Month: October 2022

Republican candidate for New York governor, and current NY congressman Lee Zeldin says his family is safe after two strangers were shot outside his Long Island home on Sunday.

In a statement released by his office, Zeldin said that he does not know the identities of the two people who were shot, but that they were found under his porch and in the bushes in front of his home in Shirley, New York.  The congressman and his wife were returning from a parade in the Bronx when the shooting occurred, but their teenage daughters were home and heard gunshots and screaming. Zeldin said his 16-year-old daughters locked themselves in a bathroom and called 911.

The two people who were shot were taken to local hospitals, and Zeldin said police officers were at his home investigating Sunday evening, and looking over the home’s security cameras. Said Zeldin: “My daughters are shaken, but ok. Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door. My family is grateful to all who have reached out and we will provide another update when we can.”

The Suffolk County Police Department issued a brief statement saying it was investigating the shooting, and a police spokeswoman said she had no information to release about who fired the shots or who first found the two people shot.

Zeldin is running against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she was briefed on the shooting. Hochul tweeted: “I’ve been briefed on the shooting outside of Congressman Zeldin’s home. As we await more details, I’m relieved to hear the Zeldin family is safe and grateful for law enforcement’s quick response.”

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After facing a similar restriction on Instagram, Kanye “Ye” West’s Twitter account was locked by the social media platform for violating its policies after he shared two tweets that have been criticized as antisemitic. West’s first tweet has since been deleted by Twitter for “violating the Twitter rules.” That tweet claimed that he couldn’t be antisemitic and said he had been “toyed with” by the Jewish people, writing in the deleted post: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death [sic] con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”  A second post remains public on Twitter, saying: “Who do you think created cancel culture?”

West’s Instagram account was placed on restriction a day earlier, after the platform deleted content from his account for a violation of its policies.  A spokesperson for Meta said that temporary restrictions on posting, commenting and messaging are standard practice for accounts that regularly violate the social media platform’s policies. The company did not indicate which specific posts of Ye’s were the cause behind the restriction.  West had shared a now-deleted post featuring a screenshot of a message allegedly sent to rapper Diddy, that had been criticized as antisemitic by Jewish advocacy groups like the American Jewish Committee. Following his restriction on Instagram, West promptly returned to Twitter (which he had taken a break from), and he called out Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his restriction from the platform.

This is not the first time West has dealt with restrictions from Instagram.  In March, West was suspended from the social media platform for 24 hours, with content from his account deleted in that incident for violations of policies for hate speech, bullying and harassment.

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