Bipartisan lawmakers demand action after Raw Story mail crime investigation

As United States Postal Service letter carriers face increasing violence and assaults on the job, the police officers who could protect them have been sidelined by the government, a new Raw Story investigation revealed.

With letter carrier robberies skyrocketing by 543 percent between 2019 and 2022, the issue has spurred a bipartisan group of Congress members to introduce legislation aimed at providing more secure mailbox equipment and better protecting letter carriers.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who introduced the Protect our Letter Carriers Act last week, said Raw Story's investigation should urge Congress to turn the bill into law.

“The concerns highlighted in this story only increase the urgency needed in Congress to pass the bipartisan Protect our Letter Carriers Act," Fitzpatrick said in a statement to Raw Story. "The United States Postal Service must have the resources to update its outdated arrow keys and harden mailboxes. We must also increase the prosecution and lengthen sentences of individuals arrested for assaulting and robbing letter carriers. I will do whatever is necessary to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this crucial piece of legislation.”

A 2020 statute reinterpretation by the Postal Service curtailed uniformed postal police officers' ability to patrol the streets where mail crimes typically occur, restricting them to working on postal property such as post offices and distribution centers. Meanwhile, the number of postal police officers overall has shrunk from a high of more than 2,600 in the 1970s to about 450 officers today.

In a phone interview with Raw Story, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said mail theft is "rampant" in her district and is an issue she's heard about across the country from her colleagues. Postal police officers aren't currently "doing any good being confined to postal property," Norton said.

"The spike in mail crime only reinforces my notion that we need to have postal police go wherever the crime is," Norton said.

If postal police officers began patrolling the streets again, there would be "a better chance of restricting crimes for the Postal Service," said Norton, who is a co-sponsor of the House version of the Postal Police Reform Act alongside Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Ken Calvert (R-CA) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ).

Calvert himself lost nearly $10,000 in campaign cash last year because of mail theft, Raw Story first reported.

"I think the bill has a good chance of passing not only because of what we're experiencing in the district but because this issue is nationwide," Norton said.

There's a Senate version of the Postal Police Reform Act, as well, introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Susan Collins (R-ME), along with 10 other co-sponsors, including Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).

“Postal carriers routinely deliver lifelines to Marylanders and others across the country. They should not be left vulnerable to dangerous situations that leave them and mail recipients in potential danger – from theft and the lost items," Cardin told Raw Story in a statement. "This is a growing problem that Congress should address, preferably in partnership with the USPS.”

Read Raw Story's full investigation: Letter carriers face bullets and beatings while postal service sidelines police

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Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales bashed President Donald Trump's attacks on the American press and the truth during an interview with Times Radio on Sunday.

Wales, who co-founded Wikipedia in 2001 with entrepreneur Larry Sanger, said during the interview that Trump's attacks are reminiscent of other strongmen across the globe. He added that there seems to be a "real undermining" of truth by people like Elon Musk, who have attacked Wikipedia for being a left-wing activist organization.

Wales addressed that criticism and the Trump administration's impact on free information during the interview.

"Some people, I suppose, would say free information that of itself is a liberal idea, but it's also a classical liberal idea, which the Republicans used to care a lot about, the sort of founding fathers and First Amendment and that kind of thing," Wales said. "And so it's not a lefty idea. It's fundamentally a very American idea to say we need a free press and a healthy, rich dialogue in society to be able to make better decisions."

Wales added that Trump has created an "astonishing situation" for Republicans.

"When you get a President of the United States elected who clearly contradicts himself, or denies that he said things that we can all play tapes of him saying, it's an astonishing situation," Wales said. "This is part of the reason I think trust is so important."

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The largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States is calling for the release of British journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi, who was detained by immigration officials at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday while on a US speaking tour.

“Abducting a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator on a speaking tour in the United States because he dared to criticize the Israeli government’s genocide is a blatant affront to free speech,” said the Washington, DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations in a statement. Hamdi was in California to speak at CAIR’s annual gala on Saturday. On Sunday, he was heading to Florida to speak at another of the group’s events.

US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed on social media Sunday that “thanks to the work of” DHS chief Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “and the men and women of law enforcement,” Hamdi’s visa was revoked and he is in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody pending removal.

Under President Donald Trump, McLaughlin said, “those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country. It’s common sense.”

McLaughlin also linked to a social media post from Amy “Mek” Mekelburg, the founder and editor-in-chief of Rise Align Ignite Reclaim (RAIR), which CAIR identifies as “a hate organization and website that regularly publishes anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.” Both Mekelburg and far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer publicly celebrated ICE’s detention of Hamdi.

Meanwhile, CAIR said that “our attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice. We call on ICE to immediately account for and release Mr. Hamdi, whose only ’crime’ is criticizing a foreign government that committed genocide.”

“Our nation must stop abducting critics of the Israeli government at the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots,” the group added. “This is an Israel First policy, not an America First policy, and it must end.”

Throughout Trump’s second term, his administration has provided the Israeli government with diplomatic and weapons support—like his Democratic predecessor—while targeting foreign scholars critical of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip for deportation. The administration has also engaged in a broader crackdown on dissent.

Blasting Hamdi’s detention and potential deportation, Yasir Qadhi, a Pakistani American Muslim scholar and dean of the Islamic Seminary of America in Texas, said on social media Sunday: “Our government is doing this on behalf of and as Israel’s proxy, because he is a vocal critic of that genocidal regime. Our country is heading towards a fascist dictatorship in which any speech that goes against the official narrative is going to be criminalized.”

“This is happening within the context of the most hate-filled, blatant, anti-Muslim bigotry we’ve seen in our lifetimes,” he continued, pointing to the New York City mayoral race. “Disagree with Sami’s message all you want, but do so with facts and evidence, not by banning and deporting. Unless they come back to their senses, these same people who are being whipped up into such hysteria will happily and willingly become the very embodiments of evil that they claim to fight, and that inhumane evil will be directed against multiple minorities, not just Muslims.”

Hamdi is “the managing director of the International Interest, a global risk and intelligence company,” according to his LinkedIn profile. He advises governments on the geopolitical dynamics of Europe and the Middle East and North Africa region, and “has significant expertise in advising companies on commercial issues related to volatile political environments.”

Hamdi has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the prestigious SOAS University of London, and has provided commentary on Al Jazeera, BBC, TRT World, and other outlets. In response to Hamdi’s detention, Drop Site News shared his recent interview on Sky News about the ceasefire in Gaza after two years of US-backed Israel’s genocidal assault.

This past summer, Hamdi took a speaking tour in South Africa, where he spoke with The Voice of the Cape, the country’s first Muslim radio station. In an interview, he credited his father, Mohamed Hechmi Hamdi, for his political awareness.

“My father was very active in politics; he was the head of the student movement in Tunisia, head of the Islamist Tunisian Student Movement, sentenced at 20 years of age, imprisoned at 19, imprisoned at 20, had to flee Tunisia, went to Algeria and then Sudan, and then ended up in London,” Hamdi explained. “He then became a prominent voice in trying to push back against dictatorial regimes in Tunisia, and I grew up under that sort of umbrella, even if it was not something I wanted to embrace, as I wanted to be a footballer.”

“One day my father, when I was 17 or 18, put a book in my hand titled Road to Mecca by Mohammad Asad,” Hamdi continued. “The book is about an Austrian Jew who travels across the Middle East, becomes Muslim, and ends up contributing to many of the seismic events that take place in the region. He becomes an adviser in Saudi Arabia, goes and meets Omar al-Mukhtar in Libya, goes to India, meets Muhammad Iqbal, and ends up helping to write the Pakistan Constitution. I remember reading that book and saying, ‘Allah, I want to have a life like this guy.’”

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board bashed President Donald Trump's latest "tantrum" against Canada in a new editorial published on Sunday.

Trump raged at the Canadian government on Truth Social on Saturday over a commercial featuring former President Ronald Reagan arguing against the use of tariffs as an economic policy. Trump has sought to make tariffs the centerpiece of his economic agenda, not an exception, the editorial notes.

Trump accused the Canadian government of trying to influence a case before the Supreme Court regarding the legality of his tariffs. He also ended trade talks with Canada because of the ad.

"The sole purpose of this FRAUD was Canada’s hope that the United States Supreme Court will come to their 'rescue' on Tariffs that they have used for years to hurt the United States," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Now the United States is able to defend itself against high and overbearing Canadian Tariffs (and those from the rest of the World as well!)"

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board responded on Sunday.

"The MAGA crowd likes to dismiss Ronald Reagan as irrelevant today, but apparently he still matters to President Trump," the editorial reads in part. "How else to explain Mr. Trump’s tantrum against Canada after the province of Ontario invoked the Gipper on trade in a television ad?"

"Mr. Trump has been fortunate that his tariffs haven’t triggered much retaliation, which has spared us from a global trade war," it adds. "But the tariffs are doing economic damage by raising costs for consumers and businesses and by dampening animal spirits that should be soaring with his tax bill and deregulation. He can boast about tariffs all he wants, but he shouldn’t get away with taking Reagan’s trade beliefs in vain."

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