COVID 19: Violence; Threats; Criminal Activity

[Hot Sauce]

Tangential, but: when I first got out of college, right before hitting the road full time, I worked in this outdoor lifestyle type place: Patagonia and Woolrich clothes, Montana roasted coffee, that sort of outdoor wish stuff. I had this boss who was great—a fiery redhead who took no shit from anyone. On more than one occasion, she stepped inbetween the high-school aged help and a spoiled customer to say “We are obviously not meeting your needs appropriately. Nordstrom is just down the block, across the street. You are welcome to shop there.” as she handed back their credit cards and packed back up the shit they were looking to buy. I mean, it happened a lot.

We all loved her.

She also double-legged a fleeing shoplifter on the escalator once—the escalator gets to the second floor with a pile of shoplifter being held down by 135lbs of fiery redhead, dumping both at the feet of security—who also loved her.

I think I speak for all the lads when I say... is she single?

[HCM]

https://www.expressnews.com/news/art...SAEN_210Report

School board group asks US for help policing threats

A group representing school board members around the country asked President Joe Biden on Thursday for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over policies including mask mandates, likening the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism.

The request by the National School Boards Association demonstrates the level of unruliness that has engulfed local education meetings across the country during the pandemic, with board members regularly confronted and threatened by angry protesters.

School board members are largely unpaid volunteers, parents and former educators who step forward to shape school policy, choose a superintendent and review the budget, but they have been frightened at how their jobs have suddenly become a culture war battleground. The climate has led a growing number to resign or decide against seeking reelection.

“Whatever you feel about masks, it should not reach this level of rhetoric,” NSBA Interim Executive Director Chip Slaven told The Associated Press by phone.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said responsibility for protecting school boards falls largely to local law enforcement but “we’re continuing to explore if more can be done from across the administration.”

“Obviously these threats to school board members is horrible. They’re doing their jobs,” she said during a press briefing.

The association asked for the federal government to get involved to investigate cases where threats or violence could be handled as violations of federal laws protecting civil rights. It also asked for the Justice Department, FBI, Homeland Security and Secret Service to help monitor threat levels and assess risks to students, educators, board members and school buildings.

“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the association wrote.

The letter documents more than 20 instances of threats, harassment, disruption, and acts of intimidation in California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and other states. It cites the September arrest of an Illinois man for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct for allegedly striking a school official at a meeting. In Michigan, a meeting was disrupted when a man performed a Nazi salute to protest masking.

“We are coming after you,” a letter mailed to an Ohio school board member said, according to the group. “You are forcing them to wear mask—for no reason in this world other than control. And for that you will pay dearly.”

It called the member “a filthy traitor.”

Last week, a crowd of up to 200 protesters who banged on doors and shouted at police shut down a school board meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where members planned to consider a temporary COVID-19 mask mandate.

[TGS]

@HCM

Don't the JTTFs already investigate threats made against specific populations....such as workplaces, church's and schools?

If so, wouldn't a given JTTF already be assisting with these when/where appropriate?

Thanks for any insight.

[HCM]

@HCM

Don't the JTTFs already investigate threats made against specific populations....such as workplaces, church's and schools?

If so, wouldn't a given JTTF already be assisting with these when/where appropriate?

Thanks for any insight.

Many threats are screened and referred to state and local authorities as appropriate.

The JTTFs primarily investigate threats / acts of violence made in furtherance of political or social ideology including those of a religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. Current examples would be Racially Motivated Violent extremism or Anti Authority / Anti Government Violent Extremism.

So it's not specific populations but rather the motivation / ideology of the suspect(s). For example, "Racially Motivated" be of /by / towards any race.

"Anti Authority / anti government" also covers a broad spectrum of motivation. For example public schools are government entities so school threats could be considered within the AA/AGVE umbrella.

For the mask / vax thing you would have to have evidence any threats or violence were made in support of political or social ideology. Unfortunately masking, vaccination and other COVID mitigation measures have become partisan issues and threats or violence over COVID measures such as masks and vaccinations against public schools could already be addressed via the current AA/AGVE framework.


There is also a federal LE mandate to assist with mass shootings / mass casualty events and threats of mass shootings / mass casualty events.

As a practical matter, the mass shooting mandate usually falls to JTTF as a secondary responsibility rather than regular criminal squads due to the overlapping subject matter and expertise between mass shooting / mass casualty issues and terrorism /WMD issues.

For example: https://news4sanantonio.com/news/loc...hool-shootings

SA's FBI Office using first-in-the-country partnership to help prevent school shootings

A big part of their job is to investigate and thwart every reported tip of a potential 'threat to life' –including any possible school shooting..

And that, unfortunately, is keeping them busier than ever.

There are so many threats coming in that we're working that I had to reach out to our local partners and say we need more of your officers on this task force to help us address the problem.

So Combs recruited the FBI's newest partner, the North East Independent School District.

They're the first school district in the country to place a full-time officer on an FBI Task Force.

NEISD Officer Donald Smith has been in school policing seven years and while he still patrols the halls of the district's schools now and then, most of the time, he's at FBI headquarters with the JTTF, though still employed by NEISD.

The FBI's Combs tells me 'it's primarily to look at the school threats,' but not just threats in NEISD, He works with all the area's school districts on any threats.

[Malamute]

Maryland man allegedly fatally shot his pharmacist brother for ‘killing people’ with the COVID vaccine.

Man kills his brother, sister in law and another woman, later telling someone he "was forced to kill 3 people".


https://www.yahoo.com/news/court-rec...193900100.html

[HCM]

Violent threats increasing against health care workers

https://cnycentral.com/news/nation-w...h-care-workers

WASHINGTON (SBG) — Health care workers have shouldered some of the heaviest burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic, treating dying patients, consoling grieving families and working long hours in understaffed hospitals. On top of those stressors, nurses and physicians are facing an increase in violent attacks and threats from their patients.

An Idaho doctor reported being threatened after she refused to prescribe a patient ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug that had been used in experimental COVID treatment.

Dr. Ashley Carvalho told KBOI that the patient's family member told her, "I have a lot of ways to get people to do what I want them to do, and they're all sitting in my gun safe at home."

Carvalho said she had to get hospital security involved, not because of her safety, but to protect the patient, whose family was not allowing her to provide treatment.

Even before COVID-19, violence against health care workers had reached a concerning level. According to a 2018 report, three-quarters of all annual workplace assaults occurred in health care settings. The abuse can be so common that many doctors and nurses don't report incidents.

[NoLock]

Our practice started putting up signs that basically said: If you are rude or belligerent to the staff, you will be asked to leave the practice permanently.

My front office reception girl has has been getting a lot of rude and abusive behavior from patients. We are operating the same way, the wait time is the same, check in is the same; you just have to wear a mask. She is the nicest/sweetest person in the world! If you are a dick to her, then I definitely don't want to take care of you. Not surprisingly, all of the assholes are men who deal with my all female staff. Impotent shitheads.

Just today, I guy came in and he did not have a mask. It is not his first visit. She told him he will need a mask. He didn't have one and wanted us to provide him with one. We don't do that anymore. She politely asked him to get one and come back. He left and had a mask in his hand. She asked him to put it on. He refused to because he found it in the garbage and argued "you only said I had to bring a mask!" He was booted out. The front desk girls feel better that they have the option of booting out jerks with backing from the doctors.

We had cameras installed everywhere last year when we started to note weird behavior in people. All doors to the waiting room/lobby are electronically locked. We had to have a meeting to discuss procedures if someone becomes violent. It helps protect us from jerk induced liabilities. I always carry concealed when in my office (thank you Enigma). Strange days for sure.

What the heck did he expect to happen?

I think businesses are realizing they have to empower staff to boot people. I grew up in retail / restaurant world and I noticed "difficult" customers almost always seemed to become amazingly civil and reasonable when they were facing someone who could and would boot them.

[Yung]

https://www.wsls.com/news/2021/10/09/security-guard-stabbed-over-mask-policy-dispute-at-nyc-apple-store-police-say/

Security guard stabbed over mask policy dispute at NYC Apple store, police say
The security guard was stabbed on his left arm and forehead by a man he didn’t know, according to New York City police.
Published: October 9, 2021 4:31 pm

NEW YORK CITY – A 37-year-old man working as a security guard in an Apple store in New York City was stabbed multiple times following a dispute over wearing a mask inside the store to comply with Covid-19 safety policies, police said.

New York City police responded to the West 14th Street location in Manhattan at about 6:20 p.m. Friday, according to NBC News.

The security guard told police he was stabbed one time in the left arm and one time in the forehead with a knife by an unknown man. The man then ran away into a nearby subway station.

The injured security guard was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition.

“I saw him coming out on the stretcher, and I was like, ouch,” Kimberly, a woman who works nearby and knew the security guard in passing, told NBC New York. “Everybody was in a big commotion, crying. Everyone was in shock.”

The Apple store closed about 2 1/2 hours early as employees spoke to police officers investigating the incident and collected evidence, NBC New York reported. Workers with a cleaning company arrived later Friday night to clean the trail of blood that was still left at the store several hours after the stabbing happened.

The investigation remains ongoing, but no one has been arrested in connection to the assault as of Saturday morning, police told NBC News in an email.

[45dotACP]

Violent threats increasing against health care workers

https://cnycentral.com/news/nation-w...h-care-workers

Yeah...That's been normal pre-pandemic.

Most healthcare workers operate under the belief that the people who assault them, threaten them or abuse them, are the weak, the poor, the downtrodden etc...

They don't hold these people accountable for these reasons. We've been trying to change this mindset in our nurses. Recently we did have a family member walked out in cuffs. Wasn't a COVID thing...just the usual violence towards nurses.

To their credit, my employer has adopted a strict policy of "If you are a shit to the nurses, doctors or the fucking cleaning lady and we will kick your ass out no matter the circumstance. Lay hands on them, the hospital will fully support them pressing charges and give them the day off to testify against you of need be"

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[TGS]

They don't hold these people accountable for these reasons. We've been trying to change this mindset in our nurses.

That's not even the limiting factor for most places.

Dude stabs you in the eyeball with his spent needle, and in addition to losing your eye you lose everything due to whatever incurable disease he transferred to you, and the prosecutor says:



*To be clear, this isn't necessarily a dig on our prosecutor brethren here on the forum. Until we as a society create more docket space, there's no realistic way to have our cake and the icing too. Every prosecution decision is a decision to prosecute one crime while letting several others go by the wayside, as there simply isn't enough prosecutors or judges to handle the vast majority of potential crime they could otherwise tackle.