Alameda County DA Adopts Gascon-Style Policies

by · Mar 3, 2023 10:45 am

The newly elected District Attorney of Alameda County, which includes the high-crime city of Oakland, has announced new  policies requiring the prosecutors in her office to seek the minimum sentences possible for convicted criminals, including those who use guns.  For example, in the case of a gang member who fires a gun into an occupied car injuring a passenger, the prosecutor would not be allowed to include the Three Strikes enhancement for the use of a firearm, which would have increased the sentence for the shooter.  Rachel Swan of the SF Chronicle reports that DA Pamela Price’s new policies are similar to those of progressive Los Angeles DA George Gascon’s, requiring deputies to seek probation for criminals who under state law are eligible for jail or prison.

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Poll Paints Mixed Picture of Californian’s Views

by · Mar 2, 2023 2:12 pm

A Quinnipiac University poll of registered California voters was released yesterday.   While the survey was heavily focused on political views with questions about Governor Gavin Newsom running for president, which democrat should replace Senator Dianne Feinstein and how they feel about Vice President Kamala Harris, there were other responses that indicate discontent by voters of all political stripes regarding how state government is serving them.  Pollsters report a sample size of around 1,000 registered voters telephoned randomly, with respondents weighted to reflect the political and human demographics of the state.   Of great significance is what questions are asked, and whether there was built-in bias.  When asked if they were satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in California, a whopping 57% were somewhat or very dissatisfied, including 32% of democrats and 63% of independents.  64% of respondents are opposed to giving prison inmates the right to vote, including almost half of democrats and 70% of independents.  A democrat-supported bill is currently moving through the California Legislature would allow inmate voting.

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Chicago Dumps Soft-on-Crime Mayor

by · Feb 28, 2023 7:34 pm

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has conceded defeat, the Chicago Tribune reported at 9:00 CST Tuesday. At about that time, the New York Times listed the results as 36.4% for Paul Vallas and 20.2% for Brandon Johnson, with Mayor Lightfoot third.

Plurality winner Mr. Vallas has run on a tough-on-crime platform, the WSJ reports. He has the backing of the Chicago police union. But the windy city isn’t out of the woods yet. Continue reading . . .

Law Would Force Illinois Retailers to Hire Guards

by · Feb 28, 2023 11:26 am

While homicides are down slightly in Chicago this year, according to the Chicago Police Department, robbery, sexual assault, motor vehicle theft, aggravated battery, burglary and theft over the first two months of 2023 are up 52% compared to last year.  Almost 4,000 additional crimes in just two months.  Chicago’s progressive District Attorney Kim Foxx, and Mayor Lori defund-the-police Lightfoot share much of the responsibility for this, but Governor J. B. Pritzker (D) and the democrat majority legislature are also complicit, having enacted “reforms” that have weakened sentencing.  Chicago police are also operating under an Obama-era consent decree which ties the hands of officers and requires the department to prove it is not racist.  This has driven officers out of the department to take early retirement or to jobs in other cities.  Currently Chicago PD is 1,300 officers short.  What to do?  State Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D) has the solution….force businesses to hire security guards to protect customers from the criminals state laws and local policies has kept on the streets.

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Sentencing Statutes and Logic for Lawyers

by · Feb 27, 2023 10:39 am

Statutes are generally drafted by lawyers on legislators’ staffs. Unfortunately, too many lawyers did not take basic logic as undergraduates, and it is not generally taught in law school. The U.S. Supreme Court has now taken up a case to unravel the logic of a bit of statutory drafting that could have been written more clearly. Continue reading . . .

Missouri AG Moves to Fire St. Louis Prosecutor

by · Feb 24, 2023 1:48 pm

Federalism allows cities and states to adopt widely varying policies regarding crime and justice, so long as the policies comply with the U.S. Constitution.  When elected officials implement policies that result in increased crime or perceived injustice, the voters usually get the last word.  This happened last year in San Francisco, when voters recalled progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin for failing to aggressively prosecute criminals.  Boudin was among several dozen district attorneys, states attorneys and circuit attorneys whose campaigns were bankrolled by progressive billionaire George Soros.  Before Soros began doing this, even big city district attorney campaigns would rarely raise more than $500,000 from thousands of contributors.  To elect pro-criminal progressives to these offices Soros often contributes $500,000 to over $1,000,000 to their campaigns, essentially buying the election.

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Supreme Court Reinstates Review of Arizona Murderer’s Case

by · Feb 22, 2023 7:49 am

The U.S. Supreme Court today vacated an Arizona Supreme Court decision denying a murderer’s challenge to his death sentence. At the time the high court took up the case, CJLF considered filing an amicus brief in support of the state but decided we really couldn’t support the Arizona court’s decision. I am not at all surprised at the outcome but a bit surprised the state got four votes. Continue reading . . .

Zero Bail = More Crime

by · Feb 21, 2023 11:13 am

The following article was published in the February 17 edition of the California Globe:

Data released last September by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services provided researchers at the Manhattan Institute with the necessary information to compare the rearrest rate for offenders prior to the state’s 2020 bail reform law with the rearrest rate after the law took effect. The intent of the bail reform law was to force judges to release more arrestees without bail, called Non-Monetary Release (NMR).  Charles Fain Lehman’s piece in the City Journal confirmed what many in law enforcement had predicted:  when offenders are released without bail, they are more likely to be rearrested for committing new crimes.  This finding was ignored by the major media and liberal think tanks like the Brennan Center, which had for months tried to convince the public that releasing more offenders without bail was not the cause of increased crime across the state.  One exception was a September New York Post article by Jim Quinn which noted:  “in 2019, 166 of the NMR participants got re-arrested each month. In 2021, the number soared to 445 re-arrests a month, including more than 300 felonies each month.”  That’s over 2 ½ times more rearrests per month.

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CA Bill Would Ban K-9 Arrests

by · Feb 14, 2023 3:22 pm

California Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley) has introduced a bill that would bar the use of police dogs in arrests, apprehensions and crowd control.  Evan Symon of the California Globe reports that the purpose of AB 742 is to end the disproportionate number of African Americans and people of color that are apprehended and injured by police dogs.  “We have to understand that the use of police K-9s has been a mainstay in this country’s dehumanization and it’s cruel and violent history,” said Assemblyman Jackson.  The problem is, a ban on police dogs will not reduce African American exposure to police, and will almost certainly increase shootings of suspects of color.  The disproportionate number of police encounters with blacks is the result of the disproportionate number of crimes committed by blacks.  In Los Angeles for example,  blacks commit forty-four percent of all violent crime, though they’re nine percent of the population.

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