Author: Michael Rushford

Virtue signaling hypocrisy is on display in Seattle as an ice cream parlor which enthusiastically supported the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that shut down several square blocks of the city, is now suing the city over the damage and loss of business resulting from the shut down.  Jeffery Clark of Fox News reports that during the summer 2020 BLM protests over the death of George Floyd rioters created a BLM zone in a 10-block section of the city where a Molly Moon’s ice cream parlor was located.  The zone was renamed CHOP, (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest) after armed protesters barricaded streets and prohibited police and fire-rescue officers from entering.   The city eventually agreed not to allow patrols in the area.  During the 24-day life of CHOP, there were multiple shootings with two deaths along with reports of “narcotics use and violent crime, including rape, robbery, assault, and increased gang activity.”  From June 2 to June 30, Seattle Police logged a 525 percent increase in violent crime compared to June 2019.

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A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has ruled that a man charged with the brutal stabbing murder of a 24-year-old college co-ed can no longer represent himself at his murder trial.  The judge’s order came following an outburst in the courtroom where Shawn Laval Smith continuously cursed the judge and jumped out his seat, requiring his removal from the hearing.  My News LA reports that Smith will be confined to a security chair and represented by a public defender for his next court appearance.

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The state of Missouri executed double-murderer Michael Tisius by lethal injection Tuesday evening.  He died ten minutes after receiving a fatal dose of the anesthesia pentobarbital.  Jim Salter of the Associated Press reports that Tisius was 19-years-old in 2000 when he murdered two guards at the Huntsville County Jail while helping a friend escape.  In the years since his conviction, his attorneys claimed that Tisius’ sentence should be reduced to life-without-parole because of his neglected childhood, and because one of the sentencing jurors was illiterate.  His attorneys also claimed that the murders were unintentional, although Tisius came to the jail armed with a gun and shot one of the guards multiple times.  It was the twelfth U.S. execution this year.  Last year seven murderers had been executed by June 8th.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s vision of transforming 171 year-old San Quentin prison into a Norwegian rehabilitation campus, where inmates can wear their own clothes and cook their own food while attending classes to get college degrees and licenses in trades like plumbing and truck driving, is apparently dead.  A story in the Davis Vanguard reports that neither the Senate or the Assembly was willing to vote in support of a $360 million down payment to create a friendlier and happier place for the state’s worst criminals.  The amazing aspect of this news is that perhaps the most progressive group in the state,  Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), which advocates for closing prisons, was strongly opposed, because Newsom’s proposal “does nothing to address the systemic racism and violence that prisons perpetuate.”  Law enforcement and victims groups have been opposed to this plan since it was announced earlier this year as a criminal-coddling pipe dream.  CURB opposes it because it does not coddle criminals enough.   Go figure.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge ruled last week that arrestees for non-violent felonies and misdemeanors must be released without bail.  CBS affiliate KCAL reports that Judge Lawrence Riff issued a preliminary injunction blocking judges from requiring bail for all but the most violent offenses.  The Jerry Brown appointee held that requiring bail for arrestees who cannot pay is a “serious constitutional violation.”  Among those who will be released without bail under this ruling are virtually all thieves, including car thieves, drug dealers, and most people who commit assaults, including domestic violence.  The Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Times praised the judge for bringing “back sanity in L.A.”  Did the Times miss the historic spike in crime that hit Los Angeles when bail was suspended in 2020?  That’s the same year that 56.4% of voters rejected zero bail (Proposition 25) at the November general election.

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In a surprising move announced Friday, progressive Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s office will be charging the three Chicago gang members arrested for the murders of three women in Beverly Crest last January, with special circumstance first-degree murder and enhancements.  Brie Stimson of Fox News reports that nine people were shot on the morning of January 28 by what police characterized as an ambush.  The three women killed and the accused shooters were all from the Chicago area.   This announcement is unusual because, since his election, District Attorney Gascon has forbidden his deputies from charging special circumstances and enhancements against murderers and other violent offenders.

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Following Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to prosecute an ex-Marine Daniel Penny for subduing a deranged habitual felon on the subway, who died from the chokehold, 50,000 people have donated to Penny’s legal defense fund.  Michael Lee of Fox News reports that the fund has received $2.5 million since Penney was charged with second-degree manslaughter last Friday.  Along with the contributions, many New Yorkers thanked Penny for taking action to prevent violence on the city’s crime-plagued subways.  “My daughter rides those subways, Keep them safe,” wrote one donor.  “I would have wanted you on the subway if I were there,” wrote another.  Bragg’s decision came after protesters including Al Sharpton and progressive politicians ranging from the New York’s Mayor, members of the  City Council, the state legislature, and members of Congress demanded that the white man who choked the black criminal, with over 40 arrests, be charged with murder.  A no-brainer for the Soros-bankrolled District Attorney.   On the other side of the country, in progressive San Francisco, the District Attorney was faced with a similar case.

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Law enforcement groups are warning that cities across the country implementing policies to prohibit most traffic stops by police are going to result in a preventable increase in crime.  The New York Times reports that cities including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Berkeley, Lansing, Mich, Brooklyn Center, Minn, and the State of Virginia have adopted such policies.  The City of Los Angeles is also considering having unarmed civilians enforce “safety related traffic violations,” such as speeding according to the LA Times.

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