Post-Pandemic Blues
(#470, 7/8/25)

Thievery, some of it violent,
besets our nation's recovery

More Poverty,
Less Trust
(#469, 6/23/25)

Citizens who most need the
cops trust them the least

Violence Isn't Down
for the Cops
(#468, 5/30/25)

More officers are being
murdered. And mostly,
with guns.

A Lethal Distraction
(#467, 5/12/25)

A foot pursuit of hit-and-run
suspects turns into
an exchange of fire with
an armed resident

Putting Things Off
(#466, 4/27/25)

Pursuits hurt and kill
innocents. What are
the options?

Gun Control?
What's That?
(#465, 4/1/25)

Ideological quarrels
beset gun laws.
And gun law-making.
And gun law-enforcing.

Forewarned is
Forearmed
(#464, 3/19/25)

Killings of police officers
seem inevitable.
What might help?

Who's Under the Gun?
The ATF, That's Whom
(#463, 3/6/25)

Going after gun controllers,
for the usual reasons

Who's Under the Gun?
The FBI, That's Whom
(#462, 2/14/25)

Going after the FBI
for going after
the Capitol rioters

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

Keep going...

7/15/25 Twenty U.S. Government employees who participated in the prosecution of President Trump during the former Administration were reportedly fired this week by A.G. Pam Bondi. Among them are two U.S. Attorneys and several U.S. Marshals. They were let go for helping to investigate Trump's efforts to annul President Biden's election, and for allegedly hoarding classified documents at home. Capitol updates   Related post

"We're literally just trading water." That's the lament voiced by the public works director as he watches workers scrape away yet another example of the graffiti that besets the nation's capital. And even as one street "artist's" handiwork disappears, D.C.'s clean-up czar knows full well that it will be replaced, literally overnight. Few perpetrators get caught, and arrests are "uncommon." Although the consequences could theoretically include imprisonment, deterrence is in practice non-existent. Related post

Three days after a Federal District court temporarily enjoined the Government from conducting immigration raids at will in Southern California, the Administration has asked the Ninth Circuit to quash the judge's move. According to DOJ lawyers, the judge “is inflicting irreparable harm by preventing the Executive from ensuring that immigration laws are enforced.” Language, ethnicity and other factors relied on by ICE are critical parts of the equation and not, as the judge ruled, merely pretexts for effecting detentions. Immigration updates Related post

7/14/25 ICE raids at two licensed Southern California cannabis farms resulted in the arrest of "about 200 suspected undocumented immigrants." Several hundred protesters soon gathered, and one reportedly fired at the agents. ICE deployed tear gas and rubber bullets. This wasn't the first time that the farm's operator, had been targeted, and its representatives said they "fully complied" with the search warrants presented by ICE. Immigration updates   Drug legalization updates Related post

On July 11 the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the U.S. Government from "conducting detentive stops in this District unless the agent or officer has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation fo U.S. immigration law." Factors including race, presence at a certain place or type of work are insufficient to form the required suspicion. A hearing that may lead to a permanent order will be scheduled. Immigration updates Related post

In July 2024 the Government authorized a plea deal allowing 9/11 kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and co-defendants Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi to avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty. It was signed off by all parties on July 31, 2024. But blowback led then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to renounce the deal only days later. And a DC Circuit Court panel just ruled 2-1 that, yes, the Government could back out. It's now up to the new Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, to decide what to do. Related post

7/11/25 An essay just published in Criminology examines disparities in how police reportedly treated persons who participated in three 2020-era movements: BLM protests against the police; “Stop-the-Steal” protests against the supposedly rigged election; and protests against restrictions imposed due to the COVID pandemic. A major finding is that BLM’s protests drew a sterner reaction. But its protests were racially integrated, so “individualized racism” was ruled out. Instead, the biased response may have reflected officer attitudes about BLM’s personalized challenge, and a belief that the “property damage, vandalism, and graffiti” caused by its protesters required a more aggressive approach. Related post

In 1994 Brian Boles and Charles Collins were both 17 when New York City police arrested them for a robbery. But detectives decided they were responsible, as well, for the brutal murder of an 80-year old a week earlier. After days of intense questioning and sleep deprivation, both confessed. They were respectively imprisoned for 30 and 23 years before being paroled. It now turns out that DNA from the homicide victim’s fingernail points to someone else. Prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges, and that’s what a Manhattan judge just did. Related post

Four years ago New York State enacted a law requiring that gun makers and sellers “put safeguards in place to address straw purchasing, gun trafficking and theft.” That measure was challenged by the gun industry as preempted by the 2005 “Federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,” which shields it from lawsuits over gun misuse that it did not aid or abet through risky sales or marketing practices. But a Second Circuit panel just upheld New York’s law. In its view, the Act didn’t forbid States from stepping in. Related post

Melvin Doyle is the 49-year old father of Melanie Doyle, the Chicago hip-hop artist known as Mello Buckzz. Her July 2nd. album release party was targeted in a drive-by that killed four and wounded fourteen. No arrests have been made in that case. But her father was just arrested by ATF agents after allegedly selling 13 guns to informers in two months, including “several” since the drive-by. He’s got an extensive criminal record, including an attempted murder in 1995 for which he drew ten years in prison. Related post

7/10/25 According to The Trace, Chicago police reported that 2,704 of the 7,705 murders which took place between 2010-2024 had been “cleared.” Arrests were made in 1,735 “cleared” cases (64%). The remaining 969 “cleared cases” - nearly a third - had been classified as “exceptionally” cleared: 312 because the suspect died, and 657 because prosecutors declined to file charges. Meanwhile Criminology & Public Policy just published an academic study that analyzed the effects of video surveillance cameras and gunshot detection technology on Chicago PD’s clearance rates for fatal and non-fatal shootings between 2005-2019. It concludes that neither method had a significant effect. Related posts 1   2   3

LAPD recorded 116 homicides between Jan 1-June 28, 2025. That compares with 152 during that period last year. Should this trend continue LAPD expects that its year-end homicide totals will be the lowest since 1968. Murders are markedly down even in the city’s chronically troubled areas. Other major cities are experiencing like trends. One expert attributes the improvements to the “strong investment in communities from private and public sources” that helped the nation recover economically from the pandemic. An LAPD official credits a “beefed-up police presence” and a focus on the “small group of hardcore offenders” who purportedly cause “most of the violence.” Related post

Wrongful convictions aren’t just a problem in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2015 nearly 1,000 British postal workers were wrongly convicted of theft and fraud because of faulty software that mistakenly found shortages in postal service accounts. This grave injustice is blamed for causing at least thirteen of the affected postal employees to commit suicide, and many more to contemplate it. Legislation has been introduced by the Government to reverse the convictions and compensate its victims. Related post

Florida is reportedly the eighth State to pass a law making it a State crime for persons to enter its jurisdiction after illegally crossing into the U.S. Legal moves from opponents, though, have kept such laws from taking effect in four States. And so it is in Florida, whose appeal from a Federal judge’s injunction barring the law’s enforcement was just rejected, without comment, by the Supreme Court. If Florida wants to make the law “happen,” it will have to keep litigating it through the Federal courts. Immigration updates Related post

7/9/25 On July 4th. a group clad in black clothing and packing flyers advocating “FIGHT ICE TERROR WITH CLASS WAR!” gathered outside an ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas and began shooting fireworks at the facility. When a local police officer arrived group members positioned nearby opened fire with assault rifles, wounding the officer in the neck. Ten members of the group have been arrested and charged with attempted murder of Federal agents. Three days later, a heavily armed 27-year old man opened fire on the Border Patrol building in McAllen, Texas. He was fatally wounded by return fire. A local police officer was wounded in the knee but is expected to recover. Immigration updates Related post

Four former high-ranking NYPD officers have filed a pair of lawsuits against Mayor Eric Adams and several subordinates in State court. They allege that Mayor Adams, a former NYPD Captain, enabled a “culture of corruption” that, among other things, allowed unqualified officers with whom the defendants were friends to gain undeserved promotions in exchange for cash. Current ranking officers are also accused of suppressing information, such as about patterns of unconstitutional traffic stops, that could “cast a shadow” on the Mayor’s touted achievements in lowering crime. Related post

7/8/25 “Coward, want-to-be- thugs stuff.” That’s how Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel described the early-morning massacre in the Grays Ferry neighborhood that killed three males ages 19-24 and wounded nine others, one critically. Those wounded included three youths, ages 15-17. Forty persons were reportedly present, and multiple shooters are believed to have been involved. According to investigators, a device that enables a handgun to fire fully automatically (an “auto sear”) was used. Related post

Baltimore claims it’s turned a corner. During this year’s first half the violence-beset city has suffered 68 murders, a “nearly 23 percent decrease” from that period last year and the fewest in fifty years. What’s to credit? When Mayor Brandon Scott came to office in 2021 he announced a plan “to approach gun violence as a public health threat instead of simply a crime issue.” Ergo, “violence interrupters, community organizations and trauma-informed support systems in impacted neighborhoods.” Police have also adopted a more “targeted” approach with a focus on gun offenders and “group violence.” For Mayor Scott, it really is all about place. Related post

7/7/25 Lethal violence continues to beset Chicago. During the early morning hours of July 2nd., a male attempted to rob two women inside a South Shore residence. When they resisted, he opened fire, killing a 29-year old woman and wounding her 37-year old companion. One day later, during the early morning hours of July 3rd., gunfire broke out at an outdoor gathering on the Far South Side. Four persons were wounded, two critically. So far, no arrests have been announced for either episode. Related post

President Trump signed the final version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” As enacted, it sets the making and transfer tax for silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns, which had been $200, to zero. But it does not remove them from the special registration and transfer provisions of the National Firearms Act, as the original House version had intended. That language was stripped from the final bill by the Senate after its Parliamentarian objected to non-budgetary changes. Act (see sec. 70436). Related post

A former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Edward Kelley must have seemed a natural for the July 6th. pardons of Capitol rioters that were meted out by President Trump. But Kelley’s upset over his arrest had led to him to devise an elaborate plot to kill everyone who helped investigate his actions on January 6th. Alas, one of his buds turned him in. Convicted at trial of conspiracy to murder, he just drew a life sentence. And the judge turned away his claim that the pardon covered that crime as well. You see, his murder plot was hatched after January 6th. Capitol updates Related post

According to an inquiry by the New York Times, American cops are far less successful at solving murders than their peers in other “rich nations” such as Australia, Germany and Great Britain. Their murder clearance rates are between seventy and ninety percent, while America’s is fifty-eight. One reason might be that the sheer numbers of murders in the U.S. overwhelms investigative resources. Most killings in the U.S. are also committed with guns, enabling assailants to keep their distance. And many involve gang members, thus minimizing the availability of willing witnesses. Related post

Lethal gunplay struck several cities during the overnight hours of July 4th.-5th. In Indianapolis a street brawl devolved into a mass shooting. Two teens, ages 15 and 16 were killed, and five persons ages 17 to 21 were wounded. “Several guns” were recovered. About the same time, a “large altercation” in Brockton, MS also ended with gunfire. Six were wounded, apparently none fatally. And in chronically beset Chicago, a spate of violent episodes (click here and here) in its chronically troubled neighborhoods killed four and left at least eight wounded. Related post

“The majority’s ruling…is…profoundly dangerous, since it gives the Executive the go-ahead to sometimes wield the kind of unchecked, arbitrary power the Founders crafted our Constitution to eradicate.” Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s blast at her conservative colleagues for stripping District Courts’ authority to issue nationwide injunctions illustrates the assertedly “deepening”  division between the six “conservative” and three “liberal” Justices. According to a legal scholar, Justice Jackson “realizes the balls and strikes on the court” and is responding accordingly. Related post

7/3/25 “Drill” rap expresses the violence that besets gang life. And Chicago’s “drill” rap scene made another dark turn as a drive-by took the lives of four persons and wounded fourteen others who were waiting outside the Artis Lounge, where rapper Mello Buckzz was set to stage an album release party. Victim ages ranged from 21 to 32, and at least two of the wounded were reportedly in critical condition. As of yet, no arrests. Three years ago another shooting at the same address killed one and wounded three. Related post

Bryan Kohberger, a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, was identified as the killer of four University of Idaho students with the help of genetic DNA. Three years ago, Kohberger, who was unacquainted with his victims, broke into a home late at night and used a “military -style” knife  he had bought online to stab them as they lay in bed. His motives are unknown. He just pled guilty, ostensibly to avoid the death penalty. Some of the victim’s relatives support the outcome; others are upset that Kohberger wasn’t required to fully confess. Related post

California doesn’t recognize concealed-carry licenses issued by other States. Its laws also forbid non-residents from applying for a CCW permit. This, according to a Southern California Federal judge, is a bridge too far. Ruling in a lawsuit filed against the State’s A.G. by an out-of-state resident, U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo just found that California’s unforgiving posture violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. She has ordered that the parties “meet and confer and submit a proposed order for an injunction consistent with this order within 30 days.” Related posts 1   2

On the one hand, the Department of Homeland Security just announced that its get-tough on illegal immigrants posture has cleaned up border areas, leading to “the lowest nationwide encounters and apprehensions in history—shattering record lows set earlier this year under the Trump Administration.” On the other, California’s farmers fear for their crops. “In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone. If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day.” One farmer usually has 300 workers planting strawberries. But fears of an immigration raid meant that only 80 showed up. Immigration updates Related post

7/2/25 In reportedly the largest-ever such scheme, four Californians - Kristerpher Turner, 52, Toriano Knox, 55, Kenya Jones, 46, and Joyce Johnson, 55 - were Federally indicted for submitting fraudulent applications for COVID-19 tax relief that caused the Treasury to pay out $93 million in unearned benefits to 148 companies. Knox and Jones were also indicted for orchestrating the near-fatal shooting of Turner, whom they feared intended to cooperate with the authorities. Turner was paralyzed. COVID updates

Overturning a lower-court decision, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Federal law prohibiting the sale of handguns to persons under 21 “fits squarely within” the test imposed by Bruen, and is therefore Constitutional. “From English common law to America’s founding and beyond, our regulatory tradition has permitted restrictions on the sale of firearms to individuals under the age of 21.” However, this opinion clashes with a January ruling by the Fifth Circuit, so it will be ultimately up to the Supreme Court to decide. Decision   Related post

Los Angeles bills itself as a “sanctuary city.” But what should cops do while ICE conducts its highly controversial “sweeps”? Guidelines reportedly just issued by LAPD instruct officers to avoid participating in the enforcement of immigration law. Instead, they should concentrate on keeping the peace, ensure that citizens stay safe, and try to keep property from being damaged. Immigration agents have been working in plain clothes, sowing uncertainty about their identity. That’s caused fear and confusion. Officers are instructed to verify that questionable agents are who they claim to be, and to record encounters with those who don’t cooperate. Immigration updates Related post

7/1/25 U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a staunch “Blue” in his second term representing Maryland’s 8th. District, has introduced the “Clean Hands Firearm Procurement Act.’’ It pertains to firearms dealers to whom ATF traced 25 or more guns that were recovered from crimes within three years of their sale. Dealers who fall into this category at least twice within a three-year period would be publicly identified, and Federal agencies would be barred from entering into contracts with them. On the other side of the isle, his bid was joined by Senator Alex Padilla. House Bill Related post

Last December L.A. Mayor Karen Bass signed an ordinance entitled “Prohibition of the Use of City Resources for Federal Immigration Enforcement” into law. According to its provisions, city employees may not (among many other things) “investigate, cite, arrest, hold, transfer, or detain” anyone for the purposes of immigration enforcement, “provide any Immigration Agent access” to non-public areas, or “make any person in City custody available” to immigration agents. And that just led DOJ to sue the city. In its view, the ordinance “is preempted by federal immigration law.” Ordinance   Immigration updates Related post

6/30/25 A blaze broke out in Canfield Mountain, a popular hiking spot in the hills next to Coeur d’Alene early Sunday afternoon. About a half hour later a sniper opened fire, killing two firefighters and critically wounding a third. Hostile gunfire continued as deputies arrived, and they fired back. Mid-afternoon a cell signal guided a tactical team to the spot where they found a weapon and a man’s body. No information about his identity has yet been released. He is thought to have acted alone. Related post