Category: General

A City Journal piece by former District Attorney and defense lawyer Tom Hogan, explains why veteran prosecutors have recently been leaving DA’s Offices in large numbers.  “Prosecutors are leaving the profession for several reasons, the first and most obvious being the new wave of progressives sweeping into office.”  Hogan notes that in St. Louis where Soros-bankrolled progressive Kim Gardner was elected in 2017,  turnover in her office exceeded 100% as her de-prosecution, no bail and short sentencing policies, along with her claims that the entire criminal justice system is racist, destroyed morale.  He also notes that pro-criminal laws passed by liberal state legislatures, which prevent prosecutors from taking criminals off the streets and bury them in new procedures, and the current political climate which presumes that prosecutors are racists, are also contributing to the exodus of experienced prosecutors.  “With violent crime surging in cities across the country,  there couldn’t be a worse time to lose them.”

Making a court appearance online does have some advantages. No driving downtown, or even to another city. No parking hassles or expense. No security check.

Casual attire? Better think twice about that one. Continue reading . . .

Pres. Biden was older when he took office than Ronald Reagan was when he left.  It’s not exactly a secret that older people can have problems with forgetfulness.  Pres. Biden seems to be having such a moment in his attempts, summarized here and here, to come up with an answer to the dramatic rise in violent crime (a rise that started under his predecessor last year but has continued full throttle during Biden’s tenure).

On the other hand, perhaps it’s not so much that Biden can’t remember how to deal with crime effectively  —  a project he helped advance as a senator 25 years ago  —  as it is that, given the radical leftward shift in the Democratic Party, he can’t afford to remember.  Instead, he has to pretend that the Left’s reality-free narrative  —  a jazzed-up version of the failed soft-on-crime policies of the Sixties and Seventies  —  is the answer.

It isn’t.  It’s pathetic.  And it will cost lives, disproportionately  —  as is always the case with violent crime  —  black lives.

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In a stumbling, bumbling speech yesterday,  President Joe Biden outlined his approach to the historic increases in violent crime across America.  As reported by the New York Times Biden said “Crime historically rises during the summer. And as we emerge from this pandemic, the country opening back up again, the traditional summer spike may be more pronounced than it usually would be. For folks at home, here’s what you need to know. I’ve been at this a long time and there are things we know that work to reduce gun violence and violent crime and things that we don’t know about. But things we know about: Background checks for purchasing a firearm are important; ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines; community policing and programs that keep neighborhoods safe and keep folks out of trouble. These efforts work. They save lives.”  Sorry Joe, but were not experiencing a “traditional summer spike” and the solutions you are proposing have never worked or saved any lives.

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After a record number of shootings last year and 875 deaths, nearly twice as many as in 2019, violent crime in Chicago is on track  to set a new record this year.  According to Newsweek, there were 956 shootings in Chicago resulting in 185 deaths during the first quarter of 2021, a 14% increase in homicide compared to the same period last year.  In the face of last year’s skyrocketing homicide rate and Black Lives Matter riots, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed cutting the police department’s budget by $59 million, while telling reporters that she does not support defunding the police as reported by CBS News.  She has variously blamed Chicago’s shootings and murders on former President Trump, the Corona Virus, and gun laws in Indiana and Texas.

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For the past few years there have been virtually no legal consequences for selling or using drugs in San Francisco.   To address the thousands of addicts living and dying on the streets, city leaders have funded programs which visit the places where addicts congregate and hand out Narcan, a fentanyl antidote, and counsel addicts to shoot up with a partner to prevent an overdose.  As reported by Amy Graff of SF Gate, fatal drug overdoses in San Francisco increased by 70% from 2018 to 2019, and by over 50% in 2020. Over the first quarter of 2021 fatal overdoses have increased by 39% as the city heads for another record-breaking year .  Most of these deaths were caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid pouring across American’s southern border and is sold on the streets in every part of the country.

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Let us all take a few moments this holiday to remember those who fought and died for the freedom we cherish.

44 elected District Attorneys filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court yesterday seeking to block the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) from granting early releases to 76,000 of the state’s most dangerous criminals.  In a press release, Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who is leading the effort, noted that on Friday, April 30, 2021 the CDCR announced “emergency regulations” to award increased good time credits to the bulk of inmates currently in prison.  On May 17, 2021 the District Attorneys sent a letter to the head of CDCR asking her to repeal the regulations and follow normal state rules for implementing a policy of this magnitude.  CDCR did not respond to the letter.

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With everything in bloom and temperatures in the 70s New Yorkers went out to enjoy the city last weekend and violent criminals were there to greet them.  Fox News reports that thirty-one people were shot from Friday, May 21 thru Sunday, May 23, with six fatalities.  One victim, a 34-year-old woman eating at a restaurant in Prospect Heights was hit in the face by a bullet fragment from an apparent gang shootout on Washington Avenue.  The New York Daily News reports that a 31-year-old man walking past the restaurant with his wife was also shot during the same incident.  There were fifty shootings in the city last week, a 257% increase over the same week a year ago.   Over 2020 as we watched news broadcasts of cell phone video showing multiple incidents of NYPD officers being attacked while trying to make arrests or sitting in patrol cars, city leaders were busy releasing arrestees on zero bail and emptying out jails to protect criminals from Covid 19.  Earlier this year, as part of a police reform package, the City Council eliminated qualified immunity for police accused of using excessive force.  So-called criminal justice reform is increasing crime in New York City.

For decades, anti-sentencing advocates have blamed poverty, economic conditions, demographics, racism, and firearms for increases in crime rather than on the criminals themselves and weak policies that enable criminal behavior.  After 2020, the pandemic has been added to the list.  As reported in Hans Bader’s article in Liberty Unyielding,  Professor John Pfaff, “America’s most famous advocate of cutting sentences for violent criminals,”  suggests that one reason for the unprecedented increase in shootings in New York City was the pandemic which upended the economy.   Professor Pfaff was responding to a recent article in Politico which noted that “gun violence escalates throughout the city (of New York) one year after anti-police protesters occupied the street.”

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