Law Enforcement

Governor: Please Stay Away

Featured image On Saturday night, Pope County, Minnesota, Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Owen was murdered in the line of duty, shot three times while responding to a domestic disturbance. Two other officers were wounded. Governor Tim Walz phoned Owen’s widow to offer condolences. Alpha News reports on what happened next: The widow of Pope County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Owen who was killed in the line of duty on Saturday night has told Minnesota »

Speaking of Derek Chauvin

Featured image In my view, Derek Chauvin is a scapegoat for the ages. Scott wrote a little while ago about the Minnesota Court of Appeals’ turning down Chauvin’s appeal based on pretrial publicity. I would say this is one of the year’s least surprising news stories. The Court of Appeals was no more willing to risk inciting riots than the Chauvin jurors were. Unlike (I think) Scott, I believe Chauvin’s guilty verdict »

Getting It Good and Hard

Featured image Hennepin County, with a population of around 1.3 million, is Minnesota’s largest. In November, it elected Mary Moriarty as County Attorney. Moriarty ran as an “out” leftist committed to “restorative justice.” Residents of Hennepin County are now finding out what that means. My colleague David Zimmer recounts Moriarty’s handling of two recent criminal cases. In the first, she dismissed charges against a 35-year-old Honduran man who was accused of raping »

Another SOTU Lie

Featured image Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech is tonight. Consistent with the custom of recent years, he no doubt will acknowledge the presence of individuals in the crowd and use their stories to reinforce his policy objectives. I was shocked to learn that among those who will be present tonight are the parents of Amir Locke, as guests of Ilhan Omar. The background on Locke’s case, briefly: four men were »

A Balanced View of the Tyre Nichols Case

Featured image Tyre Nichols’ funeral is today in Memphis. Kamala Harris will attend, consistent with the Left’s view that his death at the hands of Memphis police officers has broad significance for our society. Amid ludicrous claims that the beating of a black man by five black police officers is somehow a manifestation of “white supremacy,” it hasn’t been easy to find an informed, balanced assessment of the incident. At AmericanExperiment.org, my »

Tyre Nichols Videos Released [Updated]

Featured image I was scheduled to be a guest on Laura Ingraham’s television show tonight, but I was bumped for breaking news from Memphis. On January 7, Tyre Nichols was stopped by Memphis police for what is said to be a routine traffic violation. For some reason, he fled and officers pursued him. One or more “altercations” followed, and Nichols ultimately was transported to a hospital, where he died. Five Memphis police »

Ellison remembers to forget (again)

Featured image I’ve banged my head against the wall on the matter of Keith Ellison for 16 years. He is unfit for any public office. He is most unfit for a public office with responsibility for law enforcement. One such office is the position of Minnesota Attorney General. Unfortunately, that is the position he currently holds. His run for the position in 2018 prompted my column “Can Keith Ellison turn lawman?” Ellison’s »

The Profession That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Featured image The Minnesota State College and University System (“MnSCU”) includes 37 colleges and universities around the state, and trains a large majority of Minnesota’s law enforcement officers. Only you can’t call them “law enforcement” anymore: One of Minnesota’s public university systems has ordered its schools to remove any and all references to “law enforcement.” *** “One of the changes is that law enforcement has to be taken out of everything,” the »

High on foggy Biden

Featured image Yesterday President Biden issued a blanket pardon of all those convicted of marijuana possession under federal law. The White House has posted the text of Biden’s proclamation of pardon is here.The White House has posted Biden’s video statement on the pardon on Twitter (below). Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. Hear from @POTUS on the three steps he is taking to right these »

Semi-moronic

Featured image The White House thinks they have struck gold with their attack on “MAGA Republicans” as “semi-fascist” and all the rest. President Biden’s minders in the daycare operation at the White House are wheeling him out for a primetime campaign speech addressing “the soul of the nation” tomorrow night. The speech is to take place outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I am following Politico’s story on the speech here. My working »

The crisis of crime in Minneapolis and beyond

Featured image On Friday United States Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger called a press conference to discuss the strategy he is pursuing with other state and federal law enforcement agencies to address violent crime in the Twin Cities. Alpha News has posted the CrimeWatch account of the press conference here. Stephen Montemayor’s longer and more detailed Star Tribune story is here. Both stories reflect telling statements by Luger on the local crisis »

The meltdown this time

Featured image John covered our current local cause célèbre last night in “The victim speaks.” You know Minneapolis is suffering another meltdown if attorney Ben Crump is on the scene. While all the facts behind the hours-long standoff that preceded Tekle Sundberg’s death are not yet clear, Crump wants to agitate the mob. Minneapolis Police Department officers gave their PROMISE to Tekle Sundberg's parents that their son's mental health crisis would NOT »

The Victim Speaks

Featured image The latest cause celebre for leftists in Minnesota is the case of Tekle Sundberg. Sundberg tried to murder a young woman, Cassandra Yarbrough, whom he apparently did not know. Police were called, Sundberg fired repeatedly from within an apartment, there was a standoff that lasted for hours, officers tried to negotiate with Sundberg and brought in family members to try to persuade him to surrender. Under circumstances that are not »

In re Blue Grand Jury: 8 points

Featured image I reported on Judge Schiltz’s In re Blue Grand Jury investigation final order yesterday morning as soon as it was released. A copy of the final order is appended to my linked post. The massive investigation described in the order was triggered in part by an illegal leak of grand jury information to the Star Tribune regarding the prospective federal indictment of Derek Chauvin et al. following Chauvin’s state-court murder »

In re Blue Grand Jury: Perps remain at large

Featured image Judge Patrick Schiltz (my friend and now chief judge of the Minnesota federal district court) has filed a public order concluding his investigation into the illegal leaks of secret grand jury information preceding the indictment of Derek Chauvin by the Biden Justice Department (embedded below). The leaks formed the basis of stories reported in the New York Times and the Star Tribune. Readers may recall that we have followed the »

A Shooting In Akron

Featured image Riots have been taking place in Akron, Ohio, following the shooting by police of Jayland Walker. The incident occurred in June, but release of police bodycam footage has sparked the riots. The case has made international news. The London Times, for example, headlined Jayland Walker: Plea for calm after Ohio police kill unarmed black man. The other fact that has gotten much publicity is that officers–I believe there were eight »

After midnight

Featured image Alpha News reporter Liz Collin rode along with law enforcement — undercover officers from the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office Carjacking Auto Theft Team — for a look at the hot rod/street racing burnouts and getaways that have become a deadly threat all over Minneapolis and St. Paul (video below). The name of the unit denotes the frequent use of stolen cars in the burnouts. As Liz reports, although the street »