Merrick Garland Insists DOJ Not Targeting Citizens for Their Politics as WH Urges Snitching on Family

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday insisted that the Department of Justice is not targeting U.S. citizens for their political beliefs despite the Biden White House urging Americans to report potentially radicalized friends or family members to the government.

“We are focused on violence, not on ideology. In America, espousing a hateful ideology is not unlawful. We do not investigate individuals for their First Amendment-protected activities,” Garland said.

“As the national strategy makes clear, safeguarding our country’s civil rights and liberties is itself a vital national security imperative,” he continued. Garland went on:

We do not prosecute people for their beliefs. Across the world, extremist or terrorist labels have been, at times, affixed to those perceived as political threats to the ruling order. But there is no place for partisanship in the enforcement of the law. The Justice Department will not tolerate any such abuse of authority.

Garland’s remark comes as the Biden administration announced plans to create ways for Americans to report potentially “radicalized” friends and family members to the feds as part of the White House’s supposed effort to extinguish domestic terrorism.

As Breitbart News reported:

The Biden administration said it would also work with large technology companies on “increased information sharing” to help combat radicalization.

“Any particular tech company often knows its own platform very well,” the official noted. “But the government sees things — actually, threats of violence — across platforms. They see the relationship between online recruitment, radicalization, and violence in the physical world.”

The Department of Homeland Security also plans to deploy “digital literacy” and “digital fitness” programs to help combat “malicious content online that bad actors deliberately try to disseminate.”

“We will work to improve public awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs,” a Biden administration official said, adding:

This involves creating contexts in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalizing and potentially radicalizing towards violence.

Indeed, this is not the Biden administration’s first attempt to combat what he has described as the “rise of political extremism” in the country, vowing to defeat it as laid out in his inauguration speech, in which he also mentioned “white supremacy” and “domestic terrorism.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/15/merrick-garland-insists-doj-not-targeting-citizens-for-their-politics-as-wh-urges-snitching-on-family/

15 States Are Moving To Curb Public Health Agency Powers Following Lockdown Carnage

More than a dozen states have passed or advanced legislation to place new checks on the powers of public health agencies in the wake of the pandemic.

Mike Fratantuono grew up in a restaurant. Literally.

For decades, Sunset Restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland, was the family business. Over the years, he’d done seemingly every job imaginable: busboy, bartender, and butcher; prep cook and plumber; handyman and manager.

Fratantuono says that’s what made it so hard to watch the family’s legacy become a COVID casualty in 2020.

“It kills me. We were supposed to be getting ready to celebrate our 60th anniversary this year, and instead we’re packing up and closing at the end of this month,” Fratantuono told the Washington Post last year. “I try not to get too sentimental about it, because it won’t change a damn thing, but sometimes the stress hits me and my heart starts going like crazy. I get frustrated. It makes me angry.”

Fratantuono is just one of the countless business owners across America who saw their dreams vanish before their eyes in the wake of government lockdowns that crushed their businesses. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, states across the country are advancing legislation to curb the powers of public health departments following one of the most destructive and contentious years in American history.

Reining in Public Health Agencies

In May, the Network for Public Health Law published a report showing that in recent months no fewer than 15 state legislatures have passed or are considering passing measures that would restrict the legal authority of public health departments.

Among the provisions passed or considered are the following:

● Prohibitions on requiring citizens to wear masks;

● Prohibiting health agencies from closing businesses or schools;

● Banning the use of quarantines for people who have not been shown to be sick;

● Preventing state hospitals and universities from requiring vaccinations for employees and students;

● Preventing local governments from exercising emergency powers that are inconsistent with state health department guidelines;

https://fee.org/articles/15-states-are-moving-to-curb-public-health-agency-powers-following-lockdown-carnage

https://fee.org/articles/15-states-are-moving-to-curb-public-health-agency-powers-following-lockdown-carnage

Ted Cruz Calls for Anthony Fauci to Resign

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday announced Anthony Fauci should resign, calling him more a “two-bit politician than a scientist.”

Cruz was asked about his thoughts on Fauci when appearing as a guest on the Michael Berry Show. Berry asked, “What about Anthony Fauci’s involvement in all this? Does he have to go, and does it have to go, and does he have to go yesterday?”

Cruz quickly responded, “yes” to his involvement, “yes” he has to go, and “yes” he should have been gone yesterday.

“You know, Fauci’s behavior,” Cruz said, also mentioning, “in the last couple of weeks, about 3000 emails from Anthony Fauci that were released.”

“I gotta say, it’s deeply dismaying. This is someone that had a position of enormous responsibility in the government, during a time of great peril during a time of a worldwide pandemic,” the Texas Republican said.

Cruz explained that the emails showed the world how Fauci has really been behaving, calling him “more like a two-bit politician than a scientist.”

Cruz added that Fauci “was saying whatever was politically convenient. He was saying whatever the Democrats wanted, said at the time, and the science was secondary.”

“So on masks,” he clarified, “when he initially said masks were not very helpful. That’s what the science told him. But then the politics said, let’s have everyone wear masks.”

“He would criticize any governor that opened their states, governors like Texas and Florida. But he had no words of criticism for the blue state governor sending people with COVID in the nursing homes and killing tens of thousands,” added Cruz.

Cruz said once more Fauci was not scientific at all, but he was being political, which Cruz said is “completely unacceptable.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/15/ted-cruz-calls-for-anthony-fauci-to-resign/

ICE HSI leads international operation to bust 86 alleged child predators, rescue 15 children

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations announced the arrests of dozens of alleged child predators and said it had helped rescue 15 children in an international operation that involved more than 100 raids in a half-dozen countries last week.

Between June 8 and 11, the HSI and counterparts in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Panama and Ecuador conducted nearly simultaneous raids on suspected producers and distributors of "child sexual abuse material," or explicit content involving children that authorities call CSAM.

Many of the suspects were using the anonymous chat app Kik to communicate and share materials, according to investigators.

AMANDA BERRY, WHO ESCAPED ABDUCTOR AFTER 10 YEARS, NOW HELPS FIND MISSING CHILDREN

HSI officers in Texas nabbed an illegal immigrant who is a convicted sex offender with two outstanding arrest warrants. In New York, they arrested a man who allegedly possessed roughly 10,000 CSAM files and admitted to sexually abusing minors for more than 20 years.

The task force rescued 15 children in Argentina on June 11 while executing a search warrant, authorities said.

Operation Protected Childhood 8 involved more than 170 search warrants and led to 86 arrests over three days.

US MARSHALS 'OPERATION SAFETY NET' RECOVERS 25 MISSING CHILDREN IN OHIO IN 1ST TWO WEEKS

The original Operation Protected Childhood took place in Brazil in 2015, according to ICE, and over the years the program has expanded into additional countries. Last year, the operation netted 113 arrests in five countries. Stretching back to 2017, authorities said they had made 861 arrests in the series of operations and rescued dozens of children.

https://news.yahoo.com/ice-hsi-leads-international-operation-230807475.html

Convicted SC sex offender sent child porn using Kik messenger, York County cops say

A South Carolina sex offender with past child-pornography convictions has been arrested again for sending illegal porn over the Internet, according to police and court records.

Joseph Douglas Stoeckel, 35, of Fort Mill, was charged Tuesday by York County sheriff’s deputies with 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of minors, according to arrest warrants obtained by The Herald.

Stoeckel used the Kik messenger service to share illegal child porn videos of children as young as 6 years old, the warrants state.

https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/crime/article252136723.html#storylink=cpy

Lawsuit portrays a culture of rape, sodomy and sexual harassment at the NYPD

A former NYPD cop was repeatedly raped, sodomized and mentally tormented by a cadre of officers over the course of five years but when her case was brought to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, they declined to prosecute, an explosive federal lawsuit filed Tuesday claims.

Maria Mendez, who last worked in the 32nd precinct and resigned from the department in January 2019 after a 14-year career, said she was raped by two officers, one detective and one FDNY firefighter and was regularly forced to ingest oxycodone, ecstacy and alcohol, her Manhattan federal court lawsuit claims.

Mendez said the “incalculable” amount of rapes she endured were so bad, she suffered “physical deformities to her vagina and anus requiring surgical repair” and she was left suicidal and suffering from anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder, the lawsuit alleges.

Mendez further claims she was forced to buy drugs from FDNY Firefighter Evan Santana, who also raped her, after he obtained opioids and other contraband by stealing it from the homes of dead people.

The suit paints a vivid picture of sexual abuse and harassment that ran rampant at the precinct where Mendez was not only regularly raped but was subjected to sexualized comments and requests by lietuenants and sergeants — and, eventually, deaf ears when she tried to report the crimes.

Lieutenant Julio Calle allegedly asked Mendez to “spoon feed him in his bed because she’s Dominican” and also asked to suck her toes while Sergeant Alfred Gallicchio is accused of taking pictures of a sergeant while she pumped breast milk — and then daring a subordinate to steal the milk and drink it, which he did.

Gallicchio, a union delegate, is also accused of asking Mendez to perform threesomes and making grotqeuse comments like “let me drink the p–y juice” and “I’ll lick your p–y all day” and other remarks about having sex with her.

When Mendez confided in Lieutenant Filastin Srour, a woman, about the constant rapes and abuse she was enduring, Srour allegedly failed to take the necessary action she was required to as a supervisor. Instead, she called Mendez a “slut” and threatened that if she “didn’t stop making false allegations against good officers … she’d be forced to take action against her,” the suit claims.

Further, videos of Mendez being raped and assaulted were regularly shared across the department in a group chat, where high-ranking officers like Deputy Chief Michael Baker and Captain Neil Zuber allegedly viewed the content, but did nothing about it, the suit claims.

Mendez said the abuse started with her former partner Officer Ryan Marrero in 2014 when he slipped her two oxycodone pills and started raping and sodomizing her on a regular basis, the suit claims.

Once photos and videos of the rapes made their rounds in the department, other cops, including Officer Jimmy Gutierres and Detective Michael Ganz, demanded sex acts from her and then raped her, the suit states.

During one occasion, Marrero forced her to attend an NYPD Christmas party with him and said if she didn’t, he’d tell her husband about the drugs and nude pictures he forced her to take.

Following the party, Marrero allegedly grabbed her by throat, shoved a silver handgun inside of her mouth and ordered her into the back seat of his car where he proceeded to rape her vaginally, anally and orally.

https://nypost.com/2021/06/15/suit-claims-culture-of-rape-sodomy-sexual-harassment-at-nypd/

Dozens of arrests, gun confiscations during multi-agency operation in Shreveport

SHREVEPORT, La- Over the weekend, Shreveport Police teamed up with several law enforcement agencies arresting 58 people and taking 47 guns away from people who illegally had them. The operation was called "Operation Blue Night".

It included officers, deputies, troopers, marshals and agents from the Shreveport Police Department, Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office, Shreveport City Marshal's Office, Louisiana State Police, Louisiana Division of Probation and Parole, the ATF, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, and DEA.

Tuesday, Shreveport Police Chief Ben Raymond talked publicly about the operation's outcome. Raymond said this is a part of their overall plan to reduce violent crime by reducing the number of illegally possessed guns. Raymond explained, research done by notable professional law enforcement organizations recognize that keeping guns out of the hands of people who do not legally possess them is the largest impact in reducing gun violence. Raymond also spoke on keeping those arrested in jail, mentioning the Caddo District Attorney's office and U.S. Attorney's office will work to see these cases prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

"Many of these arrested, the US attorney will look at them and determine whether they are a good candidate for a federal prosecution," said Raymond. "And US attorney will work closely with Judge Stewart in determining which cases need to be brought the federal level which we need to take take to Caddo District Court. A lot of times determining where an individual might get the most time whether we are we to keep an offender off the street for the longest period,"

People were arrested for a variety of charges. There were many convicted felons arrested with a gun in their possession. Raymond also noted others were arrested for second degree homicide, attempted homicide, first degree rape, and possession of foreign controlled dangerous substances, among other charges.

Raymond said this was not an isolated operation, that agencies run special operations like this on a monthly and quarterly basis. However, "Operation Blue Night" was large scale compared to the operations they normally run. He noted it can be difficult to get all of the law enforcement agencies together but it is part of an ongoing effort.

https://www.ktbs.com/dozens-of-arrests-gun-confiscations-during-multi-agency-operation-in-shreveport/article_64907b22-ce2f-11eb-8716-6bf90bacc894.html

ICE HSI, international law enforcement partners arrest over 85 in Operation Protected Childhood 8

15 minors rescued in Argentina during the operation

WASHINGTON - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in collaboration with Brazil Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) Secretariat for Integrated Operations (SEOPI) Cyber Laboratory, executed phase eight of Operation Protected Childhood (OPC) resulting in the arrest of approximately 88 alleged child predators. This large-scale simultaneous enforcement action was executed between June 8 and June 11.

“This operation is a collaborative effort by HSI and our foreign law enforcement partners that resulted in removing child predators from our streets,” said ICE Attaché Robert Fuentes Jr. “Thank you to our Brazilian partners for your unwavering efforts over the last six years to combat child exploitation through Operation Protected Childhood. And to our growing international and domestic partnerships, we thank you for all your hard work in putting these perpetrators behind bars and keeping children safe.”

Operation Protected Childhood 8 targeted the distributors and producers of child sexual abuse material throughout the Americas. The Operation was conducted in coordination with multiple HSI domestic offices, the HSI Cyber Crimes Center (C3) Child Exploitation Investigations Unit (CEIU), and international law enforcement coordination with the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Panama, and Ecuador through the respective HSI Attaché offices in Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Panama City, and Quito.

OPC was initiated in March 2015 by HSI Brasilia in partnership with Brazil’s MJSP Cyber Lab to increase the effectiveness of online child exploitation investigations. These efforts are a product of HSI’s continued investment in building partner capacity in Brazil. Since 2015, HSI and their partners have launched multiple phases of OPC and have recently expanded the operation to a larger multinational enforcement action.

During OPC 8, HSI offices in North Carolina, New York, Texas, Missouri, California, Michigan, and Kentucky executed a combined six child exploitation-related search warrants and made four arrests for child exploitation offenses. These executions were simultaneous with the enforcement actions made by Brazilian authorities and international law enforcement partners in Argentina, Paraguay, Panama and Ecuador with the support of our HSI presence overseas. A sample of HSI domestic enforcement actions as part of OPC 8 include:

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-hsi-international-law-enforcement-partners-arrest-over-85-operation-protected