by Kent Scheidegger · Jul 8, 2020 5:01 pm
Senator Tim Scott is talking with Democrats about ways to revive his police reform bill, Justine Coleman reports for The Hill. One point where Sen. Scott might work out a compromise is on civil remedies for violations of federal rights.
by Michael Rushford · Jul 8, 2020 2:52 pm
In the last week of June the California Legislature passed a Constitutional Amendment that, if adopted by the voters this November, would give criminals on parole the right to vote in state and federal elections. Evan Symon of the California Globe reports that ACA 8 passed 28-9 in the Democrat-controlled state senate and is now on its way to the November 3rd ballot. Spearheading passage of the bill was Northern California Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy, who noted that because a disproportionate number of African Americans are on parole the bar against parolees voting unfairly excludes them.
by Bill Otis · Jul 8, 2020 12:27 pm
I’m going to leave this New York Post story right here: Oregon man driving stolen car crashes into woman driving another stolen car.
by Bill Otis · Jul 7, 2020 12:49 pm
One among many reasons I regularly read Doug Berman’s excellent blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, is the breadth of its coverage. Today it features an article of great value because of its honesty. It tells us, without a whole lot of varnish, what our opponents on criminal justice policy have in mind for the country.
We ignore it at our peril. The people behind these suggestions are going to be eager candidates for politically-appointed sub-Cabinet positions in a Democratic administration, at the Justice Department and elsewhere. If you want to know what the Biden DOJ is actually going to be pushing — as opposed to the relative pablum we’ll be hearing about in the campaign (if the former Vice President chooses to mount one) — here it is.
by Michael Rushford · Jul 7, 2020 10:14 am
People are leaving America’s larger urban centers at an unprecedented rate this year. Kristin Tate of the Hill writes that “an estimated quarter million New York residents are moving upstate for good while another 2 million could permanently move out of state.” She cites the spread of the coronavirus due to the dense living conditions and the lack of proper local government planning as reasons for the exodus. Redfin, a real estate search engine, reports that over 40% of urban residents are brousing for new homes, more than twice that of rural residents. Rural states such as Colorado, Montana, Vermont, Connecticut, and Florida are popular destinations.
by Katherine.Stiplosek · Jul 7, 2020 9:33 am
Amidst a global pandemic and a nation full of political tensions, this year’s 4th of July weekend proved to be another marker of civil unrest.
In Chicago, gun violence left at least 17 people killed, with another 63 injured. Two of these deaths are children, continuing a string of children fatally shot in recent weeks.
by Bill Otis · Jul 6, 2020 5:39 pm
My friend Daniel Horowitz of the Conservative Review is an incredibly diligent and resourceful investigator of crime data. He has given me permission to repeat here his story today about the gruesome toll our present murder spree is taking on those least able to protect themselves — black children. As Daniel observes:
[F]ireworks were not the only munitions shot over the July 4 weekend. Statues weren’t the only things felled by anarchists and criminals roaming…the streets. This weekend was a bloody one across the country, with [dozens of] shootings in America’s cities, including New York, [once] considered the safest American city for a generation. Once again, African-American victims, including a number of young children, paid the price while the anarchy was excused and even legitimized by the media and politicians.
by Bill Otis · Jul 6, 2020 12:36 pm
The New York Times today makes some efforts to explain away the story, but for the most part tells it straight up: Murder is surging in cities across the country:
Overall crime is down 5.3 percent in 25 large American cities relative to the same period in 2019, with violent crime down 2 percent.
But murder in these 25 cities is up 16.1 percent in relation to last year. It’s not just a handful of cities driving this change, either. Property crime is down in 18 of the 25 sampled cities, and violent crime is down in 11 of them, but murder is up in 20 of the cities.
by Bill Otis · Jul 5, 2020 1:21 pm
This is the headline in the New York Post: Shootings soar 205 percent after NYPD disbands anti-crime unit
The story doesn’t get any better. If anything, it gets worse.
by Bill Otis · Jul 3, 2020 9:02 pm
The types — mostly white — who went to Columbia and NYU Law and take the limo out to their weekend place in the Hamptons are none too pleased with the NYPD. Their man, Mayor Bill de Blasio, just cut the police budget by a billion dollars, in a time of dramatically rising violent crime.
But New Yorkers who lead ordinary lives have a different view. Asked about the prospect of abolishing the police, the response made up in common sense what it lacked academic refinement: “That would be suicide.”
The commentary in the Western Journal lays it on the line.
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