|
|
Try,
Then Try Again
(8/3/26 #486)
Should prosecutions be
abandoned when juries lean
strongly to "not guilty"?
"More" Isn't
Always "Better"
(7/17/26 #485)
Chicago-area Federal
prosecutors resign en masse
Jameson
Was a Doodle
(6/26/26 #484)
Were bullets the correct
"solution" to a 106-pound
dog's bounding approach?
The Fewer the Better
(5/29/26 #483)
Flack over D.C.'s 2023 crime
surge led police managers
to adopt an "easy" fix
Who's Minding
the Door?
(5/4/26 #482)
Protective assignments
aren't done until
the protectee's gone
Another
"Straw Purchase,"
Another Massacre
(4/29/26 #481)
A gun changes hands.
Eight children die.
Should Cops
Ever Chase?
(4/15/26 #480)
Risks to innocents
may be unmanageable
Justifiable? Excusable?
Criminal?
(3/16/26 #479)
A father guns down
his child's molester.
He then runs for Sheriff.
Must Impulse Rule?
(2/19/26 #478)
Hasty policing
yields tragic outcomes
What's Up in L.A.?
(1/30/26 #477)
Crime is reportedly down.
But police shootings
are (way) up.
Place Still Matters.
A Lot.
(12/11/25 #476)
A dispute between gangsters
devolves into the massacre
of children
L.A.P.D. Blues
(11/12/25 #475)
Is ideology driving
an ex-cop's prosecution?
Take Over? Take Care!
(Part II)
(10/23/25 #474)
San Francisco lands - for
a time - on the Prez's "hit list"
Take Over? Take Care!
(10/4/25 #473)
Invasions can't fix
what's really broken
Does "Why" Matter?
(8/21/25)
The causes of criminal
violence remain in dispute
A Money Pit
(7/28/25)
Feeding cops and lawyers
is very expensive
Post-Pandemic Blues
(7/7/25)
Thievery, some of it violent, besets our nation's recovery
More Poverty,
Less Trust
(6/23/25)
Citizens who most need the
cops trust them the least
Violence Isn't Down
for the Cops
(5/30/25)
More officers are being murdered. Mostly, with guns.
All in the Family
(5/12/25)
A foot pursuit of hit-and-run
suspects turns into a firefight
with an armed resident
Putting Things Off(5/30/25)
Pursuits Kill Innocents.
What are the Options?
Gun Control?
What's That?
(4/1/25)
Ideological quarrels beset
gun laws, gun law-making,
and gun law-enforcing
Forewarned is Forearmed
(3/19/25)
Killings of police officers
seem inevitable.
What might help?
Who's Under the Gun?
The ATF
(3/6/25)
Going after gun controllers,
for the usual reasons
Point of View
(1/30/25)
Do scholars really "get"
The Craft of Policing?
All In the Family (II)
(1/6/25)
A decade after Part I,
domestic killings remain commonplace
|
|
8/10/26 Hoping to get leads in gang violence cases with
few suspects, police in Jackson, MS applied for search warrants of all cell tower activity in
selected areas. But a Federal judge just ruled that such requests are unconstitutional, as they
would intrude into the comings and goings of ordinary, law-abiding folks and abridge their
"reasonable expectation of privacy."
Related post
Reportedly stressed by school, a 14-
year-old boy used his grandfather's legally registered "small and compact" pistol to kill his
grandparents, then opened fire at his high school. His bullets struck nearly two-dozen, mostly
children. He then committed suicide. Five school employees and a 12-year-old girl were killed.
Fourteen people remain hospitalized; seven are in critical condition. It happened in Nonthaburi,
Thailand, near Bangkok. Thai gun ownership and gun death rates are far below those of the U.S. But
they're on the high end for Asian countries.
Related post
"We do not assist with or comply with any civil immigration requests from ICE". That
statement, which appears on the
website of the Henneppin Co. (MN) Sheriff's Office, is why ICE recently hand-delivered letters
to its Sheriff, and to the like-minded Sheriff of Cook County, IL, which threatens to prosecute both
for the Federal felony of "witness tampering." But the likelihood of that, say legal experts, is
slim. Federal judges in both places have already turned away lawsuits that sought the Sheriffs to
cooperate. But the failure of jails to turn over persons illegally in the U.S., says ICE, forces it
to resort to other measures, such as sweeps, that make things more risky for everyone.
Related post
Twenty-five fires. While being questioned about the recent Spokane-area Old Trails fire, which
burned hundreds of homes, that's how many fires accused arsonist Aaron Farinacci admitted setting
during the past year. Meanwhile California authorities arrested a handyman for setting the Gann blaze (he says, accidentally), which recently
consumed 10,000 acres in the Stockton area. And a California judge
just convicted Ronnie Stout, a three-striker, of purposely setting the Park Fire, which burned
429,000 acres in Butte County in 2024. Stout could draw twenty-five to life.
Related post
8/7/26 Violent crime continues its downtrend.
Comparing Jan-June periods in 2025 and 2026, data reported by 66 of the 67 member agencies of the
Major City Police Chiefs Assoc. shows reductions of 17.2% for Homicide, 6.2% for Rape, 16.6% for
Robbery, and 5.7% for Agg. Assault. But not all the news is good. Homicides in chronically violent
Chicago increased from 199 to 211. They're also up in comparatively tony San Diego, from 16 to an
appalling 29. That city's aggravated assault count also rose, but only slightly, from 2,186 to
2,193.
Related post
Tennessee's Stand-Your-Ground law allowed persons to use deadly force to protect innocents from
being physically harmed. It's just been dramatically expanded. Effective last month, Senate Bill 1847 now permits deadly
force to be used "to prevent the other's imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated
robbery, or aggravated cruelty to animals" if no lesser means are at hand. According to the New York Times, it's the first such expansion anywhere.
Related post
8/6/26 A current Spokane-area wildfire that has destroyed "at
least 700 buildings" and displaced "tens of thousands" was, according to authorities, intentionally
set. The alleged arsonist, Aaron F. Farinacci, 37, was arrested after a passer-by saw him acting
suspiciously at the "exact spot" where the fire began. Farinacci, who had served a dozen years in an
Arizona prison for killing his father, was a suspect in two earlier Washington State fires. But he
was never charged.
Related post
San Diego woman Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi
was in her thirties when she stabbed her husband dead. She served nine years for voluntary
manslaughter and was released in 2013. Marodi later married Rebecca Marodi, a firefighter for
Cal Fire. Now 54, Yoland Marodi just pled guilty to stabbing Rebecca dead, as well. This time her
crime is 2nd. degree murder, and she could draw up to 36 years to life.
Related post
Los Angeles-area cops had been looking
for Jeanine John Taele since last November, when the former Marine and licensed armed guard
allegedly committed a strong-arm robbery. And they just found him roaming the grounds of the Trump
National Golf Club, observing preparations for the President's forthcoming visit. Taele had ammo in
his pocket, and a search of his residence turned up a "cache" of guns, including an unregistered
short-barreled rifle. He's been charged with firearms violations. But his intentions are unknown.
Related post
8/5/26 Three FBI agents who were fired last year for helping
investigate Donald Trump's attempt to overthrow the 2020 election are suing. They argue that their
firings by the FBI's new boss, Kash Patel, makes it impossible for agents to take on sensitive work
without jeopardizing their careers. Their cause is supported in legal briefs filed by five
influential organizations, including the FBI Agents Association.
Related post
Compelled by the Supreme Court's 2021 Bruen decision to issue gun carry
permits, Hawaii passed a law that "prohibits firearms on private property open to the public without
the express and affirmative consent of the property owner." That, the Court ruled in its 2025 Wolford decision, was also a
bridge too far. DOJ is now using this precedent to challenge a new Montgomery County, MD law that
altogether bars gun carry, even by licensees, "at thousands of locations," including parks, schools,
libraries and hospitals, and establishes "an arbitrary 100-yard exclusion zone around each location."
Montgomery County law
Related post
Smallish
COVID-19 frauds have also caught the Federal eye. A high-ranking Chicago school official who
resigned during a 2023 internal inquiry has been indicted for getting $28,000 in COVID loans for a
side business whose income she grossly overstated on tax returns. And whose existence she supposedly
hid from her employer. Crystal Cooper, 47, allegedly spent the proceeds on personal luxuries. She has
pled not guilty and was released on an unsecured bond.
Related post
Florida man Jean Robert Casimir, 53 is a U.S. citizen. And, as well,
a former officer of the Haitian National Police. And, with his guilty pleas in Federal court to
"conspiracy, smuggling, and violations of U.S. export control law", he's now also a convicted felon.
According to DOJ, during a recent 4-year period Casimir and his buds bought "no less than" 140 rifles,
pistols and shotguns from gun shops and a private seller, then secreted them in boats that journeyed
from Miami to Haiti.
Related post
8/4/26 Chicago's D.A. has disqualified 240 past and present Chicago cops from testifying on
criminal cases due to disciplinary issues. Indeed, 27 of these officers have been recommended for
firing. But CPD's disciplinary process has been on a prolonged stall over a legal dispute as to
whether the arbitration hearings to which cops facing discipline are entitled must be open to the
public (officers oppose it).
That's on the state Supreme Court docket. And until it rules, there's no firing.
Related post
Ten-thousand in five days. That eye-popping figure represents the number of illegal
immigrants arrested by ICE during a busy spate in June. And that's not from large-scale sweeps. That
bad-old approach led to major clashes with protesters and a series of shootings and is no longer
in use. Still, agents have doubled the previous rate of arrest. President Trump's "mass
deportation agenda" remains very much "on".
Related post
8/3/26 A 24-year-old man armed with an AR-style rifle opened
fire at an In-n-Out in Twin Falls, ID. Two persons, including one employee, were killed and seven were
wounded, several critically. A citizen and an off-duty police officer drew pistols and fired back.
Their actions are credited with holding down the mayhem. Authorities say the shooter committed suicide.
Idaho is an open-carry State.
Related post
"Maximally flexible civil commitment". To help promote "public order",
Federal funding is being offered to states that agree to involuntarily commit unhoused persons who
resist treatment. But homeless advocates call the emphasis on confinement "cruel" and "extreme." In an
example of an approach they would support, an L.A. Superior Court
judge regularly (and, he claims, successfully) diverts criminal defendants to mental-health
treatment. But his directions are stern. "No violence - and then you can't use meth. No meth, and no
marijuana, and no alcohol. Nothing."
Related post
It's not only
Colt Gray, the Georgia parent who just got 15 years for gifting his son, Colt, with the gun the
14-year-old used to commit the 2024 Apalachee High School massacre. According to The Trace,
other parents who drew prison terms for like misdeeds include Jennifer and James Crumbley (2021
Oxford High School), Jeffrey Rupnow (2024 Abundant Life Christian School), Deja Taylor (2023 Newport
News elementary school), Robert Crimo Jr. (2022 Highland Park parade), and Raymond Fryberg (2014
Pilchuck High School.)
Related post
All ICE officers will soon wear body cameras, 24/7. Sen. Susan
Collins (a "Red") got $20 million to fund the purchase of a sufficient quantity to equip every ICE
agent who works in the field. These additional cameras will begin flowing next week. Maine, where a
lethal ICE shooting recently occurred, is on the priority list.
Related post
A stunning article in the Washington Post reveals how dozens of
law enforcement officers across the U.S. turned Flock cameras "into a tool for stalking". Among the
victims was a middle-aged single mother whose activities, post-breakup, were relentlessly - and
openly - tracked by her ex-boyfriend, who also happened to be a small-town police chief. His
behavior led him to be criminally charged, and he ultimately committed suicide.
Related post
7/31/26 Fifteen years in prison. That's the term just handed down to
the father of Colt Gray, the fourteen-year-old who opened fire at Apalachee High School two years ago,
killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine others. Colt's gun was a gift from his dad,
Colin, who knew that his son was deeply troubled but gave him the lethal present nonetheless.
Prosecutors were disappointed, as they had asked for eighty years. As for Colt, he just drew life
without parole.
Related post
Fifty-nine of
the seven-hundred drones that authorities recently seized across the U.S. for flying near
World Cup games were brought down in Los Angeles. Violators of this temporary ban were cited and lost
their toys. According to the FBI, which led the effort, "none of the drones were weaponized." Like
measures will be in place during the forthcoming Super Bowl and at the 2028 L.A. Olympics.
Related post
7/30/26 A massive new report by D.C.'s Inspector General blasts the failure of D.C. police crime
data reporting to accurately convey the nature and extent of the District's crime problems. In an
appendix, the police department agrees that corrective steps are necessary. But in the report's only
clear reference to purposeful under-reporting, the IG notes that "MPD did not agree to include
Office of Unified Communications calls for service data" in its planned response (pg. 2).
Related post
On July 28th. Florida executed two aging prisoners. Ex-cop James Aren Duckett, 68, was the first to go. He had been convicted of the
on-duty 1987 rape and murder of an 11-year old girl whom he abducted as she left a convenience store.
Five hours later it was Dominick Anthony
Occhicone's turn. He murdered an ex-girlfriend's parents forty years ago. His age, 80, made him the
oldest inmate ever executed by Florida, and the second-oldest to be executed in the U.S. by lethal
injection. Duckett declined to make a final statement. Occhicone apologized. "I know it don’t mean
much, but I’m sorry. I never meant to do what I did."
Related post
Madison, Wisconsin cops don't wear body cams. But the recent, controversial police killing of a
38-year-old Black man, an alleged thief who supposedly cut an officer with a knife, just led the Mayor
to say she'll find the funds. While cameras are only "part" of the solution to police violence, Satya
Rhodes-Conway promises they'll be a done deal within three years. Police say they're fully on board.
Related posts
1
2
"I think that that is a bad rap". During a yearly gathering of lawyers and judges from the Ninth
Circuit, Justice Elena Kagan, a noted liberal appointed by President Obama, characterized the present
Supreme Court as "a conservative court doing things that conservative jurists have long thought it
appropriate to do, and I can really dislike that." But she denied that it was under the President's
control. "But it has nothing to do, I think, with becoming the arm of this current administration".
Related post
7/29/26 Small drones that can fire pepper spray, "smash
windows and ram attackers" are being deployed at nine school districts in Colorado, Florida and Georgia.
Manufactured by Texas-based Mithril Defense, these small but powerful plastic planes are remotely
controlled by dispatch centers using real-time video feeds. Their development was inspired by the
2022 massacre at Texas' Uvalde Elementary. Related posts
1
2
A 9mm. "ghost" pistol sold by Polymer80. That former supplier of build-it-yourself gun
kits was the source of the weapon used by a 15-year old who opened fire during the July 16 shootout near
Seattle's Space Needle. In all, three persons were killed and four were wounded. Related posts
1
2
3
Shoplifting is reportedly down. Problem is, the amount stolen per incident is up. Organized
theft rings are using ever-more-sophisticated methods, including hacking into computer systems to
redirect shipments into their grubby hands. In response, States are increasing penalties for retail
thefts, imposing mandatory jail terms on repeaters and those who use weapons, disguises or devices that
jam anti-theft alerts. And the struggle continues.
Related post
7/28/26 A Sunday afternoon food-fest near Seattle's Space Needle
devolved into a shootout between three youths. One fled, one was fatally wounded, and the third, an
armed 15-year-old, was arrested. Apparently stray rounds from their exchange of gunfire killed two other
persons, a 44-year-old man and a woman, 56, and wounded at least four others, including a 2-year-old boy.
Related posts
1
2
Another "Most Wanted Fraudster" is in Federal custody. Elaine Escoe, 41, was
extradited from Jamaica, where she fled to avoid arrest for leading a massive $32 million COVID-19
scheme. Operating alone and in complicity with outsiders, Escoe and her associates submitted
applications under various COVID relief programs on behalf of a host of illusionary businesses. Escoe is
the last of six defendants: three were convicted and two pled guilty, drawing prison terms of from 42 to
235 months.
Related post
7/27/26 Apalachee High School mass murderer Colt Gray, now 16, pled guilty
to killing four and wounding nine in the Sept. 2024 massacre. Gray, who was charged as an adult, pled to
all 55 counts and made no deals with the prosecutor. He is expected to get life without parole. Ditto
his father Colin, whom a jury convicted in March of murder and other charges for recklessly gifting his
deeply troubled son the murder weapon.
Related post
Four
Texas residents and seven nationals of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala have been arrested for
orchestrating a human smuggling episode that took the lives of seven of their clients. According to DOJ,
the victims, which included a 14-year old boy, perished from the heat while crammed into a railroad
boxcar that surreptitiously took them across the Mexican border. In 2022 a like tragedy cost the lives
of 53 migrants who rode across the Mexico/Texas border jammed into a tractor-trailer. DOJ press release
Related post
In February 1997 supposedly errant gunfire took the life of a beloved elderly D.C. resident
as she walked home from church. Larry Johnson, a local fugitive whom police caught nearby, told officers
under pressure that the bullets were fired by David Black, who was aiming at someone else. Another
witness echoed Johnson, then recanted on the eve of trial. Black was convicted. He served 26 years and
was released in 2023. Last year Johnson also recanted; he's since died from cancer. A massive private
effort has generated convincing evidence that Black was in fact innocent. But it's yet to have an effect.
Friends of Justice
investigation
Related post
Eight dead, including two adults in their forties and six children ages five to
fifteen. That's the toll that authorities discovered when responding to a house fire on a Michigan
lakeshore. All the victims were members of the same family, and "at least some" had suffered bullet
wounds. Shocked local residents said that the kids had been "very active in the neighborhood." Murder-
suicide seems a clear possibility.
Related post
Chicago's
violence-beset Humboldt Park neighborhood suffered yet another shootout. This time bullets started
flying during a large, early-morning street gathering. Six persons, ages 33-46 were wounded, two
critically. But it's not only Chicago. In the tony California community of Morgan Hill, a massive,
"unsanctioned" gathering of social-media types devolved into fights, drunkenness and gunfire. One
person was killed and seven were injured. Like Chicago, as of yet no arrests.
Related post
7/24/26 DOJ continues to unearth and punish COVID-era frauds.
Las Vegas woman Adona Stiles just drew 18 months for her role in a conspiracy that falsely claimed
$15 million in COVID-19 employment tax credits on behalf of dozens of persons who submitted false tax
returns.(2) Dallas-area Magnolia Diagnostics is paying $19.2 million to
settle claims that it snuck in unnecessary tests when running COVID-19 checks on seniors. (3) He was the #2 man at top of the massive $250 million Feeding Our Futures Scheme. And
now Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh is in Federal custody, extradited from Somalia. (4) A Pennsylvania jury
just indicted California man Christopher Slater for filing a horde of false tax returns that
helped drain $52.7 million from our nation's COVID-era coffers.
Related post
"Operation Red Card."
That's what Seattle cops and the FBI called a project, scheduled to take place during the World Cup, to
find and grab the area's most wanted violent repeaters. Indeed, seventeen on the list got snatched, and
a dozen guns were seized. A number, though, were released on "electronic home monitoring." So we'll see.
Related post
Called by citizens who reported someone was stealing bicycles and trying to
break into cars, Madison, WI police swarmed the suspect as he tried to flee on a bike. But the man
pulled a knife and an officer was injured. A Taser was unsuccessful, and the man was fatally shot.
Meanwhile in Orange County, CA, a man involved in a road-rage incident
fled his car wielding a machete. Officers fired bean-bag rounds and used a dog, but nothing worked. And
when he charged at cops with his bladed weapon they opened fire, inflicting critical wounds.
Related post
7/23/26 "The time-honored process of consultation with the administration" wasn't
followed when a panel of judges appointed Roger Rogoff to lead the U.S. Attorney's office in Seattle. So
"less than an hour" after Rogoff was sworn in, President Trump fired him. After all, according to Acting
Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Administration had been given no opportunity to confirm that Rogoff
was "qualified to serve in the administration." He was replaced by Charles Neil Floyd, whom President
Trump had personally selected, but whose term had technically expired. And, yes, Rogoff is suing.
Related post
7/22/26 Four years ago, two "Wolverine Watchmen", Pete Musico and Paul
Bellar, were convicted, on retrial, of conspiring to kidnap Michigan's Governor for, among other things,
imposing COVID-era restrictions. They were two of fourteen members of the militia group to face State
and Federal charges over the plot. In all, six were acquitted at trial, three pled guilty, and five were convicted. Of the
latter, three - Musico and Bellar just now, and Joe Morrison, in June - had their convictions tossed on
appeal. But prosecutors say those "tosses" are on mere "technical grounds." So they vow to...appeal.
Related post
Twenty-five million bucks. That's what DOJ's Office of Community Oriented Policing
Services just made available to State and local governments. Its most prominent purposes are to
"advance crime fighting, support common sense policing efforts, and uplift the image of the law
enforcement profession". That comes on top of $700 million that the COPS office recently offered
to, most prominently, "support the hiring and retention of sworn law enforcement officers," "keep
school students safe," and "promote the health and safety of our nation’s law enforcement personnel."
Related post
|
|
|
