Law & Order – Page 6

It’s also blatant vote pandering a month from midterm elections that looks to rake the demoncraps over the coals.

Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law
The move represents a fundamental change in America’s response to a drug that has been at the center of a clash between culture and policing for more than a half-century.

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Thursday pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD.

The pardons will clear everyone convicted on federal charges of simple possession since it became a crime in the 1970s. Officials said full data was not available but noted that about 6,500 people were convicted of simple possession between 1992 and 2021, not counting legal permanent residents. The pardons will also affect people who were convicted under District of Columbia drug laws; officials estimated that number to be in the thousands.

The pardons will not apply to people convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. And officials said there are no people now serving time in federal prisons solely for marijuana possession. But the move will help remove obstacles for people trying to get a job, find housing, apply to college or get federal benefits.

Mr. Biden urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of simple possession, who vastly outnumber those charged under federal laws.

Still, the president’s actions — which come about a month before the midterm elections and could help energize Democratic supporters — represent a fundamental change in America’s response to a drug that has been at the center of a clash between culture and policing for more than a half-century.

Continue reading “”

Get the Word Out About Kyle’s Law

A prosecutor who uses his or her authority to virtue signal to the public to advance his or her political career is more dangerous to society than all but the most violent criminals.

Insurance will cover many forms of property crimes, and you can legally use deadly force against somebody who menaces you with death or serious bodily injury.

A prosecutor, though, can bankrupt most people by filing unfounded criminal charges against them, ruin their lives with prison time and criminal records. Unless the case is particularly egregious like that of Mike Nifong (D-NC), or with crooked judges like Mark Ciavarella (D-PA, a.k.a., federal inmate #15008-067) or Mike Conahan (D-PA, home arrest), there is little or no recourse against these “jurists.”

To put this in perspective, Pennsylvania attorney Frank Fina was suspended from the practice of law for his role in convicting Penn State President Graham Spanier of putting children at risk. Pennsylvania’s current Attorney General, and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro (D-PA), worked hard to reinstate Spanier’s conviction while tweeting that Spanier had been told that Jerry Sandusky was sexually assaulting children on the Penn State campus. The witness, Mike McQueary, testified, however, under oath, that he did not see Sandusky do anything he deemed reportable to police while his father and a family friend, both of whom are mandated by law to report abuse, did not encourage him to report to child protective authorities whatever he thought he might have possibly heard.

I believe that Shapiro, like Scott Harshbarger (D-MA) and Martha Coakley (D-MA) who ruined the lives of the Amiraults, used his position to “virtue signal” his concern for the children prior to the election. The latter is my perception of Shapiro, Harshbarger, and Coakley rather than a statement of fact because I cannot read their minds.

Kyle’s Law

Attorney Andrew Branca, whose opinions often appear on William Jacobson’s blog Legal Insurrection, has proposed what he calls Kyle’s Law due to what he and I both regard as a politically motivated prosecution of Kyle Rittenhouse for what was obviously self-defense.

“Too often, rogue prosecutors bring felony criminal charges against people who were clearly doing nothing more than defending themselves, their families, or others from violent criminal attack. …The only motivation of the prosecutor is personal aggrandizement and political capital.” Kyle’s Law would sanction not only the jurisdiction but also the prosecutor who brings a junk case, to be defined as one in which the prosecutor lacks even preponderance of evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did anything wrong.

The American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct state meanwhile, “A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous…” and also “The prosecutor in a criminal case shall: (a) refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause…” and probable cause requires a “reasonable belief” that the defendant has committed a crime.

If, for example, a video of a self-defense shooting shows clearly that the person who was shot initiated a deadly confrontation, perpetuated it by not allowing the subject of their attack to retreat in complete safety, and menaced the shooter with immediate deadly force, as did all three of Rittenhouse’s assailants, that’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt in favor of the shooter that the shooting was justified. If we look within the four corners of the charges against Rittenhouse, the prosecutors did not contest this version of the events. Joseph Rosenbaum initiated a confrontation in which he attempted to strong-arm rob Rittenhouse (a violent felony by itself) of a firearm he could have turned against Rittenhouse on the spot and also one which, as a convicted felon, it was unlawful for Rosenbaum to handle. Anthony Huber the domestic abuser was a member of a mob (which constitutes disparity of force and therefore deadly force) that pursued Rittenhouse while yelling violent threats, thus putting Rittenhouse in reasonable fear for his life and denying him the opportunity to retreat in complete safety. He then menaced and struck Rittenhouse with a deadly contact weapon when Rittenhouse was on the ground. The third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, pursued Rittenhouse with a drawn handgun, which again constituted an implied threat, along with the immediate means of carrying it out.

Another example would be, for example, if a politically ambitious prosecutor had tried to show his “woke” credentials by charging the officer who shot Hakim Littleton even though the latter was on bodycam video firing a handgun at the head of another officer at roughly three paces. It was fortunate that Littleton was a bad shot or it would have been “end of watch” for that officer or, as Black Lives Matter and Antifa would put it, he would have “oinked his last.” This did not, however, happen because the local prosecutors saw the open and shut case of self-defense.

Poster Children for Kyle’s Law

The Amiraults were convicted on the basis of “evidence” that included, among other things, accusations that one of them sexually assaulted a boy with a butcher knife that somehow left no injuries, along with a “secret room” and a “magic room” that were never found.
Police officer Grant Snowden was railroaded to prison on the watch of Janet Reno (D-FL).
Police officer Garrett Rolfe was charged with murder for shooting Rayshard Brooks after Brooks took an officer’s Taser, which the prosecutor stipulated is a deadly weapon under Georgia law, and discharged it at the officers. The charges were finally dropped but should have never been filed.
Nikolas Fernandez was charged with felony assault for shooting Daniel Gregory, who reached through the window of Fernandez’s car to punch him. Gregory even admitted openly, “I catch him, I punch him in the face.” He claims that he was trying to stop Fernandez from running over “demonstrators” but the video shows clearly that Fernandez had come to almost a complete stop by the time Gregory reached into his car. Note also the barrier that another “demonstrator” shoves in front of the car which a reasonable person would construe as a prelude to a carjacking or Reginald Denny-style beating.
Here is a long list of wrongful convictions in the United States, some of which involved willful prosecutorial misconduct and/or misconduct by rogue police officers eager to get convictions no matter what.
Prosecutors should not be afraid to do their jobs just as police officers should not be afraid to do their jobs. Kneeling on a helpless suspect’s neck as Derek Chauvin was convicted of doing is not, however, a police officer’s job, and Chauvin is now in prison as a result. Junk prosecutions whose sole identifiable purpose, at least from the perspective of a reasonable person, noting that nobody can read the prosecutor’s mind, is to advance a prosecutor’s legal and/or political career, should similarly bring the consequences recommended in Kyle’s Law and maybe professional disciplinary action as well.

Gun control not a “resource” to stop mass shootings

If the idea of being involved in a mass shooting, even if that involvement is just knowing one of the victims, is a personal nightmare of yours, you’re probably right to be concerned. They’re awful and the pain of having someone taken from your life like that hurts beyond words.

Believe me, I know.

In North Carolina, a sheriff decided to stop playing around and decided school resource officers will have AR-15s to use to protect students and staff. To say some don’t like that is an understatement.

In the Charlotte Observer, one columnist put his opposition into words.

Madison County, one county over from where I live in Asheville, garnered national headlines recently with an announcement that every school in the N.C. county will be outfitted with AR-15s this school year.

This initiative embodies how many on the right today bend over backward to suggest anything but gun control as the salve for gun violence.

Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood wrote on Facebook, “to exhaust every resource we’ve got to ensure that our kids are safe, that when they go to school, they can learn…and they can go the playground and play, and not worry about some thug who’s going to come out onto the playground and open up on them with some type of AR-15, shotgun, pistol, whatever.”

Only Harwood didn’t exhaust every resource. If he’d done that, he would’ve been advocating for meaningful gun control — a shooter can’t open fire with an AR-15 if they can’t purchase one.

Well, that last paragraph is possibly one of the dumbest ever written in the English language.

First, understand that there are an estimated 20 million or more AR-15s currently in circulation. Does the author think that a new law will magically make them unobtainable for the average citizen? I’m sorry, that ship has long since set sail.

Further, it’s not like the AR-15 is the only weapon used to commit a mass shooting. In fact, handguns are far more commonly used for such horrific acts.

Yet an AR-15 would allow deputies to engage handgun-armed would-be mass shooters at greater range, meaning they could save lives that much sooner without having to close to handgun range. Or, if such a killer has a rifle of some type, he can at least meet them on equal ground.

Moving on…

Bill Clinton signed an assault weapons ban in 1994, outlawing AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles. As reported by NPR, mass shootings were down in the decade that followed, compared to the decade before (1984-1994) and the one after (2004-2014). Assault weapon bans work.

Except the study referenced used an odd definition of “mass shooting;” one that also happened to reduce tilt the findings more in the favor of the desired outcome. That NPR didn’t critically look at that study isn’t overly surprising.

But the author is starting to approach his point:

Harwood represents a bigger problem: the refusal of law enforcement in North Carolina to lead the gun control conversation.

There we go.

The problem is that Harwood and other North Carolina law enforcement officials aren’t pushing his preferred politics. Yet there are valid reasons for this.

For one, Harwood is an elected official, which means his politics are more likely to reflect the beliefs of his constituents. He’s not going to push a “gun control conversation” in a pro-gun county unless he’s looking to retire without having to announce it.

Second, it wasn’t that long ago when people like the author were screaming about defunding the police, and now they’re upset that the cops don’t seem to be on their side?

The truth of the matter is that a lot of law enforcement see what happens when good people are disarmed. They can’t stop criminals from getting guns, regardless of the laws on the books. They’ve seen how those laws completely fail every time they arrest a known felon and find a firearm on them. So, they often come to recognize that gun control isn’t going to do the trick.

They fail to push the author’s agenda simply because they know it to be a complete failure of an idea.

Putting AR-15 in the hands of school resource officers isn’t just a good idea, it’s the only sane one.

STOP! OR I’LL SAY STOP AGAIN!

Chicago cops barred from chasing people on foot who run away.

The Chicago Police Department has unveiled a new policy prohibiting its officers from chasing people on foot simply because they run away, or because they have committed minor offenses.

The policy, which was introduced Tuesday, also encourages cops to “consider alternatives” to pursuing someone who “is visibly armed with a firearm.”

Under the policy, officers may give chase if they believe a person is committing or is about to commit a felony, a Class A misdemeanor such as domestic battery, or a serious traffic offense that could risk injuring others, such as drunken driving or street racing.

Perhaps most significantly, the new policy makes clear that the days of officers giving chase just because someone tries to get away from them are over.

“People may avoid contact with a member for many reasons other than involvement in criminal activity,” the policy states.

The long-awaited foot chase ban is expected to go into effect by the end of the summer, after the city’s 11,900 uniformed cops receive training.

The policy prohibits officers from chasing people on foot simply because they run away.

The new policy comes more than a year after two foot pursuits ended with cops fatally shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez in separate March 2021 incidents.

Toledo and Alvarez, who were armed when they ran from police in separate March 2021 pursuits, were not mentioned in the news release announcing the policy or the policy itself.

Toledo was shot in the chest after dropping a gun and raising his hands, and Alvarez was shot in the back while brandishing a gun.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot demanded that the department create an interim policy after the March 2021 shootings and the county’s top prosecutor harshly criticized police over the Alvarez pursuit.

Continue reading “”

BLUF
I don’t think we have anywhere near enough information to judge what actually happened and what the police did right or wrong. Inflammatory videos tell only a tiny part of the story, and I don’t rely on them for an understanding of what actually happened except in regard to the tiny part they are telling. In this case, we know that desperate parents were angry at what they perceived as police inaction, and the police restrained some of them. The rest will emerge as time goes on – but for many people, the takeaway will be “the police are awful and they didn’t care.”
That is by no means clear right now.

On that report that police in Uvalde were just standing around

Here’s the story as it now stands. I caution everyone to ask questions, though, before jumping to conclusions.

For example:

Video emerging online from Tuesday’s schoolchildren massacre in Uvalde, Texas shows local police more concerned with stopping parents than stopping the killer…

Here are my questions in response to that sentence:

–Were these all the police that were at the school at the time, or were there other police in the building trying to get in and who were communicating with those outside? Were these police we see in the video stationed outside in case the killer ran out and tried to escape, or in case he had an accomplice?

–Were the killings of children and students still going on, or were they over by this time? Were there cameras in the classroom or halls? Were police inside the building aware of what was going on at that point?

–What would have happened if the parents were let in and they ended up being killed as well? Was that not very much a concern of the police – sort of like the way firefighters restrain parents from running back into a badly burning building?

Continue reading “”

Actually, no, they’re targeting – exactly – who they want to, their political enemies.

Crime is soaring. The Biden administration targets the wrong culprit

In a country (and my home state) that is run under the Democrats’ one-party rule, civilians are being caught in the crossfire of soaring crime. Shootings of police officers have increased 63% compared to this time in 2020, and over 100 officers have been shot on duty so far in 2022. Last year, more police officers were killed in the line of duty than in any year since 1995, a 59% increase from 2020. In 2021, over a dozen Democrat-run “blue” cities across America set new homicide records. Defunding and demonizing police has dangerous consequences; crime is soaring.

Instead of addressing these shocking statistics, some of my more “progressive” colleagues continue to call to defund the police, while simultaneously spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on private security. They are benefiting from law and order themselves and leaving the people who voted them into office in danger due to their backward ideologies.

These deadly statistics prove an uptick in serious crime, committed by dangerous individuals and usually committed with illegal or stolen weapons. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden isn’t going after them. He’s turned his attention yet again to law-abiding citizens who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Biden wants the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to ban privately made firearms, so-called “ghost guns.” These are predominantly a hobbyist option and require extensive time, special tooling, and dedication to craftsmanship to make them operate correctly — far more effort than criminals are willing to invest. A review of FBI statistics shows criminals typically steal firearms or get their weapons illegally on the black market. Adding more restrictions on responsible gun owners and hobbyists won’t prevent criminals from breaking the law.

The Biden administration has a record of going after law-abiding citizens instead of dangerous criminals.

Continue reading “”

Criminals Do NOT and Will NOT – EVER – obey gun control laws!

Chicago woman charged with gunrunning after buying firearms for felon boyfriend: police

CHICAGO – A Chicago woman is accused of purchasing guns for her boyfriend who is a convicted felon.

On April 26, Cook County officers conducted a “home compliance check” in the 9500 block of South Racine Avenue where 27-year-old Travon Anderson — a convicted felon on electronic monitoring — was staying.

Inside the South Side home, officers found two handguns and a storage locker containing ammunition and magazines, officials said. The investigation then led officers to a second home where they discovered three more firearms.

Anderson was taken into custody and charged with Armed Habitual Criminal, officials said. He’s being held at Cook County Jail.

After further investigating, officers learned that four of the weapons were purchased by 31-year-old Jessica Patterson. Officials say she bought them in Indiana and that three of them were acquired at the request of Anderson.

On May 9, Patterson was charged with gunrunning and her bond was set Tuesday at $100,000.

Anderson was initially ordered to electronic monitoring as a condition of his bond on an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon case.

Wellllll. It seems that Polk County Florida Sheriff Grady Judd isn’t alone in his thoughts about how to handle bunglers

Florida sheriff promotes gun safety course for residents to shoot home invaders: ‘We prefer that you do’

Florida sheriff says homeowners are ‘more than welcome’ to shoot intruders

A sheriff in Florida is encouraging residents to take gun safety courses after a homeowner fired multiple shots at an intruder on Wednesday, stopping the individual who allegedly broke into several homes.

Police arrested Brandon J. Harris, 32, who was arrested after allegedly breaking into several homes in Pace, Florida, and was stopped by a homeowner who fired multiple gunshots at him, according to the Pensacola Daily News.

Calls of the break-ins began to come into the sheriff’s office at around 4:30 p.m., according to police. Harris is being charged with attempted burglary with assault, resisting arrest, criminal mischief, attempted larceny, and several other charges.

Brandon J. Harris

Brandon J. Harris (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office )

Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson said in a press conference on Thursday that one of the homeowners fired gunshots at Harris, and said that he was arrested after being cornered in a house that he allegedly broke into.

“Probably 20 deputies get there, the dogs are out, and he’s jumping fences and breaking into houses as he goes,” Johnson said. “One of the homeowners, he was breaking into their house, and they shot at him. So he continues to run, we finally corner him in a house that he broke into on Tom Sawyer and we cornered him in a bedroom.”

Johnson also encouraged other residents to follow in the homeowner’s footsteps and take gun safety classes, adding that they are “more than welcome” to shoot anyone who is breaking in to their house.

“I guess they think they did something wrong, which they did not. If someone’s breaking into your house, you’re more than welcome to shoot them in Santa Rosa County. We prefer that you do, actually. So, whoever that was, you’re not in trouble, come see us. We have a gun safety class we put on every other Saturday,” Johnson said.

The sheriff added that residents who take the course will shoot a gun “a lot better,” and maybe save taxpayers some money.

“If you take that, you’ll shoot a lot better, and hopefully you’ll save the taxpayers money,” Johnson said.

Johnson also described Harris as a “frequent flyer,” noting that he has been arrested 17 times before.

“You hear me talk about frequent flyers all the time. Our first interaction with this individual came when he was 13 years old. Since then, he’s had like 17 arrests,” Johnson said. “We sent him to prison for six and a half years for home invasion, and he just can’t seem to get the picture of crime does not pay.”

Duh.. Violent crime increasing the most in high crime neighborhoods

Mapping gun violence: A closer look at the intersection between place and gun homicides in four cities

The rise in gun homicides in the United States is having reverberating political ramifications at the federal, state, and local levels, with many elected officials falling back into “tough on crime” policies to curb the violence. This punitive turn can be seen in President Joe Biden’s proposed federal budget, in which he calls for “more police officers on the beat” and allocates an additional $30 billion for state and local governments to support law enforcement. Many local leaders are mirroring this approach, centering their gun violence prevention strategies on increasing funding for police and rolling back criminal justice reforms.

What these enforcement-based approaches fail to recognize is that the recent rise in homicides is more nuanced than it appears. Rather than a widespread dispersal of gun violence within cities, the increases in gun homicides are largely concentrated in disinvested and structurally disadvantaged neighborhoods that had high rates of gun violence to begin with. This geographic concentration is a persistent challenge, not a new one—and it requires targeted solutions to improve outcomes in disinvested places rather than reverting to the old “tough on crime” playbook.

This piece takes a deeper look at patterns of gun violence in four cities—Chicago, Nashville, Kansas City, Mo. and Baltimore—and finds that each city’s gun homicide increases were driven predominantly by increases in neighborhoods where gun violence has long been a persistent fixture of daily life, alongside systemic disinvestment, segregation, and economic inequality. These patterns point to the longer-term need to address the place-based factors that influence violence and invest in the critical community infrastructure that has not only been proven to make communities safer, but can also help them thrive.

Continue reading “”

I can guarantee with near metaphysical certitude that if you hear this on the MSM, it’ll be spun to appear as racist as possible.

Experts Say the ‘Defund the Police’ Movement Led to a Massive Spike in Black Murders.

The immediate aftermath of the murder of George Floyd saw a dramatic increase in violent crime across the country. But the political movement Floyd’s death spawned — “Defund the Police” — ended up creating a massive spike in the murders of black people as law enforcement pulled back from policing black communities in what’s referred to as “The Ferguson Effect.”

The left sniffs at the Ferguson Effect because it, in essence, blames their coddling of violent protesters for the spike in crime. But given the anecdotal evidence from every large city about the reality of the effect —some police making a conscious effort not to get involved — it would seem that the Ferguson Effect can certainly be included among any causes for the increase in violent crime.

The year 2020 may have been unique because of the pandemic and conditions surrounding the lockdowns.

Continue reading “”

Man, 21, arrested a week after 3 killed at Georgia gun range

GRANTVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a fatal armed robbery at a Georgia gun range that left three members of a family dead last week.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday that Jacob Christian Muse, of College Park, is charged with three counts of malice murder.

Grantville officers who arrived at the scene of Lock Stock & Barrel Shooting Range on the night of April 8 discovered the bodies of the gun range’s owner, along with his wife and grandson.

Investigators said that as many as 40 guns and the range’s surveillance camera were also stolen. Authorities did not release additional information about Muse’s arrest.

All those state and federal laws about possession of guns by crims being illegal….and they just don’t seem to work.

26-Year-Old Arrested in Connection With Sacramento Mass Shooting, Police Chief Says

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento police have arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with Sunday’s deadly mass shooting, the city’s police chief confirmed.

Dandrae Martin was taken into custody and booked on charges of assault with a firearm and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, police Chief Kathy Lester told KCRA 3’s Ty Steele in an exclusive interview Monday morning.

Continue reading “”

With all the smuggled fentanyl being confiscated, I’d think an OD with that would work just fine.

South Carolina is ready for death by firing squad after shortage of lethal injection drugs left 37 on death row waiting execution

South Carolina is set to use firing squads to carry out executions
The state put a halt on the process when it could only provide deaths by the electric chair last year, which death row inmates rejected as their only choice
The Corrections Department has spent $53,600 to upgrade its capital punishment facility to accommodate death by firing squad
Experts have said the method is humane and kills instantly, with the last such execution taking place in Utah in 2010
Two death row inmates in Oklahoma had asked for death by firing squad over lethal injection, but their plea was rejected by a US District Court judge
Inmates Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens are expected to be the first to be given the choice between death by electrocution or firing squad in South Carolina

Continue reading “”

Sure sounds like the prosecutor really wanted to charge and prosecute, but realized he didn’t have a case

Homeowner who shot alleged burglar in self defense won’t face charges

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The Hennepin County Attorney is declining to file charges against the homeowner accused of shooting an intruder last month in Minneapolis who claimed she acted in self-defense.

Thirty-year-old Martin Lee Johnson was shot and killed outside a home along the 3300 block of 25th Avenue South on February 22.

According to police, Johnson was shot after apparently trying to break into a home that night. The county attorney says Ring camera video shows Johnson jumping six-foot privacy fence that surrounds the backyard of the home and trying to enter through a patio door.

Prosecutors say the video shows that, after failing to get in the patio door, Johnson then went into a detached garage through a door in the backyard.

Is it self-defense to shoot an intruder who has entered your detached garage? The Hennepin County Attorney’s office said Monday it is “deferring” a charging decision in the Feb. 22 shooting that left a man dead.

By this point, prosecutors say the homeowner had spotted Johnson on the Ring camera. Arming herself with a pistol, the homeowner went to make sure Johnson had left and had not tried to enter her home. Police say she also told her son to grab a rifle from downstairs in case the man tried to get inside. According to prosecutors, the homeowner has a legal permit to carry.

After realizing the man was still in the garage, the homeowner told police she fired warning shots with the pistol and warned the man to leave. But the homeowner says the man continue walking towards the homeowner and her son.

Ultimately, police say the man was shot once in the chest and later died from those injuries. The homeowner told police the man appeared to reach into his waistband when she shot him with the rifle.

Prosecutors say, after the shooting, the homeowner gave voluntary interviews with officers and allowed investigators to access the Ring camera footage.

As for the evidence, prosecutors say the medical examiner was unable to determine, with 100 percent certainty, which gun fired the fatal bullet. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says they don’t have evidence to disapprove a self-defense argument.

“While this case is tragic, there is not sufficient proof that the homeowner and/or her son are guilty of a crime,” a news release from the county attorney reads. “Based on the evidence provided to our office, it appears the woman and her son would have valid self-defense claims.”

Not surprisingly, crimes like this aren’t happening all that much in places where demoncraps aren’t in charge of the goobermint

Carjackings in cities like NYC, Philadelphia jump over 200% – often with kids behind the wheel, officials say.

Carjackings have skyrocketed 200% — or more — in multiple big cities across the county in past years, as law enforcement officials and crime experts pleaded with lawmakers on Tuesday for help addressing the rampant issue, with one official warning: “Anyone in a car is a potential victim.”

“The primary goal is to do our best to ensure that no one has a gun in their face demanding their car in the first place.”

— Dallas Police Chief Edgardo “Eddie” Garcia, to Fox News Digital

Law enforcement executives and officials from crime monitoring agencies from across the country convened on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing to address the startling trends related to carjackings. During his time at the microphone, National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) president and CEO David Glawe revealed some cities saw carjacking upticks as high as more than 280% between 2019 and 2021.

“A disturbing subplot to these bleak numbers is that many carjackings are often committed in furtherance of other serious violent crimes, and many carjackings are committed by juveniles are committed by juveniles — some as young as 11 years old,” Glawe explained.

Glawe was joined by Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, Metropolitan Family Services executive director Vaughn Bryant, Alliance for Automotive Innovation president and CEO John Bozzella, former U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman and Dallas Police Department Chief Edgardo “Eddie” Garcia.

Garcia, who also spoke on behalf of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, testified that the increase in carjackings is being driven by certain factors, such as financial gain and to further other violent criminal activity.

“Many of these carjackings are also committed by juveniles seeking to gain notoriety on social media or as part of gang initiations,” he said.

He pointed to reluctant prosecutors and judges who “continue to release violent and repeat offenders pretrial,” and noted that the challenges also apply to juvenile offenders.

Continue reading “”

Seattle PD having trouble hiring new officers

Politicians often can’t really afford to be far-sighted. Their constituents want immediate results, not the promise of better days down the road.

Yet officials can be far too short-sighted for their own good. Seattle, for example, was another of a handful of cities that cut funding to their police department not all that long ago.

Now, that may well be causing problems.

Violent crime reached a 14-year high in Seattle last year as the city’s police department deals with a staffing shortage that is straining its ability to protect the community.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said during his state of the city address this week that there is funding to hire 125 new officers this year and put more resources on the street.

“The depleted staffing we see today does not allow us to react to emergencies and crime with the response times our residents deserve,” Harrell said Tuesday.

“It does not allow us to staff the specialty teams we need for issues like domestic violence or DUI or financial crimes targeting the elderly,” he said. “It does not allow us to conduct the thorough investigations we expect to make sustainable change.”

Twenty officers left the force in January, 171 officers exited last year, and 186 officers separated from the force in 2020 amid the push to defund the police, according to KOMO. Only 137 officers have been hired in that time span.

In other words, Seattle treated officers like crap, demonized them, and then are absolutely and completely shocked that they can’t hire officers.

Yep. The whole thing is an absolute mystery. Not a soul could have seen this one coming, now could they?

I mean, other than every person with a functional brain, that is.

Look, cops are people. Not only does that mean some will be good and some will be bad, it also means they want to be appreciated for what they do and know they’re supported by their leadership.

Additionally, when you’ve demonized them in the press, you can’t really expect applicants to flock to fill the void. It’s just not going to work that way.

“You know, the media and the city have been treating police like crap. I just can’t wait to get me some of that!” said no one ever.

This is of Seattle’s own making, much like what’s going on in San Francisco right now. You can’t demonize the police then be surprised when things don’t go well in the aftermath.

I get that they shouldn’t be lionized and shielded from liability for their mistakes, but there’s a middle ground that most people can understand and respect between those two extremes. Most people want that middle ground, even.

Unfortunately, public officials are too short-sighted to see that appeasing a mob one day might come back to bite them in the backside in the not-so-distant future.

So, here we are. Seattle can’t get enough police officers and seems genuinely confused as to why. Frankly, were it not for good people who are going to get hurt, I’d just sit here and laugh at them.

These proggies voted their proggie goobermint in.
They sowed the wind, and we know what you reap from that…
The Whirlwind!

San Francisco residents report police doing nothing

During the push to “defund the police,” San Francisco was knee-deep in things. In fact, while few places actually reduced police funding, they did.

Eventually, due to soaring crime, the city reversed that. They really didn’t have a choice at that point.

However, it doesn’t seem to be helping. Why? Because the police don’t seem interested in actually arresting anyone.

After weeks battling the bewildering bureaucracy of San Francisco’s criminal justice system, Danielle Kuzinich finally has some answers in the strange case of the thrashed parklet and the do-nothing cops.

Just before dawn on Dec. 31, firefighters witnessed a man wrecking the charming parklet outside the San Francisco Wine Society in the Financial District and notified police. Security camera footage from a nearby hotel shows police arriving, chatting with a firefighter, talking to a man sitting next to piles of parklet debris and leaving. It then shows the man continuing to trash the area.

Now, a man police believe is the culprit is in jail — busted only because he allegedly went on to commit more vandalism days after the Wine Society mess. But the episode spotlighted an issue bigger than one arrest: a pattern of some officers on the San Francisco force seemingly uninterested in dealing with crime.

Numerous readers shared stories of police indifference after reading last week’s column about Kuzinich’s frustrating experience — and how it adds to their feeling that San Francisco city government, and its criminal justice system in particular, is broken.

They had questions. Is property crime in some ways allowed in our city? Are police on an unofficial strike or work stoppage?

In a visit to The Chronicle newsroom Tuesday, Police Chief Bill Scott promised that’s not the case.

“I can confidently say that’s not happening,” he said. “I get a report every morning of last night’s activities, and there’s a lot of great work being done.”

Not officially, in any case.

However, if this is a recurring problem, there’s probably a reason for it. Scott knows this, too.

He acknowledged, though, that the department has “serious morale issues” because of understaffing, intense scrutiny amid the police reform movement and tussles with District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Still, he said, that’s no excuse for not addressing crime.

“Despite the reason that an officer may be in that mental state where they might think it’s not a big deal for them to bother with it, it is a big deal,” Scott said. “And when they don’t do their job, I have to hold them accountable.”

The problem, though, is that they were thrown under the bus for something that didn’t even happen in their city.

Following the death of George Floyd during an arrest, departments all over the nation felt the heat. A few, like San Francisco, saw their funding cut by politicians who were essentially blaming them for something that happened in Minneapolis.

As a result, one shouldn’t be surprised when the police are less inclined to engage with someone committing a crime.

After all, any criminal offense can result in someone dying under certain circumstances. Is it any wonder that these guys would opt not to do much?

I’m not excusing it, mind you, just understanding it. They’re paid to do a job and they’re supposed to do it. Failure to do that should result in some degree of punishment. That’s simply not a matter up for debate in my book.

But the leadership in San Francisco needs to accept their own role in this. They need to understand that while the officers on the street need to step up, they’re not doing so as a result of their own actions.

Police officers aren’t mindless myrmidons who simply do as they’re told without thought or feeling. They’re people who are trying to do the best they can in most cases, and they don’t appreciate being vilified by their own leadership.

There already is a proven solution to this. Richmond Virginia tried it out awhile back and it worked very well; Project Exile.
Among those 500 people, I’m betting about half of them have evidence that can lead to more arrests. DC has about 3400 officers, so why can’t they round up about 2000 officers to pick them all up simultaneously?

Study: DC gun crimes involve ‘small number’ of people

A study finds that suspects in violent crime in the District share a lot of characteristics.

The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform looked at the numbers for homicides and nonfatal shooting in D.C. in 2019 and 2020, and found that “most gun violence is tightly concentrated on a small number of very high-risk young Black male adults that share a common set of risk factors.”

Those factors include involvements in street crews, a previous criminal justice history and connection to a recent shooting. Often, they’ve been the victims of crime themselves. While the motive for the shooting “may not be a traditional gang war,” the report says, “often shootings are precipitated by a petty conflict over a young woman, a simple argument, or the now-ubiquitous social media slight.”

The homicide rate in D.C. rose by 18% in 2020 compared to 2019, the study found, and about 500 identifiable people are behind 70% of the 863 incidents involving gun violence. The studies also showed that about 200 people are driving a majority of these incidents at any one point in time.

More than 90% of victims and suspects in 2019 and 2020 were male and about 96% were Black.

The study also found that another 86% of victims and suspects have been involved with the criminal justice system and the average age of victims is 31, while the average age of suspects is 27 years old.

They found that, in terms of prior arrests, “victims and suspects were remarkably similar.”

NICJR is now recommending a clear, citywide strategic plan and is working with the District and community members to create a path forward, stressing that “a small number of very high-risk individuals are identifiable; their violence is predictable and therefore it is preventable.”

The study says the strategy will require intervention for people at high risk, which “requires frequent and regular assessment of recent shootings and identification of individuals likely to retaliate based on the findings of this report.”

You can read the report online.

If Dems Wants to Do Something About ‘Rise in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes,’ They Can Start By Being Tough on Crime

Saturday marks the 80th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing an executive order that began the removal of 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps. DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and DNC AAPI Caucus Chair Bel Leong-Hong issued a joint statement commemorating that day. The joint statement also closed by claiming it’s Democrats who are righting for the safety of Americans, while at the same time calling out anti-Asian hate crimes.

Such a mention may be bold, or even stupid. In many Democratic-run cities, crime has exploded. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, as Katie reported, has dismissed a “soft on crime policies” approach as an “alternate universe.” Worse, Democratic DA’s are no help.

“Unfortunately, Japanese Americans and the AAPI community continue to face violence and discrimination because of their identities,” the joint statement acknowledged. “The rise in anti-Asian hate crimes must stop, and perpetrators must be prosecuted. Democrats have fought and will continue to fight to secure the rights, safety, and prosperity of all Americans, including those facing injustice and discrimination, in order to ensure a better and brighter future for our nation,” it closed with.

The version of the statement shared on Twitter did not mention such a modern-day application, curiously enough.

If Democrats truly feel that “perpetrators must be prosecuted,” then they can start in their own cities, with their own DAs.

A recent and tragic case in point is with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who only just recently has been reversing course on his super soft on crime approach over backlash, as Landon has covered. According to the New York Post, which I’ve mentioned in my own articles, there have been whispers of a recall effort against Bragg, who only just took office at the beginning of this year.

Among many changes, Bragg initially made, as Spencer highlighted, was the lack of prison time except for crimes of homicide and some other of the most violent offenses. Bragg also had the audacity to claim “I don’t understand the pushback” when people expressed concerns.

These changes from Bragg’s office haven’t been enough, though.

Continue reading “”