Author: Michael Rushford

With murder up nearly 37% in 57 medium to large U.S. cities in 2020, last year may go down as the most violent in U.S. history.   In an article in today’s Wall Street Journal,  Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald presents some startling numbers:  murders increased 95% in Milwaukee, 75% in Louisville, 74% in Seattle, 72% in Minneapolis, 62% in New Orleans, and 58% in Atlanta.  An estimated 2,000 more Americans was murdered last year, most of them black, including dozens of children.  Fifty-five children were murdered in Chicago.  In Los Angeles 40 children had been shot as of last September.   “Mainstream media and many politicians claim that the pandemic caused this bloodbath, but the chronology doesn’t support that assertion.”   The underlying  theme regarding crime and law enforcement over 2020 has been the “police are racist” dog-whistle blown by virtually every big city mayor and blue state governor in the country, with 24/7 reinforcement by the media.  It was the endlessly-repeated mantra by President Biden during his campaign, shared by almost all the Democrat candidates for the House and Senate.  While MacDonald presents hard data debunking the claim that police are selectively gunning down unarmed black suspects, the media has made sure that this  information is not being reported to the general public.

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Virginia, a state which used to have the most effective capital punishment process in the country, is now considering abolishing its death penalty and allowing murderers to be released on parole.  Frank Green of the Richmond Times Dispatch reports that on Monday, SB 1165 cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party line vote.  The bill, which would abolish the death penalty, has Governor Ralph Northam’s support.   Hans Bader reports in Liberty Unyielding that last week, the head of the Virginia Courts of Justice Committee introduced SB 1370, which would allow parole to the state’s worst murderers, including serial killers.   The bill would apply retroactively to give killers serving life-without-parole sentences the opportunity for release.   As Bader notes,  “Allowing judges to retroactively shorten sentences would not only increase the crime rate, by reducing the deterrent effect of criminal penalties. It would reopen old wounds for crime victims, depriving them of any sense of closure or finality and taking away their peace of mind.”

Honoring his promise to reform the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office to advance the cause of social justice, a directive from progressive LA District Attorney George Gascón will prohibit the prosecutors under his command from attending the parole hearing of a pedophile who raped and sexually assaulted two children. Bill Melugin of Fox 11 Los Angeles reports that Ruben Beltran, who is serving a 15-to-life sentence for the sexual assault of a six-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother has become eligible for parole. Normally, the deputy who prosecuted the case attends the parole hearing to remind the parole board of the circumstances of the crime and the threat to public safety posed by releasing the criminal.  Beltran, a friend of the victims’ divorced mother, moved into their home in order to perform repairs and abused her trust to prey upon the children. Under Gascón’s directive, the mother and her children are the only people authorized to argue against Beltran’s release. The mother told reporters, “We’re just a family, now we have to take on the role of law enforcement … rather than the people who should be defending the community.” Her letter to Gascón pleading with him to reconsider was not answered.

The vast majority of illegal aliens arrested by federal authorities last year had an average of four criminal convictions or charges according to a year-end report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  An analysis of the report by Judicial Watch found that the 103,603 illegals arrested had convictions or charges of committing over 374,000 crimes.  While drunk driving was the most frequent crime followed closely by drug offenses, there were 37,000 assaults, 10,000 sex crimes,  3,800 robberies, 1,900 murders and 1,600 kidnappings.

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An habitual felon released on reduced bail December 29, has been arrested for the robbery and murder of a 25-year-old man two weeks later.  Danielle Wallace of Fox News reports that 20-year-old Davis Josephus was facing charges of kidnapping for ransom, auto theft, robbery, and firearms violations when a Philadelphia judge reduced his bail from $200,000 to $12,000 late last month, resulting in his release.  Video surveillance captured Josephus and an accomplice confront recent Temple University graduate Milan Loncar at gunpoint as he was walking his dog in a Brewerytown park last Wednesday.

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Corey Johnson, a drug gang enforcer sentenced to death for arranging the 1992 murders of 7 people in Richmond, Virginia was executed without incident last night.  Jeff Mordock of The Washington Times reports that Johnson’s attorneys made a last-minuted claim that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and that his execution by lethal injection would cause him to suffer the same experience as waterboarding, which would be cruel and unusual punishment.    On Tuesday, District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan stayed Johnson’s execution ruling that it should be delayed until March to allow recovery from the virus.

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In a divided decision announced on Tuesday, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals blocked a Philadelphia non-profit group’s plan to open a safehouse where addicts can safely inject illegal drugs.  Maryclaire Dale of the Associated Press reports that in the opinion for the 2-1 majority, Judge Sephanos Bibas sympathized with the goal of the non-profit called Safehouse, but noted that federal law makes it a crime to open a property for others to ingest illegal drugs.  Four organizations including the Pennsylvania House of Representatives filed amicus briefs in support of the U.S. Attorney, while fourteen groups, including the ACLU, law professors and several states including California and Virginia,  filed briefs in support of Safehouse.

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Writing in the Santa Clarita Valley Signal, California  Board of Equalization member Ted Gaines suggests that policies announced by newly-elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón indicate that he is planning a crime wave for the nation’s most populous county.   “In the latest example of a state gone haywire, Los Angeles County’s recently elected District Attorney George Gascón laid out a stunning pro-crime agenda that would be viewed as satire in most parts of the country.  In Los Angeles County, here is only a partial list of what will no longer be prosecuted: trespassing; drinking in public; under the influence of a controlled substance; public intoxication; disturbing the peace; criminal threats; driving without a license; and, remarkably, resisting arrest.”

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A habitual criminal released from prison last April has been charged with a New Year’s Eve hit-and-run which killed two pedestrians in San Francisco.  Katy Grimes of the California Globe reports that after Troy Ramon McAlister was released on parole after serving time for armed robbery, San Francisco police arrested him several times, most recently on December 20, but DA Chesa Boudin never charged him with any crimes.  McAlister was driving a stolen car while intoxicated when he ran down 27-year-old Japanese-born Hanako Abe and 60-year-old Elizabeth Platt.  Boudin, a former public defender, blames state parole office for not adequately supervising the criminal.

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California’s First District Court of Appeal has granted a gang murder suspect access to the names of zip codes of prospective jurors in his trial.  Gary Klien of the Mercury News reports that attorneys representing Edenilson Misael Alfaro, an MS-13 gang member, won the unanimous appellate court ruling so that they can explore the under-representation of Latinos in the Marin County jury pool list.   The December 9 opinion by Judge Mark Simons brushed aside concerns about juror privacy noting, “We find no basis to conclude that privacy rights preclude disclosure of the names and zip codes on those lists.”

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