Monthly Archive: April 2024

Feeling Safe on The Subway

by · Apr 3, 2024 12:00 pm

An article by Ann Ley in last week’s New York Times begins:  “A string of frightening attacks in the subway amid a broader increase in crime in the system so far this year has put some New Yorkers on edge.”  The article goes on to discuss what experts believe the city and transit authorities must do to make riders “feel” safe.  While data suggests that subway crime is down slightly compared to last year, subway riders do not feel safe.  As Ann Coulter notes in a recent piece on the subject,  “the experts’ ideas were not aimed at actually reducing crime — which to be fair, is impossible if you’re not allowed to put criminals in prison—but to “ease riders’ fears about the subway.”

Continue reading . . .

Violent Crime Up in Los Angeles

by · Apr 2, 2024 11:30 am

While reported property crime in LA declined last year violent crime has increased according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The City News Service reports that so far this year homicides have increased 28%, robberies are up 9.5% and overall violent crime is 2.9% higher than last year. The interim Police Chief told the city’s Board of Police Commissioners last week that robberies with firearms are up by 2.9% while gang-related robberies jumped by 5.3%. The Chief also noted that residential burglaries are up 4.5%.  These increases, while not as high as 2022, reflect a growing concern that District Attorney George Gascon’s refusal to prosecute most property and drug crimes while undercharging violent offenders is fueling the violence on LA streets.  The county’s decision to eliminate cash bail and simply release suspects charged with crimes pending trial may also be a contributing factor.  It is likely that the drop in reported property crimes is due to the fact that most thefts are cite-and-release misdemeanors under California law.  In LA, even car thieves are routinely charged and released without bail the same day they are arrested. With absolutely no consequences for most property crimes fewer people and businesses see any value in reporting them. A ballot measure currently gathering signatures would, if adopted by voters this November, restore consequences for property and drug crimes.   The defeat of District Attorney Gascon by former Federal Prosecutor Nathan Hochman in this fall’s general election would put a real prosecutor in charge of combating crime in Los Angeles.

Qualified Immunity and Armchair Quarterbacks

by · Apr 1, 2024 11:12 am

Four years ago, Daniel Hernandez died on the street in Los Angeles because of his own inexcusable act of coming at a police office with a raised knife* in his hand and continuing after repeated warnings. So, as is common these days, there were protests and a lawsuit claiming that the police violated his civil rights.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the federal civil rights actions on March 21 in Estate of Hernandez v. City of Los Angeles, though it held that state-law claims can go forward. Parsing the various shots fired by Officer Toni McBride, the court held that the first and second volleys were clearly justified but a third pair of shots presented a question of excessive force. Qualified immunity applies, though, because the law is not clearly established regarding the later shots. This holding raises the usual squeals that the qualified immunity standard is too restrictive, requiring a precedent that is a factual match. See, e.g., this article by Kevin Rector in the LA Times.

I agree with the Ninth Circuit’s legal analysis of the qualified immunity question. It correctly applies U.S. Supreme Court precedents on the subject. What I find troubling about the case, though, is the exercise of people in their comfortable offices carefully parsing video of an event on the street that happened in mere seconds. Continue reading . . .