Category: Public Order

Stores Adjust to “No Shoplifting Prosecutions” Policy of Progressive DA’s

by · Jan 25, 2022 6:51 pm

As “progressive prosecutors” have taken over in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore and many other one-party cities, merchants have had to adjust to the reality that their shelves can be and have been cleaned out by shoplifters and nothing is going to  be done about it.  The facts that retail theft is still a crime defined by the legislative branch, and in the aggregate causes very substantial economic losses, just don’t register (or don’t count).  There is also the fact that it’s driving businesses out of already “under-served” (and almost always minority) neighborhoods, but that too doesn’t count.  When the businesses take flight, they leave behind now-unemployed workers and a typically disadvantaged customer base with a skimpy and shrinking  selection of alternatives.

Then of course there’s the fact that the indulgence of rampant stealing is the calling card of  —  how shall I say this?  —  devolving standards of decency that mark the decline of a corrupted society.  But I wouldn’t want to be so old-fashioned as to bemoan stealing simply because it’s dishonest and corrosive to the basics of civic life.  Instead, being a capitalist, I want to highlight how stores have adjusted to the new reality.

A picture is, as they say, worth…………………………

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SF Mayor Recovers from Pandemic Wokevid Virus

by · Dec 17, 2021 2:52 pm

Two pandemics swept through America last year and lasted into this year. One, of course, was the virus that causes Covid-19. The other was the Wokevid virus.

Symptoms of Wokevid include (1) believing oneself to be “woke” while actually oblivious to reality and unable to speak correct English; and (2) bizarre delusional beliefs that defy logic, evidence, and common sense. These delusions include beliefs that reduced police presence and minimal punishment of criminals will somehow reduce crime instead of increasing it.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed showed unmistakable symptoms of Wokevid infection last year when she cut $120 million from law enforcement budgets. See this story from KGO. However, this speech Wednesday demonstrates a seemingly complete recovery. Continue reading . . .

Landslide in Seattle

by · Nov 3, 2021 10:53 am

Voters in the famously left-leaning city of Seattle rejected the defund/woke candidates by wide margins in yesterday’s local election. Alec Regimbal has this story for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In the race to become Seattle’s next mayor, former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell is triumphing over M. Lorena González, the council’s current president.

Harrell’s decision to appeal to residents who are fed up with homelessness, as well as the way he distanced himself from a city council that vowed to cut the police budget in half last year, appears to have paid off. Harrell has secured 84,975 votes — 65% — while González has won 46,046 votes, just 35%.

Wow. A 2-to-1 landslide in a bastion of progressiveness. Continue reading . . .

The Disparate Impact of Crime

by · Oct 21, 2021 2:26 pm

Jason Riley has this column in the WSJ pointing out a problem that does not get enough attention. When crime rates go up, the added crimes hurt people of modest means much more than they hurt the affluent. That is a substantial part of why soft-on-crime policies get the greatest support on the ends of the socio-economic spectrum — the criminals themselves and the affluent who are little affected by them — while those more affected by crime tend to support stronger measures. Continue reading . . .

Time’s Up in Times Square

by · Oct 12, 2021 1:49 pm

One of the great accomplishments of New York’s former law-and-order Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg was to rescue Times Square from the disgrace it had become and make it once again a vibrant place that people wanted to visit.

To the surprise of no one with sense, in two terms of crime-and-disorder Mayor Bill de Blasio, Times Square has descended back into the sewer. Nicole Gelinas has this article in the City Journal with the above title. Continue reading . . .

The Portland Poll on Public Order

by · May 19, 2021 2:43 pm

Another result of the Oregonian poll, noted in my previous post, is reported here.  It describes further consequences of police pull-back:

Residents across the metro area say downtown Portland has become dirty, unsafe and uninviting and many anticipate visiting the city’s core less often after the pandemic than they did before.

Those are the worrisome findings of a new poll of 600 people in the Portland metro area commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Asked for their perceptions of downtown, respondents frequently used words like “destroyed,” “trashed,” “riots” and “sad.” Many cited homelessness as a particular issue, and said there is an urgent need for the city to find housing and support people living on the street.

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Austin Voters Reinstate Street Camping Ban

by · May 7, 2021 3:18 pm

Austin has for some time been regarded as a liberal island in a conservative state, a bit of Berkeley in the heart of Texas. Consistently with that reputation, the city council in 2019 repealed the ban on camping in the streets. Inconsistently with that reputation, the people reinstated the ban last Saturday.

The vote was 57-43, according to this report for KVUE. That is a reasonably healthy majority.
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Seeing the Light on Crime and Disorder

by · Apr 27, 2021 3:49 pm

The WSJ has this editorial:

A well-known politician on Friday denounced “self-described anarchists who engage in regular criminal destruction” and want to “burn,” “bash” and “intimidate.” He called for “higher bail” and “tougher pretrial restrictions” on rioters. And he pleaded with the public to cooperate with police and identify miscreants: “Our job is to unmask them, arrest them, and prosecute them.”

Donald Trump ? Sheriff Arpaio ? Nope.

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Police Officer Injuries Increase and Officer Numbers Decrease

by · Apr 26, 2021 3:04 pm

Many police officers are hanging up their hats and some major city police departments are faced with serious understaffing with no real end in sight. CNN has this story on the gross understaffing of the Capitol Police, “Capitol Police Union Chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement Saturday that the Capitol Police is staffed below its authorized level by 233 officers and could face larger staffing shortages as officers retire in the coming years.” The Chairman goes on to explain this understaffing in only exacerbated by the injuries sustained by officers during the January 6th riot. The NY Times published this article about the riot at the Capital that resulted, “In one of the worst days of injuries for law enforcement in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At least 138 officers —73 from Capitol Police and 65 from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington — were injured.” These are horrifically high numbers, yet there is little discussion about how to proceed in such a manner that our officers who are there to serve and protect our communities are given the tools to succeed; whether that be training, more officers, and/or improved response. 

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