The Pentagon has moved to allow swift terminations for civilian employees, allowing managers to fire workers with "speed and conviction" if they're underperforming, The Hill reported. The directive came from a Sept. 30 memo issued by Under Secretary of Defense Anthony Tata, which was made public on Tuesday.
"Supervisors and human resources professionals are directed to act with speed and conviction to facilitate the separation from Federal service of employees performing unsuccessfully," the top personnel policy officer wrote. Tata further informed the managing supervisors that they would be held accountable if they failed to take appropriate action on employees who weren't up to snuff.
This memo has stripped civilian personnel of previously held protections against such action, and some worry that this will become an excuse to dispense with those seen as disloyal to President Donald Trump. However, this was something Trump warned about before Democrats decided to allow funding to run out and the government to shut down.
So far, 334,900 civilian employees, which represents about half of that category of military workers, have been furloughed due to the shutdown. The longer it goes on, the greater the chance these cuts will become permanent, as Trump promised.
The left is attempting to frame these cuts as something nefarious, but cleaning house and saving on payroll budgets is exactly in line with Trump's priorities that he laid out during the campaign. Similarly, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been tightening up the ranks to rid the military of those who oppose the president's agenda for a stronger military.
"The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. Personnel is policy," Hegseth said last month to an audience of generals and admirals during a meeting he called of top military brass to the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
Earlier this year, Hegseth cut the Pentagon's payroll by 60,000 people, or about 8% of the workforce, through attrition or buyouts. Now, the memo has streamlined the process for managers, giving them the "flexibility to address performance issues swiftly and effectively," Tata wrote.
Managers use the Douglas Factors, the criteria for evaluating federal workers, to decide whom to cut. "This approach empowers supervisors to act decisively when performance undermines [Defense Department] objectives, reinforcing a culture of excellence," the memo touted.
This will ensure that all civilian employees who fill military roles unsatisfactorily will be weeded out, "so deficiencies in any role can warrant strong action." The employees fired under this change can challenge the decision and unfavorable review within seven days.
This action is part of Trump's promises, including his pledge to use a government shutdown to eliminate jobs. On October 8, just a week into the shutdown, Trump said he had a "substantial" number of government jobs that could be eliminated permanently, Fox News reported.
"We have a lot of things that we're going to eliminate and permanently eliminate," Trump told the press at a White House meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. "I'll be able to tell you that in four or five days if this keeps going on… If this keeps going on, it'll be substantial. And a lot of those jobs will never come back. But you're going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget, actually," Trump said at the time.
Meanwhile, Trump blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats for their failure to act to avoid the shutdown which is now nearly a month long. "I look at your leadership. I don't know who to speak to," Trump said of the Democrats.
"I'll tell you what, I'm getting calls from Democrats wanting to meet. I never even heard their names before... the Democrats have no leader," he added.
The American people voted for Trump to clean up the problems in Washington, D.C., including the dead wood in the military and those opposed to its mission. What's happening now is simply the fulfillment of that, and it's all being facilitated by the spineless Democrats who refuse to agree to funding to reopen the government.
The White House on Tuesday fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency that, among other duties, would oversee the ballroom being built after the demolishing of the East Wing last week.
The commissioners were appointed by former President Joe Biden to advise on architectural projects on public land in D.C., and their terms were set to expire in 2028.
President Donald Trump said he will replace them with new members more "aligned" with his policies and goals.
“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump’s America First Policies,” a White House official said in a statement.
Besides the ballroom, which will be financed by private donors and not with taxpayer dollars, Trump also plans to build an archway close to the entrance of D.C. across from Arlington National Cemetery.
The commission began in 1910, but its scope has grown since then.
Critics of the East Wing's demolition have said that Trump didn't get proper permits for the project, but the White House said it wasn't required to get approval from the National Capital Planning Commission because it didn't involve new, vertical construction.
The NCPC is now full of Trump allies anyway, so there won't be opposition when the plans for the ballroom are submitted.
Trump has fired and ousted a number of board members and administrators since taking office, one of his strategies to overhaul the deep state that so strongly opposed him during his first term.
So far, he has largely gotten away with it, since the president is given some latitude over firing federal workers at various agencies.
When these commissioners and board members are working with Trump and not against him, it's far easier to get things done and Trump can spend his energy elsewhere, like battling Congress to get his legislative priorities passed.
Trump may have started a trend that will continue, with each successive president from the opposite political party cleaning house after the transfer of power.
While some argue that the deep state provides stability during times when power transitions, there's no reason why term limits wouldn't benefit these positions as much as they do the presidency.
Such housecleanings would help government better reflect the will of the people at a given moment in history, and may help move things along faster than has happened in recent years.
President Trump has dismantled a controversial State Department agency that played a key role in Democrat-led efforts to censor conservative speech in the name of "our democracy."
Paul Sperry, a senior investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations, confirmed that the Global Engagement Center (GEC) has officially closed down, Breitbart reports.
During the Biden era, the center came under close scrutiny from Republicans as left-wing efforts to track and censor "disinformation" went into overdrive.
Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced in April that he was shuttering the GEC, which was founded in 2016 by President Obama, nominally to combat foreign propaganda.
"Today, it is my pleasure to announce the State Department is taking a crucial step toward keeping the president’s promise to liberate American speech by abolishing forever the body formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio wrote in an op-ed for the Federalist.
The GEC originated as the Center for Strategic Counter Terrorism Communications (CSCC), which was meant to track propaganda from terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Rubio said.
In Obama's final year as president, the group was rechristened the Global Engagement Center and given a broad mandate to match its vague title.
It was likely no accident that Obama's point man at the GEC, Rick Stengel, is an advocate of "hate speech" restrictions who has compared Trump to ISIS and Vladimir Putin, Rubio noted.
Long after Obama left the White House, the GEC was a useful tool in progressives' censorship toolkit.
Under the Biden administration, the GEC played a vigorous role in pressuring social media platforms to censor Americans on topics like the 2020 presidential election and the COVID pandemic, Rubio noted, often by tying them to foreign entities.
The center's efforts extended to sending U.S. taxpayer money to foreign think tanks like the U.K.-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which targeted conservative news outlets on an infamous blacklist that named popular outlets like the Federalist and New York Post as vectors of disinformation.
“With its multimillion-dollar budget, paid for by American taxpayers, GEC funneled grants to organizations around the world dedicated to pushing speech restrictions under the guise of fighting ‘disinformation,’” Rubio continued.
The GEC ran out of funding late in 2024 as Republicans in Congress refused to back it, but the group limped into the second Trump administration under a new name, Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI).
"The entire ‘disinformation’ industry, from its very beginnings, has existed to protect the American establishment from the voices of forgotten Americans,” Rubio wrote in his op-ed. “Everything it does is the fruit of the poisoned tree: the hoax that Russian interference, misinformation, and ‘meddling’ is what caused President Trump’s victory in 2016, rather than a winning political message that only he was offering.”
President Trump is shaking up leadership in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a feud escalates within the administration over enforcement priorities.
As reported by Fox News, ICE leaders in major cities are being forced out as frustration mounts with the pace of Trump's promised mass deportations. In an unusual move, Border Patrol officials are being tapped to lead interior immigration enforcement, which is usually ICE's job.
According to Fox, Department of Homeland Security insiders are divided over how broad Trump's immigration crackdown should be.
While ICE has focused on known illegal aliens, Border Patrol has cast a wider net, with agents making aggressive shows of force at target-rich locations like Home Depot.
“ICE started off with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they are hitting, but since Border Patrol came to LA in June, we’ve lost our focus, going too hard, too fast, with limited prioritization,” one senior DHS official told Fox. “It’s getting numbers, but at what cost?”
The ICE directors in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Philadelphia, El Paso and New Orleans have all been sacked, Fox reported. As many as half of ICE's 25 field offices could be shaken up by the purge, NBC reported.
Insiders told Fox that Border Czar Tom Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons want to target illegal aliens with criminal records - the so-called "worst of the worst."
But Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, and Corey Lewandowski, Noem's chief of staff and Trump's former 2016 campaign manager, are pushing to round up as many illegal aliens as possible. Pressure to ramp up deportations has also come from Stephen Miller, Trump's White House deputy chief of staff and a famous immigration hawk, who set a goal of 3,000 arrests per day in May.
Bovino and Lewandoski have compiled a list of a dozen ICE directors who are facing reassignment as arrest numbers lag around 1,178 on average per day as of late September, NBC reported. The administration has downplayed reports of a rift.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “The president’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”
The increasingly prominent role of Border Patrol in ICE leadership suggests that the administration is shifting toward a more aggressive approach, as Trump's base demands more action to remove illegal aliens.
“The mentality is CBP does what they’re told, and the administration thinks ICE isn’t getting the job done,” one of the DHS officials told NBC. “So CBP will do it.”
Bovino has been highly visible as the head of Trump's immigration crackdown in Chicago, Operation Midway Blitz, which has faced a violent backlash in the streets. A federal judge has ordered Bovino to appear in court every day to justify agents' crowd control tactics, including the use of tear gas. DHS officials have said Bovino was hit in the head with a rock.
Trump has frequently been accused of breaking a pledge to target the "worst of the worst," but Trump campaigned on carrying out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
As one agent put it to Fox News, “What did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst? Tom Homan has said it himself — anyone in the US illegally is on the table.”
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A congressional report has found that Joe Biden's aides arranged for the autopen signings of executive actions, directed policy and orchestrated his public appearances, literally exercising presidential authorities without his knowledge or consent, as his cognitive decline advanced.
The 90-page report, "The Biden Autopen President: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House," charges that Biden's close associates actually ran the government during his final months in office.
U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chief of the House Oversight Committee, concluded the findings have raised "constitutional and criminal concerns" about actions "Biden" took while in office.
A report at Fox News said the committee has demanded a complete investigation into the autopen signatures that Biden's associates arranged.
"Faced with the cognitive decline of President Joe Biden, White House aides — at the direction of the inner circle — hid the truth about the former president's condition and fitness for office," charged the report. And there was a "haphazard documentation process" for pardons made by Biden.
The committee said those procedures "left room for doubt over whether the former president made those decisions himself," the report said. In fact, the report simply said those actions now are "void."
"In the absence of sufficient contemporaneous documentation indicating that cognitively deteriorating President Biden himself made a given executive decision, such decisions do not carry the force of law and should be considered void," committee members concluded.
"The Department of Justice should immediately conduct a review of all executive actions taken by President Biden between January 20, 2021, and January 19, 2025. Given the patterns and findings detailed herein, this review should focus particularly on all acts of clemency. However, it should also include all other types of executive actions."
Further, the report raised concerns about Hunter Biden's influence, since former Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients has told investigators he was in the room for many discussions, including the preemptive pardons issued to Biden's family.
Comer's report said, "Zients testified that President Biden included his son, Hunter Biden, in the decision-making process for and meetings about pardons. This apparently included the meeting to discuss the pardons of five Biden family members, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the members of Congress who served on the Select Subcommittee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol, and their staff."
A Biden regime spokesperson told Fox News Digital the investigation was "baseless," even though 14 witnesses testified to Oversight, mostly top Biden aides.
Even during that testimony, Comer suggested, the aides were hiding things.
"Throughout the Committee's investigation, senior Biden White House aides presented a perspective of President Biden's cognitive health completely disconnected from that of the American public," the report said. "Not one of the Committee's 14 witnesses was willing to admit that they ever had a concern about President Biden being in cognitive decline. In fact, numerous witnesses could not recall having a single conversation about President Biden's cognitive health with anyone inside or outside of the White House."
According to a report in the Washington Examiner, Comer's report found, "Biden's aides misled the American people and hijacked the powers of the presidency. … Executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen are null and void."
For example, the committee found 32 of 51 clemency warrants were signed by autopen, "without any contemporaneous documentation linking Biden to those discussions," leaving no evidence the president agreed to the actions.
The Examiner explained, "A Jan. 19 episode detailed in the report describes a 'game of telephone' in which chief of staff Jeff Zients authorized the autopen for a final batch of pardons, including for his son Hunter Biden and four other family members, as well as Anthony Fauci, and Gen. Mark Milley, based only on secondhand accounts of a meeting he never attended. An aide emailed approval from Zients's account, initialed 'JZ,' without confirming with Biden directly, according to the report."
The report also criticizes ex-White House physician Kevin O'Connor, Biden's longtime doctor, "noting that he had 'business dealings with and financial connections to President Biden's family.' Investigators said those ties, combined with political incentives to keep Biden viable for reelection, created 'a motive to conceal the president's decline while running the government in his stead,'" the Examiner explained.
Comer's report also revealed former aides confirmed an entire system of pre-scripted press cards, controlled questions, teleprompter use, schematics outlining the number of steps he would take and the time he would use during any public appearance.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee cited Biden's own statements rejecting evidence he was unaware of decisions, and said the Republican report is conjecture.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
While President Donald Trump continues his trade-focused mission in the Far East, the commander in chief is irked by what he calls "fake ads" showing his polling levels "at low levels," and is now urging a ban on such commercials.
Shortly after arriving in Japan on Monday, Trump posted a lengthy message on Truth Social, stating: "After winning THREE Elections, BY A LOT, I am now getting the best Polling Numbers that I have ever received.
"People see how strong the Economy is, the Trillions of Dollars of Investment pouring into our Country, the Record Setting Strong Border (After years of millions of criminals pouring through it, totally unvetted and unchecked!), ending 8 wars in eight months, no men playing in women's sports, no transgender for everyone, rapidly falling Energy prices, and much more!
"Despite all of this, the Radical Left Losers are taking fake ads, not showing REAL Polls, but rather saying that I'm Polling at low levels.
"These are the people that I've been beating for years, and am continuing to do so, but by even bigger margins. These ads should not be allowed to run because they are FAKE!
It was not immediately clear to which specific ads about polling Trump was referring.
Just last week, as WorldNetDaily reported, Trump pulled the plug on trade negotiations with Canada, where the economy relies in significant ways on the United States, over what he called a "FAKE" ad that appears to be trying to influence the U.S. Supreme Court's looming decision on tariffs.
Further, that Canadian ad may actually misrepresent President Ronald Reagan, whose words it uses.
Trump responded to that spot, saying: "The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. The ad was for $75,000,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HERBY TERMINATED. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT."
The Hill explained, "Trump in August announced a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian goods, though products covered under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement were exempt. Canada is one of the United States' top trading partners, and their economies are heavily intertwined when it comes to certain products. But Trump has repeatedly argued the U.S. does not need Canadian goods, and that Canada is far more reliant on America for its economy."
In fact, the Reagan Foundation confirmed the ad manipulated Reagan's words, and it announced it was reviewing its legal options"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Huge numbers of Americans want to roll back Joe Biden's pro-abortion agenda that created vast threats when his Food and Drug Administration removed a lost list of safeguards.
For example, the national survey from McLaughlin & Associates confirmed that 7 of 10 likely voters, including 57% of liberal voters, think one requirement should be for a doctor's visit before abortion chemicals are prescribed.
"Seven in 10 voters agree it 'makes sense' to bring back safeguards that were removed by Biden's FDA," the survey found, and, "Although the majority of voters in the survey identified as pro-choice, voters across the board also have 'significant doubts' about the safety of the FDA's current policy allowing mail-order abortion drugs."
"The harmful impact of Biden's FDA removing safeguards on abortion drugs, like in-person doctor visits, is an issue that overwhelmingly unites voters of all stripes. As a growing body of research indicates these drugs are far more dangerous than advertised, and new horror stories emerge day after day of women coerced and drugged against their will, landing in the ER and even dying along with their babies, Americans' concerns are more than valid. Even a strong majority of liberal voters agree in-person doctor visits and screening for coercion and abuse are simply common sense, yet the Biden FDA recklessly tossed them aside to push a pro-abortion agenda," explained Marjorie Dannenfelsler, the head of SBA Pro-Life America.
"The Trump administration promised a fresh review of the evidence on the risks of abortion drugs, and we eagerly await their following through. Right now, at minimum, they should heed the emerging science and the will of the people and immediately reinstate in-person doctor visits that existed before Biden's harmful COVID policy. Twenty-one states whose laws are being undermined and their most vulnerable populations threatened by the flood of out-of-state drugs will thank them."
The survey comes on the heels of an FDA decision to approve use of a new generic chemical to cause abortions.
The survey said two-thirds are concerned "abortion drugs are used by abusers to cover up rape, exploitation and sex trafficking," and a majority "disapprove of allowing out-of-state nurses and pharmacists to send abortion drugs to women in any state without any in-person medical care or a doctor's visit."
Eighty percent say "no one should be able to get abortion drugs online or from a foreign country and be able to give them to a woman without her knowledge or consent," and some 75% say "ensuring in-person medical care, including a doctor visit, is a matter of informed consent and not infringing on women's rights."
The reason for the expansion of the abortion industry's reach, too, was identified: "More than 7 in 10 voters agree drug manufacturers have pressured the FDA to lower standards to sell more drugs."
Just weeks ago, 51 U.S. senators led by Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary urging them to take swift action.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has signaled that he will announce his run for president in 2028 following the 2026 midterm elections, Breitbart reported. Newsom said this during an interview that aired on CBS's Sunday Morning last weekend.
During his sitdown with Robert Costa, Newsom tried on his best aw-shucks persona in order to win over red-state voters. Costa gushed over the California Democrat who shut down the Golden State during the coronavirus pandemic and now makes a name for himself by insulting President Donald Trump.
When Costa asked whether Newsom was considering a run for 2028 after next year's midterms, Newsom contended that he'd be "lying otherwise" if he didn't admit it was on his radar. "I’d just be lying. And I’m not — I can’t do that," Newsom said.
The California governor is eyeing a presidential run after ruining California. He is term-limited and will therefore be without political power in 2027, just as Trump is heading into the last year of his term.
During COVID-19, Newsom bent over backwards to show how well he could cooperate with Trump, but that goodwill has since evaporated. Newsom has positioned himself as the anti-Trump candidate, and he has joined Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in seeing how low he can sink in his insults of Trump.
However, Newsom has the added distinction of being an absolutely abysmal leader in a state like California, which should be flush with cash but isn't; instead, it is entering its second year of a budget deficit. Meanwhile, he's engaged in fights over congressional redistricting and bailed out Planned Parenthood to the tune of $140 million.
There can't be a worse candidate who is less appealing to sane people outside of California, but that hasn't stopped him from trying. During the interview, Costa said he first got an inkling that Newsom had presidential aspirations after seeing him pull a political stunt by working as a barista, once again showing himself to be at once slamming Trump and trying to be like him.
"When I saw you slinging shots behind the coffee bar, I thought this guy might run for president," Costa said to Newsom. Of course, Trump did it better when he briefly worked the McDonald's drive-thru in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, but Newsom is desperate.
Newsom's act continued with some false humility that's supposed to make him more appealing to people turned off by his California slickback and smooth talking. "The idea that a guy who got 960 on his SAT, that still struggles to read scripts, that was always in the back of the classroom, the idea that you would even throw that out is, in and of itself, extraordinary," Newsom said.
"Who the hell knows? I'm looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that's the question for the American people," he added.
As if that wasn't ridiculous enough, Newsom spun a tale about his impoverished childhood despite being featured as one of the "Children of the Rich" as a young man. His father was an attorney for the Getty family, but Newsom said in a now-viral clip that he was "payin' the bills, man" and making "Wonder Bread and Mac and Cheese sandwiches" as a boy.
Hip Hop Gavin!
Here's California Gov. Gavin Newsom debuting his new "street" persona on an NBA podcast - even though his father was an attorney for the billionaire Getty family:
"It was about payin' the bills, man."
"Hustlin."
"I raised myself."
"Wonder bread and Mac… pic.twitter.com/Ov9jCfAvC3
— Conservative Brief (@ConservBrief) October 26, 2025
Newsom is a fraud and will say or do anything to obtain more political power. He likely will try to run for president in 2028, and the Democrats, who have no talent waiting in the wings, will likely be stuck with this prevaricating politician and his tall tales.
In a heartbreaking turn of events, a Texas woman’s life was cut short, with fingers pointing squarely at border security failures under the previous administration, Breitbart reported.
The devastating loss of Mary Gonzales, a 43-year-old from North Austin, has ignited fierce debate after her body was discovered in a field on Oct. 6, with three unauthorized migrants from Mexico now in custody for her alleged murder.
Let’s rewind to the night before her tragic discovery, when surveillance footage captured a suspicious blue vehicle creeping through the area without headlights, eerily close to where Gonzales would soon be found.
Within an hour of that chilling video, authorities pulled over a matching 2007 Toyota Camry just a mile away, driven by Enrique Gomez-Urbina, an individual confirmed to be in the U.S. without legal status.
Inside the vehicle, police uncovered a Glock .40-caliber handgun, raising immediate red flags about the driver’s intentions.
Though Gomez-Urbina initially fled, the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force tracked him down later that day after a warrant for first-degree murder was issued, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) promptly lodged a detainer for his removal following the criminal proceedings.
Two days later, on Oct. 8, ICE apprehended two more suspects, Jesus Llamas-Yanez and Javier Roman Hernandez, both also identified as unauthorized migrants from Mexico with ties to the crime.
Llamas-Yanez carries a troubling history of arrests for assault and driving under the influence, while Hernandez entered the U.S. on foot through Hidalgo, Texas, on July 23, 2023, using a controversial smartphone application promoted by the Biden administration.
That app, known as CBP One, reportedly allowed over 1,400 migrants daily to cross into the U.S. with minimal vetting—a policy that critics argue opened the door to unchecked risks.
Homeland Security officials have not minced words, connecting this tragic murder directly to what they see as reckless border management under the prior administration.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin declared, “These alleged cold-blooded murderers should have never been in our country in the first place, and Mary Gonzales should still be alive.”
Her words cut deep, and it’s hard to argue when a life has been lost—yet some might counter that individual crimes shouldn’t paint entire policies, though the timing and tools of entry here are tough to ignore.
McLaughlin didn’t stop there, adding, “One of these criminals came into our country using Biden’s disastrous CBP One app. Open border policies have deadly consequences.”
That app, now shuttered following President Trump’s inauguration, has become a lightning rod for those who believe lax border controls sacrifice American safety for misguided ideals—though defenders might claim it was meant to streamline, not endanger.
This case, however, isn’t about abstract debates; it’s about Mary Gonzales, whose family now mourns a preventable loss, and a community left questioning if stronger borders could have saved her.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A student has been cuffed and badgered by cops because his school's artificial intelligence (or lack thereof) system told authorities that his bag of Doritos was, in fact, a gun.
In a video, cops actually explain to students at the Baltimore school that the AI blundered, with its report to authorities that the munchies were really a weapon.
The report cited a police officer's body cam, which shows the officers were forced to explain AI made the mistake and that's why they handcuffed an innocent person.
"Thanks for not running away. That would have been a real problem," the report said police explained after they "stormed" Kenwood High.
"Sixteen-year-old Taki Allen was surrounded by officers, ordered to his knees, and handcuffed. The 'gun' was an empty Doritos bag. A human reviewer had already marked the alert as no threat, but the message never reached the school in time. No weapon. No arrest. Now officials are demanding answers. How did a bag of chips nearly cost a teenager his life?"
A report at Not the Bee warned, "Get used to it, Baltimore students."
That was prompted by the school's "non-apology," which claimed, "We understand how upsetting this was for the individual that was searched as well as the other students who witnessed the incident. Our counselors will provide direct support to the students who were involved in this incident and are also available to speak with any student who may need support. Please know that ensuring the safety of our students and school community is one of our highest priorities. We work closely with Baltimore County police to ensure that we can promptly respond to any potential safety concerns, and it is essential that we all work together to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all Kenwood High School students and staff."
The report noted the corporation whose blunder caused the problem, Omnialert, "refused to make any comments."
The student, Allen, told WBAL, "It was like eight cop cars that came pulling up for us. At first, I didn't know where they were going until they started walking toward me with guns, talking about, 'Get on the ground,' and I was like, 'What?'"
He said, "I was just holding a Doritos bag — it was two hands and one finger out, and they said it looked like a gun."