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6/15/26 "The police were creating crime in order to seize money." That's how a public defender
described the practices of Hialeah police narcotics detectives, who gave real cocaine to drug suspects
to entice them to...buy more! And that just led a Miami-Dade judge to dismiss the case against Jason
Elysse. In 2020 the Boston man flew in, left with a sample, then returned to buy a kilogram. Naturally,
he got busted, and his cash was seized. Indeed, over time, Hialeah cops seized lots and lots of cash.
That helped lead to the downfall of former Hialeah police chief Sergio Velazquez, who was arrested last year for allegedly pocketing the proceeds of drug deals.
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In 2025 Springfield, OH enjoyed reductions in kidnappings and aggravated assaults. But
rapes and homicides were up. With the help of Ohio State University, police have turned to "risk terrain
modeling" to identify the city's geographic crime hot-spots. These will be addressed with more cops and
with tailor-made intervention and prevention programs. Drones, which will operate under strict guidelines,
will also be deployed. Related posts
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FBI now has a "Most Wanted Fraudster" list. And a member of its pioneering group of eight, Said Abdullahi Ereg, just turned
himself in. In cahoots with corrupt principals of nonprofit "Feeding Our Future," Ereg, who ran a grocery
store in Minneapolis, is alleged to have fraudulently obtained $4 million in Federal child nutrition
funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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When a
San Angelo, TX cop tried to pull him over, 45-year-old Odessa resident Victor Villarreal opened fire.
He abandoned his car and fled. Three days later, as police were looking for him on an attempted murder
charge, Villareal barricaded himself in a Midland veterinary building. He unleashed a barrage of gunfire,
killing one person and wounding nine others. Police SWAT officers found him dead an hour later. In 2009
Villareal was convicted of misdemeanor unlawful carry of a weapon in San Angelo. He was charged with like
crimes in 2003 and 2004 but neither seemingly led to a conviction. Related posts
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"Witness statements, social media and law enforcement photos" led to the arrest of the second person
who opened fire at Toledo's "Old West End" festival a week ago. Eljay Crisp-Carr, 20, is said to have
walked off when the other shooter opened fire, then turned around and "indiscriminately" unleashed his
fusillade. Meanwhile Ka Nye Taylor, the alleged first shooter, remains on the loose. Twelve persons were
wounded, but bystanders, medics and police helped them all survive.
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6/12/26 "Operation Speed Bump Enforcement" was brought on
by social media posts that promoted a major street takeover event in New Orleans. And the cops turned out
in force, making 14 traffic stops, engaging in one pursuit, issuing fifty-three traffic tickets and
arresting a half-dozen persons, including (natch) one of the event's promoters. According to NOPD head
Anne Kirkpatrick, New Orleans is indeed "a city of great tolerance." But it's "absolutely not a city of
lawlessness.”
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Colorado, Maine,
New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Washington enacted laws this year that strictly regulate home-
made guns, either banishing 3-D printed guns or otherwise assuring that all guns have serial numbers.
According to ATF, home-made guns are being far more frequently recovered. But gun-rights groups argue that
such restrictions are unconstitutional, and that it would be far more effective to go after and imprison
violent criminals.
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In the first trial under Texas' toughened retail theft laws, which make those over $2,500 a third-
degree felony, a jury convicted 28-year-old Winston Love of committing dozens of thefts from Target stores
after Sept. 1, 2025, the effective date of the enhancement. His loot included "more than 200 Lego sets,"
which he lifted along with "coffee makers, vacuum cleaners and PlayStation controllers." Love, who also
happened to be armed while committing these heists, drew forty-five years. He still faces another
felony theft case and numerous "under $2,500" (i.e., misdemeanor) charges.
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Five felony counts of involuntary manslaughter. That's what a 48-year-old
New York City bus driver faces after his speeding, passenger-laden bus set off a series of collisions in a
construction zone, killing five motorists and injuring 45 persons, including himself and many of his
passengers. It's not Jing S. Dong's first tangle with traffic laws. Last year he was found guilty of
speeding in Virginia and of failing to obey an officer's directions in New Jersey. This March he also pled
guilty to driving a coach 72 mph in a 50 mph zone in Maryland.
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6/11/26 Does Philadelphia P.D. "use a vague 'good cause' standard to
cancel permits to carry legal firearms"? That's what DOJ wants to know. Its recent letter to the Mayor
announced that it's opened an investigation into the city's use of allegedly subjective standards that
can impinge on the Second-Amendment rights of legitimate gun owners to "keep and bear legal firearms,
including the right to legally carry firearms where allowed." Letter
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He had no known criminal record or mental health issues. Yet the
25-year-old man opened fire with a rifle in his family's Livonia, MI home, killing his 58-year-old father,
53-year-oled mother, 22-year-old brother, and his brother's 21-year-old girlfriend. The as-yet unnamed
gunman then walked outside, threw up his hands, and surrendered to police. As for a motive, the killer
was known to have a "contentious" relationship with his parents. He had also "abruptly shaved his head
and beard within the last year." And for now, that's it.
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Westchester County's (NY) highways feed into New York City. Accordingly, its
license-plate readers amassed over 1.6 billion plate scans since 2023. One motorist's plates got
captured "1,134 times"; another's, "more than 2,400 times." What's more, the scans were allegedly shared
with over fifty police agencies. Including ICE. Asserting that this "indiscriminate surveillance
system" violates the State constitution, civil-rights groups are suing.
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A wild and bullet-riddled 2018
police pursuit of a desperate man who had shot his grandma ended with LAPD officers opening fire in
an L.A. Trader Joe's. Their bullets missed Gene Atkins but fatally struck store manager Mely Corado.
Atkins was just convicted on "dozens of counts" relating to the incident. But the jury acquitted him of
murder. Both officers had been found to have acted appropriately; neither was charged or disciplined.
A lawsuit filed by Ms. Corado's survivors was settled in 2024 for $9.5 million.
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6/10/26 Family massacres continue to beset Los Angeles.
A 37-year-old man turned a gun on fellow celebrants at a birthday party for his children's grandma. He
shot and killed his twin ten-year-old boys, then shot at (but missed) his wife. He then committed suicide.
Two weeks earlier, a 30-year-old mother of three shot and killed her children, ages 2 and 6, and her
31-year-old husband. And yes, she also committed suicide.
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But will it be safe? A string of shootings over the weekend has celebrants worried as
Kansas City prepares to host participants and visitors from around the globe at the World Cup. Early
Saturday morning, June 6, nine persons were wounded when gunfire erupted at an "after-hours" club.
That evening, two men were shot and killed inside a local business. And one day later, yet another
shooting left a person wounded. So far, no arrests. And the games begin next week!
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Concerns that "excited delirium",
the once-ready explanation for the condition afflicting combative subjects, justified forceful prone
restraint by police led the medical community to disavow the term three years ago. Its place was taken,
at first, by "hyperactive delirium." And now it's "irrational delirium." According to a new paper,
vigorous resistance can be a sign of acute "physiological distress." That distress can, in turn, quickly
create a "severe metabolic acidosis". And if force is used that restricts breathing, a cardiac arrest
becomes likely.
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6/9/26 His long string of prior arrests includes a 2022 attempted aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon. That earned him two years...of probation. Then in 2025 he was charged with assault
and criminal mischief. This case was apparently pending when 51-year-old Hector Deleon went on a rampage
with a knife on Sunday, June 7, in New York City's Penn Station. By the time transit police grabbed him
he had wounded five fellow-travelers, one seriously. Deleon, who is homeless and, reportedly, seriously
mentally ill, was also "high on drugs." Related posts
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Both candidates for D.C. Mayor used to be prosecutors. Both are also
committed "Blues" who have always favored prevention programs over the cops. But youth "takeovers" and a
recent string of shootings have apparently led them to change their tune. Indeed, Kenyan R. McDuffie, a
former Council member, is accusing his competitor, Councilperson Janeese Lewis George, of being "soft on
crime." But she's walked back her support for "divesting" from police. Indeed, Ms. George now insists that
hiring more cops would be a good thing. So there!
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6/8/26 On Feb. 27 Hartford, CT police officer Joseph Magnano had been on
the job slightly over a year. That's the day when he and other officers confronted a large man waving a
knife. And when Steven Jones stepped towards him, then-cop Magnano discharged a volley of shots, fatally
wounding the 55-year-old, mentally ill man. Hartford's mayor quickly fired Magnano, and the state's AG
promptly filed manslaughter charges. Magnano, who has drawn the support of Hartford's police union, has
been released on bail.
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On May 5, 2015, ex-LAPD cop Clifford Proctor shot and killed
a man who supposedly reached for his partner's gun. That, though, doesn't appear on surveillance footage.
But although then-Chief Charlie Beck called the shooting "out of policy," then-D.A. Jackie Lacey refused to
file charges. In 2024 (nine years later) new, liberally-inclined D.A. George Gascon got Proctor
indicted. For murder. But Judge Ronald Coen just dismissed the case. In his view, the D.A. (he's since
been replaced) didn't present potentially exculpatory evidence to the jurors. What's more, he's also
viewed the video, and thinks that Proctor could have "reasonably" thought that the man was going for the gun.
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Unlike other homicides, domestic killings are not on a downtrend. That's what the Washington
Post concludes as it sets out three family massacres that took place on the first two days of this month.
On Monday, Iowa police came across the bodies of six persons. A father had shot five family members, including
his wife and daughter, then turned the gun on himself. That same day, an upstate New York father gunned down
his wife and their two young sons. And a day later, a Florida man fatally stabbed his wife and two young
daughters, then committed suicide.
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Toledo's yearly "Old West End" street festival devolved into chaos on Saturday
afternoon as a mass of gunfire broke out. Twelve attendees, ages 14 to 61, were wounded. Injuries to
two were initially critical, but all have since been upgraded to stable. Police surmise that "at least" two
persons had engaged in a shootout; no one has as yet been publicly identified or apprehended.
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According to DOJ, three twenty-somethings with Middle-Eastern surnames had spent the past year online,
chatting up a plot to murder overseas U.S. servicemembers, and particularly members of the U.S. Special
Forces. Their online conversations, which reflect a deep loyalty to ISIS, clearly drew official attention.
One can surmise the true identity of the individual whom they offered $2,000 to, among other things, buy
drones to help carry out their plans. And yes, the three have been arrested.
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6/5/26 Aaron Spencer can keep "running" for Lonoke County (AR) Sheriff. A
police dash cam memory card that supposedly held the answer to the puzzle of whether Spencer maliciously
killed his child's rapist went missing. (He admitted the shooting, but insisted it was in self-defense.)
Accordingly, a judge just threw out the murder case against Spencer. And yes, he is expected to win the
November contest.
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"A gun hunting competition." That's how officers in LAPD's Valley gang enforcement detail
characterized their work. Making improper traffic stops and turning off their body cameras was part of the
routine. A just-released Internal Affairs report described the unit as a "law enforcement gang" (that term
is also used in California law.) That, though, was three years ago. But another LAPD anti-gang unit, this
time in the crime-beset South Bureau, is currently under scrutiny, and for virtually the same conduct. And
that "officer gang" moniker seems likely to fit. Related posts
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According to an in-depth inquiry by Lawfare, "at least" ninety-seven of the 1,500-plus
pardoned Capitol rioters have been charged with new crimes. Many of these offenses are serious, with "at least
14" being sex crimes, including sex crimes against children. One of those led to a life term. In all, forty-one
were charged with or convicted of a crime of violence, and twenty-eight have been prosecuted for gun crimes.
Lawfare points out that it only looked into the post-riot records of rioters who got nabbed. But many
more took part in the affair. As for them, nothing is known.
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Seven years ago two Colorado paramedics helped Aurora police restrain a mentally distraught,
combative man by injecting ketamine. But the dose proved fatal, and Elijah McClain's "I can't breathe" became
lodged in our nation's memory. Paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were found guilty of negligent
homicide by a jury, and Cichuniec was also convicted of 2nd. degree assault. But a judge just ruled that the
jury instructions for the negligent homicide charge was faulty, and those convictions were dismissed. A retrial
is likely.
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6/4/26 So far this year Kimani Osayande Jones, 49, has called
the FBI thirteeen times to complain about "being followed, sabotaged while he slept, coerced and having had
his life threatened by people who could access his texts." And on May 30 he tried to board an evening flight
from Sacramento to North Carolina. That's when TSA found "bladed weapons, zip ties, a butane torch lighter
and a homemade explosive device" in his backpack. Jones also had five cellphones. One had a 15-minute timer that
was ready to go; the other displayed the message: "we will be awaiting your call." Whether the FBI followed up
on his calls is unknown.
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A Northern California man burst into a Bakersfield office building packing alleged explosive devices
and took ten school employees hostage, tying several up with zip cords. A decade ago, after being dishonorably
discharged from the Army, Anthony Scott Searles-Harris, 41, was convicted of a felony sex offense against a
youth and became a registered sex offender. When contacted by police and FBI negotiators, Searles-Harris, who
has been protesting his conviction, demanded that authorities furnish him documents in the case. He also warned
about his "bombs." That night an FBI SWAT team shot him dead. Several "devices" were found, but it hasn't been
said if they were functional.
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A proposed Illinois
state bill would have outlawed using "numbers" - traffic stops, warnings, arrests - to evaluate cops. But
the measure, which passed the House, died in the Senate. It had been inspired by a lawsuit in which a Chicago
police sergeant was awarded a cool $1 million for being involuntarily reassigned because he had refused to
pressure his underlings to meet numerical quotas.
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6/3/26 Breonna Taylor's notorious March 2020 shooting death at the hands of a Louisville cop launched a DOJ
probe of the troubled agency. Three years later, its findings - that cops used excessive force when dealing with
troubled persons, and discriminated against minority citizens - led to a consent decree. But before long a "new"
Administration took the helm. Louisville and several other agencies were promptly declared "reformed" and were
released from Federal monitoring. However, an in-depth assessment by ProPublica disputes that Louisville
PD really changed. Among other things, it cites the recent example of a 28-year old Louisville woman "who was
experiencing a mental health crisis when police gunned her down in her own apartment."
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Domestic massacres pervade
the headlines. In Muscatine, Iowa, officers responding to a residence found four family members who had
been shot dead. Their suspected assailant, a 52-year old man, was quickly tracked down. He committed suicide as
police closed in. The bodies of two more family members were found elsewhere. And in Sandy, Oregon, officers responding to a
domestic disturbance came under fire. One was wounded, and a barricaded situation ensued. In time, the 38-year
old suspect was arrested, and the bodies of three family members were recovered from the home. Both domestic
killers had criminal records.
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A mere week after its announcement, the Administration's "anti-weaponization" fund is dead. "We are not
moving forward with the fund, period." Acting A.G. Todd Blanche's remarks follow strong objections voiced by
even the "Reddest" members of Congress, who were incensed that the fund's generous provisions would let rioters
who stormed legislators' sacrosanct workplace cash in, no questions asked.
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6/2/26 An in-depth probe by USA Today revealed that while ticket and arrest quotas are
outlawed in dozens of States, the practice continues, often in an informal basis. Such as offering candy to
troopers for making more stops. That happened in Maryland, a no-quota State, last year. There's also the concern
that absent the ability to demand "numbers," officers might shirk their duties. Ohio's police chiefs group
opposes a proposed State law that bans quotas. "Say an officer hasn't made a single arrest all year...Under this
bill, if a supervisor takes note of that and addresses it, it could be seen as imposing a quota."
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Two Virginia sheriff's deputies were shot, one, fatally, while responding to a family's request for a
welfare check. Michael Puckett, 55, fled into North Carolina, where he was spotted two days later by a wildlife
camera. A police drone was then used to track his movements. His arrest came as he rang the doorbell of a
private residence. And yes, he was armed.
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6/1/26
Boston's 2014 "Trust Act" limits police collaboration with ICE to matters of "significant public safety." So
the Administration sued. A Federal judge just ruled that Boston's law is indeed proper, as in Massachusetts, "there is
simply no source of authority empowering Boston police officers to do what the United States would like them to
do." Meaning, to detain persons simply based on their immigration status.
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In 2023, after years of service as an East-Coast school principal, Ian Roberts, 55, was chosen as
schools Superintendent in Des Moines. Problem is, the Guyana native only pretended to be a citizen. In fact,
Roberts had been illegally in the U.S. since his student visa expired in 2004. In 2024 an immigration court
ordered his removal. But until arrest by ICE last September, he kept it all a secret. Roberts just pled guilty
to false statements and having guns while illegally in the U.S. He could draw a substantial prison term.
Related post
Bail can only be denied in California in
certain violent felony cases where there is "clear and convincing evidence" of a substantial likelihood of
specified harms." According to the California Supreme Court's recent decision In re Gerald John
Kowalczyk, if a judge finds that cash bail is appropriate, the amount must take into account "the totality
of the circumstances," including the nature of the offense and the accused's record. What's more, the amount of
bail "must be...reasonably attainable for the defendant." Bottom line: one's economic circumstances cannot be the
determinant of pre-trial confinement. That decision just led to the freeing of a man who allegedly assaulted and choked an
L.A.-area rabbi, then shouted "free Palestine!".
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President Trump has
assigned $1.776 billion of his proposed settlement of a lawsuit against the IRS to an "anti-weaponization"
fund that would recompense persons "who were horribly treated" for participating in the Capitol riots (over 1,200
were arrested). Others, including a Michigan woman once accused of being a fake Trump elector, are also clamoring
for their cut. And lawyers are stepping in to help. For now, a Federal judge has placed everything on hold.
Related post
Can "neural network" modeling predict
who will violently reoffend during pre-trial release? Four models that used factors including age, gender,
current violent offense, prior convictions, and prior failures to appear were applied to a sample of 33,904
persons who were arrested during 2017-18, of whom 13,695 were detained pre-trial. The best model predicted about
ten percent of the detainees would have committed a violent crime if released. But the "cost" was detaining all
the others. Given the complexity of factors that come into play on the streets, and the "quiet risks" whose
propensities can't be estimated, accurately predicting who can be safely let go still seems a long way off.
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