Category: Crime and Punishment

Mamdani and the Elimination of Misdemeanor Enforcement in NYC

I'm back on the rant at Facebook.  Latest:

Madman Mamdani, the Islamo-Commie, wants to eliminate misdemeanor enforcement in NYC. Why not? It worked so well in California:
This incident could happen at any Walgreens in San Francisco: A man strolls into the store walks over to the hair display, grabs an armful of shampoo bottles, and simply walks out the door. He felt no need to rush, had no fear, and didn't bother looking back.
Instead of actually doing something, people stood by and recorded the scene on their phones, shaking their heads; they knew nothing would happen, as he'd simply disappear into the crowd. There's no point in calling the police; they wouldn't come, store clerks wouldn't bother, and the DA wouldn't prosecute.
In California, petty thefts valued at less than $950 are typically not worth the paperwork involved.
It's this future that mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is dangling in front of New York City.
Article here.

Just How Safe is Washington, D.C.?

Opinions differ.  

On a podcast last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D–NY, claimed, “I walk around all the time. I wake up early in the morning … And I feel perfectly safe.” He dismissed Republican concerns about safety as “full of it,” but, of course, Schumer doesn’t go anywhere without his security detail. In a similar vein, D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen called the federalization of law enforcement “unnecessary, unwarranted,” and the D.C. Council emphasized that crime rates are at “the lowest rates we’ve seen in 30 years.”

John Lott goes on to argue that "D.C.’s murder rate ran 169 percent higher than Louisiana’s, the deadliest state, and an astonishing 523 percent higher than that of the average state."

Lott is one of those who invariably talks sense in stark contrast to our political enemies. 

The Dems are a contemptible bunch. I could easily list ten reasons. Two near the top are their breathtaking mendacity and their casual attitude toward criminality. And they lie about both.

Remember When Cuellar was Carjacked?

This jack was a while back.  Yet another proof of how safe Washington, D.C. was and still is.  Henry Cuellar is a Democrat. Democrats are leftists. Leftists have an exceedingly casual attitude toward criminal behavior. It's really no big deal to them. Cuellar's main complaint? "They stole my sushi."

If, for whatever reason, you like crime, then I advise you to vote Democrat early and often.

Blue cities are crime-ridden. It makes them interesting places to live.  Full of excitement and local color.   (I know what you are thinking: 'local color' is a racist code-phrase, a 'dog whistle.'  It's not. Look it up.)

Here's an NYC case you have probably forgotten. Leftist activist and do-gooder Ryan Carson was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend in an apparently unprovoked attack.  Carson was the victim of the very 'progressive' policies that he himself promoted. So he must bear some responsibility for bringing about his own death. And what was Carson doing out at night on the mean streets of NYC without a weapon? 

Cases like this are increasingly common.  Unless you are morally obtuse, you will understand why justice demands capital punishment in such cases. That 'progressives' oppose the death penalty is proof positive that they have a casual attitude toward criminal behavior.  

Democrats are astonishingly stupid people. They supposedly want fewer guns in civilian hands. So what do they do? They promote policies that incentivize concealed carry! There is no common sense on the Left. 

I too want fewer guns in civilian hands. When laws are enforced, civilians will feel safe and won't feel the need to look to their own defense.  

Cuellar case here.

Here you can read about how safe D. C. is.

Epstein and Trump: Nothing to See Here

Alan Dershowitz:

Open records show an acquaintance between Epstein and Mr. Trump many years ago. That relationship ended when Mr. Trump reportedly banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, long before becoming president. I have seen nothing that would suggest anything improper or even questionable by Mr. Trump.

It is clear from the evidence that Epstein committed suicide. What isn’t clear is whether he was assisted by jail personnel. That seems likely to me, based on the evidence of allegedly broken cameras, transfer of his cellmate and the absence of guards during relevant time periods.

I have absolutely no doubt that Epstein never worked for any intelligence agency. If he had, he would surely have told me and his other lawyers, who would have used that information to get him a better deal. (He wasn’t satisfied with the so-called sweetheart deal he got, which required him to spend 1½ years in a local jail and register as a sex offender.) My sources in Israel have confirmed to me that he had no connection to Israeli intelligence. That false story—recently peddled by Tucker Carlson—probably emanated from credible allegations that Robert Maxwell (1923-91), father of Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, worked with the Mossad.

Conspiracy stories attract readers, viewers and listeners. They are also fodder for political attacks. The Epstein case has generated more than its share of such theories, and there is nothing more annoying to gossip mongers than when stubborn facts (or the absence of facts) get in the way of a juicy theory. Sorry to disappoint you, but there is really nothing much to see here, beyond what has already been disclosed.

Dems and Deportation

Democrats upset over deportations ought to look in the mirror. Prior to Biden-Harris they did little to secure the nation's borders, and by supporting Biden-Harris they embraced the  destructive open-border policy of that administration. That nations need enforceable and enforced borders not merely to flourish, but to continue to exist, is well-nigh self-evident.  Those in a nation who blind themselves to this self-evidence are reasonably viewed as wanting the destruction of the nation they are in.

Promotion of illegal immigration being the Democrats' greatest crime, Donald J. Trump's securing of the border is his greatest achievement so far, as is recognized by most of the populace.  But the Biden-Harris mess will be with us for a long time to come.  Deportation of illegal aliens must proceed if the rule of law is to be upheld.  There will inevitably be mistakes and injustices. The law must be enforced, but the enforcers are finite and fallible, and a small minority of them are as bad as the criminals they are charged with protecting us against. This obvious point I am making will be resisted by those with an authoritarian personality structure, but leftists, who tend toward the opposite extreme, that of the rebellious protester who reflexively takes the side of criminals and underdogs, regardless of their criminality, ought readily to accept it.

There are bad cops. We all know this. You do not have to be a member of a minority to have experienced bad behavior from law enforcement agents. Give a man a gun, a badge, and a uniform and it may go to his head. It's not that power corrupts; the problem is that we are all more or less morally corrupt inherently so that any power we acquire is subject to misuse.  

So I say to Democrats, you have brought about this situation by your support of perverse and deleterious policies. Blame yourself first for any excesses. 

Luigi Mangione and the Death Penalty

Justice demands the death penalty in certain cases. Anyone who opposes said penalty in principle I consider morally obtuse.  As for Mangione, he deserves it. The editors of the Boston Herald demur:

The death penalty should be off the table for Luigi Mangione, accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. And not for any reason sympathetic to Mangione.

Attaching the death penalty to Mangione’s trial would only make a martyr out of an accused killer who has already inspired zealous support among legions of fans.

Tell me what you think of this sort of moral reasoning. I don't have time to weigh in, or to lay out my arguments for the death penalty in general or for Mangione's execution in particular.  But I do have one Substack article on the topic that may be of interest:  Fetal Rights and the Death Penalty: Consistent or Inconsistent?

Lawlessness at the Top and the Bottom of Society

Lawfare and overregulation at the top; toleration and promotion of crimininality among the lower orders. A depredatory theme of the previous administration.

Overregulation is well documented by Neil Gorsuch in his Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law, HarperCollins 2024.

You should rejoice that the destructive Dems have met their nemesis. Nemesis is the Greek goddess of retribution. 'Retribution' has two senses, a fact one cannot expect dumb Dems to understand. The one sense is that of 'revenge'; the other is that of 'retributive justice.' The national course correction being engineered by President Donald J. Trump and his team has much more the latter in it than the former.

Is Illegal Immigration a Crime?

Over at the Stack.

It is. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats lied to us about this. Illegal immigrants are subject to criminal penalties. While improper entry is a crime, unlawful presence is not a crime. One can be unlawfully present in the U. S. without having entered improperly, and thus without having committed a crime.

Read it all.  Very short.

Kamala, Crime, and California Proposition 36

Leftists have an astonishingly casual attitude toward criminal behavior, so Kamala's recent behavior is entirely in character.  Here:

47 Minus 36 Equals Kamala

"I am not going to talk about the vote on that. Because honestly it’s the Sunday before the election and I don’t intend to create an endorsement one way or another around it."

That was Kamala Harris on Sunday, responding to a question about California ballot Proposition 36, a measure to reform the 2014 Proposition 47, which transformed theft of merchandise worth less than $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor. Attorney General Kamala Harris called it the “Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act,” but the measure launched a wave of car break-ins, shoplifting, and theft of car parts such as catalytic converters. So no surprise that Joe Biden’s  replacement doesn’t want to talk about Prop 36. Harris has always been kinder to criminals than their innocent victims, whatever the gravity of the crime.

On December 2, 2015 in San Bernardino, Muslim terrorists Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik gunned down Robert Adams, Isaac Amianos, Bennetta Betbadal, Harry Bowman, Sierra Clayborn, Juan Espinoza, Aurora Godoy, Shannon Johnson, Larry Daniel Kaufman, Damien Meins, Tin Nguyen, Nicholas Thalasinos, Yvette Velasco, and Michael Wetzel. In a December 17 statement, and a statement one year later, Harris failed to condemn the killers and failed to name a single victim. They included blacks, Asians and Hispanics, but the attorney general failed to call the mass murder a hate crime or even an example of gun violence.

Now Kamala Harris is a disaster and anyone who votes for her is an anti-civilizational, crime-promoting fool.  A vote for her is a vote for more crime.  But I won't criticize her for not using the silly phrases 'hate crime' and 'gun violence.' These are phrases that conservatives ought to avoid. You have to understand that he who controls the terms of a debate controls the debate.  Leftists understand this completely, but conservatives tend to be slow on the uptake. 

See my Nat Hentoff on 'Hate Crime' Laws.

As for 'gun violence,' I have made the acquaintance of many a firearm but not one them has proven to be violent.   Even leftists ought to be able to wrap their heads around the distinction between weapon and wielder. 'Gun violence' is an obfuscatory  phrase the purpose of which is to shift the agency from the wielder to the weapon. I could go one for a couple of pages about what is behind that destructive move. (And you hope I won't.)

As I have said a few times before, language matters, and if you are a conservative don't talk like a willfully self-enstupidated 'liberal.'

See also my The Problem: Gun Culture of 'Liberal' Culture?

Chicago under Democrat ‘Control’

Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Born in Chicago  

I was born in Chicago in nineteen and forty one
I was born in Chicago in nineteen and forty one
Well my father told me
Son you had better get a gun.

True then, truer now. 

And you still be ridin' with Biden? How stupid can you be? How self-destructive? How willfully self-enstupidated? And of course the scourge is not upon Chicago alone but upon every Dem-'controlled' city, county, state, and jurisdiction.

Chicago shooting gallery

The humorous meme is now a reality:  ammo vending machines are coming to stores.  That's no joke.

I'm a staunch supporter of 2A rights, but this cannot be a good development. What's next? Ammo sales at drive-through liquor stores? "Would you like a box of ammo to go with your bottle of Hornitos tequila?  Today's special is Federal 115 gr FMJ 9 mm hollow point."  

To vote Democrat is to vote for more crime and the defunding of professional law enforcement  The more crime,  the more the burden of personal defense is placed on the citizen. But the average citizen is unlikely to get the proper training and to devote the time needed to become proficient in the use of firearms.  The upshot is more accidental negligent discharges. In a well-functioning society, the laws are enforced and the criminal element is kept in check so that the citizen can go about his business without the need to, and the grave responsibility that comes with, 'packing heat.'  

And you are still a Democrat? WTF is wrong with you?

Related: Shooting Up Chicago