Category Archives: Freedom of Speech and of the Press

Posted on by

Crazy people are dangerous #Transgender girl shows some toxic masculinity

Sometimes I worry that I am stepping on the toes of former Washington Times reporter and editor Robert Stacy McCain and his series entitled Crazy People Are Dangerous by using the title myself, but sometimes the crazy becomes too blatant to ignore. This site previously reported on the brutal assault by a 13-year-old boy claiming to be a girl on a 12-year-old girl at Pennbrook Middle School, and how the credentialed media are mostly keeping the fact that the alleged assailant is nuttier than a fruitcakesuffers from gender dysphoria.

I also noted, just before noon on Wednesday, that even though the assault was a week ago, not only have the credentialed media kept quiet about the allegation that ‘Melanie,’ the name the alleged assailant has chosen to use, is reported to be ‘transgender,’ but the media have not reported in anything I have seen any claims that the report of the alleged assailant’s ‘transgender’ status is false.

Well, now he’s getting worse:

Transgender student accused of beating preteen student attacked sheriff deputies at hearing

Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | 7:50 AM EDT

A Pennsylvania middle school student, a biological male who identified as a female and who is accused of beating a 12-year-old with a Stanley cup tumbler last week, allegedly attacked sheriff deputies at a hearing on Monday.

The act of violence allegedly came after a judge ruled that the student, who attends Pennbrook Middle School in the suburbs of Philadelphia, was to be held at the Montgomery County Youth Detention Center in Eagleville because of the violent attack at the school.

“The judge ordered that the juvenile be detained at the Youth Center,” Upper Gwynedd Police Chief David Duffy told the Washington Examiner in an email Monday night. “Upon hearing this, the juvenile grabbed a nearby water jug, swung it at sheriff’s deputies, and resisted being handcuffed.”

Perhaps, just perhaps, the wiser thing to do when you are facing the judge in a criminal matter is not to commit another criminal act in front of that judge. That ‘transgender girl’ sure was exhibiting some ‘toxic masculinity’ there, but, at 13-years-old, he would normally be right in the middle of male puberty, his system being flooded with testosterone, unless he is on some sort of medication which would prevent that.

Monday’s outburst came after the student attacked a seventh grader last week in the school cafeteria, which the Washington Examiner previously reported.

Video surveillance from that day showed the victim being attacked from behind and repeatedly hit in the back of the head with a Stanley cup tumbler. The attack left “blood everywhere,” according to one student.

“I was in lunch, and all of the sudden, I hear all of this screaming and everybody running,” Emily, a student, said at a school board hearing last Thursday. “I see Mel running in after somebody, and everyone’s screaming and running.”

That statement would seem to confirm other reports that the alleged assailant was using the name “Melanie.”

Law enforcement officers and school district administration officials identified the victim as a girl but refused to specify whether the attacker was male or female. The assailant was later identified as a transgender student by parents and other adults who spoke at a school board hearing after the attack.

That ‘Melanie’ is really a boy seems to have been widely known at the school.

There’s more at the original, but, other than the original report on Monday by reporter Maddie Hanna, The Philadelphia Inquirer has had no follow-up on a story, at least as of 9:29 PM EDT on Wednesday, that has received some national attention. Montgomery County is directly adjacent to Philadelphia, and the Inky is supposed to be the area’s ‘newspaper of record.’

The credentialed media are declining to publish the names of either the alleged assailant or his victim, because both are minors. At just 13-years-old, it’s almost certain that ‘Melanie’ will not be charged as an adult, and while he might spend some time in juvenile detention, he’ll be out more probably sooner than later. But what he really needs is some serious mental help, because for whatever reasons exist, he is not coping well in life.

Posted on by

Crazy people are dangerous Always note what the media are telling you, and what they are not

The in-school assault was serious enough that several credentialed media sources reported on it, and how the school was warned, in advance, that the attack would occur, and did nothing.

But you know what all of the media sources I linked did not mention? It has been reported by the Daily Mail that the assailant was not a real girl, but a boy self-identifying as a girl: Continue reading →

Posted on by

Why does The Philadelphia Inquirer, which won’t publish mugshots of real criminals, make deliberate exceptions for police officers convicted of crimes?

We have previously covered the death of 12-year-old Thomas “TJ” Siderio, sent to his eternal reward after he shot at police. Naturally, then-Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw suspended and then fired Police Officer Edsaul Mendoza, and, despite the Commissioner declining to publicly name the officer, for his safety, The Philadelphia Inquirer ferreted out his name and published it. Naturally, the George Soros-sponsored, police-hating, softer-than-Charmin-on-crime District Attorney Larry Krasner charged Officer Mendoza with among other things, first degree murder and third-degree murder. Now, two years later, Mr Mendoza has pleaded guilty of doing his job:

Former Philly cop who shot and killed 12-year-old T.J. Siderio pleads guilty to third-degree murder

Edsaul Mendoza was charged with murder two months after the shooting in March 2022.

by Rodrigo Torrejón and Ellie Rushing | Friday, April 19, 2024 | 12:36 PM EDT

Edsaul Mendoza, the former Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Thomas “T.J.” Siderio in South Philadelphia more than two years ago, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder on Friday — becoming the first city officer in recent history to face conviction for murder related to a fatal on-duty shooting.

Mendoza, 28, was charged with first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter after prosecutors said he chased T.J., then shot him in the back at near point-blank range after the boy tossed away a gun he had been carrying. The March 2022 shooting made T.J. the youngest person ever killed by a city police officer.

Mendoza’s plea marked only the second time a Philadelphia police officer has been convicted of a fatal shooting in recent years, and the first to be convicted of murder. Former police officer Eric Ruch was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Dennis Plowden Jr., who was unarmed, after a car chase in 2017 and was sentenced to 11 ½ to 23 months in prison.

I have noted dozens of times that the Inquirer does not publish mugshots of accused or even convicted criminals, and I frequently have to do further online searches to find the mugshots I do publish. But the photo above? The newspaper was certainly willing to ignore its previous policies and publish Mr Mendoza’s photo. I screen captured it from the Inky’s online story at 4:08 PM EDT today. The newspaper did the same thing in the case of former Officer Eric Ruch.

Under Title 18 §106(b)(2) a crime is a felony in the first degree if the sentence thereto can exceed ten years, and for third degree murder maxes out at 40 years. Though the story does not indicate that there was a plea deal in place, my guess is that there was, and Mr Mendoza will receive a far more lenient sentence., perhaps similar to Mr Ruch’s 11½-to-23-month sentence, and much of that might already have been served. I hope that he’s out of jail soon.

Posted on by

The journolism of The Philadelphia Inquirer

We have frequently used the terms ‘journolism,’ or ‘journolist’, the spelling of which comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. And we have also mockingly referred to The Philadelphia Enquirer: RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt.

Now here they go again! Continue reading →

Posted on by

The credentialed media: Be just as aware of what you are not being told as what is presented

I’ve got to hand it to the people at Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania! When the news came out that Dr Margaret Somerville, of that fine institution, allegedly had some sort of sexual contact with a student many years ago, they, or at least someone, very diligently scrubbed out any references to the accused in which her photo was available. But a Google search for margaret somerville friends central, for images, was still good!

A Friends’ Central Latin teacher accused of sexual misconduct has resigned after a school investigation

Margaret Somerville was accused earlier this year of having sexual contact with a student “some 20 years ago,” the school said Monday.

by Maddie Hanna | Monday, April Fool’s Day, 2024 | 4:25 PM EDT

A longtime Latin teacher at Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood was accused earlier in the school year of having sexual contact with a student two decades ago, and an internal investigation found the allegations credible, school officials said Monday. Continue reading →

Posted on by

Whenever there is a truth you cannot tell, that is a truth you must tell!

J K Rowling, the author of the brilliant Harry Potter books, is a stone liberal, one who decided to tell readers that Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, is homosexual. Miss Rowling never mentioned anything about her vision of Professor Dumbledore as being queer in the actual series of books, and the only mention of sexuality in the series is all about normal sexual interests. Her description of how nerdy teenaged boys felt about having to ask out girls to the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when the main characters would have been 14-years-old, amazed me in how a middle-aged woman could so accurately portray a teenaged boy’s thinking and feelings and utter terrors at having to ask out a girl for the first time. But, even as liberal as she is, she understands that males cannot ‘transition’ into females, and vice-versa. Continue reading →

Posted on by

You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! Once again, The Philadelphia Inquirer censors part of the story.

Can someone tell me why I am paying $285.48 per year for a newspaper which censors the news?

When I first saw this photo in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, I immediately asked myself, “Self, is that really a girl?” So, I read a story I might normally have skipped.

Bensalem teen faces 15 to 40 years in prison for killing a 12-year-old girl and showing her corpse on Instagram

Ash Cooper admitted her guilt Thursday and was sentenced to prison.

by Rodrigo Torrejón | Thursday, March 21, 2024 | 3:41 PM EDT | Updated: 6:02 PM EDT

A Bensalem teen who shot and killed a 12-year-old girl, then displayed her corpse in an Instagram video call as she sought help in hiding her crime will spend 15 to 40 years in prison after admitting her guilt Thursday.

Ash Cooper, 18, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and related crimes in the shooting death of Morgan Connors in the trailer Cooper shared with her father in the Top of the Ridge Trailer Park in November 2022.

In accepting the guilty plea, Bucks County Court Judge Jeffrey L. Finley decried Cooper’s actions and lamented Morgan’s death.

“It’s a horrible tragedy,” he said. “A tragedy no family should ever have to undergo.”

It turns out that “Ash” Cooper is actually Joshua Cooper, as reported by London’s Daily Mail. The Inquirer did leave a clue, in that the hyperlinks in the newspaper’s story took us to stories noting that the killer was named Joshua Cooper at the time those stories were published, but if you read reporter Rodrigo Torrejón’s story, there isn’t the first indication that the murderer is actually a male.

The Daily Mail also told us things that the Inky decided to omit:

Cooper, who was 16 at the time of the murder, also allegedly told police she and Connors were in a sexual relationship. . . .

During the investigation, officials discovered Cooper was accused of sexual assault in a previous unrelated case. She was found guilty in juvenile court.

The victim was in court on Thursday as Cooper received his sentence.

So, not only was young Mr Cooper, 16 at the time, having sex with a 12-year-old, but he was previously convicted of a sexual assault on a different person. How is it that the Daily Mail, from 3,500 miles away had this, but the Inquirer couldn’t get that information from a bordering county?

Well, of course the reporters at the Inky knew. The first story on the murder appeared on November 26, 2022, and the second on March 6, 2023, at which point he was still identified as Joshua Cooper. Now, after that time, we find out that young Mr Cooper is ‘transitioning’, trying to become a girl, and no one asks, “Is he really transgendered and ‘transitioning,’ or is he just doing this to stay out of adult men’s prison?” As you can see from the Daily Mail’s photo, Mr Cooper is not exactly a big guy, and perhaps he had watched NCIS, and saw the scene in which Leroy Jethro Gibbs tells a couple of young college kids, “Believe me, son, you will not do well in prison.”

Were I to ask the editors of the newspaper why they concealed the fact that young Mr Cooper is ‘transgender,’ and referred to him in exclusively feminine terms, they might tell me that hey, that has nothing to do with the murder. I would reject that argument, since it’s obvious that the previously convicted sex criminal was also f(ornicating) young Miss Connors — the London newspaper noted that court records stated that the victim’s body “was found laying facedown with her pants around her ankles” — and that the victim’s state of undress indicated that something sexual had occurred. More, the fact that Mr Cooper is claiming to be a girl will have a huge impact on to which prison he will be sent for hopefully the full forty years. One of us wonders on how the newspaper will cover that story.

Posted on by

When a reporter has more of an agenda than an understanding of economics and business.

We have twice reported on the decisions of Wawa to close down some stores in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia. The late Josh Kruger complained bitterly about such.

This crime is not new, and The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Headhouse Square Wawa “will become the sixth Center City Wawa to shutter since 2020.”

So, you would think that an article in the newspaper on food ‘deserts’ in some Philly neighborhoods would at least mention crime. But, if you did think that, you would be wrong.

About 40 million people in the United States don’t have access to a full-service grocery store

The 2023 update of the Limited Supermarket Access Study examines the lack convenient access to health food options across the nation — and in Philadelphia.

by Lynette Hazleton | Thursday, March 21, 2024 | 5:00 AM EST

What food is available has everything to do with the food stores that are available.

When the food store is a full-service supermarket, like the ShopRite in Parkside, it usually means you will have the access to a wider variety, higher-quality and lower-cost food, explained Michelle Schmitt, a senior policy analyst at The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) as she walked around the bustling 15-year-old supermarket.

As you can see, the article wasn’t produced by the regular Inquirer staff, but the Leftist Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the non-profit which owns the newspaper. I have previously noted that, as a subscriber, I sometimes receive begging for donations letters from the Leftist Lenfest Institute.

When you don’t have the same access to high quality food as you do to chips, fast food and soda, it can contribute to an unhealthy eating pattern that can ultimately lead to chronic disease.

How is it that Lynette Hazelton, the Philly native who reported this story, couldn’t bring herself to note that the densely-populated rowhouse neighborhoods which make up a significant part of the city’s neighborhoods don’t really have room for a huge Giant Food Mart? Yes, there are corner bodegas in most of the neighborhoods, where you can get those chips, fast foods, soda, beer, lottery tickets, and the occasional bullet in your chest. But the kinds of supermarkets that Miss Hazelton envisions take up around ten acres when parking lots are included.

Schmitt is the main author of the 2023 update to the Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) study which determines who is and is not well served by their grocery store. The official definition for limited supermarket access is 500 people in a low income tract where urban members are more than a mile and rural shoppers are more than 10 miles to a full service store. It is the fourth update since 2010 and the first to include Alaska and Hawaii.

The big take away: about 40 million Americans live without easy access to healthy food options.

Take Parkside, Belmont and Mantua neighborhoods of West Philadelphia. Together they are home to roughly 48,755 residents. Virtually all the blocks are very densely populated, 66% Black and almost half the people had an annual income of $25,000 in 2021, the latest data available.

This was some sloppy writing. Did Miss Hazeltom mean that $25,000 was the median income?

While this is the neighborhood many traditional stores would overlook, it is the type of neighborhood that the LSA study showed was in desperate need of a supermarket.

OK, why would “many traditional stores” overlook those neighborhoods? The author noted that “Virtually all the blocks are very densely populated,” which means less available area to put in a ten-acre supermarket. The neighborhoods are mostly poor, and grocery stores “operate on razor-thin profit margins. The industry average is between one and three percent, far below other retail sectors. With such lean margins, grocery stores rely on high sales volume and inventory turnover to thrive.” Then you throw in Philly’s crime rate, and the obvious question is easy to determine: how could a supermarket make a profit there?

Supermarkets were once associated with suburbs, and by the 1970s seven out of every ten food dollars were spent there. But also supermarkets did not place their businesses in low-income communities which lead to real consequences.

This paragraph alone tells you just how poor Miss Hazelton’s article was. The source she hyperlinked told her that grocery stores in Philly were mostly the ‘corner grocery store’ type, operating in the rowhouse neighborhoods, yet somehow, she couldn’t figure out that those neighborhood structures dictated the kinds of grocery stores that were there. In more rural areas, we had “general stores” before supermarkets were developed, and many lament that so few of those old general stores exist. Alas! The old general store that was near where I now live went out of business, became someone’s auto repair shop for a while, and is now a small volunteer fire station. Kroger and Giant and Aldi forced those old country general stores out of business, but in the suburbs and rural areas, there was the physical room for supermarkets.

Perhaps it’s as simple as the reporter having more of an agenda than an understanding of economics and business.

Posted on by

Political speech by public school teachers

The hand-written copy of the proposed articles of amendment passed by Congress in 1789, cropped to show just the text in the third article that would later be ratified as the First Amendment.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Having been incorporated by the Supreme Court to apply to state and municipal governments as well, it presents a high bar to governments to restrict speech. However, one place in which governments, and employers, can restrict speech is when the speaker is at work; no one reasonably holds that an employee could harm his employer through his at-work speech. We also have laws prohibiting government employees from political activities while working at their jobs.

Well, this story caught my eye:

Central Bucks says teacher’s anti-Israel social media posts don’t violate policies. Some parents say he’s ‘brainwashing’ kids.

Youssef Abdelwahab, a Spanish teacher and adviser to Central Bucks West’s Muslim Student Association, has posted extensively on social media criticizing Israel.

by Maddie Hanna | Saturday, March 16, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT

A Central Bucks West High School teacher did not break district rules with his anti-Israel advocacy, district officials said this week after reviewing complaints by parents that his social media posts spread antisemitic content and inspired a Muslim student group to do the same.

Complaints about Youssef Abdelwahab, a Spanish teacher and adviser to the high school’s Muslim Student Association, were investigated by the Central Bucks School District, according to acting superintendent James Scanlon, who said he couldn’t provide details on personnel matters.

“There were no policy violations,” Scanlon said.

Several parents criticized Abdelwahab during a school board meeting Tuesday night, accusing him of “brainwashing” students through an Instagram account set up for a business he runs selling durag head coverings with designs inspired by kaffiyehs, a traditional Arab headdress viewed by supporters of the Palestinian cause as a symbol of fighting for Palestinian rights. Abdulwahab’s critics have also circulated a 45-page letter addressed to Scanlon that called for his firing.

So far, that’s just news, and while I completely and unambiguously support Israel, I also support Mr Abdelwahab’s First Amendment rights to believe and say and publish whatever foolishness he wants.

But I do not support him being allowed to do so in school.

Very far down:

Teachers’ speech has been controversial in Central Bucks in recent years. The new Democrat-led board recently rolled back a policy enacted by the previous Republican majority that barred teachers from advocating to students about “partisan, political or social policy issues.” The measure was criticized as targeting Pride flags and support for LGBTQ students.

Odd how it doesn’t seem to have been criticized as having prohibited teachers supporting Donald Trump or conservative policies. Those have as little place in the public schools as supporting homosexuality and transgenderism.

The letter to district officials charged that Abdelwahad had violated that policy while it still was in effect, alleging that he “advocated to students” through his Instagram account and his role with the Muslim Student Association.

The letter highlighted a poster at the high school for a Feb. 27 event hosted by the association encouraging students to protest the state’s financial support for Israel. The poster invited students to “collectively write a letter to PA state treasurer listing ways we can better use the $$ here in PA, rather than for killing more innocents in Gaza.”

Under the direction of another teacher, Central Bucks students wrote letters in support of Israel, according to a former Central Bucks West student who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. “The situation is deeply insensitive to our Palestinian students,” said the former student, Ginny Morgan, who came to the U.S. as a Syrian refugee and described being bullied and targeted by jokes about 9/11 while a student in the district.

It ought to be obvious: teachers should not be pushing students politically in either direction.

Morgan also pushed back on criticism of students wearing kaffiyehs, which the letter to Scanlon described as popularized by former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Wearing a keffiyeh is “hate speech that is made to evoke a fear reaction in Jewish and Israeli students when they see it,” the letter said, citing case law to contend that student free speech — while largely protected — is not unlimited in public schools.

So, it seems that precious little feelings on both sides are being hurt. But unless the school is going to mandate uniforms, students can wear kaffiyehs if they wish . . . and kippahs as well, though the article did not mention them. The two are different in one respect: a kaffiyeh is a political symbol, while a kippah is a religious one. High school students are not exactly known for their sense of moderation.

If Mr Abdelwahad is stupid enough to support the rapists and murderers in Hamas, out-of-school, that’s his right. But the district does need to be monitoring more closely the political speech of teachers and staff while in school.
__________________________________
Also posted on American Free News Network. Check out American Free News Network for more well written and well reasoned conservative commentary.