Actually arrested a suspect in the Brooklyn subway shooting which took place
yesterday morning.
Now 62 year old Frank James is in custody and
apparently has described himself in the past, as the prophet of doom.
He is now facing a felony charge for
committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system.
And the images that you're seeing were provided by the New York police
department as the manhunt was underway, to find frank James.
What's kind of incredible about this story, is that he was arrested in
the East village, so he wasn't too far away from the crime that he committed.
But, he seems to have turned himself in,
apparently a call came into the crime stoppers.
And apparently he said, I think you're looking for me,
I'm seeing my picture all over the news and I'll be around this Mcdonald's, and
then he told authorities that he'd be walking around that general vicinity.
And sure enough he was, as he was walking out in public,
others in the area noticed him and also called the authorities,
and so he was of course later arrested.
Now, he did manage to escape the scene of the shooting and
that's what the authorities are trying to figure out as we speak.
How did he manage to do it,
did he remain in the subway car, with all of the people he victimized and
then he left as soon as the car stopped, they're trying to figure that out.
But on the scene, after the shooting,
authorities found a Glock nine millimeter handgun.
They found three ammunition magazines, and
also a credit card with his name on it, which real genius there.
Leaving your credit card,
I think at that point he probably knew that the authorities were on to him.
And as we had mentioned yesterday, authorities were looking for
a UHaul truck that they believed he had rented.
Why did they believe he had rented it?
Well, on the scene, they also found a key to that UHaul van.
Now there are other details emerging about this suspect,
that I wanted to get into, because, it turns out that he has,
literally dozens if not hundreds, of Youtube videos.
Where he is saying all sorts of violent things, terrible disturbing things,
racist, anti semitic, I mean I'll get into some of the details in just a minute.
But what really fascinated me about the reporting about the videos,
was just how clearly, and transparently he was very transparent,
about desires and fantasies of killing people.
And when we talk about censorship on social media,
I think there's this one kernel of truth coming from the right wingers.
Who lose their minds over people like Alex Jones,
getting banned permanently, you should have a policy that applies evenly.
And since these platforms really rely on these faulty algorithms to make decisions,
about who should or should not be allowed on their platform,
he policies and guidelines are not applied evenly.
And again we're talking about a guy who
has committed a terrible act of violence in New york.
Who for quite some time was posting these videos,
and now let me get into the details of what he had said in those videos.
Again, Rolling Stone reported that there were hundreds of them,
other outlets reported that there were dozens of them.
Who knows the exact number of videos, but there were many multiple.
So in a March 2 video titled Told You So,
James uses a news segment on recent subway attacks as a segue,
into an attack on mayor Eric Adams policies.
Against crime and homelessness, seemingly implying, that his struggles are actually
a direct result of the failures of New york City's social services.
In the video, he says these are the people,
that was supposed to be helping me.
They made me worse, he says,
gesturing to a computer screen open to a photo file named THEM HOSE.
Which appears to display headshots of employees of
New Jersey's Bridgeway Behavioral Health Services,
an organization James references and numerous videos.
He also said that they made me effing worse.
They made me more dangerous than I could ever,
than anything anyone could ever effing imagine.
These are the people that Eric Adams wants to send out to help the homeless, and
whatever the case may be.
Yeah look, I wanna be completely clear,
about my take on this guy, and what he says in these videos.
Okay, I don't think he has any credibility,
I don't take anything that he says at face value.
To make himself out to be, the victim, is unbelievable and ridiculous.
And you'll get what I'm talking about as I give you more details, in regard to what
he said about various groups of people, particularly black women.
He was particularly vicious towards black women and
we'll get to that in just a second.
So in the same video,
he mocks the Mayor's subway safety plan rolled out earlier this year.
Going so far as to suggest that he could actually easily commit a crime in
the subway station, without being caught.
Now I wanna say that he did eventually get caught, but he turned himself in.
There is a huge breakdown in our institutions when it comes to this story.
I mean you have surveillance cameras that were not operating,
that were not functioning, and that was a little bit of a disaster.
Because those surveillance cameras are supposed to, capture any violent crime
that takes place, so cops are able to catch the suspects.
I don't know what would happen had he not turned himself in, and
I think it's probably likely that they would eventually apprehend him.
But, again, there is a breakdown,
in these institutions that are meant to keep us safe.
Now he says, he can't stop, he's talking about Eric Adams here.
He can't stop no effing crime in no subways, he may slow it down, but
he ain't stopping anything.
James laughs adding that the large number of entry and exit points from
the subway stations would make apprehending criminals nearly impossible.
He says quote with the program in place with all these police,
I'd still get off, I know I could get off, because they can't be everywhere.
Those who go on to commit crimes like shooting,
that means you have to have police in every station, and that's not possible.
So he's kind of, bragging about having the potential ability of committing a crime,
a violent crime without any repercussions, without getting caught.
Now let's move on to his hateful rhetoric toward various disenfranchised groups of
people, namely black people who he seemed to target quite a bit in his video rants.
So, he apparently thinks that black people have allowed themselves to be
Europeanized, that's what he says.
He occasionally flip flops between admiration and hatred for
other Black Americans.
Often espousing Black nationalist ideals, and calling for
the creation of a Black Ethno State.
Before immediately disparaging educated black and
prominent Black women, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, and
newly confirmed Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
He also compares people of color,
this is I almost like don't even want to read this because it's so disgusting.
But for our audio audience, I'm gonna read what the report says verbatim.
He also compares people of color to a bunch of turds in a toilet,
waiting to be flushed down the drain by society and
implies that a race war between whites and blacks is imminent.
He also says if white people tried to exterminate us,
I would not be mad for one effing bit.
They can't live with each other, but they're going to live with your black ass,
your half monkey cursed by God, Black effing stinking ass, he says,
in the video.
Now, aside from his terrible hateful rants,
he also is very transparent about his fantasies of killing people.
One of James's most egregiously racist videos is they hate jew.
A convoluted, semi autobiographical tirade uploaded to Facebook in late 2017,
I mean these videos have been posted for years.
That he finds himself fascinating about killing a Latino man,
whom he claims prevented him, from advancing his machining career.
And suggesting that Jewish individuals have so much contempt for Blacks,
despite undergoing the horrors of the Holocaust.
Are you guys getting the pattern here?
The pattern of, I'm so great, I'm such a wonderful person,
and it's all these other people around me, that are keeping me down.
In this case a Latino man who allegedly has stopped him from fulfilling
his machining career,
mental health professionals who tried to help him allegedly making him worse.
I mean, he's the victim, he's the wonderful person, and
he's been screwed over by society.
That's like the through line that I've noticed from the descriptions
of his video rants.
Now his final hate filled, and rage filled upload, was on April 11 so
very recently, and the clip was titled domesticated averages.
And it serves as an eerie precursor for the attack,
that he went through with earlier this week.
He said quote, I've been through a lot of crap,
where I can say I wanted to kill people.
I wanted to watch people die right in front of my effing face immediately.
But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don't wanna go to effing in prison,
F that, so I had to absorb the Bs, even though it was building up inside me.
What could I do?
Not much.
So, aside from wanting to inform you all about who the suspect is,
what kind of history he's had, and
I'm sure we'll learn more details about him as this story develops.
I also wanted to, just make it clear, that what happened in New York on Monday,
really is a breakdown in our institutions, okay.
And there's so many different societal issues,
kind of intertwined in this one case.
So there is clearly a problem with easily accessible guns.
There's a problem with the unwillingness to, in some cases, and
I'll give you examples later in the show.
Of prosecuting violent crime, and I wanna make that specification, but
also why weren't there surveillance cameras working?
I mean one of the ongoing issues in New York,
is how severely underfunded the public transportation is.
It's been falling apart, to the point, where surveillance cameras aren't working.
Listen I'm not a big fan of surveillance, but
it makes sense in these types of public spaces, if you're concerned about crime.
And to be sure, the subway system in New York, has been riddled,
with violent attacks recently.
With stabbings, we shared the story of the guy who smeared his own feces
on a woman's face after she rejected his advances.
How do you not make sure, that these surveillance cameras are working?
So, people who might be victimized by criminals,
will have their justice served eventually.
Now this guy turned himself in again,
who knows what would have happened had he not turned himself in?
It took more than 24 hours for the authorities to arrest him.
But again, I mean the story,
it does show a complete breakdown in how society is supposed to function.
And it is a problem, when you have working people in New York fear, using the trains,
which they obviously need to rely on, in order to get to and from work, right?
So, it is a huge problem, I don't wanna minimize the fear that people are feeling,
at the same time, let's also keep it real.
This story was so shocking and so jarring, because of how,
uniquely violent and terrifying it was.
So I don't want anyone to think that these types of shootings are happening on
the subways in New York on a regular basis.
But there have been a number of violent attacks.
And so the question is, how do we deal with the uptick in the violent attacks,
in a way that actually helps to rehabilitate people?
That is important, but also ensures that there is a deterrence element as well.
So people don't think that they can commit violent crimes and
not face any real consequences with it, or for it.
We'll see how this all plays out I am worried about, as I've said multiple times
on the show, the pendulum swinging back in the direction of mass incarceration.
I don't want that, but, we are seeing the pendulum swing so
far in the direction that I don't think is helpful for the left.
That of course wants to make a good case, an important case, for
criminal justice reform that keeps people safe, while also rehabilitating people.
Now so far we don't know much about his record whether he has a criminal record,
those details are likely to emerge later.
But as always, we will fill you guys in on that as we learn more, in the meantime
though, share what you think, very curious to hear what your thoughts are.
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Tell me what you think about this story.