by Michael Rushford · Jun 23, 2020 3:18 pm
As reported in earlier posts, the no bail law in New York City, the widespread attacks on police officers and the mayor’s soft approach to rioters during the first two weeks of June has resulted in a spike in shootings, murders, burglaries and assaults. Last week a habitual criminal with over 100 arrests for prior crimes was caught on video punching a 93-year-old woman, who hit her head on a fire hydrant as she fell. The attack was unprovoked.
by Michael Rushford · Jun 12, 2020 1:59 pm
Police Departments in U.S. cities where the largest George Floyd protests occurred are reporting substantial increases in burglaries, shootings and murderers over the first week of June. The Associated Press and Stephanie Pegones of Fox News report that burglaries and shootings increased dramatically in Minneapolis, where Floyd died on May 25. Nineteen people were shot and two killed during the initial week of protests. There were 250 burglaries during the same period, a 220% increase over the same week last year. The week of protests in Chicago resulted in the deadliest 24-hour period in 60 years, with 18 people killed. Police reported orchestrated burglaries where multiple cars would pull up to a store then thieves smashed the windows, loaded merchandise into the cars and drove away. In another case, thieves called police to report a burglary in a mall, then broke into and looted a box store on the other side of town.
by Michael Rushford · Jun 10, 2020 1:42 pm
For decades, the public has been admonished a dozen times a day by the media, liberal politicians and our betters in academia that government policy decisions they prefer are based upon evidence and data. But what evidence and data are they talking about? Real science carefully reviews all the data. Junk science supports a narrative. Americans of all colors have been intentionally misinformed with regard to race relations, particularly when it comes to the police. The the clarion call of liberal/progressives, race hustlers like Al Sharpton and a complicit major media is that racial bias was baked into the U.S. Constitution by the founding fathers and that 244 years later, every American institution remains systemically infused with bigotry. In order to sustain this narrative, its adherents simply ignore the data. In her remarks before the House Judiciary Committee today, Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald addressed that claim, highlighted by the tragic death of George Floyd, that systemic racism infects the police departments across America.
by Michael Rushford · Jun 9, 2020 10:58 am
As Chicago was besieged with another weekend of protests against police with the accompanying fires and looting, 110 people were shot, 25 fatally. Tom Schuba, Sam Charles and Matthew Hendrickson of the Chicago Sun Times report that most of the shooting victims last weekend were black as are most of the suspects. Reverend Michael Pfleger, a longtime crusader against gun violence in Chicago told reporters, “I heard people saying all over, `Hey, there’s no police anywhere, police ain’t doing nothing.'” The city reported 65,000 calls to 911 over the weekend, as law-abiding store owners and residents sought police responses to an “unprecedented level of activity,” according to a PD spokesman. The protests in Chicago over the death of George Floyd included attacks on officers and demands that police departments be shut down or defunded, and provided a “teachable moment” on how cities will look if those demands are met.
by Michael Rushford · Jun 5, 2020 10:02 am
After more than a week of rioting, looting, vandalism and violence, the Mayor of Los Angeles announced yesterday that he intends to defund the city’s police department. Apparently taking a cue from “Black Lives Matter” leaders who have said publicly that police should be abolished, Eric Garcetti suggested cutting LAPD funding by $100 to $150 million in order to “end racism in our city.” Hans Bader in Liberty Unyielding notes that Hillary Clinton’s former national press secretary, Brian Fallon has also called for cutting police budgets across the country. Bader then explains why such calls make zero sense. “Cutting police funding will leave the police without the manpower needed to investigate and arrest many criminals. When that happens, it is disproportionately minorities themselves who will suffer.”
by Michael Rushford · Jun 3, 2020 11:04 am
“George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has revived the Obama-era narrative that law enforcement is endemically racist. On Friday, Barack Obama tweeted that for millions of black Americans, being treated differently by the criminal justice system on account of race is “tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal,’ ” writes Heather MacDonald in today’s Wall Street Journal. In his piece in California Political Review, James V. Lacy notes “Liberal officials and the media focus on what they call “systemic racism” as causing the death of Floyd and other people of color at the hands of scoflaw police officers.” Liberal/progressive politicians and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media have become boringly predicable. News anchors, politicians and endless array of pundits have been for years engaged in nonstop hectoring that virtually everything happening in the United States, including sports and weather events, is the result of racism. Maintaining this narrative requires ignoring the inconvenient truth.
by Michael Rushford · Jun 1, 2020 11:52 am
The week of national rioting following the killing of George Floyd by a depraved Minneapolis police officer has escalated into a “pandemic of civil violence more widespread than anything seen during the Black Lives Matter movement of the Obama years,” noted Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald in a piece in today’s City Journal. She points to the weak response by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who ordered police to abandon a precinct attacked and torched by rioters and then Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s reluctance to mobilize the national guard to avoid appearing “oppressive.” This politically correct posturing in the face of widespread violent chaos in major U.S. cities demonstrates the successful marketing of blacks as victims of white privilege by academia, progressives and the national media. Under this narrative anything the mob does to protest injustice, including beating innocent store owners and burning their businesses to the ground is justified. Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · May 29, 2020 12:25 pm
Longtime de-incarceration advocates are insisting on the increased use of compassionate release and home confinement during the current pandemic, and ask why officials can’t continue to make these modest releases—and then some—after the pandemic passes, especially if crime doesn’t rise as a result and cash-strapped states want the biggest bang for their public safety bucks? Jordan S. Rubin of Bloomberg Law writes that “reformers, who’ve been fighting for years against warehousing older and sick inmates in particular, see a glimmer of hope that this generational tragedy could serve to promote a more evidence-based approach to crime and punishment.”
by Michael Rushford · May 28, 2020 10:58 am
This has not been a good year for New York. The state was caught flat-footed by the COVID-19 pandemic, then the governor ordered nursing homes to accept people with the infection, resulting in thousands of unnecessary deaths. It looks as if New York City will suffer the longest and most restrictive lockdown in the country, killing off about half of its businesses. The subways have turned into homeless shelters, endangering those who must ride or work in them. The no-bail law which took effect in January has flooded the city with criminals and shootings, auto theft, and commercial burglaries are all increasing. When the lockdown is finally lifted, law-abiding New Yorkers will become victims to increased robberies and assaults by criminals that the governor was concerned might get sick. Add to this hot mess, the new “Green Light Law” enacted in April. The new law makes it a felony for any DMV employee or New York cop to share information about illegal aliens given driver’s licenses with federal immigration agents. Adam Shaw of Fox News reports on why this creates a serious law enforcement problem. Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · May 26, 2020 2:51 pm
A San Diego man arrested and released at least five times in recent weeks is now being held in jail for attempted murder. David Hernandez of the San Diego Tribune reports that Timothy Alvarado was arrested for attempted murder for a stabbing attack on a homeless man. In early April, Alvarado was released from jail after a burglary conviction, just days before the state announced a $0 bail policy for nonviolent felons to protect jails from the coronavirus. A month later Alvarado led police on an high-speed chase after stealing a minivan from a car lot. He was arrested, cited, and released. Two days later Alvarado was arrested in a stolen Jaguar, before being cited and released. The following week he was arrested, cited, and released for stealing a Mitsubishi. Four days later he was arrested for stealing the same Mitsubishi and, of course, cited and released. Last Saturday, an officer heard a man screaming and saw Alvarado running from the victim. The victim was hospitalized with serious injuries, and Alvarado was arrested. Under current California law, a criminal can be arrested and released for multiple felonies until he hurts or kills someone.
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