Category: Politics

A Problematic Attorney General Nomination

by · Nov 14, 2024 9:17 am

President-elect Trump has nominated Rep. Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General of the United States. If he had intentionally set out to choose the Republican with the least chance of being confirmed, he could hardly have done better.

With a 53-47 Senate and his Vice-President having a tie-breaking vote, the 47 Democrats plus 4 Republicans can block a nominee. Mr. Gaetz is a disruptive, divisive figure, widely despised among his former colleagues in the House Republican Caucus. Can he attract unanimous support, or anything close to it, among Republicans in the upper chamber? That seems unlikely. An appeal to party loyalty and unity in support of a man who is the epitome of the exact opposite does not seem to be a winning argument. Continue reading . . .

Results on Drug Votes

by · Nov 8, 2024 11:31 am

Magic mushrooms didn’t have enough ballot magic to be legalized in Massachusetts, David Ovalle reports for the WaPo.

In three red states, voters opted not to legalize recreational marijuana.

In blue Massachusetts, residents rejected a plan making therapeutic use of psychedelics plants legal.

And in liberal California, voters embraced stiffer penalties for certain drug crimes.

The state ballot decisions Tuesday signal voter concerns that drug policies across the United States have drifted too far to the left, according to some policy experts and political analysts. Each ballot question featured nuances specific to their states.

Continue reading . . .

Results on Ballot Crime Measures

by · Nov 6, 2024 6:05 am

See yesterday’s post for a description of the ballot measures. Here are the results as of 8 ET / 5 PT the morning after:

California‘s Proposition 36, partially rolling back the disastrous Prop. 47 of 2014, passed by a landslide 70-30. Much closer is the deceptive measure to forbid compelled work for prisoners, being sold as an “anti-slavery” measure in a state that forbade slavery at its birth 175 years ago. With no opposition funding or advertising and not even an opposition ballot argument, it is still going down 45-55. Give the voters credit for seeing through it on their own.

In Colorado, Amendment I, making an exception to the right to bail for first-degree murder cases, is sailing through 69-31. Proposition 128, a truth-in-sentencing law requiring service of 85% of the sentence before parole eligibility for murder-2, sexual assault, and some other violent crimes is also passing by a landslide, 62-38. Proposition 130, a police funding measure, is ahead 53-47.

In Arizona, Proposition 311, also a funding measure, is passing handily, 64-36. In Missouri, though, a measure for funding via fees is going down by a similar margin, 39-61. Continue reading . . .

Woke DAs Routed in California

by · Nov 6, 2024 5:34 am

Voters in three major California counties continued the rejection of so-called “progressive” prosecutors yesterday. The results below are as of 5 am PST:

In Los Angeles, voters ousted George Gascón in favor of Nathan Hochman by a landslide 61-39.

In Alameda County (Oakland and vicinity), voters recalled Pamela Price by an even larger margin, 65-35.

In San Francisco, voters reelected Brooke Jenkins, who replaced the previously recalled Chesa Boudin. She was challenged by Ryan Khojasteh, one of the prosecutors she fired shortly after taking the reins. Khojasteh tried to soft-pedal his links to the “progressive” prosecutor movement, but he was endorsed by all the usual suspects: Gascón, Philly’s Larry Krasner, and California’s thug-hugging Gov. Newsom. See this story in the SF Chron Saturday. The vote at this time is over 2-to-1: 67-32. Continue reading . . .

Crime Measures on the Ballot

by · Nov 5, 2024 11:59 am

National Public Radio has this article by Meg Anderson on crime-related measures on the ballot in various states. And of course, because it is NPR, the article lists to the left. Even so, it does have some interest.

California’s Proposition 36 is described as ” a proposition that would undo changes made a decade ago that lessened the punishments for certain crimes.” That is potentially misleading. It doesn’t repeal 2014’s Proposition 47, but rolls back some of its more poorly thought-out provisions. “Among other changes, the proposed proposition would turn some misdemeanors – certain kinds of theft and drug crimes – into felonies, and lengthen some prison sentences. It would also require people facing certain drug felonies to go through treatment.” That’s a decent quick summary. Continue reading . . .

Voting Fraud

by · Oct 28, 2024 3:48 pm

Yes, voting fraud does exist, despite what you may have read. WGAL reports from Lancaster, Pennsylvania:

Thousands of voter registration forms that are suspected of being fraudulent were dropped off at the Lancaster County Board of Elections Office, according to officials.

The Lancaster County Board of Elections, county commissioners and District Attorney Heather Adams held a news conference at the county administration building Friday morning….

Detectives in the DA’s office are investigating the fraudulent voter registration forms. Adams said they stem from a canvassing operation in the summer at various shopping centers, parking lots, parks and other areas. The investigation involves around 2,500 voter registration applications dropped off last week at two separate times, shortly before Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline.

Adams said of the applications that have been examined, 60% were fraudulent. She said the remainder should be examined by the end of Friday.

“Staff noticed that numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting (and) were filled out on the same day,” Adams said. “The confirmed indicators of fraud that detectives came across were inaccuracies with the addresses listed on the applications, fake and false personal identification information, as well as false names. Also, applications that had names that did not match the provided Social Security information.”

Continue reading . . .

Prosecutors Taking a Dive

by · Oct 28, 2024 9:51 am

The Anglo-American system of justice has always depended on having adversarial advocates to present both sides of any controversy. But what happens when a prosecutor “takes a dive” and joins a convicted defendant’s efforts to overturn his conviction? U. Utah Law Professor Paul Cassell has this op-ed in The Hill on that subject. He focuses particularly on the Glossip case from Oklahoma presently before the Supreme Court, in which he represents the victim’s family. See this post.

This is not to say that confessions of error are always inappropriate. Sometimes they are the right thing to do. The problem arises when political or ideological considerations enter into the picture. There is a strong basis for suspicion that is happening in the Glossip case, where the AG’s investigator never even asked the trial prosecutor about the meaning of cryptic notes that lie at the heart of the present case. In other cases, there is no doubt at all. Continue reading . . .

Recall of East Bay DA

by · Oct 25, 2024 4:06 pm

The big news in “progressive” prosecutor elections is in Los Angeles, but northern California also has a race worth watching. The East Bay Times has this editorial endorsing the recall of Alameda County DA Pamela Price. (Alameda Co. is Oakland and a number of other cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay.)

It’s not surprising that Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has tried to shake things up. That’s what she promised in 2022 when she campaigned as a criminal justice reformer.

But her actions have gone far beyond reform. Price has punished opponents, hired allies with questionable credentials including her own boyfriend, insisted on disturbing leniency for violent criminals, undermined public disclosure laws, demonstrated prosecutorial bias about cases and even, it is now alleged, made racist comments and tried to extort money from a political rival.

The EBT is part of the same media group as the San Jose Mercury-News, which is definitely not a conservative paper.

If the recall succeeds, the county board of supervisors will choose a temporary replacement to serve until the next general election in 2026. Continue reading . . .

Drugs, Treatment, Jail, and Indirect Consequences

by · Oct 18, 2024 11:58 am

The folks in favor of so-called criminal justice “reform” are fond of simplistic slogans such as “treatment, not jail” for drug offenders. However, as this story by Julie Watts at Sacramento’s CBS 13 indicates, “reform” measures can sometimes undermine treatment rather than promote it. This is one more example of a primary cause of bad policy — failure to consider the indirect consequences and considering only the direct consequences.

Once upon a time, drug courts were a key element of criminal justice reform. These specialized courts provide an alternative to people arrested for drug crimes, either possession or low-level dealing. If they agree to treatment and follow through to completion of the program, the criminal charges will be dropped. As described in the story, many people credit these programs with savings their lives.

But what happens when the criminal penalties for low-level drug offenses are lowered so far that the incentive vanishes? Continue reading . . .

Free the Detergent!

by · Oct 2, 2024 5:08 pm

The San Diego Union-Tribune has this editorial, titled Endorsement: Yes on Prop. 36: Time to free the detergent.

The coming landslide win for Proposition 36 will be a triumph for truth over spin. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board has long supported criminal justice reform. But in real time, we saw the obvious flaws of Proposition 47 — the November 2014 measure that Proposition 36 is meant to fix. It changed many “nonviolent” felonies into misdemeanors in a ham-handed way that incentivized certain crimes.

Eleven months later, The Washington Post dispatched a reporter to San Diego who wrote an unforgettable account showing the incredulity of law enforcement over the new status quo: “instead of arresting criminals and removing them from the streets, their officers have been dealing with the same offenders again and again. Caught in possession of drugs? That usually means a misdemeanor citation under Prop 47, or essentially a ticket. Caught stealing something worth less than $950? That means a ticket, too. Caught using some of that $950 to buy more drugs? Another citation.

Nothing has changed since then — unless you count the emergence of a cottage industry determined to depict Proposition 47 as good no matter what. So store clerks say they’ve stopped reporting thefts because there’s no point? It’s a blip. So store owners are spending heavily to lock up more goods than ever, including detergent? There’s no proof that’s necessary — the corporations in charge have an agenda.

Manipulation of crime statistics, one of our favorite subjects, enters into the picture: Continue reading . . .