Kamala Harris’s Criminal Law Record
A reporter asked me for my comments on Veep pick Kamala Harris’s criminal law record. Here is my response: Continue reading . . .
Are Riots Caused by Police or by Rioters?
You would think that question answers itself, but the Left’s dismissive belligerence in lying about the causes of rioting is so persistent that, in some quarters, it has taken hold. Thus, it was only last week that Portland’s mayor was telling us that it was the introduction of federal agents (to protect federal property like courthouses), not the hoodlums who’ve spent weeks bringing violence and disorder to his city, that were the real cause of Portland’s continuing problems.
As the Wall Street Journal explains today, this was all nothing more than the usual aggressive tripe.
About Those Compassionate COVID Releases — Update
In my post here, I discussed a “compassionate” COVID release of a defendant who didn’t waste a whole lot of time thereafter murdering the woman he raped and who was going to testify against him. As it turns out, this “compassionate” release cost more than one life.
Still Want to Defund the Police?
Left wing leadership in Chicago and Portland got more of what they’ve spent years asking for when violent mobs of hoodlums noticed this weekend that they have the green light for party time. That is, they took advantage of the Conventional Progressive Wisdom that the police are the ones who need to be contained (by being stripped of funding, weapons, and legal protection, among all the other things we’ve heard so much about lately), while they — the thugs — are to be regarded as the newly entitled victims of Amerika’s callousness and cruelty.
As you might imagine, what happened then wasn’t pretty.
About Those Compassionate COVID Releases….
During this highly contagious pandemic, we need to release those held in densely packed prisons and jails in the name of simple humanity, right? Well, sure. Humanity, that is, for some — the criminal. Not so much for others — the victim.
Police: Rape suspect, freed due to virus, kills his accuser in Alexandria
Blacks Overwhelmingly Want the Police Presence They Have Now — or More.
One of the narratives we hear constantly from the Left is that African Americans distrust the police and want their malign presence in black neighborhoods decreased if not eliminated. Like so much else we hear from progressives — the people who ceaselessly wail that we need to pay more attention to “fact-based” this and “evidence-based” that — their claims are not merely fact-free but affirmatively false. According to a Gallup poll released today, more blacks than whites want increased police patrolling in their neighborhoods.
CA Law Enforcement Braces for Inmate Releases
Last month California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he was authorizing the early release of another 8,000 prison inmates due to the coronavirus pandemic. Quinn Wilson of the Bakersfield Californian reports that Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood is concerned about the type of offenders being released. “You must be an overachiever at committing crimes to be in (a CDCR facility). These are reoffenders and they’re going to go out and reoffend,” said the Sheriff.
Go To Prison and Live Longer
The conventional wisdom is that a stint in prison is, between one thing and another, going to reduce your lifespan. But scholarly inquiry shows this is not true. The opposite is true. See this entry on Sentencing Law and Policy, the body of which I repeat verbatim below. The research is from Ohio, but I know of no reason to think Ohio is not fairly representative of the nation.
This paper analyzes the effect of incarceration on mortality using administrative data from Ohio between 1992 and 2017. Using event study and difference-in-differences approaches, we compare mortality risk across incarcerated and non-incarcerated individuals before and after pre-scheduled releases from prison. Mortality risk halves during the period of incarceration, with large declines in murders, overdoses, and medical causes of death. However, there is no detectable effect on post-release mortality risk, meaning that incarceration increases overall longevity. We estimate that incarceration averts nearly two thousand deaths annually in the US, comparable to the 2014 Medicaid expansion.
H/t to the estimable Doug Berman.
Cops Are Fascists, Until Your “Cops Are Fascists” Sign Goes Missing
From the “you can’t make this up” department, this gem: “Man calls police to report his ‘Defund the Police’ sign stolen. Police find and return sign. Man puts it back on lawn.”
I swear I’m not pulling your leg. The story, at no little length, is reported from Illinois by the Kane County Chronicle.
BLM Mob Converges on Home of Seattle Police Chief
The Chief of Police in Seattle, a lady named Carmen Best, is a longtime member of the force. I know very little about her. I do know that she broadly shares the liberal perspectives of the leadership of that city, as one would expect of a chief of police.
Still, she has shown a spine, and an understanding that vandalism, rioting and arson are not acceptable. This has not made everyone happy. So they did what any “peaceful protesters” would do. They showed up in force at her house.
Cross the mob and expect a visit. If there’s a difference between this and how La Cosa Nostra operates, it’s too subtle for me.
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