Monthly Archive: February 2024

Pro-Criminal Politicians Unite to Save Oakland From Crime

by · Feb 12, 2024 1:28 pm

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, two of the most pro-criminal politicians in state history, have announced that they are partnering to rescue the city of Oakland from its current crime wave. Jakob Rogers of The Mercury News reports that just days after dispatching 120 Highway Patrol officers to beef up Alameda County police, Newsom and Bonta are now sending attorneys from the AG’s office and the National Guard to help progressive District Attorney Pamela Price prosecute criminals. The problem is real. While crime dropped in many California cities last year, it rose dramatically in Oakland. Police report that robberies grew by 38%, burglaries jumped by 23%, while vehicle theft climbed 44%. People living in Oakland faced a 1 in 30 chance of having their car stolen last year. Considering who is leading this rescue effort, and who heads up the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, it is hard to take this seriously

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Poll on LA DA Election

by · Feb 12, 2024 9:58 am

You know an incumbent running for re-election is in deep kimchi when he (1) polls only 15% before the primary and (2) has a “disapprove” job rating from an outright majority and more than double the number who approve. The latest California Elections & Policy Poll* is available here. Continue reading . . .

Coalition Grows to Overhaul California’s Thief-Friendly Law

by · Feb 9, 2024 11:28 am

The San Francisco Chronicle has this article on Mayor London Breed joining the coalition to overhaul California’s disastrous Proposition 47. And of course, being the Chronicle, the main thing they emphasize about the initiative is that it is “GOP-led,” generally regarded as a kiss of death in The City.

But Mayor Breed is not the only Democrat to climb on the fix-47 bandwagon. Continue reading . . .

Red/Blue States, Crime Rates, and Statistical Prestidigitation

by · Feb 8, 2024 10:15 am

In the past two years, there have been dueling studies flying back and forth about whether jurisdictions in the political control of one party or the other have higher crime rates. They have been used by advocates to make “studies show” arguments in favor of or against particular policies. But this is all smoke and mirrors, as this Issue Brief from the Manhattan Institute shows. It is titled The “Red” vs. “Blue” Crime Debate and the Limits of Empirical Social Science, by George J. Borjas and Robert VerBruggen.

This is really a case study in how researcher-advocates can produce any bottom line they want in many cases through design decisions that fly beneath the radar of public awareness. Do you compare states or counties? What variables do you control for? The authors note, “Casual consumers of empirical social science research often fail to appreciate all the ways in which researchers can manipulate the data to say whatever they want.” An alternate expression is the pithy old saying, “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.” Continue reading . . .

Virginia Tries Again to Eliminate LWOP

by · Feb 6, 2024 3:40 pm

When Virginia politicians abolished the state’s death penalty three years ago, they promised that the murderers sentenced to death would serve life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP). An article in Liberty Unyielding reports that the very next year those same politicians introduced a bill called “second look” to give murderers sentenced to LWOP the opportunity for parole after serving 25 years. That bill failed to pass on a straight party line vote.  It was reintroduced again last year and died in the Republican controlled house. This year both houses of the Virginia Legislature have democrat majorities and two “second look” bills have been introduced again, with even more benefits for murderers.

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New York & California Laws Turn Police Into Clerks

by · Feb 6, 2024 11:25 am

Imagine you are a police officer in a high-crime urban district responding to a report of a drive by shooting.  As you and your partner begin talking to witnesses a local law requires you to fill out a form listing the race, age and sex of everybody you talk to. The New York City Council has just passed the “How Many Steps Act” to require police to do this, supposedly to discourage racial profiling. California puts even more of a burden on police with the Racial & Identify Profiling Act. As a legislator, Attorney General Rob Bonta voted for this law. It requires officers to fill out an eight page form with 200 fields. Heather MacDonald has this City Journal piece breaking down what amounts to the most stupid anti-police legislation ever adopted.

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“Because there you go to jail”

by · Feb 6, 2024 11:03 am

The Approved Progressive Narrative tells us that criminal penalties have no deterrent effect. After all, people are just driftwood on the ocean, carried wherever the current takes them, so it is unfair and ineffective to punish people whose currents have taken them to commit crimes against other people.

Every once in a while, though, a common-sense contradiction of the Approved Narrative slips through the censorship net, even on media dedicated to promoting it.

Here is a transcript from CNN This Morning on February 2. John Miller, CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst, was reporting on the illegal aliens who attacked NYPD police officers and were promptly released. He noted that although most migrants are hard working, there is a criminal element among them.

These individuals, I went over their rap sheets yesterday, multiple charges, grand larceny, robbery, attempted robbery, grand larceny, grand larceny.

This particular crew operated on mopeds and scooters. They were doing organized retail theft. They were doing snatches on the street, iPhones, iPads, clothing, so on and so forth. One of them that they are still seeking has ten charges on one day because he’s part of a pattern that’s been going on.

And I’m looking at the dates that their arrest started, which is probably close to when they got here. They’ve only been here a couple of months. So, what the detectives are telling me is they have crews here that operate in New York, do all their stealing, then go to Florida to spend the money and then come back. And I’m like, well, why don’t they just stay and steal in Florida? And they said, because there, you go to jail.

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Governor Newsom Proves He’s Clueless About Crime

by · Feb 2, 2024 3:07 pm

California Governor Gavin Newsom was caught on a Zoom forum Wednesday demonstrating that he has no idea how the crime policies he has supported have increased crime, particularly retail theft, across the state. David Propper of the New York Post reports that on the forum the Governor recounted that when he was preparing to check out during a recent visit to a Sacramento Target store, a man walked right out the door with stolen merchandise. Newsom asked the clerk “why didn’t you stop him.” The female clerk responded “She goes, ‘oh, the governor.’ Swear to God, true story on my mom’s grave. ‘The governor lowered the threshold, there’s no accountability.’ I said that’s just not true.” He told her that California’s Proposition 47 made the penalty for thefts of $950 or higher “the 10th toughest in the nation.” The Governor then told the clerk he wanted to see her manager.

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The Problem With Execution by Nitrogen Gas

by · Feb 1, 2024 2:57 pm

In a press release earlier this week The United Nations Office on Human Rights condemned the execution of convicted hitman Kenneth Smith by nitrogen gas as “outrageous” and amounted to “State sanctioned torture.”  The U.N “experts” noted that:

“Smith reportedly took over 20 minutes to die. Witnesses to the execution said that Smith remained conscious for several minutes as he writhed and convulsed on the gurney, gasping for air and pulling on the restraints, shaking violently in prolonged agony.”

Based on that description, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that the White House found the the use of nitrogen gas “very troubling.” She added that President Joe Biden has “broad concern about the death penalty.”  Not so broad one guesses to prevent his Attorney General from seeking the death penalty for Payton Gendron, who murdered ten people at a Buffalo Grocery Store in 2022.  Smith only beat and stabbed a woman to death for $1,000.

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Inviting Lawlessness

by · Feb 1, 2024 1:10 pm

Last weekend seven illegal aliens attacked two New York police officers in Times Square, beating and kicking them in the head and face. The incident was recorded on security cameras. The New York Daily News reports that six were arrested and charged with assault on a police officer before being released without bail. Five of the six are citizens of Venezuela, one is facing trial for an earlier assault and robbery. All were invited to enter the U.S. illegally by the current president. These criminals are fortunate to be in New York City. They live in tax-supported shelters where they receive free food, clothing and medical care. They don’t worry about being deported because New York is a sanctuary state.  While assaulting a police officer in most other states would put you in jail with high or no bail until trial, in New York City you get released on your own recognizance.  It is doubtful that any of these criminals will show up for trial, and even if they do, progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is likely to cut them a deal to plead guilty for malicious mischief and release them on probation. Think I’m kidding, this is standard procedure in New York under its criminal justice reforms, supposedly adopted for racial justice, as noted in a recent post.

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