For decades liberal and progressive politicians in Washington have funded numerous “studies” on racial profiling and then forced consent decrees on big city police departments to address the disproportionate arrest and prosecution of black and Hispanic criminal offenders.  The purpose of these activities has been to advance the narrative that the American criminal justice system is racially biased, targeting black and brown populations either by having them murdered by racists police officers, or by railroading them into long prison sentences for non-violent offenses while white folks who commit the same offenses get probation.  One of the ways the federal government tries to resolve this systemic racism is through its grant-making policies.  A recent example comes from the Federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which operates under the authority of Attorney General Merrick Garland.  The agency recently announced a new approach which conditions federal grants to state juvenile justice systems on the elimination of disparities between black and brown juveniles arrested and prosecuted for crimes and non-Hispanic white juveniles.  Attorney Hans Bader discusses this apparent return to government-enforced quotas in this piece in Liberty Unyielding.

Continue reading . . .

“The disappointment was palpable. As the one-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot approached, the Department of Homeland Security had warned state and local law enforcement officials that ‘domestic violent extremists’ could strike again. Security forces were on guard and many people were on edge, reported the New York Times. Yet, as a CNN anchor morosely observed during the network’s saturation coverage of the anniversary celebration: `There’s been no violence at the Capitol today.’ “

So begins Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald’s City Journal piece discussing the remarkable show of hypocrisy laid out in wall to wall national coverage of last year’s January 6 “insurrection” by evil Trump supporters. “The media’s Capitol riot anniversary celebration, however, was choreographed to underscore the fictional claim that white supremacy is the biggest impediment to civil order in the U.S. today,” MacDonald says. Continue reading . . .

Last Sunday, (January 2) a woman and her 13-year-old daughter were driving through an intersection in the the LA County town of Norwalk when a speeding car ran a red light and T-boned their car.  Both died from their injuries.  CBS Los Angeles reports that the driver of the speeding car, 26-year-old Brittany Lopez, was driving without a license.  Investigators believe that Lopez was under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  She was arrested on charges of vehicular manslaughter which can be charged as a  felony.  Running a red light through a crowded intersection at high speed resulting in death can be charged as gross vehicular manslaughter, a violent felony.  Depending on the toxicology report, Lopez could have faced charges of “gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated,” which carries a possible sentence of 15-years in prison.  But before the toxicology report was available, Lopez was released from jail after the district attorney’s office refused to file charges against her for any crime.   In Sacramento, Bakersfield or San Diego, this woman would be sitting in jail awaiting trial. In George Gascón’s Los Angeles she is, likely as not, driving around in another car, probably drunk.  And Gascón tells us that his policies are restoring justice and have made LA safer.

Instead of announcing his plans to deal with a New York City crime spike in virtually every major crime category, newly sworn in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has handed down a list of crimes that he won’t prosecute.  Andrew Mark Miller of Fox News reports that Bragg’s plan for “decriminalization / non-prosecution” forbids holding offenders for drug possession, subway turnstile jumping, fighting with cops (resisting arrest), trespassing and prostitution accountable.  He also will not seek prison or jail sentences for any crime other than homicide or violent felonies stating that “reserving incarceration for matters involving significant harm will make us safer.”  Departing slightly from his wokemate, LA District Attorney George Gascon, Bragg vows to never seek a maximum prison sentence, even for multiple murderers, of longer than 20 years and will never seek a sentence of life without parole.  The more sympathetic Gascon will not seek a maximum sentence for any criminal of more than 15 years.

Continue reading . . .

In a thoughtful OpEd in the Wall Street Journal, John Jay College Professor Barry Latzer discusses some of the factors that are influencing the increase in crime across America.  Latzer notes that the last major crime wave which began in the late 1960s “was driven largely by three factors: large-scale rural-to-urban migration of African-Americans and immigration to big cities of Hispanic populations with high violent-crime rates, massive growth in the youth population, and a weak criminal-justice system. One might throw in a fourth: The crack-cocaine epidemic, which sent crime soaring after it began to ease in the early ’80s. These elements aren’t present today, though attempts to weaken the criminal-justice system are worrisome.”  This time around he cites “the pandemic, along with dubious criminal-justice system reforms, undoubtedly made things worse. Covid made police reluctant to interact with suspects except when making arrests for serious crimes. Wholesale releases from jails like New York’s Rikers Island put offenders back on the streets. Some states adopted bail reforms that kept offenders from jail entirely. It didn’t help that a new crop of progressive prosecutors, in misguided efforts to reduce so-called mass incarceration, declined to prosecute numerous misdemeanors and agreed to light sentences even for some violent felons.

Continue reading . . .

After roughly two years of record-setting homicide rates in many large U.S. cities, progressive politicians and prosecutors are still denying that this is a crises.  As Hans Bader notes in Liberty Unyielding, days after progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told reporters there was not crisis in his city “Democratic Congressman May Gay Scanlon was carjacked in broad daylight in Philadelphia’s FDR Park….Philadelphia’s murder record was broken in the same week that Indianapolis, Columbus, and Louisville exceeded their records for murders.”

Continue reading . . .