Point of View
(#461, 1/30/25)

Do scholars really “get”
the craft of policing?

All in the Family
(Part II)
(#460, 1/6/25)

A decade after Part I,
domestic killings
remain commomplace

Acting...or Re-acting?
(#459, 12/8/24)

An urgent response
proves tragically imprecise

Citizen Misbehavior
Breeds Voter
Discontent
(#458, 11/20/24)

Progressive agendas
face rebuke in even
the "Bluest" of places

A Matter of Facts
(#457, 11/3/24)

Did flawed science place
an innocent man
on death row?

Want Brotherly Love?
Don't be Poor!
(#456, 10/12/24)

Violence is down in Philly,
L.A. and D.C.
Have their poor noticed?

Prevention Through Preemption
(#455, 9/16/24)

Expanding the scope of
policing beyond
making arrests

Switching Sides
(#454, 8/30/24)

St. Louis’ D.A. argues that
a condemned man
is in fact innocent

"Distraction Strike"?
Angry Punch? Both?
(#453, 8/11/24)

When cops get rattled,
the distinction may
ring hollow

Bringing a Gun
To a Knife Fight
(#452, 7/30/24)

Cops carry guns.
Some citizens flaunt knives.
Are poor outcomes inevitable?

"Numbers" Rule –
Everywhere
(#451, 7/2/24)

Production pressures
degrade what's "produced" –
and not just in policing

Is Crime Really Down?
It Depends...
(#450, 6/20/24)

Even when citywide
numbers improve, place
really, really matters

Kids With Guns
(#449, 6/3/24)

Ready access
and permissive laws
create a daunting problem

De-Prosecution?
What's That?
(#448, 4/27/24)

Philadelphia's D.A.
eased up on lawbreakers.
Did it increase crime?

Ideology (Still)
Trumps Reason
(#447, 4/9/24)

When it comes to gun laws,
“Red” and “Blue” remain
in the driver’s seat

Shutting the Barn Door
(#446, 3/19/24)

Oregon moves to
re-criminalize hard drugs

Houston, We Have
(Another) Problem
(#445, 2/28/24)

Fueled by assault rifles, murders plague the land

Wrong Place, Wrong
Time, Wrong Cop
(#444, 2/8/24)

Recent exonerees set "records"
for wrongful imprisonment

America's Violence-
Beset Capital City
(#443, 1/20/24)

Our Nation's capital
is plagued by murder

Are Civilians Too Easy
on the Police? (II)
(#442, 12/18/23)

Exonerated of murder,
but not yet done

Warning: (Frail)
Humans at Work
(#441, 11/29/23)

The presence of a gun
can prove lethal

See No Evil - Hear No
Evil - Speak No Evil
(#440, 11/14/23)

Is the violent crime problem
really all in our heads?

Policing Can't Fix
What Really Ails
(#439, 10/18/23)

California's posturing
overlooks a chronic issue

Confirmation Bias
Can be Lethal
(#438, 9/21/23)

Why did a "routine" stop
cost a man's life?

When (Very) Hard
Heads Collide (II)
(#437, 9/5/23)

What should cops do when
miscreants refuse to comply?
Refuse to comply?

Keep going...

2/4/25 Six days after a 14-year old opened fire at Georgia’s Apalachee High School, a 14-year old Florida girl posted a threat to blow up her school. That led to her prompt arrest, followed by three weeks in detention. Like consequences quickly befell several other youths in Volusia County. “This is absolutely out of control, and it ends now,” said its Sheriff. According to the Washington Post, “at least 477 people — 90 percent of them students” were arrested across the U.S. for making threats during the two weeks after Apalachee. Like spurts in threats and arrests have also followed other school shootings. Related post

“Dozens” of prosecutors hired by the Biden administration to prosecute January 6th. Capitol assault cases have been summarily dismissed. According to the new Administration, their firing is justified as their “career” status was improperly conferred. Agreeing with President Trump’s view of the January 6th. cases as a “grave national injustice,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove has called for their positions to be filled by “merit- based” hires. Capitol updates   Related post

Former L.A. County D.A. George Gascon’s progressive, go-easy approach led voters to replace him with Nathan Hochman. Gascon had endorsed resentencing the Menendez brothers to straight life terms, which could lead to their parole. His prosecutors on that motion, Brock Lunsford and Nancy Theberge, remained on staff. They are now suing current D.A. Hochman for defaming them and reassigning them to lesser roles. Like retaliation claims were once made against Gascon by prosecutors who said they were punished for opposing his progressive policies. Related post

2/3/25 A Friday evening, Jan. 31 shooting in chronically impoverished South Los Angeles left two men dead and wounded four men and a boy. Nine days earlier “a confrontation between rival gang members” in L.A.’s beset MacArthur Park area wounded six, three critically. In-between these episodes, the L.A. Times reported that LAPD’s number of cops - 8,620 - is the fewest in thirty years. But it reassured readers that “recent crime statistics indicate the city is becoming safer even as the department shrinks. Related post

President Trump’s January 25 Executive Order, “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” berated the “ruthless” prosecution of the Capitol rioters. According to the Washington Post, acting Deputy A.G. Emil Bove just issued a memo demanding that eight FBI executives resign or be fired. Warning that “additional personnel action” is anticipated, he calls for “a sweeping examination” of all FBI agents who helped investigate the Jan. 6th. affair, President Trump’s possible role, and his alleged hoarding of classified documents. James Dennehey, New York City's top FBI agent, reacted with an e-mail that urged his staff to "dig in": “Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy.” Capitol updates   Related post

Four months before MPD cop Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd he allegedly used his knee to pin a drunk female motorist to the ground after she stuck her car in the snow. Minneapolis is paying $600,000 to settle Patty Day’s lawsuit. In 2023 the city paid out $9 million to settle lawsuits over Chauvin’s misuse of his knee against two persons other than Floyd. Related post

1/31/25 Three days ago the sheriff’s office serving Ithaca, N.Y., “a self-described sanctuary city,” refused to honor a Federal warrant for the arrest of Jesus Romero-Hernandez, who illegally re- entered the U.S. after a removal.  Romero-Hernandez, whom local authorities had jailed for 3rd. degree assault, was released after pleading guilty and drawing a sentence of “time served.” Federal immigration agents tracked Romero-Hernandez down. He is now in custody and will be arraigned in Federal court. Immigration updates  Related post

Located near Fresno, Sanger is a small Northern Calif. city of about 26,000 population. Yes, it has its own police department. And on January 29 a Federal jury convicted former Sanger police officer J. DeShawn Torrence on eight counts of deprivation of rights for forcing four women to engage in nonconsensual sex. His acts, which were committed while on duty during 2017-2021, included rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. He faces life in prison. Related posts 1   2

Located in Louisiana, the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated a host of Federal gun control measures, from prohibitions against “bump stocks” to laws that forbid drug users and persons under domestic violence restraining orders from acquiring guns. And now they’ve moved against the law that prohibits selling handguns to persons under 21. “Ultimately, the text of the Second Amendment includes eighteen-to-twenty-year-old individuals among 'the people' whose right to keep and bear arms is protected.” And the fight is on. Related posts 1   2

1/30/25 Georgia legislators are mulling over bills that respond to the March 2024 Apalachee High School shooting, when 14-year old Colin Gray used his father’s assault rifle to kill two fellow students and two teachers. One would require that parents keep guns locked up and inaccessible to their kids. Another would help schools identify and “monitor” problematic youngsters even if they change school districts, as Colin did after he and his father were questioned by deputies over his threatening online posts. Related post

Just signed into law by President Trump, the Laken Riley Act requires that Federal authorities detain illegal immigrants who are arrested for any of a variety of crimes, including burglary, theft, shoplifting and assault on a police officer. It’s named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered in 2024 by an illegal alien from Venezuela who had been arrested for shoplifting but was let go. President Trump has also just ordered the construction of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay that could house up to 30,000 illegal immigrants. Immigration updates  Related post

1/29/25 CONNECT RENO allows businesses and homeowners in Reno, Nevada to register their security cameras so that police can use the images should a crime happen nearby. Citizens can also allow their cameras to be perpetually connected with police, thus making their feeds instantly available. The bordering city of Sparks has also joined in. CONNECT RENO   Related post

New York City, whose “sanctuary” policy limits police cooperation, has become another target of the new immigration enforcement campaign. On their first sweep, ICE teams arrested twenty illegal aliens. Twelve had criminal or terrorism-related records. They included a suspected Yemeni terrorist, a “human rights violator” from Myanmar, a Dominican wanted by Interpol for homicide, and an Ecuadorian with a pending charge for sexual assault. He had been previously convicted for illegal entry. Immigration updates
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A 14-year-old D.C. youth “with a big smile” was shot dead by another 14-year old during a robbery spree by the killer and his two 16-year old brothers. Video surveillance depicts the shooting. It also shows the three robbers holding up other victims, then fleeing in a White Kia sedan. Their arsenal included a .40-caliber pistol, a 9mm. pistol, and “a Kalashnikov rifle in a duffel bag.” Related posts 1   2

1/28/25 D.C. District Judge Amit P. Mehta reversed her day-old ruling barring Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and seven underlings from D.C. Judge Mehta explained that according to the 11th. Circuit Court of Appeals, she had to abide by the U.S. Attorney’s interpretation of the President’s Executive Order. And in this case, Trump’s newly-appointed U.S. Attorney, Ed Martin, argued that the commutations had wiped out the entire sentences, including their non-custodial aspects. Capitol updates   Related post

Calling it “a great failure of our office,” Ed Martin, Trump’s newly-appointed U.S. Attorney for D.C., has opened an internal investigation into the office’s charging of Capitol rioters with a Federal statute that forbids obstructing an official proceeding. Last year the Supreme Court ruled that the statute only applies to interfering with the use of records, documents and other tangible items. According to an earlier report, the charge was used against 350 rioters. Fifty-two were convicted, and 27 were imprisoned. Capitol updates   Related post

Complaints by gun stores that they were being shut down “for minor infractions” have led to a softening of the so-called “zero- tolerance” policy that ATF instituted in 2021 under the Biden administration. That policy, which reportedly caused gun dealer licenses revocations to surge, has been toned down to limit what violations can be considered “willful”, thus sufficient for revocation. Neither repeated rules violations nor clerical errors will, by themselves, be enough. Related post

1/27/25 Chicago man Tyrece Williams, 59, served twenty years after being convicted of murdering a 15-year old in 1990. Now a free man, he’s always denied involvement, and a witness has come forward to say that - as the notorious cop did in so many other cases - ex-CPD detective Reynaldo Guevara forced him to falsely ID Williams as the killer. While the D.A. insists this is not a repeat, if the judge thinks otherwise, it would be the fiftieth exoneration attributed to Guevara. Related post

Chicago is “ground zero” in President Trump’s drive against illegal immigration. ICE announced that Federal law enforcement agencies including DEA, the FBI and ATF are assisting ICE in conducting “enhanced targeted operations” in the Chicago area to remove “potentially dangerous criminal aliens.” These efforts are supposedly leading to the arrest of illegal immigrants “with a criminal background,” including Venezuelan gang members and persons convicted of sex crimes and other offenses. A precise accounting is yet to be released. Immigration updates
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Do the terms of post-release supervision apply to Capitol defendants who had their sentences commuted? Yes, ruled U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta, as he ordered Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and seven underlings to keep out of D.C. That includes the Capitol, which Rhodes just visited. But President Trump’s Interim U.S. Attorney, Edward R. Martin Jr., has protested the order, saying that commutations “erase” sentences, so no post-release supervision is warranted. And the fight is on. Capitol updates
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1/24/25 A directive just issued by the Department of Homeland Security authorizes Deputy U.S. Marshals, special agents employed by DEA, ATF and the FBI, and officials of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to investigate and arrest persons who are illegally present in the U.S. By increasing the resources available to help “fix the problem” of apprehending illegal aliens, the move is intended to “help fulfill President Trump’s promise to the American people to carry out mass deportations.” Immigration updates
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Sixteen years. That’s the prison sentence handed down to former Auburn, WA police officer Jeffrey Nelson, whom a state court jury convicted of murder and assault. In 2019 then-officer Nelson tangled with an unarmed homeless man, and shot him dead when he allegedly reached for his gun. As of 2018 state law no longer requires evidence that an officer acted with malice, but proof is still needed that the force used was unreasonable or unnecessary. Nelson, who had a reputation for using force, had previously killed two other persons while on duty, one in 2011 and another in 2017. Related post

1/23/25 A 17-year old male student at Nashville’s Antioch High School opened fire in the school cafeteria, killing a 16-year old female student. His gunfire also struck another student, inflicting a slight wound. School resource officers were in a different building, and by the time they arrived Solomon Henderson had committed suicide. In October 2024 the officers found a gun in another student’s pants. Antioch High School lacks metal detectors; the school superintendent indicates they’re being considered. Related post

Section 17 of “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” a Presidential Executive Order issued on January 20, directs the Attorney General and the DHS Secretary to take legal action to insure “that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds.” Among those jurisdictions is Los Angeles, which fears a cutoff of Federal aid for its current fire epidemic. Immigration updates
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In what’s considered the largest such fraud that’s come to light, seven persons were Federally indicted in New York for fraudulently submitting “more than 8,000 false tax returns” that claimed in excess of $600 million in COVID-19 employment tax credits. IRS paid out about $45 million dollars to the accused and their clients before tax return “discrepancies” were uncovered. COVID-19 updates

1/22/25 President Trump’s commutations and pardons for the Capitol assault forgave acts that injured more than 150 police officers. Three soon died; two by suicide, and a third, Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, from a stroke. According to a reporter, many of the officers who were assaulted are “struggling and depressed” because of President Trump’s actions. But he insists that “I am a friend of police, more than any president who’s ever been in this office.” President Trump thinks there might be a political role for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. “Well, we have to see. They’ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive...These are people who actually love our country, so we thought a pardon would be appropriate.”
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In a  joint statement, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police express deep concern over the pardons and commutations issued to persons who were convicted of assaulting and (in the case of former President Biden) killing a law enforcement officer. “The IACP and FOP firmly believe that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences.” In their view, failing to hold assailants accountable “sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence.” Related post

1/21/25 President Trump commuted the sentences of fourteen defendants convicted of serious crimes related to the Capitol assault. Among them are Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boy Ethan Nordeau, who drew 18 years for seditious conspiracy, and Proud Boys Dominic Pezzola, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, who drew 10, 17 and 15 years respectively. He also granted “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” NBC reports that’s about 1,500 persons. Related post

In 1973, militant members of the American Indian Movement took over a village on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian reservation. After a two-month standoff the Feds moved in, and a shootout claimed the lives of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Extradited from Canada four years later, AIM member Leonard Peltier was convicted of the killings. He drew life. But despite the steadfast opposition of former FBI Director Christopher Wray - he called Peltier “a remorseless killer” - outgoing President Joe Biden just commuted his sentence. Related post

“Effective January 20, 2025, the functionalities of CBP One™ that previously allowed undocumented aliens to submit advance information and schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry is no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled.” That’s a direct quote from the U.S. Customs & Border Protection website. Bottom line: even if you intend to wait your turn in Mexico, unless you’re already in compliance with immigration laws, don’t come! Immigration updates

1/20/25 Two days after announcing the end of its investigation into the death of Ronald Greene, DOJ issued a blistering report that severely criticized Louisiana’s allegedly chronic failure to properly supervise its troopers and to track their use of force. Troopers often used force on persons who did not pose a threat or risk of escape and weren’t given an opportunity to comply. Stun guns were also frequently abused. DOJ report   Related post

A Federal investigation into L.A. crypto mogul Adam Iza, who reportedly employed a half-dozen L.A. Sheriff’s deputies as bodyguards and to help enforce his corrupt dictates, including the use of fake search warrants, just produced two guilty pleas. Iza pled guilty to wire fraud, tax avoidance and related charges; L.A. Sheriff’s deputy Eric Chase Saavedra pled guilty to conspiracy and tax crimes. Iza faces up to 35 years; Saavedra, 13. Saavedra sports a spade tattoo that he said identified him as an accepted member of the Lakewood sheriff station's deputy gang. Related posts 1   2

A joint inquiry by the New York Times and Mississippi Today revealed that Mississippi leaves it to local police agencies to regulate their use of the Taser. Consequently the devices are often used inappropriately. Tasers are applied even when lesser control methods would suffice. Officers often deliver repeated shocks without a pressing need and administer excessively long jolts, and all without considering a recipient’s age or physical condition. Related post

1/17/25 Just published in Criminology & Public Policy, an assessment of police training academies criticizes the universal over- emphasis on traditional officer-warrior aspects, such as the “rare instances” when lethal weapons must be used, while ignoring the “guardian-based” approach that exemplifies community policing. Fixing that, according to the authors, would require “a complete and comprehensive reorientation of police recruitment and basic training.” Related post

Last year a Ninth Circuit panel ruled in favor of California and Hawaii laws that bar carrying guns in sensitive places such as beaches, parks, schools, hospitals and banks. Consolidating those cases, the Ninth Circuit just rejected the contention that these restrictions violate the Second Amendment. Its denial of a rehearing was challenged by a number of judges, who argued that the laws fail the historical tests set by Bruen. Decision   Related post

On January 11 officers responded to the latest in a string of domestic disturbances at a Gary, Indiana home. They encountered a 23-year old  resident holding two guns. Devin Shields refused to put them down, and when he reportedly threatened his mother and the officers they shot him dead. Four days later, in nearby St. John, officers responded to another domestic disturbance. A physical altercation ensued, and the homeowner’s adult son, Brandon Perkins, 40, was shot dead. A neighbor suggests he was mentally ill and held something in his hands. Hand weights were found outside. Related post

1/16/25 Three years ago it was revealed that the Orange County, Calif. sheriff had created jail “snitch tanks” where inmate stoolies would get information and, hopefully, confessions, from inmates who were accused of serious crimes but were represented by counsel. DOJ’s report called the practice illegal and a violation of right to counsel and due process. An agreement between DOJ and the Sheriff that prohibits such practices and limits the use of custodial informants to exigent circumstances has just been signed. Related post