It’s a true reflection of the sad state of our justice system that we have to be suspicious of anything it does. When we first learned that Hunter Biden would likely be indicted, I was skeptical and felt that even if Special Counsel David Weiss did indict him, it would be a ruse. Still, when the indictments came down on Thursday, it was hard not to feel somewhat elated—but that suspicion still nags at me.
Seriously, does anyone believe that Hunter Biden will actually face any jail time? Would Weiss, one of the architects of Hunter’s ridiculous plea deal, actually put Hunter Biden behind bars? I don’t. But in the meantime, many think it is a possibility.
According to Mike Davis, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, we shouldn’t be fooled by these indictments, and he explains why.
“Don’t be fooled,” he began in a lengthy post on X/Twitter. “Today’s indictment of Hunter Biden for gun felonies is just more coverup by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who has protected the Bidens for years.”
He continued:
Weiss, handpicked by both Democrat home-state senators in Delaware, let the statute of limitations expire on serious tax charges, buried evidence deemed credible by the Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney of the Bidens’ alleged foreign bribery schemes, and attempted to give Hunter a sweetheart deal with secret, broad immunity that protected President Biden.
President Biden knows he cannot pardon Hunter right now. That would lead to politically and legally disastrous consequences before November 5, 2024. If pardoned, Hunter can no longer plead the Fifth Amendment–and refuse to testify before Congress. Hunter’s Fifth Amendment protections also disappear if Weiss gives Hunter a plea agreement with a prosecution waiver or some other immunity deal that shields him from criminal charges.
Weiss’s charges today continue his deceptive pattern–for years–of protecting Hunter. More troubling, Weiss is protecting President Biden. Indeed, where are Hunter’s charges related to foreign corruption, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, tax evasion, wire fraud, and other criminal charges that could implicate President Biden?
Davis went on to predict that Joe Biden and Special Counsel Weiss would rescue Hunter after the 2024 election. “Weiss will give Hunter another sweetheart deal. President Biden will pardon Hunter—and maybe even himself. Hunter will not spend a day in jail.” Meanwhile, the Biden Justice Department will use the indictment as pretext for refusing to cooperate with Congress, or answer questions from the media.
There’s always an angle with the corrupt Democrats. Always.
In another effort to be perceived as “doing something about the problem,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $267 million initiative to combat organized retail crime.
“Enough with these brazen smash-and-grabs,” Newsom said. “With an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians will soon see more takedowns, more police, more arrests, and more felony prosecutions. When shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they’ll walk straight into jail cells.”
To put it delicately, that’s a load of crap.
First of all, police have to catch the criminals. While they apprehend some of them, most get away. And even when arrests are made, good luck seeing many of these criminals at trial when their bail is a joke or even non-existent.
As far as prosecutions are concerned, you have to have state’s attorneys willing to enforce the law and put these people in prison. But we know that’s not going to happen. So even if they’re convicted, the chances of the thieves going to prison are small. Instead, the criminals will be back on the streets preparing for their next payday.
Individual sheriffs offices and police department will be awarded over $23 million each in funding to be used for creating “fully staffed retail theft investigative units, increase arrests, install advanced surveillance technology, train loss prevention officers, create new task forces, increase cooperation with businesses and the community, target criminals in blitz operations, as well as crack down on vehicle and catalytic converter theft.”
Taken as a whole, the available data suggests organized retail crime does not appear to be a growing problem in the nation or California. So is combating organized retail crime the best use of $267 million in taxpayer dollars?
What matters far more than dollars and cents on this issue is the perception that retail smash-and-grab thefts are out of control and something needs to be done.
The videos of these robberies are terrifying. Shoppers are thinking twice about going into a brick-and-mortar retail store. Hence, Newsom’s totally useless program that looks good on the nightly news but doesn’t do a darn thing to change the situation.
Robberies won’t stop until store owners make it too difficult for the thugs to steal from them. Whether its armed guards or putting merchandise under lock and key, store owners will figure it out eventually.
Gun Free Zones are murder magnets.
Arm yourself because no one else will save you
A few days ago, we learned how the assailant in the white supremacist attack on the Dollar General store in Jacksonville, FL avoided a hard target and went for an undefended one instead. From the previous article:
Jacksonville assailant found a soft target after security scared him away from the first
Prior to the shooting, the gunman had been turned away from the campus of a nearby historically Black university, Edward Waters University. There, he refused to identify himself to an on-campus security officer and was asked to leave, the university stated in a news release.
“The individual returned to their car and left campus without incident. The encounter was reported to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office by EWU security,” the school said.
It was obvious why the assailant ran away from there. An armed on-campus security officer arrived. That would have meant an immediate confrontation, which the assailant did not want. He wanted to take his own sweet time ending the lives of innocent, unarmed victims.
It turns out, however, that this was not a one-off occurrence. The assailant had initially planned to attack a different Family Dollar store and ran away from there also because he saw the possibility of immediate armed resistance. CNN’s newer report states this (archivedlinks):
The Jacksonville gunman’s dad called 911 after the deadly rampage started. Here’s what he said about his son
Authorities have released details from a 911 call made by the father of [***] – the gunman who killed three people in what authorities called a racially motivated rampage at a Dollar General store in Florida. […]
After the gunfire started, [***] texted his father and told him to go into his room, where the father found a will and a suicide note, Jacksonville’s sheriff said. […]
[***] had been getting psychiatric help and was on medication, but it looked like his son had stopped taking his medication because there was a full bottle that was filled on July 23, his father told the operator.
The father said he called the Clay County Sheriff’s Office a few years ago when his son threatened to kill himself.
[***] flunked out of college, then worked at Home Depot and was “pretty much been living in his room” after losing that job, his father told the operator.
The same factors – mental illness, self-isolation, unemployment – play out in a lot of these incidents. Clearly, this man was sick to begin with. At some point, he also went down the path of hate.
Investigators believe the gunman originally intended to attack a different dollar store – a Family Dollar he visited just minutes before driving to the university, Waters told CNN’s Abby Phillip on Monday night.
Waters believes the sight of a security vehicle arriving at the store and parking outside deterred the shooter.
“I don’t think he wanted to have any confrontation with someone that would create an issue for him or stop him from doing what he wanted to do,” Waters said.
“He had a goal in mind,” the sheriff said. “I think he wanted those stores – one of those stores. I don’t know why.”
So, the assailant first went to a Family Dollar store, saw a security vehicle, drove away to Edward Waters University. a Historically Black College/University (HBCU), again encountered security there, and finally ended up at the Dollar General where he committed his atrocity.
Duval County Sheriff T. K. Waters does not think that the assailant intended to attack the HBCU:
Surveillance footage shows two young African American men getting into the car next to the suspect’s as he was sitting in the lot, the sheriff noted. That bolsters Waters’ belief that the gunman didn’t intend to carry out an attack at the university, he said.
“He had the opportunity to do so, and he did not,” Waters told CNN on Monday.
The shooter immediately started to drive away after being approached by a security officer, and he was followed until he left campus, Edward Waters University President and CEO A. Zachary Faison Jr. said.
This is where I disagree with the Sheriff. We have seen enough assailants target universities and colleges. I am skeptical that this man parked by a HBCU just to prepare and drive two minutes down the street to a dollar store for his attack.
Assailants love target-rich environments with unarmed targets. They are on a kamikaze mission, and all they want to do is take as many people as possible with them. That’s why they avoid hard targets and go for softer ones instead. It’s not much different from a thief who encounters two bicycles, one securely locked and another poorly secured, and goes for the “low-hanging fruit.”
The lesson learned here is to harden targets and for the people to be prepared. Statistically, public mass shootings by a stranger are exceedingly rare. But if you are concerned about it, take steps to arm yourself, get trained, practice regularly, and be prepared to shoot back.
Well we cannot blame White Supremacy for the UNC Chapel Hill active shooter so the attention for this one will be on the NRA and the gun. Media has to have its narrative.
David Hogg will switch from white supremacy to guns.
A gunman who killed three people Wednesday night at a beloved local bar in Trabuco Canyon and wounded six others — including his estranged wife — was a former police officer, according to officials.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department identified the gunman as John Snowling, a retired Ventura police sergeant. When John Snowling, 59, came to Cook’s Corner, his target was his wife, who was a regular at the bar on Santiago Canyon Road. He fired on her and then began “shooting randomly,” Sheriff Don Barnes said Thursday afternoon.
Snowling entered the bar around 7 p.m. Wednesday during its weekly $8 spaghetti night — a family-friendly event — armed with two handguns, Barnes said. The retired cop walked up to his wife and immediately shot her once, wounding her, then shot the woman with whom she was dining. That woman, who has not been identified, later died.
There was no conversation or argument that preceded Snowling opening fire on his estranged wife, Barnes said.
“Mr. Snowling … then started randomly shooting at patrons within Cook’s Corner,” Barnes said. “That progressed to the outside area.”
At one point, Snowling returned to his truck in an upper parking lot, where he was confronted by a man from the bar — whom Snowling also shot, Barnes said. That man, who also has not been identified, later died.
When deputies arrived — within two minutes of the first 911 call — they found Snowling in the parking lot, Barnes said. The former cop began firing at deputies, hitting multiple law enforcement vehicles.
A gunfight ensued, and “it was gunfire from those deputies that ultimately took the life” of Snowling, Barnes said. Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said seven deputies opened fire, firing at least 75 shots.
After the shooting, deputies recovered four weapons Snowling had brought to the scene: two pistols, a revolver and a shotgun, Barnes said. All were acquired legally.
Barnes identified one of the men who was killed as John Leehey, 67, of Irvine. He did not identify the two others who were killed, as officials have not yet notified next of kin.
The six people who were injured in the shooting were taken to Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo on Wednesday night. Two were in critical condition — a man shot in the chest and a woman shot in the jaw, according to James Chisum, a spokesman for the hospital. The woman, believed to be Snowling’s estranged wife, Marie Snowling, was transferred overnight to UC Irvine Medical Center, Chisum confirmed Thursday.
The four other victims, all men, were stable, Chisum said. One was released from the hospital late Wednesday, and two others with minor injuries were expected to be released Thursday. A fourth man, shot in the arm, was likely to have surgery Thursday.
No children or deputies were injured in the shooting.
The Sheriff’s Department confirmed that Snowling’s wife was among the injured.
Mark Johnson, pianist for the Orange County band that was performing at the bar Wednesday night, said two members of the M-Street Band “were hit and were hospitalized but stable.” Johnson, drummer Brian Lynch and singer Debbie Johnson said in a video that guitarist Ed Means and bassist Dave Stretch were in the hospital. Lynch said they were “all going to be OK.”
Officials declined to identify the other injured victims.
Barnes said investigators were still searching for a motive. Snowling, who used to share a home with his wife in Camarillo, was most recently living in Ohio, Barnes said. He recently traveled back to Southern California, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he followed his estranged wife to the bar or found out she was going there, Barnes said.
On Thursday morning, heavily armed Orange County sheriff’s deputies surrounded Snowling’s home in the Camarillo neighborhood of El Capitan Place, not far from Adolfo Camarillo High School.
Deputies ordered any occupants to exit as they prepared to serve a search warrant. Two vehicles were in the driveway, but no one exited.
It wasn’t immediately clear what deputies seized or hoped to find in the search.
Snowling worked for the Ventura Police Department from 1986 to 2014, rising to the rank of sergeant, according to a department spokesman. He served as the president of the city’s police union in 2008 and 2009, records show.
In December 2022, Marie Snowling filed for divorce, writing that she had been estranged from her husband for two years, court filings show.
The couple had been married almost 32 years when they separated in November 2020, her attorney wrote, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split. The case file contains no allegations of acrimony or abuse.
In February, John Snowling was served with the divorce papers in Newark, Ohio, records show. He had yet to respond to his wife’s petition.
His attorney, Tristan Tegroen, told The Times he was shocked by the shooting Wednesday, given how measured and fair the divorce proceedings had been so far.
Tegroen noted he is accustomed to rancorous divorces, but said with the Snowlings, “there was nothing like that — nothing at all.” As the lawyers in the case went about identifying and valuing their assets, Marie Snowling did not seek a restraining order against her husband, raise accusations of abuse or say she was fearful of him, he said.
Tegroen did not get the sense that any one issue had prompted the split, only that the two felt their marriage had run its course. “John was living in Ohio and she was here, and they were living apart,” he said.
“Honestly, this came as a horrible shock to me,” Tegroen said. “There was nothing on the radar to suggest he might do this.”
Marie Snowling’s lawyer, Kenneth Henjum, said his team was awaiting further information about her condition.
“The Snowling family is in shock at the events from last night and are requesting their privacy,” Henjum said in a statement.
John Snowling, then a Ventura police officer, patrols the Pacific View Mall in Ventura in 2000. Snowling, who retired in 2014, was identified as the gunman in Wednesday night’s mass shooting in Trabuco Canyon.
(Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
James Goldsmith, 68, lived two doors down from the Snowlings in Camarillo for more than two decades. Marie Snowling had moved out to live with her sick mother in Orange County a few years ago, he said, adding that he knew the couple had been going through “marital issues” but never heard any shouting or saw the police come by due to domestic disputes.
“John was always kind of a standoffish kind of person,” Goldsmith said. “He wasn’t the most personable guy, not that I can say that there was anything really negative. He wasn’t the type of neighbor that you’d get the warm fuzzies from.”
He described Marie Snowling as an “absolute sweetheart.” She was the more social one of the couple, according to Goldsmith.
Goldsmith didn’t know whether Marie had a new partner but said she often posted on Facebook about her life after filing for divorce.
“I think she wanted to have friends and live life, and that’s why I think she made the move that she did,” Goldsmith said. “It’s sad that he couldn’t allow that and let her live her own life.”
Snowling had recently purchased a house in Ohio and was staying there most of the time, Goldsmith said. He most recently saw Snowling come back a few months ago to do some maintenance work on the house, he said.
Marie Snowling had moved to a mobile home community in Orange, where she’d recently become a manager, a job her late mother previously held, residents told The Times.
On Wednesday night, neighbor Mary Talian watched out her window, waiting for Snowling to come home. Talian, 82, knew her neighbor was at Cook’s Corner because Marie often talked about the bar’s spaghetti night.
“She loved to be around people, around music, and she loved to go out,” Talian said.
“Marie would always take my calls,” Talian said, adding that Snowling would often check on her and pick up her groceries. “That’s how I knew that something was wrong last night, when she didn’t call back.”
Snowling was the perfect fit to manage the mobile home park, said Talian’s daughter, Carol Franke.
“The first words out of her mouth are always, ‘How are you?’ or ‘How are the kids?’ She never talked about herself,” Franke said. “Marie celebrated other people’s wins. That’s just who she is.”
John Snowling, right, and Ventura police partner Sam Arroyo on patrol at Ventura’s Pacific View Mall in 2000.
(Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Denise Craft, another neighbor in Orange, described Marie Snowling as nice and personable. Craft knew about Snowling’s divorce and how her estranged husband had taken custody of their dog.
Marie Snowling had recently confided in her that her that John Snowling was being very sweet lately, but she didn’t know why.
“I told her to be cautious about that,” Craft, 59, said.
Geoffrey Kagy, 52, a regular at Cook’s Corner, said his girlfriend, Jacqueline Bass, was at the bar without him Wednesday night — but around 7:30 p.m. she suddenly sent Kagy a volley of text messages. The first said “911,” followed by “Help” and “Omg.” She’d been inside Cook’s Corner when the gunman opened fire.
When they spoke by phone, Kagy said, “she just kept saying how she was running and that she saw somebody shoot.”
At about 7:07 pm Wednesday, a dispatcher on the radio channel for local California Highway Patrol troopers said: “Male came in and started shooting. Eight shots were fired. White male. Plaid shirt and jeans. Still shooting. Possibly active shooter.”
Emergency dispatchers reported hearing gunshots in the background of radio traffic as multiple deputies arrived at the bar, Orange County Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said at a late-night news conference Wednesday.
In a video posted to Facebook by Betty Fruichantie, a friend of Marie Snowling’s, first responders are seen putting victims on gurneys to be taken to the hospital. Fruichantie wrote that the gunman fired “4 or 6 shots” at her but missed.
In the video, Fruichantie pans to a woman being wheeled away on a stretcher.
“Oh my God, Marie,” she says.
Fruichantie mentioned in Facebook comments that she was sharing a table with Marie Snowling before the shooting and later learned that the gunman was her friend’s estranged husband.
“He shot her in the face,” she wrote. “They transported her to the ER.”
Cook’s Corner, which sits at the juncture of El Toro, Santiago Canyon and Live Oak Canyon roads near O’Neill Regional Park, is a popular haunt among local riders who want to avoid freeway congestion and enjoy the winding route to get there, and it’s become a spot where families gather for an inexpensive weeknight dinner.
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said he was devastated by the shooting, and that it happened at an establishment that had become a cornerstone of the community.
“You hear Cook’s Corner, ‘Oh it’s a biker bar,’ and in many ways it is. You go out there you’ll see motorcycles galore … because it’s really fun to ride your bikes out there,” Wagner said. “But the truth is that it’s a family spot.
“It will be forever sad — there’s no other word for it — that such a happy place will now go forward under the shadow of what happened last night,” he said.
Gus Gunderman, 60, stopped by Cook’s Corner on Wednesday evening for a bite to eat and left just minutes before the shooting started. The bar was filled with patrons sipping beers as the band prepared for its set. On the patio, families sat devouring large plates of spaghetti and salad.
Gunderman ordered a burger and a soda, not remembering it was all-you-can-eat spaghetti night. Looking back, he’s grateful for that decision.
“Had I ordered spaghetti I would have gotten another plate or more salad, and then I would have been in the thick of it,” Gunderman said. “It’s a tragedy.”
Orange County sheriff’s deputies monitor the scene after the shooting.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
In the four decades he’s frequented the eatery, Gunderman said he’d never once felt unsafe.
“I’ve never even seen a fight there. This could have happened anywhere,” he said. “It has nothing to do with motorcycles or motorcycle culture.”
News of the shooting brought concern from local officials and residents.
An aerial view of investigators on the scene at Cook’s Corner.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“I’m heartbroken by the news of yet another mass shooting tonight, this time at Cook’s Corner, a historic bar in the heart of Orange County,” state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine) said in a statement. “My heart breaks for the families and loved ones of the victims.”
In a statement Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he “mourns for the victims of last night’s horrific shooting.”
He also urged Californians to utilize the state’s red flag laws, especially in instances of domestic disputes, which can temporarily remove firearms from someone who poses a threat to themselves or others.
“We must continue to strengthen, defend, and use these laws,” he said. “If you see red flags, say something — and in doing so, save lives.”
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley echoed the governor’s call for people to proactively respond to threats, stalking or domestic violence.
“It’s disturbing to learn that another domestic dispute led to another mass shooting,” Foley said. “We must do more to prevent senseless acts of gun violence and protect survivors.”
“Our hearts weigh heavy with the distressing incident at Cook’s Corner,” Ventura Police Chief Darin Schindler said in a statement. “Our deepest condolences are with the families of the victims, the survivors, [and] the Orange County deputies who swiftly responded to the scene.”
Ventura County Fire Capt. Brian McGrath said the Snowlings’ son, Patrick, works for the department as a firefighter. “We are doing everything we can for him in his time of need,” McGrath said.
Spitzer said his heart was “broken into a million pieces for the people who know and love Cook’s Corner … and for the people who were subjected to this unspeakable act of violence.”
First responders attend to people at the shooting scene.
(OnScene.tv)
On Thursday morning, Erwin Lima stood outside the police tape blocking the two-lane road that leads to Cook’s Corner. The Victorville resident has worked weekends detailing motorcycles at Cook’s Corner for more than 15 years and drove there hoping to learn anything he could about the condition of his co-workers and friends.
“I couldn’t believe it when I started getting calls,” said Lima, 54. “My body just shut down.”
Marie Snowling frequented the bar most weekends for the live music, Lima said. Sometimes it would get so crowded that she’d bring her own chair so she’d have somewhere to sit.
“Everywhere now is shootings: schools, bars, church,” he said.
FOX News reported a woman was driving the car around 1:00 p.m. Sunday when a suspect approached and demanded her keys. The woman believed she saw a gun in the suspect’s waistband.
The Washington Timesnoted that the woman refused to hand over her keys, and the suspect, believed to be the 12-year-old, ran away.
The boy was apprehended while fleeing, and police indicated he was armed when arrested.
The Metropolitan Police Department pointed out that the 12-year-old was “charged with armed carjacking (gun) and carrying a pistol without a license.”
Breitbart News explained that D.C. witnessed 166 homicides from January 1, 2023, through August 16, 2023, a 27-percent increase over the same time frame in 2022.
Robbery is also up, rising 63 percent from where it was at this point last year, and auto theft is up a whopping 114 percent.
33 people were shot over the weekend in Chicago. Urban gangland violence like that is what real “mass shootings” look like and finally a Journal of the American Medical Association paper addressed the problem by shifting the blame to something it calls “structural racism”.
The JAMA paper, which was quickly picked up by CNN as “Structural Racism may Contribute to Mass Shootings” and by Bloomberg as “Mass Shootings Disproportionately Victimize Black Americans”, acknowledged what conservatives have been saying about gun violence.
“There was no discernible association noted in this study between gun laws and MSEs [mass shootings] with other studies showing similar findings,” it noted.
The issue wasn’t gun laws, it was race. “The study found that in areas with higher black populations, mass shootings are likelier to occur compared to communities with higher white populations,” CNN reported. “The findings disrupt the nation’s image of mass shootings, which has been shaped by tragedies like the Las Vegas festival shooting and Sandy Hook in which most of the victims were not black,” Bloomberg added.
Faced with an immovable statistical object and the unstoppable force of equity, the JAMA paper blames the whole thing on structural racism. The study correlates urban areas and neighborhoods with high concentrations of single-parent households” to mass shootings. It then demonstrates that “structural racism” must be at fault because of “the percentage of the population that is black.” Black people in the study are interchangeable with racism.
Such is the state of woke medical science which tries to fix racism with more racism. The study never comes up with any plausible explanation of how structural racism causes people to shoot each other. At one point it claims that “racial residential segregation practices are predictive of various types of shootings” in a country where segregation had been abolished since 1964.
The study’s definition of segregation is so senseless that it lists majority black cities like Detroit, a 77% black city, as being 73% segregated, and Baltimore, a 62% black city, as being 64% segregated. A city with a strong black majority and black leaders is racially segregated and its people are suffering from “structural racism”. That’s why there are so many mass shootings.
But if segregation is the issue then why does Atlanta, which had actual segregation, have only 18 mass shootings, while Chicago has 141? Southern cities show up as less segregated and less violent in the paper’s data. A history of segregation is clearly not the issue. This isn’t about the past, whether it’s the historical revisionism of the 1619 Project, or any other.
If segregation were the issue, crime would have been far higher during segregation than after it.
“[T]his massive new population of needy foreigners will burden and transform [Americans’] communities without their say-so.” Todd Bensman of Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) outlined the many harms illegal migration inflicts on Americans in his recent Congressional testimony. During that testimony, he noted that illegal aliens have committed over 430,000 criminal offenses just in Texas since 2011, and up to 6 million new illegals are likely to enter America before Biden’s presidential term ends.
Bensman discussed the financial burden on cities (and thus taxpayers), the drain on government resources, the overloading of the school system, and other issues caused by illegal immigration in his testimony (available on CIS). He specifically called out the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies, explaining how they exacerbate the illegal migration crisis (transcript from CIS):
The [Biden] administration put a freeze on required border enforcement measures and fast-tracked release of the majority of illegal crossers into the country where they and most experts know they will stay forever.
And on their cell phones, which every immigrant has, they sent word of this incredible bonanza down trail, to home villages and all along the migration trails. And in this way, those first tens of thousands who began crossing on inauguration day quickly became hundreds of thousands a month, and then millions a year. Counting an estimated 1.7 million never apprehended, probably more than 4 million have entered the country from the border in a mere 30-month span. Perhaps as many as six million largely uneducated and needy people will be in the country before the Biden policies might first be reversed in the 2024 national elections and the floodgates closed.
Those millions of policy-enticed entries in so short a time already are – and will have – transformative impacts in the form of unplanned-for demands on public welfare and assistance programs, health care systems, Social Security, housing, labor markets, schools, and the criminal justice system.
Then there’s the issue of criminal offenses committed by illegal aliens. As Bensman said, every single one of those crimes ought to be preventable; these illegals should not be in America to begin with. Certainly, the government should be attempting to lessen illegal migration and crime from illegals as much as possible. Instead, the government is obfuscating data and facts that could clearly illustrate how many crimes illegals commit.
It’s difficult to get honest statistics on illegal alien crime because it’s not something the government — either state or federal — really wants to be honest about, Bensman noted. Texas does have some statistics that can help illuminate the problem, however:
The Texas Department of Public Safety learns the immigration status of suspects booked into local jails through a program that submits fingerprints to the FBI for criminal history and warrant checks, and to DHS…
The glimpse is limited and not a reflection of much almost certain higher totals, but it is telling about the trend line ahead across America. Between June 1, 2011, and July 31, 2022, these 259,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 433,000 unnecessary, preventable criminal offenses.
Those included 800 homicide charges (resulting in 374 convictions as of July 2022), 822 kidnapping charges (resulting in 265 convictions), 5,470 sexual assault charges (resulting in 2,593 convictions), 6,485 sexual offense charges (resulting in 3,065 sexual offense convictions), and 4,945 weapons charges (resulting in 1,723 weapons convictions).
That’s hundreds of thousands of preventable crimes over a decade’s time. It’s an ongoing problem, with Border Patrol arresting 12,000 criminal illegals in Fiscal Year 2022. Unfortunately, the Biden administration hardly makes catching and punishing criminals one of its priorities.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis police on Monday said officers shot a suspect after he attempted to enter a Jewish school with a gun and fired shots after he couldn’t get into the building.
Assistant Police Chief Don Crowe said the suspect, whose identity has not been released, approached Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South around 12:20 p.m. He fired several shots and then left in a maroon truck.
“Thankfully, that school had a great safety procedure and process in place and avoided anyone being harmed or injured at that scene,” Crowe said.
Officers soon found the suspect’s vehicle “shortly after that,” Crowe said, adding that officers then shot the suspect after he exited the truck with a firearm in hand. The suspect was sent to a hospital, where he is in critical condition.
CEDAR HILL, Texas (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and injuring a doctor at a Dallas-area medical building was shot and injured Tuesday by police officers after his vehicle was involved in a crash with another vehicle and officers could see he had a long gun, police said.
Police in Cedar Hill, located just southwest of Dallas, said that officers were dispatched at 12:17 p.m. to Methodist Family Health Center after getting a call about a person with a gun in the building. A minute later, the dispatcher heard a gunshot.
The first officer arrived at 12:21 p.m. and saw a doctor on the ground in front of the building with a gunshot wound, police said. Police said that another officer saw a man with a long gun leaving the scene, police said. Police said that the officer then relayed the suspect’s vehicle information to other officers. At 12:22 p.m., the suspect’s vehicle was involved in a crash just down the road.
Police said that after the crash, the suspect still had the long gun and five officers fired their weapons toward him.
The doctor who was injured was in stable condition at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, while the suspect was in critical condition, police said. The driver of the car the suspect’s vehicle was in a collision with was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Three people are dead and many are injured following a shooting in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, on Thursday morning.
The shooting took place at a construction site on the city’s best known thoroughfare, Queen Street,
“Multiple injuries have been reported and at this stage we can confirm two people have died,” New Zealand Police said in a statement. The alleged shooter, a 24-year old man, is also dead.
The alarm was raised at around 7:23am Thursday when reports were received of a person discharging a pump-action shotgun inside the site at 1 Queen Street.
A significant number of police responded and cordoned off the area. The Police Eagle helicopter was also deployed and provided oversight.
The alleged shooter moved through the building site and continued to discharge his firearm, killing two and injuring 6, including police. Three of them are in serious condition.
Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, which is owned by Precinct Properties Group, the man contained himself within the elevator shaft while police officers attempted to engage with him.
Further shots were fired from the man and he was discovered dead a short time later.
These days, whenever something goofy turns up on the news, chances are it involves a fellow called Mohammed. A plane flies into the World Trade Centre? Mohammed Atta. A gunman shoots up the El Al counter at Los Angeles airport? Hesham Mohamed Hedayet. A sniper starts killing petrol station customers around Washington, DC? John Allen Muhammed. A guy fatally stabs a Dutch movie director? Mohammed Bouyeri. A terrorist slaughters dozens in Bali? Noordin Mohamed. A gang-rapist in Sydney? Mohammed Skaf.Mark Steyn
On Friday afternoon, police in Fargo, North Dakota, responded to a report of a car crash at 9th Avenue South and 25th Street South. Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski said it was a “routine traffic accident,” but what happened when they arrived on the scene was anything but routine. A Fargo resident named Mohamad Barakat, 37, opened fire on the officers, killing one and injuring three others. Zibolski said that Barakat attacked the officers “for no known reason,” and authorities have as yet offered no hints as to the shooter’s motive. One of the most obvious possibilities, however, is being steadfastly ignored, as one might expect given today’s media narrative.
A witness said, according to the Associated Press, that Barakat “appeared to have ambushed the officers.” He was standing behind a car that was parked in the parking lot of a bank near the scene of the crash, and he quickly opened fire on the police officers from about twenty feet away. The witness added, “He was holding up the trunk of the car with his arm, and then I see the gun come up, and he set it on his shoulder and just pointed it directly at an officer in front of him. It was like 10 shots right away.”
When Barakat began shooting, the police were busy with the traffic accident and weren’t even looking in his direction, but they quickly began to return fire. Another witness recounted, “I saw them firing at each other, both at once. But soon as the shooter took a break, the cop came walking towards him, letting off round after round. There was already an officer down, and a family hiding just on the other side of the vehicle next to the shooter.”
Zibolski, however, declined to confirm that Barakat had ambushed the officers, saying only, “The investigation into that is still ongoing.” He did reveal, however, that Fargo police had previously dealt with Barakat, although he downplayed these encounters as “not anything significant.”
Above all, Zibolski was puzzled. “The first thing we always want to know in a situation like this is, ‘Why?’” said Zibolski. “Why would somebody do this? What happened?” And he expressed amazement that such an incident could take place in Fargo, North Dakota: “This is an unconscionable act. It’s hard to fathom, it’s unbelievable that something like this would happen in our community. Many of us think this stuff can’t happen. It just happened.”
Yes, it did. And Zibolski added that the FBI had been called in, but given the fact that the feds are now far more interested in finding “domestic terrorists” at school board meetings and Catholic churches than in hunting down actual terrorists, Zibolski may still not get an answer to his question of why someone would do such a thing. FBI agents today would likely not recognize an Islamic jihadist if he stood behind a car and started shooting at them, but Mohamad Barakat may have been one. There is no indication that anyone is looking into this possibility, but it would provide an immediate explanation for the details of the case.
This is because the Islamic State (ISIS) has repeatedly called upon Muslims in the West to attack police officers as well as other authorities. Back in September 2014, the Islamic State exhorted Muslims in the West not to “let this battle pass you by wherever you may be.” It called upon them to “kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”
Specifically, the jihadis said: “Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves.” The jihadis should take advantage of all opportunities and means to kill: “If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him.”
Now, Mohamad Barakat may have had entirely different reasons for his attack. But the possibility that this was a jihad terror attack in Fargo, North Dakota, cannot be dismissed out of hand, even as authorities appear disinclined even to consider it as a possibility. The FBI and the entire Biden regime have never given any indication that they’re aware that the global jihad continues. Unfortunately, it does.
We’re consistently told that gun control works. We’re also consistently told that if we pass more of it, we’ll see a lot fewer random acts of violence.
The idea is that if you and I have a harder time getting guns, then bad guys will have a harder time getting them. This presumes that the impact will have some kind of trickle-down effect, which is hilarious considering how they mock “trickle-down economics,” but here we are.
However, gun control states still have plenty of problems with random violence.
“At this time, we don’t know the motive. It seems that his acts were random. If you look at the demographics and pedigree of the victims, they’re all different,” NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph Kenny said in a press conference.
“Video shows that he’s not targeting anybody – he’s not following anybody as he’s driving on his scooter, he’s randomly shooting people.”
Now, New York’s gun control battles have been well documented here at Bearing Arms. We’ve covered it aplenty.
Yet, as we can see, it didn’t really accomplish all that much in preventing this attack. Luckily, it could have been much worse, but it was bad enough.
The thing is, this wasn’t the only rampage we saw over the weekend in a gun control state.
Police in Los Angeles arrested a suspect following what appeared to be a series of random shootings that wounded one victim Saturday morning, a news report said.
The suspect allegedly fired randomly at people in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, with shootings reported between 6:20 a.m. and 7:20 a.m.,KTLA-TV reported.
The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was taken into custody after the Los Angeles Police Department located an unoccupied vehicle believed to have been used in the attacks. Officers later arrested a man who matched the suspect’s description when he exited a nearby home, KTLA reported.
Police found a rifle believed to have been used in the shootings during a search of the vehicle, the station reported.
Now, again, this could have been much worse, but that has nothing to do with gun control. It has to do with the shooters themselves. Thankfully.
Gun control failed in both of these instances. Either of these could have been headline-grabbing horror stories we’d be talking about for the next three months. I’m sincerely glad they weren’t, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore them, either.
California and New York go out of their way to restrict the rights of the people who live there. Following Bruen, they both tripped over themselves to pass new laws that would restrict where people could carry a firearm. they’ve shown time and time again that they see no alternative to gun control.
And yet, we have these incidents as a stark reminder that gun control doesn’t work as advertised.
Clearly, no one was safer because of these states’ laws. If anything, it made it less likely anyone in the vicinity of these shootings would be armed and able to shoot back, thus ending the rampages quickly.
That’s about par for the course with gun control, though, isn’t it?
A deranged 25-year-old Hispanic male indiscriminately shot four people, killing one, while casually motoring around New York City on a scooter. Police say the suspect was experiencing a mental health crisis.
The shooting spree in Brooklyn and Queens started around 1110 ET Saturday and ended two hours later, police said. The 25yo gunman was in possession of a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun with a high capacity magazine and an “illegal” scooter, New York Police First Deputy Commissioner Edward Caban said at a news conference.
Police sources told NBC News that the suspect “appears to suffer from emotional or mental issues.” NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph Kenny noted that the suspect was a “male Hispanic.”
The rampage started when the suspect shot a 21yo man in the shoulder in Cypress Hills. About 20 minutes later, the suspect fatally shot an 87yo man once in the back on Jamaica Avenue near 108th Street. A 44yo man was reportedly shot in the face near 126th Street and remains in critical condition. And a 63yo man was shot in the shoulder on 134th Street.
“We don’t know the motive…If you look at the demographics and pedigree of the victims, they’re all different,” Kenny said.
The assistant NYPD chief continued, “At this time, the video shows that he’s not targeting anybody. He’s not following anybody as he’s driving on his scooter, he’s randomly shooting people.”
The suspect was arrested two hours later on the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and 94th Avenue in Queens.
This is just another day in crime-ridden NYC as Democrats fail to enforce law and order. Remember, progressives in City Hall were the ones that pushed disastrous defunding the police measures a few years ago.
A well planned ambush simply to commit murder is almost always highly effective and lethal.
But since such as this is usually over something personal – as it appears to me in this case -the list of suspects will likely not be long.
1 This one will disappear quickly – wrong demographic
2 Another case of the legal system letting a dangerous criminal lose with a slap on the wrist. Just like it’s a plan, not a bug.
The rifle-wielding suspect who donned a bulletproof vest before allegedly shooting dead five men and injuring two children in Philadelphia has been identified as a Black Lives Matter supporter who shared gun-toting memes on social media.
Kimbrady Carriker, 40, was nabbed shortly after the bloodshed in the city’s Kingsessing neighborhood Monday night, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing sources.
Cops haven’t yet publicly disclosed the suspect’s identity.
On his Facebook page, Carriker posted two pictures of himself wearing a bra, a women’s top and earrings with his hair braided long in March, three months before the alleged shooting.
He also regularly posts about supporting Black Lives Matter, including supporting workers who protested in the Strike For Black Lives in July 2020.
Carriker allegedly shot five men dead and injured two children in Philadelphia
A 22-year-old man on probation for a knifepoint robbery at a D.C. Metro station is now accused of a carjacking and shooting spree in Prince George’s County, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and the suspect’s previous criminal history raises some major questions about why the Department of Justice chose to dismiss a charge of felon-in-possession just last year.
According to Prince George’s police, 22-year-old Daeyon Ross first carjacked a small SUV in Capitol Heights, Maryland; pointing a gun at the driver before taking off behind wheel, only to crash the stolen vehicle a few blocks away.
Police say Ross then attempted to carjack an Acura ILX in the drive-thru lane of a McDonald’s on Ritchie Road. When the driver, [56-year-old Kurt] Modeste, tried to get away, Ross allegedly shot him multiple times. Modeste managed to drive a short distance before he was pronounced dead.
Ross then carjacked a Toyota Scion, also in the drive-thru, that had three dogs inside. Police said he killed two of the dogs, before driving away in the Scion heading westbound on Central Avenue.
Officers from several agencies followed Ross, as he crossed into D.C. At the intersection of 52nd Street and Sheriff Road NE, he got out of the Scion and carjacked a fourth victim, stealing a GMC Terrain, but got into another crash. When officers approached Ross at the crash scene, an officer with the Capitol Heights Police Department fired shots, but neither the officer nor Ross was injured.
“It’s extremely rare to come across an individual who has such a disregard for life,” said Acting Deputy Chief Zachary O’Lare of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
And yet, authorities have come across Ross on several occasions over the past few years. In 2017 Ross was convicted as a juvenile for an armed robbery and according to WUSA-TV served five years in juvenile custody before he was released last year. Shortly after, and while he was still on probation for that earlier crime, D.C. police caught Ross with a pistol, only to see the resulting charges dropped by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
D.C. Superior Court records show Ross was arrested on Aug. 11, 2022 on multiple charges for allegedly carrying a handgun despite his felony conviction. According to an affidavit, Ross allegedly had a “wide-eyed stare” when he saw officers while walking in the 1400 block of Congress Place SE and then took off running while grabbing his waist band. Officers chased him, during which Ross allegedly pulled out a black handgun and threw it on the ground. Ross was taken into custody shortly thereafter and the gun was determined to be a Taurus G3 9mm with 13 rounds of ammunition.
Ross was charged with being a felon in possession, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of unregistered ammunition, altering identification marks of a weapon and possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia dropped all of those charges two months later, however, after Ross’ public defender filed motions challenging the constitutionality of the search under the Fourth Amendment and of the charges under the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which established a new “historical tradition” test for evaluating firearm regulations.
The U.S. Attorney’s office didn’t drop the charges because of the Bruen decision, even if that’s one of the reasons Ross’s public defender gave for why the case against their client should be dismissed. Biden’s DOJ contends that only “law-abiding citizens” have any right to keep and bear arms and have continued prosecuting prohibited persons cases even after the Bruen decision was handed down, so I don’t see how Bruen would have had any impact on the charging decision here.
Instead, as writer Matthew Yglesias recently highlighted, D.C. courts are throwing out a surprising number of prosecutions for firearm-related offenses on Fourth Amendment grounds; an issue that Ross’s public defender also raised last year. Yglesias pointed out a case decided in April called T.W. v. United States that seems to bear a close resemblance to the circumstances of Ross’s arrest. From the decision:
T.W. raised his hands in the air upon seeing the two officers exit the front vehicle. Ewing asked T.W. whether he had a gun on him, and T.W. responded no. Ewing and Gendelman continued approaching T.W. from each side, and Ewing asked “You sure?” to which T.W. replied, “Yeah, I’m positive.” Gendelman then asked, “I can pat you down just to make sure?” T.W. said “Yeah,” and Gendelman responded, “My man,” as he began to pat T.W. down. Gendelman found a gun in T.W.’s waistband. The encounter lasted about ten seconds from when the first officers exited their vehicle to when the pat-down search began, and it took just about another five seconds for the officers to find the gun on T.W. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, and possession of a large-capacity ammunition- feeding device.
Before trial, T.W. moved to suppress the gun, its magazine, and its ammunition. He argued that he was unlawfully seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment when he consented to a pat-down search, and that his consent was the fruit of the illegal seizure. During a hearing on his motion to suppress, T.W. testified that he was “scared and nervous,” never having been arrested before, and did not think he could say “no” to Gendelman’s pat-down request. Asked why not, T.W. responded, “Because of how they came up on me. I felt like I couldn’t walk away.” T.W. further highlighted his youth (21 years old at the time), his “complete lack of experience” with police, “and the fact that he was confronted by multiple officers” who “essentially jumped out on [him] and immediately began asking accusatory questions.”
As Yglesias points out, a jury convicted T.W. at trial, but the D.C. Court of Appeals reversed that conviction on the grounds that the tactics used by police violated T.W.’s Fourth Amendment rights.
Did the USAO believe that was likely going to be the end result of prosecuting Daeyon Ross for being a violent felon in illegal possession of a firearm? If so, it would indicate that this problem has been going on for quite some time in the District, given that Ross’s charges were dropped last year, and T.W.’s case was only reversed a few months ago.
So far the DOJ isn’t talking about why the U.S. Attorney made the decision to drop all of the gun charges Ross was facing last year, but I’m not sure that there’s an answer that’s going to be acceptable. A violent felon was allegedly found in possession of a loaded gun just a short time after being released from custody, and DOJ ultimately took a pass on providing any consequences for that crime. Less than a year later Ross is now charged with first-degree murder, armed carjacking, and even cruelty to animals for shooting two dogs in the second vehicle that he stole at gunpoint.
While Joe Biden is demanding new gun laws aimed at peaceable gun owners his own DOJ is turning down the chance to prosecute repeat offenders; something to keep in mind the next time the president calls for a gun ban, a crackdown on firearms manufacturers, or other infringements on our right to protect ourselves from the violent offenders the Department of Justice are letting go.
