Free Republic

Crime is soaring in cities where police departments have been defunded, reports Fox News. Movements to defund the police have grown since George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis. Defunding means reallocating or redirecting funding away from the police department to other government agencies funded by the local municipality. More than 20 major cities have reduced their police budgets in some form, though the scale and circumstances vary. The results have not fared well in Los Angeles, Oakland, New York City, Portland and Austin. Homicides in Oakland, California, have risen 314 percent compared with the same time last year...

He fatally shot an NYPD cop execution-style decades ago in a Queens bar — and now Richard Rivera is helping reform police in upstate New York as part of a state-mandated plan launched by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The cop-killer — who murdered off-duty officer and dad-of-four Robert Walsh in 1981 — sits on a panel for Ithaca and Tompkins County as part of its “Reimagining Public Safety Collaborative.’’ The advisory group was formed after Cuomo ordered municipalities to submit police-reform plans to the state by April 1 following George Floyd’s death.

<p>A progressive mayor’s proposal to abolish the police department of a small city in upstate New York is sparking concerns among residents that the reform effort will exacerbate a recent spike in violent crime, the town’s former police chief told National Review.</p>

In addition to teaching my own class within the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences (ENVS), I serve as a guest speaker across campus. My position thus offers me an extraordinary view of the Ithaca College curriculum. Each year, I lecture in 10 to 20 classes. Indeed, I may be the only faculty at Ithaca College who has taught or co-hosted programming in all five of our schools. What does climate change have to do with human performance? Well, higher heat and humidity represent health threats to outdoor athletes. In California, three-quarters of new oil wells are drilled in Black...

Mayor Svante Myrick will propose replacing the city’s current 63-officer, $12.5 million a year department with a “Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety” which would include armed “public safety workers” and unarmed “community solution workers,” all of whom will report to a civilian director of public safety instead of a police chief. Under the proposal, all current officers would have to re-apply for a position with the new department. If the proposal is approved, calls for service will be evaluated to determine whether an armed or unarmed respondent is necessary, or another public agency altogether would be best to...

A Cornell University course titled “BIPOC Rock Climbing,” was originally restricted to “people who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other people of color.”.. When Campus Reform contacted the school, Cornell officials edited the course description to remove the race-based enrollment restriction. Cornell University altered the course description of a racially-segregated physical education course offered to students during the Spring 2021 academic semester after Campus Reform reached out for comment. The class, entitled “BIPOC Rock Climbing," was originally restricted to “people who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other people of color," before its description was edited to...

Cornell University’s student government removed two executive committee representatives who voted against a resolution to disarm the police at the Ivy League campus. The Student Assembly on Dec. 8 removed Annie Gleiberman for voting against a resolution to disarm the university's police department, saying she condoned "acts of racism, physical aggression, and emotional violence" by voting against the resolution. And when a fellow executive rep, Morgan Baker, said she wouldn’t vote for it either — becoming a procedural block because a unanimous vote was needed — members temporarily removed her to get to a unanimous tally, The Washington Free Beacon...

<p>People walking around downtown Ithaca over the past few months may have noticed something different — more graffiti.</p><p>Gary Ferguson, executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA), said the increase in graffiti began around the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, in the middle of March leading to the beginning of April.</p>

In a disturbing development, Congressman Tom Reed on Friday released a statement saying that he and his family were threatened at their home in Corning. The incumbent released the following statement: “Today, my family and I were threatened at our home in Corning. The cowards used a dead animal and a brick with a family member’s name on it to try to intimidate us. We assure everyone such threats only energize us to stand stronger. We thank the local police and federal authorities, who are already investigating this disgusting attack against my family. Across the country, politics has taken a...

Police stood down and allowed ANTIFA terrorists to attack a group of peaceful Trump supporters in Ithaca, N.Y. on Friday afternoon. “We gathered to have our Trump 2020 Rally, and at 4 PM were immediately met by a large group of counter protestors. After about a half hour went by and the counter protestors saw that they had a large numerical advantage, they began crossing the street,” organizer Rocco Lucente wrote in a Facebook post. “At that point they began pushing, shoving, kicking, punching, stealing peoples signs and flags, taking peoples hats, and attempting to physically intimidate the crowd into...

A rally in support of President Donald Trump in downtown Ithaca descended into chaos on Friday afternoon, as multiple fights broke out between Trump supporters and counter-protesters who assembled to rebuke the rally.  No arrests appear to have been made during or after the event, despite a litany of physical altercations involving people from both sides. At least two people were injured during the several scuffles that broke out in the 90 minutes the two sides squared off.  The scene was tense from the beginning. A small group of Trump supporters gathered outside the Tompkins County Republicans office starting at...

Representative Tom Reed held a press conference Wednesday afternoon at his Corning campaign office after a brick was thrown through a window overnight. Reed was joined by his family, Corning Mayor Bill Boland, State Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, and a small group of supporters outside of his office. “This type of violence is completely unacceptable,” said Reed, “to the coward who did this… this will not deter us.” The Congressman says that Corning Police are investigating the vandalism and that there are cameras in the area when the brick was thrown around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday. No campaign staffers were inside...

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An Ithaca College student on medical leave for mental health issues breached a security perimeter at the White House in order to speak to the President, resulting in his arrest. According to court documents, on Monday, Jan. 20, the man has been identified as Bronzert Armayor Pedulla-Smith, who told authorities that he was on a medical leave of absence from school. He told Secret Service that he wanted to, "tell Trump he is a fascist and to "bring him down in a non-violent way." **** According to a Secret Service spokesperson, "at approximately 5:57 p.m., an individual attempted to drive...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advisor and Cornell Law School professor Robert Hockett falsely blames “Republicans” for the fact that Ocasio-Cortez’s official Congressional website said that Ocasio-Cortez wanted to get rid of airplanes, stop cows from farting, and give “economic security” to everyone who was “unwilling to work” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently put a document on her official Congressional website which said she wanted to get rid of airplanes, stop cows from farting, and give “economic security” to everyone who was “unwilling to work.”After a huge number of people criticized her for this, she took the document down.Fortunately, the internet archive has a copy of...

<p>ITHACA, N.Y. — One of Congressman Tom Reed's favorite campaign talking points has been to cast his opponents as "Extreme Ithaca Liberals." One day after winning re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, he has decided to retire the term.</p>

Cynthia Nixon's answer to a question that has perplexed New Yorkers for generations is turning heads on social media. Nixon, the Sex and the City actor challenging Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was asked by The New York Times Magazine where she believes upstate New York begins, a query that regularly sparks fierce debate — and a wide-ranging array of responses — on Twitter and Facebook. Her answer? Somewhere near Ithaca. "I don't think the Hudson Valley is upstate," Nixon said, according to the Times. "Once you get to Ithaca, by around there, you're starting to get upstate."

Ithaca High School’s spring musical was “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” A story whose message is one of inclusiveness and acceptance should be welcomed and encouraged. A white actress was cast for the role of Esmerelda, prompting a student black actress to quite the play, saying, “It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you. And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?” The resignation prompted Students United Ithaca to make a list of demands for the school, one of which was, “STOP the racist...

The president of Ithaca College in upstate pleaded no contest to sexually abusing a patient when she worked at a psychiatric hospital... Shirley M. Collado..., was accused of having a five-month sexual relationship with a female patient who was undergoing therapy for post-traumatic stress in 2000.... The patient, who was receiving treatment ... after she suffered the abuse of another doctor, alleged she and Collado kissed after a therapy session on May 20... Collado fondled her on at least two occasions and the two kissed after most individual therapy sessions in the following weeks... Collado received a 30-day suspension, 18...

Last year Cornell University undergraduate Neetu Chandak appeared on “Fox and Friends” to share her objection to a course description that seemed overly critical of President Donald Trump while glorifying former President Barack Obama. Now, in an essay in The College Fix, Chandak says her remarks on Fox expressing concerns about liberal bias at the college and the explicit agenda of the course led to threats on her life and such constant harassment that she sought therapy and was afraid to leave her apartment. “It is difficult to express conservative views as a college student without being called names, attacked...