Author: Michael Rushford

A 22-year-old Louisiana man smuggling illegal aliens into the U.S. crashed his pickup Monday, killing four people.  Mary Ann Martinez of Fox News reports that Rassian Comer had eleven illegals in his truck when he ran a red light at high speed in the small town of Ozona, Texas and smashed into a car carrying a 71-year-old grandmother and her 7-year-old granddaughter.  Both were killed, along with two of the illegals in Comer’s pickup.   Mexican cartels use social media to recruit Americans to collect illegals at the southern border and take them into the U.S., promising thousands of dollars upon delivery.   Comer, who was running from police when he caused the crash, was hospitalized with injuries.  The President’s open border policy, enabling human and drug smuggling, is resulting in tens of thousands of Americans dying annually from fentanyl poisoning and hundreds of crimes committed by gangs and others working for the cartels.  Most of the deaths related to human smuggling are the illegals being smuggled, but Americans are also occasionally killed or injured due to this activity.   The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Dallas Morning News and the three major television networks did not bother to report this tragedy.

A Public Policy Institute (PPIC) poll released yesterday reports that 65% of California respondents are fearful of becoming a crime victim.  This includes 70% of Latinos and 60% of African Americans.  73% of those living in Los Angeles are fearful of crime, which raises the question about the recent failure to recall District Attorney George Gascon and the election of liberal democrat Karen Bass as Mayor.  These numbers are similar to what polls reported in the 1980s and 1990s, as state voters rejected the soft-on-crime policies put in place years earlier by democrats.  The PPIC narrative questions the public perception that crime is at crisis levels:

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Last week the California Assembly Public Safety Committee killed bills introduced to address rising gun crimes, homelessness and the Newsom administration’s blanket policy of granting early releases to thousands of violent and serious criminals.  Ashley Zavala of KCRA News reports that  AB 328, introduced by Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Riverside), would require mandatory prison sentences for criminals who use a gun during the commission of a crime.  “If we are serious about combating gun crime, then we need serious consequences,” he told the Committee.  Essayli noted that gun-related homicides have increased by 52% in California since 2019.  Gun-related assaults were up 64% over the same period.  He also noted that the majority of victims are minorities.  Committee member Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) would have none  of it.  “When I talk to the mothers in Oakland, they’re mostly concerned about mass incarceration…..because of the disproportionate impacts (sentencing) enhancements have had on their community.”  Ms Bonta is California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s wife.

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Tonight Texas is set to execute its second murderer this week, Arthur Brown, Jr., for the murders of four people, including a pregnant woman.  Jolie McCullough of the Texas Tribune reports that Brown was convicted, along with two accomplices, of the 1992 execution-style murders and attempted murders of two others who survived.  The facts presented in a 2012 decision by a unanimous panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals described the cold blooded murders at a Houston drug house that supplied Brown and his companions, who were dealers.  All six victims were tied to chairs and shot in the head.  The surviving victims testified at trial, identifing Brown and one accomplice as the shooters.  On Tuesday, a judge denied Brown’s request for a last minute stay.  Brown’s attorneys claim they found new evidence that Brown is innocent, that his low IQ disqualifies him from execution, that one juror at the trial was racist and that his trial lawyer was incompetent.  While CJLF has no special sympathy for drug dealers, two of Brown’s victims were teenagers, and one, 19-year-old Jessica Quinones, was 9-months pregnant.  They could have straightened out their lives.  As usual all the compassion is for the murderer.  The other shooter, Brown’s accomplice Marion Dudly, was executed in 2006.  UPDATE:  Brown was pronounced dead at 6:37 PM last night.

The newly elected District Attorney of Alameda County, which includes the high-crime city of Oakland, has announced new  policies requiring the prosecutors in her office to seek the minimum sentences possible for convicted criminals, including those who use guns.  For example, in the case of a gang member who fires a gun into an occupied car injuring a passenger, the prosecutor would not be allowed to include the Three Strikes enhancement for the use of a firearm, which would have increased the sentence for the shooter.  Rachel Swan of the SF Chronicle reports that DA Pamela Price’s new policies are similar to those of progressive Los Angeles DA George Gascon’s, requiring deputies to seek probation for criminals who under state law are eligible for jail or prison.

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