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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
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
Keep going...
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4/21/25 FSU mass shooter Phoenix Ikner
was a deeply troubled child who took meds for “mental issues.” When he was ten his biological mother spirited him away
to Norway. A court ordered his return, and she was jailed over the episode. His father remarried, and Ikner, whose birth name was
Christian Eriksen, changed his name. Although he did well academically, his “white supremacist, alt-right views” worried
classmates, as did his fondness for guns. His stepmother, whose handgun he used, had purchased it from the Leon County
Sheriff’s Dept., where she is employed as a deputy. She’s presently on leave.
Related post
A late-evening shooting in the front yard of a Chicago residence wounded three teens, ages 17, 18 and 19, one critically. The
shooter, with whom they reportedly had an argument, fled in an SUV. He has not yet been identified. It happened on April 18 in the
city’s poverty-stricken Austin neighborhood (Zip 60644, pov. 29.7%).
Related post
Agreeing with
Massachusett’s argument that “States have routinely regulated, and sometimes outright banned, specific weapons once
it became clear that they posed a unique danger to public safety,” a panel of the 1st. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the
state’s ban on assault weapons as consistent with the “historical tradition” requirement of the Bruen decision. Along the way, the Justices also remarked that the
appellants offered “a single instance where the AR-15 -- or any other banned weapon -- has actually been used in a self-
defense scenario.”
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Concerns that the Administration might invoke the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelans held by ICE in a Texas
detention center led the ACLU to sue. In response, the Supreme Court just issued a summary order (Justices Thomas and Alito
dissented) prohibiting any such expulsion pending a forthcoming ruling by the Fifth Circuit. And even then, it barred any removal
“until further order of this Court.”
Order
Immigration updates
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4/18/25 When 20-year old student
Phoenix Ikner stepped out of his car at Florida State University, he took out a shotgun. But it jammed. So Ikner reached in and
got a handgun. It was an old service weapon once used by his mother, a long-time deputy sheriff. Ikner walked to the area of the
student union building and opened fire, killing two non-students and badly wounding five other persons. Officers soon arrived; they
shot and wounded Ikner when he didn’t comply with their commands. Ikner was a member of the sheriff’s “Youth
Advisory Council” and participated in its training programs. In 2014 a former student opened fire in the FSU library, wounding three. Myron May, 31, was killed by police.
Related post
In November 2018 Hoover, AL police officer David Alexander shot and killed Emantic Bradford, Jr. Officer Alexander and a partner were
patrolling a mall and heard gunshots. They zeroed in on Mr. Bradford, an innocent citizen who had drawn his legal gun to help out.
Assuming he was the shooter, Officer Alexander didn’t verbally warn Mr. Bradford and quickly fired, killing him. (The real
shooter, who wounded two, was prosecuted.) Officer
Alexander was cleared by prosecutors. Mr. Bradford’s family nonetheless sued. But an 11th. Federal Circuit panel
just granted officer Alexander qualified
immunity from civil liability.
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4/17/25 According to a news update, four students, ages 15-18, were shot at Wilmer-Hutchins High School on April 15th. None was
critically wounded. A fifth student was hospitalized for anxiety. Tracy Denard Haynes Jr., the 17-year old suspect, surrendered to
police. He apparently brought the gun in during the early afternoon when another student let him in through an unsecured door.
Haynes promptly opened fire, shooting "indiscriminately."
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Minnesota law enforcement
agencies began adopting encrypted radio communications in 2019. Minneapolis has just joined the trend. While the system is tested
and tuned up, radio traffic between dispatch and patrol, and between patrol cars, will be encrypted four to six hours a day. And
24-hour encryption is around the corner. Police scanners will no longer work. But MPD promises it will promptly post general
information about radio calls, including incident locations, on its “online dashboard.”
Related post
According to
Virginia’s Law Enforcement Assistance Program, officers are twice as likely to die by suicide than to be feloniously
killed. With that in mind, the program offers seminars and guidance to cops before and after they experience the “traumatic
life events” that are so commonplace to policing. With the loss of one of its own by suicide last month, the Giles County
Sheriff’s office is welcoming VALEAP’s help. One of its tools, peer support, will “try to help normalize the
trauma that comes after a critical event, and give people tips and tricks to move past these events.”
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4/16/25 Three high-school students, ages 15-18, were shot and a fourth was injured when a fellow student opened fire on the
campus of Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas, TX. None of the injuries are life-threatening. Police have the shooter in custody.
Students must enter the school through metal detectors, so it’s thought that the student somehow acquired the gun later.
According to a student,"We were in class. I heard like six shots and the teacher ran to the door and closed it and told us to
hide in the corner." Last year, a student was shot in the leg at the same school.
Related post
In 2016 a divorced California woman obtained a restraining order against her
ex-husband. According to her petition, he had told friends that he wanted to commit suicide and kill their child. One year later the
ex-husband nonetheless bought a pistol at a gun store. And in 2020 he carried through on his plans. That restraining order, which
would prevented the gun sale, wasn’t in the database used to screen gun buyers. A new California law that requires Courts to
speedily pass on the identities of persons named in restraining orders is in the works.
Related post
Four years ago a Colorado gunman used an
assault weapon to commit a massacre at a Covid vaccination line. Colorado has just enacted a ban, to take effect next year, on
assault-style weapons that can accept detachable magazines. Their manufacture will be prohibited. And unless a small-capacity fixed
magazine is permanently attached, their purchase will require an eligibility card. That requires passing a background check and
completing a special firearms course. It’s good for five years, but can be renewed. Rapid-fire devices such as
“bump stocks” are outlawed altogether. Related posts
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4/15/25
South L.A.’s fetchingly entitled “Green Meadows” neighborhood suffered yet another violent weekend, with three
shootings that killed two persons and wounded one. A 13-year old girl who was inside her home when a dispute broke out nearby was
struck in the head by a gunshot and fatally wounded. And two early-morning vehicle-to-vehicle shootings left a woman dead and a man
critically wounded. So far, no arrests have been announced. Related posts
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Former Colorado
deputy sheriff Andrew Buen was sentenced to three years imprisonment for the 2022 shooting death of a deeply disturbed motorist
who had called police. Christian Glass flashed a knife when officers approached, and Buen promptly fired. In 2024 a jury convicted
him of misdemeanor recklessness, but jurors hung up on murder. When retried, Buen was convicted on the lesser offense of criminally
negligent homicide. At sentencing Buen, who has been in jail, apologized to the victim’s family and agreed that he was fully
to blame.
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“Operation Take Back America” continues to tout its accomplishments. DOJ’s April 14 news release announced that
its prosecutors in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas charged “more than 1,020 illegal aliens” with immigration-
related crimes during the second week of April. Most cases involved re-entry after deportation. Some were for making false statements.
Charges were also preferred for human smuggling and firearms violations. Many of the defendants reportedly have local criminal records.
Immigration updates
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4/14/25 Approved last year, San Francisco Prop. E authorized police to deploy high-tech tools such as drones and license plate
readers. SFPD promptly established a “Real Time Information Center” (RTIC) “where teams of analysts monitor live
surveillance feeds, license plate readers, and drone footage” to helps officers promptly respond to calls and solve
crimes. Chief Bill Scott credits the RTIC for the city’s substantial drop in crime. But skeptics worry about the
technology’s effects on civil liberties. Related posts
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"Criminals are taking advantage of
irresponsible American gun laws, and their weak border enforcement, to bring illegal guns into Canada." With those words,
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announced a plan to fight crime by getting “tough on guns.” Proposed
measures include extending Canada’s ban on assault-style weapons, automatically barring persons convicted of violent
domestic crimes from having guns, and toughening gun purchase and licensing laws.
Related post
Four Guantanamo prisoners are scheduled
to be tried on April 23 over their roles in the 9/11 assault. Among them is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who reportedly led the
attack. Another is Ali Abdul Aziz Ali (aka Ammar al-Baluchi.) Problem is, a military judge just threw out Aziz Ali’s
confession, as it was made under extreme physical and mental duress during the early stages of his captivity. A fifth accused,
Ramzi bin al-Shibh, has been removed
from the proceedings as the long-troubled man was found mentally unfit to stand trial.
Related post
Philadelphia murders are reportedly down.
But shootings by youths have bucked a seemingly favorable trend. Between 2010-2024 223 juveniles were charged with murder. In 2010
the number was 26; by 2018 it was “only” three. But killings then rose, reaching a stunning 39 in 2022. That dropped
to a still-considerable 26 in 2024, the same as in 2010. Charges in nonfatal shootings are way up; there were twice as many
(49) last year as in 2010 (24). Among other things, authorities blame teens’ exposure to and glorification of violence, a
lack of opportunities, and the ready availability of guns. Related posts
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On April 8 CBP
revoked the temporary parole status granted to about 6,300 immigrants who were allowed to enter the U.S. by the prior
Administration. These immigrants have been notified of their revocations and ordered to self-deport. To impede their employment
prospects, use of financial services, and receipt of local and State government benefits, their social security numbers were
purged from the regular list and placed in the “Death Master File.”
Immigration updates
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Now seventeen,
Nikita Casap immigrated from Ukraine with his mother. He lived with her and his stepfather in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Until about
two months ago, when he shot them both dead. Casap lived with their bodies for two weeks, then took the family cash and a car and
ran off. He was soon arrested in Kansas. According to the Feds, Casap, a Nazi sympathizer, had been plotting with others to murder
the President, and used the stolen money to buy a drone and explosives. A deep probe into Casap’s motivations was just
published by Psychology Today.
Related post
4/11/25 Criminal
investigations only. No civil immigration cases. That’s the requirement that NYC Mayor Eric Adams says he’s
imposed on ICE in exchange for letting them open an office at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex. Immigration agents will
be joining other Federal agencies who collaborate with city authorities on drug and gang investigations. But fans of NYC’s
2014 “sanctuary city” law say it’s payback to President Trump, who had Federal corruption charges against the
Mayor dismissed.
Immigration updates
Related post
Former Torrance, CA police
officers Christopher Tomsic and Cody Weldin pled guilty to felony vandalism for spray-painting a swastika in a
citizen’s car in 2020. They will be on probation for two years and will lose their state peace officer certifications.
Their prosecution arose from a major State inquiry into a trove of Torrance officers who “championed violence against
minorities, joked about beating up folks, and derided internal investigations.”
Related post
In another ominous sign for the beleaguered agency, the Trump administration forced ATF’s number two, long-serving special
agent Marvin Richardson, to resign from his position as Deputy Director. He had occupied that slot for five years, and was Acting
Director in 2021. No reason was given.
Related post
4/10/25 A Los-Angeles
area soccer coach who was the prior subject of sex-abuse allegations has been charged with murdering a 13-year old boy.
Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, 43, faces the possibility of a death penalty. At his court appearance he was also accused of sexual
assaults in 2022 and 2024. According to the District Attorney the earliest case was not prosecuted for insufficient evidence. DHS
reports that Garcia Aquino, a native of El Salvador, is illegally in the U.S. D.A. statement
Immigration updates
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Albuquerque’s mayor and police chief report that crime has come down this year. But New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan
Grisham still considers the city’s crime rate sufficiently high to warrant the deployment of National Guard troops to help
out. They will perform secondary functions, such as directing traffic and securing crime scenes. Police Chief Harold Medina says
that the help will give officers more time to patrol. But skeptics fear that troops may trample on citizen’s civil rights.
Related post
Two 16-year old teens, a 17-year old and an 18-year old are under arrest after an “illegal gun sale/robbery” at a
townhouse complex in Spotsylvania County, Virginia devolved into a mass shooting. Two 18-year old men and a 20-year old were killed,
and three others were wounded, including one of the 16-year old suspects. Witnesses reportedly saw the alleged shooters
“walking down the street with ‘guns in their hands’” and said that the gunfire sounded “like a
machinegun.”
Related post
According to A.G. Pamela Bondi, the Biden administration “placed
an undue burden on gun owners and vendors by targeting law-abiding citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.” DOJ has
accordingly formed a Second Amendment Task Force. Comprised of representatives from her office and a host of DOJ components,
including ATF and the FBI, its mission will be to develop policies and legal approaches “to advance President Trump’s
pro-gun agenda and protect gun owners from overreach.” Meanwhile, Kash Patel is no longer heading ATF. Its new acting Director is Dan Driscoll.
He also has another job. He’s Secretary of the Army. DOJ memorandum
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Florida man Leo Schofield was paroled in April
2023 after serving 36 years for murdering his wife. Problem is, another inmate of the state’s prison system, Jeremy Scott,
who was locked up for a robbery-murder, confessed to the crime eight years earlier. As it turns out, his fingerprints were found in
Mrs. Schoefield’s car. Her husband’s “error-filled” trial, and his as-yet unsuccessful fight to clear his
name, were featured in the “Bone Valley” podcast. As was his telephone conversation with the admitted killer, whom he
has forgiven. “Jeremy and I had a chance to close a chapter.” Still, Florida officials continue to insist that they had
the right man.
Related post
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