Category: Crime and Punishment
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Black Lies Matter!
Black lies matter when they undermine the rule of law and get people killed. I should think that blacks would be especially concerned since they are the ones who suffer the most when crime spikes. One of the black lies was repeated by Jalen Rose on the O'Reilly Factor the other night. He repeated the…
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Should Gun Manufacturers Be Sued for Gun Crimes?
Suppose I sell you my car, transferring title to you in a manner that accords with all the relevant statutes. It is a good-faith transaction and I have no reason to suspect you of harboring any criminal intent. But later you use the car I sold you to mow down children on a school yard, or to…
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Catholic Doctrine on Capital Punishment
It is generally not understood. Catholic doctrine allows capital punishment. Here according to Avery Cardinal Dulles is the gist of it: The doctrine remains what it has been: that the State, in principle, has the right to impose the death penalty on persons convicted of very serious crimes. [. . .] 1) The purpose of punishment…
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Liberals and Standards
Heather MacDonald reports: Monday’s violence [at the West Indian American Day Parade] also should provide advance warning that the New York City Council’s plan to decriminalize such quality-of-life laws as public drinking and public urination is a recipe for disaster. The decriminalization agenda in New York and nationally is driven by the specious claim that…
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Mass Incarceration?
Leftist lies here demolished. To understand the Left you must never forget that truth is not a leftist value. Living proof: Obama and Hillary. Leftists, like Islamists, feel justified in engaging in any form of mendacity so long as it promotes their agenda. And of course the agenda, the list of what is to be…
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‘Structural Racism’ and Conservative Cluelessness
I caught a segment of Sean Hannity's show the other night during which a 'conversation' transpired over the recent spike in violence in Baltimore in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. At 2:06, Adam Jackson, activist and CEO of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, begins a rap replete with…
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The ‘Ferguson’ Effect
A Turkish proverb has it that "the fish stinks from the head." And indeed it does. From Obama on down, the vilification of law enforcement has lead to a nation-wide spike in violent crime. But while liberals caused the Ferguson effect, they won't suffer from it. Urban blacks will. Having seen how Officer Darren…
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‘The Punishment Must Fit the Crime’ and Lex Talionis
In my various defenses of capital punishment (see Crime and Punishment category) I often invoke the principle that the punishment must fit the crime. To my surprise, there are people who confuse this principle, label it PFC, with some barbaric version of the lex talionis, the law of the talion, which could be summed up…
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Cops, Muslims, and a Double Standard
Suppose there are two groups, the As and the Bs. Some of the As are really bad actors. And some of the Bs are as well. But most of the members of both groups are tolerably well-behaved. Suppose there is a third group, the Cs. Some of the Cs comment on the bad behavior of…
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‘Religious Profiling’
I heard Nicholas Kristof use the phrase the other night. But is there such a thing as religious profiling? I have argued that there is no such thing as racial profiling. The gist of my argument is that while race can be an element in a profile, it cannot itself be a profile. A profile…
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Crime as Politics
Here. Why is conservative commentary so vastly superior to the drivel that dribbles from the mephitic orifices of leftism? What? You don't think it is superior? Then read Andrew McCarthy's Who's to Blame for the NYPD Killings? and compare it to anything on the same topic at leftist rags like The Nation. Study McCarthy's piece…
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Bill O’Reilly Blasts Bozo de Blasio
We need more of this sort of thing. Less 'civility,' more condemnation of liars, race-baiters, and inciters-to-violence. Civility is for the civil, not for mendacious, self-serving, underminers of civil order. There can be no civility without civil order. The stinking lies and deceptive half-truths surrounding this topic come from the top down, from Obama, through…
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Eugene Robinson
Eugene Robinson is one of those black commentators whose tribal identification makes it impossible for him to be objective. His latest column begins like this: WASHINGTON — It is absurd to have to say this, but New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, activist Al Sharpton and President Obama are in no way responsible for the…
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From Gunman to Squirrel Man: Bernie Goetz, 30 Years Later
Bernard Goetz, mild-mannered electronics nerd, looked like an easy mark, a slap job. And so he got slapped around, thrown through plate glass windows, mugged and harrassed. He just wanted to be left alone to tinker in his basement. Those were the days before Rudy Giuliani cleaned up New York City. One day Goetz decided not…
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Eric Garner, Cigarettes, and Overcriminalization
This beautifully written, erudite piece by George F. Will is the best thing I've read so far about the Eric Garner case. Excerpts: Garner died at the dangerous intersection of something wise, known as “broken windows” policing, and something worse than foolish: decades of overcriminalization. The policing applies the wisdom that where signs of disorder,…