Monthly Archive: December 2021

Highly Questionable Lawyer Practices Have Found Their Way into Criminal Justice

by · Dec 20, 2021 10:56 am

Guest post by David Boyd

A company has a potential liability that they want off their books. An ethically questionable law firm has the solution. Initiate a class action lawsuit against the company, settle the case quickly with a hefty fee for the lawyers and little to nothing for the class. It does not have to be outright collusion; maybe they just each have incentives, but the incentives are entirely aligned with each other so that they are not on the opposite sides. They are not adversaries in the legal sense, and the true victims get left behind.

Something remarkably similar is going on in criminal justice here in California. Long final death sentences are being undone through the same kind of collusion of interests. Anti-death penalty forces and state funded lawyers have a responsibility to represent their death penalty clients. Progressive prosecutors like George Gascón do not believe in the death penalty, despite the fact that the voters of the State of California recently, twice (2012 and 2016), reaffirmed their desire for the ultimate sanction. Gascón does not have the power of the Governor to commute a death sentence, so what is he doing? He invites a lawsuit. Continue reading . . .

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 . . .

Liberals Discover Crime

by · Dec 17, 2021 10:42 am

In a sharp reversal from their 2020 commitment to defund their “racist” police departments, liberal mayors across the country have discovered unprecedented increases in crime in their cities and are announcing their intent to increase police funding and get tough on criminals.  Last year, riding the national wave of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests over the supposedly racially-motivated death of a black criminal named George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer, liberal politicians demanded that police budgets be sharply cut, and that departments end proactive policing especially in high-crime urban neighborhoods.  The Sun Times reports that last year Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot allowed over 600 officers to be cut from the Chicago PD.  Now after two years of record breaking homicides in her city, she proposes adding $189 million to the police budget.   Responding to the BLM demand, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced plans to cut $120 million from the police department budget last summer. The New York Post now reports she has reversed course, making an emergency request for more funding of the SFPD.  Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has also reversed course and is now against the cuts to police that she supported last year.  Even Speaker Nancy Pelosi is acknowledging an “absolutely outrageous” crime spike she did not acknowledge last week, last month or last year.

Continue reading . . .

Crime and President Biden

by · Dec 15, 2021 11:34 am

The ABC News / Ipsos poll finds that a strong majority of Americans disapprove of President Biden’s handling of crime, 36-61.

But does the President have much to do with crime, really? Isn’t it mostly a state and local matter? Well, it’s complicated. Continue reading . . .

The impact of bail reform in the United States

by · Dec 14, 2021 12:37 pm

In recent years, many jurisdictions throughout the United States have taken steps to reform their cash bail systems.  Proponents of bail reform advocate for reducing or eliminating the use of monetary bail to reduce jail populations and reduce income disparities regarding how bail is applied. However, opponents of bail reform argue that reforms have been extreme, countering that they could result in more defendants failing to appear for court hearings and more defendants committing crimes while on pretrial release.

Among the many states implementing bail reform include California, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Illinois, and Alaska. In addition, many individual jurisdictions have implemented their own bail reform policies, such as Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston, and Chicago, among others. There is no consensus about what should replace cash bail, though some options include implementing strategies to expand pretrial supervision and services, and requiring pretrial risk assessment instruments to inform pretrial release decisions. However, most research has not found decreases in the rates of missed court dates or rearrests associated with either strategy.

Continue reading . . .

Two District Attorneys Tie for 2021 “Baghdad Bob” Award

by · Dec 14, 2021 11:22 am

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the chief spokesperson for President Saddam Hussein government was Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, who held almost daily press conferences denying that the allied forces had swiftly defeated the Iraqi Army and were taking Baghdad.  At his last press conferences he is standing outside telling reporters that Baghdad was secure over the the sounds of nearby artillery and small arms fire, and as news footage shows tanks and soldiers sweeping into the city virtually unopposed.  For this remarkable demonstration of chutzpah he became known worldwide as “Baghdad Bob.”   Last year we decided to give a Baghdad Bob award to a person whose denial of reality rivaled the example set by al-Sahhaf.  The winner was MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi, who gave an on-air report during the May 28, 2020 George Floyd riot in Minneapolis.  Before cameras, as a one of dozens of the city’s buildings set fire by rioters that night was blazing behind him, Velshi told viewers “I want to be clear on how I characterize this. This is mostly a protest. It is not generally speaking unruly. But fires have been started.”

Ali Velshi

Continue reading . . .

The Demand for Racism Exceeds the Supply

by · Dec 9, 2021 4:33 pm

Black actor Jusse Smollett was found guilty today by a Chicago jury of lying to police when he reported being the victim of a hate crime in the early morning hours of a frigid night near his apartment almost three years ago.  As the WSJ reports, “Mr. Smollett was the star of the hit show ‘Empire’ when he told police that two men had used racist, antigay language and a pro-Trump slogan before hitting and kicking him and placing a noose around his neck around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2019.”

According to the jury, the whole thing was made up, as (necessarily) was Smollett’s trial testimony, plus numerous of his public statements reiterating his “victimhood.”

Continue reading . . .

12 Cities Setting All Time Homicide Rates

by · Dec 8, 2021 2:34 pm

Bill Hutchinson of ABC News reports that 12 U.S. Cities have broken annual homicide records this year.  Five of these cities topped the homicide record they set in 2020.  While much media coverage has been focused on New York, with 443 homicides so far this year, and Los Angeles with 352 homicides so far, Philadelphia has beaten them both with 521 people killed as of December 6.  To provide some perspective, Philly has a population of 1.5 million.  New York has 8.4 million and LA has 3.4 million.  The other record breaking cities are Portland, Indianapolis, Toledo, Rochester, Columbus, Baton Rouge,  Louisville, Saint Paul, Tucson, Albuquerque, and Austin.  Although these cities are located in states with varying political leanings, they all have something in common with Los Angeles, New York and other high crime cities like Chicago and DC;  they all have liberal democrat mayors and with the exception of Baton Rouge, democrat-controlled city councils.  The Baton Rouge city council is split 5-5.  All but one, Indianapolis, have progressive, pro-criminal District Attorneys, and the new pro-law enforcement DA in Indy was just elected last year.

Continue reading . . .