Crime
February 13, 2019 — John Hinderaker
As regular readers know, I am a fan of law enforcement. I think “systemic racism” is bullshit, and police officers’ conduct is admirable, or at least defensible, in an overwhelming majority of cases. See, for example, this post and this one. I am unequivocally on the side of law enforcement. But a few cops, unfortunately, are rotten. We saw that here in Minnesota with Mohammed Noor, who shot an obviously
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February 12, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I wrote here about a doctor who preyed on Indian boys and young men on reservations for decades before finally being brought to justice. One of my closest childhood friends battled the bureaucracy to blow the whistle on the predator, with the result that he–my friend, not the predator–was effectively forced out of the Indian Health Service. That appalling story was reported by the Wall Street Journal and PBS Frontline.
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February 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In analyzing the allegation that Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor, Justin Fairfax, committed sexual assault in 2004, I’ve argued that, in the absence of corroborating evidence, Fairfax’s denial should be credited, or at least should keep him in office. If a second credible accuser came forward, I added, the matter would have to be viewed differently. Now, a second accuser has emerged. The Daily Beast reports that Meredith Watson claims she was
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February 5, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump and Congress have adopted a novel approach to combating the drug epidemic in America: release large-scale drug dealers from prison. Our friend Sen. Tom Cotton is the leading critic of this counter-intuitive, if not insane, approach. Yesterday, Sen. Cotton spoke to the National Narcotics Officers’ Associations Coalition about the ongoing fight against the deadliest drug war in our nation’s history. Below is a slightly shortened version of his
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January 29, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In December I wrote about my friend Harley Feldman’s advocacy of law enforcement use of familial DNA matching in the Power Line post “Harley Feldman’s mission revisited.” Harley’s daughter Allison Feldman was brutally murdered in 2015. Her murderer was apprehended last year through the use of familial DNA long after the case had gone cold. Harley was interviewed by Julie Rose on the January 22 edition of BYU Radio’s Top
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January 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Kamala Harris styles herself a “progressive prosecutor.” But Harris wasn’t nearly progressive enough for Lara Bazelon, a law professor and former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the [allegedly] Innocent in Los Angeles. In a New York Times op-ed, Bazelon rips Harris for her “regressive” conduct and positions during her time as a district attorney in San Francisco and then California’s attorney general, According to Bazelon: Time
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January 2, 2019 — John Hinderaker
In the wake of Nikolas Cruz’s murder spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, a 15-member commission was appointed to study ways in which Florida’s public schools could be secured against such attacks. The commission released its report today. The report doesn’t mince words in detailing the incompetence, and perhaps cowardice, that amplified the scale of the tragedy: The state commission investigating the Parkland school shooting unanimously approved
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January 1, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Mumia Abu-Jamal (formerly known as Wesley Cook) murdered Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. He was caught and prosecuted. The evidence against him was overwhelming. There is no doubt about his guilt. He was convicted by a jury and initially was sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment without parole in 2001. He exhausted his appeals long ago, and has been imprisoned since 1982. Abu-Jamal
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December 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
I’ve gotten to know Harley Feldman through our local chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Harley is a brilliant, soft-spoken guy and successful businessman. Three years ago his daughter Allison was brutally murdered at her home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Allison’s murderer was apprehended this past April. I wrote about the story at the time and am filing this update after meeting with Harley last month. The broad outlines of the
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December 28, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
This Washington Post article about homicide rates in Baltimore is important for two reasons. First, it confirms with updated statistics the killing spree that followed attacks on policing in Baltimore after Freddy Gray’s accidental death. Second, it demonstrates why recidivism rates based on arrest statistics vastly understate the amount of crime committed by those released for prison. This point has major implications for the federal jailbreak legislation that recently became
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December 20, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, Gustavo Garcia, an illegal immigrant with a criminal record, celebrated his release from prison by going on a shooting spree. He killed two people and injured six others before dying as the result of crash at the end of a harrowing car chase in a stolen vehicle. Garcia had been deported twice — first in 2004 and then 2014. Before his second deportation, he had spent 27
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December 18, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Bear with me for a brief preface for the video below. Years ago—like almost 50 years ago—there was a thriving annual “UFO-Flying Saucer” convention out in the California desert that drew thousands of UFO believers from all over the country. (You can read about it here or here.) It was full of full-scale nutters. I know because I went several times as a little kid. Not to participate in UFO
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December 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Tom Cotton has offered three amendments to First Step — the leniency for federal felons legislation that President Trump supports. Sen. Cotton’s amendments would: (1) Make nine additions to the bill’s “ineligible prisoners” list for violent felons and sex offenders who are eligible for time credits. This includes sex offenders convicted of coercing a child into sexual activity under 18 U.S.C. § 2422; felons who assault law enforcement officers
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December 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Forty-five years ago, in the wake of Watergate, Stewart Alsop wrote a brilliant column in which he distinguished between the crazy-brave and the phony-tough. Alsop was addressing the question of how reasonably intelligent people in Nixon’s circle could have approved, or failed to scotch, wild schemes including but not limited to the Watergate break in. Alsop’s thesis was that the crazy-brave Gordon Liddy intimidated phony tough guys like John Mitchell,
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December 9, 2018 — John Hinderaker
In the United States, burglars generally try to break into homes that are unoccupied. We tend to take this fact for granted, but it isn’t true everywhere. There are advantages to breaking into residences when the owners are home: you can force them to tell you where valuables and drugs are kept, rather than having to search. And if a woman is present you may choose to assault her. This
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December 6, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this week, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein bought his way out of a lawsuit that would have given some of his victims the opportunity to testify about his predatory and criminal conduct. Victims never got that opportunity when Epstein faced criminal charges, because Alex Acosta — then the lead prosecutor, now the Secretary of Labor — let Epstein off with a ridiculously lenient sentence. Despite having committed hideous sex offenses with
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December 6, 2018 — Steven Hayward
We and many others frequently criticize the major media for their biased reporting on gun issues, and above all for the scarcity of coverage of citizens who defend themselves with their lawfully-owned weapons. So we should acknowledge the major media when they report a story like this one in the Washington Post (aka, the Bezos Bulletin) that I will pick up in the middle: An escaped inmate kicked down a sleeping
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