Law & Order – Page 8

New Prosecutor In McCloskey Gun Case Says He’ll Start With “Blank Slate”

Even though St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner was ousted as the prosecutor overseeing the case against Mark and Patricia McCloskey last year, the couple still faces charges of unlawful use of a weapon and tampering with evidence. Now, a former U.S. Attorney has been appointed as a special prosecutor to oversee the case, and he’s promising to take a new look at all of the evidence in question.

[Richard] Callahan said Wednesday from his Jefferson City home that he’s no stranger to prosecuting politically charged cases and will approach this one no differently. He said he stepped down last week from his post as a senior judge in Cole County to accept the special appointment.

“I am going to approach it the same way I’ve done anything in the last 49 years — start with a blank slate, follow the evidence and see where it takes me,” said Callahan, who is 73.

It’s good that Callahan says he’ll approach the case with an open mind, because there’s been a great deal of criticism leveled against Gardner for her decision to prosecute the couple to begin with. The McCloskeys were on their own property when hundreds of protesters entered their private community and marched towards the home of St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson last June.

Nine individuals were initially charged with misdemeanor trespassing violations , but attorneys for the city dropped the cases last fall after trustees for the private Portland Place neighborhood said they didn’t want to pursue prosecution. Joel Schwartz, the McCloskeys’ attorney, said at the time that the city’s decision wouldn’t impact his clients’ defense, which is centered around the state’s Castle Doctrine.

Missouri’s Castle Doctrine law allows people to use deadly force to defend their property, and that’s what the McCloskeys were doing, he said.

“It’s is abundantly clear the crime of trespassing was committed in this case, making the McCloskeys actions perfectly legal,” he said. “Just because the city counselor decided not to charge them changes nothing.”

I’m curious to see if Callahan proceeds with the case after reviewing all of the evidence, or if he drops all of the charges against the McCloskeys. I’m also really looking forward to hopefully learning more about the evidence tampering charge that Patricia McCloskey faces, given that it was Kim Gardner’s own office that fiddled with the firearm and restored it to working condition. The McCloskeys maintain that the gun had been disabled before it was used as a piece of evidence in a trial that they were involved in, and that they never fixed the gun so it could fire again.

I’ve thought the case against the McCloskeys was a weak one from the start, but we’ll have to wait to see what the special prosecutor concludes. Given the fact that Gov. Mike Parson has already said that he’ll pardon the couple if they are convicted, Callahan could save tax payers a lot money and the McCloskeys a lot of grief if he were to conclude that the original charges filed by Kim Gardner weren’t justified.

Of course in doing so Callahan would kick off a whole new controversy, and Gardner would almost certainly complain that, while she was kicked off the case because she used the McCloskeys’ arrest as a fundraising tool, any decision to drop the charges against the pair would be just as political in nature. Of course, she’ll be able to do that anyway if the couple were convicted and Parson does end up issuing a pardon.

The Left will complain about the McCloskeys no matter how this case ends up, because there’s zero chance that they’ll actually do any time or end up with a criminal record. Callahan could drop the charges, the McCloskeys could win their case at trial, or they could get a gubernatorial pardon. Given the fact that none of the trespassers are facing any charges either, the quickest route to justice, in my opinion, would be for the new special prosecutor to conclude that the McCloskeys shouldn’t be prosecuted at all.

Social media censorship legislation proposed in Kansas

A social media censorship bill, targeting companies like Facebook and Twitter that have been censoring and de-platforming conservative viewpoints, is being considered in Kansas.

According to Dr. Mark Steffen, the Republican State Senator from Hutchinson who is sponsoring the bill, his measure takes a unique approach to work around the Section 230 federal protections social media companies enjoy.

The Social Media Anti-Censorship Bill” SB187 targets the terms of service everyone agrees to — generally without having read them — when they create an account, under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.

Continue reading “”

California Is Worse Than You Think.

My colleague from the philosophy department was becoming increasingly angry. He was trying to be polite, but it was clear that he was raging inside. After a few minutes, he smiled a very strained smile and excused himself.

Our conversation was about California, or to be more specific, California governance. As readers can imagine, he was bullish on how the Democratic Party governs the state, California being perhaps the most one-party state in the USA. Every statewide election has gone to a Democrat in the last decade, and Democrats have a supermajority in the state legislature, which means that there is no meaningful Republican opposition and whatever the Democrats want, they get.

Not surprisingly, California governance is squarely progressive. The unions representing government employees effectively run the legislature, and as a result, pay, benefits, and pensions for those workers increasingly are straining the state budgets. (Steven Greenhut, a libertarian journalist based in California, has documented the unsustainable growth of government in that state for nearly two decades.) Yet, the state continues to march politically and economically in the progressive direction as though the laws of economics didn’t matter.

For the most part I have observed progressive California from far away, but my life took a different turn a few years ago, and the state is becoming my new home. I married a retired nurse from Sacramento in 2018, and because of health issues with her adult daughter, she has to remain in that city, something not in our original plans. Because my school’s campus either has been closed or severely restricted during the covid-19 lockdowns, I have spent most of the past year working from my wife’s home.

Living and working in California has offered me the opportunity to observe California progressivism up close, and it has been an interesting experience. Yes, the state where I officially reside, Maryland, is famously one-party and progressive, but the progressivism of California makes Maryland’s legislature look almost red state by comparison and surreal in some ways.

Continue reading “”

DOJ To Investigate Capitol Shooting Death of Air Force Vet Ashli Babbitt

The Department of Justice is opening an investigation into the death of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, 35, who was shot in the chest by a Capitol Police officer during Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol while trying to climb through a window and enter the House chambers.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin told CBS News that his office has opened a formal investigation into whether excessive force came into play in relation to Babbitt’s death, senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge reported through Twitter.

The office’s civil rights division will be the lead prosecutors for the case, which is also under investigation by the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Herridge also reported.

Sherwin’s office has also opened a homicide investigation into the death of Capitol Hill Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died of injuries Thursday night from the injuries he sustained while responding to the riots and engaging physically with attackers during the melee, reports CNN, quoting a statement from the Capitol Police.

Sicknick joined the department in July 2008 and had most recently served in the department’s First Responders Unit.

Babbitt, a California native, had served for 14 years in the Air Force. According to a friend and fellow veteran, she was an avid supporter of President Donald Trump and flew across the country to be at the president’s massive rally on Wednesday, reports The New York Post. Babbitt also live-streamed a part of the march from the rally to the Capitol.

In addition to Babbitt and Sicknick, another woman, Roseanne Boyland, died after she was trampled and two others died from medical emergencies.

Boston Marathon Bomber Files $250K Suit Over Treatment in Prison

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is suing the federal government for $250,000 over his treatment inside the Colorado supermax prison where he is serving a life sentence — claiming his baseball cap was confiscated and he has been restricted to only three showers a week, according to a new report.

In the handwritten suit, Tsarnaev accused guards and the warden at the Federal Correctional Complex Florence — called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” — of being “unlawful, unreasonable and discriminatory,” The Boston Herald reported.

Continue reading “”

Trump Is Considering Giving an Order That Should Terrify Joe Biden

I could write this article in just two words: Do it.

A new report is out saying that President Trump is currently considering the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. This comes after the revelation of at least four investigations involving the former VP’s son. Money laundering appears to be one of the chief concerns, though there are also other corruption issues at play. Joe Biden himself could also be fingered, given some of the past evidence we’ve seen that his knowledge of what went on is far deeper than he’s admitted (see: New Hunter Biden Email Further Implicates Joe Biden). Continue reading “”

Biden Urges Dems To Conceal Their Defund the Police Agenda Until After Georgia Runoffs

In a recording leaked to The Intercept, former Vice President Biden appeared to blame the “defund the police” movement for the Democrats’ shellacking down-ballot in the 2020 elections, and urged liberal civil rights leaders not to put public pressure on his incoming administration regarding police reform until after the Georgia Senate runoff elections in January.

“I also don’t think we should get too far ahead ourselves on dealing with police reform in that, because they’ve already labeled us as being ‘defund the police’ anything we put forward in terms of the organizational structure to change policing — which I promise you, will occur. Promise you.” Biden can be heard telling left-wing civil rights leaders in the recording. “Just think to yourself and give me advice whether we should do that before January 5, because that’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country… I just raise it with you to think about. How much do we push between now and January 5, we need those two seats, about police reform? But I guarantee you there will be a full-blown commission. I guarantee you it’s a major, major, major element…we can go very far.” Continue reading “”

Mexico Proves More Gun Control Does Not Mean Less Crime

Recently The Washington Post published an article depicting the rampant organized crime crisis in Mexico. There is no question that the crime and violence fueled by drug cartels in our southern neighbor are major problems for Mexico, the United States and for the global community. However, the authors make a mistake typical of the gun control crowd; they blame the firearm rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for the problems in Mexico.

Cartels are becoming bolder, showcasing weapons and drugs in videos used to not only attract potential recruits but also threaten those who might oppose them. Mexican officials who articulate their frustration in the article are very quick to blame cartel activity on their pro-gun northern neighbor and the authors are more than eager to parrot these inaccurate sentiments in the article.

The misplaced blame is unfortunate because the right solutions cannot be implemented if the problem is not correctly identified. If firearm rights are the problem, why does the United States not face a similar level of cartel-related violence? Particularly under President Trump, crimes are prosecuted. The government enforces the law. Making the United States more like Mexico, with its clearly ineffective gun control policies, will not solve Mexico’s problem and is surely not a successful model for the U.S. to follow. Continue reading “”

I often think about giving these over-educated morons exactly what they’re asking for. Then I consider that it would also mean that there will be no one to enforce gun laws….decisions, decisions.

Ivy League librarians demand a ‘world without policing’

A group of 13 “abolitionist librarians” from Ivy League universities who call themselves “AbLA Ivy+” is demanding that their colleagues “immediately begin the work of divesting from police and prisons.”

The Association of Research Libraries released a statement in support of “protests against police brutality” in June. It called on “leaders of libraries and archives to examine our institutions’ role in sustaining systems of inequity.”

The statement demands that “material resources are procured and highlighted to chronicle the history of white supremacy, oppression of marginalized peoples, and the laws and policies that create systemic inequities” as well as attention to hiring those “who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color.”

In a more recent statement, AbLA Ivy+ claims that while these actions should be “applauded,” they “have not gone far enough.” The group wants Ivy League librarians to “explicitly name policing itself as the problem” and take actions that will lead to the “complete abolition of law enforcement.” Continue reading “”

Interstate shootings don’t surprise police, who say streets are flooded with guns

ST. LOUIS – Two interstate shootings Monday have people wondering if they’re safe anywhere. But they are just the beginning of the violence police say they’re seeing every day.

“The streets are absolutely flooded with stolen guns,” Maryland Heights Police Chief Bill Carson said.

The chief said many of them are coming from legal gun owners who are carrying them in their cars. Carson said it’s so prevalent now that criminals are confident they’ll find a gun when breaking into a car. He said the criminals are “looking specifically for guns. They’re finding guns and a lot of times when we encounter them, they are armed with guns they’ve stolen out of cars.” Continue reading “”

Plans to disarm Portland State campus police on hold after too many quit.

Portland State University announced in August its plan to disarm campus police officers by replacing their firearms with tasers, but those plans have been put on a temporary hold.

The plan to disarm officers was announced earlier in 2020 after rallies and protesters at PSU called for justice for Jason Washington, who was killed by officers in 2018. Campus Reform reported on the efforts of PSU students and staff to disarm officers in 2019.

Campus Police Chief Willie Halliburton stated that in order for unarmed officers to be safe, the school would need two officers for every shift, which hasn’t been possible due to the retirement or resignation of several officers.

In a video message addressing the issue, Halliburton stated, “I am fully committed to transforming this police agency into a unit that will achieve these goals. We’ll do this without carrying weapons while on patrol.” Continue reading “”

Justice Department hires More Guns, Less Crime author John Lott

The Justice Department hired a Second Amendment advocate last month who has argued that crime could be reduced through less gun control.

John Lott, 62, was hired to be a senior adviser for research and statistics at the Office of Justice Programs division, which provides over $5 billion in annual grants.

“I took a job at the Department of Justice. I’m really not supposed to say more than that,” Lott told Politico.

Lott came to the agency from a nonprofit organization he founded in 2013, dubbed the Crime Prevention Research Center, which studies the “relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime, and public safety.” Continue reading “”

“Defund the police” and the damage done.

“DEFUND THE POLICE” AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Remember the debate over the meaning of the phrase “defund the police”? Repeated over and over on the progressive left, it seemed pretty clear — it meant that cities should no longer fund, and thus effectively abolish, their police forces. But some Democrats worried that embracing such a radical proposal might hurt them politically, so they suggested that it actually meant re-directing some, but not all, funds from police to things like mental health treatment and affordable housing. Nothing too radical.

Every time Democrats thought they had limited the political damage done by a literal interpretation of “defund the police,” some progressive voice would mess it all up. For example, in June, the New York Times published an op-ed headlined, “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police.” Continue reading “”

Hundred Plus Miles Of New Border Wall Seeing Positive Results In Western Arizona.

Construction workers are buzzing with work along a 126 mile-long portion of the United State’s southern border with Mexico, as a wall is being erected with the goal in mind of reducing the number of illegal immigrants able to cross over into our country. An already completed section of the wall located in Arizona is said to be delivering impressive results. border wall positive results

via Washington Examiner:

The back and forth between smugglers and Border Patrol continued after Porvaznik took over the region in 2015. Arrests of illegal immigrants doubled. During last year’s border crisis, up to 60% of his agents were so overwhelmed with illegal immigrant arrests, half of whom were families, that taking care of detainees took up more time than their normal law enforcement duties. The “hodgepodge” of existing barriers was not cutting it.

The new wall is comprised of six-inch square posts filled with concrete. A gap of four inches was left between each post to allow agents to see through the fence when looking straight at it. The only downside to agents is that a five-mile stretch of the border will not get new wall because the land belongs to the Cocopah Reservation. This area is where agents are seeing the most illegal immigration right now, an indication of the new wall’s success at preventing illegal entries.

Agents suspect that when the coronavirus pandemic passes and they are no longer able to immediately return illegal immigrants south of the border, as they have been able to, more will attempt to sneak into the U.S. With so many miles of new wall in place, Porvaznik thinks his agents now actually stand a chance at holding the line.

“We’re much better positioned right now to deal with that traffic when they do come than we have been in the past,” he said.

Liberals have been telling us that these sort of fences will not work to keep folks out of the country, but that’s obviously not the case. Sure, individuals bent on crossing the border illegally will somehow manage to find a way, but many will also be discouraged by the difficulty posed by this wall. And if they try, the fence will slow them down, giving our border agents more time to “greet” them.

President Trump promised that at least 400 miles of the wall will be built by the end of 2020. Per DHS, as of October 19, 371 miles of the wall has been built.

In and of itself, that will reduce the strain on border patrol officers and enable them to better protect it without feeling outnumbered or outmatched. Trump was right about the wall, just like he’s been right about so many other issues.

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 “”

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 “”

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

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 “”