing expeditions. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is one person in that camp. Last month, she announced that she is formulating a policy that could result in her office not pursuing gun and drug cases that result from “pretextual stops,” traffic stops conducted by police intending to look for evidence of other...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 45 people have been shot, eight fatally, in gun violence across Chicago so far this weekend, police said. An 18-year-old woman was sitting in a parked car when she was shot in the head, Chicago police said. Around the same time, a man, 29, was shot near downtown Portillo's in River North, police said. The shooting happened in an alley near Portillo's in the 600-block of North Clark Street around 3:14 a.m., police said. Last weekend, at least 19 people were shot, two fatally, in gun violence across Chicago, police said.

More than 18,800 Chicagoans experienced homelessness on a single night in January — a threefold increase over last year that was largely driven by 13,900 asylum-seekers who had no permanent place to stay. The estimates released Friday come from the city’s annual snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. This year’s point-in-time count was conducted on Jan. 25 — shortly after the city saw its peak of the number of migrants it sheltered. During the count, 13,679 asylum-seekers were living in shelters, with 212 unsheltered. Outside of the population of asylum-seekers, the number of people...

California owes the federal government $52.7 million after it “improperly” requested reimbursements for services provided to noncitizens, according to a recent inspector general report. The Golden State claimed Medicaid reimbursements for services it provided to “noncitizens with unsatisfactory immigration status,” the report reads. The category does not include those seeking asylum or refugees. States are prohibited from claiming such federal reimbursements except in medical emergency situations, which did not apply here, according to the report. An audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general’s office found California had been using an outdated calculation method to determine...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., recently revealed she’s worried former President Trump would throw her in jail if he wins the November election. Ocasio-Cortez spoke with podcast host Kara Swisher for her show, “On with Kara Swisher,” which published the interview Thursday. They touched on the power of technology corporations — including Ocasio-Cortez’s “tangle” with Amazon and tech moguls’ conservative fundraising — Israel, artificial intelligence and the upcoming presidential election. “I mean, it sounds nuts, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy threw me in jail,” she said. “He’s out of his mind. I mean, he did his whole first...

World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain warned Sunday of the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan. In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” McCain stressed the importance of “safe and unfettered access” for the organization to deliver food to the war-torn country. country. “Sudan has the real possibility of becoming the world’s largest humanitarian crisis,” McCain said. “We cannot get food in — we can barely get food in — we certainly aren’t getting it in at scale, and you see the results of what can happen if people aren’t fed.” McCain noted that the situation is...

Rochester, N.Y. – A former manager at Big Lots in Irondequoit finds himself unemployed after he followed a shoplifter into a parking lot, hoping to assist the police in apprehending the perpetrator. Instead of receiving recognition for his efforts, Pat Guider was fired from his position. The issue of shoplifting is rampant in New York State, with retailers experiencing a staggering loss of $4.4 billion to theft in just one year. Not only does this harm businesses, but it also impacts the state’s sales tax revenue, resulting in a loss of $176 million. On May 10, a shoplifting incident occurred...