Free Speech?

On Sunday, Townhall reported that the firefighters who booed New York Attorney General Letitia James at a promotion ceremony recently will face consequences for their actions.

The article reports:

However, in the classes Democrat-led state of New York, those firefighters are facing consequences for their outbursts toward the woman who will do anything in her power to take former President Trump down. 

“Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump,” the crowd of firefighters shouted at James, while many booed. 

“Oh, come on. We’re in a house of God. First, Uhm, simmer down,” James said, attempting to simmer the crowd down. “Thank you for getting it out of your system.”

In a statement, FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens said that the firefighters who disrupted James’s speech will be forced to take woke “re-education” classes. 

I don’t necessarily condone their behavior, but I think woke “re-education” classes are not the answer. I might want some basic classes on manners, but I am not sure that is the answer.

The article concludes:

The letter was sent out to each firefighter stating that they must report to headquarters, laying out the “next steps” in their punishment. 

A few of the “steps” each FDNY member has to follow are listed below: 

  • Have DC visit each firehouse that had a member promoted
  • Relay bullet point message
  • They should understand that BITS is gathering video and identifying members that brought discredit to the Department
  • We want the members to come forward. They will come to HQ to be educated on why their behavior is unacceptable

Does anyone wonder why police and firemen recruiting is down in New York?

A Very Obvious Solution

On Friday, Townhall posted an article about an American city that has actually seen a decrease in crime. The article notes that Atlanta, Georgia, has seen a 21% drop in year-over-year crime.

The article reports:

…The Mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, faced with a secession effort in the northern wards of his city due to crime and violent protests from the far left over a police training facility, has deployed a novel trick in The City Too Busy to Hate. He actually pushed law enforcement to enforce the law.

Under Dickens and Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum, the city began aggressively cracking down on gun crimes and gang violence. Buckhead, the financial center of the South and Atlanta’s northern ward, began agitating for secession after crime spiked during COVID lockdowns. Random suburbanites were shot while jogging, home break-ins increased, carjackings increased, violence was on the rise after the former Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, decided to side with rioters against the police.

Then-Mayor Bottoms and the former Fulton County District Attorney, in a series of high-profile cases, prosecuted police officers for policing. They targeted one officer for shooting a man who had attacked an officer, fled and attempted to tase the pursuing officer. That officer shot and killed the man and got prosecuted. After Dickens’ election, the charges were dropped. Other officers were disciplined for trying to get college students to stop their car during a riot. The result was a collapse of police morale, police leaving the force and difficulty recruiting.

There are a number of other major cites that have experienced the downward spiral of not supporting the police and having crime skyrocket as a result.

The article notes:

Dickens, upon taking office, had to do two things. First, he needed to calm Buckhead’s nerves. Its departure would have dramatically cut tax revenue for the city. Second, he needed to ameliorate police morale. He did both by letting the police actually police.

The results speak for themselves. Hotels in Buckhead no longer warn visitors not to go out past dark. It feels safe to go out, and the mass of people in Buckhead after dark suggests the feeling is reality. People are returning to malls and restaurants. Businesses are no longer loudly screaming for change, and much of the Buckhead secession movement has dissipated.

If you want your city to be a safe place, elect people who will support the police and enforce the law. We don’t need new laws–we just need people with the courage to enforce the laws we have.

The Narrative Is Slowly Changing

On Friday, The BizPacReview posted an article about some comments made by former Capitol Police Lt. Tarik Johnson.

The article reports:

A former U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant has said that Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy “got a lot right” about the events of January 6, 2021, during his controversial CNN town hall appearance with moderator Abby Phillip.

Liberal heads melted down after Ramaswamy told CNN’s audience that he believed Jan. 6th was “an inside job.”

As has been previously noted, the January 6th ‘insurrection’ was a rare insurrection–no one was armed and there were tour guides.

The article notes:

Johnson noted that “no one would benefit more than I if J6 was an insurrection as I (Tarik Johnson) was the Commander that ordered and led the evacuations of the Senate and the House during the J6 breach after begging former Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman for permission to do so as she sat comfortably in the Commander Center watching the events unfold on CCTV while Chief Steven A Sund was obtaining National Guard approval and getting assistance from local law enforcement agencies.”

“Pittman flat out ignored me so I was forced to forge ahead with the evacuations without obtaining approval from her,” he explained. “Three days later I decided to call Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to report Pittman’s malfeasance and approximately an hour after I got off the phone with the senator I was contacted by the USCP internal affairs section and informed I was suspended.”

“The suspension lasted for 17 months and I was under a USCP gag order not to speak about the events of January 6, 2021 to the media until I separated from the Department,” he continued. “I was also required to remain in my house Monday through Friday from the hours of 8am to 4pm and unable to step off my property without notifying the USCP for fear of being disciplined up to and including termination during those 17 months.”

“These are SOME of many facts USCP Chief J Thomas Manger (who is arguably the most corrupt politician in the country) was brought in to cover-up,” he stated.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. I hope that the truth will come out eventually. The people who set up this ‘insurrection’ need to be held accountable.

The New York Post Analysis

On Wednesday, The New York Post posted a list of the top 10 ways President Biden deluded himself during his State of the Union address.

Here is the list:

1. FEIGNING to stand up for Ukraine when he publicly told Vladimir Putin last month that a “minor incursion” was tolerable, and when his son Hunter treated Ukraine like a private piggybank during Biden’s vice-presidency.

2. CALLING for unity to a room full of Republicans while falsely claiming that the Trump administration’s 2017 tax cut only helped “the top 1%.”

3. POSING amusingly as an America First nationalist — complete with Trumpian “USA! USA!” chants from his colleagues on the floor. All power to Biden if he follows through on his promised “revitalization of American manufacturing,” but he will be going against his own record.

4. Securing our border: This takes some chutzpah when Biden deliberately dismantled Trump’s hard-won border protections and is still in court fighting the remain-in-Mexico policy.

5. BEATING the opioid epidemic: The “opioid crisis” he anointed as a bipartisan cause was turbocharged when he flung open the southern border to record quantities of fentanyl, a drug which is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45.

6. GASLIGHTING us on the pandemic: “Let’s stop looking at COVID as a partisan dividing line,” said the president who has done nothing but manipulate COVID fear for political purposes, and changed tune only after opinion polls on his handling of the pandemic headed south.

7. BLUNTING gas prices: He’s pulling our leg. Biden boasted about tapping into 30 million barrels of our emergency oil reserves — less than two days’ supply — while not mentioning a word about unleashing our plentiful untapped oil and gas supplies.

8. CHAMPIONING police “The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to FUND the police,” Biden thundered.

9. VALORIZING the military Biden paid tribute to soldiers said to have contracted cancer from “burn pits” — an as-yet unproven claim on which he dwells in hope of a combat-related cause of his own son’s death from brain cancer.

10. MYSTIFYING the world Biden went off script after saying “God bless our troops” at the end of his speech. “Go get him!” he ad-libbed.

It would be wonderful if President Biden actually closed the southern border and acted to lower fuel prices for Americans by using our own resources. However, I think the chances of that are slim to none.

 

Voting For Your Own Demise

Traditionally, black voters in America support the Democrat party. So what are they getting in return for their vote?

Yesterday The Blue State Conservative posted an article citing six ways that the Democrat party has hurt the black community.

This is the list:

#6: Lack of School Choice

#5: Lowered Educational Standards

#4: Disregard for Fathers

#3: Acceptance of High Crime Rates and Demonetization of Police

#2: Selling the Victim Mindset

#1: Promotion of the Welfare State

Please follow the link above for the details of this list. The article includes a lot of information about the impact of these policies.

In the article PF Whalen notes:

Around the same time that the last Republican mayor of Baltimore was leaving office in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson was putting the finishing touches on his so-called ‘War on Poverty.’ Over fifty years later, and after having dumped trillions of federal tax dollars into programs such as welfare, food stamps, and public housing, poverty in America is virtually identical to what it was in 1967.

Johnson’s War on Poverty is one of the worst debacles and biggest failures in American history. Think of what could have been done with those trillions of dollars that could have actually helped Americans. Yet Democrats won’t acknowledge the failure, and instead choose to double-down. It seems like every other week President Biden is proposing trillions in new spending on some initiative or another, usually designed to achieve ‘equity.’ Biden’s spending won’t work, just like Barack Obama’s, Bill Clinton’s, Jimmy Carter’s and LBJ’s spending didn’t work. It’s only going to make matters worse.

The problem of course is that in order to escape poverty, one needs to take ownership of their own fortunes. The government isn’t going to get you out of poverty, only you will, and you will need to work hard in order to do so. Democrats recognize this reality but push forward anyway. Democrats need the poor to remain that way so they can continue to enjoy their power. When Americans are sucking from the government teat with all of its handouts, they are reliant upon government, and that is what Democrats crave. The government is the solution to all of your problems, so elect me and I’ll take care of you. It’s disgusting. 

The article concludes with the following Author’s Note:

After completing this piece, we realized that abortion had not made the list. It needs to, and so we want to mention that abortion is responsible for over 100,000 murders of unborn innocents each year and fully one-third of all abortions in the United States. In 2018 alone, over 117,000 black babies were murdered and since 1973 there have been more than 20 million murdered black babies in total. Society loses its mind when violent criminal thugs like George Floyd or Daunte Wright are killed during deadly interactions with police, but remains silent on issues like this. Black lives cannot matter until all black lives matter.

If you are part of the black vote that supports the Democrat party, you need to take a closer look at what you are supporting.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

Yesterday The New York Post reported:

Police officers in Chicago may soon require permission from a supervisor before pursuing a suspect on foot, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday.

Lightfoot promised to disclose details “soon” about a police policy change, Fox 32 Chicago reported.

“No one should die as a result of a foot chase,” the mayor said.

Police methods have faced new scrutiny recently following the release last week of video footage from the March 29 police shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. The case has sparked new debate on police use of deadly force.

City Alderman Brian Hopkins told FOX 32 that city police already need a superior’s permission to launch a vehicle chase for a suspect. A new policy on foot chases would simply make the same policy apply to all chases.

At least the City Alderman acknowledged what the result of that policy might be:

Hopkins acknowledged the most obvious criticism that such a policy would likely attract: that a suspect on foot could be long gone in the time it would take an officer to get the required approval.

This sort of thinking does not make our cities safer–it makes them more dangerous. If a bank robber has a getaway car a block away and can outrun the officer, he is home free.

The death of Adam Toledo is tragic, but there are still a few facts that have to be considered when evaluating the situation. What was a 13-year old doing out a 2 am? Why did a 13-year old have a gun? Was the 13-year old a gang member? Did the 13-year old act in a way that was a threat to the policeman’s life?

I truly believe that the first problem we have to deal with is the 13-year old probable gang member out on the street at 2 am. I suspect that if we deal with that problem, many other problems will be solved.

Editing The News To Promote The Narrative

There are two very dangerous narratives making the rounds right now. The first is that policemen are racially-motivated killers and the second is that gun control will end mass shootings. Both are false, but both are parroted endlessly by the major media. Recently a video was edited to add to the narrative (and change the entire scenario of the video).

Yesterday Townhall posted an article about CBS’s airing of the video of the shooting death of Adam Toledo in Chicago. Adam Toledo was a thirteen-year-old young man shot by a policeman at 2 am. The entire video of the shooting shows Adam Toledo with a gun as the policeman is pursuing him. Somehow CBS edited out the frame of the video that shows the gun when they aired the video on television.

The article reports:

It’s horrible to watch, but Toledo was armed. It’s clear in the footage, but if you were to watch CBS News’ clip—that frame is omitted. It would seem the hatchet crew at the network went to work to construct yet another false narrative. They went after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over a non-existent pay-to-play scheme involving Publix, the state’s largest grocery chain who contributed to his campaign, and a vaccine distribution deal. We’ve seen the full exchange between DeSantis and the reporter who tried to lob this grenade. It blew up in CBS’ face, but they’ve doubled down because they’re all terrible people. This instance is no different…

The article concludes:

Now is not the time to be playing games or trying to manufacture fake ‘woke’ narratives about policing. I know you good people already know this, but for some—like those in the liberal media—never let a crisis go to waste, even if it means fomenting a situation where a whole city is set ablaze over a lie.

It truly is time to back up and look at the big picture–a thirteen-year-old gang member is out with another gang member at 2am on a school night. I don’t know the child’s home situation, but it is probably a safe bet he does not come from an intact two-parent family. What is his school like? What sort of education is he getting? Why did he feel the need to be part of a gang? Are those the issues we need to begin to address rather than vilifying a policeman for shooting an armed suspect fleeing arrest? The death of Adam Toledo is tragic, but more tragic is the fact that the root causes behind that death are not being looked at and corrected.

Actions Have Consequences

Yesterday The Daily Wire reported:

The Democrat-controlled Seattle City Council voted late on Monday to advance a highly controversial plan to defund the Seattle Police Department as violent crime and far-left riots have rocked the city in recent months.

The Seattle City Council voted to remove approximately $3 million from the Seattle Police Department’s budget…

…“The committee voted to move the bulk of its proposal forward during its 10 a.m. session, before giving its final approval Monday evening by a 7-1 margin,” MyNorthWest reported. “Councilmember Kshama Sawant was the lone “no” vote, while Debora Juarez — who was not present at Monday’s meetings — abstained. Sawant’s vote against the package was based around her belief that it didn’t go far enough in its reductions to SPD’s funding.”

Fox News reported at the start of the month that Seattle was one of several Democrat-controlled cities that had seen a recent spike in “shootings and murders.”

Yesterday The Gateway Pundit reported:

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best will be resigning on Wednesday morning, following the city council voting to defund the police amid massive unrest.

The news of Best’s resignation came one day after dozens of businesses were looted once again.

…Q13 reports, “the council on Monday approved proposals that would reduce the police department by up to 100 officers through layoffs and attrition. Chief Best was vocal in her oppostion to the cuts, which came after councilmembers pledged to redirect money from SPD to community programs amid calls from protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.”

The budget cut will slash nearly $4 million from the department’s annual budget — and the councilmembers promised to cut even more in 2021. The 7-1 vote faced objections from the city’s police chief, mayor and the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild.

It does not take a genius to predict that businesses and property owners will be leaving Seattle in the near future. Community programs have value, but unless you have some semblance of law and order in a city, people don’t want to live or operate businesses there.

When You Realize That What You Said Is Ridiculous

Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog posted an article today about a recent directive from the City of Minneapolis that has since been modified. When I first saw the directive posted on Facebook, I wasn’t sure if it was real. Evidently it was.

Here is the original directive:

Yesterday the message was updated (per alphanewsmn)

Wow. Just wow.

Seeing For Yourself Instead Of Believing The Media

On Friday, PJ Media posted a Portland, Oregon, resident’s account of the protests going on downtown. Gabe Johnson, a 48-year-old black man who served in the Marines, lives a block away from the Justice Center. He thought the nightly protests had been completely peaceful.

The article reports:

Gabe Johnson, a 48-year-old black man who served in the Marines, now says that Portland police should use any means necessary, including force, to sweep the riots off the streets and end the nightly violence.

In an interview with PJ Media, Johnson said he considers himself a patriotic American, and that the United States flag should be a symbol of unity for all Americans. He laments how some have turned it into a symbol of racism and division, especially in Portland.

Last Saturday night and into Sunday morning, Johnson says he was in bed trying to sleep, but the noise kept him awake. He counted 82 explosions disturbing his sleep. Then, with his air conditioning running and bringing in air from outside through the vents, he was suddenly immersed in tear gas from the street below. That’s when he decided to take action.

“You know, so I literally stood up and just yelled,” Johnson said in the interview. “‘Oh my God,’ I actually yelled. ‘Oh my effing God.’ It was just like somebody has to do something. I don’t know what that something is. I didn’t at that time, but I knew something had to be done and I figured I would just sleep on it.”

The article details his response:

When he went down to the protest with his flags, Johnson expected to talk to people. He didn’t expect to be assaulted. Several people stole his flags and stomped them on the ground. One older black man, around 65 years old, grabbed one of the flags and handed it back to Johnson. A protester promptly punched the man in the face and ran off.

Reminder: This all took place in broad daylight, not at a late-night riot.

Johnson says protesters called him a coon, Uncle Tom, and the n-word—”with the -ER, not -a.” He has done several interviews this week because he wants the world to know that when leaders say that the federal law enforcement officers have caused the riots, and that the protests are largely peaceful, that’s a lie.

Protests are legal. Riots and assaulting people are not. The article includes a link to an interview with Mr. Johnson detailing the events. The actions of the anarchists that call themselves Black Lives Matter are not acceptable. Where were these people when black lives ended at the hands of other black people in Chicago and other major American cities? The only way to end these riots is to begin putting those responsible for them in jail. I would also suggest finding the source of their funding and eliminating it quickly. Rioters don’t deserve high-priced lawyers paid for by people behind the scenes inciting the riots.

Some Common Sense From The Minneapolis City Council

Yesterday Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about a recent decision by the Minneapolis City Council.

The article reports:

Give credit where due for thinking outside of the box, I guess, although this idea belongs in a box … buried under the St. Anthony Falls. In the Minneapolis city council’s haste to prove it doesn’t need a professional and trained police force to keep the peace, they nearly decided to pay ad hoc bands of armed citizens to patrol the streets. Only late inquiries about this proposal from city residents and local media managed to change their minds:

The Minneapolis City Council briefly considered diverting money from police to citizen patrols, with the council’s public safety chairwoman suggesting an armed group as one that could potentially benefit.

During a budget meeting last week, Council Member Alondra Cano proposed cutting $500,000 from the Minneapolis Police Department for the citizen groups.

She described it as an effort to “respond to the hundreds of people who have formed their own community safety patrol systems to keep their blocks and their neighborhoods safe in this time of deep transition.”

She and nine of her colleagues voted in favor of adding the provision to the 2020 budget. On Wednesday, after residents and reporters contacted city officials seeking details about the proposal, the council walked it back.

Common sense made a brief appearance in the Minneapolis City Council.

The article concludes:

The Star Tribune notes that the city council seems to be out of rational ideas about how to make their no-policy fantasy into reality, which is how vigilantism nearly got a $500,000 grant and endorsement:

The change reveals how the City Council is struggling to come up with alternatives to the Minneapolis Police Department, even as a majority has vowed to end it. Council members and city staffers have, at times, found themselves unclear about what various proposals mean, even after they have voted on them.

In other words, the city council is completely incompetent, and now obviously so. This would qualify as satire if not for the lives that have already been lost and the lives that will be lost in the near future due to their failures to perform their basic duties as public officials. The city council is responsible for the police department and its performance, but they do not want Minneapolis residents to realize that. Instead, they want to pretend that a modern city of 425,000-plus residents don’t need law enforcement, mainly because they want to abdicate their own responsibilities for managing it.

Minneapolis is a home-rule charter city, so the state doesn’t have too many options in dealing with this disaster. The city’s voters will have to act to put an end to the circus they elected. In the meantime, the cities around them will have to deal with the fallout — and business owners will start looking elsewhere for better environments in which to operate.

This is the reason voting matters. The only way to improve the government of Minneapolis is to vote for people who actually understand how to make things better. The current city council obviously does not.

What Does This Have To Do With Educating Students?

Yesterday Just the News reported that the Los Angeles teachers union says schools can’t reopen unless charter schools get shut down and police defunded. Charter schools generally outperform public schools, so why are the teachers trying to shut them down?

The article reports:

A major teachers union is claiming that the re-opening of schools in its district cannot occur without several substantial policy provisions in place, including a “moratorium” on charter schools and the defunding of local police. 

United Teachers Los Angeles, a 35,000-strong union in the Los Angeles Unified School District, made those demands in a policy paper it released this week. The organization called on local authorities to “keep school campuses closed when the semester begins on Aug. 18.”

The union outlined numerous major provisions it says will be necessary to reopen schools again, including sequestering students in small groups throughout the school day, providing students with masks and other forms of protective equipment, and re-designing school layouts in order to facilitate “social distancing.” 

The article continues:

Police violence “is a leading cause of death and trauma for Black people, and is a serious public health and moral issue,” the union writes. The document calls on authorities to “shift the astronomical amount of money devoted to policing, to education and other essential needs such as housing and public health.”

“Privately operated, publicly funded charter schools,” meanwhile, “drain resources from district schools,” the union states. The practice of “colocating” charter schools in existing structures, it continues, “adds students to campuses when we need to reduce the number of students to allow for physical distancing.”

The union also demands the implementation of a federal Medicare-for-All program, several new state-level taxes on wealthy people, and a “federal bailout” of the school district.

“The benefits to restarting physical schools must outweigh the risks, especially for our most vulnerable students and school communities,” the document continues.

“As it stands, the only people guaranteed to benefit from the premature physical reopening of schools amidst a rapidly accelerating pandemic are billionaires and the politicians they’ve purchased,” it adds.

I want teachers and students to be safe when schools open. I think we all do. However, the teachers union has overlooked the negative impact on the students as a result of the schools being closed during the end of the last school year. They have also overlooked the fact that many foreign countries have had their schools open for a while without any negative results. They are also overreaching into political issues that have nothing to do with education. I wonder if the teachers who are members of the teachers’ union agree with the demands that their union is making.

Protection For Me, But Not For Thee

Ed Morrissey posted an article at Hot Air today about a recent move by the Minneapolis City Council. The article reports that yesterday the council voted unanimously to pursue a still-ambiguous plan to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a more politically correct “Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention.” However, there are some problems with that vote.

The article reports:

The council voted unanimously to advance a proposal that would create a new Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. Within that, the city could create a division that includes “licensed peace officers,” though it would not be required to do so.

It’s unclear how many, if any, officers would continue to be employed by the city if the proposal passes.

Council Member Cam Gordon said it’s consistent with the pledge from council members to fundamentally alter local policing in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis officers.

“Those things that we called the police department are gone,” Gordon said. “Certainly, there is a provision in here that would allow this council or future councils to maintain a Division of Law Enforcement Services, but I think what we need to do is have that possibility there and talk to people about what the future should look like.”

The article explains the problem with that vote:

Maybe we should know what the “future” looks like before changing the present. The city council can’t actually change the present anyway, thanks to a city charter that requires them to maintain a police department with precise staffing levels. The best they can do under the charter is impose a cut of around 20%, but even that would fall afoul of the collective bargaining agreement with the police union. (Agreements negotiated and signed by a succession of progressive city councils, I might add here.) That makes yesterday’s vote an exercise in pusillanimity; there’s no cost to it at all.

It gets worse:

The City of Minneapolis is spending $4,500 a day for private security for three council members who have received threats following the police killing of George Floyd, FOX 9 has learned.

A city spokesperson said the private security details have cost the city $63,000 over the past three weeks.

The three council members who have the security detail – Andrea Jenkins (Ward 8), and Phillipe Cunningham (Ward 4), and Alondra Cano (Ward 9)– have been outspoken proponents of defunding the Minneapolis Police Department.

So while the Council votes to get rid of the police department as it currently exists, the City is paying for private security for three council members. Protection for me, but not for thee. These are the people the voters of Minneapolis elected. I think it might be time to unelect them. We need to remember that the voters have the power to determine leadership. In 2018, the turnout of registered Minneapolis voters was 76%. That is a solid turnout. The voters need to learn to make better choices.

Why We Should NEVER Defund The Police

The police have come under a lot of criticism lately because of the actions of one out-of-control policeman in Minneapolis and the other policemen with him who failed to act to save George Floyd. However, in concentrating on one bad apple, many have forgotten the things that policemen do almost on a regular basis to help those in trouble. Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article about one such instance.

The article reports:

San Diego K9 Officer Jonathan Wiese has been credited with saving the lives of two young girls after rappelling down a cliff to rescue them from a car their father had driven into the ocean in an apparent murder-suicide attempt over the weekend. 

According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, Wiese was near the San Diego-Coronado Bridge responding to a call the girls’ mother made to police Saturday morning, in which she informed them that her husband was suicidal and planned to take the toddlers, both two-year-olds, to the bridge and drive off it. 

ABC-10 reports that when Wiese arrived at the cliff area, where the man ultimately drove off, he saw the car had flipped over in the ocean below, and started to think-up a quick plan of action. 

“My first thought was jump but I’m afraid of heights,” said Wiese, reports CBS-8

“I could see him and he had one of the girls in his arms, and I have a two-year-old daughter at home so I imagined, what if that was my wife and kid down there? You’re not going to stand there on the cliff and watch it happen,” said Wiese, who later recalled the rescue effort, reports the Tribune. 

Wiese grabbed his K9 leash, wrapped it around himself, and gave one end to the other officers arriving on scene. 

“We kind of  held on to each other, I’ve never done anything like that holding on to each other’s belts,” recalled Sgt. Briggitta Belz, one of the responding officers. 

Wiese then repelled down 30 feet to the rocks below and swam toward the man, grabbed him under the armpit, held them above water, and pushed them toward the shore, reports ABC-10. 

San Diego Police Chief David Nisliet called Wiese’s actions “probably the most heroic thing I’ve seen in my 32 years.” Both of the girls were still in the hospital as of Monday, but are expected to recover — a development Wiese said was the “best news you can have.”

“All I care about is that those girls are going to live and have a second chance at life,” said Wiese. 

And that is one of many reasons we should never even consider defunding the police.

This Really Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone

Breitbart reported yesterday that at least 250 convicted and accused criminals freed from New York’s Rikers Island prison have been rearrested 450 times thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) jailbreak directive.

The article reports:

Of approximately 2,500 defendants sprung from Rikers early because of COVID safety planning, at least 250 have been arrested again since, according to Michael LiPetri, chief of Crime Control Strategies for the NYPD. [Emphasis added]

Chief LiPetri tells NBC New York the NYPD did not object to releasing older defendants, nor those with underlying medical conditions. But he says the consequences of the larger-scale release of prisoners are now showing up in the arrest data, with those 250 re-offenders being arrested 450 times so far during the pandemic. [Emphasis added]

What did they expect? How much transition assistance was provided to these prisoners when they were released? Were there halfway houses available to them so that they had a place to stay as they transitioned to life outside prison?

The article concludes:

While the mass release of convicted and accused criminals in New York continues and violent crime surges, Mayor Bill de Blasio is vowing to cut NYPD funding. The reduction in funding for the police would come as murders have jumped 160 percent over the last week and burglaries are up 402 percent.

As businesses and residents leave the city because it is becoming too dangerous, Mayor de Blasio will have to increase taxes further to meet his budget obligations. That will be the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as driving out the remaining honest residents and business of New York City. A little common sense applied to policies regarding criminals is needed.

Three Things We Are Being Told That Are Simply Wrong

On Friday, Heritage Action posted an article titled, “Three False Charges Against America’s Police Officers.”

This is the article:

Many of the events following George Floyd’s death have only perpetuated injustice and led to violence and crime. Thousands of rioters across the country have destroyed private property, looted businesses, attacked police officers, and have even taken the lives of innocent Americans.

Amidst the lawlessness, some on the left are using George Floyd’s death as an opportunity to push for extreme leftist agendas. Many of these agendas distort the truth about the role and efficacy of our nation’s police departments and propose radical “reform” measures that could potentially contribute to more crime and chaos in our country. These radical proposals from the left are based on lies and must be countered with truth.

Here are some of the fictitious claims liberals make against police officers… and the facts to counter them.

FICTION: “American police departments are systemically racist.”

FACT: Allegations of systemic racism are false and harmful.

While it is important to address grievances caused by the nation’s police departments, broad, all-encompassing accusations of racism completely disregard years of intentional training, diversification, and reform in police departments. Police are deployed based upon the location of crime, calls for service, and other data much of which is centered in minority communities. Additionally, research suggests that officers take longer to discharge their weapon when confronting African American suspects compared to confrontations with white or Hispanic suspects. Accusing the country’s police departments of inherent prejudice only feeds the extreme liberal narrative that police departments should be disbanded altogether.

Additional Resources

Policing in America: Lessons from the Past, Opportunities for the Future

Confronting Police Abuse Requires Shifting Power From Police Unions

Reform of Policing: What Makes Sense—and What Doesn’t

FICTION: “Police officers increase the likelihood of violence and crime against Americans.”

FACT: Simply put: the more policing there is, the safer America is.

Take the example of New York City which had its peak homicide rate in 1990 after several decades of pursuing a policing system which pushed officers into the background and relegated them to simply responding to crimes. In 1990, New York City had 2,245 murders. After switching to community-based policing with the goal of preventing crime, New York City has seen a dramatic decrease in both shootings and murders (down to 292 in 2017), resulting in a safer city. This is in large part due to officer training, increased police diversification, and improved policing methods. The fact is that American communities are overwhelmingly safer with police than without police.

Additional Resource

Cops Count, Police Matter: Preventing Crime and Disorder in the 21st Century

FICTION: “To stop police violence we need to defund the police.”

FACT: This argument is simply irrational. America needs police officers to maintain law and order.

Defunding our nation’s police departments would only lead to more crime and chaos and would directly harm the communities who disproportionately suffer the most. Additionally, defunding police departments will only lead to tighter budget constraints and less well-equipped police officers, making it even harder for police officers to do an already difficult and stressful job. However, in instances in which police officers use force outside the bounds of their training or even unlawfully, often union contracts stand in the way of appropriate discipline. Therefore, to stop unlawful police violence it is important that we reform the police union contract system.

The Demands Just Get Loonier

Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about the demands Black Lives Matter is making in Boston. George Floyd’s death was a horrible tragedy, but it seems that it has become nothing more than an excuse for special interest groups to shake down American cities.

The article reports:

The Boston, Massachusetts, chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM) is asking that $15 million in American taxpayer money be spent on providing summer jobs to illegal aliens.

In a list of demands posted by the BLM Boston, the organization demands the city spend millions on creating thousands of summer jobs — some of which would be given to 14 to 22-year-old illegal aliens:

These are the demands:

We demand that Mayor Marty Walsh cut the police budget by 10% from $414 million to $372 million or less, including cutting at least $40 million from the Police Department’s $60 million overtime budget. Those funds should be reinvested in the needs of Black and Brown communities, including providing housing and jobs to people released from prison. [Emphasis added]

In addition, we demand that funds are reinvested in youth jobs during a global pandemic and economic crisis. The City should fund $15 million for 5000 summer jobs and 1000 year-round jobs lasting from September to June, including hiring 14-22 year olds, hiring undocumented young people, and providing grants to organizations. Mayor Walsh, CFO Emme Handy, and Director Justin Sterritt: meet with young people immediately to discuss protecting young people this summer! [Emphasis added]

The article concludes:

Every year, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are added to the U.S. population in addition to about 1.2 million legal immigrants who permanently resettle in the country and another more than one million foreign visa workers who arrive to take American jobs.

The results have stifled upward mobility in wages and employment for, specifically, black Americans. Research in the past has revealed that every ten percent increase in the immigrant share of an occupation reduces the wages of black American men by about five percent.

Likewise, every one percent increase in the immigrant share of an occupation reduces overall American weekly wages by about 0.5 percent, researcher Steven Camarotta has found. This means the average native-born American worker today has their weekly wages reduced by perhaps 8.5 percent because of current legal immigration levels.

I think we need to increase police budgets and give the police anything they need to keep a protest from becoming a riot. BLM obviously does not understand that the requests they are making would harm the black community rather than help them.

One Of Many Reasons Why Elections Matter

Issues & Insights is a website started by the people who used to write the editorial page of Investor’s Business Daily. Today they posted an article explaining what is happening to the people who are rioting and destroying property in many of our major cities. Keep in mind that many of the prosecutors in these cities were elected with money supplied by organizations funded by George Soros.

The article reports:

St. Louis is a case in point. There, prosecutor Kim Gardner let 36 people arrested for looting and rioting go scot-free, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Gardner’s office used the pathetic excuse that it needed “essential evidence” from the police, implying it had none.

One wonders how people caught in flagrante delicto could simply be released. The answer is, Gardner is a far-left acolyte of Soros, having been the recipient during her 2016 election of no fewer than three separate donations from a Soros-backed political-action committee.

It’s not the only example of Soros’ malign influence. Philadelphia District Attorney Lawrence Krasner, who was elected with Soros money, reportedly “has no interest” in prosecuting rioters in the city. As infuriating as this and other instances of prosecutorial misconduct are to many of us, it’s likely we’ll see more of it in the future.

“Financier and left-wing philanthropist George Soros contributed large sums to progressive candidates running for district attorney all around the country, apparently in hopes of changing the law enforcement system at the county or district level,” according to a December 2019 report from the Capital Research Center.

Beginning in 2015, the CRC report notes, Soros doled out more than $17 million “on district attorney and other local races in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Arizona, but also in large, predominantly left-of-center states such as California and New York.”

The article further explains the goal of the political activists connected to George Soros:

What’s behind all this? An attempt to undermine the American justice system at every level. Soros and his followers believe our court system and police procedures are so corrupt, so hopelessly racist, that justice is literally impossible.

In 2014, Soros gifted the ACLU with $50 million to fight “mass incarceration.” Since then, using his own Open Society Foundations and donations to other Soros-linked organizations, such as the Tides Foundation, he has continued to fund his attack on America’s justice system.

Yes, there are rare incidents of racist and illegal behavior on the part of police and prosecutors. None of our politically directed institutions is infallible. And when such things take place, as now seems in the tragic death of George Floyd, the perpetrators should be punished.

But a system that refuses to lock up those who commit criminal acts out of some sense that it’s karmic compensation for “racism” and “injustice” is no system at all. It is legal chaos.

And, taken a step further, the linking of justice to mob-imposed outrage is dangerous. That’s why the statue of Lady Justice, once found in so many courts around the nation, is always blindfolded. Justice isn’t about politics; it’s about the law. Justice is blind, as the saying goes.

The mainstream media go out of their way to downplay the 89-year-old Soros’ role in trying to “transform” the American justice system. It’s to be expected, given the fact that much of the media now simply follow the progressive left’s script in “reporting” the news.

The article concludes:

But like so many others on the far left who have gotten fabulously wealthy in America’s free-market system while protected by our laws and Constitution, Soros hates America. He wants to tear it down.

And no, that’s not an exaggeration. As he himself has said, “The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.” He believes that, and is acting on it.

So it’s not surprising he’s funding American extremists to do the job. By seeding local justice agencies and courts with far-left lawyers, Soros is helping to hollow out our justice system, once the envy of the world. Those who are the supposed protectors of the rule of law are actually its enemies.

Just as with recent revelations of misconduct at the FBI, Justice Department and CIA, Americans would be well-advised to pay close attention also to their local races for judges, district attorneys and other positions of power in the justice system. Any interference by Soros is a red flag, pun intended, that your local justice system is being subverted.

I wonder what the people who are being used by the leftists and anarchists fueling the riots think there is to gain. Do they believe that they will prosper in any way in the ‘new’ system they are espousing? Have they considered that fact that the goal of those fomenting the riots is tyranny?

The Problem With Justice In Minneapolis

The death of George Floyd is a tragedy. There is no doubt that he would still be alive if he hadn’t been held down on the ground by the police for as long as he was. However, the autopsy does not give asphixiation as the primary cause of death. So where do we go from here?

Andrew McCarthy posted an article at The National Review today that might provide some answers.

The article notes:

For one thing, contrary to most people’s assumption, Mr. Floyd appears not to have died from asphyxia or strangulation as Chauvin pinned him to the ground, knee to the neck. Rather, as alleged in the complaint, Floyd suffered from coronary-artery disease and hypertensive-heart disease. The complaint further intimates, but does not come out and allege, that Floyd may have had “intoxicants” in his system. The effects of these underlying health conditions and “any potential intoxicants” are said to have “combined” with the physical restraint by three police officers, most prominently Chauvin, to cause Floyd’s death.

As I’ve noted in a column on the homepage, Hennepin County prosecutors have charged Chauvin with third-degree depraved-indifference homicide. Now that the complaint has been released publicly, we see that a lesser offense was also charged: second-degree manslaughter. This homicide charge involves “culpable negligence creating an unreasonable risk” of serious bodily harm, and carries a maximum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment.

It is easy to see why prosecutors added this charge (and why they shied away from more serious grades of murder described in my column). The case is tougher for prosecutors if there is doubt about whether Chauvin’s unorthodox and unnecessary pressure on Floyd’s neck caused him to die. Had he been strangled, causative effect of the neck pressure would be patent. But if the neck pressure instead just contributed to the stress of the situation that triggered death because of unusual underlying medical problems (possibly in conjunction with intoxicants Floyd may have consumed), it becomes a harder murder prosecution.

Stay tuned. This is going to get complicated. I believe that the police force was correct to fire the officers involved. However, getting them to pay a more serious price for their abuse of power is going to be difficult. Even with video evidence, they are innocent until proven guilty and have to be convicted ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’

 

What Is The Next Step?

On Monday night George Floyd was pronounced dead after he was taken into custody by police in Minneapolis. There is a video of Mr. Floyd being pressed to the ground by a policeman despite Mr. Floyd’s stating that he could not breathe. This is a horrible abuse of power by the policeman and by the other policemen and people standing around watching it happen. So where do we go from here?

The answer is not rioting, looting, and burning down the neighborhood businesses. There is never any excuse for that behavior. Part of the answer is arresting the policeman who had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck and the policemen who stood by as Mr. Floyd was murdered. There needs to be a trial. Probably a change of venue for the trial would be in order. The charge needs to be appropriate to the crime–the video is evidence. I don’t know if a murder charge would hold up, but I suspect an involuntary manslaughter charge would.

We can’t judge the motives of the policeman. We don’t know if he knew his actions would result in death. We don’t know why he simply did not place the man in the backseat of the police car. These are things that I hope would come out in a trial.

Most of our policemen are honest, hardworking men and women. It is a shame when a man charged with upholding the law does something this horrible. According to various sources, the policeman involved had other questionable incidents in his record. This should be a wake-up call to all supervisors of policemen to remove any policeman who cannot handle the responsibility of the job without acting in ways that bring disgrace on their profession and create situations where people feel they have the right to riot. People never have the right to riot, but unfortunately some people have been told that they do.

It Begins Again

Hot Air posted an article yesterday about what is currently happening in Hong Kong.

The article reports:

When we were discussing China’s new “national security” law for Hong Kong yesterday, it was noted that pro-democracy advocates were already railing against the betrayal of the promises China made when taking over control of the city from Great Britain. Protests were planned, but pro-Beijing lawmakers were warning that any sort of public demonstrations could be dealt with harshly. Well, that took all of one day to come to pass. Despite concerns about a new wave of coronavirus infections, demonstrators took to the streets and were quickly met by police forces firing tear gas canisters indiscriminately into the crowds at a large shopping center. And then the arrests began.

…Tam Tak-chi, one of the city’s most well-known democracy advocates, was arrested shortly after the protests began. He had previously predicted that he would be detained if China moved forward with its new legislation and it turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. He was charged with holding “an unauthorized assembly.”

The article concludes:

In that sense, much of the “freedom” enjoyed by Hong Kong since 1997 has largely been illusory anyway. China regularly intervenes in local elections if the residents begin electing too many people with crazy ideas about freedom and democracy. The top leadership positions, currently exemplified by Carrie Lam, are always held by pro-Beijing politicians who take their marching orders from the CCP. People have regularly been arrested in Hong Kong for demonstrating, giving speeches or contacting foreign media outlets, things that people in free nations simply take for granted.

Up until now, a certain amount of demonstrating and chatter about democracy has been allowed, apparently just to humor the locals. But now it appears that China isn’t going to even bother providing a fig leaf to the 1997 agreement they entered into. They’re probably sure that they can get away with it because nobody is going to risk going to war with them or attempt any sort of direct military intervention right on China’s doorstep to free Hong Kong’s citizens. And while it’s sad to say, they’re probably right.

This was predictable. I don’t know if the outcome would have been any different had the British not signed the treaty with China. However, we need to learn from what we are watching–China is not a reliable partner in any treaty. On May 5th, I posted an article citing a provision in the recent trade agreement (signed before the coronavirus outbreak in America) that says if there is a natural occurring disaster, the two parties will renegotiate. This is another example of the fact that China, under communism, is not willing to play fair on the international stage. Best wishes to the people of Hong Kong. I am not optimistic about your future.

This Is Appropriate

Fox 32 in Chicago is reporting that actor Jussie Smollett was indicted today in Chicago by special prosecutor Dan Webb, stemming from the alleged racist and anti-gay attack on him that occurred in January of 2019.

The article reports:

Smollett is due in court February 24 at the Criminal Court Building at 26th and California. He is indicted on six counts, accused of lying to Chicago police when he reported the attack last year, special prosecutor Webb said. Smollett faces six counts of disorderly conduct.

Mr. Smollett’s story was fishy from the start. As I am sure you remember, Jussie Smollett claimed to have been attacked by two Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats and shouting racial slurs. The attackers were also accused of shouting, “This is MAGA country.” That in itself should have raised suspicions–does anyone really believe that Chicago is MAGA country?

The article reports:

“Dan K. Webb, special prosecutor for Cook County, today announced that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (“OSP”) has now completed all of its investigative steps regarding Jussie Smollett, and has made the decision to further prosecute Mr. Smollett. Based on the recommendation of the OSP, a Cook County grand jury returned a six-count indictment charging Jussie Smollett with making four separate false reports to Chicago Police Department officers related to his false claims that he was the victim of a hate crime, knowing that he was not the victim of a crime,” Webb said in a statement.

Please follow the link to the article to read the details of the case.

Obviously Guns Are Not The Problem

Breitbart is reporting today that the murder rate in London has surged to a decade high. Guns are not common in Britain, the increase is due to knife killings.

The article reports:

The number of people murdered in London has reached its highest level in a decade under the leadership of Mayor Sadiq Khan, with 149 people losing their lives in 2019.

The homicide rate in London last year was the highest since 2008 when 154 people were killed in the capital and ten per cent higher than in 2018 when 135 people were murdered. The majority of victims were stabbed to death, with 90 people being killed by knives, up from 55 in 2014.

The article notes:

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service said in response to the surge in knife crime that “tackling violence that involves knife crime is the number one priority” for the police.

“Stop and search and the use of Section 60 remains an important power in tackling knife crime and protecting the public. This means that following a stabbing, further retaliatory incidents are prevented saving further violence,” the spokesman told The Sun.

“In 2018, it resulted in more than 4,200 arrests for weapon possession alone. Every one of those weapons seized potentially means one less violent incident, injury or death,” the spokesman added.

Maybe it’s time that we started teaching people to respect other people. The problem is not the weapon, the problem is in the heart of the person holding the weapon.

Common Sense From The Detroit Police Chief

Breitbart posted an article today about a recent statement by the Detroit Police Chief.

The article states:

Detroit Police Chief James Craig suggested concealed carry by law-abiding citizens “is about staying alive” during an October 30, 2019, interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Craig, a vocal advocate of concealed carry for self-defense, said, “There’s been research that shows criminals fear armed citizens more than they fear police.”

He explained police are not ever-present, thus they usually arrive after a crime not during one: “By the time we’re called it’s usually after the fact, so we’re reacting to the crime.” But armed, law-abiding citizens can be present to act as the crime is unfolding.

That makes sense. There is a lot of validity to the idea of every citizen learning to be responsible for their own safety. I personally think everyone should take a Concealed Carry class simply to understand their rights and responsibilities in regard to gun ownership.

The article concludes:

On January 2, 2014, Breitbart News reported Craig noting that “good community members who have concealed [licenses]” deter crime and save lives.

On December 1, 2015, Breitbart News reported Craig saying armed citizens also help fight the threat of terrorism. The  Detroit News quoted Craig saying, “A lot of Detroiters have CPLs, and the same rules apply to terrorists as they do to some gun-toting thug. If you’re a terrorist, or a carjacker, you want unarmed citizens.”

He suggested the knowledge that citizens  “would shoot back” probably makes “extremists…reluctant to target Detroit.”

Armed citizens are one of the best crime deterrents available. The idea of taking guns away from law-abiding citizens collapses when you realize that criminals will not surrender their guns–leaving the general public unarmed and vulnerable.

Over The Edge

I know that there are some rational Democrats out there. Alan Dershowitz is one, and I am sure there are a few others. However, there are enough nuts running around out there to keep a colony of squirrels fed for a million winters!

Katie Pavlich posted an article at Townhall today about some events at a recent townhall meeting held by Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. I realize that Congresswoman Tlaib may not fully understand how our government works, but I think what went on at that meeting was unacceptable.

The article reports:

During a town hall meeting with constituents in Michigan this week, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib agreed that U.S. Marshals should “hunt down” White House officials and remove them from office if they “refuse to leave power.” This includes President Trump.

The idea was suggested by a man questioning Tlaib, who nodded in agreement, and then admitted Democrats on Capitol Hill have been having a discussion about who can arrest administration officials and where they could be held.

“This is the last caucus conversation we’ve had. Did you know this is really unprecedented? This is the worst time we’ve ever had a situation like this. They’re trying to figure out, no joke, is it the DC police that goes and gets them?” Tlaib said. “Where do we hold them? Like, I’m not in those kinds of conversations but I’m asking, what happens?”

“I’m telling you, they’re trying to be like, ‘Well where are we going put them? Where are we going to hold…'” she continued, suggesting they can be held in Detroit. “What happens when they don’t comply? The fact of the matter is we held Barr and Secretary Ross from Commerce, the Secretary of Commerce, in contempt. Well, what happens if they continue to not comply?”

Note that there is no description of whatever it is these people have done to deserve arrest. Also note that there never seems to be a definitive list of crimes that President Trump is supposed to have committed. Have we reached the point where if you disagree with me and I am in power I can have you arrested? This is frightening.