Monthly Archive: March 2022

The Crime Epidemic in Larry Krasner’s Philadelphia

by · Mar 23, 2022 1:00 pm

Crime is out of control in Philadelphia.  There were 562 homicides last year, twice as many than eight years ago, and homicides have increased by 19% so far this year.  The city’s Police Commissioner reports that last year’s 750 carjackings were triple the number in 2019.   For perspective, New York City, which has more than five times the population of Philadelphia, had 485 homicides and 510 carjackings last year.   A data snapshot from last year indicates that police arrested only 31% of the Philadelphia’s murderers, 14% of criminals who shot people,  and 11% of those committing property crimes.  “Far too many in our city think that it’s open season to commit crime here in Philadelphia,” said the Police Commissioner.  They think it’s open season because it is open season.

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Lower crime rates don’t automatically make us safer

by · Mar 23, 2022 11:47 am

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on nearly every aspect of our day-to-day lives, ranging from economic distress, to disrupted schooling, and public health impacts. Relatedly, changes in crime rates have been perplexing. While overall crime rates were down by about 15% in 2020 relative to 2019, homicides saw an unprecedented increase of 29.4%. Further, aggravated assaults also increased (+12.0%), as did motor vehicle theft (+11.8%). Certain crimes became less prevalent though, with decreases in rape (-12.0%), larceny-theft (-10.6%), robbery (-9.3%), and burglary (-7.4%). Even more perplexing is that, according to some research, some cities saw increases in reported shooting incidents (e.g., Chicago, +23.0%; New York City, +11.7%), while others saw decreases (e.g., Los Angeles, -9.3%). 

These contradictory numbers are confusing. If you look at changes in the crime rate, it only presents a small part of the issue. A new paper by Maxim Massenkoff of the Manhattan Institute explains why the crime rate isn’t a useful statistic to understand what happened to public safety in 2020. 

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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.

Fatal police shootings and race

by · Mar 17, 2022 8:00 am

The claim that police lethal force is disproportionately used against blacks has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Some data show the strength of this perception, though there is also data questioning this assertion. Unfortunately, the government does not mandate the reporting of lethal force by police departments, so it has been difficult to learn more about the frequency and context of these incidents. Nonetheless, the narrative that blacks are disproportionately killed by the police has inspired rapid policy changes.

Some databases have attempted to collate information on police use of lethal force, but their numbers are not always consistent and are subject to their own limitations. Other researchers have examined the relationship between race and police lethal force at a more detailed level, where they are able to see whether other case characteristics influence the relationship. A recent report by Robert VerBruggen of the Manhattan Institute explains several of the approaches used to examine racial bias in fatal police shootings, which are discussed below.

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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.

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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.

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