Author: Michael Rushford

Court Overturns Boston Bomber’s Death Sentence

by · Jul 31, 2020 3:25 pm

In an unanimous 187 page ruling announced today, a panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the death sentence given to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two radical Muslim jihadist brothers who set off pressure-cooker bombs at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring 260 others.  Nick Givas of Fox News reports that the court found that the trial judge had failed to properly vet the sentencing jurors with regard to possible bias stemming from publicity surrounding the bombing.

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Hobbling Cops and Shortening Sentences

by · Jul 22, 2020 3:54 pm

Over the past several years real law enforcement leaders, not appointed chiefs in liberal cities or George Soros-funded DAs, have been warning that giving in to demands by Black Lives Matter and progressive politicians for sentencing and policing reforms would result in more crime.  President Barack Obama used his pen to begin these reforms, releasing thousands of drug dealers from prison,  backing off federal prosecution of dealers for new crimes,  implementing “catch and release” on our southern border and initiating federal consent decrees to handcuff police in big cities like Chicago, supposedly to reduce racially-biased policing.  By 2019, many of the most populous states had adopted some form of sentencing reform, cutting sentencing for most crimes,  shortening or eliminating enhancements for repeat felons and reducing or eliminating bail.  In the face of intense pressure by local politicians, activist groups and a complicit media,  Police departments have backed away from progressive policing, particularly in minority urban areas.

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Berkeley to Eliminate Traffic Cops

by · Jul 16, 2020 10:45 am

After hours of emotional testimony, city leaders in Berkeley, (pronounced Berserkley), voted to replace police with unarmed civilians for traffic stops to curtail racial profiling.  Janie Har of the Associated Press reports that a separate civilian-run department would be created by the city to enforce parking and traffic laws as part of the effort to cut the Police Department budget in half.

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DC Judge Blocks Federal Executions

by · Jul 13, 2020 9:29 am

Today’s execution of triple murderer Daniel Lee was stayed by a federal district judge as reported by Ronn Blitzer and Bill Mears of Fox News.  District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled this morning that the Department of Justice was trying to rush through the process to execute Lee and two other federal murderers set for execution later this week.   A quick appeal of the judge’s ruling is likely.

The Major Media Spin on Rising Crime

by · Jul 10, 2020 11:49 am

While many local papers, television and radio news broadcasts have been reporting widespread increases in violent crime in most large U.S. cities this year, the focus of the national media has been on the dominant issues of the liberal narrative.  These include systemic racism, particularly in law enforcement, horror stories about the pandemic, particularly in states where Republican Governors have ended lockdowns, and endless criticism of the President and anyone who supports him.  Yesterday NBC news broke ranks, and actually reported on the spike in shootings, but still managed to spin it to fit the narrative.

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Politically Incorrect Research Withdrawn

by · Jul 9, 2020 11:10 am

Two university psychologists have retracted their study published last year in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), because its politically-incorrect findings have been cited in some pro-law enforcement articles.  The  study:  Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings,  by Joseph Cesario of Michigan State and David Johnson of the University of Maryland, analyzed 917 fatal police shootings in 2015 to determine if racial bias played a role in who got shot.  The study concluded that it did not.

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Ballot Measure Lets Parolees Vote

by · Jul 8, 2020 2:52 pm

In the last week of June the California Legislature passed a Constitutional Amendment that, if adopted by the voters this November, would give criminals on parole the right to vote in state and federal elections.  Evan Symon of the California Globe reports that ACA 8 passed 28-9 in the Democrat-controlled state senate and is now on its way to the November 3rd ballot.  Spearheading passage of the bill was Northern California Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy, who noted that because a disproportionate number of African Americans are on parole the bar against parolees voting unfairly excludes them.

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Abandoning Cities

by · Jul 7, 2020 10:14 am

People are leaving America’s larger urban centers at an unprecedented rate this year.  Kristin Tate of the Hill writes that “an estimated quarter million New York residents are moving upstate for good while another 2 million could permanently move out of state.”  She cites the spread of the coronavirus due to the dense living conditions and the lack of proper local government planning as reasons for the exodus.  Redfin, a real estate search engine, reports that over 40% of urban residents are brousing for new homes, more than twice that of rural residents.  Rural states such as Colorado, Montana, Vermont, Connecticut, and Florida are popular destinations.

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Police Report a Spike in Violence

by · Jun 29, 2020 10:45 am

A survey of four U.S. cities finds that crime and particularly shootings have increased significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread protesting organized by Black Lives Matter.  Luke Barr of ABC News reports that data compiled by the Police Executive Research Forum found that during the third week of June 72 people were shot in New York City.  An official from the NYPD suggested that the pandemic-related release of inmates from Rikers Island had contributed to the increased violence. “[W]e’re seeing a large uptick of parolees involved on either end of the gun, as either the shooter or the victim,” he said. Continue reading . . .

Bogus “Study” on Bias in Jury Selection

by · Jun 26, 2020 2:03 pm

A recent study from The Death Penalty Clinic (read Anti-Death Penalty Clinic) at Berkeley Law, headed by long-time defense attorney Elisabeth Semel, has found that “California prosecutors routinely strike Black and Latino people from juries,” according to the Los Angeles Times. A piece by Michele Hanisee, of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys,  raises serious questions about the accuracy of the study and the bias of its author. Ms. Semel’s study, entitled “Whitewashing the Jury Box,”  examined 683 appellate rulings between 2006-2018 in non-death penalty cases where defense attorneys objected to a prosecutor’s  peremptory challenge of a juror.

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