Tag: WORLD ECONOMY

Store owners boarding up buildings across Manhattan

by Luke Funk – 4/4/2020

NEW YORK – A growing scene for those who venture out into the streets of Manhattan these days is boarded up storefronts.  From luxury retailers to small bars, establishments that have no idea when they are going to be allowed to reopen are putting up protection over their glass doors and windows.

The businesses have taken the unsightly measure in an effort to defend against the potential for civil unrest caused by the coronavirus and a lack of officers on the streets.

Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered bars and restaurants closed except for takeout service in mid-March.  Most stores were also ordered to shut down.

Now, from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side, outlets are boarded up.  At least a few have offered makeshift messages of hope.

Posted on a pub at 28th and Park the message “let us go forward together” is painted on some of the plywood.  Another message is painted next to it saying, “if you’re going through hell keep going.”

Typically bustling Soho sidewalks are marred by boarded-up windows at designer brand stores, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Coach, and Dolce & Gabbana.

The NYPD has reported that crime in the city has actually dropped since the coronavirus outbreak has limited people on the streets.

As the number of NYPD officers are added to the sick list or test positive to coronavirus, there are questions on the ability to effectively fight crime.

On Thursday, 6,498 uniformed members of the NYPD were on the sick report which accounts for 18% of the Department’s uniformed workforce.  1,354 uniformed members and 169 civilian members have tested positive for the coronavirus.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the Empire State will do “whatever we have to do” in response to a growing number of city police officers who have called out sick.

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NYC BUSINESS BURGLARIES RISE 75%…

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Some shops are opting to board up storefronts as a deterrent

By Ben Chapman and Keiko Morris

Burglaries of businesses have risen in New York City under emergency measures to fight the new coronavirus, according to new New York Police Department data, and some businesses are boarding up their storefronts.

The NYPD has seen a 75% increase in reports of burglaries of commercial establishments from March 12, when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency, to March 31, police officials said. The NYPD recorded 254 burglaries of businesses during that time period this year compared with 145 for the same period last year, the officials said.

All boroughs of the city have seen increases, the officials said.

The increase in burglaries coincided with steps to stop the spread of the coronavirus. On March 15, the city ordered restaurants and bars to cease on-site service, prompting many establishments to close altogether or limit operations. A March 20 decree by Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for the closure of all nonessential businesses, leading many retail stores to shutter.

“We knew with the closing of many stores that we could see an increase and, unfortunately, we are,” said NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri.

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The increase in commercial burglaries comes as major crimes across the city fell during the pandemic. From March 12 through March 31, major felonies, such as rapes, murders and assaults, fell by nearly 20% when compared with the same period in 2019, dropping to 3,740 such crimes from 4,670 a year earlier.

But Mr. LiPetri said that break-ins of eateries, supermarkets and retail establishments are fueling a rise in commercial burglaries. There were 30 burglaries of supermarkets and bodegas between March 12 and March 31, according to NYPD data, a 400% increase from six such incidents recorded during the same period a year earlier. Burglaries of eateries nearly doubled, rising to 51 incidents in 2020 from 28 incidents in 2019.

Thieves are taking currency, electronics and consumables, such as food, alcohol and retail goods from businesses, Mr. LiPetri said. They gain entry to closed businesses by forcing open doors, breaking windows or climbing in from rooftops, he said.

NYPD patrols are mobilized against the thefts, Mr. LePetri said. Police are working with business owners to deploy additional resources where needed and are reassessing patrols in real time, according to NYPD officials. On March 31, police apprehended three suspects charged in a string of burglaries in Queens and Brooklyn.

As burglaries have increased, a handful of chain retailers have boarded up New York City shops, including the cosmetics retailer Sephora, which has covered the windows of stores at locations in Times Square and on West 34th Street in Manhattan.

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In a statement, Sephora representatives said the company has closed North American locations to adapt to the coronavirus and adopted standardized precautions for its properties. “Our goal is to ensure a great experience for our clients when we have the opportunity to reopen,” the company said.

Police officials said that few New York City businesses have boarded up their storefronts. But leaders of local business-improvement districts worry that the strategy could invite graffiti and potentially prompt other shop owners to do the same. Some districts said they haven’t seen any large increases or break-ins of storefronts.

Dan Biederman, president of the 34th Street Partnership, a business-improvement district that includes the closed Sephora location, said it isn’t necessary for businesses to board up their windows. “It’s a solution in search of a problem,” Mr. Biederman said.

On Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the local business-improvement district already had to send crews to remove graffiti from the boards covering an Aesop store, said Mark Caserta, executive director of the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District.

Residents who noticed vandalism of the storefront run by the high-end retailer of lotions, fragrances and skin-care products called to complain, Mr. Caserta said. Representatives for Aesop didn’t respond to calls for comment.

Mr. Caserta said boarding up buildings sends an inappropriate message to the community.

“It brings up this idea of rioting and collapse of society,” Mr. Caserta said. “This is way too much, and it sends the wrong signal.”

 

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Coronavirus patients ordered to wear GPS ankle monitors…Louisville is forcing unwilling coronavirus patients to self-isolate. Is it right?

Deborah Niehaus, right, and her daughter Amelia Niehaus, 21, used scarves and bandanas for face protection as they waited at the Hope Southern Indiana food bank in New Albany, In. on April. 2, 2020. The agency has been providing donated food and toiletries to the public after most businesses have closed due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

By Kala Kachmar and Darcy Costello – 4/3/2020

Two Louisville coronavirus patients and a family member have been ordered by circuit judges to isolate and wear tracking devices after health officials learned they’d been in public against medical advice.

Issuing health-related civil orders is new territory for the courts, according to Judge Charles Cunningham, who issued two Friday. The third was issued earlier this month when a South End resident who tested positive for coronavirus refused to self-isolate.

But the orders are essential for keeping the community safe when infected patients refuse to self-quarantine, officials said during Mayor Greg Fischer’s Facebook Live briefing Tuesday.

[This story is being provided for free to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to The Courier Journal at courier-journal.com/subscribe. ]

As of Tuesday, seven people have died of the virus in Jefferson County and 18 across Kentucky.

“The home incarceration program is well-suited for this,” said Amy Hess, the city’s chief of public services, which includes oversight of Metro Corrections and Emergency Services. “It provides us with the proper amount of distancing. We can monitor activity after (the monitoring device) gets affixed to them … to make sure they’re not further affecting the community.

“We would prefer not to have to do it at all,” she said.

Also: How a church revival in a small Kentucky town led to a deadly coronavirus outbreak

Cunningham told The Courier Journal on Tuesday the two individuals he ordered isolated were living together, but only one had tested positive for coronavirus.

The city’s health department submitted a request for the order, which indicated one of the individuals was “walking around” and the other, based on a phone call, was thought to be out of the house, Cunningham said.

Not enough Louisvillians are taking pandemic guidelines seriously, Fischer stressed again Tuesday. In addition to closing libraries, community centers, the zoo and even some parks over the past few weeks, he’s instructed police to cut back on the types of calls for service officers respond to.

And, in response to a lack of respect for his orders, he even had basketball rims taken off backboards in parks.

Both Hess and Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad said the biggest fear is the spread of the virus among first responders such as police officers, firefighters and ambulance workers, especially when “the surge” of coronavirus patients that’s expected starts to overwhelm local hospitals.

So far, one police officer and two firefighters have tested positive for COVID-19, city officials have said. At least eight additional firefighters went into self-quarantine in connection to Louisville Fire’s two positive cases.

Dr. Sarah Moyer: These new symptoms may mean you have or are spreading the coronavirus

Too. Cute: Kentucky nursing home posts ‘thank you’ video to health care workers fighting COVID-19

A Metro Corrections officer who was sent to attach ankle monitors following Friday’s isolation order has a 101-degree fever and is being tested for COVID-19, said Tracy Dotson, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 77, which represents the workers.

Dotson said corrections officers haven’t received the same protective equipment as LMPD officers or Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies also sent to confirmed coronavirus patients’ homes.

“If we’re going to be doing this, fine. That’s what we signed up for,” Dotson said. “But we’d like to be adequately protected, as our sister agencies are. We don’t think that’s too big of an ask. If nothing else, just for peace of mind for those officers.

“It would make me nervous if I showed up in a paper mask and some safety goggles and I saw the two guys there to work with me from different agencies in full respirators,” he added.

Steve Durham, spokesman for Metro Corrections, declined to confirm whether an officer is being tested. He also said first responders wear personal protective equipment recommended by medical professionals, which includes a gown, goggles, gloves and a mask.

‘Feeling our way through’

The first judge to issue an order requiring self-isolation was in Nelson County March 15, when a 53-year-old checked himself out of the University of Louisville Hospital against medical advice after testing positive.

Cunningham said the state’s Administrative Office of Courts put out a 200-page document over a decade ago that gives emergency guidance to circuit judges on topics like public health.

“It’s something we’re all feeling our way through,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out how this should be done.”

Jefferson Circuit Chief Judge Angela McCormick Bisig’s March 21 order required the first Jefferson County individual stay in his home for 14 days. Any violations, it said, may result in his arrest and criminal charges.

It said the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department would serve the order and Metro Corrections would fit him with a global-positioning device. The order said he’d be constantly monitored to ensure he stays home.

What to do: 10 steps to follow if you think you may have the coronavirus

Dotson, spokesman for the union that represents Metro Corrections workers, questioned the ethics of using tracking devices on Louisville residents who have not been charged with a crime.

It is a judge’s order, he acknowledged, but “our mandate is once people are charged with a crime, we’re to do whatever it is we do with them.”

“These people aren’t charged with a crime,” he said.

“For my people on the ground, that’s a concern for them.”

Kentucky law gives county health departments the clear power to isolate infected patients who refuse to stay home. Isolation separates sick people with a communicable disease, while quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people potentially exposed.

Nelson County Judge-Executive Dean Watts said the involuntary isolation of the county resident was permitted after he declared a county emergency.

In most states, breaking a quarantine order is a misdemeanor, according to the Centers for Disease Control, although Kentucky law does not provide a penalty.

Courier Journal reporter Andrew Wolfson contributed to this report.

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MOB VIOLENTLY CHASES POLICE AWAY AFTER AUTHORITIES TRY TO CLOSE MOSQUE

Video: Mob Violently Chases Police Away After Authorities Try to Close Mosque

Social distancing proving to be a problem in Pakistan.

By Paul Joseph Watson – April 3, 2020

A video out of Karachi, Pakistan shows a violent mob chasing away a police car after authorities tried to shut down a local mosque as part of social distancing rules.

The clip shows a mob of hundreds of men pursuing the police cruiser while screaming and hurling rocks at the car.

“Today when police reportedly tried to stop a Friday prayer congregation at a mosque forcibly in #Karachi’s Liaquatabad, residents reacted violently,” tweeted journalist Zia Ur Rehman.

Another clip shows one of the officers wearing a mask being manhandled by the crowd.

According to the Business Recorder, “An Imam of a mosque in Liaquatabad area was holding Friday congregation prayers despite a ban imposed by the government from 12 noon to 3 pm. A large number of people also gathered in the mosque to offer Friday prayers.”

The Imam then incited the mob to attack the police, causing them to flee “in a bid to save their lives.”

A larger contingent of officers later reached the site and arrested the Imam along with three other people.

As we previously highlighted, Muslim migrants living in Europe’s “sensitive” ghettos have also largely ignored the lockdown measures.

The situation is so dire that a top government official in France suggested not enforcing the law in migrant-heavy areas and keeping shops open in order to prevent riots.

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Data Shows US Efforts to Combat China Coronavirus Crushed the US Economy — But Brazil and Sweden Have Similar Fatality Numbers With Open Economies

By Jim Hoft – April 3, 2020

While the US shuts down all commerce for weeks and destroys the economy, other countries like Sweden and Brazil are doing the opposite and allowing the China coronavirus to run its course. 

Data indicates there no material differences in fatalities between the three countries leading the casual observer to question why is the US killing its economy?

The US continues to prevent nearly all commerce from occurring to combat the China coronavirus.  Many other countries are following suit.  But some countries like Sweden and Brazil are keeping their countries open for business.  Data shows that the fatalities related to the coronavirus in these countries are very similar to those in the US.

Sweden announced they would pretty much keep their economy open for business when the China coronavirus became a threat:

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We also reported that Brazilian Leader Jair Bolsonaro refuses to lock-down Brazil’s economy to fight off the China coronavirus.

So how are Sweden and Brazil doing when compared to the US with their strategy to combat the coronavirus?

Below are today’s numbers related to the China coronavirus:

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  1. The US has identified the most cases of the China coronavirus when compared to Brazil and Sweden but all three countries are in the top 20 in the world that have cases identified.  The US’s number indicates it has tested more people and also it is a much larger country based on population than Sweden and even Brazil.
  2. Due to its testing efforts the US has the highest number of cases per million of all three countries (US – 741, Brazil – 38 and Sweden – 551).
  3. Sweden has the largest number of fatalities per million in their country (Sweden – 30, US – 18 and Brazil – 2).  The world average is 6.8 people per million.
  4. The US, with all its efforts through social distancing to ward off the spread of the coronavirus, has the most active cases identified per million (US – 691, Sweden – 510 and Brazil – 36).
  5. The US has the lowest percent of deaths per case of the three nations (US – 2.5%, Brazil – 4.1% and Sweden – 5.5%).  Two of these nations are under the world average of 5.2%.

The data is somewhat mixed and their are various reasons for the differences, but this isolated review based on data indicates that there is no need to shut down economies in an effort to combat the China coronavirus. 

The only thing that is eliminated by implementing these radical social engineering actions are economic commerce and prosperity.

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Chinese-Owned Hospital System in Australia Lays Off 800 Staff Amid Virus Crisis

Health minister blasts “astonishing breach of faith”

By Dan Lyman – 4/2/2020

An Australian private hospital system owned by a Chinese investor has laid off 800 staffers and might close altogether in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, according to reports.

Healthe Care was purchased by Chinese billionaire Liu Dian Bo in 2015 and now serves as Australia’s third-largest private hospital operator in Australia with 34 clinics nationwide.

After the federal government suspended all elective surgeries to focus treatment for coronavirus patients, Healthe Care began laying off employees and is now “putting in doubt 8000 beds” if state financial aid is not delivered, 9News reports.

“We have received no firm proposals,” the company said in a letter to staff.

“Regrettably, this has driven us to these immediate actions.”

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State and federal governments are “locked in crisis talks to keep doors open” at Healthe Care and other private hospitals as the coronavirus crisis grows in scope.

“The important thing is that we keep beds open, particularly ICU beds,” said Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.

Health Minister Greg Hunt blasted the firing of nurses as an “astonishing breach of faith.”

China’s direct impact on the health and security of Australian citizens has been highlighted repeatedly during the coronavirus outbreak.

Massive supplies of critical medical gear have been hoarded by major Chinese companies in Australia and other countries and flown to China during the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, as Infowars reported days ago.

https://www.newswars.com/

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Ocasio-Cortez: People Are Dying Unnecessarily Because Trump Ignored Scientists

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 29: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks at a news conference introducing the "People’s Housing Platform" on Capitol Hill on January 29, 2020 in Washington, DC. House progressives are backing the platform which declares housing to be a "fundamental human right". (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

By Hannah Bleau

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said during a live Q&A on Wednesday that President Trump is displaying an “epic level of negligence and incompetence that is costing human lives” during the coronavirus pandemic and suggested that people are dying because the president ignored scientists.

Ocasio-Cortez took questions from social media users on Wednesday and used the opportunity to criticize the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. The outbreak in the United States, she seems to believe, would not be as severe if Trump and Republicans took it seriously and listened to scientists.

“Someone said, ‘Do you think if we took precautions earlier than we did our numbers would be lower than it is now?’ Yes,” Ocasio-Cortez answered.

She explained:

I think that if Trump took this seriously, if Republicans took it seriously, I think that if if we decided to listen to scientists early more than we listen to, you know, people who care more about profit than human lives, we would have taken precautions much earlier and we would have saved lives. We either would have gone into lockdown earlier in some circumstances or we would have started producing these damn ventilators way earlier than we are now. We would have invoked the Defense Production Act, but because Trump didn’t do that early enough, now we’re scrambling. And everything that is happening is happening late. And every decision that we make late means that people are dying unnecessarily.

The New York lawmaker’s assertion falls in line with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who also suggested that the crisis is worse due to inaction from the president.

“What the president — his denial at the beginning was deadly. His delaying of getting equipment to where — it continues — his delay in getting equipment to where it’s needed is deadly,” the speaker, who remained laser-focused on impeachment as the first known person with the virus arrived in the United States in January, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.

Notably, Trump took decisive action that very month, announcing a ban on travel to the U.S. from China — a move many of his left-wing critics characterized as “racist.”

Just weeks ago, Ocasio-Cortez suggested that people who were no longer patroning Chinese restaurants during the crisis are “racist”:

“Honestly, it sounds almost so silly to say, but there’s a lot of restaurants that are feeling the pain of racism,” she said during an Instagram Live weeks ago.

“People are literally not patroning Chinese restaurants. They’re not patroning Asian restaurants because of just straight-up racism around the coronavirus,” she added at the time.

However, Ocasio-Cortez continues to believe that Trump and the GOP bear the brunt of responsibility for coronavirus-related deaths:

So understand, understand that people are not just dying of coronavirus. They are dying due to incompetence. They are dying due to poor decision making. They are dying due to a lack of listening to scientists and doctors, and they’re dying due to a crisis and a pandemic of a lack of leadership — not just because of the disease. And so the people who made those decisions who decided to prioritize profit over human life need to answer for those decisions.

The socialist lawmaker also vented about journalists who are “out there just assessing the president’s tone of his voice instead of what he’s actually saying” and declared that Trump is “conveying an epic level of negligence and incompetence that is costing human lives”:

“And it’s not just Trump,” she continued, bringing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) into the mix. “It is not just Trump. Look at DeSantis in Florida who’s just calling for lockdowns today and Florida beaches have been packed.”

“And these aren’t people that are just in Florida. These are people who are traveling to Florida spreading disease and traveling back to wherever they came from, and these people aren’t taking it seriously,” she added.

While DeSantis formally issued a stay at home order on Wednesday, he had already taken aggressive action against travelers from coronavirus hotspots. Those actions include screenings at major Florida airports, checkpoints on roads along the Florida-Georgia border and Florida-Alabama border, and a mandated 14-day quarantine for individuals from the New York Tri-State area and Louisiana.

Ocasio-Cortez recently said that there “should be shame for what was fought for” in the recently passed and signed bipartisan emergency relief bill. Last week, she specifically expressed outrage that the cash payment portion of the measure did not extend to non-citizens.

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VIDEO: Chinese Factory Worker Caught Contaminating Hundreds of Medical Face Masks

This is part of a trend.

By Shane Trejo – April 2, 2020

A video of a Chinese factory worker deliberately contaminating medical face masks is going viral, as the coronavirus scare continues to heighten.

The factory worker can be seen taking the face masks out of their packaging and rubbing them all over his feet while laughing in the video.

This video emerged on the same day that New York City received a massive cache of facemasks from China under “Project Airbridge” in conjunction with the Trump administration.

The White House stated that a “majority of these supplies will be provided by FEMA to the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with the rest going to nursing homes in the area and to other high risk areas across the country.” However, it is unclear whether or not these emergency supplies from China are tainted. China has already been shown to be sending poor and ineffective medical supplies throughout the West during the coronavirus crisis.

Officials in the Netherlands were forced to recall hundreds of thousands of faulty face masks bought from China on Sunday:

The Dutch government has ordered a recall of around 600,000 masks out of a shipment of 1.3 million from China after they failed to meet quality standards.

The defective masks had already been distributed to several hospitals currently battling the COVID-19 outbreak, news agency AFP and Dutch media reported. The Dutch Health Ministry has kept the rest of the shipment on hold.

An inspection revealed that the FFP2 masks did not protect the face properly or had defective filter membranes. The fine filters stop the virus from entering the mouth or nose. The masks failed more than one inspection.

“A second test also revealed that the masks did not meet the quality norms. Now it has been decided not to use any of this shipment,” said the health ministry said in a statement to news agency AFP.

The masks were delivered to the Netherlands by a Chinese manufacturer on March 21. The Health Ministry said it would conduct extra testing on any future shipments.

Several hospitals in the Netherlands had already rejected some of the shipment even before the Health Ministry issued the recall.

“When they were delivered to our hospital, I immediately rejected those masks,” a hospital source told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

Big League Politics has previously profiled Chinese individuals deliberately contaminating public areas during the coronavirus crisis. This included video of a Chinese woman sneezing on produce in an open market and another Chinese individual spitting all over buttons in an elevator.

With murmurs that Chinese coronavirus may be a bioweapon, these disease-spreading cases may not be isolated incidents. They may be acts of war as insurgents spread the invisible threat throughout the globe.

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‘Nothing Left For the Americans’: Chinese Woman Brags About Buying Up Supply of N95 Masks

Disgusting behavior.

By Paul Joseph Watson – 2 April, 2020

A Chinese woman filmed herself traveling around Florida buying up N95 face masks while bragging, “I didn’t leave a single mask for the Americans.”

The woman shared video clips of her callous stunt on Chinese social media site Weibo. The video was captioned, “So much fun shopping. Bought them all. Left nothing for the Americans.”

“It feels so awesome to buy all the masks!” she states.

The clip shows her filling a pick up truck with boxes full of the masks.

“They still don’t know about the purchase limit on masks,” the she says while laughing. “I bought all the masks, the shelves are empty, you can see my sweat … I feel like a thief.”

The woman continues to cackle while bragging, “A full shopping cart!”

The end of the video shows the pick up truck fully loaded with the masks, which the woman claims to be a “historical moment.”

Apparently, the woman buys products in bulk and then sells them on to Chinese people at a massive profit.

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“She can be seen in the above video being aided by her white husband. Neither stand accused of any criminal wrongdoing,” writes Chris Menahan.

The woman’s behavior is clearly disgusting given that there has been a shortage of masks across the western world, leaving front line health care workers exposed.

Be careful though. If you criticize her, the media might call you racist.

Remember, despite the fact that the virus originated in China, despite China lying about its spread, and despite China silencing whistleblowers who tried to warn the world – it’s “xenophobic” to claim COVID-19 had anything to do with China.

 

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