A 14-year-old reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... boy is accused of taking part in a crime spree while hanging out with a group that targeted several people.
Law enforcement said the boy was among those who carjacked and robbed four people on West Irving Park just before 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, CWB Chicago reported Thursday.
"As CWBChicago reported that morning, a carjacker driving a white car pulled in front of the victim’s Mazda CX3 to block their path, and two button men got out, took the victims’ valuables, and then drove away with the Mazda," the article noted, adding that the victims were three men and one woman who were in their early 20s.
The young suspect and the group allegedly carjacked and robbed two people an hour later on West Belmont.
"Two men with guns robbed the couple, a 31-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man, and drove away with their blue BMW X3. A third robber remained in the previously hijacked Mazda, according to initial information," the CWB Chicago article said.
The boy is also accused of having a role in trying to carjack a woman in her 50s in June. He is also accused of stealing a car in early July.
In June, a husband and wife enjoying a date in Chicago’s Streeterville area were allegedly attacked by two teenagers. The couple was reportedly kicked, stomped on, and punched, according to Breitbart News. Police later arrested a 14-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl regarding the case.
In February, "A group of Chicago teens were caught on surveillance cameras breaking into a luxury Wisconsin vehicle dealership and speeding away with over half a million dollars’ worth of cars, leading police on a 40-mile chase," the outlet reported.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] It has been revealed that the gunman who attempted to assassinate Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last week flew a drone over the site just hours before the shooting.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able to navigate the drone over the western Pennsylvania fairgrounds and obtain aerial footage on July 13 - the same day as Trump's Butler rally.
Crooks allegedly flew the drone on a programmed flight path earlier in the day, and officials say that the predetermined path suggests Crooks had flown the small aircraft more than once in order to scope out the site of the rally.
The shocking revelation was made on Friday - almost a week after the ill-fated campaign event - by law-enforcement officials, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It was yet another example of how the Secret Service failed to do an adequate job of securing the area, leaving the MAGA crowd and the former president exposed to the subsequent dangerous situation.
It has been revealed that the gunman who attempted to assassinate Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last week flew drones over the site just hours before the shooting
It has been revealed that the gunman who attempted to assassinate Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last week flew drones over the site just hours before the shooting
Trump sustained a wound on his ear from a gunshot graze and one spectator was killed when at least six rounds of ammunition were fired by the assassin.
Crooks was killed following the shooting after a Secret Service sniper team returned fire.
Would-be Donald Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks looked up pornography not long before he shot at the former president. The search was the last one Crooks, 20, made on his phone before wounding Trump as he spoke at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday. Other queries included Princess Kate as well as her fellow British royals, both Trump and President Joe Biden, and school shooter Ethan Crumbley.
FBI investigators discovered the search history after finally cracking his encrypted Samsung Android phone days after the assassination attempt.
The senior law enforcement source who told the Daily Beast about the porn search said it was 'not unusual' among high-profile killers. Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooter Adam Lanza had child abuse images on his phone and Al Qaeda terrorists also watched extreme porn.
Agents couldn't initially break into Crooks' phone and sent it to the Operational Technology Division at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
The only other recent activity on his phone was texts from his parents asking where he was after he didn't come home from the gun range when they expected.
Investigators have moved on to his laptop and external hard drives found during a search of his parents' home, where he lived.
As the FBI searched his two cell phones and one laptop, they found he had searched for dates of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he ultimately made his assassination attempt. There were also searches for the dates of the Democratic National Convention, investigators told a private briefing with lawmakers. They also found photos of Biden and Trump in Crooks’ material.
FBI officials in the briefing said that that Crooks' search history indicated he had a strong interest in famous people, sources on the call confirmed to DailyMail.com.
Alongside the explosives in Crooks' car, investigators also recovered a bullet proof vest and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, which had been purchased, alongside a ladder, on the same day as the shooting.
Another bulletproof vest, and third remote-controlled bomb was later discovered at the house he shared with his parents.
The latest revelation that a transmitter was also with him has raised fears that Crooks may have been planning to continue his killing spree if he had escaped from the roof with his life, and may have had an accomplice to help him.
Hours earlier Crooks had asked his boss for the day off, telling him he had 'something to do', before travelling to Saturday's rally. The would-be assassin told colleagues at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center that he would see them on Sunday. Crooks worked there as a dietary aide providing food and care for post-hospital elderly and sick people.
'We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,' administrator Marcie Grimm said in a statement.
A colleague at the facility said Crooks never expressed political views at work and wasn't a 'radical'.
'It's hard seeing everything that's going on online because he was a really, really good person that did a really bad thing, and I just wish I knew why,' he added.
He graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County in May with an associate degree in engineering science, according to school officials who said they were 'shocked and saddened by the horrific turn of events'.
Crooks' father Matthew was seen on Tuesday morning for the first time since the shooting as he opened the door of the family home to FBI agents. Both of Crooks' parents are behavioral therapists and Crooks' father said he was baffled by his son's actions.
Grinning out from beneath a military helmet, dressed in combat gear and a bullet proof vest this never-before-seen photograph shows Thomas Matthew Crooks aged nine.
Today, through a trove of pictures and the accounts of family friends, Dailymail.com can give the first real glimpse into the childhood of the boy who would grow up to try to kill a president. He went from the 'normal little boy' who liked to play soldiers and miniature golf, to the increasingly disturbed young man who grew his hair long, isolated himself from friends and became plagued by mental health disturbances that led some to believe he was either bi-polar or schizophrenic.
There it is. Nuts, not Antifa. So a Lurid Crime on Page 3: Non-WoT, not Fifth Column on Page 1.
It was a journey that ended catastrophically at Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday when Crooks, 20, took aim at the former president hitting him in the ear, killing one member of the crowd and seriously injuring two others.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one person who knows the family well said, 'He was a cute kid, maybe a little bit off, maybe a little bit of a loner.
'But in the past couple of years he started suffering what we all suspected was mental health issues.'
The friend, who has known the family throughout Crooks's childhood, continued, 'We never knew for sure if he had been diagnosed or if he was being medicated but he started growing his hair long, he withdrew.
'There was nothing super alarming but looking back of course you question what was missed? His father was a psychologist.
'I'm not blaming the parents but did he suppress something? Was there some denial there? Was there anything hidden?'
Crooks, known as Tom to his family, grew up in the Bethel Park suburb where his family still live with his parents and older sister, Katherine, 22.
He attended Abraham Lincoln Elementary School from 2009 to 2014, before moving on to Neil Armstrong Middle School 2015 to 2016, then Independence Middle School 2017 to 2018, and ultimately Bethel Park High School from which he graduated in 2022. Seen in pictures across the years it is impossible to look at the face of the little boy who poses in yearbook picture after yearbook picture in his polo shirt and glasses without straining to see some foreshadowing of the change that, friends say, overtook him in the end.
In one, under the banner of 'Follow your Dreams' he is dressed in combat gear, the innocent costume of so many little boys now cast in a more sinister light by the act he would ultimately commit. But as a child, he was, friends say, if not exactly outgoing then certainly apparently 'normal.'
One said, 'He was definitely very intelligent that's something that was always clear. He was in the math club; I think that was the only club he was part of other than the gun club later, and he won quite a big scholarship for math.'
In pictures taken in elementary school he moves from the middle to the edges of the frame. In early photographs he is surrounded by friends, on costume days or mini-golf outings. Later he is at the edge, peaking round a bandstand pillar or kneeling at the end of a line with a basketball and his peers.
Contrary to what one 'friend' has publicly claimed in recent days those who spoke with DailyMail.com insist he did not dress in hunting or camouflage gear but instead was always smartly turned out in a polo shirt and pants or shorts.
A source said, 'He was always smartly dressed. He came from a good family — his mother is a very nice woman, and his father is actually very accomplished. I believe at one point he was earning between $300,000 and $500,000 a year.'
Today the modest family home, a small brick bungalow in a quiet suburban neighborhood sits under the watchful eyes of law enforcement and the world media. It gives little indication of its owners having any significant wealth.
On Monday FBI agents visited the home, speaking with Crooks's parents Matthew, 53, and Mary, 53, — both Pennsylvanian locals and both licensed counsellors — for several minutes before fanning out and moving door to door across the neighborhood.
It was here that Crooks grew up, and joined Clairton Sportsmen's Club where he honed his rifle skills. Speaking Monday, one friend pointed out: 'That club is also very much a social club as well as a shooting range.' But the friend admitted that one thing Crooks was not, was terribly social especially in later years.
They said: 'I suspect the FBI have interrogated his parents very thoroughly to find out what if anything they knew about his state of mind.
'We're just struggling to understand what happened, it's so shocking. This is a community and for this to have happened within it...it's almost too much to process right now. It's going to take a long time.'
Certainly, they said, something shifted in Crooks in recent years. He appears with a smile in every school yearbook until 2020, his sophomore year and the start of the global pandemic. After that he is absent, failing to show up for his yearbook photograph and a ghost in every group shot. According to the friend, 'Honestly we knew him less and less the older he got.'
But it seems he was nothing if not calculated and methodical. On Friday he went to Clairton Sportsmen's Club shooting range and practiced firing.
That’s unfortunately common in paranoid schizophrenics bent on murder, as I understand it.
The next morning, he went to a Home Depot and purchased a five-foot ladder — pictures obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com show the concealed spot where he propped this ladder against the AGR building wall allowing him access to the roof across which he scrambled to take up position.
From the Home Depot he went to a gun store, which sources have identified to DailyMail.com as Allegheny Arms & Gun Works, a five-minute drive from his family home, where he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition.
#1
The shocking revelation was made on Friday... by law-enforcement officials
In the multiple instances of this story, no one seems to have any source other than "law-enforcement officials". Seems a bit vague, eh? And nothing about the drone or where it was found?
Is "just hours before the speech" the time-frame when the security people were doing their final prep and walk-throughs?
#3
Can someone do a deep dive comparingthe assassination of Bhutto in Pakistan this? Same situation: a patsy is set up by the deep state, security services "shockingly inept", crime scene quickly hosed down and evidence destroyed, no curiosity afterwards. I think there are a lot of comparisons and a good piece would go viral.
[FoxNews] The shot that killed the man who attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday was a "one-in-a-million shot," according to a source familiar with the investigation into the shooting.
Fox News learned from the source the kill shot was a single shot taken by a Secret Service counter sniper whose view was obscured.
A local tactical team also took a shot at the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but missed.
The Secret Service sniper who killed Crooks could only see Crooks’ gun scope and the top of his eye and forehead because the lip of the roof was blocking the sniper’s view.
#5
" The shooter used three encrypted platforms in Germany, New Zealand and Belgium." From Axios- this is the most unusual aspect revealed so far. He was an online gamer so who he encounter in combat gaming might be linked to those. Historically, such sites have been conversational recruitment tools for certain groups.
A reminder to us all lest we forget
[JustTheNews] A Georgia man was arrested on Thursday and faces two felony changes for issuing death threats against FBI Director Christopher Wray.
John Woodbury, 34, allegedly posted threats online last year that urged violence against Wray.
One charge is for making the threats online and the other is for threatening a federal law enforcement officer.
"Let’s show them what a f---ing ‘Nazi’... looks like," Woodbury allegedly wrote in a post on 4chan on June 7. "It’s time to burn these mother f---ers down and hang them from trees. Hit them where it f---ing hurts. Hit Chris at his home. Make his family fear stepping one foot outside their god damn door."
[NPR] The controversial, conservative television host Lou Dobbs died on Thursday. He was 78 years old.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Dobbs' official account wrote: "It's with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of 'the great Lou Dobbs.'"
"Lou was a fighter till the very end — fighting for what mattered to him the most. God, his family and the country. Lou's legacy will forever live on as a patriot and a great American."
Dobbs – a former CNN business correspondent – was most known for his time under the Fox News umbrella, where he carved out a niche as a voice of conservatism, being particularly vocal in his criticism of former President Obama and in his praise of former President Trump. Read the rest at the link
"Assistant director?" When did that start? Thought FBI had deputy directors? Maybe assistant to the director? As in "don't forget, I like extra sugar in my coffee?" https://t.co/PK8NkbonkP
#4
It's a trade off - Tariffs vs Welfare State. One side you pay more for goods, the other side you pay for massive inefficient bureaucracy maintained by paying more taxes.
#5
Don Surber: On December 2, 2021, Vance tweeted, “Overheard at Vance campaign headquarters: it’s good our office is so close to a school. It means the Lincoln Project people can’t come here.”
Now I know he will name check Willie Brown in the debate.
I have Kamala’s comeback line: “And that little girl was me.”
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/20/2024 7:23 Comments ||
Top||
#6
it’s good our office is so close to a school. It means the Lincoln Project people can’t come here.
Follow up to this and this about the Crowdstrike problem from yesterday. See also here.
by Kirill Velesov
[REGNUM] On July 19, humanity saw with its own eyes the vulnerability of information technologies, which are penetrating deeper into the life of society. All because of a global failure in the work of Windows, which literally "turned off" entire industries in different countries.
Continued on Page 49
#3
#1: i do not like microsoft policy of updating my OS without asking. Please tell me more about 'mint'. I am 87 and now program for the web using xampp,html,javascript,and php to keep my brain from atrophying. take a look at www.weemfg.com and comment please to jim@weemfg.com. There are no worms at my website.
Follow up to this and this about the Crowdstrike problem from yesterday. See also here.
[Regnum] Microsoft announced on the X social network that it had fixed the root cause of the problems that led to global operating system failures.
It is noted that residual impact of the issue continues to affect some Microsoft 365 applications and services.
"We are taking additional troubleshooting steps," the American company added.
On July 19, many countries around the world experienced problems with Windows devices, with users complaining of the "blue screen of death" appearing on Windows 10 devices. The problem affected many companies and government agencies in Australia, the United States, Turkey, Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Japan, and other countries.
In particular, the work of airports around the world was disrupted. In particular, the American company Frontier Airlines noted that problems arose with booking and registration, as well as access to boarding passes. The failure also affected the work of other airlines.
This problem did not affect Russia. Thus, according to the official representative of Rosaviatsia Artem Korenyako, the global technical failure of Windows did not affect the work of airlines and airports, they are operating in normal mode. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov at a briefing on July 19 said that failures in the Windows operating system (OS) did not affect the work of the Kremlin.
Experts have established that the failure was caused by the installed Crowdstrike protection systems. There, in turn, confirmed the existence of a connection between its software and mass failures in Windows. The problems arose with devices on which the latest Falcon Sensor update was installed. Experts are trying to "roll back the application to an earlier version," the company added.
[Regnum] The actions of insider hackers could have been the cause of the global failure in the operation of devices with the Windows system. This opinion was expressed to a correspondent of IA Regnum on July 19 by Artem Izbaenkov, Deputy Director for Product Development of the Solar Group.
Many countries around the world, including Australia, the United States, Turkey, Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Japan and others, are experiencing a failure in the operation of devices running the Windows system. Users have complained about the appearance of the "blue screen of death" on devices running Windows 10.
Izbaenkov stressed that this incident requires a thorough investigation. It is currently impossible to determine the exact causes of what happened.
According to CrowdStrike, possible causes of the failure could be errors during software updates. Such errors can occur due to human error or problems during the update testing process. As practice shows, untested or insufficiently tested updates can lead to catastrophic consequences, the expert specified.
He did not rule out that the cause of the failure could be a cyber threat in the form of insider hackers. They could have introduced an employee into the company who would have planted malicious code in the source files of the system. The expert noted that similar cases have already been recorded in Russia in large IT companies that were able to identify such employees. This method is especially dangerous, since it is difficult to detect an internal threat until the malicious code is activated, Izbaenkov added.
According to him, the failure could also be caused by complex cyber attacks on service providers. Currently, the dependence on cloud services and platforms such as Microsoft Azure is very high. Complex attacks on such services can cause a chain reaction of failures. This could be either a deliberate attack on the infrastructure or the exploitation of vulnerabilities in the software of partners and suppliers.
"Overall, the incident serves as a serious reminder of the importance of cybersecurity and the need for coordinated efforts to protect both internal and external systems. It is necessary to conduct a detailed investigation of each theory and take measures to strengthen defenses and prevent similar incidents in the future," the expert noted.
In turn, the Chairman of the Board of the Digital Economy Development Fund, German Klimenko, noted that a global failure in the operation of devices with the Windows system was bound to happen sooner or later, since many organizations use software products developed by one company.
"The world is immersed in software products created by one company. Hundreds of companies use this software, and there is a single update control center. Sooner or later, something like this was bound to happen," the expert noted.
According to one version, there was a glitch in the security software. Thousands of companies updated it without checking. As a result, there was a collapse. The network has already managed to call it a "rehearsal for doomsday," Klimenko added.
He stressed that all systems fail. There are no ideal software or hardware products. Any new technology always has both pros and cons. Now we are seeing the consequences of the introduction of digital technologies. A good system is characterized by the speed of error correction. The question is how ready this system is for recovery, he clarified.
According to the expert, security measures will probably be taken as a result of this incident. For example, Roskomnadzor of Russia requires that some companies and the Central Bank have their servers not in the clouds, but on the premises of institutions. This leads to an increase in the cost of infrastructure, but ensures security.
Klimenko noted that protocols may also emerge that will prevent mass software updates from breaching the security perimeter. In addition, new recommendations will be issued for companies such as airports and banks on how to ensure software updates and store duplicates or copies so that they are not at risk of being affected.
"In two years of special operations, Russia has separated itself from American software products. If something similar happens in Russia, it will indicate that some companies are still secretly using these products. The main critical infrastructure in Russia has been transferred to other products or isolated. Therefore, Russia is now in the position of an observer, since there is no interaction with the foreign software market," the expert emphasized.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development stated that there have been no reports of system failures at Russian airports. The department stated that the massive failure of the Windows operating system, which was developed by Microsoft, showed how important import substitution of foreign software is.
Banks and payment systems in at least four countries around the world have encountered problems due to a global Windows failure. The Crisis24 portal reported problems in the work of banks and payment systems in Australia and New Zealand. In particular, clients of the National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bank of New Zealand and others have encountered interruptions in the work of online banking and electronic payments.
Representatives of the banks explained the failures by "problems with an external communication provider." In addition, the Bank of Israel reported problems in the country's financial institutions, and difficulties in work have also arisen for clients of South Africa's largest bank, Capitec.
At a briefing on July 19, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the failures in the Windows operating system (OS) did not affect the Kremlin's work.
Rosaviatsiya official representative Artem Korenyako said that the global technical failure in the Windows operating system did not affect Russian airlines and airports, they are operating normally. As of 11:30 Moscow time, he specified, flights are operating on schedule.
Korenyako explained that domestic civil aviation began to implement Russian specialized software in its work several years ago as part of import substitution in the industry. The press services of Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports confirmed that the work of these air harbors is proceeding in a normal mode.
The damn thing just runs. It cycles reliably with anything I feed it, including subsonic rounds and high-velocities. I don’t have a clue how Taurus’ engineers figured it out, and so I have an email into them at the time of this writing that asks them as much. But what I can tell you right now is that not only does the handgun have 99% reliability through 500 rounds and counting, but it’s as accurate as any .22 pistol I own, including several target-model Rugers. I can hit my 75-yard, 6-inch steel target every shot from a standing, unrested position. At 25 yards rested, I’m getting .80 inch groups. No doubt its accuracy is enhanced by the gun’s Performance Trigger System that slides backwards slightly before coming to its second stage and then breaking over cleanly at 4.75 lbs, which is excellent for any handgun, much for a polymer-framed .22. The reset is as good (short, fast, and crisp) as any I’ve ever felt on any striker-fired gun, period.
The other cool thing about this pistol that makes me like it more than the M&P (and certainly the cheapy-feeling plastic-slide Glock 44) is that it comes with both a 16-round and a 22-round extended magazine. That means less time loading and more time shooting, and trust me when I say it’s easy to burn through some rounds with this thing. The TX 22 has numerous other features such as a light/accessory rail and a manual safety if you’re into such contraptions, but what I like most is its overall feel, from its grip angle and contour, to its balance and the familiarity of its controls. It’s like shooting a competition-grade centerfire, only it’s a .22 that I can shoot for pennies on the dollar. Right now I’m seeing the gun itself going for $300, making it one of the best gun bargains going.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
[REGNUM] On July 19, humanity saw with its own eyes the vulnerability of information technologies, which are penetrating deeper into the life of society. All because of a global failure in the work of Windows, which literally "turned off" entire industries in different countries.
