Category: Law & Order

BLUF:
The fact that ordinary citizens couldn’t even get their applications looked at is a scandal in and of itself, but thanks to California’s subjective and discriminatory concealed carry permitting law, county sheriffs have broad discretion in approving or denying applications. The opportunity for bribery as well as discrimination would disappear if lawmakers in Sacramento were to adopt a “shall issue” licensing system, but since that would prompt a flood of applicants in Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Bay area, the anti-gun legislators in Sacramento will never take that step. They prefer a system where the rich and powerful have access to concealed carry licenses (even if they pay for the privilege), while the average gun owner is routinely denied their right to bear arms.

Two More Guilty Pleas In CA Concealed Carry Scandal

So far Santa Clara County, California Sheriff Laurie Smith has avoided indictment in a scandal over the issuance of concealed carry permits that emanated from the top levels of the sheriffs department and directed tens of thousands of dollars towards an independent campaign organization supporting her re-election efforts, but two more individuals connected with the bribery scandal have plead guilty to their role in the scandal.

KPIX-TV in San Francisco reported on the Monday guilty pleas by AS Solution, Inc. managers Martin Nielsen and Jack Stromgren, who followed CEO and founder Christian West in acknowledging their role in the bribery scheme.

Prosecutors said the defendants are accused of conspiring to engineer a $90,000 bribe — $45,000 of which allegedly went to support Sheriff Laurie Smith’s re-election in 2018 — to obtain concealed firearms permits.

Nielsen was charged with three misdemeanors: conspiracy to solicit the acceptance of a bribe, conspiracy to file CCW license applications with false statements and making a campaign contribution in a false name.

Stromgren was charged with a misdemeanor count of conspiracy to file CCW license applications with false statements.

Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Captain James Jensen is the only employee of the sheriff’s office that’s been charged in the bribery scandal, though D.A. Jeff Rosen has said the investigation continues. Sheriff Smith was called to testify before a grand jury this summer, but repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination even when asked  basic questions about her time as sheriff.

On Aug. 3, from a witness stand at the old Santa Clara County Superior Courthouse, Sheriff Smith almost immediately began taking the Fifth.

When Deputy District Attorney John Chase asked her what she does for a living, Smith told him she’s worked for the Sheriff’s Office for 47 years. Before he could even get to asking about the gun permits, known as CCWs, she invoked her constitutional right over an innocuous request to summarize her law enforcement career.

“Sir, under Article 1 of the California Constitution, Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution—excuse me,” she said, cutting herself off abruptly.

Though absent from the transcript, witnesses to the proceeding say that’s when Smith, visibly overcome with emotion, paused to collect herself and wipe tears from her eyes.

“That’s fine,” Chase assured, allowing her a moment to regain composure. “Take your time, sheriff. There is no rush here. We are not in a rush.”

Smith picked up where she left off

“… and Evidence Code 940,” she continued. “I assert my privilege against self-incrimination. Therefore, I’m declining to answer your questions.”

The San Jose Mercury News has called on Smith to resign her office, noting that the sheriff was either aware of the bribes in support of her re-election efforts or was clueless about how her top deputies were handling concealed carry applications. Either way, the editors opined, Smith’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment was “unacceptable” to citizens demanding answers. Continue reading “”

Fire Wray If He Doesn’t Turn Over Biden Laptop Info Immediately.

If Christopher Wray does not turn over all information about the laptop alleged to belong to Hunter Biden requested by Senate Homeland Security chair Ron Johnson within twenty-four hours, Wray should be summarily fired by the president and be replaced by an Acting FBI Director who will do the job like Richard Grenell.

That Wray and company have been sitting on this evidence since 2019 is beyond unconscionable.

That they were doing it during an impeachment trial relevant to the details that are on that laptop’s hard drive borders on the criminal, indeed crosses that border morally, if not legally.

The FBI has been living under a cloud for years now because of the demonstrably politically tainted Mueller investigation into Trump-Russia collusion that never existed as well as the related attempt to frame General Michael Flynn. (The 302s that made this clear had to be forced out of the FBI with a metaphorical bunker buster.)

Literally millions of Americans are now regarding—with justification— our premier law enforcement agency as corrupt and politically biased, possibly personally dangerous to them.

This is an untenable situation for a democratic republic going forward—if it wishes to remain either democratic or a republic.

Wray has done nothing to alleviate this. To the contrary, he has continually stonewalled congressional requests as if he were a Soviet apparatchik, not the servant of the American people that he supposedly is.

He seems to want us to believe he is working to preserve his institution, but is actually the doing the reverse—making us all the more suspicious.

Hunkered down and undoubtedly praying for the election of Joe Biden to save his own career, Wray has acted out of extreme selfishness or ideological bias or both.

The Biden Laptop Affair should be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Only it’s not a straw, far from it. Contained in this email exchange and on the hard drive from whence it comes are potential links to corruption the likes of which we have not seen in our country, a degree of cooperation with Communist China that could lead, if unchecked, to massive changes in our lives.

Behind the social-media blackout of Biden family corruption.

………..Seeing the Biden family’s corruption as part of this entrenched system is why the social-media censorship of that story should not be seen as a separate, stand-alone scandal. It is integral to understanding how the Swamp’s ecosystem operations, how it defines our politics.

The operation is visible in the New York Post exposé of Biden family corruption. The FBI has had those documents for months, so they should be either verified or discredited by now. Those findings, if they exist, have not leaked. If the emails are legitimate, they are bombshells. If they are false, they are worse than duds. They are a major disinformation campaign — an assault on our election — and we need to know who is behind it so we can hold them accountable.

Twitter and Facebook have prevented dissemination of the Post story on their platforms. The reason, they say, is that they have not substantiated it themselves. They decided to block all users, including members of Congress and the President’s press secretary, from sharing links to these published stories. Big Tech Knows Best.

Remember, this story was published by a major newspaper, a reputable one with a large circulation, subject to libel and defamation laws. Notice that the Biden presidential campaign has not denied the documents are authentic.

BLUF:
The sum of the above information is that, even if the Democrats do away with the filibuster and pass laws with a bare majority, their laws cannot stand up to constitutional scrutiny. The strict constructionist Court won’t try to re-write the laws to make them work, or find imaginary rights where none exist. Instead, like Roman emperors asked to decide the fate of a gladiator in the Colosseum, the justices will give the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to the laws, based not on their personal moral views, but on the Constitution’s objective standard.

‘The Hill’ inadvertently explains why the left fears Amy Coney Barrett

Since November 9, 2016, the day after Trump was elected, the leftists who now make up the American Democrat party have been in a non-stop tizzy. They have proven incapable of accepting that they lost at the ballot box and have used every underhanded and lunatic tactic available to evict Trump from the White House. For many of these initiatives, they’ve had the Supreme Court helping them out. That will end when Amy Coney Barrett joins the Court. Her presence creates a conservative majority that will be an insurmountable barrier to leftists’ more overreaching demands

I already wrote about Vox’s Ezra Klein saying that leftists need to do away with the filibuster to get any legislation passed. That is an open admission that slightly less than half the country does not approve of what the hard-left Democrat party wants to do. Passing legislation that almost half the country deeply opposes is a recipe for disaster. That’s why we have a filibuster, for it gets a majority of the country – through their representatives – on board with big (and even little) changes.

Now The Hill, which is ostensibly a more centrist publication than Vox (it isn’t really, but that’s its reputation), is admitting that, if Biden wins, and the Democrats take the Senate, Amy Coney Barrett is a problem:

The Supreme Court is looming as a roadblock for Democrats as they plot an ambitious wish list if they gain control of the White House and Congress for the first time in a decade.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s ascension to the Supreme Court, which Republicans hope to finalize this month, would lock in a conservative majority likely for decades, setting the courts up as a potential foil for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s agenda and Democratic leadership in the House and Senate.

The result of a 6-3 court, Democrats warn, could lead to the justices striking down a host of top priorities for the party, including health care, voting rights legislation or enacting stricter background checks for gun purchases.

In other words, Democrats understand that their initiatives are almost uniformly unconstitutional. However, since the 1950s, a primarily activist Supreme Court has given these unconstitutional laws a pass. With Barrett on board, though, the Court finally will serve (as it has long been meant to) as a roadblock to ideas that don’t comport with the Constitution. Continue reading “”

I didn’t know that the former head of the FBI was really Sergeant Schultz

I know nothing, NOTHING!

Republicans grow frustrated as Comey claims ignorance over Russia probe: ‘You don’t seem to know anything’

Former FBI director James Comey is being grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee over exactly what he knew regarding FBI actions in the early stages of the Russia investigation – but early on in the hearing claimed ignorance of virtually every act that was mentioned during questioning.

A Justice Department Inspector General (DOJ IG) report previously found that the warrant application and subsequent renewals applications for surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page contained inaccuracies and omissions and relied on the Steele dossier despite evidence that it was unreliable.

Comey opted not to deliver an opening statement Wednesday but welcomed questions. Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., got right to the point and asked what efforts the FBI made to verify the dossier.

“I don’t know,” Comey said.

Graham also asked what Comey knew about former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who has pleaded guilty after being accused of altering an email to say that Page was not working with the CIA despite the FBI having knowledge that Page was working with the agency.

“I know nothing of Mr. Clinesmith,” Comey said.

Comey passed blame for the warrant, claiming he only signed the certification for it, not the affidavit it was based on, but when asked who the committee should look to in terms of who was accountable for misleading the court, Comey again came up empty.

First Comey said to look at the IG report, but when pressed on whether he knew, he gave a familiar response.

“I do not,” he said.

Graham later discussed ex-spy Christopher Steele’s sub-source, whom the FBI interviewed. The sub-source told the FBI that the information in the dossier was unreliable and was based on rumor. Graham noted that the sub-source was known by the FBI to be a possible Russian spy. Confronted with these details, Comey again pleaded ignorance.

“I don’t remember learning anything about Steele’s sources,” he said. When asked if he knew that the FBI interviewed the sub-source in January 2017, Comey again said, “I don’t remember.” Continue reading “”

The FBI Crime Stat that Keeps Wounding Gun Control Lobby

With this week’s release of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2019, the gun prohibition lobby is once again faced with an uncomfortable truth: Their crusade to ban so-called “assault rifles” doesn’t pass the smell test.

Continuing a pattern that dates back decades, the number of homicides involving rifles of any kind amounts to a fraction of all the murders in any given year. By far, handguns are used in more slayings in any given year.

In 2019, according to the UCR, there were an estimated 13,927 homicides, of which 10,258 involved firearms. But the report only positively linked 364 of those slayings to rifles, and there has never been a breakdown on the types of rifles, whether they were all semi-auto, or bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action or single-shot models. Continue reading “”

BLUF:
This is a strategic blunder, but it’s also a moral blunder. The American people need to know they have a justice system that treats all people fairly, regardless of political persuasion. Right now, that trust has been shattered, and for very good reason. The DOJ had a chance to pick up the pieces and make this right. Instead, they’ve delayed and stonewalled just like the FBI has. Is this a move being made to protect people because they think Trump will lose? I don’t know what the motivation is, but it’s unacceptable.

Of course, again, maybe this isn’t true? But it would be par for the course. We’ll see where this leads, but I’m not hopeful at this point.

Huge: No Durham Report, Indictments Coming per Sources

This is not the kind of big news you want to get on an otherwise slow Sunday morning, but here it is. Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo is reporting this morning that there will be no Durham interim report or indictments coming before the election. By the wording, she may actually be saying there’s no report coming at all.

If true, this is a travesty of justice of the highest order given what has transpired the last five years.

This isn’t someone leaking to the Times to cover their backside. Bartiromo is typically solid and is not anti-Trump in the least.

Whether or not you believe this news will probably depend on the level of cynicism you normally operate with in regards to this topic . I’ve been far more skeptical of the Durham investigation than even I’d like to admit at times. While I want people to be brought to justice, it’s the kind of thing that never seems to happen when the targets are of a Democrat nature (yeah, I know Comey is a “Republican”). Continue reading “”

Lefties at The Nation discover that (non-FBI) feds have been tracing the puppet masters behind Antifa and BLM

Is an unexpected October Surprise on the way?

They think it’s a bad thing, but I give The Nation credit for reportorial digging.  The hard-left magazine has discovered that federal law enforcement agencies (though not the FBI) have been tracing whom the mobs in Portland have been communicating with.  The apparent lead role in utilizing hi tech and classified electronic means is being played by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), while the U.S. Marshals Service is dispatching street-level personnel.  This bypasses the FBI, whose director, Christopher Wray, is on the record in sworn testimony, dismissing any such superstructure:

“It’s not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology,” he said, explaining that “folks who subscribe or identify” with antifa do not operate at a national level, but instead organize “regionally into small groups or nodes.”

The Nation reports: Continue reading “”

First it was Florida. Now Texas

Texas Gov. Abbott Announces Proposals For Harsher Penalties To Those Involved In Riots

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was in Dallas Thursday to announce legislative proposals that give harsher penalties to people involved in riots, which includes mandatory jail time.

Speaking at the Dallas Police Association headquarters, Abbott proposed legislation that deters peaceful protests from becoming riots as residents continue to call for change, stemming from recent police shootings of Black residents.

The governor proposed that causing injury or destroying property during a riot would be considered a felony. Assaulting a law enforcement officer during riot would lead to a mandatory jail sentence of at least six months, according to Abbott’s proposal.

Protesters or rioters who block hospital entrances and exits would be charged with a felony under the new proposal. Continue reading “”

‘Trump Was Right’: Explosive New FBI Texts Detail Internal Furor Over Handling Of ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ Investigation
Newly disclosed internal FBI notes and text messages detail the extent of the FBI’s desire to take down Trump and his associates at any cost.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents tasked by fired former Director James Comey to take down Donald Trump during and after the 2016 election were so concerned about the agency’s potentially illegal behavior that they purchased liability insurance to protect themselves less than two weeks before Trump was inaugurated president, previously hidden FBI text messages show. The explosive new communications and internal FBI notes were disclosed in federal court filings today from Sidney Powell, the attorney who heads Michael Flynn’s legal defense team.

“[W]e all went and purchased professional liability insurance,” one agent texted on Jan. 10, 2017, the same day CNN leaked details that then-President-elect Trump had been briefed by Comey about the bogus Christopher Steele dossier. That briefing of Trump was used as a pretext to legitimize the debunked dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign and compiled by a foreign intelligence officer who was working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch. Continue reading “”

Sen. Rand Paul says Homeland Security panel will refer report on Bidens, Ukraine to DOJ for criminal probe

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., plans to refer the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees’ report on their investigation into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings to the Department of Justice later this week, he told “The Story” Wednesday.

“I think riding on Air Force Two and doing business is illegal … and probably a felony,” Paul told host Martha MacCallum. “I think it’s illegal to take money from a Russian politician’s wife, $3.5 million, was it reported accurately?”

Paul was referencing items from the new report which details Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and his alleged “extensive and complex financial transactions.” Continue reading “”

Violent assembly. 3rd degree felony.
Blocking the road. Felony.
R.I.C.O. will be applied to those organizing or funding riots.
Assault the Police. Six months mandatory minimum.

And more

So, I guess that means they’re pretty much on their own and all they’re getting is something like  ‘Good luck, you’re gonna need it’ ?
Really?
Nice to be living in Minneapolis these days…..not.

Minneapolis PD to business owners: Reinforcements aren’t on the way

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There’s no long-term plan, and reinforcements aren’t coming anytime soon.

The neighborhood block of shops near East 48th Street and Chicago Avenue has felt the impact of recent crime. Craig Paulson owns Pedego Electric Bikes.

“Couple robberies. Two, three robberies in the area, and some break-ins and a couple of crazy stunts,” Paulson said.

Surveillance video shows a group accused of robbing Chad Stamps’ wife inside her gift shop, 14 Hill, during the lunch hour earlier this month.

“So they stole our car, stole our wallet, checkbook, everything,” Stamps said.

Stamps says one of the suspects punched someone trying to help her.

There’s a window broken at Town Hall Tap. Someone opened fire inside the Pizza Hut. The employee who was there has now quit. And a car flying down the street crashed into a bus stop and business.

Russell Hrubesky lives and works nearby.

“I’m scared for my coworkers, but it’s worrisome to see people that I care about just kind of in a dangerous area,” Hrubesky said.

A nearby business relayed a similar message to the inspector of the 3rd Precinct via email. They also sharing it’s hard to find employees who want to work in the area, and they are asking for a long-term plan.

Here is the response they received from Inspector Sean McGinty:

As far as a long-term plan I don’t have one. I have lost 30% of my street officers since the end of May. Budget cuts from COVID-19 and an additional 1.5 million from the council in August we have let go 17 CSO’s and cancelled a recruit class of 29. A potential Cadet class slated for January of 2021 was also eliminated. I takes about a year to get a police Officer onto the streets with hiring, backgrounds and field training so reinforcements aren’t coming anytime soon. We are doing everything we can with what we have. I hate to see great businesses like yours and the rest of your corridor being victimized and feeling unsafe. Please let me know if you have any more questions.

“It does erode the confidence in the neighborhood of the people and being able to feel safe coming down here,” Stamps said.

Continue reading “”

As in; “That police defunding they did now requires me to go in right beside the Police on a ‘cray-cray call’?  Not just no, but ‘Oh Hell No‘™ “

Some social workers denounce plan to pair with NY police for mental crisis calls
A group of mental health professionals gathered outside Buffalo City Hall, calling the planned partnership ‘unsafe and unproven’

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A group of social workers, mental health professionals and concerned community members met outside Buffalo City Hall Thursday to denounce Mayor Byron W. Brown’s proposal for a new police unit that would pair officers with social workers on mental health emergency calls.

Brown first outlined plans for a behavioral health team Aug. 22.

On Monday – two days after a Buffalo Police officer shot and wounded a homeless man who has a history of mental illness – Brown announced the new team would begin next month.

A group of social workers, mental health professionals and members of Agents of Change penned a letter in opposition to that plan, which was sent to the mayor and Common Council members Thursday.

“While embedding social workers into police departments or having social workers accompany police on mental health calls may appeal to the general public, it is ineffective, unsafe and unproven to reduce police violence in mental health crisis situations,” said Nicolalita Rodriguez, a clinical social worker, during a news conference on the steps of City Hall. Continue reading “”

Due Process in a Fee-Driven State.

Inspired by the Justice Department’s report on criminal law enforcement and the use of courts as a revenue-generation machine in Ferguson, Missouri, we address the widespread problem of policing for profit in light of two classic Supreme Court cases on due process, and two very recent Court of Appeals cases that focus specifically on the due process implications of a justice system dependent for funding on those people it “serves.” we argue that when everyone participating in the justice system is aware that the system itself depends on sufficient revenue from fines, fees, and forfeitures, that very dependency is a conflict of interest sufficient to violate due process rights.

Markey always has been an idjit, but the new commie demoncrap reps, like AOC & Omar must have put the zap on his brain.
‘military weapons’ have been anything and everything you can think of, so he must mean that he wants Police to be completely unarmed.
I don’t think he has the intellectual capacity to conclude that the citizenry who, seeing the riots and Police inaction, can, will, and are forming self defense groups to provide for their own security.
And that they know all too well which political party is causing this.
But we will have to wait for the election results to see if this idiocy will influence them at the ballot box.

“I’ve been on the record. I support law-abiding citizens to be armed, but criminals?” the police chief asked, clearly confused. “And so it’s okay to attack police officers and then, everyone always says one thing: ‘these were peaceful protestors.’ So I guess when you’re throwing Molotov cocktails, railroad spikes, other projectiles, you’re using green lasers, I guess that constitutes being ‘peaceful.'”

2 L.A. deputies shot in ‘ambush’ attack recovering after surgery

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were out of surgery and recovering after being shot Saturday evening in Compton in what authorities described as an “ambush” that was captured on surveillance video.

The video, released by the department, shows a man walking up to the deputies’ parked patrol car, pulling out a gun and firing several times into the front seat area from the passenger side. The assailant is then seen running from the scene. On Sunday, officials asked for the public’s help to locate the person who opened fire.

The deputies were listed in critical condition but were expected to survive.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Sunday called the condition of the deputies a “double miracle.”

Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times that at least one of the deputies was shot in the face and the other in the head.

Isn’t this precisely how we ended up with Parkland?

Parental consent no longer required in non-violent juvenile offender program, sheriff says

TAMPA, Fla. – A program in Hillsborough meant to help young, non-violent offenders remain out of jail, will now include all misdemeanor juvenile offenses, and a parental consent is no longer required.

During a press conference, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced the following changes to the Juvenile Arrest Avoidance Program:

  • All misdemeanor juvenile offenses are now eligible for a civil citation, under JAAP 
  • Parental consent is also no longer required for eligibility 
  • Deputies are required to discuss other options like JAAP for arrests under the age of 12

“Previously, children were unable to participate because we were unable to reach their parent,” Chronister explained. “This change allows all children an opportunity afforded by this program.” Continue reading “”

BLUF:
If civil authorities do not restore order reasonably soon, it is nearly inevitable that citizens will organize to defend themselves. Gun sales have skyrocketed in the last three months, a sure sign that many citizens no longer believe that the police will protect them. In June, a widely shared video showed a black man in South Central Los Angeles telling white protesters they could not come and trash his neighborhood—and he backed it up with a credible threat of violence. The same push-back seems to be happening in Kenosha.

You can’t handle rioting radicals like university unrest

Unrest continues in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the aftermath of the shooting of Jacob Blake. News of street violence makes my heart sink. But I’m not surprised. Since George Floyd’s death, civil authorities have done everything possible to avoid deadly encounters. They have given low priority to the protection of property. The danger in this approach is that those victimized start to fight back (or hire proxies to do so).

In New York protests pushed police to the perimeter of sections of the city. With thousands of cell phone cameras trained on them, officers had to act carefully to avoid confrontations, lest they be captured on video and create still more violence. In any event, civil leaders had urged police restraint. This created police-free zones in which looters could freely roam.

The strategy was one of containment, not confrontation. This was not necessarily a stupid approach, given that public opinion at that point was solidly behind protesters and against police. But it came with costs, which storeowners and residents of the neighborhoods overrun by disorder and crime had to absorb. Continue reading “”