Monthly Archive: March 2022

Poll: 68% of Californians Concerned About Crime

by · Mar 21, 2022 12:06 pm

A CBS News poll released last Friday indicates that crime is one the top three issues concerning Californians.  1800 state residents were inverviewed for the survey which found that wildfires were a considered the most important issue by 77%, with the corona virus second at 73% and crime ranking third with 68%.  Only 50% felt protected by the police and 8% said they felt threatened by them.  The constant “police are racists” drumbeat in the national media, coming from groups like Black Lives Matter and Democrat political leaders is undoubtedly responsible for the 8% who feel threatened.  California laws reducing or eliminating the consequences for most crimes and progressive prosecutors in two of the state’s largest cities, who refuse to prosecute criminals, have convinced half of the state population that police cannot protect them.

Marsy’s Law Challenged in Kentucky Supreme Court

by · Mar 19, 2022 10:21 am

“The Kentucky Supreme Court on Thursday weighed the fate of a victims’ rights law that opponents say must be struck down because it was not properly put before voters,” reports David Wells for Courthouse News.

And what are the drastic changes that have the opponents so hot and bothered?

After being passed by ballot referendum in November 2020 with 63% of the vote, Kentucky’s version of Marsy’s Law granted crime victims constitutional protections including the right to be present at trials and other proceedings, the right to consult with an attorney, the right to be notified of all hearings and the right to be reasonably protected from the accused.

That is really a quite modest list of rights. It does not give the victim the right to become a party, appeal an adverse ruling, challenge a plea bargain, or defend a sentence. Continue reading . . .

Boston BLM Leader Indicted

by · Mar 17, 2022 2:23 pm

Monica Cannon-Grant a prominent Black Lives Matter organizer in Boston has been indicted along with her husband for skimming at least $185,000 in donations to their non-profit.  Yaron Steinbuch and Bruce Golding of the New York Post report that in 2020 Cannon-Grant was named by the Boston Globe as one of the “Bostonians of the Year,” as a BLM activist and for her non-profit Violence in Boston.   The lengthy federal indictment alleges Cannon-Grant and her husband engaged in three different fraud schemes: lying on a mortgage application, defrauding donors and illicitly collecting approximately $1 million in pandemic-related unemployment benefits.  According to Fox News, prosecutors also allege that Cannon-Grant told both the state attorney general’s office and the IRS that she took no salary from her nonprofit while paying herself $2,788 a week beginning in October 2020.   Her attorney, Robert Goldstein told reporters he is confident that she will be vindicated.

The Grim Reality of Yale Law School

by · Mar 17, 2022 5:25 am

The Washington Free Beacon has the story.  The details are sad but expected in today’s world of academia.  Universities are illiberal institutions that are opposed to their core tenets of intellectual exploration and freedom of ideas.  This captures the issue squarely:

Ellen Cosgrove, the associate dean of the law school, was present at the panel the entire time. Though the cacophony clearly violated Yale’s free speech policies, she did not confront any of the protesters.

Perhaps the law school will decry the mob’s activity; but without consequences any statement is worse than mere words since it tacitly condones it.  Rules are only followed if they are enforced, which is obviously not the case at Yale.

Like any issue there are a myriad reasons why higher education has become anathema to its mission of openness to ideas.  But the chief reason is money.  Higher ed is big business.  There is too much money in these once august institutions.  The money has proved to be a corrupting influence, which is painfully obvious.  In 1970, the cost of tuition at Yale college was $2,550 (~$18k in today’s dollars).  Current tuition is close to $60k.  There’s the problem.

NYC Crime Continues to Rise as Mayor Dawdles

by · Mar 16, 2022 2:39 pm

Major crimes in New York City jumped by almost 60% last month compared to February 2021,  yet the new Mayor elected to clean things up seems to be dragging his feet.  The city saw unprecedented increases in shootings, homicides, burglaries and car thefts in 2020 as new state and city policies eliminated bail for most arrestees, instituted pandemic releases of thousands of offenders, abandoned proactive policing and lowered the consequences for repeatedly committing crimes.  Continued increases last year fueled the election of ex-cop Eric Adams as Mayor after he campaigned on the promise to crack down on criminals.  But after more than 2 1/2 months in the Mayor’s office little has changed.  Emma Tucker and Mark Morales of CNN report that murders, robberies, major theft, rape and transit crimes are all up.  The criminals don’t seem very concerned that Mayor Adams is going drop the hammer on them.

Continue reading . . .

Jussie Smollett, Lying to the Very End

by · Mar 10, 2022 5:58 pm

CNN has this story about today’s sentencing of actor Jussie Smollett.  He was given 30 months of felony probation, ordered to pay restitution of more than $120,000 and a $25,000 fine and spend 150 days in jail for making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019.  In fact, Smollett himself hired two men he knew to stage the “attack” so that he could go on the now routine diatribe about how Amerika is a racist and homophobic cesspool.  One might think he was trying out for a spot in the administration of an Ivy League college.

Mr. Smollett’s performance today did not disappoint.

Continue reading . . .

California Sanctuary State Law Protected Murderer

by · Mar 9, 2022 10:50 am

A Sacramento man, who on February 28 killed his three daughters and a chaperone before shooting himself, was an illegal alien  protected from deportation by SB 54, California’s sanctuary state law adopted in 2017.  The Associated Press reports that the shooter, David Mora was in California illegally on an expired visa and had been released from the Merced County Jail a week earlier, when he murdered the three girls ages 9, 10, and 13 and chaperone Nathanial Kong with an illegal firearm during a supervised visit in a church.  On February 23, 2022, Mora has been arrested for drunk driving, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.  While under federal law Mora qualified for deportation, SB 54 prohibits police from notifying immigration authorities or turning over illegals who commit crimes to ICE.  Because of this and other California laws that have reduced the consequences for these crimes Mora was released on bail the day he was arrested.  Mora was under a five-year restraining order for multiple assaults on his ex-girlfriend and the mother of the three girls and ICE had issued a detainer requesting that he be held until they could take him into custody.  “This unspeakable tragedy highlights the true cost, unintended or not, of sanctuary policies that prevent law enforcement from protecting its citizens,” said Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones.

Justice Thomas Fires a Shot Across Facebook’s Bow

by · Mar 7, 2022 4:11 pm

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case of Jane Doe v. Facebook, No. 21-459. Justice Thomas agreed, but only for the time being.

In 2012, an adult, male sexual predator used Facebook to lure 15-year-old Jane Doe to a meeting, shortly after which she was repeatedly raped, beaten, and trafficked for sex.Doe eventually escaped and sued Facebook in Texas state court, alleging that Facebook had violated Texas’ anti-sex trafficking statute and committed various common-law offenses. Facebook petitioned the Texas Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus dismissing Doe’s suit. The court held that a provision of the Communications Decency Act known as §230 bars Doe’s common-law claims, but not her statutory sex-trafficking claim.

Continue reading . . .

Defining “Occasion” — The Finale

by · Mar 7, 2022 8:05 am

Over a year ago, I noted in this post that the U.S. Supreme Court had taken up the case of Wooden v. United States to resolve what amounts to separate “occasions” in the Armed Career Criminal Act. There is widespread agreement that repeat offenders should be dealt with more severely than one-timers, but the distinction between repeating and committing multiple crimes in one incident sometimes makes for difficult line-drawing. I noted in the previous post:

Breaking into 10 different units at a self-storage place is 10 counts of burglary under Georgia law. That seems reasonable, given 10 separate breakings and 10 separate entries to steal the possessions of 10 separate victims. But if they are done one after another is that 10 different occasions for the purpose of the recidivist statute? That seems like a stretch.

Not surprisingly, the Court’s decision today was unanimous in the judgment that counting 10 occasions for the purpose of the ACCA was an overreach. Continue reading . . .