Law & Order – Page 6

Man faces [a new] felony gun charge less than 48 hours after having gun case dropped in “restorative justice” court

Friday was a big day for 21-year-old Armando Rodriguez. Prosecutors wiped his slate clean by dropping four felony gun charges he was facing in Avondale “restorative justice” court.

Less than 36 hours later, police allegedly found an intoxicated Rodriguez sitting in a car with a gun on his lap at a Near North Side gas station. Prosecutors on Sunday charged him with a fresh felony gun charge.

When Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced the Avondale Restorative Justice Community Court last summer, he said the court would resolve conflicts through “restorative conferences and peace circles” instead of typical criminal court procedures.

“We have recognized for a long time that young people need a second chance,” Evans said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Rodriguez, who would become one of the court’s first participants, may have blown that second chance in record time.

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New York City To Pay Criminals Not To Shoot People

When I was a kid, I got money for good grades on my report card and doing chores around the house. What I didn’t get money for is not screwing up. What I got was not being grounded, which seemed like a pretty good deal for me. However, New York City figures they can make the deal even better.

They’re going to pay people to not commit violent crimes.

No, seriously. From The Trace:

NEW from THE TRACE: New York to spend $1 million piloting Advance Peace, a violence prevention program that uses financial incentives. The city will launch in a precinct in each borough and pair fellows, or young people deemed at-risk for being involved in gun crime, with formerly incarcerated mentors. Other cities that have implemented Advance Peace pay fellows a stipend of roughly $1,000 per month, as well as bonuses for meeting agreed-upon goals like getting a driver’s license or passing the GED.

Mentors will begin training this month, and fellows will enroll in the program later this fall. The pilot is being administered by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, which oversees myriad anti-violence programs that have grown in response to a surge in gun violence.

“I [see] Advance Peace as an opportunity to put our money where our mouth is, investing in people who have been disinvested for generations,” said K. Bain, the executive director of a violence prevention nonprofit who is also helping coordinate Advance Peace with City Hall. Champe Barton has more on the program, and its challenging rollout, here — a partnership with The City.

Wait…I haven’t committed a violent crime. Where’s my money?

Ok, let’s get serious for a moment here. Programs like this are easy to make fun of. The question is, does it work, and if it does, is it worth the cost.

My inner libertarian looks at this and automatically wants to dismiss this. After all, why the hell are you paying tax dollars to people for not breaking the law? And if you’re going to do this, what about all those other people who aren’t breaking the law. You’re kind of taking a dump on them.

However, I need to remind myself that this is a targeted approach. These are people who are generally already problem people and the money is meant to serve as an incentive to keep them doing what they should be doing. In that way, it was like my report card money. I was supposed to study and do my homework because it was my responsibility, but the money motivated me to at least try and do that (spoiler: I didn’t, but that was just me).

If Advance Peace works, it could ultimately save the city billions. After all, if they’re getting GEDs instead of getting locked up, they’ll be able to pay their own way.

My concern here is whether $1,000 is going to make much of a difference considering how expensive New York City actually is. Will it be much of an incentive?

But, I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it works or not.

Vigilantes?
Well, if goobermint isn’t going to do the job……
Dare I say it again?
I dare.
¡Grupos de Autodefensas Para Tu y Mi!

‘Vigilantism’ a fear in wake of new laws

PORT ANGELES — A state legislator and the Clallam County sheriff painted dire pictures Wednesday in depicting a use-of-force police reform bill that went into effect Sunday.

State Rep. Mike Chapman said HB 1310 may soon be clarified by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a manner that will make it less onerous.

The Port Angeles Democrat, who said he has received heat from his constituents for voting against it and six other police reform bills, and Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict, a critic of HB 1310, gave their takes on the measure at a virtual county Economic Development Council “Coffee with Colleen” meeting.

Their message followed a critical view of the measures offered by Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith and Deputy Chief Jason Viada on Tuesday before the Port Angeles Business Association.

House Bill 1310, which sets use-of-force parameters and was cosponsored by Chapman’s 24th District Democratic colleague, Steve Tharinger of Port Townsend, was criticized by Chapman and Benedict as being unclear and procedurally confining for law enforcement to the detriment of public safety.

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Benedict said.

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Portland Police Struggles to Recruit Officers to Combat Rising Murder Rate

Recruitment for Portland police’s revived Gun Violence Reduction team is at a dismal level as violent crime continues to surge in the riot-torn city.

The revelation comes on the heels of the June 16 resignation of the Portland Police Bureau’s entire Rapid Response Team, known commonly as the “riot squad” responsible for policing riot-related violence, after an officer was indicted.

According to the Wall Street Journal, retirements and resignations are also rising at local police departments across the country. There was an 18 percent increase in resignations and a 45 percent increase in retirements from April 2020 through March 2021 compared with the same period one year ago, according to a June survey by DC-based think tank Police Executive Research Forum.

And, in the Rose City itself, since 14 job openings were announced in May, only four police personnel have applied to work with Portland’s new version of the Gun Violence Reduction Team. The unit was disbanded in 2020 amid an effort to defund the police and has recently been reinstated, although there have been several changes which appear to be unappetizing for prospective job applicants.

“Portland officers say such positions, once considered prestigious, are now less desirable, given the increased scrutiny that accompanies them,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The new unit has its own citizen-advisory board, instituted after the old unit was criticized by city leaders for racial profiling. A job description says qualifications include the ability to fight systemic racism.”

Daryl Turner, the person in charge of the union representing Portland police officers, stated: “They’re demonizing and vilifying you, and then they want to put you in a unit where you’re under an even bigger microscope.”

Following calls to defund the police, the Portland City Council last summer voted to slash $15 million from the city’s police department, including the 38-person gun violence reduction team, which was criticized for alleged racial profiling.

In 2019, 52 percent of the team’s stops were of black people, who make up 5.8 percent of the city’s population. After the team was disbanded, homicides rose. Portland police officials then proposed creating a new team in spring 2021.

There have been 53 homicides so far in 2021 and Portland is on pace to surpass its all-time high of 70 homicides in 1987, according to Portland police officials. The trend is unraveling Portland’s decades-long history of having one of the lowest homicide rates among major American cities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

May be just me, but in cases of dealing with criminals bent on violent mayhem, calling the police should be for clean up.

And a small change to an old saw:
When seconds count the police ~~are just minutes away~~ aren’t coming.

What happens when people call the police … and cops don’t come? Washington is about to find out.

MOSES LAKE, WA – What happens when you call for help and no one comes? People in Moses Lake and other Washington communities are about to find out.

Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr has been sounding the alarm since May about a package of new “police reform” laws that have been passed and signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee. Now, the Chief said police will follow the law.

Following the law means that many times, police will not be coming.

Of the laws passed this year, the main one of interest is House Bill 1310, or state Rep. Jesse Johnson’s “use of force” bill. It was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on May 18 and goes into effect July 25 of this year.

The bill requires police to have probable cause before using force, as opposed to reasonable suspicion.

The law also creates a new board to investigate officers accused of wrongdoing or excessive force, makes it easier to decertify or prosecute officers, and limits their ability to act.

During a June 22 meeting, Fuhr said:

“This is changing completely the way we’ve responded to some of these calls … and there will be some calls that we just absolutely don’t respond to from here on out.”

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BLUF:

I keep coming back to the idea that concentrating on rounding up the worst of the worst gangbangers would be much more efficient. By anybody’s count there are far fewer violent gang members operating in this country than there are guns. Would this get rid of all gun crime? No, but it would make a heck of a dent in it.

Take care of the demand problem and the supply side will surely slow.

Seems to me, she’s come to the same conclusion Bill Whittle did
“Maybe it’s not the guns. Maybe it’s the people holding the guns.”

Are guns really the problem?

The White House is launching a new assault to bring down the crime rate. As you’ve likely heard, crime, especially homicide, has exploded in many major hotspot cities over the past year or so. President Joe Biden says he knows what to do, he’s been at this for years and he’s got a plan ready to launch that includes several definitive steps.

“The first of those that work is stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violent crimes,” Biden told a group of reporters as he was about to go into a closed-door meeting with visiting police chiefs and city officials. “It includes cracking down and holding rogue gun dealers accountable for violating federal law.”

The new plan includes five new federal strike forces, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATFE), which will embed with local police departments in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Their mission is to disrupt gun trafficking coming into those major cities.

The president says he wants to “supercharge” the crime fighting effort, so he’s also urging communities to invest some of their portion of the $350 billion COVID-19 relief fund in policing and to establish more support programs, such as summer jobs for young people.

I wonder if during that closed-door White House meeting anyone broached the subject of the criminals holding those illegal guns the president wants rounded up.

The cold hard fact is this: There are some 470 million guns in civilian hands in the United States right now, with new ones — including untraceable, homemade ghost guns — being manufactured every day. Legal, registered gun sales are at record highs. If by some stretch of the imagination we could magically do away with all the guns belonging to criminals, what do you think might happen? Do you believe hardcore lawbreakers would simply shrug, walk away from their criminal life and go get a nine-to-five job? No. They would find other weapons with which to inflict their terror on innocent citizens. Knives, Molotov cocktails, scissors, an ax perhaps. Criminals aren’t just violent; they are deviously creative.

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The demoncrap majority in the Colorado legislature rescinded state ‘preemption’ of gun laws. Now the cities run by democraps can pass ordinances that will return the state to the hodgepodge of multifarious, various and sundry law that will make the state a minefield for the law abiding citizen to travel through. Which is exactly what the demoncraps want so they can have another way to bash their political enemies.

Jefferson County [Colorado] Sheriff won’t enforce Foothills concealed carry ban; says civil offense the district’s responsibility.

LITTLETON —Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader has sent a letter to the Foothills Parks and Recreation District (FPRD) clarifying any role his office would play in a possible future regulation to ban the concealed carry of a firearm by lawfully-permitted citizens on district-managed property.

“I have substantial concern in taking action against an individual who is otherwise acting in a legal and proper manner,” Shrader said in part in the letter.

Shrader’s office sent Complete Colorado, which broke the story outlining the district’s plan, a copy of the letter.

At issue is Senate Bill 21-256, which allows local governments to enact gun control laws within their jurisdiction that are “not less restrictive than state laws governing the sale, purchase, transfer, or possession of the firearm, ammunition, or firearm component or accessory.”

In other words, local governments may enact gun regulations only if they are stricter than those at the state level. A local government could not, for instance, expand gun rights or loosen existing restrictions under the new law, as one might expect under the traditional understanding of local control.

It was one of the many controversial measures aimed at restricting the rights of gun owners pushed through by majority Democrats in the 2021 session. What it also does, however, is allow local governments and special taxing districts to enact laws banning concealed carry.

Just three days after the governor signed the new law, FPRD staff asked its board to consider a ban on concealed carry of firearms on its facilities, which include three recreation centers, one 2-sheet ice arena, four indoor and four outdoor swimming pools and two indoor sports facilities, 68 park sites totaling more than 2,400 acres and including: four regional parks, 43 community and neighborhood parks, 21 greenbelts and two golf courses (totaling 54 holes).

Additionally, Foothills manages six regional trail corridors totaling 14.9 miles for public use, and nearly 18 miles park trails.

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Nationalizing the Capitol Police

Do we really want a nationwide federal police force accountable solely to a small number of legislators, not subject to FOIA and other citizen protections applicable to the executive branch? The Acting Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police has recently announced the expansion of their federal force into Florida and California. Two new field offices will be opening in Tampa and San Francisco, due to claims from Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman that the number of threats against sitting Congressmen has doubled in the last year.

However, this isn’t D.C.’s first effort to implement a new national police force. Just last June, House Democrats voted to pass H.R. 7120, an attempt to nationalize state and local police departments across the entire country, disguised as legislation for defunding the police.

Is it hypocritical that the same lawmakers who have been calling for a total overhaul of law enforcement since the death of George Floyd in police custody last May, now want their personal police force expanded nationwide? Absolutely, but that’s never stopped a politician before.

However, the USCP is a completely different beast. Unlike any other law enforcement agencies, including federal ones like the FBI, the Capitol Police fall under the legislative branch and therefore remain exempt from being subjected to oversight like the Freedom of Information Act.

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Rochester activists skeptical about federal gun violence task force: ‘Not in our community’

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Community activists are speaking out about their thoughts on the newly announced federal task force to combat gun violence in Rochester.

The VIPER task force, which stands for the Violence Prevention and Elimination Response, promises an enhanced and proactive look at gun violence in the community. US Attorney James Kennedy announced the force Wednesday.

Rochester has seen more than 200 shootings this year and 38 homicides, and Kennedy said over the past three years, there has been a 150 percent increase in violent crimes in Rochester.

City activist Antonia Wynter was at Wednesday’s task force announcement. She says because of the spike in violence, she is ready to give the new task force a chance.

“It’s traumatic, it’s unsettling, it’s scary, so I understand that they want to bring these people in, but we just really need to work together because nobody wants to see shootings,” Wynter said.

Wynter said her and other city activists want to stress that they want to be part of the conversation. She said it’s important law enforcement officials converse with those who live in Rochester.

“You have a lot of people that come in with data and you have people that are, not necessarily bad, but they are out of touch,” Wynter said. “If you are not in our community, you may not understand the things that we understand, you don’t see the things that we see, so that’s just, like I said, giving you information that will assist the law enforcement in the reduction and solving some of the issues.”

Wynter also says she wants officials to know they don’t want to be over-policed because some of the community is struggling to maintain good relationships with local law enforcement agencies.

She also emphasized the important of proactive, community-based policing.

“Guns themselves are not the problem, it’s the mindset of the person who has the gun in their hand that is problematic,” Wynter said.

Free the People ROC, a local Black Lives Matter group, released the following statement denouncing the federal task force Wednesday:

“Federal law enforcement are using the same strategies that destroyed Black and brown communities, ruined lives, and created the largest prison population in the world. We can’t punish our way to safety. Public safety and an end to the violence demands real community investment, violence interruption, and mental health and substance use services. Stop-and-frisk, pretextual stops, and other forms of ‘proactive’ policing openly discriminate against Black men and open the door for more devastating police violence.

We urge our city leaders to invest in actual solutions by bringing in Advance Peace, a proven community-based violence interruption program that doesn’t rely on policing and punishment to prevent violence. Unlike the proposed federal task force, Advance Peace has a track record of decreasing gun violence in communities like ours. It’s time to act.”

The VIPER task force is a 60-day program that will focus on reducing gun violence by enhancing proactive policing, while working with agencies like the ATF, FBI and US Marshalls to find gun offenders and those who buy and sell guns.

All local gun charges will also be subject to review by state and federal prosecutors on a daily basis.

Federal officials plan to hold an open meeting with the public that will be scheduled in the coming days. After 60 days, officials say they are going to look at the results of this task force and reassess.

BLUF:
Officials responsible for the release of thousands of violent prisoners are accessories before the fact of the additional crimes. State legislatures and governors who have canceled cash bail and released those accused of violent crimes into the public are accessories before the fact of the crimes that those released commit. The many Soros-funded radical district attorneys who refuse to charge violent offenders are accessories after the fact, and accessories before the fact of the crimes that those released go on to commit.

All of these officials are guilty of reckless endangerment in the undermining of public safety. Most of these officials have immunity to protect them from being punished for their criminality, but, as far as I am concerned, they should all be in jail. These Democrat officials are the “domestic terrorists” that the Biden administration is so keen to find.

Democrat Officials Are the Real ‘Domestic Terrorists.’

Blood is flowing in the streets of American cities. Gang members and anyone in the vicinity are being shot by rivals. Random pedestrians are being shot and stabbed. Public transit customers are being stabbed on subway cars and thrown off the platform and onto the rails. Little children are being shot in their strollers, on their porches, and in their car seats.

In 2020, according to the Washington Post, murders rose 45% in New York over 2019; in Chicago murders increased 56%, while Seattle saw a murder spike of 74%. Shootings rose 97% in New York. Across 57 large jurisdictions, murder increased by nearly 37%. “In Minneapolis, homicides increased by 60% in 2020, with many of the crimes left unsolved because there are fewer police detectives and other resources to work the cases.”

As violent as 2020 was, 2021is seeing skyrocketing violence over 2020. Murders in New York in the first ten days of 2021 were double what they were in 2020. Murders in Chicago were up 46% from the previous January. Homicides in Philadelphia to date were up 55% over 2020.

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NY AG brags about year long sting on gun traffickers
….and got nine (9) guns off the streets plus an even more piddling amount of drugs

47 Indicted For Roles In Drug, Firearm Trafficking: NY AG
Prosecutors said the charges were based on activity in the Capital Region, which also reached into the Hudson Valley.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that 47 people were indicted for what police said were their roles in two major drug and firearm distribution networks in the Capital Region and mid-Hudson Valley.

Prosecutors said the year-long investigation seized nearly 1.2 kilograms of cocaine, 140 grams of heroin mixed with fentanyl, oxycodone, $40,000 in cash and nine firearms, including one “ghost gun.”

Best Suggestion Yet Of What’s Behind Surge In Violence

The surge in violence that started last summer has kept on and has even grown worse this year. While things were nice and quiet during the lockdown, everything kicked up during the riots, and while that particular brand of violence sort of settled down eventually, the rest didn’t. It just kept on and on, spilling over into 2021.

Now, violent crime is soaring and the usual suspects are screaming about how there’s no alternative to gun control.

Except, there is. There always is.

In fact, even if gun control worked (spoiler: it doesn’t), there would still be alternatives. To find them, you have to identify what the problem actually is, though.

A recent op-ed, however, does a better job of explaining what we’re seeing than most of what I’ve seen.

DURING the fourth weekend of May this year, America experienced a surge of gun violence. CNN reported 12 mass shootings from Friday to Sunday across eight states, from New Jersey to Illinois. In response to these violent events, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said ‘certainly there is a gun problem’ in the country. Psaki’s diagnosis is incorrect; the rise in violence is due to what Heather Mac Donald has called ‘the Ferguson effect’.

A black youth, 18-year-old Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, was shot dead by a white police officer in 2014. This shooting led to an unsubstantiated charge of racism against the officer by everyone from the press to politicians. The ‘effect’ Mac Donald is referring to is law enforcement pulling back from proactive policing (also known as ‘broken windows policing’) to avoid being labelled racists by the court of public opinion and becoming a news story themselves. Criminals took advantage of this low police presence and have been wreaking havoc all over the country.

The Ferguson effect has also played out in George Floyd’s home city of Minneapolis. Whether or not Floyd’s arresting officer should have been charged with murder or manslaughter is debatable, but accusations of racism on the part of the police at the scene lack evidence. Nonetheless, these charges were slung and broadcast all over the media and, as a result, the Twin City is seeing a homicide rate twice what it was last year.

The author makes a good point.

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The federal goobermint desperately wants some new gun control law passed. They’re doing everything they can to get something, anything and the only thing that is stopping them – right now – is the Senate filibuster.
However, any new law will only matter if someone enforces it, and for the most part, it’s been local LE doing the lion’s share of it since there really isn’t enough fed LE to do the job. Thusly…………..

Utah sheriff’s department enacts policy defending gun rights

ARMINGTON, Utah (AP) — Davis County sheriff’s deputies and other department employees are prohibited under a new office policy from enforcing certain measures that could infringe on the right to bear arms.

The Standard-Examiner reported Sheriff Kelly Sparks says the policy is meant as a preventive measure and counterweight to any possible governmental action to interfere with gun rights in the county.

The policy took effect Tuesday, the same day county commissioners expressed support for the move.

Sparks says no specific measure or event prompted the change, and that the move is more “actionable” than declaring Second Amendment sanctuary status.

Did they fail to send in social workers?

U.S. cities that defunded their police are continuing to experience historic crime waves.

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING??

Cities That Pushed For Defunding The Police Reckon With Record-High Crime Rates

Liberal cities are facing a dramatic rise in violence which has forced city leaders to reevaluate their stance on defunding the police, a Sunday report says.

Here’s what has happened in a few cities that voted to slash police budgets:

Homicide grew by 44% in New York, which had 1,531 shootings and 462 murders in 2020.
Homicides also increased 36% in L.A. to 350, leading the police chief to say “a decade of progress” has been erased.
Minneapolis, the center of the “Defund the Police” movement, saw a 46% increase in murders.
Oakland, California has seen a staggering 314% increase in homicides.
Portland, Oregon has seen murders triple.
Austin, Texas has had a 26% increase in aggravated assault reports.
Chicago saw a 65% increase in homicides from June 2020 to February 2021, despite arrests dropping 53%.
Philadelphia hit a 30-year-high with homicides in 2020, with 499 people murdered.
Even smaller cities like Louisville, Kentucky had a record high of 173 murders and is on track to surpass that this year.

The New York Times reported that many such cities are now expanding their police budgets to try to deal with these outcomes that absolutely no one could have seen coming.

Great job, America!

This happens in California; which has the laundry list of every kind of gun control law the gun-grabbers in Washingtoon want for the rest of the country. Well, we can easily conclude that the gun control laws they say will decrease whatever, won’t, so, they want gun control for another reason. Of course we know what this is: People Control, because the old line about them wanting to do things that will wind up making it worthwhile to shoot them, just might be true.

8 killed in San Jose shooting, suspect also dead

A shooting at a rail yard in San Jose, California, early Wednesday left eight people dead, not including the suspect, who was also declared deceased after taking his own life, authorities confirmed.

The suspect was identified as Samuel Cassidy, who was an employee at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), where the incident took place, according to authorities. No motive is known for the shooting at this time.

Santa Clara County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Russell Davis said several explosive devices were found inside a building at the VTA control center. A bomb squad is at the scene and there is no present danger to the community, he said.

An investigation is also underway of an arson fire at what is believed to be the nearby home of the suspect. FBI agents and the San Jose Fire Department were at the second scene. Authorities say the house caught fire before the shooting at the VTA.

In Washington, D.C., principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House will continue to stay in close contact with local officials in San Jose, before using the shooting as an opportunity to call for Congress to strengthen background checks.

“The White House is monitoring the situation, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families,” Jean-Pierre said. “We still don’t have all the details, but what is clear, as the president has said, is that we are suffering from an epidemic of gun violence in this country, both in mass shootings and in the lives that are being taken in daily gun violence that doesn’t make national headlines.”

Deputies responded to multiple 911 calls around 6:30 a.m. local time about an “an active shooter” situation unfolding at a VTA facility in the area of 100 W. Younger Ave. and San Pedro Street in San Jose. VTA Chair Gel Hendricks confirmed that the shooting took place outside in the yard, not inside the control center. He said service would be suspended after the incident.

“It’s just very difficult for everyone to be able try to wrap their heads around and understand what has happened,” Hendricks said at a news conference………

The VTA provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the largest in the Bay Area and home to Silicon Valley.

The shooting took place at a light rail facility that is next door to the sheriff’s department headquarters and across a freeway from the airport. The facility is a transit control center that stores trains and has a maintenance yard. It’s also located just two blocks from county buildings, the main jail and a courthouse.

Below the Radar: Illegal Alien NICS Alert Act

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) has always been a flashpoint of contention among Second Amendment supporters. “No compromise” types viewed the push for NICS in 1993 as a sellout, while those who were of the incrementalist school of thought pointed out – justifiably – that NICS prevented a permanent waiting period.

In this light, we come to S 1261, the Illegal Alien NICS Alert Act, introduced by Senator Tom Cotton, a Second Amendment champion. This bill is a narrower version of the NICS Denial Notification Act, since it is strictly aimed at those in the country illegally. This falls under the “enforce existing laws” argument that some Second Amendment supporters have successfully wielded to halt anti-Second Amendment efforts in the past – see Project Exile.

Under 18 USC 922, illegal aliens are prohibited from possessing any type of firearm.

Regardless of your opinion on whether or not illegal immigration is a threat to the Second Amendment, this is a law that should be enforced, if for no other reason than a conviction for a federal felony charge serves as grounds for deportation. But on a more important factor, this legislation could be an opening for Second Amendment supporters in places where MS-13 runs rampant.

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Charges against woman involved in gun-waving incident during George Floyd rally are amended

A special prosecutor said Tuesday he has amended the charges against a St. Louis woman who waved a gun at racial injustice protesters last summer, and he’ll decide soon if he’ll amend charges against her husband.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were indicted by a grand jury in October on felony charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering. Special Prosecutor Richard Callahan said in a statement that he filed a new indictment on Monday that would give jurors the alternative of convicting Patricia McCloskey of misdemeanor harassment instead of the weapons charge. Under that alternative, the evidence tampering count would be dropped.

The move essentially gives a jury the option of convicting Patricia McCloskey of the lesser misdemeanor charge if it sees evidence of a crime that doesn’t reach the level of the felony charges.

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The reason I post this is that I really wonder why it took so long for the prosecutor to take this in front of a Grand Jury, not a question on the particulars of the case, of which I have no more information than what’s in the article.
It seems to me, that if a prosecutor takes this long to do his job, the problem isn’t the investigation of the facts of the case, it’s the prosecutor not liking the fact he had such a weak, or non-existent case that he couldn’t even convince a Grand Jury that there was just enough evidence to show ‘probable cause’. Which is all it takes for a Grand Jury to send a case to court.

Grand jury declines to indict man in Thanksgiving Day shooting death

JACKSON COUNTY, Ky. WTVQ) – A 45-year-old McKee resident has been released from jail after more than five months after a grand jury declined to indict him in connection with a shooting death on Thanksgiving Day 2020.

According to the Jackson County Detention Center and Commonwealth Attorney Gary Gregory’s office, the grand jury returned a ‘no true bill’ against Clint Cox and he was released from jail May 5.

A ‘no true bill’ means the grand jury did not find enough evidence to support a criminal indictment on murder or some related charge.

Gregory was out of his office Thursday but an assistant prosecutor said he didn’t hear the grand jury presentation in the case but usually a ‘no true bill’ in such a case meant some evidence of self defense.

Kentucky State Police Det. Rob Morris could not be reached for comment Thursday about the evidence.

Cox originally was arrested and charged with murder on Nov. 26 after he fatally shot 21-year-old Justin Burkhart during an argument outside a home on Highway 421 in the McKee community. He had been in jail since then until his release earlier this month.

ORIGINAL STORY POSTED NOV. 27, 2020

MCKEE, Ky. (WTVQ) – A Thanksgiving Day argument left one man dead and another in jail in Jackson County, according to Kentucky State Police.

Investigators say 21-year old Justin Burkhart, of McKee, got into an altercation outside a home on US Highway 421 with 45-year old Clint Cox, also of McKee.

KSP says Cox grabbed a gun and shot Burkhart to death. Investigators say it happened just after 2:00 p.m. They did not say what the argument was about.

State Police say Cox was arrested and charged with murder. He was taken to the Jackson County Detention Center.

Burkhart’s body is being taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville for an autopsy, according to KSP.

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by KSP Post 7 Detective Rob Morris. He was assisted at the scene by KSP personnel, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the Jackson County Coroner’s Office, Jackson County EMS and the McKee Fire Department.

Stillwater high schoolers stage ‘Back the Blue’ walkout

A group of Stillwater Area High school students walked out of class Thursday morning to show support for police officers.

Students were encouraged to wear blue and bring thin blue line flags. A group of counter-protesters also showed up.

The “Back the Blue” rally lasted about 20 minutes before everyone went back to class.

‘Police’ were often termed ‘Peace Officers‘. It indicated they would keep the peace (stop blood feuds and riots) by presenting complainants and offenders before a ‘Justice of the Peace‘ where, as far as possible, impartial, fair handed justice would be dealt out.
Police aren’t really there to protect the people, but to protect criminals from vigilante justice dealt out on the street.

Go ahead and defund the police, but get ready for vigilante justice
Those who are calling to end or radically alter the way this country is policed don’t have a good grasp of American history.

There was a time when vast swaths of this country were not policed, or were extremely under-policed.

In the late 19th Century, just three Deputy U.S. Marshals — Bill Tilghman, Chris Madsen, and Heck Thomas — were responsible for patrolling what would later become the State of Oklahoma. Their exploits are legendary.

For most Americans living outside of the large eastern metropolitan areas at that time, justice simply didn’t exist unless they meted it out themselves.

The first American police department wasn’t established until 1844 in New York City.

Boston and Philadelphia didn’t follow suit until a decade later.

These early departments were modeled upon the British police — the forerunner of the London Metropolitan Police was formed in 1789 — but they did not have detectives and were more concerned with preventing civil disorder and deterring thievery through visible patrol than investigating and solving crime.

In the West things were different.

Law and order were late in coming.

As a result, groups of citizens would band together to combat a specific threat — usually cattle rustling, horse thievery or a murder spree.

These extrajudicial citizen groups were called regulators, although today they would certainly be called vigilantes.

In Western towns without a police force, businesses would fund some of these vigilance groups to protect their property at night when the shop owners slept.

Nationally at this time, state governments granted authority to local businesses to create their own police forces — such as the Coal and Iron Police of Pennsylvania — which were accountable solely to the local CEO.

These “police departments,” which were routinely used as strike-breakers, further eroded public confidence in law and order, and were little more than vigilantes themselves.

Then, as now, when civil society broke down, Americans chose to arm themselves.

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