Author: Bill Otis

The Demand for Racism Exceeds the Supply

by · Dec 9, 2021 4:33 pm

Black actor Jusse Smollett was found guilty today by a Chicago jury of lying to police when he reported being the victim of a hate crime in the early morning hours of a frigid night near his apartment almost three years ago.  As the WSJ reports, “Mr. Smollett was the star of the hit show ‘Empire’ when he told police that two men had used racist, antigay language and a pro-Trump slogan before hitting and kicking him and placing a noose around his neck around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019.”

According to the jury, the whole thing was made up, as (necessarily) was Smollett’s trial testimony, plus numerous of his public statements reiterating his “victimhood.”

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Does the Electorate Want More Prison or Less?

by · Dec 8, 2021 12:08 pm

With a hat-tip to Sentencing Law and Policy, I bring you this poll from the Pew Research Center, a center-left outfit that often does useful research.  The question it asked was whether respondents thought people convicted of crime spend too much, too little, or about the right amount of time in prison.  The results will not come as good news to those campaigning for “decarceration” (and thus, though they refuse to admit it, more grisly episodes like the Waukesha massacre).

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Ankle Bracelets Work……..Or, Well, Even if Not So Much, We Need to Stop Being Incarceration Nation

by · Nov 19, 2021 9:31 am

Here’s the headline from the CNN story (no, not Breitbart):  “A California couple vanished after stealing millions in Covid-19 relief funds. They left a goodbye note for their three kids.”

Look, we don’t want to be too judgmental here.  The kiddies got a goodbye note! There might even be a jar of peanut butter left in the pantry.  And Covid relief has been over-hyped anyway.  Please, can we put away the sourpuss Puritanism?

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Rape? Hey, Stuff Happens.

by · Nov 18, 2021 3:00 pm

The New York Times, of all things, has a story today about the violent rape of a young teenage girl (the defendant did not contest it and pleaded guilty), followed by a sentence of zero imprisonment.  But not to worry  —  the judge determined that incarceration for Mr. Nicey was “not appropriate” after “praying” about it.

I am not making this up.  Indeed, I don’t have to make it up, since it has a good deal in common with the notorious Stanford rape case about which that same NYT was kind enough to print my op-ed, see here.  Still, in the Stanford case, at least the rapist got a token jail sentence.  I guess New York is more “enlightened.”  Criminal justice reform, dontcha know.

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Death Penalty Whumps Joe Biden

by · Nov 18, 2021 1:14 pm

Gallup has two contrasting polls out today.  One shows President Biden’s approval rating at 42%.  On crime, it’s lower than that (39% approval to 57% disapproval); perhaps citizens are not real thrilled with his Attorney General’s denominating parents as “domestic terrorists” if they voice dissent at school board meetings.

Gallup’s other news release is about its annual  death penalty poll, showing approval at 54%, which, Gallup notes, “is essentially unchanged from readings over the past four years…”

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Even the Washington Post Gets It, Sort Of

by · Nov 9, 2021 7:57 am

The Washington Post is a predictably liberal newspaper very slightly to the right of the New York Times (in other words, not Maoist).  It woodenly goes along with whatever the liberal position du jour is, including opposition to the death penalty and an unfriendly skepticism toward the police and policing.

A week ago today, however, there was an election.  As has widely been reported, more liberal candidates took a pasting, running from 12 to 16 percentage points behind what Joe Biden won in 2020.  Crime and policing were issues across the country, including although not limited to Northern Virginia, just across the Potomac from the WaPo  —  which dutifully took note.

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Bring Back the Death Penalty in Virginia?

by · Nov 3, 2021 12:22 pm

Yesterday saw a small revolution in Virginia politics.  For the last few years, the Democrats have controlled both the Governor’s chair and both houses of the state legislature.  With that alignment, they repealed the state’s death penalty on an almost (but not quite) straight party line vote.  But with yesterday’s election, things have changed.  Is there now a way to restore the death penalty? Continue reading . . .

Reality Can’t Be Hidden Forever

by · Oct 30, 2021 6:14 pm

The headline in today’s Washington Post story is:  “In a setback for Black Lives Matter, mayoral campaigns shift to ‘law and order’.”

Yes, it’s all true.  When violent crime surges, the public demands protection.  Who woulda thunk it?

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Should the Justice Department Monitor School Board Meetings?

by · Oct 21, 2021 8:24 am

In a word, no.

In ten words, ominous FBI surveillance like this would make Richard Nixon blush.

Clark Neily of the libertarian Cato Institute and I often disagree  —  about drug legalization, police behavior and prosecutorial power.  But we found it easy to collaborate on an op-ed about Merrick Garland’s memo enlisting the power of the federal government to intimidate parents who voice emphatic dissent at local school board meetings.

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The Push to End Qualified Immunity Gets a Cold Shoulder

by · Oct 18, 2021 7:57 am

There has been a loud campaign for years now, led by a number of libertarians and some liberals, to end qualified immunity for the police.  The gist of their argument is that police who behave properly don’t need it, and the others shouldn’t have it.  Their legal hook is that QI is a “judge-created doctrine” with no anchor in the text of the Constitution (that the Left gets that one out without choking has to be a source of no little wonderment).

Kent has briefly and persuasively dispatched this argument before, and the Supreme Court was having none of it today, reversing two lower court cases that had refused to grant QI to police.  When, as in these cases, the anti-police side can’t even get Justice Sotomayor, you know it’s time for them to move on (which they’re not about to anyway).

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