Category: General

Many large U.S. cities are experiencing a spike in violent crimes, the question is what is causing this? Although there are many elements that likely have a role in the increase, one reason offered here is the lack of officers to deter crime by their presence and to respond to critical calls. In an article written this morning by Cameron McWhiter of the Wall Street Journal, there are statistics and statements from residents of Atlanta, Georgia that offer an explanation. From their perspective the negative picture presented and pushed about law enforcement officers in protests last year has impacted their communities. One resident of Atlanta, Lauren LeNoir was attacked and her purse stolen in her driveway this January, she stated, “They’ve stolen something I cannot get back, and that is my sense of security.” This is a common sentiment shared by many residents of Atlanta. Some have formed groups to make plans for the future to feel safe again. According to McWhiter, “Some Buckhead residents are so alarmed by the crime wave that they have launched a committee to explore seceding form Atalanta, which would mean having its own police department.” 

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Dzhokbar Tsarnaev, one of two radical Islamic terrorists who set off pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon killing three and injuring 264, and then murdered an MIT police officer during his attempted escape, is suing the federal Bureau of Prisons.  CBS News reports that Tsarnaev is claiming that his treatment at the federal supermax prison in Colorado violates his First, Fifth and Eighth Amendment rights.  Last year a panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his death sentence ruling that the jurors were not properly screened.  SCOTUS is currently pondering whether to review the government’s appeal of that ruling.

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Every once in a while someone makes a short statement that precisely captures the absurdity of the times.  Rep. Jim Jordan did that yesterday with this tweet:

My friend Sean Kennedy, a visiting fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute, has the specifics about how America’s unprecedented murder spike in 2020, fueled in part by coerced police pull-backs and partial de-funding, has brought catastrophic economic damage to those least able to withstand it.  As Sean sums it up:

[T]he crime tax costs jobs, reduces property values, deters investment, and undermines trust in public institutions  —  and, destroying opportunity, dashes hope for those who need it most….Crime may not pay but it certainly costs, a lot. Economically struggling Americans need relief, so let’s start by cutting the most regressive tax of all—violence.

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In an article published by The Washington Post on March 2, written by Tom Jackman, there are many references to a ‘new study’ by the Sentencing Project. The argument being made by Jackman via the study is that no individual in the United States should receive a prison sentence for more than 20 years, no matter the level of crime. Are we to believe that if an individual murders a child, or brutally murders a family member, we should ensure they have another chance at being a member of society? 

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Commentary Magazine has a long and wonderfully wide-ranging article about two present-day phenomena on a collision course:  The Critical Race Theory alliances that have captured much of President Biden’s attention and seem to be shaping his criminal justice policies; and the massive (indeed, unprecedented) surge in violent crime we have seen unfolding for more than a year  —  a surge most pronounced in the cities friendliest to CRT and “progressive prosecutors,” e.g., Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

The basic question the article presents is whether Biden has forgotten his past support for sober criminal justice policies and the life-saving success he (and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) had with them, and whether, if so, we are headed back to the bloody failures of the Sixties and Seventies  —  failures that exact a disproportionately high toll on minority communities.

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Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón issued a statement yesterday which released the results from a survey of crime victims in Los Angeles County. The polling results were described by Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ), a sentencing reform group funded by George Soros.  In the their release yesterday the following was said, “According to polling, 65 percent of respondents favored taking individual circumstances into account over automatically adding extra years onto a sentence because of prior convictions”. This statement addresses one of the many questions included in this survey that were framed in a leading manner. 

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Fox News writer Lucas Manfredi explains in an article yesterday afternoon, “Homicides in Oakland, California have surged 400% citywide in 2021, according to the latest crime analysis data shared by the city’s police department.” The article states that there has been a surge in homicides in 4 of the 5 Areas of Oakland. As of December 2020, the City of Oakland began making budget cuts in response to a movement to reallocate funding and defund the Oakland Police Department. 

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A California murderer, who confessed to killing at least seven young women between 1977 and 1987, was put to death at the state’s Mule Creek Prison on February 28, at the age of 81.  Appropriately, the criminal known as the I-5 Strangler died by strangulation at the hands of his cellmate, convicted murderer Jason Budrow.  Ryan Sabalow of the Sacramento Bee reports that Roger Kibbe confessed the murders to detectives in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty.  Vito Bertocchini, the retired San Joaquin Sheriff’s detective that worked the case, believes that Kibbe left more victims.  If this killer had been charged after Governor Newsom had granted a blanket reprieve to all the murderers on death row, it is unlikely he would have volunteered any information about his victims.  Thanks to Newsom’s edict, Budrow was able to kill his cellmate with relative impunity.   Even if prosecutors are able to secure a death sentence for him, it is unlikely he will ever be executed.  Perhaps the state should move this guy into another murderer’s cell.

With the sanctuary state of California offering free medical care, driver’s licenses, education and other benefits to illegal aliens, along with protection from deportation, and the Biden administration announcement that it will grant amnesty to illegals, reinstate chain migration and not turn away any unaccompanied minors, why wouldn’t foreign nationals pay human smugglers (called coyotes) to get them into the Golden State?  The Associated Press reports that the Ford Expedition that crashed into a semi truck near El Centro, CA on March 2, was carrying 25 people, 13 of which died in the crash.  The vehicle was one of two SUVs that drove through a hole in California’s border fence to smuggle Mexicans into the U.S.  The second, a Chevy Suburban, caught fire on the highway and all 19 passengers were taken into custody.  Under current U.S. and California law, they will undoubtedly be released, and perhaps bused to a U.S. City.  The welcome mat has been laid out and for the coyotes business is booming.