Happy Wednesday!

Today’s Brew is going to my last for a while, with the great John Zmirak filling in now that he’s back from his vacation. So let’s see if we can pour a good one before I take off for my own.

Trend of Venezuelan Gangs Taking Over Apartments Spreading

Last week, we told you about the Venezuelan gang “Tren de Aragua“ taking over apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. It looks like they’ve also now hit Chicago.

LISTEN to the 911 call about 32 armed Venezuelans showing up on motorcycles and storming an apartment building in the Windy City.

LISTEN: 911 call from Chicago of 32 armed Venezuelans taking over an apartment building in Chicago

Caller says 32 Venezuelans are trespassing in the building, they are showing guns in the courtyard and they have motorcycles in the courtyard as well, all stairwells are filled. pic.twitter.com/kxj9cIV3Mq

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) September 3, 2024

You’d think 32 armed anything storming anything would immediately draw the cavalry — but the 911 call seems to have drawn only yawns. According to Windy City Weather and News, the call took an hour to be assigned, and two hours lapsed before any cops showed up to investigate.

By the time police got there, according to the Chicago Tribune, no migrants were found with either guns or motorcycles.

Open border meet sanctuary city meet progressive, criminal-and-illegal-immigrant-coddling mayor.

For some of the Tren de Aragua gang members, Chicago isn’t their kind of town. So they’re camping out in Connecticut, according to Libs of TikTok.

SCOOP: Connecticut Law Enforcement are now being warned about the violent Venezualan gang “Tren de Aragua.” This is the gang who took over apartment buildings in CO.

Police reports already confirmed their presence in 11 states and it’s estimated around 1,000 members are in our… pic.twitter.com/CcFIJXQsv9

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 3, 2024

Meanwhile, the New York Post has posted a stunning statistic: Police sources say 75% of people being arrested for crime in Midtown Manhattan are illegal immigrants (or “migrants”).

Today's cover: Migrants flooding NYC’s justice system — making up ‘75% of arrests in Midtown’ — as ‘pathetic’ sanctuary city laws handcuff cops https://t.co/jNlMjtd7iM pic.twitter.com/weP6mdRrni

— New York Post (@nypost) September 3, 2024

President Xi: I’ve Got Friends in High Places

The former deputy chief of staff for New York Governor Kathy Hochul has been charged, along with her husband, as being an unregistered agent for the Chinese Communist Party. Linda Sun, who was also former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s deputy for diversity, is accused of using her position to push Beijing’s agenda. In exchange, her husband got financial benefits worth millions of dollars.

🚨BREAKING: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s former Deputy Chief of Staff was just charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government.

The indictment states that she worked to advance CCP interests in state government, which included blocking reps from the Taiwanese… pic.twitter.com/X2eJy3Vds1

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 3, 2024

Wait. China putting millions of dollars in the pockets of someone’s family member in exchange for political influence? Where have we heard that before?

We’d ask Hunter Biden, but he’s too busy preparing for his tax evasion case right now. That trial is scheduled to start Thursday.

Miracle: NFL Player Shot by Thug Arrested Three Days Earlier on a Gun Charge, Lives to Tell

The fact that Ricky Pearsall, a 23-year-old rookie wide receiver, could get shot in the chest Monday and practically away from the scene of the crime is a miracle.

That he was shot at all is an insult and direct result of the pro-thug policies of the San Francisco district attorney — policies which go back to a certain woman who is currently running for president of the United States.

Pearsall was shot in broad daylight in downtown San Francisco during a robbery attempt by a 17-year-old who had been arrested just three days earlier on a gun charge, yet was already back on the street. Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge the teen as a juvenile or as an adult.

The bullet passed through Pearsall’s chest without hitting any vital organs and exited his back. He was alert and talking with paramedics as he was loaded into an ambulance — then released from the hospital the next day, and placed on the reserve/non-football injury list by the 49ers, meaning he’ll have to miss at least the first four games of the regular season. Shot in the chest — yet he’s out due to the equivalent of a pulled hamstring.

His mother gave all praise to God in a Facebook post.

I want to thank GOD for protecting my baby boy. He is extremely lucky, GOD shielded him. He was shot in the chest and it exited out his back. Thanks be to GOD it missed his vital organs. He is in good spirits right now. Life is so precious, my friends. Please love each other. My son was spared today by the grace of GOD. Please pray for my baby.

Yes, we pray for her baby — and all the people of San Francisco and other cities who are being left to the mercy of soft-on-crime progressive politicians and prosecutors.

And now, another crime on the streets of San Francisco. Or a complex hoax.

Hoax or Horror? Harris Accused in 2011 Hit-and-Run Incident

Finally, we want to put a story on your radar, but with a large caution flag. A news website called KBSF-TV.com has posted a moving video statement from a woman who claims she was paralyzed in a hit-and-run accident in 2011 by then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The woman, identified as Alicia Brown, describes with a strong accent that she was crossing a street with her mother when she was hit by a car. Brown says she got a good look at the frightened driver, whom she did not recognize at the time, before the driver fled the scene. The next day, Brown, says, two men showed up at her hospital threatening both women to stay silent and not seek justice because the woman who hit Alicia was very powerful. Brown was angry that her mother acquiesced, but her mother told her, “The important thing is you are alive.”

Brown says she has only come forward now because her mother, who had remained fearful of retribution, passed away a couple of months ago. “Every time I turn on the TV or the internet, I see the woman who destroyed my life.”

BREAKING: A 26-year-old woman from San Francisco, Alicia Brown, alleges that Kamala Harris was involved in a 2011 hit-and-run accident that left her unable to walk. pic.twitter.com/UNvyHMSss7

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) September 3, 2024

If the story is true, Kamala Harris is toast.

However, why the yellow flag? Ed Daugherty of Florida Voice News smells a rat because the domain ksfb-tv.com was created only last month. KBSF-TV.com has only been posting articles on local San Francisco news since July.

Then again, that’s a lot of straight-up local stories to write for nearly two months just to create a hoax.

Then again, there’s nothing to say the new local news site isn’t legit and the outlet is being bamboozled by a fraudster.

Then again, how did the Drudge Report go from a nothing-burger to the biggest thing in news virtually overnight? By exposing Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Then again, some on X are saying Snopes has debunked this story.

If you might ask Snopes’s AI, “Did Kamala Harris paralyze 13-year-old girl?” it will say it “does not have enough information to answer the question.” Nor does it have anything on Kamala Harris and a hit-and-run incident, both of which would be answered if the story had been solidly debunked.

So while at this point we retain some healthy skepticism, we do have to concede it’s possible that KBSF-TV has a legit story other San Francisco outlets would be too scared or too partisan to post.

Alexa Is a Single Cat Lady

A funny thing happened when Fox News Digital and folks on X asked Amazon’s Alexa why one should vote for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

When asked about Trump, Alexa says it can’t provide responses that “endorse any political party or leader.” But when asked about Harris, Alexa sounds like Harris’s campaign manager, claiming there are “many reasons” to vote for Harris and prattling on about her virtuous policies.

'PRIME' EXAMPLE: Fox News Digital asked Amazon's Alexa why one should vote for Vice President Harris versus former President Trump and vice versa — the answers were shockingly different. https://t.co/BSUZkspnk2 pic.twitter.com/PQb497jfWy

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 3, 2024

We’d like to ask: “Hey, Alexa, what’s the definition of ‘election interference’?”

Trump Says America Needs More Religion

Former President Donald Trump says he knows what America needs more of.

More cowbell. (Sorry. Irresistible Saturday Night Live reference.)

Actually, Trump told podcaster Lex Fridman the nation needs more of that Ol’ Time Religion.

Our country is missing a lot of religion. I think it really was a much better place with religion. It was almost a guide. You want to be good to people. Without religion, there’s no real guardrails. I’d love to see us get back to more religion in this country.

One of the most interesting parts of Trump’s suggestion? Just wait a few days, and then Kamala Harris will tell us it’s her idea.

Along The Stream

Dr. Michael Brown has been active on social media lately. His latest? “The Surprise Responses to My ‘Rabbi Jesus’ Post.”

Yesterday’s serving of Al’s Afternoon Tea offered a look at the odd way Kamala Harris has been adopting various accents (again) in “Political Blackface or Unsure of Her Own Identity?”

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.