Los Angeles Unified schools closed by 'credible threat' of violence

Los Angeles Times wrote:Nation's second-largest district closes all schools
Veronica Rocha , Hailey Branson-Potts and Stephen CeasarContact Reporters
December 15, 2015

An email threat sent to several Los Angeles Unified School board members that prompted a closure of all Los Angeles Unified Schools mentioned explosive devices, assault rifles and pistols and was traced to an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany, according to law enforcement sources.

All campuses were closed Tuesday morning after receiving what officials have called a "credible threat" of violence involving backpacks and packages left at campuses. Still, one law enforcement source familiar with the evidence said there was no sign that "this individual is actually capable of carrying out the threat."

Law enforcement sources also said that the person who made the threats could have masked their location and that the origin is believed to be much closer than Germany. District officials have been looking into the threat since at least 10 p.m. Monday, according to a school police source. The FBI and LAPD are assisting the investigation.

Authorities said they plan to search all of LAUSD's more than 900 schools, including charter schools and special education centers. The nation's second-largest school district, LAUSD has more than 700,000 students.

"Somebody has sent information that leads us to pause," LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said.

“What we are doing today is no different than what we normally do, except that we are doing it in a mass way,” he added.

Shortly after the district announced the closure, a 17-year-old male student was struck and killed by a city service truck while crossing a Highland Park street. The boy was near Avenue 60 and Figueroa Street at about 7:30 a.m., when he was hit, Los Angeles Police Officer Jane Kim said.

New York authorities were also responding to a threat made to city schools, but said it was not credible and that they were concerned about overreacting.

"These threats are made to promote fear...we can not allow us to raise the levels of fear," New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton tweeted.

He added that the agency was working closely with the FBI and the LAPD.

The massive closure across the Los Angeles region comes less than two weeks after two shooters killed 14 people in San Bernardino in what was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

Officials said the threat was aimed at all LA Unified schools.

LAPD Assistant Chief Jorge Villegas said schools were closed "in an abundance of caution."

“Nothing is [more] important to us than the safety of our kids,” he said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti cautioned the public about jumping to conclusions. "Decisions need to be made in a matter of minutes," he said. "We will continue to hope that this is nothing and that our children will be back in school tomorrow."

Students who already arrived at school will be supervised until parents can pick them up, officials said. LAUSD instructed parents and guardians to bring identification with them. Metro announced that students with a valid student ID can ride buses and trains for free until noon.

Brian Levin, a terror expert at Cal State San Bernardino, said the closure was unprecedented and could embolden others to make future threats.

"In today's environment it makes sense to err on the side of safety, even though they almost always are hoaxes," he said.

As families scrambled to reroute their days, many students could be found outside in their neighborhoods.

Ana Rodriguez, a sixth-grader at Sunrise Elementary School in Boyle Heights, walked with her older sister to pick up coffee and bread for an unexpected breakfast at home.

The 11-year-old worried about her teachers and was nervous at the thought of returning to school the next day. “I’m scared that a bomb could explode at my school,” she said. Miguel Real, 13, rode his skateboard in Highland Park, having just been sent home from Burbank Middle School. He was on his way to tell the news to his mother who had known nothing about classes being canceled. "She's going to freak," he said.

Earlier in the day, Zayda Hernandez had been turned away from Mayberry Elementary in Echo Park. Her 6-year-old son, Matthew Alvarez, sat in the back seat of her car, bundled up in a coat and SpongeBob stocking cap.

Matthew hasn't been feeling well lately, but Hernandez has been urging him to just make it through the last few days of school before winter break.

She pulled up to see paper signs attached to the closed chain-link fence outside the school: “No school today.” “Hoy no hay escuela.”

She shook her head. She had to go to work.

But her son, a kindergartener, grinned.

LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer urged school employees to stay home.

“I want to be very clear: We need cooperation of the whole of Los Angeles today,” Zimmer said, asking employers to show patience for parents looking to find childcare.

Adjacent school districts across the county, including South Pasadena Unified and Long Beach Unified, sent notices to parents about the threat to LAUSD that said they were not impacted and would remain open. Other private daycares and preschools decided to follow LAUSD's lead and shut down for the day.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said his agency reviewed the threat and then contacted the FBI. He called any criticism of the school closures "irreponsible" at this point.

"Southern California has been through a lot in the past few weeks," he said. "Should we put our children through the same thing?"

Times staff writer Joseph Serna, Richard Winton, Howard Blume, Harriet Ryan and Corina Knoll contributed to this report.

The United States' two biggest school districts get the same threat.
One -- in Los Angeles -- decides to call off school, with the superintendent saying students won't go back until he's absolutely sure everything is safe.
The other -- in New York -- decides just the opposite, dismissing the threat as an apparent "hoax."
So which one did the right thing?
There's no easy answer. It depends partly on timing, given that Los Angeles authorities acted just before classes began on Tuesday, while the New Yorkers' comments didn't come until midday. And location matters: Los Angeles is just 60 miles from San Bernardino, where 14 people died about two weeks ago in what authorities called a terrorist attack.

veya_victaous wrote:seems a bit of an over reaction

it's funny the difference between the New York reaction and the Californian one.

veya_victaous wrote:https://sarahirving.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/leak-trying-to-stop-the-boats.jpg?w=547

we'll see

The United States' two biggest school districts get the same threat.
One -- in Los Angeles -- decides to call off school, with the superintendent saying students won't go back until he's absolutely sure everything is safe.
The other -- in New York -- decides just the opposite, dismissing the threat as an apparent "hoax."
So which one did the right thing?
There's no easy answer. It depends partly on timing, given that Los Angeles authorities acted just before classes began on Tuesday, while the New Yorkers' comments didn't come until midday. And location matters: Los Angeles is just 60 miles from San Bernardino, where 14 people died about two weeks ago in what authorities called a terrorist attack.

Los Angeles Times wrote:New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton said “we cannot allow ourselves to raise levels of fear. Certainly raise levels of awareness. But this is not a credible threat.”

Lord Foul wrote:and had it gone booom

how many billions would it have cost in the long term

with the inevitable and i suspect extremely violent backlash against Muslims

in loss of faith in governance

in averting a possible "uprising" (note inverted commas) against the authorities

trouble is veya...you are dealing with people not robots...they dont react "rationally"

shoot a few adults, blow em up even  ah well shit happens

do the same to their kids however...and even YOU wouldmt dare stand there and give them your "condolences"   because they would rip your head off

Lord Foul wrote:besides your answer, in your see through attempt to "look tough" is utterly disingenious

new york had no warning

can you give me an estimate of the life expectancy of the mayor of new york were it to become known a warning was given but ignored, that he could have had the place evacuated, but didnt?

I'd give him about 5 mins...

one..just one incident where it became known a warning was issued, but was ignored, would immediately result in riot...

the authorities would be charged with complicity with collaboration, and god alone knows what else

Lord Foul wrote:I mean lets look at it veya...


I could, had something happend quite easily point the charge at you and those who follow your ideas, that you are not merely content with flooding our countries with millions who do not wish us well, but now you have taken the step of joining them by refusing to proactively defend us against them , by not even issuing a warning WHEN THEY ATTACK OUR KIDS.
DEATH TO THE TRAITORS


see what I did there....It wouldnt take much of that...and there are far better emotive writers and orators out there than me, to pull your precious left wing world down into the abyss

and NO...when kids get killed (as you are so fond of pointing out when its the other way) people are not going to be swayed by ANY amount of patronising bullshit from politicians they are going to be angry and vengeful

do you want open war on the streets of the west???

do you want what would (inevitably,  given the balance of numbers) a total ethnic cleansing

becasue one mistake the wrong way ....and poof...out the window will go all your ideas and hopes...

(and possibly you along with them if you carry on calling people cowards for no sensible reason)

veya_victaous wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:besides your answer, in your see through attempt to "look tough" is utterly disingenious

new york had no warning

can you give me an estimate of the life expectancy of the mayor of new york were it to become known a warning was given but ignored, that he could have had the place evacuated, but didnt?

I'd give him about 5 mins...

one..just one incident where it became known a warning was issued, but was ignored, would immediately result in riot...

the authorities would be charged with complicity with collaboration, and god alone knows what else

Fine Collapse society and go the way of Cowardly UK
You want to let Terrorist win
it is apparent they have already in England, You seem to all live in fear a constant state of cowardice.

the attitude is failure, that attitude doesn't deserve to win, doesn't deserve to keep existing.

And I have little Care for the coward shit. the Major of New York has enough balls to know they are waste of DNA they concern unwarranted and of no consequence being that fearful are to pathetic to do anything anyway they are already salves to fear.

basically I like the major of new York am happy to ignore pathetic individuals they will whinge and cry no matter what they want a world with out risk that world doesn't exist never has and never will they fact they think it did shows how easy they are to blind with lies and falsehood they are nothing they are like sheep to be herded I have Absolutely Zero respect for them. they are but meat for the grinders they are nothings of no consequence to anything. No advancement in Humanity has ever been achieved by the cowardly

veya_victaous wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:I mean lets look at it veya...


I could, had something happend quite easily point the charge at you and those who follow your ideas, that you are not merely content with flooding our countries with millions who do not wish us well, but now you have taken the step of joining them by refusing to proactively defend us against them , by not even issuing a warning WHEN THEY ATTACK OUR KIDS.
DEATH TO THE TRAITORS


see what I did there....It wouldnt take much of that...and there are far better emotive writers and orators out there than me, to pull your precious left wing world down into the abyss

and NO...when kids get killed (as you are so fond of pointing out when its the other way) people are not going to be swayed by ANY amount of patronising bullshit from politicians they are going to be angry and vengeful

do you want open war on the streets of the west???

do you want what would (inevitably,  given the balance of numbers) a total ethnic cleansing

becasue one mistake the wrong way ....and poof...out the window will go all your ideas and hopes...

(and possibly you along with them if you carry on calling people cowards for no sensible reason)

Lions do not bow to Sheep

I do Not care. they are incapable and incompetent.
they have lives that rely on what we have built.
And You forget I live in a place Migrants and first generation ACTUALLY out number the old.

I am not the old Left that has faith in mankind as a whole.
Humans are lead, the majority are made to follow.
to stop them succumbing to cowardice, leadership cannot be cowards
If leadership is cowardly, destroy it, Nip it in the bud, for it will only lead to bad things.

veya_victaous wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:I mean lets look at it veya...


I could, had something happend quite easily point the charge at you and those who follow your ideas, that you are not merely content with flooding our countries with millions who do not wish us well, but now you have taken the step of joining them by refusing to proactively defend us against them , by not even issuing a warning WHEN THEY ATTACK OUR KIDS.
DEATH TO THE TRAITORS


see what I did there....It wouldnt take much of that...and there are far better emotive writers and orators out there than me, to pull your precious left wing world down into the abyss

and NO...when kids get killed (as you are so fond of pointing out when its the other way) people are not going to be swayed by ANY amount of patronising bullshit from politicians they are going to be angry and vengeful

do you want open war on the streets of the west???

do you want what would (inevitably,  given the balance of numbers) a total ethnic cleansing

becasue one mistake the wrong way ....and poof...out the window will go all your ideas and hopes...

(and possibly you along with them if you carry on calling people cowards for no sensible reason)

Lions do not bow to Sheep

I do Not care. they are incapable and incompetent.
they have lives that rely on what we have built.
And You forget I live in a place Migrants and first generation ACTUALLY out number the old.

I am not the old Left that has faith in mankind as a whole.
Humans are lead, the majority are made to follow.
to stop them succumbing to cowardice, leadership cannot be cowards
If leadership is cowardly, destroy it, Nip it in the bud, for it will only lead to bad things.

Lord Foul wrote:remember Veya....Hitler MAY have been a shit......but he was without a shadow of doubt a great orator

90% of his early sucess was down to firstly ruthlesness in dealing with his political opponents
but then secondly down to his oratory, that brought whilst not everyone, a huge proportion of the population to his side...

http://news.yahoo.com/emailed-threats-ny-la-highlight-072218020.html#

The Los Angeles threat came in an email to a school board member. Authorities in New York reported receiving the same "generic" email and decided there was no danger to schoolchildren. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the threat contained "nothing credible," and New York Police Commissioner William Bratton called LA's closure a "significant overreaction."

Lord Foul wrote:Veya ooops...Ragga I tell you...you dont want to understand it....

I speak german and have listened to some of his speeches

and had to shake myself back to humanity afterwards

the man was a walking talking hypnotist, and the fact he was twisting the state germany found itself in is really quite irrelevent....
his audience WANTED to here this as well...

he was "putting into fine words " what they FELT. Even if it was irrational

and this is the point I'm trying to hammer home into the ossified pate of that antipodean nincompoop veya

Its really very simple...the greatest leader is the one who can take the crowd with him nothing more nothing less
and if someone reinforces what people perceive (right OR wrong) he is boss..until or unless the bubble pops...

veya_victaous wrote:@victor
I think you may have missed something
New York got the same email the same day..
The New York Police Commissioner Basically said the LA one was an irresponsible fool and coward for doing what he did.

http://news.yahoo.com/emailed-threats-ny-la-highlight-072218020.html#

The Los Angeles threat came in an email to a school board member. Authorities in New York reported receiving the same "generic" email and decided there was no danger to schoolchildren. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the threat contained "nothing credible," and New York Police Commissioner William Bratton called LA's closure a "significant overreaction."

Raggamuffin wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:Veya ooops...Ragga I tell you...you dont want to understand it....

I speak german and have listened to some of his speeches

and had to shake myself back to humanity afterwards

the man was a walking talking hypnotist, and the fact he was twisting the state germany found itself in is really quite irrelevent....
his audience WANTED to here this as well...

he was "putting into fine words " what they FELT. Even if it was irrational

and this is the point I'm trying to hammer home into the ossified pate of that antipodean nincompoop veya

Its really very simple...the greatest leader is the one who can take the crowd with him nothing more nothing less
and if someone reinforces what people perceive (right OR wrong) he is boss..until or unless the bubble pops...

I did wonder why you were telling Veya.

So would you say that Hitler had a kind of charisma? Of course we know now what he was really like - or perhaps he wasn't at first but became that way later, but to many German people he must have seemed like the answer to everything at first.

Lord Foul wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

I did wonder why you were telling Veya.

So would you say that Hitler had a kind of charisma? Of course we know now what he was really like - or perhaps he wasn't at first but became that way later, but to many German people he must have seemed like the answer to everything at first.

oh yes he had charisma theres no doubt, and he had "a way with people"  many people who actually met him (ordinary people i mean like you and me) say what a kindly sort of person he appeared to be, and at least in the beginnig he was very much everything the german people had hoped for...

he had "the common touch"  so to speak.

if you ever get the chance...read "mein kampf"...although clearly the ravings of a serious basket case, the horrible thing is it makes a sort of horrible, evil, entirely satanic sense  and THAT...is scary

Lord Foul wrote:remember Veya....Hitler MAY have been a shit......but he was without a shadow of doubt a great orator

90% of his early sucess was down to firstly ruthlesness in dealing with his political opponents
but then secondly down to his oratory, that brought whilst not everyone, a huge proportion of the population to his side...

Lord Foul wrote:the left are all like Corporal Jones

running around shouting "dont panic"

Raggamuffin wrote:

Lord Foul wrote:

oh yes he had charisma theres no doubt, and he had "a way with people"  many people who actually met him (ordinary people i mean like you and me) say what a kindly sort of person he appeared to be, and at least in the beginnig he was very much everything the german people had hoped for...

he had "the common touch"  so to speak.

if you ever get the chance...read "mein kampf"...although clearly the ravings of a serious basket case, the horrible thing is it makes a sort of horrible, evil, entirely satanic sense  and THAT...is scary

I've read A Study in Tyranny, and found that fascinating. I'll try to work up to reading Mein Kampf.

Original Quill wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

I've read A Study in Tyranny, and found that fascinating. I'll try to work up to reading Mein Kampf.

Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, by Alan Bullock?  Yes, it was a good read.