The unfortunate truth about Trump’s taxes
Albany
Tomost of us, $750 is real money. It’s enough to buy a plane ticket to an exotic destination, new tires for the car or school clothes for the kids.
But to a rich guy like Donald Trump, $750 is a pittance, throwaway money, a drop in a very big bucket. So we should be annoyed or even furious, presumably, to learn that’s how much Trump paid in taxes the year he won the presidency, according to a much-discussed report by The New York Times.
It’s worse than that, actually. In 10 of 15 years, Trump paid no taxes at all, which is outrageous given the ostentatious lifestyle he leads. Waitresses and grocery-store clerks don’t fly around on private jets or live at Mar-a-lago, but many pay more in federal taxes than Trump. You probably do, too.
scaffold. The incident never underwent an internal review.
Mount’s family never believed the police version to be true because, Mount’s mother said, the left side of her son’s face was crushed. The family attorney also said the injuries to his head looked more consistent with a beating and not a fall.
“You can have dinner. You can have drinks,” Miles yelled at those seated at outdoor tables. “Darryl Mount is dead. Saratoga Springs police department killed Darryl Mount seven years ago. Why? Because he is a Black man.”
On Sunday, Saratoga Springs police released a statement about the protest, saying it began at 5:30 p.m. in Congress Park. The marchers then took to the streets at around 6:45 p.m. They ended their rally, police said, at 9 p.m. in Congress Park.
“There were no arrests or known negative interactions between law enforcement and any of the protesters during the event,” the statement from the police read.
In a video she recorded on Monday and posted to the All of Us Facebook page, Miles admitted the protesters were “loud.”
“We were yelling,” Miles said. “I was definitely cussing.”
However, she said that the protesters “want people to understand that the privilege they have to have dinner, to be out with friends, family and loved ones was indeed a privilege. It’s one Darryl Mount and his family will never have because of the Saratoga police department.”
Protests have become a regular part of the Spa City landscape since the murder of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who was killed when a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Early on, Police Chief Shane Crooks supported the protesters and took a knee at the first rally in Congress Park. But since then, tensions have mounted. They came to a head on July 30, following a Back the Blue rally. That night, protesters were dispersed with pepper-spray pellets deployed by the Saratoga County Sheriff ’s Office.
More recently, Crooks has consistently said he’s concerned that “someone will get hurt.”
Terry Diggory, a member of the city ’s Police Reform Task Force, said he was at the Friday rally early on. He called it peaceful, and other videos posted on All of Us Facebook’s page also showed a quiet gathering.
Diggory, who is also co-coordinator of Saratoga Immigration Coalition, said that the protesters upset business owners demonstrates that the city needs to balance everyone’s rights.
“The police chief has said in the past, and I think he’s quite right, that all members of the community have rights,” Diggory said. “You have to balance the rights of free expression on the part of protesters against the rights of other members of the community who wish to conduct their business in an openair restaurant without being harassed. There needs to be an understanding between local officials and those attending a protest about the need to balance everybody ’s right.”
Diggory also said that any new regulations put in place “need to be very well crafted so they don’t in advance interfere with the rights of protesters” and should come from the community as a whole.
“The business owners have a stake in what happens downtown, the police have a stake in what happens downtown, the protesters have a stake in what happens downtown,” Diggory said. “The community process brings all the stakeholders together in a way that would put them in dialogue in a mutually satisfying mode of operating. We have to find a way that doesn’t pit the business owners against the protesters or pit the protesters against the business owners. We have to say how together as a community we find solutions that are going to acknowledge that we are all responsible for maintaining the public safety of Saratoga Springs.”