Monthly Archive: December 2021

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

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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.”

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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.

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Does the Electorate Want More Prison or Less?

by · Dec 8, 2021 12:08 pm

With a hat-tip to Sentencing Law and Policy, I bring you this poll from the Pew Research Center, a center-left outfit that often does useful research.  The question it asked was whether respondents thought people convicted of crime spend too much, too little, or about the right amount of time in prison.  The results will not come as good news to those campaigning for “decarceration” (and thus, though they refuse to admit it, more grisly episodes like the Waukesha massacre).

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Risky Drug Dealing

by · Dec 8, 2021 5:34 am

Mental states are imperative for ascribing blame for most crimes.  We care whether someone does something purposefully, knowingly or recklessly.  Selling heroin is risky and unlawful behavior.  It is, of course, risky because you may get caught and go to prison.  But it is fraught with risk to those who buy the drugs.   People sometime die from the poison being sold to them.

But what if you are told by others that the heroin you are selling is unusually strong? Suppose further, those drugs eventually cause the death of another person?   Is that sufficient evidence of recklessness for a manslaughter conviction?

Apparently not in New York, according to the Court of Appeals in People v. Gaworecki.   New York uses the familiar Model Penal Code definition of recklessness, which requires evidence that a person consciously disregards a substantial and unjustified risk.  Even though the defendant in Gaworecki was told by another that the heroin he sold was exceptionally potent, the Court finds the fact that “[t]he People presented no evidence that defendant had been told that other people had overdosed or died after using the heroin he had sold them” (slip op. p. 8) as persuasive that that the evidence was insufficient for conviction.

To Progressives, Deaths Due Low Bail & Early Release Are Acceptable

by · Dec 6, 2021 3:50 pm

In a 2007 interview regarding his push for reducing cash bail for arrestees, Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm told reporters “Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into a treatment program, who’s going to go out and kill sombody?  You bet. Guaranteed.  It’s guaranteed to happen, but it does not invalidate the overall approach.”  Rebecca Rosenberg and Michael Ruiz of Fox News report that this statement, and Chisholm’s success at implementing what one prosecutor call “the most lenient bail in all of Wisconsin,” has come back to haunt him in the aftermath of massacre at the Waukesha Christmas parade on November 21.  The suspect, habitual violent felon Darrell Brooks, was released in Milwaukee on $1,000 bail two weeks after his November 2nd arrest for running over his ex-girlfriend.  The the woman, the mother of Brooks’ child, was hospitalized with dislocated femur and fractured right ankle.

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Revered LA Philanthropist Murdered by Career Criminal

by · Dec 3, 2021 2:31 pm

The progressive dismantling of California’s criminal justice system has been going on for over ten years.  The ballot measures and legislation reducing or eliminating consequences for crimes have enjoyed the support of rich democrats living in and outside of the state.  While one of the primary contributors has been New York billionaire George Soros, dozens of rich California liberals living the in the San Francisco bay area and in the most expensive neighborhoods in Los Angeles County have also contributed millions to elect the legislators and the Governor who passed AB109 (so called Public Safety Realignment)  and ballot measures including Proposition 47 (the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act) and Proposition 57 (the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act).   None of these measures had anything to do with public safety, but with enough campaign contributions the democrats were able to convince an unaware public that they would make them more safe.  When the data started showing that criminals benefiting from these policies were robbing, injuring and killing innocent Californians, the politicians and their allies in the press called it “fear mongering” and dismissed the statistics showing rising crime by noting that most of the state was far safer than it was 30 years ago, during the last statewide crime wave.

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