Phil Orenstein

By Phil Orenstein

Private property is a human right in a free democratic society. To the authors of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, property is as sacred as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. In fact, “property” was written in place of “pursuit of Happiness” in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence.

Our religious traditions hold private property rights sacrosanct. “Thou shall not steal” is one of the Ten Commandments which are the moral imperatives of our civilization. It’s widely understood that it’s not ok to take other people’s property. “Thou shall not covet” your neighbor’s property is commanded as well.

Why was property given such significance in our religious and constitutional traditions?  In a free society where the individual is king, property is under the control of the individual, not the state. It’s the domain where the state cannot enter without a just cause or a search warrant.

The most important assets are one’s home or business to the vast majority of Americans. But to the progressives, there is no private property. It belongs to the state or the community and can be taken away at any time.

In Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, the former Soviet Union, China, and other totalitarian states, all property is owned by the state, and the individual has no protections against the state seizing their property. After the Russian Revolution, the first act of the Communist Party was to end private property. Landlords, homeowners, industrialists, and merchants were branded enemies of the state. In the same way, Castro in Cuba, Mao’s Chinese Communist Party, and Pol Pot all seized privately owned land and property. Property rights are the first to go, then they end free speech, the right to bear arms, trial by jury, and finally comes the end of freedom and the individual himself.

In the eyes of St. Louis Prosecutor Kim Gardner, homeowners, Mark and Patricia McCloskey have no right to defend their home from Black Lives Matter protesters who broke through their gate and entered their property. This progressive prosecutor, who let everyone out of jail who was arrested for looting and arson following the death of George Floyd, charged Mark McCloskey with a felony for the “crime” of defending his property.

Progressive Democrat District Attorney of Philadelphia, Larry Krasner is not prosecuting crimes of theft and destruction of property. He said, “no prosecutor’s office in America should be complicit in efforts to silence or punish people who are angry with government or elected leaders and are expressing themselves peacefully,” and he slammed the media for showing scenes of rioting, looting, and burning, because it doesn’t fit his “peaceful protesting” narrative.  In this skewed leftist system, the poor and oppressed have been left out of the system, so they are justified in destroying property, and the people protecting their own property are the criminals.

BLM rioters hounded diners at a restaurant in Pittsburgh and stole a drink off the table. Anarchists in Rochester barged into restaurants, flipped tables and chairs, and screamed at terrified diners. Terrorizing diners, looting stores, and smashing windows, all happened in Manhattan and in cities across America. These were property crimes and those arrested were let out because progressive DAs and mayors of Democrat-run cities do not prosecute people for property crimes, which are not criminal acts to them. Bail reform laws in New York and other blue states are turning criminals loose on our streets. Progressive DAs, mayors, city councilmen, and elected officials of New York City, St. Louis, Seattle, Portland, Philadelphia, and other Democrat run cities and states across America are working in solidarity with BLM and the lawless mob.

Each and every person’s property in America is at risk. This is a revolt against private property and our police who protect our property. Once the police are gone, nothing can stop the mob and progressive politicians from seizing our property, whether in cities, suburbs, or rural areas. This is their plan and their key to taking power. To BLM and progressives, property belongs to the state, the community or to them.  Seizing your property makes you dependent on the state, so they have absolute power over you.

Kamala Harris wants the chaos to continue until they get their way as she said referring to the protests across America: “They’re not going to stop. This is a movement….. and everyone beware …. they’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.” In an America under Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, AOC and the Squad, and the minions of the progressive left, you will see the erosion of our private property rights and all of our constitutional safeguards.

They believe everything in America was stolen from the native Americans and was taken off the backs of hard-working slaves. This justifies the movement threatening our property, our homes, our restaurants, our businesses, which were the ill-gotten spoils of systemic racism of America since 1619, which can be justifiably seized by the state. They twisted the truth of America’s history to say we are guilty of stealing from the poor, the oppressed, the slaves, and native Americans, and it has to be rectified by taking back our ill-gotten gains. So now looting is “reparations” and calling someone a criminal is “racist” according to BLM and the progressive left. It’s time to wake up and see what’s happening in America.

This is the most important election of our lifetimes. Vote Republican because we believe in private property rights. We believe in the rule of law. We believe in our police, the thin blue line between civilization and chaos. Most rational people believe this. Democrats must leave the Party of Kamala Harris and her call to continue rioting, the Party of AOC, the Party of Bernie Sanders, de Blasio and the mayors of Portland, Seattle, and Chicago, the Party to end private property rights and capitalism.

Vote Republican. Vote for civilization. Vote as if our life, liberty, and property depended on it, because it does.

Phil Orenstein is the president of the Queens Village Republican Club. Established in 1875, it is America’s oldest Republican Club.  www.QVGOP.org   Historian, Jerry Matacotta, founder of History Seminar Series at Queensborough Community College was the advisor for this article.

Never Forget Sept 11, 2001

By  Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,  Grand Knight of St. Anastasia Knights of Columbus Council #5911 

We will never forget Sept 11, 2001. Never forget the innocent lives lost, and the firefighters, police and first responders who died in the line of duty while saving others.

We are now approaching another anniversary of 9/11 and it stills haunts many of us many years later. Like many of my fellow Americans, I seem to be reflecting on that year. First of all, this date brings out emotions of anger and feeling of loss of so many good people. Let’s look at the numbers at the World Trade Center. The total was 2,823 and of those 23 were police officers. 34 Port Authority officers and 343 firefighters. At the Pentagon, 125 were killed, not to mention those on Flight 91, where an additional 41 died fighting terrorists when it crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These may be be purely numbers, but every soul had a story to tell and did in the months that followed. And many of us would read their stories and feel that we knew them too. This evil took place on Sept. 11, 2001 starting at 8:46 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston hit the North Tower and we were in shock. Than, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower and we were under attack. This nefarious and egregious act of hate caused our spirit to swell with a renewed sense of patriotism. Flags were flying all over this great nation of ours. Churches and Temples were full. America was working hard to raise money to help the victims. On TV funerals were being broadcast for fallen heroes, brave men and women, especially firefighters and police officers, who died. It truly was a time that did try men’s souls. It was a time where strangers became as friends as we banded together to fight a common foe. I remember serving as a usher a few days after the attack at St. Anastasia Parish in Douglaston for a interfaith prayer service as Grand Knight of St. Anastasia Knights of Columbus Council # 5911. The service consisted of prayer cards. At that moment I saw a women who came up to me with tears traveling down her cheeks, who wanted to know where to place the prayer card. I took her prayer card and placed it in the proper area. I learned a few days later that her husband was a retired firefighter and whose body was found at ground zero. It made me quite sad. I found many people that lost love ones or knew someone and that there were many towns that lost someone all over the tri-state area. I remember walking on Sunday after the attack to the Whistle Stop which was a store next to the LIRR station in Little Neck. I was walking behind a young woman who was jogging. The railroad gate was down and she tried to get under the gate but a policeman stopped her. She remarked at that and said,” He is right to stop her because I don’t want to die .I have just lost my husband at the World Trade Center.” I later had some time to reflect and thought to myself, here was a woman who had just lost her husband and so young. They probably had many hopes and dreams of life and those aspirations died on 9/11. In closing, as I was reflecting on that day of infamy, Sept. 11, 2001, I remember being at work at Northeast Plumbing in Great Neck and we have just gotten a call from a co-worker named Peter Kirshner , who was at home on his computer  and told us the North Tower had fallen. This was just the beginning of many sad things that occurred that day. We knew after the next tower had fallen we were at war. But as things would be, we were blessed with good leaders and through the words of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said we would get through this and he was right, not to mention the help we received from Governor George Pataki. We also heard from President George Bush, who said,” We must defeat the evil-doers where they hide.” As Americans, we have been through a lot, but we did survive. When things were at their very worst we found the mettle to be at our very best. We found a renewed spirit and a deeper sense of spirituality and a determination to do what is necessary to overcome the evil on that day. Remember this too: We are one nation under God, so God bless America.

Sincerely Yours,
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Bellerose, N.Y.

A Night in D.C. That Should Never Have Happened in America: Time to Investigate

What I Saw When The Mob Attacked After Trump’s Speech In Washington DC

Washington DC’s mayor and police failed to provide basic protections to American citizens from an angry and extremely well-funded leftist mob.

By Rabbi Aryeh Spero

SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

The highlight of the last night of the Republican National Convention was President Trump’s acceptance speech of his party’s nomination on the South Lawn of the White House. My wife and I attended this magical event. I say magical because the White House was lit up splendidly as nightfall fell over the sprawling verdant grounds surrounding the magnificent building.

The president was introduced by his daughter, Ivanka. Attendees endured a purposeful and loud noise from the street contiguous to the White House to the east. The hooligans making this noise did so to distract the speakers and discomfort the attendees. It went on for a very long time.

This purposeful and high-pitched, overbearing noise would never have been allowed had a Democrat been president. The mayor and the police department would never have permitted such an indignity to happen.

Beyond that, there are “nuisance laws” in every locale in this country forbidding people from taking over neighborhood streets, especially late at night, and creating explosive noises that make it impossible for the residents of the neighborhood to live a normal life. Why these nuisance laws were ignored and denied to the president and his guests was inexplicable.

After the president spoke, there were fireworks and patriotic songs. The attendees were directed to the exits. The last people I spoke to were Sen. Rand Paul and his wife. They went toward the 15th Street exit, which is on the east side of the White House, where we entered earlier that evening.

I stayed a little while longer and, by that time, the Secret Service guided us towards 17th Street, the west side of the White House. Had we gone out the east side, we would have been within a couple of hundred feet from our hotel.

As soon as we left the White House we understood that because of rioters and angry mobs we were detoured to a direction opposite, far from our hotel. Then began our harrowing night. No one from the police force seemed to know for certain what route we were to walk back to our hotel. Some had us moving further west, some further north, some further south.

No one seemed to know what to do, nor did they evince any sense of obligation to help us get back safely to our hotel. As we walked along, we encountered a police officer on the corner of this block or that and the police’s confusion and indecision seemed to grow as the night wore on.

There we were, walking past midnight in a dark town almost aimlessly because the few police we found were offering conflicting responses to our simple question: How do we get back to our hotel? This went on for more than an hour and the response from the police was, in essence, “Move on, you are on your own!” Although we did not enter the full concentration of the mob, as Paul and others did that evening, we encountered stragglers of the mob who were aggressive, swearing, and following us in a belligerent manner.

I kept asking myself: How could this be happening on the streets of a major American city? How could a law-abiding man and his wife be left to fend for themselves against vicious people intending to threaten them?

What type of mayor instructs the police department to be so indifferent to the basic safety needs of citizens and guests in her town, while focusing exclusively on the rights of mob “protesters” to rule the streets? It was as if constitutional rights are reserved for protesters against Trump but not for law-abiding citizens who are conservative.

I was astonished that the D.C. mayor allowed vicious mobs of bullies to assemble right at the gates of the White House. If more had assembled, who would have been able to stop them from crashing the gates and overpowering the few police who were there and rushing into the White House doors? If a Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris had been president, the mayor of Washington DC would have cordoned off a significant portion surrounding the White House to disallow a vicious mob from being within feet of the White House gate. No question!

This was a menacing crowd, hostile, sadistic, with the express goal of frightening good citizens, only a gesture away from violence. The “social justice” mobs are now in control of the streets of the Democrat-run cities of America — neo-brownshirts, allies of their comrades in Portland, Chicago, and New York City, looting, burning, destroying, beating up conservative Americans.

Yes, they have heard House Speaker Nancy Pelosi call us Republicans “enemies of the state.” They’ve heard Harris warn that when elected she and her administration will “go after” all who did not submit to the leftist agenda. The hoards put into action Rep. Maxine Waters’s call to “get into their faces and show them they no longer belong in public.”

The DC mayor allowed an affront to President Trump and his guests and, together with others on the left, sent a message that in their America no one can go in public wearing a MAGA hat, leave the White House peacefully if a guest of Republicans, or post a Trump-Pence sign in their yard.

After repeated failures, we got an Uber. We waited on the street corner with a man from Wisconsin who was in a similar predicament. We were far from our hotel and the driver took us in a circuitous route to reach the hotel from a back street where the rioters had not yet congregated. But we were still unable to travel the distance and the Uber driver said he could go no further. This, in America’s capital, where the people of the nation, families and invitees, should be at ease as opposed to targets fleeing a mob the city’s mayor has allowed to own the streets.

We walked towards the hotel with the intention of going through the front door. However, we heard the sound of the “community agitators” streaming toward the entrance. Luckily, we found a side alley that went into a corner door. We rushed in through the door and into the lobby.

Suddenly there was a rush of “peaceful protesters” lunging forward to crash through the doors of the hotel. At the very last minute, Rep. Vernon Jones, a black Democrat from Georgia who had spoken in support of the president, slipped through the front door with his wife. The mob was after him. Thankfully, the hotel security and police stopped the mob from entering the lobby.

It is true that when push came to shove the police surrounded those citizens whose life and body were in direct jeopardy. They did so for Paul. However, it was obvious that short of that, the police would not intervene if it would upset the mob, the new privileged in America. Forget so-called “white privilege”—in today’s Deep State America, it is the anti-Trump, anti-Republican mob that is privileged and hailed.

One thing became clear: Someone, or some group, is financing this. I saw fancy black Suburbans picking up and dropping off people involved in these protests. We were amazed that some were staying at expensive hotels and unloading equipment near the White House in what might be the city’s most expensive underground garage. They are coordinated and organized. Someone is spending money and using hi-tech reconnaissance and planning to destroy America, and using its youth as the army to do so.

It is urgent that law enforcement find out who is masterminding and financing this. It is vital that Americans realize that what is being allowed to happen in our cities is only possible because of left-wing mayors’ acceptance and comfort with it. Now is the time for law enforcement, Congress, and America’s citizens to stop this before they burn down all of America, rob us of our basic civil and human rights, and make us illegitimate strangers in our own land.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero is president of Caucus for America and author of “Push Back: Reclaiming Our American Judeo-Christian Spirit” (Evergreen).