California's New Crime Wave: Proposition 47, the voter-approved initiative that downgrades certain felonies to misdemeanors, "isn't living up to its promise" since it was passed in November, according to Debra J. Saunders of SF Gate, highlighted in this piece. Since Prop. 47's passage, Saunders says that San Francisco's crime rates are up, including a 47 percent increase in thefts from cars, a 17 percent increase in auto thefts, a 23 percent increase in robberies and a 2 percent increase in aggravated assaults. Los Angeles is faring no better, with a 12.7 percent increase in overall crime in 2015. Saunders points out the ease of avoiding mandated drug treatment programs under the measure, and how habitual offenders have adapted their criminal habits to successfully skirt jail time. "The most commonly committed felonies no longer carry a prison sentence," says Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, emphasizing that this is a factor that has contributed significantly to California's new crime wave.
Welcome to Post-Ferguson Policing: In this piece on the National Review, Heather MacDonald discusses how, in a post-Ferguson world, "virtually every tool in an officer's tool chest is vilified as racist." MacDonald's criticism comes in response to last Friday's brutal assault on a Birmingham, Ala., police officer by a black suspect during a traffic stop, in which the officer was pistol whipped unconscious with his own gun after approaching the situation over-cautiously due to the career-ending scrutiny that police officers currently face in the media. Witnesses then photographed the bloody and unconscious officer and posted them on social media, where it was widely celebrated rather than condemned. The "Ferguson effect" has permeated agencies and departments nationwide, as shown by a 19 percent increase in homicides in 35 large U.S. cities, with 62 percent of those cites also reporting increases in non-fatal shootings. From Baltimore to New York City to Los Angeles, "There are signs that law and order, and moral support for such order, are slowly breaking down," says MacDonald.
Unaccompanied Minors, Family Units Surge at Border: The latest data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reveals that approximately 135 unaccompanied alien minors were caught illegally crossing the border every day in July, a monthly record in FY 2015. Brittany M. Hughes of CNS News reports that so far in FY 2015, which began on October 1, 2014, 30,862 unaccompanied alien minors were apprehended at the border, with 4,177 caught during the month of July alone. Additionally, 4,506 family units were apprehended last month, totaling at 29,407 families apprehended in FY 2015. Despite this increase in July, border apprehensions "remain at near historic lows" for both unaccompanied minors and family units.
I am appalled by Obama's and Holder's cynical commentary on the Ferguson case and their contribution to making the life of a completely innocent police officer worse. However, I must take issue with calling the throttling back of police action the "Ferguson effect"---there have been numerous stories of very questionable police conduct--from an assault on a Maryland college student that was turned into a potentially life-ruining (and bogus) prosecution of the college student to some out-of-control VABC cops who scared the daylights out of a college student buying Lacroix (and to the ever-lasting shame of the idiot DA, an arrest, and night in jail deemed to be justified) to Tamir Rice, to a flashbang grenade that almost killed a toddler, to some outrageous police conduct in Milwaukee where some innocent woman was prosecuted by a corrupt system to protect a cop who caused the accident. The problem of police overzealousness and outright criminal behavior is a serious one and one that a freedom-loving people ought to be willing to address in a sober way (and not the Obama way).
On this blog, a situation where innocent minorities were detained pursuant to NYPD's "stop and frisk" policy was justified by the arrest rate of minorities generally. (That seemed dubious to me, for reasons I hope I explained well in the post.) Perhaps, just perhaps, the good cops, to a certain extent, have to bear the burden of the bad ones, just as those who live in high-crime areas have to bear the burden of a heavier police hand if those neighborhoods are going to be safer.
And what Obama said and did about Ferguson was appalling. That an academic like Doug Berman will hound Bill Otis about Scooter Libby and take Obama's pronouncements on the criminal justice system as Gospel says all you need to know about Doug and his agenda.
I agree with federalist; police misconduct is real, and the recent focus on the issue is not merely because of Ferguson (where, by the way, it appears that the cop acted lawfully). That good cops have to try harder to differentiate themselves from bad ones will ultimately be beneficial, IMO, because perhaps good cops will realize that they have to report the misconduct of other officers rather than ignoring it or (worse) helping to cover it up.
Switching subjects, and probably sounding like a broken record at this point, there is yet another blurb about "illegal aliens" in this News Scan that seems off topic to me.
This blurb focuses on improper entry. That is a crime, see 8 U.S.C. ยง1325, and it is a felony for repeat offenses, so I would not say it is off-topic.
The problem also appears to be prosecutors who use the power of their office to shield police from their misdeeds by prosecuting victims of police misconduct. What happened in Milwaukee to the woman who was charged with DUI to cover up a cop's traffic violation is appalling. Where are the prosecutors? Additionally, while we're on the subject of prosecutors, where are responsible prosecutors wondering aloud about DOJ's weak tea response to what appears to be a massive security breach caused by Hillary Clinton? Given the ruthless prosecution of many who have fallen on the wrong side of classified information laws, it seems odd indeed that DOJ waited so long to get the thumb drive from Kendall. Hillary's open flouting of the law gives rise to the view that the law is not equal.
And I note that you think that Darren Wilson acted properly, yet you have nothing to say about Eric Holder's inflammatory comments before all the facts were in. He was the nation's top prosecutor.
Your idee fixe re: "illegal aliens"--an accurate term, by the by, is odd. Putting aside the fact that POTUS is turning a blind eye to crime--it's not like those who come here illegally are all choirboys. And there are a lot of victims that wouldn't be if the criminal law were enforced.
My guess is that your politics clouds your judgment.