Command Center News Update

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The Liberal Left continues to assault your liberties. Add your voice to those rising against tyranny in the following discussions:

 Democrats have their doubts about this whole First Amendment thing

Democrats double down on their strategy of running against Koch brothers

No Speech Can Fix This

As border security expands, complaints of abuse rise among Americans

Head of Pentagon intelligence agency forced out, officials say

Illinois family organization threatened with hate-driven violence

Shocking: How The U.S. Government Used An Agent Provocateur To Charge A Patriot With Terrorism

View More of the latest discussions:
http://teapartycommandcenter.org/forum/topic/list?sort=mostRecentDiscussions&page=1

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On Thursday, we chronicled President Obama's series of decisions to carry on with his public schedule -- a burger joint photo op, a partisan speech on infrastructure spending, and a pair of Manhattan fundraisers -- in the midst of two major international crises. First, Russian-backed and -armed separatists in Ukraine shot down a commercial airliner, killing nearly 300 innocent civilians, including one American. The attack marked a dramatic and lethal escalation of the war in Eastern Ukraine, in which Russia is a malignant and destructive actor. New evidence appears to indicate that Moscow has been highly interested in obtaining the flight's so-called 'black box' recording device, as Moscow-backed separatists restrict access to the crash site. The rebels say they'll turn that evidence over to the UN…at some point. Meanwhile, Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza, a move that reportedly caught the White House by surprise. The conflict escalated over the weekend, as 13 IDF soldiers were killed by Hamas, and the Israeli military reports that heavily-armed terrorists entered its nation's territory wearing IDF uniforms -- allegedly with the intent of taking hostages. Pro-Hamas protesters are rioting and setting things on fire in Paris (we've already covered their proclivity toward anti-Semitic violence), and Turkey's "moderate" leader stated that Israel has "surpassed Hitler in barbarism" because of its anti-terrorist operations. And yet, the American president has chosen to forge ahead with run-of-the-mill, partisan activities, and is gearing up for a series of star-studded Hollywood fundraisers. The New York Times published a story over the weekend entitled, "Sticking to His Travel Plans, at Risk of Looking Bad -- Obama Maintains Schedule Despite World Crises." The problematic optics are readily apparent:

 As smoke billowed from the downed Malaysian jetliner in the fields of eastern Ukraine on Thursday, President Obama pressed ahead with his schedule: a cheeseburger with fries at the Charcoal Pit in Delaware, a speech about infrastructure and two splashy fund-raisers in New York City. The potential for jarring split-screen imagery was clear. Reports of charred bodies and a ground-to-air missile attack from Eastern Europe dominated television screens while photographers snapped pictures of a grinning Mr. Obama holding a toddler at the restaurant. The presidential motorcade was later filmed pulling up to Trump Place Apartments, the Riverside Avenue venue for his first fund-raiser. And yet,White House aides said no consideration was given to abandoning the president’s long-planned schedule, even during the hourlong flight from Delaware to New York, when word suddenly arrived that Israel had begun a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, providing the day’s second international challenge.

POLL:  Is Obama supporting Hamas against Israel?

The White House's justification for its astounding public attitude nonchalance is the supposed desire to not worry the pretty little heads of the American people:

 “It is rarely a good idea to return to the White House just for show, when the situation can be handled responsibly from the road,” said Jennifer Palmieri, the White House communications director. “Abrupt changes to his schedule can have the unintended consequence of unduly alarming the American people or creating a false sense of crisis.”

A false sense of crisis? Sure, the US isn't under imminent threat of an alien invasion, but the current crises are no less "false" than the recent spate of administration scandals are "phony." This entire explanation is insulting. 

read more:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/07/21/wh-we-havent-changed-the-presidents-schedule-amid-crises-because-it-might-scare-people-n1864021?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm

by: Valerie Jarrett

More than 30 years ago, Congress wisely passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Yet today, many pregnant women still experience unfair and unnecessary challenges on the job.

Nondiscrimination has been the law of the land for over three decades, yet, in some workplaces, the standard for treatment of pregnant women has remained in the dark ages. Some are fired or demoted, with no hesitation, when a modest accommodation would allow them to continue to work and support their families.

POLL: Is the United States Over Regulated?

The stories are heart-wrenching and preventable. There's thepregnant woman who was terminated when, in violation of company policy, she started carrying a water bottle on advice of her doctor to fight urinary and bladder infections.

That's why this week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued much-needed enforcement guidance on pregnancy discrimination. It is the first comprehensive update of the commission's guidance in more than 30 years and will translate into real relief for countless women, especially low-income women who are working hard to support their families.

more: 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/18/opinion/jarrett-pregnancy-discrimination/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

The most important battle in politics today is the one within the Republican Party, and the tea party movement didn’t start it. The GOP’s civil war began in 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt made progressivism the governing philosophy of the Republican establishment.

For the 102 years since, the conflict has been between limited-government constitutional conservatives and the proponents of big government — and the big spending that goes with it.

POLL: Should Barack Obama resign the Presidency?

It has been waged with conservative Republicans, such as Sens. Robert A. Taft, Barry Goldwater and Jesse Helms, on one side, and big-government Republicans, such as Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, on the other.

Many thought, wrongly, that the conservatives won with the election of Ronald Reagan and his coalition of economic, national defense and social conservatives. But today’s Republican establishment frequently invokes President Reagan while also pursuing a progressive agenda at odds with his principles. Big-government Republicans today include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus.

read more:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2014/may/18/richard-a-viguerie-the-establishment-gop-is-not/

Karl Rove’s criticisms of Hillary Clinton's age and health were “pathetic,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday.

“In my view, she’s in the prime of her political life. She’s got the energy. She’s articulate. She’s got the background. She’s got the smarts. She has all of the elements of a good leader plus the fact, and this is not to be underestimated, she is enormously attractive to people,” the California Democrat said on CNN's "State of the Union." “And she carries the torch for women who are the majority of votes in this country, very strongly and very high.”

POLL: Should Barack Obama resign the Presidency?

Rove suggested at a recent conference that Clinton suffers from “brain damage” from a blood clot that temporarily prevented her from testifying about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

But Feinstein dismissed the claims, saying Clinton’s experience as secretary of state will position her well to make foreign policy decisions in the White House.

read more:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/05/feinstein-hillary-in-prime-of-her-political-life-188724.html

Yet another Muslim fundamentalist has been connected to Hillary Clinton through a foundation the former Secretary of State helps lead. It’s been learned that the Shariah compliant government of Brunei – whose Sultan has been on the receiving end of Hollywood protesters for his ownership stake in the Beverly Hills Hotel – has made significant contributions to the Clinton Foundation.

The nonprofit foundation lists Brunei alongside Kuwait, Oman and Qatar as donors that gave between $1 million and $5 million through last year. The foundation confirmed the donation from Brunei was made in 2002, in connection with the construction of the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas.

POLL: Should Barack Obama resign the Presidency?

“The Clinton Foundation’s impact would not be possible without the generous support of our donors,” the foundation’s website reads. “Their contributions have made a difference in the lives of tens of millions across the world.”

Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah isn’t the only Muslim fundamentalist with connections to Hillary Clinton or the Clinton Foundation. As Shoebat.com reported last year, Muslim Brotherhood member Gehad El-Haddad was arrested in Egypt and not only was the Chief of Staff to Khairat al-Shater, who is Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood there, but El-Haddad was a Clinton Foundation employee.

read more:

http://shoebat.com/2014/05/17/hillary-connected-another-muslim-fundamentalist/

The White House chief of staff said Sunday that President Obama is “madder than hell” about reports that dozens of veterans died due to preventable delays at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Denis McDonough said the president is demanding that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and others in the administration “continue to fix these things until they’re functioning the way that our veterans believe they should.”

POLL:Should Barack Obama resign the Presidency? 

“The president is madder than hell. I’ve got the scars to prove it,” he added.

The VA is investigating scheduling practices at its hospitals as part of a nationwide audit after rumors surfaced that a secret electronic wait list showed information from veterans that was entered into computers at a Phoenix VA facility but never saved. Dozens of veterans reportedly died while waiting on the fake lists.

The department’s secretary, Eric Shinseki, resigned on Friday, just one day after lawmakers called for more accountability.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/18/obama-madder-hell-over-va-scandal-aide-says/#ixzz326Go7xpx 

San Diego evangelical minister, James L. Garlow, says if history books are not distorted by today’s revisionistic tendencies, President Obama’s legacy should be that he’s responsible for “morally and economically destroying a wonderful experiment called America.”

In this two part video interview with Daily Caller, Pastor Garlow also says that President Obama’s Attorney General has brought the nation “legal anarchy.”

POLL: Should Barack Obama resign the Presidency?

Garlow says, “I do not recall in my lifetime anything remotely close to what we are seeing. For the law enforcer in Washington D.C., the chief in America, to tell the Attorneys General across the states that you don’t have to enforce the law if you don’t like it. That is beyond anything I was taught in school. Rule of law and consent of the governed has been lost.”

Raised on the plains of Kansas, Pastor Garlow has written 12 books, having been a Wesleyan church leader in Texas for 13 years before he came to lead Skyline Church near San Diego, CA in 1995.

Courageous in the public square and a leader in the battle to protect traditional marriage from the secular humanists in California, Garlow has felt the wrath of the militant, vile left for his leadership roles, yet he continues to take strong stances for his beliefs.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/18/mega-church-pastor-obama-legacy-is-that-he-destroyed-the-experiment-called-america/#ixzz326FUi8lB

Attorney General Eric Holder, who has suggested that critics of the Obama administration are motivated by race and referred to America as a "nation of cowards" on race issues while blasting Americans who resist more gun control laws, suggested that those opposed to President Barack Obama's policy agenda of "fundamental transformation" are quietly prejudiced.

In his Saturday commencement address at Morgan State University, a historically black university in Maryland, Holder said that even though there are no more "separate but equal" laws on the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the "vestiges of state-sanctioned discrimination continue to reverberate across the country even today."

POLL: Should Voter ID be required in every state?

He said America is done a disservice when they "trade the noisy discord of honest, tough, and vigorous debate for the quiet prejudice of inaction – and the cold silence of consent." To Holder, dialogue is insufficient to address the "hidden" racism in society but is "a necessary first step that must lead to action."

After comparing Obamacare to the Civil Rights Act of 1965, Holder suggested that those opposed to Obama's "year of action" are silently displaying their prejudices and suggested that "action" is needed in voting rights, school discipline, and criminal justice reform. He blasted voter ID laws and "zero-tolerance school discipline practices" that "affect black males at a rate three times higher than their white peers." The Justice Department's school guideline reforms have been heavily criticized for effectively forcing schools to enact "de facto racial quotas" in school discipline.

read more:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/17/Holder-Americans-Opposed-to-Obama-s-Fundamental-Transformation-Guilty-of-Quiet-Prejudice

As high school seniors near graduation, they very often pull senior pranks. One young man in Colorado, however, was suspended from school and banned from graduation because of his prank. The incident caused no damage to the school and was pretty harmless. But, the visual of what he did angered his high school principal so much that she immediately lost it and went on a rampage. His prank? Raising the freedom representing Gadsden flag on the school’s flagpole.

The Examiner reported that on May 9th, Greg Stoneburner replaced the school’s flag with the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, one that is used by the Tea Party movement as an expression of freedom and the willingness to fight for it.

POLL: Is Common Core indoctrination or education?

According a Facebook post by Stoneburner, he was not attempting to push any political affiliation, but was merely trying to “encourage historical and contemporary discussion about our student rights.”

Upon seeing the flag waving in the air with Old Glory, the principal of Central High School, Jodie Diers, went on a rampage yelling to take the flag down. Stoneburner was pulled out of a scholarship breakfast, along with his parents, and told that he was not welcome at Central High and that his prank was ‘a slap in the face’ to the school.

read more:

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/05/17/fly-the-gadsden-flag-get-kicked-out-of-school-guess-where-that-happened/

Mehdiya Hudda, 22, of Kichener, planned a short shopping trip in Lewiston, N.Y., near Niagara Falls, with her mother and husband on April 26, returning to Canada the same evening. The family is Muslim and both women wear head scarves. They ended up being fingerprinted and photographed, then held in a room at the U.S. border for about six hours, while their car, cellphones and belongings were searched. At 1 AM, they were told to return to Canada.

The Record  (h/t Brian R) Her family was denied entry to the U.S. in May 2003 when they were trying to attend an Islamic conference in Washington, D.C.”This many years later and still it’s the same thing, we’re being treated like criminals,” Hudda said. “After all these years, they’ve not changed. It just boggles my mind.”

POLL: Should the United States get out of the UN?

“It’s not justified,” she said. “It was like we had no rights, (you don’t) being on that line between the U.S. and Canada.” The whole incident was humiliating, especially because it unfolded in full view of hundreds of other travelers, she said.

Rather than simply being told to pull over, out of the line of vehicles at the border crossing, the border guard asked for the van’s keys and placed spikes behind the rear wheels so the van couldn’t be reversed without puncturing the tires. Then three other officers came and asked them to leave all their belongings, including purses, wallets and cellphones, in the van and accompany them to a nearby office.

read more:

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/05/17/awwwcanadian-muslims-wearing-headbags-upset-over-being-humiliated-and-denied-entry-into-usa/

At what point did murderers and thieves join the ranks of the respected and esteemed?

With our own Congress full of liars and miscreants that change the verbiage to cover their own transgressions, crime is merely malfeasance; the penalty, a slap on the wrist. It’s no wonder “trickle down liberalism” has arrived at street level.

The most recent example has perp-turned-victim Dante Williams gunned down while robbing a Waffle House.

POLL: Is Common Core indoctrination or education?

When Williams pulled his piece and demanded cash from the cashier, a bystander with a conceal carry permit put four holes in him.  For Williams’ family, Dante went from perp to victim, and his family members called him a “respectable” man.

Williams’ case is not isolated, where the family paints a much different picture than reality.

In 2013, two men robbed a corner store at gunpoint but were then both shot and killed by a private citizen.  The sister of one of the men described her brother as being “a good kid”.  

Again in 2013 in a similar incident, 18-year-old Adric White was shot and killed while robbing a Dollar Store.  White had his gun to the head of a store employee and was warned to drop it by a good Samaritan that was also packing.  When White swung around to drop him, the Good Samaritan dropped White.  A family member was later quoted as saying “If no one had a gun up to him….what gives him  [good Samaritan] the right to think it’s okay to just shoot?”.

The black Liberal lesson: It’s okay to point a gun at someone, just not hold it to their head.

Read more at http://theblacksphere.net/2014/5/liberalism-how-perps-become-victims#c2OvfMMyIuhYdRVG.99

Conservatives have long sat by as radical progressive liberals curb-stomp anyone who disagrees with their ideology. On principle, we refuse to boycott anything. That’s a tactic of the left, and the right likes to stick to the high ground, even though it means losing ground every day to the forces of tyranny.

Well, enough is enough.

Scientists who practice actual science and demand something crazy like proof before advocating for government regulations and taxes on what you exhale are harassed out of their fields. Science has devolved from posing a theory and setting about proving or disproving it to a vote by people dependent upon government grants seeking to please their master in the hope of keeping the funding spigot open.

But you can’t boycott government, you can only hope to change it.

The Senate Majority Leader is using taxpayer dollars to attack private citizens for opposing the progressive agenda and donating to causes in which they believe, while using his position to advance the self-enriching agenda of a progressive billionaire dangling $100 million in campaign funds in front of his nose.

But you can’t boycott Harry Reid, you can only hope to remove his majority.

POLL : Should Voter ID be required in every state?

The New York Times can champion “equal pay for women” in 90 different pieces as they pay their first female executive editor significantly less than the man she replaced, and the men with whom she’d worked previously. They serve as town crier for victimhood as they perpetrate the victimization they decry.

But boycotting the New York Times is like protesting to the Captain about the bumpy landing of the Hindenburg – it’s going down on its own.

The IRS has been weaponized against American citizens who seek only to have their voices heard by a government that wants nothing more than to shut them up, in direct violation of the document that created that government.

But you can’t boycott the IRS because, well, you know why.

more:

http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2014/05/18/drawing-a-line-n1839620

In a textbook case of damning with faint praise, the Washington Monthly's Ed Kilgore asserted on Thursday that of all the "dramatically underqualified people" who may run for president in 2016, Ben Carson is the frontrunner.  

Kilgore opines that since Carson is black, his popularity with white conservatives "absolve[s] them of any racist motives when they complain about those people on welfare, and indeed accuse white liberals of being the real bigots." (Italics in original.) He adds that should Carson run, "it seems likely he [would] be even more overtly than [Herman] Cain a pure instrument for conservative resentment and—if you will forgive the unavoidable term—whitewashing."

From Kilgore's post, with no memory of Al Sharpton for President 2004 (emphasis added):

The bar for a “viable” presidential candidate was most dramatically lowered in 2012, when pizza entrepreneur and radio gabber Herman Cain briefly led the polls for the Republican nomination to become Leader of the Free World...

POLL: Where do you get your news?

There’s no telling how many dramatically underqualified people will run for president in 2016 and ascend from the anonymous ranks of cranks and perennial candidates whose campaigns toil in perpetual obscurity. Some, like former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, may even have minimal on-paper credentials and thereby muscle his way onto debate platforms. But the candidate of that nature most likely to make a splash is Dr. Ben Carson, a distinguished neurosurgeon and philanthropist (and also a conservative Christian motivational speaker and writer) who’s become the Latest Big Thing on the conservative defying-the-left circuit...

Now that reliable expositor of the conservative CW, the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes, reports that Carson is getting serious about a presidential run, which he describes more or less as a trip down the road to Golgotha:

“It’s a daunting thing,” he told me. “I know how vehemently the left will come after you, try to destroy you, try to destroy your family. But at the same time I recognize that people like Nathan Hale - he said, ‘My only regret is I have but one life to give to my country’ … And if everybody runs for the hills because they’re afraid that somebody is going to attack them or their family, then [the left] will have won.”

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-johnson/2014/05/18/washington-monthly-blogger-if-ben-carson-runs-potus-hell-play-role-blac#ixzz324PeU07X

The militarization of our local police forces continues, and as local law enforcement gets their hands on high-grade, weaponized and war-ready equipment, an authoritarian streak goes right along with it.

The sheriff of Erie County, New York, told the State Legislature it was none of their damn business how they use their high-tech cellphone “sniffers” to spy on Americans.

POLL: Does the US legal system need to be reformed?

Timothy B. Howard told a committee the “Stingray Tracking Device” his department has owned for six years wasn’t being used to tap into citizen’s phone conversations, but only for tracking their movement. And that’s all he would say. The Erie County Sheriff’s Department received the device – and other surveillance equipment – from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as part of an ongoing effort to supply local law enforcement with high-grade military equipment.

He wouldn’t tell the elected officials about the scope of the device’s capabilities, how well it worked or how many times his department has used it.

With no disrespect to this honorable body … the specific use of the device should be left to the monitoring of the courts and not to the Legislature or to the media,” he said.

read more:

gopthedailydose.com/2014/05/17/sheriff-tells-state-reps-none-business-spy-citizens/

Could Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have prevented the release of some 36,000 criminal immigrants last year?

The limited immigration group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) say there is a good chance the answer is yes. 

Monday, an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement document obtained by CIS and viewed by Breitbart News revealed that the 36,007 criminal immigrants convicted of nearly 88,000 crimes were released while awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings last year.

In explaining the releases, ICE pointed in part to court cases, specifically Zadvydas v. Davis, a 2001 Supreme Court case in which the court held the government could not indefinitely hold an immigrant if there is not a likelihood of removal in the “foreseeable future.” This may occur when a country refuses or unreasonably delays accepting people the United States is looking to deport. 

POLL: What is the worst Hillary Clinton scandal?

According to ICE, many of the releases — specifically 72 percent of criminal immigrants convicted of homicide — were mandatory, required by court decisions like Zadvydas. 

A little-enforced statute (8 U.S.C. § 1253(d)) CIS highlights, however, requires the Secretary of State to instruct consular offices to stop issuing visas to countries that engage in such obstruction.

read more:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/17/Do-Hillary-Clinton-and-John-Kerry-bear-some-blame-for-last-year-s-criminal-immigrant-releases

All of those around the table also “took pleasure in Indyk’s public bashing of Israel in his speech,” according to the source. “Whatever supposed even-handedness there was in public … was absolutely gone in private.”

Middle East envoy Martin Indyk was overheard at an upscale Washington, D.C., bar bashing Israel and fully blaming it for the recent failure of peace talks with the Palestinians, according to an individual who overheard the conversation and described it as a surprising and “nasty” 30-minute-long tirade against the Jewish state.

Indyk—who has been identified by the Washington Free Beacon as the source of a recent series of anonymous quotes in the press condemning Israel—was caught openly lashing out at Israel over drinks with several members of his staff and wife, Gahl Burt.

POLL: Has the Obama Administration turned its back on Israel?

The conversation took place in the hotel bar at the Ritz-Carlton on Thursday night, shortly after Indyk finished delivering remarks at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s (WINEP) annual gala.

While Indyk was critical of Israel in his public remarks, he and his staff are said to have let loose on the Jewish state over drinks before Indyk was scheduled to meet with former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

“The tone was nasty,” according to the source who overheard the conversation.

Indyk and his staff “openly blamed” conservative Israeli politician Naftali Bennett and others for “sabotaging the [peace] negotiations” by issuing permits for new Israeli housing blocks in Jerusalem.

“In the 30 minute conversation, no one at the table mentioned a single wrong thing the Palestinians had done,” according to the source who overheard the conversation. “There was no self-criticism whatsoever.”

read more:

http://freebeacon.com/issues/indyk-caught-bashing-israel-at-hotel-bar/

The hearings to be held by the select committee investigating the Benghaziattack haven’t even been scheduled yet, but a Democratic congressman is already threatening to derail the process.

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., told Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” Friday that he is ready to serve on the committee.

POLL: What is the worst Hillary Clinton scandal?

“I would be their worst, worst nightmare,” Grayson said. “I’d be their worst and last nightmare.”

Earlier on Friday, Grayson told Ari Rabin-Havt on XM radio that he has notifiedHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of his willingness to serve on the committee, according to the Huffington Post.

Pelosi hasn’t decided whether Democrats will participate on the committee. Rabin-Havt said it would be a “colossal error” if Democrats boycott the investigation.

“I’ve said, if she decides to have Democratic members participate, I’d like to be one of them,” Grayson said in the interview.

read more:

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/05/18/lib-alan-grayson-vows-to-be-benghazi-hearings-worst-and-last-nightmare-119718?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Nationally, shoplifting incidents that end in violence have been climbing at a steady rate. In the National Retail Federation's 2013 survey, retailers said about 18 percent of apprehensions led to some level of violence, up from about 15 percent the previous year and 13 percent in 2011.

Shoplifting is as prevalent as ever.

It also is becoming more brazen.

Two women stuff their purses full of items from an Old Navy store and shove security officers out of the way as they escape.

Five men rush into Saks Fifth Avenue, snatch dozens of high-end handbags and flee to their getaway car parked just outside the door.

POLL: Is Common Core indoctrination or education?

And in an incident that stunned an Eastside neighborhood, a man trying to steal armfuls of items from a clothing store fatally shoots in the head a man who tried to stop him.

What once seemed a petty crime has escalated into either an enterprise by organized criminals or, at worst, a potential flash point for violence.

Or both.

Authorities attribute much of the increase in such brash and violent shoplifting to organized retail crime, groups of people who steal large volumes of merchandise not for themselves but to sell.

read more:

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/05/17/shoplifting-getting-brazen-violent/9229841/

and this from Oklahoma:

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has released crime rates for the 2012 year. Stephens County had 35.23 percent crime rate for every 1,000 people.

Stephens County had 984 cases of larceny, 418 instances of breaking and entering and 97 felonious assaults.

Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney said that while the crime rate increased between 2011-2012, they are doing everything in their power to combat it.

“We’ve seen an increase across the board,” McKinney said. “We’ve done a good job cleaning things up. (The) criminals we’re dealing with now are a different breed: they’re under the age of 21. We are doing what we can with the staffing we have. It’s just something that all counties are dealing with. It’s difficult when you only have a couple of guys for each shift.”

In Duncan, robberies, felonious assault, breaking and entering and larceny saw dramatic increases betwen 2011-2012. There were nine more robberies, 28 more felonious assaults, 55 more instances of breaking and entering and 161 more cases of larceny than in 2011.         

“In 2011 and 2012, we had several armed robberies of convenience stores,” Duncan Police Chief Daniel Ford said. “That one group of incidents raised the number quite a bit. We’re doing all we can.”
- See more at: http://www.duncanbanner.com/x1667057072/Crime-rates-in-Stephens-County-increase-from-2011-to-2012#sthash.C54Il8U1.dpuf

more:

Bicycles are hot items nationwide:

Spring is finally here and with that, comes the start of riding season. As cyclists dust off their bikes for the first ride of the season, they should be sure to grab all of their gear – including a good quality bike lock. Bicycle theft is an unfortunate occurrence and an increasing trend these past few years, and cyclists from the US are no exception.

According to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report, from 2007 to 2011, bicycle theft in the United States rose (on average) 14% each year. On average, over 188,500 bicycle thefts are reported stolen each year in the United States, a statistic that in itself is staggering when one also considers the number of bicycle thefts that go unreported. Some US cities are starting to fight back against bicycle theft. In San Francisco, the city issued its first ever official look at the bike theft problem in 2013 and issued a goal to reduce bicycle theft in the city by at least 50% over the next 5 years. The city also created a bike registry to help combat the 70% rise in bicycle thefts since 2006. In both Los Angeles and San Diego, law enforcement is starting to fight back against bike theft by placing bikes with hidden GPS technology around the city and beach areas in hopes of catching a bike thief. In Boston, MBTA Transit Police created two-life sized cardboard cutouts of police offers and placed them in two busy bike rack cages at Alewife Station to help prevent theft.

“It’s amazing how easily a bike can be stolen,” says Audrey Hanken, President of Markel Personal Lines Insurance. “We hear stories about bicycles being stolen from locked bike racks, cars, or even directly outside of their homes. We have also heard about thieves targeting hotels during bicycle road races, looking for opportunities to grab expensive bikes and run.”

more:

http://www.cxmagazine.com/public-service-announcement-bike-theft-rises-14-yearly