Author: Michael Rushford

A person living in San Francisco is almost three times more likely to die from a drug overdose than from Covid 19, according to this story by Heather Knight from The San Francisco Chronicle.  The city medical examiner handles roughly 2 drug overdose deaths per day, and the 468 who had died so far this year already exceeds the 441 deaths for all of 2019.  The city’s Covid 19 deaths currently total 123.   As the reporter notes, “We’re a city that freaks out about a jogger running past without a mask, but doesn’t blink at someone injecting themselves in the neck on a Tenderloin sidewalk.”  Over 2/3 of the overdoses have been from Fentanyl.

Continue reading . . .

The poster boy for junk justice in New York City is Angel Rivera, a habitual criminal who has repeatedly attacked New York police officers and gained immediate release each time over the summer. Joe Marino and Dean Balsamini of the New York Post, report that in early June, Rivera was released after being charged with using a stolen credit card and threatening to shoot a man during an altercation. In July Rivera was arrested and released for assault after attacking police who were attempting to clear protesters at a major  intersection near Columbus Park. In September he was arrested again and released for headbutting an officer during another protest.

Continue reading . . .

The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized the largest cache of methamphetamine in history earlier this month.  The Mercury News reports that the drug, along with large quantities of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine were found in two stash houses  rural Riverside County, CA. and at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry a few miles south of downtown San Diego.  The drugs confiscated from the two locations are estimated to have a combined wholesale value of $25 million, with enough meth to dose every inhabitant in the United States.

Continue reading . . .

The co-founder of Black Lives Matter has announced the formation of a political action committee (PAC) which will focus on the elections of county sheriffs and district attorneys.   Maya King of Politico reports that group will announce a slate of preferred candidates ahead of the upcoming November 3 election.  While the mainstream media likes to portray BLM as a disorganized grassroots movement, this fiction does not square with the well-coordinated and equipped protests that have been launched  simultaneously in cities across the country over the past five months or the group’s bank account.

Continue reading . . .

A federal district judge in San Francisco has ruled that it is unlawful for the Internal Revenue Service to deny federal coronavirus Cares Act stimulus checks to criminals serving time in state prison.  Evan Symon of the California Globe reports that Judge Phyllis Hamilton announced that the Treasury Department and the IRS have until the end of October to send the checks or the court will most likely order them sent.  The ruling stems from a class action lawsuit brought by inmates and inmate families.  The government said that it will appeal the ruling.

In a divided ruling announced Friday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the President’s use of emergency powers to appropriate military construction funds to build the border wall is illegal.  Celine Castronuovo of the Hill reports that ruling also lifted a stay put in place by the district court to allow construction to continue while the government appealed.

Continue reading . . .

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of one of three convicted murderers who robbed, tortured and murdered a 19-year-old man in 2000.  The Associated Press reports that Briley Piper claimed his admission of guilt in the murder was involuntary and that his lawyer was ineffective for allowing it.   An earlier South Dakota Supreme Court decision on the same claim noted that Piper had an experienced defense attorney with whom he agreed that, in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt, admitting responsibility for the crime might convince jurors to give him a life sentence.  They didn’t.

Continue reading . . .

With shootings and homicides up in 27 of the nation’s largest cities, researchers are trying to come up with a reason, according to this story Richard Winton in today’s Los Angeles Times.  Winton reports that the authors of a new study by the non-partisan Council on Criminal Justice believe that the increase has been caused by either police social distancing during the pandemic, or the distrust of police resulting from the George Floyd killing, causing people to turn to “street justice.”

Continue reading . . .