Author: Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr.

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government provides key excerpts from the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2022.

In Afghanistan, al-Qa’ida elements, ISIS, and regionally focused terrorist groups remained active in the country.  ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) continued to conduct terrorist attacks against Afghan civilians, particularly members of the Shia community, and the Taliban.  In 2022, ISIS-K conducted cross-border attacks in Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and maintained ambitions to attack the West.  Al-Qa’ida and its affiliates, particularly al-Qa’ida in the Indian Subcontinent, also remained intent — but lacked the capability — to directly attack the United States from Afghanistan.  While the Taliban committed to preventing terrorist groups from using Afghanistan to conduct attacks against the United States and its allies, its ability to prevent al-Qa’ida elements, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and ISIS-K from mounting external operations remained unclear.  The Taliban hosted and sheltered al-Qa’ida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul before his death in a U.S. airstrike on July 30, 2022.

Iran continued to be the leading state sponsor of terrorism, facilitating a wide range of terrorist and other illicit activities around the world.  In 2022, Iran increasingly encouraged and plotted attacks against the United States, including against former U.S. officials, in retaliation for the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) Commander Qasem Soleimani.  In August an Iran-based IRGC member was charged with attempting to arrange the murder of a former U.S. National Security Advisor.  Regionally, Iran supported acts of terrorism in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen through proxies and partner groups such as Hizballah and al-Ashtar Brigades.  Globally, the IRGC-QF and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security remained Iran’s primary actors involved in supporting terrorist recruitment, financing, and plotting across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America.

(Editor’s note: We believe portions of this paragraph are more involved with domestic politics than counter-terrorism) Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism constituted a growing, transnational threat to the United States and U.S. allies.  Violent white supremacists and anti-government, accelerationist, and like-minded individuals continued to promote violent extremist narratives, recruit new adherents, raise funds, and conduct terrorist activities in the United States and worldwide.  The October 12 shooting at an LGBTQI+ bar in Slovakia, which left two persons dead and one injured, demonstrated how individuals can be inspired by U.S.-based REMVE attacks and the broader REMVE movement.  The perpetrator posted an online so-called manifesto that pointed to previous REMVE attacks worldwide, including the recent U.S.-based attacks in Buffalo, New York, and El Paso, Texas, and the 2019 attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Poway,

As terrorist threats morphed and metastasized, the United States adapted its counterterrorism approach and marshalled international efforts to counter global terrorism.  The United States prioritized multilateral engagements to advance U.S. counterterrorism priorities, bolster partner capacity to implement international obligations and commitments, and promote greater burden sharing.  

In 2022 the Department of State provided more than $16 million in FY 2021 foreign assistance funding to support an array of United Nations counterterrorism capacity building efforts implemented by members of the UN’s Global Counterterrorism Compact.  To maintain international momentum on the use of battlefield evidence to investigate and prosecute terrorism cases, the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) — supported through U.S. funding in 2022 — trained more than 450 criminal justice practitioners on critical issues such as REMVE, battlefield evidence, counterterrorism prosecutions, mutual legal assistance, and juvenile justice.  In September, our Counterterrorism (CT) Bureau partnered with the IIJ to convene a dialogue regarding battlefield evidence from Afghanistan.  The event brought together 50 military, law enforcement, and criminal justice practitioners and policy-makers from the United States, the European Union, and select countries to discuss practical steps for successfully sharing and using battlefield evidence to enhance broader security and support criminal justice proceedings and international accountability efforts.

The Department of State co-led the U.S. delegation to the first in-person meeting of the Heads of Delegation G-7 Roma-Lyon Group on Counterterrorism and Transnational Crime since 2019.  The group’s dialogue focused on addressing issues such as REMVE and the situation in Afghanistan, and emerging threats such as voluntary foreign fighters, the use of unmanned aerial systems for terrorist purposes, and the trafficking of small arms and light weapons in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.  The United States also leveraged other multilateral organizations, such as NATO, INTERPOL, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organization of American States, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Council of Europe, and Hedayah to advance these issues.

Additionally, the United States continued to bolster partner capabilities to detect, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist networks.  The CT Bureau and the Terrorist Screening Center continued to explore new and expanded information sharing arrangements under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6 (HSPD-6) with foreign partners that allow the United States and these HSPD-6 partners to exchange terrorist screening information to identify known and suspected terrorists.  These efforts also improve compliance with UN Security Council resolution 2396, which includes international obligations for countries to screen for and collect information to prevent terrorist travel and strengthen border security.  As of the end of 2022, the Department of State’s comprehensive border system, PISCES, was deployed in 23 countries, providing real-time border security for partners across the globe.  In 2022, the CT Bureau completed 21 visits to foreign partners to conduct system updates, reduced the support backlog resulting from COVID-19 travel restrictions, and continued to reconstitute the PISCES program at ports of entry in Yemen.  Two new countries — Colombia and Eswatini — signed a Memorandum of Intent in 2022 to establish PISCES programs in their countries.

Another major effort in 2022 was facilitating the repatriation, rehabilitation, reintegration, and, where appropriate, prosecution of ISIS foreign terrorist fighters and family members.  To ensure that ISIS fighters and family members captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) never return to the battlefield, the United States continued to lead by example in bringing back its citizens and prosecuting them when applicable.  As of 2022 the United States has repatriated a total of 39 U.S. citizens from Syria and Iraq.  In 2022 the CT Coordinator also served as the Defeat-ISIS Detainee Coordinator and established the al-Hol Working Group to coordinate the United States’ effort to address the security and humanitarian crisis in al-Hol displaced persons camp and detention facilities in northeast Syria.  Additionally, in 2022, more than 3,000 fighters and family members were repatriated to 14 different countries of origin — more than 2020 and 2021 combined.  The CT Bureau worked closely with the SDF and partner governments, as well as with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Defense and the intelligence community, on these engagements.

The United States continued to promote a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to prevent and counter violent extremism (CVE) by engaging with governments, local religious leaders, and tech companies.  In October the Global Community Engagement Resilience Fund (GCERF) launched its replenishment campaign.  Through this campaign, GCERF raised more than $75 million to provide alternatives for millions of people directly at risk of radicalization and recruitment to violence, and to build a safety net among 10 million other people in their communities.  Since its inception, GCERF has expanded its work to more than 20 countries and has raised more than $160 million from 18 government partners.  With CT Bureau funding support, GCERF will look to expand programming to countries in Central Asia, Mozambique, and Coastal West Africa with a concentration on rehabilitation and reintegration, digital literacy programming, and countering terrorist radicalization.

The Strong Cities Network (SCN) grew to more than 160 cities around the world, with 10 new members in 2022.  These included the Slovak cities of Bratislava and Žilina in April, which became the first SCN members from Central and Eastern Europe.  In November the network also launched a Western Balkans Regional Hub, which aims to engage more municipalities in the region on CVE efforts within their respective communities.

Finally, the United States continued to support the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online (CCTA), an international partnership involving governments, private sector technology companies, and civil society organizations to address terrorism and violent extremist content online.  In October, CT Bureau supported U.S. participation in the 2022 CCTA Leaders’ Summit, closely coordinating with the White House and interagency partners to engage with governments, tech companies, and civil society in the forum’s workstreams to better ensure that online platforms are not exploited for terrorist or violent extremist purposes, while respecting our commitments to human rights such as freedom of expression and an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable internet.

This constitutes a brief overview of the United States’ ongoing work to protect our people and our allies from the threat of terrorism.  The Country Reports on Terrorism 2022 provides a detailed review of last year’s successes and the ongoing challenges facing our country and our partners — challenges that will require a continued commitment to and investment in global counterterrorism efforts going forward.

Illustration: Pixabay

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government provides key excerpts from the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism .

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States established a strong and sophisticated counterterrorism enterprise to reduce the threat of large-scale terrorist attacks on the homeland.  More than 20 years later, the terrorist threats we currently face are more ideologically and geographically diffuse.  At the same time, the United States is confronting a diverse and dynamic range of other national security challenges, including strategic competition, cybersecurity threats, and climate change.  To tackle evolving and emerging terrorist threats within the context of broader national security priorities, the United States inaugurated a new counterterrorism policy, shifting from a U.S.-led, military-centric approach to one that prioritizes diplomacy, partner capacity building, and prevention.  Striking a new balance between military and civilian counterterrorism efforts recognizes the need to deploy the full range of counterterrorism (CT) tools and ensures a more sustainable whole-of-government and whole-of-society CT approach with allies and partners around the world.

In 2022, under this new framework, the United States and its partners continued to succeed against terrorist organizations, bolstering diplomatic and multilateral engagements and partner capacity building efforts.  Through U.S. leadership, the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (Defeat-ISIS) raised more than $440 million in stabilization pledges – including a U.S. pledge of $107 million – to support infrastructure and other critical projects in Iraq and northeastern Syria.  In November the United States and the United Kingdom co-hosted a donors’ conference with 14 governments, and with numerous UN and humanitarian organizations, to discuss steps to improve the security and humanitarian conditions at the al-Hol displaced persons camp in northeast Syria.  

The Department of State led Defeat-ISIS’s renewed focus on countering ISIS branches across Africa.  In 2022 the Coalition welcomed Benin as its 85th member and 13th member from sub-Saharan Africa.  In March, Defeat-ISIS’s Africa Focus Group (AFFG), established in 2021 to address the growing ISIS threat in sub-Saharan Africa, convened its first working-level meeting in Rome and met again in May on the margins of the Defeat-ISIS ministerial.  In October the AFFG co-chairs of Morocco, Niger, Italy, and the United States met in Niamey to identify programmatic gaps and deconflict existing partner efforts in the region.  The AFFG will continue to utilize existing coordination mechanisms and enhance African members’ counterterrorism capacities.

In May the Department of State, in partnership with the Department of Justice, launched the first-ever Counterterrorism Law Enforcement Forum (CTLEF) to improve information sharing and international coordination to counter racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE).  The CTLEF, which was co-hosted by the United States and the Government of Germany, brought more than 100 criminal justice practitioners, financial regulators, and security professionals from over 30 countries and multilateral organizations to Berlin.  The inaugural meeting increased the United States and our partners’ collective understanding of REMVE networks, groups, and individuals, including transnational links between and among REMVE actors.

Despite key counterterrorism successes, terrorist groups remained resilient and determined to attack.  ISIS maintained an enduring global enterprise, promoting a large-scale terrorism campaign across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.  While the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in February marked an important milestone against the terrorist group, ISIS remained capable of conducting large-scale attacks.  In 2022, ISIS maintained a significant underground operational structure and conducted terrorist operations throughout Iraq and Syria.  An estimated 10,000 ISIS fighters, including 1,800 Iraqis and 2,000 ISIS fighters from outside Syria and Iraq, also remained in detention facilities controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces.  Additionally, 18,000 Syrians, 26,000 Iraqis, and roughly 10,000 third-country nationals from more than 60 countries remain in al-Hol and Roj displaced persons camps in northeast Syria.  In West Africa, ISIS affiliates increasingly expanded across borders and coordinated asymmetric attacks, including a July prison break near the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria.  ISIS expanded its recruitment and operations across key locales, growing its global network to approximately 20 branches and affiliates.

In 2022, al-Qa’ida and its affiliates remained resilient and determined, even following the death of leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in July.  Senior al-Qa’ida leaders continued to oversee a global network to target the United States and U.S. interests, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.  In East Africa, al-Shabaab (AS) sustained de facto control over significant portions of south-central Somalia.  AS also maintained its capability to conduct high-profile attacks in the region, including against U.S. citizens and infrastructure, and aspired to coordinate attacks against the U.S. homeland and Europe.  In West Africa, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) intensified attacks in the Sahel, increasingly threatening capital cities and U.S. embassies in the region, and expanded operations in the northern border regions of Coastal West Africa.

The Report concludes tomorrow

Illustration: Pixabay

In a bizarre way, the repulsive antisemitic “Gaza” protests have had one good result. They have exposed the actual character and malevolent goals of those responsible for the variety of disruptions that have plagued the nation across recent years.

Over the past decade or so, the same hard-left activists who are now in the streets purportedly for Gaza have terrorized cities and college campuses with threatening events that were miscast by biased media outlets as “peaceful.” They all had at least one thing in common, whether they were portrayed as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change, or supporting Gaza (actually Hamas.)

The stated purpose of these gatherings was not and is not the true motivation for the organizers. Rather, the ultimate goal is an assault on Western Civilization, free markets, and individual rights.

Despite the reality that the greatest era of prosperity and human freedom is a direct and specific result of the rise of Western Civilization over the past several hundred years, there is a subset of people who insist that it was a turn for the worse. They dislike the fact that, despite the general hike in standards of living, some have prospered more than others, and that repulses them. In their perspective, it would be better for everyone to be equally poor. Capitalism, the engine of that rise, is their target. They ignore the utter failures of rival concepts such as socialism and communism over the past century because at least everyone was equally miserable. Hence, occupy Wall Street and its numerous spinoffs.

But not everyone should be equal, as history shows..  A tiny percentage of elites, whether called Communist commissars or National Socialist fascists, carved out a privileged life for themselves. That role is now taken by powerful politicians, the Davos crowd, and shadowy Soros-style billionaires.

The United States in the 21^st century is the most successful heterogenous society that has ever existed, with equal rights and opportunities for all. That fact infuriates those who seek to produce ethnic and racial division as a means to dissemble the melting pot that produced American society, for the purpose of disrupting and attacking the country from within.

The hard left’s most successful and widespread strategy has been the rise of environmental extremism. Progressives seek to use highly exaggerated or utterly falsified studies to insist that America’s milieu of a free market and individual rights must be overthrown to “save the planet.” Once again, facts are ignored. The centralized planning societies they want to institute have a far worse record of conservation and good stewardship than their capitalist counterparts. Governments that have followed their advice have succumbed to food shortages and economic pain, with no commensurate environmental improvement. In order to dismantle free societies across the world, they seek to eliminate property rights and constitutional safeguards to allow elitists to dictate how goods and foods are produced and distributed. The end result, of course is that those elites are free to travel the globe in private jets and dine on champagne and steak while insisting that you eat bugs and take the bus. 

So, what does all have to do with the Gaza protests?  Hamas is a socialist-oriented terrorist group that cares nothing for individual rights. They have committed some of the worst human rights violations since the Nazis ruled Germany. Their immediate enemy is Israel, a nation which allows personal freedom and has a free market, the twin enemies of the protestors. But every nation that allows personal freedom and each society that produces prosperity through free markets is in their long-range crosshairs.

Supporting a group so loathsome opened the eyes of those who were so willing to blind themselves to the lies and evil intentions of the hard left, and to the reality that the causes they allegedly support are nothing but camouflage for their ultimate, wicked goals.

Photo: Pixabay

Finding Waldo is easy compared to uncovering all the locations where China is operating covertly in the world. With so many “hot spots” ready to erupt into armed conflict and others already experiencing kinetic warfare, China’s misdirected misadventures often receive little attention from overworked military analysts, and far less from the mainstream media… especially Chinese efforts inside our borders.

In a filth-ridden building filled with blood samples, Environmental Protection Agency hazmat contractors collected 800 containers of genetically altered mice and potentially lethal infectious agents. The California biolab, called Universal Meditech, appears connected to the Chinese military. Some of the reputed deadly agents and parasites there included Ebola, HIV, Malaria, Dengue fever, and hepatitis. Jia Bei Zhu, a Chinese national using several names and labeled a flight risk by US officials, is now sitting in a US prison after lying to federal agents and selling fraudulent COVID-19 and pregnancy tests. Although Jia received significant payments from China, simply possessing these deadly agents may not be prosecutable under US law. 

How is the US responding to this ongoing threat? According to one source in Washington, the Biden Administration determined that the biolab and its deadly contents did not constitute an apparent “activated” threat. Fox News reported that it had not received an official response from the Department of Homeland Security when it inquired recently if its BioWatch Program, National Biosurveillance Integration Center or the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center were activated. 

Last November the House Select Committee on China issued a 40-page report on the Reedley, California biolab calling the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) response “inadequate.” The report says CDC failed to actually test the vial to make their determinations and that “Despite the probability that the unlabeled or coded vials contained additional unknown and dangerous pathogens, CDC official refused to take any further investigative steps,” and failed to take any “meaningful actions” when provided classified evidence that Ebola was present. No one appears to be investigating the lab or why everyone from federal to California EPA, to local health agencies did not want to get involved. 

Worse yet, the lab was able to move last October although officials knew of the plan ahead of time. When a Fresno official, according to Fox News, reached out to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for emergency assistance, the state agency said it would not get involved. In an email to other DTSC colleagues, Fox News reports that the senior environmental scientist wrote that he was “Glad it won’t be added to our workload… but not so sure what will happen to it.” One local Reedley, California official said the investigation could take years.

The suspected Chinese biolab in California is only one known case of the Chinese government operating inside US borders. American intelligence officials, who asked to remain anonymous, stated this week that they know the Wuhan lab that produced the COVID-19 virus had military connections and was working on other deadly pathogens. That same analyst also says that US Government tests indicate the virus was manipulated into its deadly form by humans, not nature. Perhaps worse, is that there are indications the Chinese lab was working on a deadly agent that could be spread through aerosol delivery systems onto crops. Some government analysts suggest that the Chinese weather balloons may have been a test case for China to determine a US response. Others in the Biden Administration this week say that there is no need for concern and that it is simply a conspiracy theory. That does not explain the 800 containers collected by the hazmat team in Reedley, a town often referred to locally as America’s “bread basket.”  

Last fall Scripps News reporters investigated the case and found the address where the lab had moved.  “When we arrived, we found a modern building in stark contrast to the run-down warehouse in Reedley. It was surrounded by security cameras made by a Chinese surveillance technology firm called Hikvision, which is now banned from selling its products in the US for national security reasons,” notes Sasha Ingber.

We know about high-flying balloons and some of the illegal biolabs, what else is China hiding in plain sight inside our borders? Give the country’s open attitude under the Biden Administration, it is easy for China to operate in small American towns. Anna Puglisi, a former U. national counterintelligence officer for East Asia, told Scripps News that China goes way beyond traditional espionage and [activities] are deliberately carried out in more remote parts of this country… China looks beyond the national and they do look to the state and local. It’s easier to operate,” she said. “We’re not used to dealing with issues like this at the state and local level. And so, it really requires a raising of awareness of how China is targeting different parts of our society.” Finding Waldo needs to become “finding Chinese espionage programs” inside the United States before we become the world’s newest “hot spot.”

Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.

The world has turned upside down so many times in the last few years that many political analysts studying Russia say they have lost track of which way is up. There is one area, however, in which there does appear to be consensus in Washington. The war in Ukraine appears to be approaching a significant turning point as Putin faces mounting domestic problems along with an extended stalemate on the battlefield. Although the Russian president boasts about victories on the frontlines, the current state of the war against Ukraine belies a different reality. 

Recent Russian military actions in Avdiivka, in the Donbas region, suggest a level of Kremlin desperation not previously seen in the war. The Biden Administration released a declassified intelligence assessment last week that estimated Russian troops killed and wounded in the attacks on the Ukrainian garrison in Avdiivka stand at around 13,000 personnel. Pavel Baev, of the Jamestown Foundation, says that despite the challenges of war Putin remains “defiantly confident” that his forces are making progress. 

The Rossiiskaya Gazeta reports that Putin made his first campaign trip in 2024 to the Far East to boast about what he labels as his military successes and to highlight economic improvement in a very depressed area of Chukotka, in easternmost Russia. Many cities in the region remain without electricity or heating in subzero temperatures common at this time of year. Moscow also lacks adequate heating and electricity as the war continues to disrupt life in the capital city.  

The Siberian paper suggests openly that the local population was “not assured” by Putin’s statement that Moscow residents were also suffering from the cold without access to heating and electricity. Another local publication says the administration’s attempt to show that candidate Putin was physically strong enough to brave the cold simply “failed.” Political cartoons appeared in Russia media soon after the trip showing local agricultural products, including tomatoes and cucumbers, with Putin’s surname after them. Commenters mocked the Russian president saying a “Viagra formula” was used on the greenhouse cucumbers due to the 12 below zero temperatures so that when Putin touched them, they came to life. “Moscow’s struggle with providing adequate heating and electricity for its population points to Putin’s increasingly dubious attempts to pretend that his war in not coming home to ordinary Russian and disrupting their everyday lives,” according to Paul Goble in the Eurasian Daily Monitor.

Putin’s messaging is contradictory, says Baev. The failed attacks on Avdiivka proved that time is not on Russia’s side. Similarly, missile attacks aimed to prove its air superiority had limited success. Most were intercepted and none caused any critical military or economic damage. 

Ukrainian president Zelensky is addressing a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He is expected to discuss his propositions for a “peace formula” to rehabilitate the European security system. The Kremlin says there is no point to talk peace without Russia’s input. Baev says a shift in the balance of power is coming and it will be determined by three key changes. The first he points to is the European Union’s (EU) decision on additional aid for Ukraine (estimated to be $54.53 billion) and maintaining investment to increase the production of artillery shells. Second, the US Congress still faces a controversial vote on a complex aid package that amounts to $61.4 billion in military support. Finally, it appears more time may be required to channel frozen Russian financial assets, estimated at around $300 billion, to support and reconstruct Ukraine. Sources in Moscow suggest that Putin is increasingly nervous as he has little control over whether the US will move forward with confiscating and repurposing the funds, although most of the money resides in European banks. The EU will most likely decide how to proceed after its June parliamentary elections.

Putin’s strategy to date is to create a deep chasm among Western states to reduce their support for Ukraine. Kremlin propaganda teams are working overtime this month advocating for a reduction in Western funding, while also attempting to hide the depth of economic stress in Russia during a period when its military already is operating at full capacity.

“Each of Putin’s strategic designs for crushing Ukraine has failed, and it is highly probable that, as the war nears it three-year-mark, the Kremlin will miscalculate the degree of Western fatigue and discord,” says Baev. Ukraine remains determines and the West is standing behind Zelensky. The combination could spell major trouble for Putin’s war effort this spring at home and on the battlefront.
  
 Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Department

Illustration: Pixabay

As described by NBC News, “(e)very day it seems there’s another violent attack on a subway or bus in New York City, a crime wave that has set many residents on edge…(w)hether it’s a mass shooting on a train… or a string of random knife attacks…transit crime has been at the forefront of many people’s minds. In fact, statistics show that crime on subways and buses is up more than 41 percent in 2022 compared to the same time period in 2021.” 

Probably the  most frustrating aspect of the crime increase, is the overt discouragement of acting in defense of self or others – the punishment of a “good deed.”  As Bob McManus, writing in the New York Post states,  “(h)ere’s the thing about self-defense in the big city: You can be damned if you do, but maybe dead if you don’t – and you can never know which in advance. Do you risk it? Think of this as Daniel Penny’s dilemma – and New York City’s into the foreseeable future. Penny chose to defend himself and other F-train passengers…(w)hen it was over, a career criminal with a long history of violent behavior was dead — and the former Marine Corps sergeant was ­under arrest.”  

Now, yet another subway incident has occurred to remind would-be Good Samaritans of the price to be paid in New York for making any effort to halt a crime.

“A vigilante gunman was arrested,” according to the New York Post, “as wild surveillance video emerged showing him brazenly opening fire in a Manhattan subway station in what officials called an ‘outrageous’ and ‘reckless’ attempt to thwart a robbery. John Rote, 43, of Astoria was taken into custody at his Manhattan job shortly after 2 p.m. after he was recognized by someone who saw the footage of him allegedly opening fire on the homeless man who was trying to rob a woman on the platform of the Times Square station…Rote, who has no prior arrests, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm, reckless endangerment and menacing, the NYPD said.” 

Sure enough, Rote can be seen on video, standing on the train platform, pointing his gun down the platform.  As reported by Fox5, “inside the N-R-W subway station at West 49th and 7th Avenue, a panhandler had opened the emergency gate and threatened to steal the purse of a woman if she didn’t give him money. According to police, Rote told officers he was watching and pulled out a gun he was carrying and fired warning shots in an attempt to stop the mugging.” 

Of course, there are drastic differences between the charges Rote is faced with and the case brought against Penny.  Penny did not use a weapon; Rote did, but his actions did not result in physical harm to anyone.  In fact, the person threatening the female subway rider, 49 year old homeless repeat offender Matthew Roesch “was arrested at the scene…charged with attempted robbery and was given supervised release.”  Meanwhile, Rote was eventually released after posting $10,000 bond. h

Another difference involves the reaction of those each tried to protect.  While his fellow subway riders praised Penny and thanked him for protecting their lives, Rote’s victim has a different view.  “Of course, I am happy that that man tried to help me and that nobody was injured during this incident, but it’s scary to think that people are carrying guns around the city,” the 40 year old unidentified woman told the New York Post.  “The gun was pointed in my direction, and that’s all I saw. It was a feeling of pure terror that I don’t wish on anyone.” 

Remember the explanation given earlier of the proverb, “no good deed goes unpunished?” “You try to help someone, then they respond by hurting or betraying you.”

Nonetheless, as the victim points out, the discharge of the firearm is the most significant difference between the two cases.  “Straphangers like Rocket Clayman are now making their own statements about this kind of intervention. ‘I think that we need stronger gun control across the board in this country. So I certainly would not be in favor of somebody firing a shot,’ Clayman said.”  Meanwhile, “71-year-old Hell’s Kitchen resident Percy Palmer is supportive of Rote’s alleged actions. ‘I don’t think it was too much, though, because you don’t know what that person had that’s attacking that woman instead of asking her, may I have a dollar or something like that,’ Palmer said.” 

It’s clear that the authorities take a very dim view of Rote’s actions. According to NYC Mayor Eric Adams, “this is not a Charles Bronson era with ‘Death Wish’…(l)et the police do their job – don’t think you can do their job without the proper training that comes from law enforcement.” Then there is this statement from Richard Davey, the President of NYC Transit; “I want to be clear: we don’t tolerate this kind of conduct in NYC Transit, period…Once again cameras recorded a perpetrator, and we are grateful the NYPD made an arrest within hours. Thank goodness nobody was hurt here – but what occurred was outrageous, reckless, and unacceptable.” 

Of course, these comments ignore the fact that there were no police in the vicinity.  In fact, since the “defund the police” movement in the wake of the death of George Floyd, “New York has seen record departures by police for each of the past three years…(i)n 2022, about 3,700 departed (an increase of 32 percent over the previous year), and fewer than 2,000 were hired. And it wasn’t only uniformed officers exiting. According to the Detectives Endowment Association, in June 2022 alone, more than 100 detectives left the job. Based on the first two months of 2023, the NYPD is likely to continue bleeding blue. In January and February, 239 officers left—almost 40 percent more than in the same period in 2022, and a 117 percent jump over 2021. If the pace keeps up, the department could lose more than 5,000 officers this year.” 

Less police officers overall means less police officers available to patrol the subways.  Yet, the Mayor and Police Department leadership have tried to put a positive face on their dwindling available police resources. “New York City has a new strategy to make riders feel safer on the subway: Alerting people at certain stops that police are stationed there in case they want to get off the train and report a crime,” according to Bloomberg.  Which means after you’ve been menaced, robbed or assaulted on the train, you can report the crime once you get to a station where a police officer is present.  How comforting!

The sad fact is that “(i)ncreased policing on the subway has not led to increased safety on the subway,” according to Ileana Mendez-Peñate, a program director with Communities United for Police Reform.  

It is not unreasonable to express some level of concern over a firearm being fired in a subway station.  However, much like Daniel Penny, John Rote might also be facing more serious charges than are warranted.

At Rote’s arraignment, his public defender claimed that Rote had bought the gun he fired legally.     But this ambiguous description could mean several things.  It remains unknown if Rote had any valid handgun license, whether it be for concealed carry, or if his license allowed him to transport his pistol to and from a firing range. 

Whatever “legal status” Rote may claim in his possession of the gun he fired also does not change the fact that New York’s restrictions on the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution are overly burdensome.  As we noted in June, the statutes used by Bragg are unconstitutionally inspecific and overbroad; “(U)nder New York Penal Law Section 265.01(1), a person is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor if “(h)e or she possesses any firearm,” which is defined at 265.00(3)(a) as “any pistol or revolver.”     Then there is the more onerous PL Section 265.01-b, enacted under former Governor Andrew Cuomo, which makes it a Class E felony to possess “any firearm.”  There is no qualitative difference between the language used in the felony charge or the misdemeanor quoted above…how is one to know whether one will be charged with the felony, or the misdemeanor, if one is found in possession of a pistol in a public place in New York City? Your guess is as good as mine – and I was a Criminal Lawyer for 20 years, and a Criminal Court Judge for 10 more.” 

The issue at the heart of both Penny and Rote’s cases is New York’s open and obvious policy of discouragement of the exercise of the right of self defense, or the defense of others. This is no secret; just ask anyone on X, formerly known as Twitter.   “So, NY keeps showing us that if you see something, do nothing,” one poster writes. “They wonder why crime continues to rise.” Another writes, “So basically. Don’t try save someone… cause NYC will arrest you and charge you. Awesome. If you wanted to put people Off from helping people NYC, you just did it.”  Yet another states, “So, this is how you’re rewarded for being a model citizen in New York? What a dump it’s turned into. When did it become detrimental to help someone being robbed?!” In other words, both Daniel Penny and John Rote have discovered the same truth – in New York, no good deed goes unpunished.

Judge John Wilson (ret.) served on the bench in NYC

Photo: Pixabay

According to the website for the Grammarist, the proverb we have quoted for the title of today’s column “is a cynical twist on the idea that good people are rewarded for being good (when) in real life, this is often not the case. Many don’t understand that the ‘punishment’ may come from the person to whom you’ve done the good deed. You try to help someone, then they respond by hurting or betraying you.”  This phrase “has been variously attributed to Walter Winchell, John P. Grier, Oscar Wilde, Andrew Mellon, and Clare Boothe Luce. One of the earliest known uses was during the 12th century, when Walter Map wrote the phrase, “left no good deed unpunished, no bad one unrewarded,” in his work ‘De nugis curialium.'” 

No where has this fatalistic statement been proven to be more true, than in the cases of several individuals who have tried to stop crime in the New York City Subway system.

In May, we discussed the case of Daniel Penny, who was arrested and indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for Manslaughter and Criminally Negligent Homicide.   What did Penny do to deserve these charges?  As CNN describes the incident, “Penny held 30-year-old Jordan Neely in a chokehold during a May incident when Neely entered a subway car and began shouting at passengers. Neely died soon after, and the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.” 

Of course, there is far more to Neely’s actions than entering a subway car and shouting at passengers.  In fact, eyewitness “Juan Alberto Vazquez said he was riding the subway when he saw a man, later identified as Neely, enter the car just as the doors were closing. Neely immediately launched into an aggressive rant about being ‘fed up and hungry’ and ‘tired of having nothing’…Vazquez quoted Neely as saying: ‘I don’t care if I die. I don’t care if I go to jail. I don’t have any food … I’m done.’ Neely then took off his coat and threw it on the floor and said he was ready to go to jail and get a life sentence…(m)any passengers became visibly uncomfortable and moved to other parts of the train car…(Penny) then approached Neely from behind and put him in a chokehold, Vazquez said.” 

In October, Penny’s defense lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the charges based upon Neely’s violent and provocative behavior, and Penny’s justifiable efforts to stop Neely before he could hurt the other passengers on the train.  How Penny could have been indicted in the first place is a mystery, given that “grand jury testimony from witnesses riding the subway during the incident (include) one of whom believed they were ‘going to die’…(t)hat unnamed witness, who said they have ridden the New York subway for six years, described the moment as ‘absolutely traumatizing,’ court documents say. . Another witness, a mother, said she took cover behind her stroller with her son to shield themselves from Neely, who was making ‘half-lunge movements’ and within ‘half a foot of people,’ the documents say.”

Several possible explanations for Bragg’s indictment of Penny are provided by the New York Times, “(t)he case has been politically volatile, involving issues that have polarized New Yorkers: violent incidents on the subway and the vulnerability of homeless and mentally ill people struggling through a crisis of affordability in an unequal city. It was also understood through the prism of race relations: Mr. Neely was Black and Mr. Penny is white.” 

In any event, as of this writing, the motion to dismiss has not yet been decided by the New York State Supreme Court.  But all the issues cited by the Times as contributing to the interest in the case still exist – particularly the problem of violence on the New York City subways.

Judge John Wilson’s (ret.) report concludes tomorrow

Illustration: Pixabay