Reporter: WNYC/NPR/Gothamist, covering public safety
Host/Writer: "Inconceivable Truth" pod
Author: "AMERICAN GOVERNOR: Chris Christie's Bridge to Redemption"
“Inconceivable Truth” -- my new podcast about my years-long search for my real biological father -- launches today. It's been years in the making. Here's the epic story behind the show... 1/
Chris Christie is spending his 7th night hospitalized & has been prescribed remdesivir. CNN says he his case is the “most serious among senior Republicans in contact with President Donald Trump”
Just spoke to a man from Paris wearing Ghostbusters hat crying full tears staring at this firehouse. He’s headed to Philly later in the week to climb the Rocky steps.
Newark cop hit a pedestrian on the highway, loaded the dead body in his car, then went home to talk it over with his mother, prosecutors say. Eventually his father -- also a Newark cop -- called 911 to say his son was in an accident.
Paper & plastics that half of Philly thinks it’s sending for recycling is actually getting burned at a plant next door in Chester, Pa., likely sickening its impoverished African American residents
I don't believe that you're experiencing higher than normal call volumes.
-
I believe you're experiencing normal call volumes that you're not staffed properly for.
Chris Christie — who as US Attorney had a local politician arrested for corruption while walking his dog & chained him at the wrists and legs for hours in order to “scare the hell” out of other dirty pols — thinks feds were excessive in how they arrested Roger Stone.
"I think they were trying to intimidate [Roger Stone]. I think it's the wrong thing for prosecutors to do. I think that Mr. Mueller made a mistake in authorizing that because you're going to be criticized" -- Former New Jersey Gov.
@ChrisChristie
Black immigrants are more likely to be detained and deported than the overall immigrant population. Meet Ousman Darboe -- pardoned by
@GovCuomo
, supported by
@AOC
&
@SenGillibrand
-- yet still in ICE detention longer than any NYer. 3 years. 1/4
.
@GovChristie
is NOT on a ventilator. This is false info spreading on twitter. I’ve spoken to multiple people who’ve been on the phone with the governor daily after he was admitted to Morristown Medical Center for testing Covid+. They say he’s in good spirits & getting good care.
Ken Cuccinelli's mother told The Washington Post in 2013 that this is how he was raised: “As a matter of faith, care of the poor, of your neighbors, was always very conscious and upfront. If someone is starving, you want to bring him a meal, not a book on how to cook.”
Here's acting USCIS director Ken Cuccinelli saying on NPR this morning that the Statue of Liberty plaque should be changed to read, "give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge."
Upper West Side residents “fantasized about an armed uprising against their homeless neighbors, counseled each other to use wasp spray and dog feces to make them feel unwelcome, and referred to people perceived as homeless as ‘trash,’ ‘scum,’ and ‘thugs.’”
Unbelievable Story Alert ‼️
NYPD sergeant drove from his Long Island home every week to his old block in Brooklyn & littered thousands of pages of paper — old pornos, a Poe novel, etc. — under cover of darkness.
Why??
No one knows.
Punished??
He was docked 1 vacation day.
Every Sunday morning for 4 years, residents of a block in Greenpoint woke up to hundreds of sheets of paper dumped on their street.
TV guides, Bibles, 70’s porn mags.
The serial litterer was a NYPD sergeant.
ICE agents sent Uzbek Muslim to the emergency room after tasing him & beating him as they tried to force him on a flight at JFK despite a federal court order staying his deportation, according to new
@CAIRNewYork
lawsuit:
Breaking: Federal SDNY judge just took the extraordinary step of ordering immediate release of 10 medically compromised ICE detainees at Bergen, Hudson & Essex jails in NJ, finding they face “a severe, and quite possibly fatal, infection if they remain in immigration detention.”
Bridget Kelly goes to prison next week for Bridgegate. Before she leaves, she gave me a voicemail from a man sent to be her lawyer when Bridgegate broke. She told him what she knew. Then, he quit. Then, Gov. Christie put him on the NJ Supreme Court.
@WNYC
:
Scoop: Essex County, NJ, is cancelling its long-standing and controversial contract to detain immigrants for ICE. It will move detainees out of its jail in Newark by August, ending what had become a political vulnerability for the all-Dem county board of commissioners. Story tk.
On day councilwoman was playing ping-pong with a detainee, the feds' monitor overseeing Rikers says jails were actually violent & chaotic:
-29 uses of force
-4 stabbings
-12 detainee fights
-2 fires
-10 attempted suicides
-cocaine, fentanyl, prozac, sharp objects, iphones found
Let's use our common sense. Whose assessment of conditions at Rikers is more credible: the radical progressives seeking to close Rikers at all costs, who hate our police and are openly trying to abolish the NYPD, whose failed ideology has led to crime, riots, homelessness, and…
An Albanian woman is on tarmac at Newark Airport right now on verge of deportation. She was detained in April after she allegedly interfered with officials as they deported her husband. Her son remains in detention in N.J. Her 10-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, now parentless.
24 hours after the deputy mayor of Chris Christie's town posts an extended immigrants-as-racoons metaphor on Facebook, residents pack council chambers & he resigns effective immediately...and his fellow GOPers apparently did not give him a warm, Trumpian Rob Porter farewell.
BREAKING: Mendham Township Deputy Mayor Rick Blood has resigned, effective midnight, after being heavily criticized over his Facebook post on immigration
I used to carry a tattered copy of Pete Hamill's final column for New York Newsday in my wallet. It's a love letter to journalism, NYC, and his father. He excoriates the capitalist who closed NY Newsday, and glorifies the immigrants who (continue to) make New York, New York. RIP.
I’ve known these stories for years — the Wisnias are friends, and how I met my wife — but
@kblankfeld
tells it with such beautiful details & gentleness that I’m now realizing, for the 1st time, how this secret relationship gave my family a chance to exist
Personal News: I’m off for 6 months. Several years ago I made a shocking DNA discovery about my family, and I’m going to spend this time to search for the truth…and make a podcast about my search.
Looking forward to being back on air
@WNYC
&
@gothamist
after I do this thing!
For the first time in decades, there are 0 immigrant detainees being held at county jails in New Jersey through contracts with the federal government. A direct result of years of protests inside & outside these jails.
I've spoken to several ICE detainees in New Jersey jails today. Part of the reason there are hunger strikes now at 3 facilities (Essex, Hudson, Elizabeth) is because ICE arrests have continued & new people are coming into the detention centers, possibly carrying the virus.
BREAKING: 57 ICE detainees at Hudson facility, including our client Yimy, have started a hunger strike.
Amidst
#COVID19
, they're striking about lack of cleaning supplies, insufficient food, & lack of medical attention.
#FreeYimy
#FreeThemAll
1/2
Dems in Hudson County, NJ, are meeting NOW & appear ready to renew an ICE contract to detain immigrants for as long as 10 yrs. 75-plus people plan to speak, likely almost all against the contract. In 2018, same freeholders voted to end contract by 2020.1/
Damning special report issued tonite by federal monitor in charge of oversight at Rikers Island jails, with assertion that
@NYCMayor
's
@CorrectionNYC
is hiding info about deadly incidents, downplaying officers' lethal use of force & failing to investigate possible illegalities 1/
Spoke to ICE detainee at Bergen County Jail in NJ today: “It’s a storage locker for human beings. It’s a modern dungeon...I haven’t seen the sun in almost 3 months.” The unit has 2 TVs. In NY state’s max prisons, where he used to be held, he had recreation, education, training.
And that's it. Hudson County will continue detaining immigrants from NYC--and perhaps New Jersey--for another 10 years. $120/immigrant/day. After a 10-hour meeting, with zero residents supporting the contract, the all-Democratic board of voting freeholders votes to approve. 23/
Love this: "One time, Jared Kushner literally called Secret Service on me because I said no when he asked me to delete a recording of him in the West Wing. I hadn’t even been recording him, but I said no on principle because that’s fucking ridiculous."
Getting kicked out taxpayer-funded places that powerful people don't want Americans to know anything about is usually how it goes for reporters...
But moments ago it happened to this U.S. Senator:
I was barred entry. Asked repeatedly to speak to a supervisor—he finally came out and said he can’t tell us anything. Police were called on us.
Children should never be ripped from their families & held in secretive detention centers. RT if you agree this is WRONG.
14th day of hunger strike in ICE detention at
@BergenCountySo
Jail. Detainees are falling sick & collapsing, they tell me. They have existing medical conditions, fear Covid, want to fight deportation cases from home. ICE confirms: “9 detainees participating in a hunger strike.”
He's an Indonesian Christian who rebuilt more than 200 homes after Superstorm Sandy.
Today, I'm told,
@ICEgov
came to deport him. He's now in sanctuary at a church.
My profile of him last year:
For antifa activist
@DLamontJenkins
though, the day wasn’t a total bust. He didn’t find any Nazis to videotape but he did remove a sticker from a New Jersey white supremacist group that he found on a pole across the street from the statehouse.
Breaking: Yet another ICE detention facility may close in NJ. Today the owners of the former warehouse where
@CoreCivic
operates ICE's Elizabeth Detention Center sued CoreCivic to get out of the lease, alleging CoreCivic endangered detainees' lives by violating Covid rules. 1/
40 hours after I got a secret recording, Sheriff Michael Saudino and all four of his undersheriffs were out of their jobs.
His resignation statement was curt. It included neither regrets nor an apology.
@WNYC
:
ICE detainees are being "disappeared," according to a letter to
@ICEgov
from lawyers for NY immigrants who say those detained by
@ICEgov
have recently been moved from Hudson & Bergen County jails in NJ without warning & notice to their attorneys of their whereabouts.
"I told her to get suspended." - mother tells
@BrianLehrer
about her daughter in Morristown, NJ, who was threatened with 4-day suspension if she walks out now to protest gun violence.
#NationalWalkoutDay
A recent ICE hunger striker at the Bergen County Jail in NJ was released today with an electronic monitoring device after a court-ordered Fraihat review by ICE of medically vulnerable detainees at risk of getting Covid. Jose Suchite Salguero of Guatemala didn’t eat for 24 days.
I spent 6 weeks in Japan reporting on a thing that doesn’t get much attention: The thousands of asylum seekers from across the world who fly into Tokyo. Almost none win legal refugee status. Many get detained. And so I went to find out why, and what it means.
#RefugeesInJapan
1/?
NYC buying $90,000 in submachine guns for officers at Rikers
-
Gun-buying spree comes at same time the jails are eliminating $17 million in programs on job training, drug rehab, mental health, etc. due to
@NYCMayor
's spending cuts
-
My story
@Gothamist
Pics of the ransacked home of Indonesian immigrant & long-time NJ resident (he rebuilt 200+ homes after Sandy). Day after he went into sanctuary at his church to avoid
@ICEgov
, this happened:
Pangemanan’s two U.S.-born kids returned to their Highland Park house with an escort Friday night to find their front door busted open, Kaper-Dale says. Here are a couple of photos of the ransacking they described:
Christie is still hospitalized. He is still NOT on a ventilator. He was on the phone as recently as this morning. I spoke to 3 people who've been in contact with him. Here's my brief radio spot for
@WNYC
:
Citing fentanyl-soaked children’s drawings, love letters, prayer schedules, and T-shirts , NYC to ban incarcerated people from getting letters in the mail
And here it is. Not only the sheriff -- BUT FOUR UNDERSHERIFFS -- also resigning in Bergen County. This is largest law enforcement agency in NJ's most populous county. Sheriff is in charge of corrections officers, sheriffs officers, police officers. And 500 ICE detainees at jail.
Christie got raked over the coals in New Jersey for his long alliance with Steve King & his refusal to condemn King’s racism, all in the hopes of an endorsement in the Iowa caucuses (he finished 10th) that never came.
Now, 6 days after King’s career-killing interview with NYT->
The recent comments from
@SteveKingIA
were reprehensible & should be repugnant to any American, whether they come from an elected official or your next door neighbor. It is unacceptable to me and to anyone, I suspect, who has lent him support over his career. Shame on him.
ICE detainees are being "disappeared," according to a letter to
@ICEgov
from lawyers for NY immigrants who say those detained by
@ICEgov
have recently been moved from Hudson & Bergen County jails in NJ without warning & notice to their attorneys of their whereabouts.
NEWS: Never-before-scene images show Rikers inmates locked in caged showers, left in soiled pants, more poor conditions
-
My scoop on a shocking presentation on Rikers Island jail conditions convened by
@ManhattanDA
:
Breaking: The NYC Medical Examiner has ruled that Jordan Neely was killed by chokehold.
Cause of death: Compression of neck
Manner of death: Homicide
Now, eyes turn to NYPD & Manhattan DA Bragg for possible charges.
Background:
This is now the longest meeting of any New Jersey governing body I've ever attended, and I've attended many. Approaching Hour 10. And yet...NOT A SINGLE PERSON HAS SPOKEN IN FAVOR OF THE ICE CONTRACT. Except for the Democratic freeholders. Amazing. 17/
~750,000 marijuana convictions in NY & NJ are being expunged, wiping away barriers to jobs, housing, education, even custody of kids. I went to an expungement clinic and wrote about it.
Tried to put $5 into my account so an incarcerated person at a NJ jail could call me. The company that runs the phones,
@ViaPathTech
, charged me $8.25 -- more than 50% in fees.
Unlike in NYC, calls from NJ prisons/jails cost $. There's a bill to make them free, but it's stalled.
Married GOP congressman
@RepMeehan
actually releases the letter he wrote to his "soul mate" -- the subordinate, decades younger, whom he paid with taxpayer funds after she accused him of harassment.
@JonathanTamari
:
"We were blindsided and in shock" -->
To save $17 million,
@NYCMayor
is eliminating programs that help jail detainees get jobs, find housing, stay off drugs & reconnect with loved ones once they’re released from Rikers Island.
1000s affected. My story:
.
@NYGovCuomo
's youngest daughter & her bf now staying with the gov: "The boyfriend is very nice. We like the boyfriend...You can never say you don't like the boyfriend...then Natural Defiance Syndrome kicks in & they like the boyfriend more. In this case, I like the boyfriend."
Maurice Gordon, 28, was shot dead by a New Jersey State Trooper on the side of the Garden State Parkway last month. He was unarmed and not charged with a crime.
@NewJerseyOAG
has not released the name of the trooper.
20 years ago today I started my career as a full-time journalist,
@dailyrecord
. I wore a tie, because I looked 12, and I drove my Toyota Celica to cover zoning meetings in East Hanover, NJ. My byline was “Matthew.” I loved every moment. Journalism is all I ever wanted to do.
BREAKING--
@GovMurphy
is calling for the resignation of the the sheriff of New Jersey's largest county, Bergen, after he's caught on a secret recording obtained by
@WNYC
making racist remarks about black people and
@NewJerseyOAG
, who is Sikh.
I commend A.G. Sessions for selecting Craig Carpenito to be New Jersey's United States Attorney. Craig is an outstanding lawyer & the type of decisive leader the office needs. I am confident he will be a U.S. Attorney that New Jersey will be proud of today and in the years ahead.
Julio Colcas,55, Green Card holder who lived in NY-NJ for 40 yrs, had 2 old drug charges. ICE was detaining him in Newark but released him 6 months ago due to Covid. Then last week, ICE suddenly * re-arrested * him. Tonite he was apparently deported. And here's what's wild...1/9