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More Arrests Amid Ferguson Chaos:  As of Monday night in Ferguson, Missouri, the fourth consecutive night of demonstrations marking the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death, at least 23 people were arrested after peaceful protests spiraled into chaos following Sunday evening gunfire.  Fox News reports that by Monday evening, after St. Louis County Executive Steven Stenger declared a state of emergency, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the sight of last year's protests, marching, chanting, beating drums and carrying signs.  Water bottles and other debris were thrown at officers by some demonstrators, and at least nine were accused of resisting or interfering with an arrest.  About 144 protesters were arrested around the St. Louis area as of Monday, however, there were no injuries or property damage.

Obama Admin. Launches Campaign to Deter Immigration:  Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, backed by the Obama administration, kicked off its "Know the Facts" awareness campaign in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in an effort to discourage people from immigrating to the U.S. illegally.  Carolina May of Breitbart reports that last year, more than 68,400 family units and more than 68,541 unaccompanied minors surged at the U.S. southern border, under the impression that lax immigration laws would prevent deportations, and that "permisos," or free passes, were plentiful.  Although this year's numbers show a drop in immigrants from Central American, a late July ruling calling for an end to detention of illegal immigrant family units could hinder the campaign, by "incentivizing adults to bring children with them on their dangerous journey as a means to avoid detention and gain access to the interior of the U.S."

"Yes means Yes" Policy Under Fire:  Judges in California, Tennessee and Virginia are saying "no" to the "yes means yes" standard of affirmative consent for date rape, on the grounds that it violates the due process rights of the accused.  Cody Derespina of Fox News reports that under the standard - which has been adopted by several college campuses nationwide - the accused has to prove he obtained consent, even if neither party remembers, forcing him to prove his own innocence, rather than be proven guilty.  The standard came in response to lawsuits brought against colleges by individuals found guilty of sexual misconduct who were not provided with adequate due process.  In one case, the accused was unable to cross-examine his accuser and other witnesses.  A student at another school was found guilty because he couldn't prove he obtained verbal consent.  John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School, says that while not every element of protection for the accused must be provided in every case, a "minimal amount of procedural protection," such as the right to cross-examine witnesses, is required in all cases.

Spike in Violence, Officer-Involved Shootings in San Jose:  A murderer free on parole and suspected in a violent stabbing was shot by police, and a suicidal man took his own life during a confrontation with another officer, marking San Jose, California's second and third officer-involved shootings in just over a week.  Robert Salonga and Mark Gomez of the San Jose Mercury News reports that the city's police department recently increased its presence amid a spike in violence, with the city experiencing 10 homicides in the past six weeks compared to a total of eight in the first six months of 2014.  So far this year, there have been six officer-involved shootings versus five such shootings in all of 2014.  Although the San Jose Police Department is not particularly surprised with the uptick in violence, Assistant Chief Eddie Garcia says "What strikes us is suspects increasingly confronting our officers.  That's alarming."

15 Comments

Is the noticeable uptick in blurbs about immigration in these news scans a product of emphasizing illegal immigration as a crime in itself, or are they based on an implicit assumption that immigrants commit crime, even if the blurb isn't about crime per se? These really seem off-topic to me most of the time.

Policies that encourage or discourage illegal immigration are important in the same sense that polices that encourage or discourage child molestations are.

While it is politically incorrect, the fact remains that a disproportionate amount of crime is committed by illegals who made up 3.5% of the U.S. Population in 2014 but 25% of the criminals in federal prisons and 21% of those in state prisons.

In today's news scan we noted the Obama Administration's effort's to deter illegal immigration. Because we often report the Administration's failings in this area, it seems only fair to take note of any positive developments in this area.

Do you dispute the evidence that suggests that illegal immigrants commit more than their fair share of crime?

Michael, where do you get the figure that 21% of those in state prisons are illegal aliens? In California, it's about 13%, and you'd think California would be higher, not lower, than the national average.

- Victor

Victor:
Those are BJS numbers (Bureau of Justice Statistics). It used to be higher in California, but after enactment of AB109 in 2011, California no longer sends illegals convicted of any of the 500 most frequently committed felonies to prison. Those felonies include auto theft, grand theft, commercial burglary, violation of parole, drug dealing, fraud, larceny and assault. Instead of prison they spend a few days in county jail before release on unsupervised probation. Then they can apply for a driver's license and sign up for Obamacare.

Michael - Do you have any citation for your assertion that illegals - or anyone else - convicted of auto theft, drug dealing, or assault are only sentenced to a few days in county jail and then released on unsupervised probation? Are you saying that every defendant in California convicted of those offenses is only sentenced to a few days, or just illegal alien defendants?

-V

Victor, that is the norm in California now, not just for illegals. We have posted a great deal on this blog regarding the effects of the "realignment" bill and Proposition 47.

Victor-All criminal defendants in California have received the benefits of Realignment (AB109) since 2011. If you have been following this blog, you have undoubtedly read dozens of posts on criminals released after a few days in one of California's overcrowded county jails and go on to committ one of more violent crimes. If you have not, and have not followed the news about crime in California, I suggest that you use the search feature of this blog to locate news articles on "Realignment or AB109". You may also go to our website: cjlf.org and visit the
"Fighting AB109 Realignment" page and check out our press releases on the subject.

You must have also missed this week's news coverage of the rape/murder of Marilyn Pharris in Santa Maria by illegal habitual felon Victor Martinez? The Police Chief cited AB109 as the reason he could not keep Martinez in custody.

Kent - I'm familiar with realignment and the fact that many defendants now spend their sentences in county jail, as opposed to state prison. I was surprised to read Michael's assertion that sentences are now only a "few days" long for 500 felonies, and I was asking for the source of that information. Do you agree that sentences for the 500 most commonly committed felonies are now a "few days"?

Michael - I have read about cases in which defendants have been released from jail and committed other crimes, but I'm not sure you can extrapolate from that the generalization that everyone convicted of the 500 most commonly committed felonies is sentenced to a "few days" in jail. I was simply wondering if you have evidence to support that assertion, other than isolated anecdotes.

I did read about the Pharis case and something about that didn't make sense to me. The police chief said he "had to cite him out" for possession of methamphetmaine, but that doesn't make sense. Possession of methamphetamine is a misdemeanor, and a defendant can be held in jail pending the posting of bail for a misdemeanor. There's no legal requirement that I'm aware of that requires a sheriff to "cite out" any misdemeanor defendant. Maybe that's their local policy, but it's not a feature of California law that I'm aware of. Sounds like the chief might be trying to shift blame elsewhere.

-V

Victor,

Sounds like you are familiar with what the realignment bill says on its face but not with what is happening in reality. The bill sent prisoners to jails that were already overcrowded, and release after only a fraction of the sentenced time is routine.

Here is one particularly notorious example.

Kent - Your link doesn't work for some reason. In any event, I have no doubt that there are cases where defendants released from jail commit other crimes, just as some defendants released from jail don't commit other crimes. I was just trying to find the source for Michael's remarkable assertion that illegal aliens - and presumably US citizens - who are convicted of one of the 500 most frequently committed felonies receive sentences of a "few days" in jail and are then released. This doesn't sound plausible to me. But it doesn't look like any source for that is going to be forthcoming. Thanks for your responses, though. I always enjoy the debate here.

-V

Victor: In an effort to improve the debate, here are a few more links from the past eight months to support my "remarkable assertion"

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/07/illegal-immigrant-held-in-rape-murder-california-woman-was-on-probation/?intcmp=hpbt4

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/general-news/20150730/mistrial-declared-in-case-of-2012-christmas-day-shooting-of-bystander-in-pasadena

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-stats-show-a-jump-in-crime-in-glendale-20150718,0,5669363.story

http://www.pe.com/articles/jails-772890-county-prison.html

http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20150706/big-bear-felon-held-on-suspicion-of-possessing-meth

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/local/4092038-181/sonoma-county-car-thefts-on

http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article25049497.html

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-ff-pol-brown-prisons-20140622-story.html#page=1

http://www.kesq.com/news/riverside-countys-top-cops-talk-unintended-consequences-of-ab-109-prop-47/32793338

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/crime/article19640562.html

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/04/21/audit-says-jail-releases-jumped-37-percent-after-realignment-2/

released from jail to post release community supervision required by Realignment
http://www.egcitizen.com/articles/2015/03/10/news/doc54fe206c905d9920856211.txt

released from jail to post release community supervision required by Realignment
http://patch.com/california/petaluma/petaluma-cops-k-9-chp-chopper-used-arrest-assault-suspect-0

http://www.kfiam640.com/articles/local-news-465708/father-arrested-on-suspicion-of-newborn-13188921/#ixzz3Q3mUuk5v

www.dailyrepublic.com/news/suisuncity/police-chief-suisun-crime-up-3-percent-in-2014/

http://www.dailybulletin.com/general-news/20141201/police-arrest-pomona-man-in-womans-stabbing-death

Suspect in SoCal Hit-and-Run Had Several Probation Violations: The Southern California man arrested for a hit-and-run Halloween night that left three young girls dead was driving on a suspended license and had violated his probation at least seven times. Emily Foxhall and Joseph Serna of the Los Angeles Times report that 31-year-old Jaquinn Bell was convicted of hit-and-run driving and DUI in August and was sentenced to just 10 days behind bars and three years probation. His driver's license was suspended just 17 days before last weekend's deadly Halloween crash. Bell faces three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter and several other felony charges. If found guilty on all counts, he faces a maximum of 17 years in prison.
Update: Jaquinn Bell would have been serving a 4 year prison term for his Hit and Run and drunk driving convictions last August if California's Realignment law were not in force and the three victims would be alive today.


Thanks for providing the links, Michael. I read most of the linked stories and while many of them are undoubtedly disturbing, none of them support your original claim that illegal aliens convicted of the 500 most commonly committed felonies are sentenced to a few days in jail and then released. It may be true in certain cases, but, as they say, "the plural of anecdote is not data." Still, thanks for posting the links.

-V

V.

One of the links you overlooked appears to be data, but I would be surprised if this and the views of police chiefs, sheriffs and DAs all over the state along with hundreds of those pesky anecdotes are enough. You can lead a horse to water...

4/21/15
SACRAMENTO (AP) — The number of inmates being released by county jails increased by 37 percent statewide during the first three years after California began sending lower-level offenders to local lockups instead of state prisons, state auditors said Tuesday.

The number of local inmates freed early in one month increased from about 10,200 in September 2011, just before the change in state law, to more than 14,000 in June 2014, the most recent available date. The June 2014 release rate was slightly higher than previously reported.

In its report Tuesday, the state auditor praised the Board of State and Community Corrections for doing a better job of collecting information about inmates that counties can use to make criminal justice decisions.

The board was set up to oversee Gov. Jerry Brown’s so-called realignment plan, which shifted responsibility for nonviolent, nonsexual and less-serious crimes to county jails to help reduce the strain on California’s crowded prisons.

The board has published county-by-county reports on arrests, crimes and demographics, and is sharing data on how counties are dealing with realignment. Because of its improved oversight, the auditor said realignment is no longer considered a “high risk” to state government.

The audit said the change lowered the state’s prison population by about 25,300 inmates, below the cap set by federal judges, but raised the population of county jails by about 11,600 inmates statewide, a 16 percent increase.

That led to an increase in early releases as sheriffs tried to control their jail populations or stay under their own population caps. Officials previously said about 13,000 inmates a month were being released early from crowded county jails while they awaited trial or before they completed their full sentences.

The audit cited board data showing that 26 of the 58 counties reported increasing the number of early releases since realignment began in October 2011, eight saw a decrease, while the remaining 24 counties had no early releases.

Early releases likely peaked in June 2014 and appear to have dropped dramatically since voters approved Proposition 47 in November, board chairwoman Linda Penner said through a spokeswoman. The law treats certain drug and property crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies, leading to fewer inmates in both state prisons and county jails.

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