Radicalization of American Youth

Today, NYPD Commissioner Bratton spoke at 7 World Trade for Quality of Life Week hosted by The Manhattan Institute's new e-letter, "The Beat."

Commissioner Bratton reported that increasing numbers of American teenagers through 20-somethings are becoming radicalized by terrorists and addicted to heroin without their parents noticing.  Parents need to look for changes in behavior and prevent radicalization because they've had no success in de-radicalizing converts to militant Islam.

Subscribe to The Beat here and follow them on Twitter to see the media coverage.  

http://thebeatmi.com/the-beat-by-manhattan-institute-announces-first-of-its-kind-quality-of-life-week-in-new-york-city/

First visit to the new 7 World Trade: 

The exhibit quotes Winston Churchill, "We shape our buildings, and afterward they shape us."

Post-panel press conference with NYPD Commissioner Bratton

Building models

Memorial Fountain

Hole in the ground

Not sure what this is...sci-fi bird? a bug?

The old post office

 People voiced their concerns about "refugees."  Nobody wants to go through another attack.  The panel discussion closed to the tune of "We Got the Beat," one of my favorite 80s songs by the GoGos.  The fudge and cookies were exceptionally good.

The Beat is a quick read without which I would have no idea that the 125th Street train station to Connecticut we used to take is now full of addicts to a new synthetic marijuana called K2.

I saw my former colleague from Governor Pataki's campaign and Executive Chamber, Jonathan Greenspun, who now works for Mercury consulting hired to launch The Beat.  When I worked for MI before leaving to work on the Pataki campaign, we did everything in-house.  Now I feel a little better about my own little blog since I don't have half the former Governor's office getting it off the ground!  Time to post a business plan with a go-fund-this page so I can!  

It was kind of a perfect day...quality of life is good (except for a little rain on my woolens and the hem coming out of my skirt I've worn since college graduation).  I rode my rusty old English 3-speed I used to keep in the office closet at 2 World Trade downtown.  I'm sure we didn't have such beautiful bike paths back then.

The terrorists need to know that though they intended to give us only pain, loss and fear, what they gave us, in the end, is a better building, with better light and windows.  It is a much happier and more prosperous place.  If that wasn't what they wanted, then they must stop.

Safe Zones in Syria

Enough of my tristesse about France.  What can we do to prevent another attack?  

Last night, after attending the *Mandatory State-of-the-School* meeting at my daughter's school, I subwayed to midtown in hopes of catching the tail end of a policy lecture, having no idea until I got home and flipped on the news that at that very moment, ISIS had released a video threatening attacks on Time Square.  While the last of my well-informed group finished off the wine and cheese, we had no idea that one block West, the Mayor and Police Commissioner were holding a press conference about the video.

What to do now is take action on behalf of Syrian refugees to create Safe Zones in Syria.  Terrorists do not have the right to run people out of their homes:  Not persecuted Christians, non-radicalized Muslims, or anyone else.

Please watch this video of former Governor Jeb Bush on Meet the Press  this past Sunday:

From NBCNews.com http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/jeb-bush-talks-isis--syria-on-meet-the-press-567206979547 Jeb Bush Talks ISIS, Syria on Meet the Press

While I don't agree that "Christians have no place in Syria", they need more than our prayers right now.  They need Safe Zones in Syria.

I've watched yesterday's ISIS video, the recent Democratic Party debate [break up banks?], the Trump video [bomb the hell?], the Carson video [rabid dog?], even Sarah Palin on "Mace the Nation" and what stands apart is this interview with former Gov. Jeb Bush on the creation of Safe Zones in Syria.  

Please help the refugees where they live.

Refugeez

The attacks on Paris are significant because a country that truly believes in diplomacy got hit.  The French understand that people from different worlds can sit down and break bread together, talk about their ideas and experience and find common ground.  The French work very independently of each other, coming together at times like dinner and watching a soccer game.

Friday night was a demoralizing hit.  It took place in the young, hip, international part of town.  People were gathered for dinner, or a California rock band, or a National soccer game against a rival.

That area was the first place I took my daughter on my own after seeing the L'Arc de Triomphe with local cousins, and all the playgrounds and carousels.  I wanted to take my daughter to see everything, starting with the site of the French Revolutionary storming of the Bastille.  From there you can walk up through the streets where the famous writers lived, see smaller jardins, stop in the Jesuit church.  With a pre-schooler, I wasn't eating in trendy restaurants or going to heavy metal concerts, but we covered that area between the Bastille and Sacre Coeur, at the foot of which the famous Artists lived in that golden age before World War I.  

The Paris Police never carried arms before Charlie Hebdo.  The country had total gun control.  

After Je Suis Charlie, the world could see that non-violence against terrorists is suicide.  As a Catholic country, suicide is against the national religion.

Increased security measures were expected to deter terrorist attacks.  

It was the last thing anyone expected.  One suicide-bomber was turned away at the stadium door after his vest was detected in a pat-down.  I can see why someone wouldn't want to arrest a man wearing a bomb-filled vest.  The end result was that he blew himself up and nobody else.  Yet he terrorized everyone from the President of France to Geraldo Rivera's daughter.  

At least two terrorists entered the country as Syrian "refugees" through Greece.  The plot was masterminded in a suburb of Brussels,  Molenbeek, an old industrial town with a Bronze foundry that is now a museum.  Muslim immigrants seem to settle in places where there is ore, which tend to have produced munitions.  Brussels is another town I spent time visiting my former in-laws who worked there at the time I got married.  Some of my bridal lace came from one of those little towns outside Brussels, a gift from Nana, RIP.   Museums, gardens trimmed in Belgian fences, moules & frites...the radical terrorist 'burb was not on my map.

The country that valued peace to a fault, went to war reluctantly, avoided fighting and violence at all cost, and did so successfully, or at least got lucky, for so many years, got hit.  In the center of Europe, after opening the door to those they thought were the persecuted Christians and non-radical Muslims, Paris got hit.  The city of lights, the city everyone in the world wants to visit, the first city I ever visited in France with my Grandparents, the first trip with my former husband and father of my daughter, got hit.  The city of so many dreams and memories for so many people, got hit.

The difference between a shooting and a mass-shooting is one sane person with a gun to disarm the terrorist.  It is okay to protect the innocent.  It is okay to keep terrorists out of your country.  It is sad that no amount of crepes suzette will bring them to civility.  They came from Syria and could have lived a life in Europe, instead chose a path of darkness and death.  

A safe haven for Syrian refugees must be created somewhere while terrorism is sorted out.  To risk such brutal, bloody massacre of innocent, unarmed people by letting possibly-radicalized terrorists into the United States would be suicide.  The only "religion" that promotes suicide is radical-Islam.  The "nation" that promotes suicide is ISIS.  The USA is a country that protects and defends freedom, liberty and life.

It is encouraging that France struck back without hesitation with airstrikes on Syria and raids in Belgium.  Vive la France!