#fox-news/us/crime/police-and-law-enforcement

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

On August 20, a little before dawn, 87 year-old Lidia Martinez was abruptly jarred awake by an unexpected knock on her door. The longtime activist who for over 35 years has worked to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in south Texas, cautiously peered out the door. Standing on her doorstep were nine police officers dressed in tactical gear and carrying firearms. After showing her a search warrant, Martinez’s home was searched as she was forced to stand outside in her nightgown in her driveway in full view of her neighbors. Martinez was later questioned for three hours after which the police seized her phone, computer, personal calendar and more.

[...]

These bad faith searches orchestrated by Paxton were predicated on the claim that the people being investigated were registering non-citizens to vote—despite zero evidence presented of wrongdoing. Very alarmingly, if Donald Trump and House GOP have their way, these types of raids would be happening nationwide with federal law enforcement under a GOP President.  That is why GOP House Speaker Johnson is now demanding the proposed SAVE Act be included in any deal to provide funding to keep the government open.

To be clear, federal and state law already makes it a crime for non-citizens to vote. But this new federal legislation would establish criminal penalties for registering an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentation proving U.S. citizenship.  That means that what we are seeing in Texas is coming attractions of what the GOP wants to do nationally.

Keep in mind despite Texas AG Paxton’s two year investigation, no charges  have been filed against any of the people whose homes were searched.  Indeed, there may never be charges because even Paxton’s basis for the search is BS. In his press release announcing the investigation, the Texas AG presents no evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, Paxton makes baseless claims like these organizations have set up voter registration booths outside state agencies where people could register inside. Paxton’s press release literally includes this question with no answer: “Why would they need a second opportunity to register with a booth outside?” But nowhere in his press release does he even allege any criminal conduct—only questions.

And Paxton—a close ally of convicted felon Trump—showed his bad faith earlier in August on a radio show when he peddled lies about non-citizens voting. Paxton declared, “There’s a reason Joe Biden brought people here illegally. I’m convinced that that’s how they’re going to do it this time, they’re going to use the illegal vote. Why were they brought in, why did he bring in 14 million people?” adding, “He brought them here to vote.”   That is nothing more than the type of BS you hear on Fox News. But now Paxton has weaponized government by targeting people registering those he believes will vote for Democrats. The backlash to Paxton’s actions have been swift. LULAC requested that the Department of  Justice investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group's national president, Roman Palomares, summed up well what is really going in their letter to the DOJ: "These actions echo a troubling history of voter suppression and intimidation that has long targeted both Black and Latino communities, particularly in states like Texas, where demographic changes have increasingly shifted the political landscape.”

The Texas GOPs voter intimidation tactics are based on the faux outrage campaign against noncitizen voting.

[that-irrelevant-ricecakeaddict]

SIC PARVIS MAGNA {Charac. Profiles Pt.1}

an au by @that-irrelevant-ricecakeaddict & @seventhcallisto

SERIES MASTERLIST, Charac. Profiles Pt.2

Reader: Kang Y/N

[21 years old]

>Forensic science student at Okja Central College

>Lives in Seoultham with her elder brother, Kang Taehyun, who travels often for work but helps to pay for expenses

>One of the 2 registered residents staying at Felony Alley, Halazia Apartments

-Level 3, unit 03-01

>Works as a convenience store cashier and a lab assistant at the college when she's not in lectures or class

>Parents were killed during a break-in at their childhood home and town that her and Taehyun chose to move out of when Taehyun had enough money to take them somewhere else (Seoultham was the cheapest option)

>Rides a bike everywhere, despite how often it gets damaged or has its parts stolen by the many thieves roaming the alleys

Kim Hongjoong {Lucky Quinn}

[25 years old]

(based on Harleen Quinzel, Harley Quinn)

Backstory: Grew up in Seoultham and started studying psychology in college at a young age. At 17, he was kidnapped by and experimented on by notorious Seoultham villain The Joker. He was eventually forced to take a serum derived from the same chemicals that drove Joker insane and bleached his skin. Naturally, Hongjoong suffered from the same effects and even developed a sick admiration for the villain. He did everything and anything he could in an attempt to earn Joker's trust and approval. However, Joker and his other followers would often ostracise and abuse him, eventually kicking him out to the streets to die after a few years. Luckily for him, his childhood friend Mingi found him and took him in. With Mingi's help, Hongjoong was able to gain back some sanity and somewhat integrate back into society. Well...the society that he had known for the past few years, at least. He founded Birds of Prey with Mingi.

>Unemployed to avoid being detected by the government

>"Kim Hongjoong" was classified as dead after getting kidnapped by the Joker, so he's known by local law enforcement as mad vigilante Lucky Quinn

>Adopted his alias from his psychology professor, Prof. Quinzel, who had been with him when Joker came to kidnap him. Professor Quinzel was killed in the process, and Hongjoong wanted to honor her

>Still a little messed up in the head, but tame in comparison to how he was when he was still under Joker

>Spends his time either at New World Underground Crime Ring or back and forth between the other members' homes

>Known in the crime scene as a dangerous and violent vigilante who crashes illegal dealings and ongoing crimes, but is highly unpopular with the police for his impulsive behaviour often causing a lot of collateral damage in the city

>Learned how to fight from living with Joker for years

>Captain of the team

>Despite his impulsive and unpredictable nature, hes very caring and understanding of his members (even though their clumsiness causes him trouble occasionally)

Song Mingi {Flying Fox}

[23 years old]

(based on Barbara Gordon, Batgirl)

Backstory: Child tech genius who grew up in Seoultham. From young, he was always very socially awkward and introverted due to how much time he spent inventing and programming. He built seemingly impractical but highly advanced machinery and programmes, which he would later on make use of as a vigilante. When Hongjoong, his only friend growing up, suddenly went off the grid, Mingi dropped everything to try to track him down. After a few years, he succeeded in finding Hongjoong and took him in. Horrified after hearing of Hongjoong's experience, he soon started the Birds of Prey with him in hopes of finding other like-minded outcasts who wanted to help keep Seoultham safe.

>Computer-science student at Okja Central College

>The only other registered resident at Felony Alley, Halazia Apartments

- Level 2, unit 02-01 (reader's downstairs neighbour)

>Learned martial arts as a kid and has photographic memory

>Due to his side gig of being a vigilante, he's quite busy, so he usually only attends online classes and lectures

>One of, if not the ONLY, Birds of Prey member thats on neutral terms with the police since he occasionally helps them with detective cases

>Tech support and happy pill of the team

>A little clueless on things that aren't related to fighting or tech, meaning that, more often than not, the members have to look after him because he himself won't

Park Seonghwa {Ivy}

[26 years old]

(based on Pamela Isley, Poison ivy)

Backstory: Moved to Seoultham at 17-18 to study biotechnology and plants there. He fell in love with his biotechnology professor and let her conduct experiments on him. After undergoing the experiment that permanently altered his DNA to that of a plant's, the professor lied about having an antidote and instead abandoned him and ran away. A 19 year old Seonghwa developed hatred of women and extreme trust issues, and started isolating himself and his plants from the world. For years, he hid away from society to learn about his new abilities, and would only leave his hiding places to go to bars to seduce people that he could bring home as food for his carnivorous plants. This was how he met Hongjoong, who had been bored and wandering the streets by himself. When trying to feed Hongjoong to his plants, he was taken aback by how the light-skinned man was more fascinated than afraid. Hongjoong talked about the Birds of Prey, and Seonghwa decided to join them. The two men bonded quickly due to shared experience and trauma of being betrayed and ruined by someone they admired.

>Certified plant biologist, works as a lab assistant at Okja Central College

>Knows and is friends with the old lady who owns Halazia Apartments, hence he stays in the basement from time-to-time

-the landlady and her daughter, Chungha, are the only women he's comfortable with (before meeting reader)

>When he's not fighting crime as Ivy, he's in his "human" form

-meaning most of the time, hes just a tall, thin and pale nerd with faded red hair, and very weak presence that is often ignored by people (in comparison to his true beauty as Ivy being too distracting and dangerous)

>Spends his free time experimenting with different plants and flowers, occasionally accidentally creates drugs that he gives to Hongjoong to sell for money

>Finds comfort in being able to look after the other members

(Park) Yeosang {Orphan}

[23 years old]

(based on Cassandra Cain, Orphan)

Backstory: His parents were contract killers from a secret society, and he was trained from a young age to be a highly-efficient killing machine. He was deprived of a normal childhood and did not fully learn to write or speak, hence his lisp when talking. Mingi had ran into a 19 year old Yeosang on accident while investigating the organisation's activities. He brought him back to the Birds of Prey because he felt sad seeing how isolated and hopeless Yeosang was with the organisation.

>Unregistered in Seoultham, or anywhere for that matter (hence the censored barcode in his profile card!)

>Spends his time either as a bodyguard for Hongjoong at New World, or following around Seonghwa and Mingi at Okja Central College

>Was only referred to as "Yeosang" while training with the secret society, so he doesn't have an official surname

>Was very quiet but clingy to Seonghwa when he first joined the team, leading to his cover story of being Seonghwa's younger brother (hence why he's sometimes referred to with the same surname 'Park')

>When fighting crime, nearly his entire face is covered

>Despite his unique and advanced set of skills, he dislikes using violence and often only uses it as a last resort

>Best fighter on the team

>Doted on and babied by the rest of the team

[beardedmrbean]

For years, a peaceful, million-dollar farm in Indiana hid a dark secret: It was a serial killer’s playground.

When cops finally raided Herb Baumeister’s 18-acre property in Westfield, north of Indianapolis, they uncovered some 10,000 pieces of human remains — mostly crushed and burned skeletal fragments of the teenage boys and young men whom he had abducted and murdered in the 1980s and ’90s.

Nearly 30 years after Baumeister killed himself while on the run from police, authorities are still sifting through the remains and identifying victims.

For years, a peaceful, million-dollar farm in Indiana hid a dark secret: It was a serial killer’s playground.

When cops finally raided Herb Baumeister’s 18-acre property in Westfield, north of Indianapolis, they uncovered some 10,000 pieces of human remains — mostly crushed and burned skeletal fragments of the teenage boys and young men whom he had abducted and murdered in the 1980s and ’90s.

Nearly 30 years after Baumeister killed himself while on the run from police, authorities are still sifting through the remains and identifying victims.

The Hamilton County coroner announced last month that human remains recovered from Baumeister’s Fox Hollow Farm in 1996 were positively identified as those of Jeffrey A. Jones, who went missing in 1993.

Four additional DNA profiles found at Baumeister’s property have not been identified, bringing the total number of his victims to 12, Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison said.

“Because many of the remains were found burned and crushed, this investigation is extremely challenging; however, the team of law enforcement and forensic specialists working the case remain committed,” Jellison said.

Baumeister, a businessman and married father of three, hunted gay teens and men in central Indiana beginning in at least 1980. He’s believed to have killed at least 25 people, Fox News Digital reported.

He reportedly used the fake name “Brian Smart” and targeted young gay men he met at bars.

Jones was the third victim identified by the coroner’s office in the last six months.

Before him, officials identified Allen Livingston, who was 27 when he went missing in August 1993, and Manuel Resendez, who was 34 when he vanished in 1996.

Baumeister, who moved into the farmstead with his family in 1988, used its sprawling yard and adjacent trail to hide thousands of decomposed remains until his teenage son discovered a human skull and brought it to his mother.

His wife, who initially blocked law enforcement from searching their property, later divorced her husband as more evidence began to pile up against him.

Authorities eventually searched the property when Baumeister wasn’t home and found the bodies of several victims.

Baumeister, who was 49 at the time, fled to Ontario, Canada, in 1996 after a warrant was issued for his arrest, and later fatally shot himself.

He was never charged with the murders and he did not admit to any of the crimes in his suicide note.

The remaining unidentified bones and bone fragments had been sitting in storage until Jellison decided it was time to reopen the case in 1996, according to WRTV.

The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office along with the FBI, Indiana State Police Laboratory, Dr. Krista Latham of the Biology & Anthropology Department at the University of Indianapolis and DNA experts from Texas-based Othram Lab are all working to identify the additional remains.

[mariacallous]

On the campaign trail and in recent days, Donald Trump has detailed extensive plans for immigration crackdowns and mass deportations during his second term as United States president. These initiatives would, he has said, include aggressive operations in areas known as “sanctuary cities” that have laws specifically curtailing local law enforcement collaboration with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

With these promises looming, a new report from researchers at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), a pro-privacy nonprofit, details the ways that federal/local data-sharing centers known as “fusion centers” already result in cooperation between federal immigration authorities and sanctuary-city law enforcement.

Run by the US Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, fusion centers emerged in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks as a counterterrorism initiative for integrating intelligence between federal, state, and local law enforcement. Fusion centers spent $400 million in 2021, according to public records. And, as STOP researchers point out, in more than two decades the centers have never proven their worth for their stated purpose of addressing terrorism in the US. Unnamed DHS officials told a Senate panel in 2012, for example, that fusion centers produce “predominantly useless information” and “a bunch of crap.”

In addition to aggressive investigative tactics like pulling data from schools and abortion clinics, ICE agents have leaned on fusion centers for years to get everything from photos of suspects to license plate location data and more—often in a pipeline that includes input from law enforcement working in sanctuary cities.

“This is an area where it’s highly profitable for localities to cooperate with ICE, and because it’s not highly visible it oftentimes faces less pushback," says STOP executive director Albert Fox Cahn. “This sort of information sharing capacity on this scale across all these agencies. tapping into everything from local utility records and DMV records to school records has the potential to be deployed in any number of chilling scenarios.”

ICE did not immediately return a request from WIRED for comment.

Fox Cahn adds that the concept of sanctuary cities wasn't always viewed by regional cops as an inconvenience to work around. “Until recently a lot of law enforcement agencies were very vocal in supporting sanctuary city protections, because they feared that ICE collaboration would actually hurt public safety if immigrants were not willing to come forward when they were victims of a crime or witness to a crime,” he says. “But police have become much more politically engaged on immigration in recent years.”

Fusion centers give ICE officers a forum through which to request data from local law enforcement databases in sanctuary cities and take advantage of regional surveillance tools, including publicly deployed face recognition systems, that can't be directly used to aid deportation efforts under sanctuary laws. STOP argues that when cops from sanctuary cities share data with ICE through fusion centers, it believes they may be violating local laws, but the activity is less obviously a violation than if the sharing happened through a direct channel.

In addition to undermining the entire purpose and premise of sanctuary city laws, STOP researchers point out, such erosion of guardrails around data sharing broadly could easily become a national security issue if a foreign actor were to infiltrate a fusion center. And domestically, the free-wheeling environment within fusion centers means that law enforcement could easily turn the spotlight onto additional types of investigations without warning.

“What we’ve seen over and over again is that the policing infrastructure we’ve built up in the name of combatting one evil then gets re-purposed for another," Fox Cahn says. “People who maybe don’t care as much about immigration need to recognize that if this infrastructure can be re-targeted at undocumented communities the way it has been today, it can be repurposed for any number of policing priorities in the future.”

Fusion centers will almost certainly play a role in the Trump administration's immigration agenda, but the STOP research is a reminder that these information-sharing hubs may well be at the center of other far-flung law enforcement initiatives as well.

[reasoningdaily]

The killing of Jordan Neely underscores violence facing vulnerable New Yorkers: ‘Being homeless is not a capital crime’

The Independent

The killing of Jordan Neely underscores violence facing vulnerable New Yorkers: ‘Being homeless is not a capital crime’

Alex Woodward

Thu, May 4, 2023 at 7:50 PM EDT·

On a Monday afternoon F train in Manhattan, a passenger wrestled another man to the ground and wrapped his arm around his neck for several minutes. He died moments later.

Jordan Neely’s death was recorded by another passenger and preserved in a widely shared video. The 24-year-old white man who placed Neely in a chokehold has not been identified. He was released from police custody without any charges.

His cause of death was a homicide. The 30-year-old Black man – known for his precise Michael Jackson impersonations on subway platforms while experiencing homelessness in New York City – died from the compression against his neck, according to the city’s medical examiner.

New Yorkers are no strangers to unstable or disruptive people who ride the city’s 6,500 subway cars; subway riders typically keep to themselves and ignore them.

But Neely’s death has revived volatile media narratives about New York’s homeless population, spinning an act of vigilantism to blame the person killed by it. The mayor and governor have not explicitly condemned the act of lethal violence, raising questions among New York leaders whether the city considers the life of a homeless Black man less valuable than a white stranger prepared to use deadly force.

Advocates and lawmakers told The Independent that the deliberate and explicit rhetoric surrounding people experiencing homelessness, compounded by prolonged failures of policies meant to help them, have exposed thousands of New Yorkers and vulnerable people across the country to the kind of vigilante violence that killed Neely.

“Jordan Neely’s death was a homicide, and charges must be immediately brought against his killer,” the city’s elected public advocate Jumaane Williams said in a statement shared with The Independent. “To say anything else is an equivocation that will only further a narrative that devalues the life of a Black, homeless man with mental health challenges and encourages an attitude of dehumanization of New Yorkers in greatest need.”

Elected leaders and media coverage have created an environment “that encourages fear of and violence against people who are struggling, that paints them as a threat to public safety,” he added. “But being homeless is not a capital crime. Struggling with mental health is not a capital crime. Being Black is not a capital crime.”

‘Neely, Jordan, 30-year-old male, Undomiciled’

When he walked into a subway car on 2 May, Neely complained of hunger and thirst, according to journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez, who posted a video of part of the incident on his Facebook page.

He wrote that Neely was yelling and said he was tired, didn’t care whether he went to prison, and was ready to die. He said Neely threw his jacket to the floor of the train car before another passenger slammed him to the ground in a headlock. Others grabbed at his arms.

This continued, Mr Vazquez said, for 15 minutes, until Neely’s eyes closed and his body went limp.

Officers administered CPR on arrival, according to an incident report from the New York City Police Department reviewed by The Independent. Emergency medical personnel transported Neely to Lenox Health Greenwich Village, where he was pronounced dead.

He was identified by law enforcement as “Neely, Jordan, 30-year-old male, Undomiciled”.

Coverage in The New York Post described Neely as “unhinged” and a “vagrant”. The Federalist thanked the “brave men” who “saved riders”. On 4 May, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld blamed Neely’s death on Democratic lawmakers and George Floyd, who was murdered by Minneapolis police officer in 2020. (Derek Chauvin and three other now-former officers involved in Floyd’s death have been convicted of state and federal charges.)

[masterofd1saster]

CJ current events - May 2023

Amid a rise in anti-semitic hate crime, some Jewish women - including Orthodox, are learning self defense and packing heat. Good essay by Adam Popescu.

***

You think someone else is misogynist?

A New York Democrat blamed "institutional misogyny" as she resigned from her government leadership position in the wake of accusations a staffer tried to solicit someone he thought was an underaged girl. 

Westchester County Board of Legislators Chair Catherine Borgia stepped down on Friday under pressure from colleagues who said she failed to act when she was told in December that the staffer was caught on video by a vigilante group that tricked him into thinking he was meeting a 14-year-old. ***

Former legislative aide Anand Singh, 33, was fired on April 13 after video published by vigilante group OBL Global showed him allegedly trying to meet up with someone he thought was an underaged girl in New Jersey. 

The 31-minute video shows a man, reportedly Singh, messaging with someone he thought was a 14-year-old female, but was actually an OBL Global "decoy." The messages become more sexual in nature, the video shows, with Singh allegedly saying he could "def teach" her "a thing or two," speculating that she weighs less than 100 pounds, and asking if she was on birth control.*** https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ny-democrat-resigns-aide-allegedly-caught-trying-solicit-underaged-girl

Nobody is more misogynist than a politician who shelters a pervert who preys on teen girls.

***

Why not send billions to billionaires?

A far-left nonprofit accused of siding with criminals for its work to deplete the justice system while working inside local prosecution offices is nearly entirely funded by federal government agencies, including Department of Justice. 

The Vera Institute of Justice – a Soros-linked nonprofit – has received $290 million from the federal government over the last 12 months alone for its work in immigration – to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation – and the criminal justice system. If its current contracts are extended for the next four years, disbursements could reach over $1 billion. 

"We work to transform the immigration system because many of the problems that we see in the criminal legal system are just the same in the immigration system. And by transform, what I mean is to shrink both of those systems," Vera Justice's president, Nick Turner, said.

Vera funds radical-left agendas in prosecution and law enforcement offices around the country. Fox News Digital found they advocate to defund the police, they partner with district attorney offices to artificially manipulate "racial disparities" in prosecution decisions for criminals and openly state their mission is to demolish what they deem to be a "racist" system. *** https://www.foxnews.com/media/doj-federal-agencies-pour-hundreds-millions-soros-linked-group-accused-trying-nullify-law

***

What would make Colorado perfect? I know: more adults exposing themselves to kids!

A majority of Colorado Democrats in the state House voted against a measure that would enhance criminal penalties for indecent exposure in view of a minor, and one state lawmaker claimed the bill could be used to "ban" drag shows and harm transgender people.

Outlining her frustrations with the measure from the House floor Saturday, state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democrat who has represented a Denver-area district in the state House since 2017, said the proposed law uses language like other measures around the nation meant to "target" transgender people.

"These types of laws have been used to ban drag shows, to target individuals who use the restroom — the sex they identify with, a public restroom — to charge them with felony charges," Herod claimed. "I'm very concerned about the attacks against the transgender community that are happening across the country."

Introduced by Democrats, HB23-1135 would take criminal penalties for indecent exposure from a class 1 misdemeanor to a class 6 felony if committed in view of a person who is under 18. The measure passed with unanimous Republican support despite 27 of the 46 Democratic representatives voting against the bill.*** https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colorado-dems-vote-against-harsh-penalties-indecent-exposure-kids-because-could-ban-drag-shows

***

Cavalier attitude toward killing two people.

Former Bradley student Stephanie Melgoza was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Thursday as the result of striking and killing two pedestrians while driving drunk in East Peoria [Illinois] in April 2022.

Melgoza faced between six to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty without a plea deal to two charges of aggravated DUI and two charges of reckless driving. Three smaller charges were dropped during her plea. Each count of aggravated DUI carried a sentence range between three and 14 years.*** https://www.bradleyscout.com/news/melgoza-sentenced-to-14-years-after-fatal-dui

Just before 20:00 she starts playing dumb while the arresting officer's body cam is recording.

***

Conflict of interest? What's that?

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigned Tuesday morning following reports that she had been consulting for a private cannabis company at the same time as her office was auditing the state's marijuana program.

Fagan, a Democrat, will leave office after May 8. She said that while she is "confident" that an ethics investigation will show that she followed the law, her work for the company has become a "distraction."

“While I am confident that the ethics investigation will show that I followed the state’s legal and ethical guidelines in trying to make ends meet for my family, it is clear that my actions have become a distraction from the important and critical work of the Secretary of State’s office,” Fagan said in a statement. “Protecting our state’s democracy and ensuring faith in our elected leaders — these are the reasons I ran for this office. They are also the reasons I will be submitting my resignation today.”

Fagan admitted last week to accepting a role at the cannabis firm Veriede Holding, an affiliate of La Mota, bringing in $10,000 a month in additional income. Her contract indicated that Fagan would receive a $30,000 bonus if the firm obtained a business license in a state other than Oregon or New Mexico, according to The Oregonian.

The private company also donated around $250,000 to her campaign, along with contributions to other top Democrats, including Gov. Tina Kotek.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/democratic-secretary-of-state-resigns-after-admitting-to-secret-deal-with-marijuana-industry

***

Nice Institute for Justice win

IJ just put up two big wins for free speech and economic liberty—victories for both our clients and the U.S. Constitution. The case involves a group of kindly ladies from Northern California and their nonprofit, Full Circle of Living and Dying. Full Circle helps the dying and their loved ones through their final days. It also helps families plan home funerals without a licensed funeral director, just as people the world over have traditionally done for centuries. 

That, as you’ve likely already guessed, was a major no-no according to the state funeral board. Even though home funerals are legal in all 50 states and Full Circle’s services were limited to providing moral support, advice, and occasional assistance in conducting home funerals, the board argued Full Circle was an unlicensed “funeral establishment” and in late 2019 ordered the women who operate Full Circle to shut down.

IJ filed suit to challenge that order, and earlier this year we scored two major first-round victories. The court ruled both that the First Amendment forbids California from silencing Full Circle’s guides and that California could not require Full Circle, a nonprofit with an annual budget of $20,000, to build a traditional full-service funeral home to help people who have no interest in traditional funerals. And though Full Circle’s case isn’t over yet—the court will hold a trial later this year on whether California can require Full Circle’s guides to obtain funeral director licenses—the importance of these rulings cannot be overstated.*** https://ij.org/ll/ij-win-puts-two-more-nails-in-the-coffin-of-californias-funeral-monopoly/

***

Feds pick a fight with a Catholic hospital that serves the poor.

Saint Francis Hospital system is a Catholic hospital that serves everyone regardless of faith in Oklahoma. Surprise! St Francis has a chapel. Like every other Roman Catholic chapel or church, it keeps a candle burning next to the tabernacle. It's part of the Faith.

Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services demands that St Francis extinguish the candle for safety reasons.

The candle is in a double glass receptacle with a brass top. I haven't heard of such a candle starting a fire in a Roman Catholic church.

The CMS letter to St Francis is linked. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has requested CMS to grant a waiver.

If CMS de-accredits St Francis, the hospital will suffer such crippling financial losses that it will go bankrupt and close. It will no longer be able to serve the people of Oklahoma.

Saint Francis was a wonderfully humble holy man who lived in poverty. St. Thomas Becket defended freedom of religion against King Henry II and the elites of English society. Elites murdered him in a church and scattered his brains on the floor.

***

BabylonBee says

***

Too bad we don't have a law titled ‘‘Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012’’ Pub.L. 112–105, 126 Stat. 291. Oh, wait....

Multiple lawmakers sold their shares in First Republic Bank in the weeks before the firm collapsed and was sold to JPMorgan Chase by financial regulators.

First Republic Bank imploded on Monday, weeks after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank similarly collapsed, as account holders with balances above the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation threshold rushed to withdraw their funds. Periodic transaction disclosure forms reveal that multiple lawmakers jettisoned their shares in First Republic Bank or acquired shares in JPMorgan Chase over the past two months, a phenomenon which follows accusations that some lawmakers routinely buy stocks at opportune times and cut losses by selling shares.

The lawmakers who sold shares of First Republic Bank indeed avoided heavy losses: the firm’s stock fell from $121.54 at the beginning of the year to $3.51 at the time of the collapse.

Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) sold between $1,001 and $15,000 in First Republic Bank shares on March 16 and bought between $1,001 and $15,000 in JPMorgan Chase shares on March 22. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 shares of First Republic Bank shares on March 9 but likewise sold the same indeterminate amount of the assets on March 15, as well as purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 in JPMorgan Chase stock on both March 3 and March 14. His disclosure form said the shares belonged to his wife and dependent child.

Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) meanwhile sold between $1,000 and $15,000 in First Republic Bank shares on March 16, and the wife of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) sold between $1,001 and $15,000 in First Republic Bank stock on March 20. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) also sold between $1,001 and $15,000 in First Republic Bank shares on March 15.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) previously bought between $1,001 and $15,000 of stock in New York Community Bancorp, the company which would acquire Signature Bank, on March 17.*** https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawmakers-dumped-their-shares-in-first-republic-bank-before-the-company-collapsed

***

Nellie Bowels notes

*** → Et tu, Sotomayor? Meanwhile, Sonia Sotomayor has been paid more than $3 million by Penguin Random House—and didn’t recuse herself from several cases involving the publisher.***

→ Summer is coming: Something happened on a New York City subway car that caused three men to restrain a homeless man and subway dancer, Jordan Neely. One of those men was a Marine, and he held Neely in a chokehold until Neely passed out and later died. There’s a video of it all. It’s been ruled a homicide. Jordan Neely had 42 prior arrests, including four for assault, but we have to wait to learn what actually happened in that car. That’s not stopping AOC, who as usual was a model of restraint: “Jordan Neely was murdered. But bc Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges. It’s disgusting.” (NYC Mayor Eric Adams called AOC’s comments not “very responsible.”) Protesters are already gathering in the subway. I’m too old for another 2020. ***

→ Oregon Democrats want to decriminalize homeless encampments: Oregon is filled with tent cities, and now the state’s Democrats want to make it officially legal. This one’s a little like California legalizing weed, in that it was already completely legal. But now, Oregon lawmakers want to fine you if you ask a homeless encampment to form elsewhere. Yes: you will pay a $1,000 fine if you so much as ask for someone to clear off the sidewalk. “Excuse me, but your pitbull is gnawing my son’s—” That’ll be ten Benjamins, NIMBY!

I used to walk whole blocks of San Francisco where sidewalks were taken over by encampments, not an inch of space free, which was fine because every morning I just hopped off the curb and into the street for a couple blocks. So, I hope no one plans on using a wheelchair in any Oregon city because that would be another grand every time they require a tent to move. The disabled really need to think about not being disabled! Kind of rude to want cities to have sidewalks.

Parks? Did someone mention public parks? Okay, now you’re basically a Nazi. We’re gonna need a bigger fine. 

→ AOC and Matt Gaetz collab: The two hotheaded congresspeople—one a Democratic Socialist from New York, the other a paleoconservative from Florida—have come together to try and ban members of Congress and their spouses from owning and trading individual stocks. It’s called the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act. ***

→ I thought banning gas stoves was a conspiracy theory? Now, hold on. I was told just in January of this year that the gas stove ban was a fake right-wing culture war thing. 

NYT: “No One Is Coming for Your Gas Stove Anytime Soon” 

Time: “How Gas Stoves Became the Latest Right-Wing Cause in the Culture Wars”

Salon: “Rumors of a gas stove ban ignite a right-wing culture war”

MSNBC: “No, the woke mob is not coming for your gas stove.”

AP News: “FACT FOCUS: Biden administration isn’t banning gas stoves”

The Washington Post: ​​“GOP thrusts gas stoves, Biden’s green agenda into the culture wars”

Which is why it’s so weird because just this week, New York state lawmakers banned gas stoves from all new construction. So it definitely does seem like Dems are coming for gas stoves, in that they just banned them in one of America’s most populous states. 

There’s usually a slightly longer lag between when the mainstream press tells us something is a crazy lie and when the press says okay, fine, it’s not a lie, it’s actually true, and also it’s a good thing—so this is surprising. I’ll be over here huffing carbon oxides and vapors...

***

Why was he out of jail?

Court records show [Zion Teasley] was charged in 2020 with 13 felonies — including five kidnapping charges. 

They were dismissed in a plea deal a year later in which he admitted three felonies: armed robbery with a deadly weapon, robbery and disorderly conduct. He was released from prison in November 2022 and was on probation at the time of Heike’s slaying.

He is now "charged with the brutal murder of hiker Lauren Heike — as it emerged she’d been chased and then stabbed 15 times in the back and chest."

You still a firearm in someone's face and take his money, you've changed his life. You've come awfully close to ending it. You should be out killing people after only two years.

***

Now's the time to invest in platinum

COOK COUNTY, Ill. - A Cook County man was arrested after police discovered over 600 catalytic converters at his residence.

Cook County Sheriff's police responded to a burglary alarm Sunday at a home in the 6000 block of 128th Place in unincorporated Worth Township.

Officers knocked on the door but no one responded, so they walked around the property to make sure there wasn't a burglary in progress. That's when officers saw hundreds of catalytic converters in a metal crate with others stacked along the fence.

Officers returned to the home Tuesday and executed a search warrant at the residence belonging to 40-year-old Ramsy Sandoka.*** https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/over-600-catalytic-converters-recovered-in-cook-county-bust

***

Nellie Bowles writes

→ Speaking of ways I don’t want to die: The movement to actually enforce traffic laws is gaining steam. Here’s The Washington Post appearing to agree that terrible drivers with tons of tickets shouldn’t be on the road. Meanwhile, of course, Congress has been calling any traffic law enforcement racism.***

→ Wanting safe subways is “bourgeois”: We have an Englishman staying with us right now, and it’s funny talking to someone from a country where liberals want, fight for, and actually expect clean, safe subways and clean, safe parks. In England and much of Europe, these aren’t controversial goals. Public transit is a point of pride, a brilliant use of public funds. Here in the US of A, for some godforsaken reason, the good liberals who run cities have decided that wanting safe subways and clean, fentanyl-free parks is right-wing and lame. Which leads us to Emma Vigeland, an influential leftist media personality, co-host of The Majority Report, a perfect representative of the movement, so here’s her full quote this week:

“I was hit, at one point, sitting on the subway by a man who was having a mental health episode. . . hit me in the face and body and it was jarring, right?” Vigeland says. “Every one of us who’s taken public transit has had this kind of situation happen. . . . And I was scared, I was hit. But my fear is not the primary object of what we should be focusing on right now; it’s the fact that this person is in pain. The politics of dehumanization privileges the bourgeois concern of people’s immediate discomfort in this narrow, narrow instance.”

Like me, Emma went to fancy private schools before she became a socialist and I became. . .  whatever this is. Anyway, I love her private school-meets-American-socialism dig at the people who want safe subways: She calls it “bridge-and-tunneler anti-homeless hysteria.” Emma, I agree there are some bridge-and-tunnel vibes going on in the subway conversation. Like ugh, all these women who don’t want to be punched in the face, wandering around with ugly purses. It’s jarring! *** https://www.thefp.com/p/tgif-the-greatest-show-on-earth

***

I usually disapprove of priest killing, but I'm willing to consider exceptions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, May 12, 2023

Jury Convicts Priest of Sex Trafficking Three Victims in Northern Ohio

A federal jury in Northern District of Ohio convicted Michael J. Zacharias, a priest, of five counts of sex trafficking. The charges related to three victims, two of whom Zacharias trafficked when they were minors and as adults. The evidence presented to the jury detailed how Zacharias paid the victims to engage in sex acts with him using the victims’ fear of serious harm to compel their compliance.

Specifically, the jury heard evidence of how Zacharias first met the victims when they were young boys, and he was a Seminarian at St. Catherine’s Catholic Parish school in Toledo, Ohio, and how Zacharias began grooming the boys for commercial sex acts, using his position as a priest and teacher to ingratiate himself with the boys and their families as a trusted friend, mentor and spiritual counselor. The defendant overcame the victims’ resistance to his eventual commercial sex overtures by gradually sexualizing conversations and conduct with them. At the same time, the victims were developing serious opiate addictions, using pain medication and, later, heroin. Zacharias waited to propose commercial sex until he knew the victims were so heavily involved in drug abuse that it was impacting their daily lives, physical and mental well-being and ability to maintain a stable school or work life.   

The victims’ testimony explained how, in varying degrees, they submitted to Zacharias’ commercial sex solicitations because they feared the psychological harm of losing Zacharias as a father figure and friend, losing their connection to the Church and God, and suffering the painful symptoms of opioid withdrawal that could be alleviated with the money provided by Zacharias to purchase drugs. One victim in particular – the older brother of another victim – also explained how he feared Zacharias would sexually abuse his minor brother and others if he did not continue to comply with the defendant’s commercial sex solicitations.***

Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Zacharias faces a fifteen-year mandatory minimum and lifetime maximum sentence. *** https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-convicts-priest-sex-trafficking-three-victims-northern-ohio

***

Abe Fortas resigned from the Supreme Court this day, 15 May, in 1969.

Fortas had been a fixer for Lyndon Johnson and continued providing legal work to him while a member of the Court. The thing that brought him down was taking money from Millionaire industrialist Louis E. Wolfson and providing legal services to him while Fortas was a justice. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/01/23/fortas-tie-to-wolfson-is-detailed/0b15ab1b-ca34-4a99-be65-51967ea123a6/

***

Excellent column by Kat Rosenfield

During the 2017 peak of the #MeToo movement, the conversation about sexual harassment came down to two related but ultimately separate questions. On the one hand, there was the question of what men shouldn’t do; on the other, there was the question of what women could be expected to tolerate.

This was where some women, usually but not always older, rolled their eyes. Did an awkward joke, a bad date, or — as one memorable entry in the infamous Shitty Media Men list alleged — a “weird lunch” really constitute a form of harassment, let alone a cancellable offence? But other women, usually but not always younger, clucked their tongues: it was only because women kept putting up with such behaviour that men kept thinking they could get away with it.***

This question has been on my mind this week, for the most tragic of reasons. On 1st May, a 30-year-old man named Jordan Neely was choked to death on a crowded New York City subway train by a 24-year-old Marine named Daniel Penny. Neely, who was homeless and mentally ill, was reportedly screaming and confronting passengers; he was killed after Penny put him in a chokehold, while two other passengers held him down. Penny, in a statement released through his lawyers, said he did not intend to kill Neely.

This incident was preventable. Long before his death, Neely was known to New York City authorities as a person who could not manage independent living, and who had been spiralling in recent years, desperately in need of help. For him to die on the dirty floor of a subway car, screaming and defecating on himself while three strangers held him by the arms, legs, and neck, he had to be first failed at every turn by a system that was supposed to shelter and protect him — not just from doing harm, but from being harmed by others when his mental illness manifested in frightening ways.***

To what extent this campaign could succeed is not clear. There has always been a baseline level of criminality and antisocial behaviour on the subway; sexual harassment and assault is so ubiquitous that brushing up against it is all but inevitable. I was groped, flashed, or masturbated at probably two dozen times during the seven years I spent living in New York. When a friend moved to NYC last year, I told her that she couldn’t truly call herself a New Yorker until she exited a crowded subway car to discover that someone had ejaculated on her coat. (I was only partly kidding.) It’s not that anyone thinks these things are okay; it’s more that they’re expected, a sad fact of life in a city of 8.5 million people, one of those things you cannot change and hence have to find a way to put up with. You look away, you shrug it off, you don’t let it ruin your day because if you did, it would ruin all of your days.***

But if it was difficult to know exactly where a tolerance for breaches of decorum became apologia for criminal harassment, it was even harder to identify, after Jordan Neely’s death, where the tacit agreement to tolerate becomes a duty to intervene. How do we know when to stand by, when to step in, when to look away, when to be afraid?

Here, one might have expected that many of the same voices who argued so vehemently against the notion of resilience in the midst of MeToo — the ones who believed that the solution to harassment lay not in teaching women to be assertive, but in teaching men not to abuse — would now demand zero tolerance for male aggression on public transit. If you argue that a woman can be traumatised by bawdy humour in the office or awkward come-ons in a bar, surely you would agree that she’s entitled to be fearful when trapped underground on a metal tube with an erratically-behaving stranger twice her size.*** The truth is, eyewitnesses did report that Neely was behaving in a threatening way, and other people on the train were calling 911 well before his confrontation with Penny, suggesting that whatever was happening, it was a cut above the ordinary subway madness that New Yorkers are usually so good at ignoring. But it is also true that the tragic conclusion of this incident seems, at least in part, like the result of a cultivated fragility — the kind that results when you encourage people to view every uncomfortable situation as a trauma in the making, every unpleasant interaction as a precursor to a far worse harm, every upset as an offence for which there must be consequences. That mindset, so ubiquitous in the wake of MeToo, so popular among progressives in general, says that no breach of decorum or moment of discomfort is too insignificant to ignore. It must be registered. It must be punished. It’s nothing more or less than a call for constant vigilance. The thing about that: when you demand vigilance, you get vigilantes.

***

Weed study from Denmark.

Hjorthøj, C., Compton, W., Starzer, M., Nordholm, D., Einstein, E., Erlangsen, A., Nordentoft, M, Volkow, N.D., and Han, B. (2023). Association between cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia stronger in young males than in females. Psychological Medicine, 1-7. found

Young males might be particularly susceptible to the effects of cannabis on schizophrenia. At a population level, assuming causality, one-fifth of cases of schizophrenia among young males might be prevented by averting CUD. Results highlight the importance of early detection and treatment of CUD and policy decisions regarding cannabis use and access, particularly for 16–25-year-olds.*** https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/association-between-cannabis-use-disorder-and-schizophrenia-stronger-in-young-males-than-in-females/E1F8F0E09C6541CB8529A326C3641A68

***

Doctors have access to really cool drugs

Denver cardiologist Stephen Matthews was arrested outside a Denver courtroom Monday morning and prosecutors say he is being charged in nine new criminal cases, bringing the total number of his alleged victims to 10.

The 35-year-old had previously been charged in just one case. Police handcuffed Matthews and took him directly to the Denver Jail.***

Matthews said he had "consensual sex" with a woman he met on the Hinge dating app. But the woman said after drinking with Matthews, she had no recollection of having sex with him and did not consent to engaging in sex. She said she is convinced she was drugged and pressed charges with Denver police. In follow-up reporting, CBS News Colorado found several other women recounting similar encounters with Matthews.

Monday morning, he was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in that initial case from January. But before any proceedings began, as Matthews was outside the courtroom talking to his family Denver police showed up, handcuffed Matthews and led him away to the Denver City Jail.***

***

Philly capable of change?

*** And yesterday's election [in Philly] was a bit of a stunning upset as former City Councilwoman Cherelle Parker won. She will most likely become Philadelphia's first black female mayor.

In the era of identity politics, Parker's victory is unquestionably historic. It also, once again, debunks many of the left-wing claims about "white supremacy" and anti-black racism being systemic in the city. But perhaps even more shocking was the political platform of Parker's campaign. In a city plagued with violent crime, she ran as a candidate who would be tough on crime, hire more police officers to patrol the streets, and support stop and frisk.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/philly-essentially-elected-its-first-black-female-mayor-last-night-and-she-supports-stop-and-frisk

I have no problem, and the Court has no problem, with stop & frisk when it's based on reasonable suspicion that the suspect is armed & dangerous & committing a crime.  I do have a problem when it's based on reasonable suspicion that the suspect is a minority.  

Indeed, the Terry majority noted

The wholesale harassment by certain elements of the police community, of which minority groups, particularly Negroes, frequently complain, will not be stopped by the exclusion of any evidence from any criminal trial.

***

***

Conflict of interest? What's that?

Earlier this month, Shemia Fagan resigned as Oregon's secretary of state following the public release of her ties to an embattled cannabis company she was auditing.

Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) reportedly knew of Fagan's activities eight days before the controversy hit the press.

Kotek and Fagan met on April 19 for a meeting to “discuss the legislative session and other topics unrelated to cannabis,” Kotek’s spokesperson told the Oregonian.

During that conversation, Fagan “briefly mentioned” she had bowed out from the audit that was still in process “due to a consulting contract,” spokeswoman Elisabeth Shepard said in an email to the Oregonian. Kotek claimed she was unaware of the details until the story broke in the news.

On March 29, the Willamette Week broke the story of Fagan’s connection to La Mota, the second-largest cannabis dispensary chain in Oregon. The investigation disclosed the company gave over more than $200,000 to the state’s top Democrats, including $45,000 to Fagan.

In the following days, the publication received another tip about Fagan, setting the controversy into full swing. In late April, it was revealed that Fagan signed a contract with Veriede Holding LLC, whose principals are Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell, the owners of La Mota.

Records reported by the Oregonian in May show that shortly after Fagan took office, the secretary of state supposedly shared the audit proposal with La Mota cannabis chain co-owner Cazares prior to its publication.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/kotek-aware-fagan-cannabis-contract-before-audit-went-public

***

Spur trust? Give me a break.

Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill Thursday that puts guardrails on how law enforcement use deceptive tactics when questioning kids, the culmination of a two-year legislative push and ending fears that the governor may veto the proposal.

The new law does not prohibit law enforcement from lying to kids during interrogations. But it does generally mean that any information — like confessions — gained that way can’t be used by prosecutors during subsequent trials. Supporters said the bill was a step toward building trust between the criminal justice system and the communities it impacts, while cutting down on the potential for false convictions of children.

The law also requires law enforcement to record juveniles interrogations. Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said Thursday it represented an opportunity “to reset and build community-driven pathways to our collective safety.”*** https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/new-law-aims-to-spur-trust-between-colorado-police-and-kids/ar-AA1bp1qq

Maybe if politicians didn't vilify the police at every opportunity, the community might have more trust in police. [Not that police couldn't help themselves a little.]

What happen is, for example, Bob & Bill commit a crime. Bob is reluctant to talk until the police falsely tell him that Bill has spilled his guts, blaming Bob. Bob that spills his guts, incriminating both himself & Bill. Police then go to Bill and let him know that he can help himself out by confessing because Bob blamed him.

Too, video recording interrogations is not going to benefit the defendant in all cases. In many cases, juries will be able to see the police may have been blunt, but they didn't coerce any confession.

***

Connecticut says you can't discriminate against rapists.

Connecticut has amended its antidiscrimination statute.  The bill analysis says

§§ 2-6 — SEXUAL ORIENTATION Under current antidiscrimination law, “sexual orientation” generally means having a preference for heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality or having a history of or being identified with this preference. However, its definition expressly excludes any behavior that is a sex offense crime. 

The bill redefines “sexual orientation” to means a person’s identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are romantically, emotionally, or sexually attracted, including any identity that a person may have previously expressed or is perceived by another person to hold. This new definition specifically applies to antidiscrimination laws subject to enforcement by CHRO, as well as laws prohibiting nondiscrimination in awarding agency, municipal public works and quasi-public agency project contracts.

By removing the exclusion of sex offenses, Connecticut made it illegal to discriminate against flashers, child molesters, and rapists.  The bill passed 132 - 17.  

***

b/c catching criminals is hard and sometimes dangerous

A Shelby County, Tennessee man's surveillance camera alerted him to thieves in the driveway around 0200 on Sat.  He walked out the front door, and they started shooting at him.  He fired four or five times at them.  video

Police arrived after the shooting and arrested him for reckless endangerment because "the man told them that he couldn’t clearly see what he was targeting and admitted to firing shots with his eyes closed due to being scared and shooting at the suspects as they fled."

The video looks like his shots were aimed at the people shooting at him.  The video also shows the criminals shooting at him after he stopped shooting. https://www.foxnews.com/us/tennessee-man-charged-felony-reckless-endangerment-returning-fire-armed-auto-thieves

***

If there's no effective law enforcement, why not?

Maryland police said the guardian of four teens arrested for auto theft last week arrived to pick them up in a stolen vehicle.

The Charles County Police Department said officers patrolling in Waldorf, Maryland, at about 1 p.m. on May 16 saw two Hyundai vehicles in front of a business. A computer check revealed they were reported stolen.

When the officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop, the drivers of the two vehicles sped off.***

From the two vehicles, police arrested 18-year-old Deshaun Deamonte Whitaker and 21-year-old Vincent Lee Alston, both of Washington, D.C., who were both charged with theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and rogue and vagabond.

Whitaker was released on $2,000 bond and Alston was held without bond in the Charles County Detention Center.

Four juveniles were also arrested and charged with theft and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.***

Police said a female guardian was set to pick up the four juveniles, but the guardian and two other females arrived in what appeared to be another stolen vehicle, which left after the three women were dropped off at the police station.

Officers located the vehicle on a nearby street, which reportedly had a broken back window and steering column damage. When the officer ordered everyone out of the vehicle, the driver fled, nearly hitting one of the officers.***

Anthony Matthew Stewart, 19, of Washington, D.C., was driving the vehicle and arrested after a brief chase on foot. He was charged with first- and second-degree assault, unauthorized use of a vehicle and providing a false name to police. Stewart also reportedly had active warrants for his arrest.

Also in the vehicle were three juveniles who were apprehended. One of the juveniles, a 16-year-old boy, had active arrest warrants, and a 13-year-old girl was reported missing from another county. All three juveniles were charged with theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/maryland-guardian-arrives-stolen-vehicle-take-custody-teens-arrested-auto-theft-police-say

***

Rachel Rollins, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, says she will resign.

A DoJ Inspector General report was highly critical of her.

This report describes an investigation by the Department of Justice (Department or DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that began with allegations concerning the presence of U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Rachael Rollins at a Democratic Party fundraiser featuring First Lady Dr. Jill Biden on July 14, 2022. Available information indicated that Rollins arrived at a private home in Andover, Massachusetts, where the fundraiser was being held, driven in a government vehicle by a subordinate employee of the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office (MA USAO). After news stories reported Rollins’s presence at the fundraiser and questioned whether Rollins violated the Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 7321–7326, a federal statute that limits the political activities of federal employees of the Executive Branch, Rollins posted a tweet suggesting that she had “approval” to be there.1

The OIG opened this investigation to determine whether Rollins complied with Department policies and procedures governing attendance or appearance at partisan political events. During the course of our investigation, the OIG received multiple additional allegations concerning Rollins, some relating to other alleged political activities and some relating to possible violations of the federal gift rules, the government’s travel regulations, misuse of position, noncompliance with recusal decisions, and noncompliance with other Department policies. The most concerning was an allegation that Rollins secretly disclosed sensitive, non-public DOJ information to the Boston Herald about a potential DOJ investigation she and her office were recused from and that she may have done so for political purposes in relation to an upcoming local election.*** https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/23-071.pdf

Ms Rollins is a leftist. Her appointed as a federal prosecutor was sharply contested.

***

Religious freedom case

A group of Jewish parents petitioned a federal court Monday to block a California law that prohibits education funding for children with disabilities from going to religious private schools, even though secular private schools are eligible.

The group of parents, which sought to use Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding at an Orthodox Jewish school, filed a lawsuit against the state in March, arguing that a state law excluding religious schools from the program was discriminatory. On Monday, the group, which is represented by attorneys from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, petitioned a Los Angeles federal court to block the law while litigation continues.

“It’s already outrageous enough that California legislators are denying special education benefits to Jewish kids with disabilities,” Eric Rassbach, the vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund, said in a statement. “But even worse, they’re denying benefits specifically because these kids want to go to a Jewish school. We’re asking the court to put a stop to this discriminatory law and let these kids get the benefits and services they need.”

Rassbach said the California law was harming Jewish families, and urged the court to "block this discriminatory law, and ensure that access to essential benefits isn’t cut off from families and schools just because they are religious."*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/education/california-parents-disability-funding-jewish-school

The case is Loffman v. California Department of Education, 23-cv-1832 (C.D. Cal.). The judge is Josephine L. Staton. Defendants have not yet filed an answer.

Odd note: One of the plaintiffs is Fedora Nick. Never seen a name like that.

***

Family of Christian Glass to receive $19 million in settlement over son’s 2021 police shooting death

The state of Colorado and three local law enforcement agencies agreed to a record $19 million settlement in the death of Christian Glass, a 22-year-old who was shot and killed by police in June in Silver Plume after he crashed his car and called 911 for help.

The settlement is the largest involving police misconduct in Colorado history, surpassing the $15 million paid in 2021 to the family of Elijah McClain, who died at the hands of Aurora police officers and paramedics during a violent 2019 arrest.

Along with the financial agreement, the state of Colorado and the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office have agreed to non-financial concessions that include using Glass’s death in police training scenarios to teach the importance of de-escalation, the creation of a crisis response team in Clear Creek County and an agreement that Glass’s parents can participate in law enforcement training by speaking about the loss of their son, Noelle Phillips reports. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/05/23/christian-glass-shooting-lawsuit-settlement-police-misconduct

***

Where is this a problem?

Illinois just enacted a law the prohibits using license plate readers for

the purpose of investigating or enforcing a law that:

(1) denies or interferes with a person's right to choose or obtain reproductive health care services or any lawful health care services as defined by the Lawful Health Care Activity Act; or

(2) permits the detention or investigation of a person based on the person's immigration status.

(c) Any law enforcement agency, including an out-of-state law enforcement agency, that uses ALPR systems shall require other out-of-state law enforcement agencies to acknowledge that any shared ALPR images or data generated in this State will not be used in a manner that violates subsection

(b) by executing a written declaration before obtaining that data. If a written declaration is not executed before sharing or transfer of the data, the law enforcement agency shall not share the ALPR images or data with the out-of-state law enforcement agency.

(d) ALPR information shall be held confidentially to the fullest extent permitted by law.

It is now Illinois Vehicle Code Section 2-130. https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1577114/

***

It's not like shot someone like Alec Baldwin. Oh, uh, well....

IONIA, Mich. (AP) — A western Michigan man who pleaded no contest to shooting an 84-year-old woman campaigning against abortion rights at his home was sentenced to community service Tuesday.

Richard Harvey, 75, was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service. Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger also gave him a suspended jail sentence of two months and a delayed sentence of one year on probation.

Harvey pleaded no contest last month to felonious assault, careless discharge of a firearm causing injury and reckless discharge of a firearm.

Kreeger also must pay $347.19 in restitution and cannot have any contact with the woman he shot, 84-year-old Joan Jacobson.*** https://www.9and10news.com/2023/05/24/michigan-man-gets-community-service-for-shooting-anti-abortion-campaigner/

***

Philly paid him $1.3M per murder

Shaurn Thomas was a millionaire, but prosecutors say he killed a man over a $1,200 drug debt.

Thomas was paid more than $4 million three years ago after spending 24 years behind bars for a murder conviction that was later overturned.***

“He said it’s his third homicide and he said he can’t go back to jail,” she said.*** https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2023/05/philly-man-got-4m-after-his-murder-case-was-overturned-hes-now-accused-of-murder-over-1200.html

I love these cases in which a manifestly guilty defendant is removed from prison on an alleged procedural error. The media and The Innocence Project act like the murderer was somehow exonerated. No, these convictions are overturned on procedures that were fair and transparent and unrelated to factual guilt. Sometimes you have co-defendants who have reconsidered for a decade the wisdom of their confessing and decided to recant.

First, he argues that a Philadelphia Police Department Criminalistics Laboratory report dated December 16, 1994 was not discovered until after trial. * During Appellant's trial, the Commonwealth offered for identification a series of 14 photographs of a blue Chevrolet Caprice. N.T., 12/12/94, at 41–76. Counsel for the defense objected at which time the prosecutor stated that John and William Stallworth would testify that the photographs depicted the car used by Appellant during the robbery. Id. at 42. Later during trial, however, both Stallworths testified that a different car was used in the robbery. The prosecutor never asked John or William Stallworth to identify the blue Caprice depicted in the photographs and the trial court prevented these exhibits from going to the jury. N.T., 12/15/94, at 116–117. It is alleged that counsel for Appellant's co-defendant, Shaurn, discovered the Criminalistics Report in 2011. The report was apparently authored during the trial and it demonstrated that the Caprice was not used in the robbery and murder. Appellant asserts that this report is exculpatory and was wrongly withheld from the defense*

The second newly discovered fact upon which Appellant relies is the alleged recantation by William Stallworth. Specifically, in his PCRA petition, Appellant relies upon a declaration of Shaina A. Tyler, an investigator employed by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. In this declaration, Ms. Tyler states that she visited William Stallworth on September 29, 2011 at which time “William Stallworth told [Ms. Tyler] that his testimony at the trial of Shaurn and Mustafa Thomas was a lie, and that he made up the entire story.” Declaration of Shaina A. Tyler, 22/23/11, at 1–2. On April 11, 2017, while this case was on appeal before this Court, William Stallworth apparently was interviewed again by a member of the Philadelphia District Attorney's CRU.4 During this second interview, William stated “[h]e was not present on 11/13/1990 for the robbery and murder of Domingo Martinez” and “[h]e does not believe, but has no first[-]hand knowledge, that Shaurn Thomas was there either.” Commonwealth v. Thomas, No. 2436 EDA 2014, 2017 WL 3159329, at *4, *5 (Pa. Super. Ct. July 25, 2017).

The nice thing is when Shaurn murders people it's probably no relative or friend of anyone at Innocence Project or the DA's office.

***

The problem of non-police contacting violent people

For as long as emergency medicine has existed, being physically assaulted has been part of the job. Talking about feelings that come after an assault, though? Not so much.

That’s something that paramedics and others working in emergency medicine are trying to change, said Crystal Eastman, a paramedic instructor and “peer responder” at Denver Health. The sheer amount of violence discourages paramedics from reporting each time they’re assaulted, and the culture pushes them to act like it doesn’t affect them, she said.

Lt. Will Hargreaves, who oversees a team of about 15 paramedics at Denver Health and goes out on some calls, said on most days, an ambulance crew will have to restrain or sedate someone who’s being combative. Often, it’s because the person they need to treat doesn’t want them there or is worried about getting in trouble for their drug use, he said. Other times, people are confused because of their medical condition, especially if they were just revived from an overdose, Meg Wingerter reports. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/05/29/paramedics-colorado-denver-health-violence-mental-health

Who signs up to be punched or stabbed by a junkie?

***

Trying a local solution

Vehicle thefts in Westminster alone have exploded from 859 in 2020 to 1,259 last year.

But the misery around auto-related crimes goes further than just theft and this city of 115,000 is determined to do something. Last week, Westminster passed on first reading four ordinances that would address street racing, joy-riding, car parts theft and quicker restitution for victims.

In the big picture, the measures would bring the prosecution for several auto-related crimes in-house — to municipal court — sparing victims a trip to Brighton in Adams County or Golden in Jefferson County, depending on what side of the county line the offense occurred, John Aguilar reports. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/05/29/westminster-auto-theft-catalytic-street-racing-joyride

Colorado's municipal courts can impose no more than 364 days of incarceration. C.R.S. § 13-10-113 (2023). If someone stole your car or its cats, you'd probably be happier if he served 90 days in jail than none at all due to a lazy or woke DA.

***

Breaks my freakin' heart

The suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American Natalee Holloway in Aruba, Joran van der Sloot, has been "severely beaten" in a prison in Peru, his lawyer Maximo Altez told CBS News.

"It was a fight between prisoners. I don't know who assaulted Joran," Altez said, without providing any further detail on his client's condition.***

Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in Lima. He's awaiting temporary extradition to the United States to face American charges of extortion and wire fraud related to promises he allegedly made to Holloway's family about leading authorities to her body.***

***

Keep your violence off my, uh

BALTIMORE -- Anti-abortion rights demonstrators were attacked Friday, one brutally, after an ideological argument outside a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore, police said.

The attack involved the suspect tackling an 80-year-old man and pummeling a 73-year-old man before kicking him "with extreme force" in the face, police said.

Officers responded around 10:30 a.m. to the healthcare center on North Howard Street for the alleged assault, where witnesses said two men were attacked.

The responding officer found the more severely injured victim, a 73-year-old man, at a local business. According to police, the man had "a large lump forming on his right eyebrow and blood and swelling around the right eye and right side of his face."

The victim told police he was demonstrating outside Planned Parenthood when an unidentified man attacked a fellow demonstrator, identified as an 80-year-old man.

The victim said he immediately tried to help but was hit by the suspect and fell to the ground, where he was struck in the face. He allegedly told police he didn't remember anything after that. *** https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/anti-abortion-rights-demonstrators-assaulted-outside-baltimore-planned-parenthood-police-say/ - why won't tumblr save posts with working links????? Try pasting into your browser.

Schafer reportedly has been recovering at home while Crosby is currently receiving treatment for his injuries in the shock trauma facility at the University of Maryland. According to a police report, doctors diagnosed Crosby with a large hematoma, hyphemia, and head and neck pain.

Crosby’s “plate bone in his upper right cheek is completely fractured” and “is bleeding from some unidentified area behind his eye, and the bone eye orbit is completely shattered and will have to be replaced with metal,” Roswell said.

The attack left Crosby’s right eye swollen shut with blood dripping from his eye socket, forehead, and nose.*** https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-choice-activist-brutally-attacks-two-elderly-pro-life-advocates-outside-baltimore-planned-parenthood-report - why won't tumblr save posts with working links????? Try pasting into your browser.

***

When she's sentenced to straight probation, tell me again about the sexism of the legal system

A female employee in a Pennsylvania school allegedly groped a teenage student during an in-school suspension, which continued throughout the day and with "sexual activity" in her car that evening, police said. 

Megan Carlisle, 37, also allegedly sent explicit pictures and videos of herself to the 15-year-old student and his 16-year-old friend, Northwest Regional Police said in a press release. 

Her alleged sexual escapades with an underage student happened while she was employed as a paraprofessional and in-school-suspension monitor in the Elizabethtown Area School District in Lancaster County, which has since fired her.

After Carlisle allegedly "engaged in sexual activity" with the victim in her car on April 28, she sent him $20 via Cash App for food, the student reportedly told police, according to FOX 43. He also reportedly asked her for vape pods, which she allegedly bought for him the next day.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/female-middle-school-monitor-sex-teen-who-hit-her-up-vapes-cash-police why does tumblr hate links?

***

[sa7abnews]

Retired NYPD Lt. exposes how Biden-Harris admin 'skewed' crime record: 'Doesn't take a qualitative genius'

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/16/retired-nypd-lt-exposes-how-biden-harris-admin-skewed-crime-record-doesnt-take-a-qualitative-genius/

Retired NYPD Lt. exposes how Biden-Harris admin 'skewed' crime record: 'Doesn't take a qualitative genius'

Former law enforcement reacted after the Biden administration touted that their policies resulted in a 50-year low of violent crime.Former NYPD Lieutenant Darrin Porcher argued that the White House cherry-picked crime statistics in order to say that crime in America is at a record low. “I am a firm believer in statistics or at the behest of the beholder, meaning that if you are the person that’s the holder of statistics, you can chart a course that better fits the bill for what you’re trying to express,” he told Fox News Digital.”That is clearly what the White House is doing in this particular article,” Porcher said. “But it just doesn’t take a quantitative genius to identify that crime is up.”HOMICIDES ARE PLUNGING IN BIDEN’S LAST YEAR COMPARED TO TRUMP’S: REPORTPorcher said that realistically that there has been a “meteoric rise” in the past three years under Biden’s leadership.”There’s been a meteoric rise in crime over the last three years under the Biden administration, as we relate to either the migrant crisis, violent crimes that are occurring in the cities or the counties that common citizens live in,” he said.”Perception is key,” Porcher said. “Whenever we as a public perceive that crime is higher, that is when it is incumbent on the government to enforce the rule of law.”Porcher said that the Department of Justice quantitated crime in America with the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The report, Porcher said, does not give the “full picture” of crime since it reports all recorded crimes and does not follow it through the resolution.”You have many instances where a person reports a crime saying that their car was stolen, but then they find it maybe 2 or 3 days later and it wasn’t stolen, they just forgot where they parked in,” he said. “That crime is already listed on the Uniform Crime Report. There’s no one that goes back and places an addendum it.”COLORADO POLICE DEPARTMENT SHOWS NEW WAYS TO USE DRONES FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT Porcher said that the UCR can be used to manipulate crime data either favorably or unfavorably.”The UCR Uniform Crime Report can be skewed in a direction that’s either favorable or unfavorable in terms of the increase or the decrease in crime. And this is what the White House is touting as the standard-bearer,” he said. “I beg to differ because we need a more qualitative approach.”In a press release, the White House contributed the record low crime to the administration’s American Rescue Plan. The plan provided funding to invest $15 billion in law enforcement and public safety.The White House also bragged that Biden signed the “most significant gun violence legislation in nearly 30 years.”Porcher argued that the administration’s implementation of “red flag laws” – gun control legislation that allows people to petition courts for a civil order to temporarily suspend a person’s access to firearms – may not be the best course of action for the U.S.TRUMP CAMPAIGN PICKS UP THE PACE, EYES COUNTER-PROGRAMMING DURING DEMOCRATS’ CONVENTION “I think that gun control means well, but I don’t believe that it works, because in the United States, we have more guns and people,” he said. “You’re closing the gate after the horse has already escaped.””I genuinely believe the best course of action in terms of reducing gun violence is to have the necessary interdiction by law enforcement, meaning enforce the laws that are on the books. If you’re enforcing the laws that are on the books, then you’re going to gain precipitous drops in gun violence,” he said. “But if you rely upon merely the gun control method, it’s only going to allow criminals to acquire firearms, and the law abiding citizens deterred.”The former NYPD lieutenant said that “history is the best teller of what lies in the future,” and to consider the result of progressive agendas in major U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.”When we speak to what’s happening in the larger cities, history is the best teller of what lies in the future,” he said. “If you don’t pay attention, you’re going to embark upon the same mistakes that happened in the past.””So, when we look at a lot of the larger cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, we clearly see there’s a consistent narrative that is a progressive agenda that does not move towards punishing criminals,” he said. “But it seems that law abiding citizens are the recipients of a miscarriage of justice.””Criminals are being provided with more rights, and fewer rights are being forwarded to us as common citizens,” Porcher said.

[bllsbailey]

'Anchorman' Actor, Comedian Jay Johnston Pleads Guilty To January 6-Related Charge

Actor Jay Johnston attends “The Sarah Silverman Program” presented by The Paley Center for Media on May 2, 2008 in Beverly

On Monday, an actor and comedian who portrayed a news reporter in the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, who was also the voice of a pizzeria owner in the TV show Bob’s Burgers, entered a guilty plea for allegedly interfering with law enforcement officials’ “efforts to defend the U.S. Capitol” on January 6th, 2021.

Jay Johnston, 55, of Los Angeles, entered a guilty plea to the crime of “civil disorder,” which carries a potential five-year prison sentence.

Johnston is due to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols on October 7th.

As they exited the courtroom, Stanley Woodward, Johnston’s attorney, instructed his client not to speak with the media.

Johnston, who was taken into custody in June last month, is among the almost 1,400 individuals accused of federal offenses related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.

According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, the FBI claims that video footage shows Johnston pushing against police and assisting protesters in a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace. On January 6th, Johnston had been carrying a stolen police shield over his head, which he later handed over to other protesters for protection since they were being tear-gassed.

Some sources have also alleged that Johnston later handed the shield back to police officers, however, this claim has not been confirmed.

The actor and comedian “was [allegedly] close to the entrance to the tunnel, turned back, and signaled for other rioters to come towards the entrance,” the agent claimed.

Prosecutors further claimed that Johnston, dressed in a dark leather jacket and green camouflage neck gaiter, “participated with other rioters in a group assault on the officers” and then “joined other rioters in pushing repeatedly against the defending police officers” in the video.

“The rioters coordinated the timing of the pushes by yelling ‘Heave! Ho!'” prosecutors stated while posting screen grabs of the footage.

Johnston was a voiceover actor who played the role of Jimmy Pesto in the Fox cartoon television series Bob’s Burgers. However, following the Capitol protest, Johnston was “banned” from the cartoon series, according to a 2021 Daily Beast article.

Johnston also made an appearance on the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David, which stars actors David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. In addition, he has brief roles in the Will Ferrell film Anchorman and the television series Arrested Development.

Before relocating to Los Angeles, Johnston, who was originally born in Chi-town, began his comedic career performing improv at The Second City and Annoyance Theater in Chicago, CBS Chicago reported.

According to the FBI agent, three of Johnston’s “associates,” both present and past, recognized him as a suspect based on pictures that the FBI posted online. Johnston later confirmed being in the Capitol on January 6th in a text message that investigators received from one of the associates.

“The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn’t. Though it kind of turned into that. It was a mess. Got maced and tear gassed and I found it quite untastic,” Johnston said in a message, according to the FBI.

Last month, the Justice Department’s use of a federal obstruction statute against numerous individuals who walked into the building was limited by the Supreme Court’s decision to rule in favor of a former Pennsylvania police officer who was accused of obstructing an official proceeding after he entered the U.S. Capitol during the protest.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims at Popular Information:

Former President Donald Trump has promised that he will start mass deportations if he wins in November. The promise has become a central selling point of his 2024 campaign. At a campaign rally in Michigan this summer, Trump vowed, “As soon as I take the oath of office, we will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”  In April, during an interview with TIME, Trump laid out his plan for mass deportations, stating that he will use “local law enforcement” and “the National Guard.” Trump also said he would “not rule out” building new migrant detention facilities and that he would use the military “if necessary.” When TIME told Trump that deploying the military against civilians is prohibited under the Posse Comitatus Act, Trump responded, “Well, these aren’t civilians. These are people that aren’t legally in our country.”

Trump has promised that one of his first targets will be Springfield, Ohio, where Trump and his allies have, on numerous occasions, falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants are eating neighborhood pets. “[W]e will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio. Large deportations. We’re gonna get these people out,” Trump said last week at a press conference in California. (The Haitian immigrants that Trump and his allies are targeting are in the country legally.) Trump also promised to prioritize deportations from Aurora, Colorado, where Trump has falsely claimed that Venezuelan immigrants are “taking over the whole town.” [...]

The human capacity problem

The scale required to orchestrate Trump’s proposed policy is far beyond the capacity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Trump’s solution is to use local law enforcement. In an interview on Fox News, Trump said that he would give local police “immunity” to do “the job they have to do,” and that “the officers understand who the migrants are.” Using local law enforcement would result in police officers having less time to perform their other duties. A March report by the Center for Migration Studies of New York cited research that found putting local police officers in charge of immigration responsibilities would make “local communities less safe” and immigrants, fearing deportation, “less likely to report crimes or cooperate with police.”

[...]

The enormous price tag

ICE acknowledges that each deportation is costly and difficult. In its 2023 annual report, the agency stated, “Removal management is a complex process that requires careful planning and coordination with a wide range of domestic and foreign partners and uses significant ERO resources.” According to that report, ICE deported 142,580 non-citizens from the U.S. in 2023. Its budget for removals and transportation last year was over $420 million, meaning that it cost nearly $3,000 to remove each person from the country. If Trump successfully deported the estimated 11 million non-citizens currently in the U.S., it would cost $33 billion just to transport people out of the U.S. — more than triple ICE’s total budget in 2023. But the cost of actually moving a person off U.S. soil is only one part of the equation. It also costs ICE money to track people down and keep them in custody before their deportation. NBC reported that ICE currently has about 40,000 beds in detention centers which each cost $57,378 a year to maintain. If Trump enacted his mass deportation plan of 11 million people, ICE would need to expand its detention capacity drastically.

[...]

The nationwide civil rights violation

Trump’s promise of mass deportations would cause major civil rights violations. The policy would effectively result in local law enforcement engaging in a mass racial profiling campaign, as there is no objective way to identify undocumented immigrants. According to a report by the Center for Migration Studies of New York, “[i]mmigration ‘sweeps’... often lead to profiling, usually on racial or ethnic grounds.” The report argues that this would lead to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants being “unjustly detained and even deported,” and give them “little opportunity to legally respond to their arrest and detention.” In a memo released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in response to Trump’s proposed immigration policies, the group warns that Trump’s plan could also lead to violations of “constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure, including arrests and detentions without a specific reason to detain a certain individual.”  

The massive detention camps

Once the Trump administration identifies undocumented immigrants, it would need to detain them somewhere before deporting them. Trump has suggested that massive detention centers would need to be built in order to keep up with the number of deportations being processed. Aside from the economic cost, detention centers have been the sites of numerous human rights abuses. Undocumented immigrants in detention centers have been denied urgent medical care, sexually abused, and kept in chain-link pens.

The damage to the economy

[...]

The U.S. is already facing a labor shortage, and removing 11 million undocumented workers (about 5% of the total workforce) would only make the problem worse, pushing up prices on goods and services. Mass deportation would also impact the housing market, putting many of the 1.3 million mortgages of mixed-status households in danger, and cut tax revenue to the government and Social Security. 

Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy is a quagmire if it ever gets implemented, because it is a grave insult to civil liberties, police resources, and the economy.

Vote Kamala Harris to protect civil liberties!

[atlanticcanada]

How an ex-Mountie accused of conspiracy became China's 'hired gun' in a campaign Canada once tacitly supported

As an RCMP officer, William Majcher, 60, used fake identities to infiltrate organized crime groups to investigate money laundering. He even went undercover to help the FBI to build a case against a Colombian drug cartel, knowing that if he was outed, a bounty would be put on his head.

After leaving the national police force in 2007, Majcher moved to Hong Kong, where he helped create a firm called Evaluate Monitor Investigate Deter Recover (EMIDR) in 2016. The company’s raison d’etre was to help China and its corporations recover assets it alleged were stolen, Majcher said in previous interviews.

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Company in 2019, Majcher admitted to being an “economic mercenary.”

“As long as the claim is valid and we’re doing everything lawful and properly - I’m a hired gun to help either large corporations or governments get back what's rightfully theirs,” Majcher told ABC.

OPERATION FOX HUNT

Three security experts told CTV National News it’s likely Majcher was part of China’s notorious Operation Fox Hunt, an anti-corruption campaign under the regime of President Xi Jinping.

CTV News asked RCMP Insp. David Beaudoin, head of the Montreal Integrated National Security Enforcement Team that is leading the investigation if Majcher was involved in Fox Hunt. Beaudoin declined to provide more details in order “to respect the work of the courts.”

CTV News has reached out to Majcher's lawyer, and this article will be updated when a response is received.

Created in 2014, Fox Hunt and its later iteration, Sky Net, targeted Chinese nationals living abroad. Under the program, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would recruit police officers, private investigators and lawyers in foreign countries to help track down fugitives suspected of financial crimes and bring them back to China to face prosecution.

The CCP’s latest statistics from October 2022 show that more than 12,000 Chinese Nationals have been “involuntarily returned” to China under Operation Fox Hunt and Sky Net. According to Safeguard Defenders, a Spanish non-government organization, alleged fugitives were repatriated using extradition as well as covert methods such as threats and kidnapping. Safeguard says targets can also be lured to another country with an extradition treaty with China and arrested there.

And not all of those forced to return home are suspected criminals. Human rights groups say fighting corruption was also a guise used by the CCP to find and silence its critics. 

When asked for comment, the Chinese embassy told CTV News in an email, "China always adheres to the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs and strictly abides by international law."

A RARE CHARGE

The RCMP, Majcher’s former employer, has charged him under the rarely used Security of Information Act with preparatory acts for the benefit of a foreign entity and conspiracy.  Majcher is accused of foreign interference-related activities for using his knowledge and extensive network of contacts to allegedly help the Chinese government “identify and intimidate” an individual in Canada.

Scott McGregor, a former military intelligence officer who has researched Operation Fox Hunt, says the charges likely stem from Majcher’s work tracking down alleged criminals for the Chinese government.

“It's likely the information that was gleaned was used by the Chinese to ascertain where these people are. What measures were used to get them back or get back their assets, we’ll find out from court.”

But McGregor points out that prosecuting Majcher under these charges will be complicated because Canada once tacitly supported China’s international efforts to fight corruption.

“It’s a grey zone because there are international laws where this is allowed,” said McGregor. 

SHARING STOLEN ASSETS

In September 2016, nearly a year after he became prime minister, Justin Trudeau welcomed former premier Li Keqiang to Canada.

During that visit, Keqiang, China’s second-in-command, sealed a historic agreement to work together to recover and share in the return of stolen assets. According to Chinese state media, Canada was the first country to enter into such a treaty with China since it launched its anti-corruption campaign in 2014.

 The CCP estimated that as many as 25 per cent of its most wanted financial fugitives had fled to Canada. Under the agreement, Canada and China would co-operate in investigations and split the proceeds of crime once they were recovered. But where the individual faced prosecution would have to be negotiated, because Canada doesn’t have an extradition treaty with China. 

During Keqiang’s visit, where removing trade barriers was also discussed, Trudeau expressed in a speech his excitement about developing “a real partnership that will benefit all our people for generations to come.”

But five years later, the government began striking a different tone. In February 2021,Public Safety Canada issued a warning about Operation Fox Hunt stating that China’s anti-corruption efforts weren’t just used to bring criminals to justice, but its tactics could also be used to “silence dissent, pressure political opponents and instill a general fear of state power on Canadian soil.”

Later that year in the autumn of 2021, the RCMP would begin investigating Majcher. 

MORE CANADIANS TARGETED

Police have not released the name of the victim that Majcher is alleged to have targeted, but other Canadian cases related to Operation Fox Hunt have been made public.

Safeguard Defenders claimed in a March 2022 report that Zhang Yan from Canada was warned by Chinese police to return because they had placed his father under arrest. The human rights organization also revealed the presence of a global network of illegal Chinese police stations, including at least five in Canada.

Earlier this year, CTV National News reported on the case of Edward Gong, a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur and former Toronto mayoral candidate who is suing the Ontario Securities Commission. Gong alleges the OSC endangered his life by co-operating with Chinese police in a fraud investigation.

EROSION OF TRUST

Katherine Leung, a policy advisor for advocacy group Hong Kong Watch, says the arrest of Majcher could also erode the diaspora’s trust in law enforcement.

“They’re told to go to the police when things like this happen,” says Leung. “Knowing that  there's someone who could be in the RCMP today and be on China's side tomorrow tells us that  there needs to be a better way for these diaspora groups to report foreign interference and intimidation.”

Leung wants to see a dedicated phone line to report foreign interference, staffed with workers who can communicate in Cantonese and Mandarin. 

Leung says Majcher’s case also illustrates the need to create a foreign agent registry. If the registry existed, Majcher would be legally required to identify himself as someone who worked for the Chinese government instead of allegedly operating in the shadows.

In the meantime, Leung is watching the case to see who else could be implicated. The Mounties say they’re looking into more than 100 cases of foreign interference. Majcher is currently in custody will appear in court again on Tuesday.  The RCMP say more arrests and or charges connected to the former Mountie are possible.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/TOlnDKf

[lokodomains]

NJ police department's autism awareness project equips officers with sensory tool kits

NJ police department’s autism awareness project equips officers with sensory tool kits

A New Jersey police department is equipping its patrol cars with new “Emergency Sensory Tool Kits” and training for officers aimed at improving its response to situations involving people with autism or other special needs. “You hear these police stories where departments are ill-equipped to deal with people who have mental health issues or learning disabilities, or in a lot of cases, autistic…

[beardedmrbean]

A serial creep from Los Angeles County is back on the streets after dozens of arrests for a slew of sex offenses and other crimes stretching back to 2005, despite being caught on video accosting women just days ago.

Calese Carron Crowder, 36, was identified as the man seen on viral TikTok videos who appears to follow women around a Burbank Barnes & Noble bookstore “sniffing” their backsides.

Glendale police arrested him for allegedly peeping on a Glendale home with children inside last week, according to authorities.

Crowder has felony convictions of robbery and burglary, law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital, and despite having been ordered to register as a sex offender, his name did not appear on the state’s registry when checked Wednesday morning.

Crowder was accused of peeping into a Glendale home with children on Aug. 6, and a Barnes & Noble shopper posted her encounter with him to TikTok on Aug. 8.

He was arrested on Aug. 11 and walked free yesterday after a California judge placed him on probation.

Crowder previously served in state prison on burglary and robbery charges and had been sentenced in February to a year in jail for indecent exposure in Santa Clarita, court records show.

However, Crowder was released early anyway, law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital. 

After Crowder’s rapid release, a victim named Michaela Witter posted a TikTok video warning neighbors to “please be careful.”

“Is this real?” she said. “I think he maybe spent three days in jail … They can’t do anything until he’s done something really bad to someone, and I’m honestly scared that that person is gonna be me.”

She added that she was at a loss for words.

“If you’re in the area, please, please be careful,” she said.

Witter caught her bookstore encounter with Crowder on video and shared it to TikTok last week.

Then at least 20 other women reached out to her with similar stories, she said.

“What are you doing?” she asked after Crowder crouched down behind her and leaned his face toward her.

“Tying my shoe,” Crowder replied, huffing and short of breath. “What are you doing?”

In her single trip to the store, she also recorded the same man pulling the same move on another woman.

She reported him to the front desk and shared the video online, where millions of people saw it, some of whom said they recognized him.

One of those women, another TikToker using the handle @artofethereality, posted a video in which she turned around and confronted a man she found crouched behind her at the Burbank Barnes & Noble that she said she recorded in March.

“Hi, are you following me?” she asked.

“No, my bad,” he replies, down on one knee and flipping through a book in the same winded voice.

“This is real s— us girls go through and needs to be taken seriously,” she wrote in the caption.

Detectives have been chasing Crowder for years.

Los Angeles County Jail records show he has been booked there 41 times.

However, he has repeatedly walked out of jail and repeated his actions.

According to Candice Horry, the wife of former Los Angeles Lakers star Robert Horry, Crowder stalked their daughter a decade ago.

“He went to jail only to come out and continue the same behavior,” she wrote on X. “Thank you for getting the word out that he is back. He needs to be put away for good!”

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Glendale police are asking anyone with information on Crowder’s activities to call them at 818-548-4911.

[balancednewssummaryapp]

Georgia deputy police chief arrested in Florida for soliciting prostitution Are you interested in this story? Download the Balanced News Summary app to read more! Link in our bio. For breaking news and updates follow @balancednewssummaryapp #BalancedNewsSummary #Alert, #Article, #Bdb939FfEfb1563B94Bb01Cd3A1Ea679, #Cybernews, #Doyourownresearch, #Fnc, #FoxNews, #FoxNewsUs, #FoxNewsUsCrime, #FoxNewsUsCrimePoliceAndLawEnforcement, #FoxNewsUsUsRegionsSoutheastFlorida, #FoxNewsUsUsRegionsSoutheastGeorgia, #Freespeech, #Freethought, #Fyi, #Headlines, #Insidestory, #Instapolitics, #Nationalnews, #Newapp, #Newsflash, #Politicalnews, #Politics, #Realnews, #Todaynews, #Topstories, #Truthistruth, #Truthmovement, #Truthteller, #Worldwidenews

[kzk101ntwrk]

Ex-St. Louis cop pleads guilty in beating of fellow officer after allegedly saying, 'Going rogue feels good'

Ex-St. Louis cop pleads guilty in beating of fellow officer after allegedly saying, ‘Going rogue feels good’

A former St. Louis cop pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to assaulting a fellow officer who he thought was a demonstrator during a protest in 2017, according to the Department of Justice.

Randy Hays, 32, faces one count of using unreasonable and excessive force against another St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) officer.

Demonstrators confront police while protesting the…

[masterofd1saster]

CJ current events June 2023

Police are not bystanders

AURORA, Colo. — A former Aurora Police officer who was convicted of failing to intervene during a violent arrest by a fellow officer was sentenced Friday in Arapahoe County District Court to six months in jail, which she'll be allowed to serve through judicial house arrest.

Francine Martinez was convicted April 21 on one count of failure to intervene, a misdemeanor offense following a three-day jury trial.***

Martinez and now-former officer Jon Haubert responded to a trespassing call near South Parker Road and Dartmouth Avenue on July 23, 2021. While they responded to the trespassing call, they encountered Kyle Vinson, who had a warrant out for his arrest.

Body camera footage, which was shown at the trial, showed Haubert with his hands around Vinson's throat for nearly 40 seconds. The video appeared to show Vinson beginning to lose consciousness.

Aurora Police's chief at the time said the video also showed Haubert strike Vinson with his duty weapon as many as 13 times. The video also showed that Haubert held the gun to Vinson's head while Vinson was facedown.

Vinson suffered numerous injuries during the altercation***

Colorado lawmakers passed a police accountability bill in 2020 in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. That law made it a crime for officers not to intervene or report use of force incidents.  https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/francine-martinez-failure-intervene-sentence/73-955beb4f-d3f5-4149-8cce-9098d99c6192

***

How’s that ankle bracelet working, Pennsylvania?

A Pennsylvania man out on bail for two prior shootings is now facing three murder charges in the slayings of two young boys and a teenager, according to prosecutors.

Alex Torres-Santos, 22, allegedly opened fire on a home in Lebanon around 10 p.m. Wednesday, killing 19-year-old Joshua Lugo-Perez and fatally striking 8- and 9-year-old brothers who were all on the back porch at the time of the shooting, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

Authorities believe Lugo-Perez was the intended target. He was not related to the two children, but Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said in a statement that he lived with their family.

A fourth victim, a 33-year-old neighbor, was struck by a bullet that tore into his home. He was rushed to the hospital and survived.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/pennsylvania-man-accused-child-murders-wore-gps-monitor-prior-shootings-during-crime-prosecutor-says

***

If it’s not your bag full of women’s clothes, don’t take it.

Sam Brinton, the embattled former senior Department of Energy (DOE) official, was arrested as a "fugitive from justice" by Maryland police late Wednesday.

According to county records reviewed by Fox News Digital, Brinton was taken into custody in Rockville. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Police, which is the lead law enforcement agency for both Washington, D.C., area airports, said the arrest was related to the theft of airport luggage, the third such criminal case involving Brinton.

"Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police executed a search warrant May 17 in Montgomery County, Maryland, in connection with allegations of stolen property in luggage from Reagan National Airport that was brought to the department’s attention in February 2023," James Johnson, a spokesperson for the MWAA, told Fox News Digital in an email.****https://www.foxnews.com/politics/non-binary-ex-biden-official-sam-brinton-arrested-again-fugitive-justice

*** 

The victim was charged with two counts of cheating dog and one county of extreme wimp.

A Florida police officer and her pregnant romantic rival were charged with battery for beating up a man they were both dating, records show.

Miami-Dade Police Officer Anna Elicia Perez, 34, and Mila Zuloaga, 35, who is seven months pregnant, found out they were both in a relationship with the same man, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital.

The furious pair showed up at Miller's Ale House in Palmetto Bay, about 15 miles south of Miami, May 26 at 12:43 a.m. to confront their two-timing beau in the crowded sports bar.***

The altercation quickly escalated into a public smackdown. "[They] struck the victim on the face and upper body with their hands multiple times," the police report says. "The victim sustained redness to the face and a small bruise to the lower lip."

The women were arrested on one count each of battery, according to police. Perez was processed and transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, while Zuloaga was taken to the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Special Victim’s Bureau, records show.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/miami-cop-pregnant-woman-assaulted-man-they-were-both-dating-police

***

99.9% of the lawyers give the rest a bad name

Matthew Nilo, a New Jersey attorney charged in several Boston rapes from 16 years ago, represents "a new type of criminal" suspect emerging, thanks to advances in DNA technology, according to renowned genetic genealogist CeCe Moore.

Boston Police and the FBI used investigative genetic genealogy to arrest Nilo in several rapes in the Terminal Street area of Charlestown between 2007 and 2008.***

He apparently got his bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and worked for two years as a paralegal before moving on to the University of San Francisco School of Law.

From there, Nilo worked at the Clyde & Co. law firm in San Francisco, Atheria Law in New York City and Cowbell Cyber in New York, according to his LinkedIn.***

He would have been 19 or 20 years old and in college at the time of the alleged assaults, his LinkedIn shows.***

The suspect is charged with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with intent to rape and one count of indecent assault and battery.

Nilo has been indicted in Superior Court in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, but has not been arraigned yet. He is facing extradition to Boston. https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-jersey-lawyer-accused-boston-rape-spree-through-dna-represents-new-type-criminal-suspect-expert

***

Good riddance

Robert Hanssen, 79, an FBI agent-turned-Russian mole who is notorious as one of the most damaging spies in US history, has been found dead in prison.

He was discovered unresponsive at a maximum-security facility in Florence, Colorado, on Monday morning.

Hanssen received more than $1.4m in cash, diamonds, and money paid into Russian accounts. Three hundred agents worked on his case.

He was sentenced in 2002 to life in prison for espionage.*** https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65816862

BoP does not yet list him as non-living.  

***

Weed smoke as a nuisance; civil law works

A D.C. judge has ruled that a man who smokes medical marijuana in his apartment must stop after a neighbor complained that the odor from his marijuana crept into her home and caused a nuisance.

Judge Ebony Scott ruled late Monday that while Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd could not prove she is entitled to damages, she successfully made the case that the smell is a private nuisance, and Scott ordered Thomas Cackett to stop smoking. Scott said that Cackett is licensed to buy marijuana but “he does not possess a license to disrupt the full use and enjoyment of one’s land.”*** https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/06/06/marijuana-smoke-weed-smell-neighbors/

The tort of nuisance is a continuous and unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of land.

***

Freedom of speech in Penna

https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1666101808672960513 shows Reading, Pennsylvania, police arresting Damon Atkins for reading the Bible at a Pride event. Police told https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/06/man-arrested-read-bible-verse-pride-lgbt-event/ that he was arrested for his volume.  In the video he doesn’t sound too loud.

***

San Berdoo County jury says “why not use deadly force against a simple touch?”

Ari Young, a schizophrenic, scared his mom so badly in 2019 that she called 911. San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputy Meagan McCarthy was the 1st responder.

When she attempted to pat him down for weapons, he started pummeling her and took her pistol.  He fired multiple shots at her before another deputy shot him and took him into custody.  The incident was video recorded.

He was charged with attempted murder, but the jury acquitted him of that, convicting him only of negligent discharge.  The defense theory of the case was that McCarthy had no right to touch him so he was acting in self defense.  That is total nonsense.  https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-man-who-pummeled-shot-at-female-deputy-found-not-guilty-despite-video-of-attack

***

good 10min video of pretextual traffic stop with explanation of constitutional principles

https://youtu.be/SVEoC-gkbOU

***

Aurora, Colorado Police release bodycam video of shooting Jor’Dell Da’Shawn Richardson on 1jun23.

https://youtu.be/xwC58sqxrHY?t=3653 

Watching the video I had a hard time seeing and hearing when a shot was fired.  The incident happened really fast.

***

Loveland, Colorado Police release video of officer striking a handcuffed woman.

https://youtu.be/EwOu8_9Zyg0?t=79 -  the woman is a stream of NSFW language.

Officer Russell Maranto, 28, punched the woman after she spit in his face.  He punched her on 20may23, and he was fired three days later.

***

Trump indictment

The indictment is available in pdf at https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23839652-indictment

It’s more or less what you’d expect.  I was a little surprised that it includes apparently private attorney client communications in paragraphs 54 - 59.  There are a few references to things that would ordinarily be considered attorney client confidences after those paragraphs.

The particular statutes are generally available at https://uscode.house.gov/browse/prelim@title18/part1&edition=prelim.  

The indictment also charges Waltine Nauta along with Trump.  Mr Nauta was a U.S. Navy servicemember assigned as valet to Trump.  The purpose for charging Mr Nauta would probably be to get him to roll on Trump.

The indictment doesn’t allege that Trump removed any documents from the White House or moved any boxes.  The closest you get is “TRUMP caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida****”

***

Pretty good riddance

WASHINGTON (AP) — Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died Saturday. He was 81.

In a 1985 attack, Kaczynski mailed a bomb to prominent University of Michigan psychology professor James V. McConnell, a leading figure in behaviorism. The blast wounded graduate assistant Nicklaus Suino and damaged McConnell’s hearing, according to MLive files.

Kaczynski earned master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics from U-M in Ann Arbor in the 1960s.***

Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina, Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, told The Associated Press. He was found unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and was pronounced dead around 8 a.m., she said. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Before his transfer to the prison medical facility, he had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted committing 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims.***

He forced The Washington Post, in conjunction with The New York Times, to make the agonizing decision in September 1995 to publish his 35,000-word manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” which claimed modern society and technology was leading to a sense of powerlessness and alienation.*** https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/06/unabomber-and-former-university-of-michigan-math-student-theodore-ted-kaczynski-dies-in-prison.html

mlive is way too equivocal about Kaczynski and his motives.  mlive also fails to note that he put a bomb on American Airlines Flight 444 from Chicago to Washington, D.C.; while the bomb ignited, it did not bring down the airplane. He was a hard core, far left wing, radical communist.

A beautiful young woman I know offers the riddle “What’s the difference between a Michigan fan and the Unabomber? * * * * The Unabomber actually attended Michigan.”

***

If you need a reason to not use drugs....

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tranq-xylazine-drug-addiction-recovery-acebae3c is about David Wells.  

Wells, 31 years old, didn’t go looking for xylazine. One day, it showed up in his bag of dope. Soon he needed it. The tranquilizer would knock him out for hours, until he woke up sick from withdrawal. When the wounds emerged, the pain overwhelmed him and he wanted to sleep as much as possible. Addiction-treatment centers turned him away because of the complexity of his wounds.

Many tranq users check themselves out of hospitals with active, dangerous, life-threatening infections b/c withdraw from tranq is so bad.

***

Good Mallard Fillmore

Yeah, he’s a little over the top, so what?

***

Where would we be without Babylon Bee?

&

&

If you haven’t read https://nypost.com/2023/05/27/lululemon-employees-reportedly-fired-for-calling-911-during-robbery/, the next one relates to that. 

***

Emblematic story from NYC

Nisean Graves, 34, fought in a crosswalk at Seventh Avenue and 30th Street in Manhattan with a man from Baltimore on Friday around 0800.  Nicole Gelinas makes some really good points in NY Post:

The first thing to notice here is the bizarre contradiction in behavior on the part of both men.

Graves, assuming our eyes and the police account do not deceive us, is crazed enough to fatally stab someone in broad daylight, in full view of plenty of witnesses.

But he wasn’t crazed enough that he didn’t make sure to look out for traffic and even pause his attack to ensure the two women could safely cross.

As for the 36-year-old victim, who is still unidentified by police — but reportedly was wanted for a Baltimore murder of his own — it’s not at all to blame the deceased to observe that he appeared to have had several chances to simply run away.

Instead, he chooses to stand and try to fight a man pointing a knife toward his torso.

If neither the alleged murderer nor his victim could de-escalate this situation, despite ample time, opportunity and motive, how could New York have prevented this murder?

The criminal justice system failed: The alleged killer is barely a year off a one-year prison sentence, incurred when he … repeatedly stabbed someone in Manhattan.

But New York’s supposed “eyes on the street” safety in crowds failed to prevent this murder as well.

***

I’m more disturbed that they pasted John Holmes’s face onto my body in so many art films....

Warning: Victims' faces placed on explicit images in sextortion scam

Posted: June 8, 2023 by Christopher Boyd

The FBI has issued a warning about criminals digitally manipulating people's faces on to pornographic images—known as deepfaking—and then using those images to harass or extort money out of their victim in a practice known as sextortion.

The FBI said the victims include children.*** https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/06/warning-victims-faces-placed-on-explicit-images-in-sextortion-scam

***

And if he wasn’t insane, it was some uffa dude

OAKLAND — A well-known transgender activist was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering three family members in a brutal and frenzied attack that the judge said was the worst he’d seen in three decades.

Dana Rivers, 68, of San Jose, was found guilty last year of murdering Oakland resident Charlotte Reed, 56, her wife Patricia Wright, 57, and Wright’s 19-year-old son, Benny Toto Diambu-Wright, in an attack inside the victims’ home. Prosecutors say she used a handgun equipped with a silencer to shoot the victims, stabbed Reed 47 times as the couple slept in their bedroom and then set the garage on fire in an attempt to cover her tracks.

“It is a horrible thing to sentence someone to die in prison, and I don’t take that lightly,” Judge Scott Patton said in a Wednesday court hearing. “But this is the most depraved crime I ever handled in the criminal justice system in 33 years. Frankly, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in prison.”

Rivers, who first claimed self-defense during the guilt phase of her trial, then argued she was legally insane at the time, did not speak during sentencing.*** https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/06/14/the-most-depraved-crime-i-ever-handled-transgender-activist-gets-life-in-prison-for-murdering-oakland-family/

*** 

Your jail is super mean.  1/5 would not recommend

BENTONVILLE -- A Colorado man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting he threatened the lives of a judge and probation officer.

Theodore Howell, 29, of Denver, pleaded guilty Monday to threatening a judicial officer/juror and terroristic threatening. He was charged as a habitual offender.

Nathan Jeffrey, a probation officer, reported to the Benton County Sheriff's Office he received a text message threatening to kill him from Howell, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Jeffrey said he knew the phone belonged to Howell because it was the same phone number Howell had for being on probation, and Jeffrey had communicated with Howell using that number, according to the affidavit.

Howell was accused of sending the threats via the Benton County Sheriff's Office's website, according to court documents.***

Howell said he planned to kill Karren because Arkansas was mean to transgender people and the jail was "super" mean to him the last time he was held there, according to the affidavit.

Michael Braswell, a detective with the Sheriff's Office, interviewed Howell, who first claimed he had been hacked and someone else made the threats, according to the affidavit.*** https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2023/jun/13/death-threats-to-benton-county-judge-probation/

***

Broken subway windows policing -

*** In 2017, the Metro system in and around the nation’s capital began cracking down on fare evasion, partly in response to rising crime in the system. The political and activist class responded by crying foul.

Democrats soon decided to decriminalize fare evasion on the Metro system. They pushed it as a racial justice issue. “I’m sad that Metro’s losing money,” city councilman Robert White said, “but I’m more sad about what’s happening to black people.”***

Now, Metro is begging D.C. actually to enforce the law. Metro General Manager Randy Clarke recently wrote a letter to the City Council asking it to give law enforcement the right to demand actual identification from the folks it tickets.

Here’s the most telling part of the letter:

“Since the decriminalization of fare evasion, WMATA has seen an increase in Part I crime. Crime data shows that when we increase fare enforcement, our Part I crime number is lower, and when we decrease enforcement, Part I crime increases.”

Part I crime is murder, assault, sexual assault, and theft.

Decriminalizing fare evasion caused more assault, murder, and sexual assault. The defenders of the fare jumpers are defending a dangerous, crime-ridden transit system.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/amid-crime-wave-dc-transit-chief-begs-dc-government-to-crack-down-on-fare-hoppers

***

Who’s a good prof?  Who’s a good prof?

https://www.ibtimes.sg/i-do-it-blow-off-steam-penn-state-professor-arrested-having-sex-his-dog-after-getting-caught-70592 says Penn State chemical engineering professor Themis Matsoukas, 64, of State College, was recorded on surveillance cameras in April doing the wild thing with his dog near the restrooms at Rothrock State Forest.

'I Do it to Blow Off Steam'

According to the complaint, Matsoukas was "visibly nervous" and repeatedly told the rangers "I'm done, I'm dead, you don't understand, I do it to blow off steam." He allegedly begged the rangers to shoot him at one point, saying "I need to die," the charging documents state.

Rangers served a search warrant to Matsoukas at his home in State College on June 9. During the execution of the search warrant, rangers found "all items listed" in the warrant, including the backpack and a ski mask that was visible in the April 13 camera footage.

Investigators say they were able to photograph a collie present at Matsoukas' home, and that its physical characteristics matched those of the dog seen in the videos.

***

Nellie Bowles notes

→ Why are people like this? A Harvard Medical School employee was selling human body parts to (and I mean this) real freaks. People who have museums of freaky stuff. Here’s the full indictment, but all you really need to know about these sophisticated criminals is this:

***

→ San Francisco loses its biggest hotel and biggest mall: My hometown came two steps closer to socialist utopia recently as two rapacious capitalist enterprises announced they would be fleeing in the face of The People United Will Never Be Defeated. First, owners of the city’s largest hotel, the 1,921-room Hilton Union Square announced they are surrendering the hotel to their lenders. Then, the city’s largest mall operator, Westfield, announced they are walking away from the mall. They had earlier cited “unsafe conditions” and “lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity” for falling occupancy.

The thing about San Francisco is, sure, there is crime, but the crime stats don’t capture the real issue. The general havoc and chaos of fentanyl-fueled mental illness is hard to quantify since it’s usually not that violent. Let’s take one example from the Chronicle story on the Westfield mall closing: “At one point at the Ted Baker store, employees locked the doors and someone banged on them, ‘threatening to bring a gun to shoot everyone, and telling our team that they will wait for them and rape them on their way home.’ ” That doesn’t rank highly on a crime index (no one was raped, no one killed), but it certainly ranks highly in the mind of the mom buying a floral dress, suddenly trapped in Ted Baker.

Anyway, it’s a big win for San Francisco activists, who finally are getting rid of the gentrification they hate (i.e., art galleries and cafés, a hotel, shops, disgusting). I’m always so confused how our activists adapted the language of the European left but somehow oppose all their goals (safe, clean parks, nice little apartments, showering slightly less frequently). If you have the politics of a moderate Swede, well, in San Francisco that makes you a full-blown fascist.

Here’s an interesting chart of the cities that are gaining lots of people—and the cities that are losing them.

+++

BB must be following Nellie

***

Michael P. Ramirez toon

https://www.gocomics.com/michaelramirez/2023/06/15 

***

Abandoned & malignant heart/depraved indifference murder

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — A judge set bond Wednesday morning for the three suspects involved in a fatal rock-throwing incident in Jefferson County after hearing from the victim's loved ones.

Alexa Bartell, 20, was killed on April 19 after a rock crashed into her windshield as she drove northbound on Indiana Street in Jefferson County. Three 18-year-olds were arrested and are now accused of throwing rocks at multiple vehicles that evening, including the one that killed Bartell.

The suspects were identified as Nicholas Karol-Chik, Zachary Kwak and Joseph Koenig. They were arrested on charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, second-degree assault and attempted second-degree assault a week after the crime.

They are accused of throwing rocks at multiple other vehicles and after striking Bartell's car, they allegedly drove by the crashed vehicle to take a photo as a memento, according to their arrest affidavits.***

One of the survivors of the suspect's alleged rock-throwing attack also spoke and talked about them celebrating their actions.***

"There is no amount (of bond) that will adequately support the importance of that individual to our community," Judge Zenisek said of Alexa Bartell.

The suspects are all high school seniors with no criminal history, he noted. They have family support. But “none of those things can erase” the severity of what happened, he said. Each one of the 18-year-olds faces a punishment of life without parole if convicted.

He also referenced how the trio returned to the homicide scene after throwing a rock.*** https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/she-was-my-everything-after-loved-ones-speak-jeffco-judge-sets-suspects-bond-in-fatal-rock-throwing-crime

***

Instead of solving the problem, let’s blame the victims

Many NYC merchants use facial recognition technology to reduce shoplifting.  The has led the city council to consider an ordinance that would prohibit using such tech.

“The narrative that the technology is performing less well for certain demographic groups is based on old information,” said Jake Parker, director of government relations for the Security Industry Association. “In the early days of facial recognition about 10 years ago, there were lower-performing technologies but today’s software is very accurate, high-performing and uses artificial intelligence.”

Earlier this year, a group of independent grocers formed a political coalition to demand that legislators and law enforcement clamp down on shoplifters, whose heists have multiplied since the pandemic.

In 2022, NYPD officials said that 327 people accounted for 6,660 arrests — or 30% of all shoplifting incidents. Business owners blame Manhattan district Attorney Alvin Bragg for the spike in shoplifting after he said last year that stealing less than $1,000 worth of goods is considered a misdemeanor and not among the crimes his office would be prosecuting.*** https://nypost.com/2023/06/18/grocers-cry-foul-as-nyc-weighs-ban-on-face-id-tech-that-stops-thieves/

If merchants can’t protect themselves from theft, they won’t be able to sustain their businesses.  This means fewer grocery stores and more food deserts.

***

Very worrisome phone calls

A former analyst with the Kansas City Division of the FBI was sentenced in federal court today for illegally retaining documents related to the national defense at her residence.

Kendra Kingsbury, 50, of Garden City, Kansas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 46 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. Kingsbury pleaded guilty on Oct. 13, 2022, to two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to the national defense.

According to court documents, Kingsbury was an intelligence analyst for the FBI for more than 12 years, from 2004 to Dec. 15, 2017. Kingsbury was assigned to a sequence of different FBI squads, each of which had a particular focus, such as illegal drug trafficking, violent crime, violent gangs and counterintelligence. Kingsbury held a TOP SECRET/SCI security clearance and had access to national defense and classified information. Training presentations and materials specifically warned Kingsbury that she was prohibited from retaining classified information at her personal residence. ***

The FBI investigated what uses Kingsbury put to the classified documents she illegally removed from the secure workspace, but according to court documents, the investigation revealed more questions and concerns than answers.

Investigators reviewed Kingsbury’s telephone records, which revealed a number of suspicious calls. Kingsbury contacted phone numbers associated with subjects of counterterrorism investigations, and these individuals also made telephone calls to Kingsbury. Investigators have not been able to determine why Kingsbury contacted these individuals, or why these individuals contacted her. Kingsbury declined to provide the government with any further information.***  https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-fbi-analyst-sentenced-retaining-classified-documents***

[sa7abnews]

Law enforcement brace as anti-Israel groups vow to bring tens of thousands of protesters to DNC in Chicago

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/16/law-enforcement-brace-as-anti-israel-groups-vow-to-bring-tens-of-thousands-of-protesters-to-dnc-in-chicago/

Law enforcement brace as anti-Israel groups vow to bring tens of thousands of protesters to DNC in Chicago

Anti-Israel groups are planning a massive show of force at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week as the party plans to celebrate Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination.The U.S. Palestinian Community Network will bring in busloads of protesters from Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and elsewhere. The group is organizing the event under the hashtag “March on DNC 2024,” with leaders arguing ther is no daylight between Harris and President Biden when it comes to Israel-Gaza policy.”We’re not going to do anything different. We’re going to mobilize,” the groups’ leader, Hatem Abudayyeh told NBC News. “Harris represents the administration; she represents Biden. There is nothing that she has expressed independently that tells us she does not support the policies.””The movement is saying not only are we needing to stop the genocide, but we need to stop the possibility that this thing is going to be a regional war,” he added.NANCY PELOSI WIELDS BIBLE, QUOTES BUSH, OBAMA IN RESPONSE TO TRUMP”Genocide Joe Biden has stepped down from running for President as the Democratic Party nominee. His decision doesn’t change the policies of Democratic Party leadership, specifically their support of the genocide in Palestine, so our movement must continue to apply pressure,” the group further stated on its website.PELOSI DEMURS ON IF ‘EVERYTHING IS OK’ BETWEEN HER AND BIDEN: ‘YOU’D HAVE TO ASK HIM’Meanwhile, federal, state and local law enforcement say they are aware of and are currently monitoring plans for the protest and any threat they may pose to the convention.One local Chicago organization posted a particularly threatening video on social media earlier this week. The video shows a masked individual vowing to welcome “killer Kamala” to the city.”As home to the largest Palestinian diaspora in the country, we want to give Killer Kamala, her partners in crime, and her future VP a warm welcome to our city,” the individual said.PRESIDENT BIDEN ADMITS PRESSURE FROM DEMOCRATS CONTRIBUTED TO DECISION TO DROP OUTThe Secret Service confirmed to NBC News that they are aware of the video.The FBI says it is also monitoring the event, but said in a statement that it is not aware of any specific threats.”At this time, the FBI is not aware of any specific and articulable threats related to the DNC,” the FBI told reporters earlier this week. “We will continue to evaluate and share intelligence received from domestic and international partners related to the DNC just as we would for any large-scale event within the Chicago area.”CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPThe Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.