You might think that it would be difficult to cause any kind of serious problem in a Wendy&#8217;s drive-thru. The concept is pretty simple: You sit in the car, and when it&#8217;s your turn, you drive up, get your order, and then you drive off. In an orderly society, it&#8217;s a pretty straight-forward, fool-proof system.
But in the days after George Floyd was canonized, of course, all rules were suspended. Things started breaking down. Accordingly, on June 12 of that year, a 27-year-old man named Rayshard Brooks decided to treat the Wendy&#8217;s drive-thru like a motel room. He got drunk out of his mind and passed out in his car, as he waited to get his hamburger and frosty. Then, when two police officers arrived in an attempt to keep the drive-thru moving, Brooks started fighting with one of the officers, stole his taser, and began running away. A few seconds later, Brooks turned around and pointed the stolen taser at the officers, at which point he was shot and killed. It was not only a justified police shooting but perhaps one of the most justified police shootings ever caught on film.
Nevertheless, just a few days later, the top prosecutor in Fulton County Georgia, a guy named Paul Howard, decided to charge both officers on the scene with a variety of crimes. One of the officers was hit with aggravated assault charges. The other cop — the officer who shot Brooks — was charged with capital murder. In other words, Howard tried to give a cop the death sentence for the crime of simply doing his job. And it&#8217;s all because, as Paul Howard argued, they didn&#8217;t seem afraid after they had shot Rayshard Brooks and neutralized the threat he presented — as if they should have been cowering behind their cruisers until backup arrived. That was the actual argument Howard made.
This makes no sense whatsoever, which is why a couple of years later — after these officers’ careers and lives were destroyed — a special prosecutor dropped the charges. Howard was then voted out of office. This obviously incompetent, politically motivated D.A. was gone. He lost the ability to bring frivolous charges against anyone else ever again.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1316-we-re-living-under-a-tyranny-of-mediocre-morons-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
Unfortunately for the people of Atlanta and the rest of the country, Howard&#8217;s replacement was a woman named Fani Willis. And over the past few days, it&#8217;s become clear that Willis is somehow an even less dignified, more incompetent, and more corrupt version of the man she replaced. 
Willis is not simply trying to prosecute two police officers to appease the mob, as unforgivable as that is. Willis is instead trying to imprison the leading candidate in the U.S. presidential election. And she&#8217;s doing it, apparently, to enrich herself and her boyfriend, Nathan Wade.
Last week, Willis had to answer questions under oath in a hearing about her romantic relationship with Wade. That&#8217;s because Willis has told the court that the relationship began only after she named Wade — a family lawyer with no experience prosecuting RICO cases — as a key lawyer overseeing the Trump RICO prosecution. 
But Willis&#8217; claim was contradicted in the hearing by a former co-worker in Willis&#8217; office, who said the relationship actually began back in 2019:
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BREAKING: Fani Willis’ friend testifies that Nathan Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis started in 2019. <a href="https://t.co/2f6GM4I92I">pic.twitter.com/2f6GM4I92I</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1758154707992764738?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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This is obviously a big problem for Fani Willis, Nathan Wade, and the entire Trump prosecution. If they lied to the court, they can be disqualified or even disbarred on that basis alone. But in context, the reason for the lie is even more important. Fani Willis, by hiring Wade, was able to direct hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into his bank account. And the two apparently used that money to fund a lavish lifestyle — which means the RICO prosecutors might be guilty of a little RICO themselves.
You&#8217;ve probably heard this analysis from other pundits already, so I won&#8217;t belabor it. What I will emphasize, however, because a lot of people are too polite to say it out loud, is that above and beyond her obvious corruption, Fani Willis is a complete moron. Put aside the fact that she&#8217;s trying to sabotage the upcoming election in a flagrant act of election interference. Fani Willis — the chief law enforcement officer in Fulton County, Georgia — is not even remotely close to being a bright woman. This hearing made that very clear. And the implications could not be any more significant. 
There are too many clips to show you that prove this point, so here&#8217;s just a couple. Watch:
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BREAKING: Fani Willis Just admitted to campaign finance violations under oath
Things can&#39;t get any worse for her 😂
 <a href="https://t.co/hLHng7NGdg">pic.twitter.com/hLHng7NGdg</a>
&mdash; George (@BehizyTweets) <a href="https://twitter.com/BehizyTweets/status/1758243640806117508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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FANI WILLIS RATTLED ON THE STAND:
&quot;I am not a hostile witness. I VERY much want to be here. Ms. Merchant&#39;s interests are p&#8230;are..contadi&#8230; contrary to democracy, your honor, not to mine!&quot; <a href="https://t.co/tTrKTvQUBh">pic.twitter.com/tTrKTvQUBh</a>
&mdash; 💋🇺🇸 Country Over Party🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦 (@gagirlpolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/gagirlpolitics/status/1758232633710936168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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In that second clip you just saw, Fani Willis says she&#8217;s not a &#8220;hostile witness&#8221; because she wants to testify. But the designation of &#8220;hostile witness&#8221; has nothing to do with wanting to testify or not. It means that the witness has adverse interests to the party questioning her — which is the normal situation on cross-examination, but an unusual situation on direct examination. Being a &#8220;hostile witness&#8221; basically means that the lawyers can ask the witness more aggressive leading questions on direct examination, as if it&#8217;s a cross-examination. You&#8217;d think Willis would know this, as the D.A. of Fulton County. But apparently not.
Fani Willis also doesn&#8217;t appear to understand the legal implications of other claims she made during her testimony. For example, in the first clip you just saw, Willis states, &#8220;When I took out a large amount of money on my first campaign, I kept some of the cash of that.&#8221; I&#8217;m not a campaign finance expert, but that seems like the kind of statement that you don&#8217;t want to make under oath. Using campaign funds for personal expenses is generally frowned upon.
To be fair, elsewhere in the hearing, Willis does say that she took money out of her retirement account to fund her campaign for local judge (before she ran for D.A.) — so it&#8217;s possible she&#8217;s referring to her own money here. But it&#8217;s not clear whether she told donors to her D.A. campaign about this arrangement.
That would certainly be the professional thing to do. But, after watching Fani Willis&#8217; other testimony, we have reason to doubt her professionalism, to put it mildly. Watch:
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FANI: “So if you tell me it’s a G then you gon get a thousand dollas”
🤣💀
 <a href="https://t.co/btdE40nico">pic.twitter.com/btdE40nico</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1758229706170618081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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FANI WILLIS: “I don&#39;t like wine. I like Grey Goose.” 🤣🤣🤣
 <a href="https://t.co/1ZXEqSRPHh">pic.twitter.com/1ZXEqSRPHh</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1758298673656598733?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2024</a></blockquote>
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It used to be that prosecutors displayed some level of respect for the office they held. These are people with the power to use the force of law to imprison and bankrupt pretty much anyone in the state. They&#8217;re elected, supposedly, to uphold fundamental principles of fairness and justice — without which we do not have the rule of law. When D.A.s start acting like sassy waitresses, or trashy pop stars, then people, understandably, lose all faith in the judicial system. If they have no integrity, then the system has no integrity.
It doesn&#8217;t help matters that Fani Willis was reportedly <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13092639/fani-willis-dress-backwards-georgia-misconduct-hearing.html">wearing</a> her dress backwards, and her flag-pin sideways. Now, for the record, this isn&#8217;t confirmed. Fashion experts on the internet have identified two dresses that are similar to the one Fani Willis was wearing — one with the zipper in the back, and one with the zipper in the front, as Fani Willis was wearing it. Here&#8217;s a side by side of the two dresses in question:
<div id="attachment_699425" style="width: 825px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-699425" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-699425" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2024-06-13-PM-9915-815x576.jpg" alt="VFSHOW Womens Front Zipper Tie Waist Slim Work Business Office Bodycon Pencil DressColor: Hot Pink. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
Adrianna Papell, Tie Waist Crepe Sheath Dress, Color: Vibrant Coral. Retrieved from Nordstrom.com." width="815" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2024-06-13-PM-9915-815x576.jpg 815w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2024-06-13-PM-9915-300x212.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2024-06-13-PM-9915-768x543.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2024-06-13-PM-9915-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2024-06-13-PM-9915-2048x1448.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px" />VFSHOW Womens Front Zipper Tie Waist Slim Work Business Office Bodycon Pencil Dress Color: Hot Pink. Retrieved from Amazon.com. Adrianna Papell, Tie Waist Crepe Sheath Dress, Color: Vibrant Coral. Retrieved from Nordstrom.com.</div>
If you&#8217;re more inclined to pursue this question than I am, you can compare those images to the pictures of Fani Willis testifying. And you can come to your own conclusion on whether she&#8217;s wearing the dress properly. But the point is, given everything else about Willis&#8217; testimony, it&#8217;s completely believable that she doesn&#8217;t know how to dress herself. If she doesn&#8217;t know anything about the law, even though she&#8217;s a lawyer, then putting clothes on could also present challenges. This is the level of faith that people have in Fani Willis, and deservedly so.
As a result, right now it looks like Willis stands a real chance of getting booted off this case. Her performance was that bad, to say nothing of the fact she apparently lied to the court. But even if she and Nathan Wade are ultimately disqualified from continuing this prosecution, the reality is that there are many more equally incompetent prosecutors waiting to take their place in the state of Georgia.
<h4><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></h4>
Take this footage from a couple of months ago, for example. It&#8217;s from the prosecutor&#8217;s closing argument in the case of Hannah Payne. For background, Hannah Payne witnessed an impaired driver run a red light, cause a car accident, then flee the scene. Payne realized no one had the guy&#8217;s license plate, so she gave chase and pulled in front of the guy. Then she says the man grabbed her wrist through the window of the car, and the gun went off, killing him.
Whether you think Hannah Payne is guilty of murder or not, based on those facts, you have to concede it&#8217;s a complex case. Hannah Payne&#8217;s life is on the line, and it&#8217;s clear she&#8217;s not a malicious person who goes around shooting people at random. Plus, she had reason to worry that this impaired driver was going to cause more accidents. So given that background, you might assume that the prosecutor in this case would be a serious person, well-versed in the law, who&#8217;s able to communicate professionally to the jury.
Instead, here&#8217;s the prosecutor who was assigned to Hannah Payne&#8217;s case. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="‘Can’t Poke a Bear’: State Delivers Emotional Closing Argument Saying Hannah Payne is Guilty" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lc8VsPjgtJE?start=1844&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;She shoulda minded her own bid-ness,&#8221; says the prosecutor. Then she pauses for a while, just to let the line sink in. This was her &#8220;Clarence Darrow&#8221; moment and you can tell she&#8217;s proud of it. The rest of us are wondering whether there are any prosecutors in Georgia who don&#8217;t act like Fani Willis. Is there a single prosecutor in the state who&#8217;s capable of speaking and acting like an actual lawyer? Again, this is the major crimes division. This is a homicide case. And this is the best they can offer?
The problem isn&#8217;t just confined to Georgia, of course, although it appears to be especially acute there. We&#8217;re living under a tyranny of mediocre morons. These morons are representing the government in court, where they can send you to prison for the rest of your life. In some cases they&#8217;re also enforcing the law on the street, as police officers. And they have the complete and total backing of the government. There&#8217;s no effort underway to restore competence to any of these positions. What you see is what you get. 
In fact, the government is seemingly encouraging these people to act as dumb as they possibly can, just to erode the public trust as much as possible. That&#8217;s the only explanation for why the NYPD just sent out its dance team — because apparently, police departments have dance teams now — to perform on television. Watch:
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Meet the NYPD dance team!
 <a href="https://t.co/8TiA9uH732">pic.twitter.com/8TiA9uH732</a>
&mdash; The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1759667470732763340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
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You&#8217;ll find various responses to this video online in which people try to find the silver lining here. &#8220;At least they&#8217;re getting exercise in,&#8221; is one of the common refrains. You might also say that, hey, they’re just trying to give the female cops something to do. 
But really there&#8217;s only one bit of good news in all of this, especially when you look at the Fani Willis case — which is that the mediocre morons who have power over us are extremely easy to expose. They&#8217;ll go on television and reveal how incompetent and corrupt they are. They just can&#8217;t help themselves, that&#8217;s the good news. The bad news is that there&#8217;s an endless supply of these amoral half wits out there, waiting to replace their bosses when they&#8217;re gone. And in some cases they&#8217;re even worse, somehow, than the failures they replace. Get rid of Paul Howard, and you&#8217;ll get Fani Willis. This is the pattern. 
What happens when you get rid of Fani Willis? Very soon, for better or worse, we might find out.

Fulton County Court Holds Fani Willis Misconduct Hearing

We’re Living Under A Tyranny Of Mediocre Morons

We're Living Under A Tyranny Of Mediocre Morons

Criminal Justice

District Attorneys

Donald Trump

Fani Willis

fulton county

Georgia

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Readers Pass

One pattern that has emerged over the past four presidential elections — ever since Barack Obama — is that the national conversation, as directed by the media, shifts back to race right around the time that the primaries are wrapping up. 
Of course, the primaries are technically still happening on the GOP side if you count Nikki Haley as a real presidential candidate. When you realize that she is, at this point, simply running to be the next overpaid CNN contributor, you understand the primaries ended weeks ago, which means it is now time for the race cycle to begin anew.
Right on cue, MSNBC released a new special this month called “Black Men In America: The Road to 2024.” Now, based on the title, based on the timing, based on the fact that it’s MSNBC, you might assume that the show automatically is going to consist of a bunch of mindless race-baiting. You might make that presumption without seeing a single second of it. You might write it off, without giving it a chance, under the assumption that it’s going to be nothing but idiotic, dim-witted racial grievance mongering. You might assume all of that. And you would of course be entirely correct.
Yet, as you’ll see in the clip I’m about to show you, it still manages to limbo its way under the incredibly low bar that you have set for it in your mind. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Change The Definition Of Crime" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rpft5IEThD4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
As you could see, that’s Ben Crump pretending to shoot pool with Al Sharpton. In other words, it’s neo-Al Sharpton with old Al Sharpton. It’s broadband Al Sharpton with Dial-Up Al Sharpton. Ben Crump is what happens if you clone Al Sharpton but you remove his hair and his three brain cells. Because that’s the thing you notice about Crump. He is, objectively speaking — and I say this in a medical sense, and not as an insult — a moron. In fact, his very existence single-handedly, and ironically, disproves systemic racism. There is simply no way that a black guy this aggressively mediocre, this consistently unimpressive, this simple-minded and ridiculous, could ever achieve the success he has achieved in a country that was systemically racist against black guys.
Sure, even in a country with systemic racism you could still end up with brilliant and innovative people who manage to succeed in spite of it. The existence of successful black people doesn’t in and of itself disprove systemic racism. A million other things disprove it, but not that. But Ben Crump, specifically? This guy? You want to tell me this guy rose to the top despite having the entire system arrayed against him?
No, the truth is obviously quite the opposite. The system favors guys like Crump, which is the only reason anyone knows his name. By all rights the pinnacle of this dude’s career should be a position no higher than shift manager at Wendy’s — with no disrespect intended to shift managers at Wendy’s. The point is that his wealth and success is entirely a product of a system designed to move mediocre half-wits like himself to the front.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1315-we-need-to-respect-black-culture-by-getting-rid-of-laws-says-msnbc-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
As if to prove my point, what does he say? What’s the great insight he offers the world? Well, he says that we can get rid of all the crime in America overnight by changing the definition of crime. He’s right, of course. “Crime” is a legal designation. If you stop applying that legal designation to things, then it will not be applied to thing, and therefore you have gotten rid of the designation. Stop calling murder, robbery, and rape “crimes,” and — just like that, presto chango — the crimes of murder, robbery, and rape have disappeared. This is evidently what Crump, a guy who somehow earned a law degree, wants to see happen.
Of course, the problem is that by getting rid of the crimes of murder, robbery, and rape, you have not gotten rid of the actions of murder, robbery and rape. People are still being murdered, robbed, and raped — at what seems to be an even higher rate now — but it doesn’t count in the books. The assailants aren’t being brought to justice. The victims have nowhere to turn for redress. All the bad things are still happening, but the law is covering its eyes and plugging its ears and pretending that it’s not. That’s what happens when you “get rid of crime,” as Crump suggests.
In fact every major city in America has adopted a strategy like this, to one degree or another. Every major city, thanks in large part to Soros-funded Marxist DAs, has decided to reduce crime by not fighting it. They’ve decided to create fewer criminals by not calling the criminals “criminals.” As a result, most of these places are unlivable hellscapes. Which is not a problem for Crump, whose firm rakes in tens of millions of dollars a year. He’s not living in these crime-infested sewers that ambulance-chasing con artists like himself have helped to create.
Crump then goes on to claim that laws have the effect of “criminalizing black culture.” He gives the example of Eric Garner, who died while police attempted to take him into custody for selling loose cigarettes. Now, the law against loose cigarettes isn’t as important or essential as laws against murder and robbery, but the policy does make perfect sense. You aren’t allowed to buy a pack of cigarettes from the convenience store and then stand outside the convenience store selling each individual cigarette to people walking by on the street. Why? Well, that’s not very fair to the convenience store, for one thing. For another, there are all kinds of additional laws governing the sale of tobacco products — laws that cannot be enforced if people are allowed to walk around hawking individual cigarettes on the street corner.
It’s not the most important law, but it is a law, and it’s one that makes plenty of sense. The question in this case is why Eric Garner couldn’t just follow the law. Is it “black culture” to simply disregard whatever law you personally find inconvenient? That seems to be the claim Crump is making. But all of that is irrelevant anyway. Garner didn’t die because he sold loose cigarettes. Cops didn’t show up and stage a public execution as a penalty for selling loosies, as they’re called. No, they tried to arrest him, he resisted, and in the struggle he lost his life. Why resist? What is that going to achieve? What possible good can come from it? Even if you disagree with the law you broke. Even if you didn’t break a law at all. Even if you’re being falsely accused. Even if you’re innocent. No matter the situation, how does resisting arrest help your case at all? What good will it do you? What is the plan? Walk me through the steps: Step 1) Resist arrest. Step 2) Unknown. Step 3) You get to go home and have a pleasant day.
What happens in that second step? What did Eric Garner, or any of these BLM martyrs, think that second step would be? Did he think that if he declined to be arrested, the cops would just say, “Oh, you don’t want to be arrested? You’d prefer not to be arrested this particular afternoon? Well, never mind then, good sir. Please be on your way. Our apologies.” Was that the idea?
Well, we know the answer. There was no thought process behind it. He didn’t have any ideas at all. He was acting in a totally thoughtless, self-destructive manner, and responding to a situation in a way that was guaranteed to make the situation worse, no matter what. Is that black culture, according to Crump?
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Crump also mentions George Floyd. He says Floyd was another man arrested for participating in black culture. What was the culture in that case? Floyd was trying to pass off a forged $20 bill. Is that black culture? He was overdosing on fentanyl. Is that black culture? I’m not asking these questions rhetorically. I would really like to hear Crump answer. I would like to know what he considers “black culture” to be. I would not personally call any of that black culture, but I will say that if it was black culture, then the culture needs to change. If your culture — as Crump seems to think — involves disregarding the law, being self-destructive, making decisions that are guaranteed to introduce more chaos and violence into your life and your community, then your culture is deeply flawed, terminally sick, and needs to change. 
The law doesn’t need to accommodate your culture. Your culture needs to accommodate the fact that it exists in a civilized society with laws.
Naturally, Crump only talks about the laws against loose cigarettes and milk cartons and baggy pants — as if anyone is actually being arrested for having baggy pants. He completely ignores the obvious fact that black men are arrested every day, in every city in America, for committing actual violent crimes. Young black men aren’t landing in prison because of their milk cartons and ill-fitting pants. But Crump, of course, doesn’t want to acknowledge that. Because he is a liar, and he’s evil, and he doesn’t care how many people die, or how many black men get themselves killed by making the worst possible decisions, as long as he can personally profit off of it.
I began this by saying that Crump is stupid. And he certainly is. You can’t listen to him for more than five seconds without arriving at that conclusion. But like any other race baiter, he also knows exactly what he’s doing. He pretends to speak up for “black culture” — whatever he thinks that is — while at the same time doing everything he can to make black communities more dangerous, poorer, bleaker, more miserable. 
It’s not the white man keeping black communities down. It’s men like Ben Crump. And he deserves to be held accountable for it.

US-politics-RACISM-LAWSUIT

We Need To Respect Black Culture By Getting Rid Of Laws, Says MSNBC

Al Sharpton

Benjamin Crump

Blacks

Crime

George Floyd

I have talked a lot about the collapse of the criminal justice system. The very concept of criminal justice — of enacting justice, and punishing crime — has been destroyed. But very few people ever take the time to trace the roots of our current state of lawless anarchy back to its origins. And the thing is, you don’t need to trace the roots very far.
There is a reason why we now live in a country governed by people who don’t believe in simply enforcing the law and punishing lawbreakers. These are people who are operating according to certain particularly crazy set of beliefs. And one of those beliefs is that deterrence doesn’t exist. Effectively, you cannot deter crime by punishing it. That’s the insane idea that began in our institutions of higher learning — the sort of insane idea that can only begin in our institutions of higher learning — and filtered its way down from there. As these ideas always do.
It began with the claim, first made years ago, that the death penalty doesn’t deter crime. This was always false, for reasons we’ll touch on later. But whatever you think of the death penalty, the implication underlying this &#8220;deterrence&#8221; argument was never going to stop with the death penalty. It was always going to progress far beyond that. And indeed, we&#8217;ve seen that progression in recent years. It&#8217;s no longer, &#8220;The death penalty is pointless because people don&#8217;t consider those consequences when they commit crime.&#8221; Instead, the argument we&#8217;re hearing today is, &#8220;All harsh punishment is pointless because people don&#8217;t consider any consequences when they commit crime.&#8221;
This is the intellectual origin of the &#8220;soft-on-crime&#8221; approach to law enforcement that we&#8217;re seeing in every major city in the country right now. And several years ago, this approach was adopted by the Obama DOJ without any fanfare whatsoever. In May of 2016, the National Institute of Justice, which is the research arm of the DOJ, published a <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/247350.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a> entitled, &#8220;Five Things About Deterrence.&#8221; You’ve probably never heard of this document but it is essentially the modern manifesto of the anti-incarceration movement in the United States. It applies the reasoning of anti-death penalty advocates to all forms of crime. It’s truly a remarkable document.
So here are the &#8220;five things about deterrence&#8221; that the memo highlights and then expands upon.
Number one: &#8220;The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment.&#8221; In other words, according to the DOJ, criminals are primarily worried about whether the cops are going to arrest them — not about how long they&#8217;re going to have to stay in prison. The question that apparently never occurred to this DOJ is: If the punishments aren’t severe, then why would the certainty of being caught deter anyone? Why would criminals care if they’re caught, if they know ahead of time that they won’t be punished? The whole reason that being caught is scary is that you will be punished. But if you aren’t punished, then being caught isn’t scary anymore. 
We are seeing this play out in cities across the country. Sure, the criminals are caught (sometimes), but it doesn’t matter because they aren’t punished and they’re back on the street a day later, committing more crimes. The argument from the DOJ is like saying that home invaders are deterred by guns, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a Glock or a super soaker. It makes no sense.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1309-why-the-criminal-justice-system-gave-up-on-punishing-criminals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
The DOJ&#8217;s manifesto doesn&#8217;t bother to expound on this point in any way. It just says, &#8220;Research shows clearly that the chance of being caught is a vastly more effective deterrent than even draconian punishment.&#8221; So there you have it. &#8220;Research&#8221; shows that punishment doesn&#8217;t work. What kind of research? They don&#8217;t say, at least not in that paragraph. Buried in the fine print on the page, however, is a citation to an <a href="https://prohic.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-06-02-DeterrenceMetaNagin.2013.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> by a public policy professor named Daniel Nagin at Carnegie Mellon University. This is the primary paper the DOJ relies on, along with a couple of others. Apparently, Nagin has done the research, and he&#8217;s realized that criminals don&#8217;t really care that much about punishment. They only care about the prospect of being caught.
I looked around to see if Nagin actually thinks this, and if so, what his logic is. I came across this clip from many years ago, which I&#8217;m going to play primarily because it&#8217;s kind of hilarious. Watch as a local news team breaks the news that, according to Daniel Nagin&#8217;s first groundbreaking finding, when you have more police officers, criminals tend to commit less crime. And then the news station interviews a couple of random people who think that checks out. This is one of the best examples of &#8220;research&#8221; telling us something that&#8217;s incredibly obvious, to a comical degree. But buried in this report, if you listen really carefully, is Nagin&#8217;s second theory, which the DOJ finds so compelling. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Research: More Police Presence Will Deter Criminals" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dhgHuK5WdQk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So the reporter holds up the stack of papers. &#8220;Here&#8217;s the research,&#8221; he says. &#8220;It shows that more police means less crime!&#8221; Cut to the two local residents and the sheriff who say, &#8220;uh, yeah. You think?&#8221; Apparently, being a professor at Carnegie Mellon isn&#8217;t what it used to be. Random people off the street think your research is incredibly obvious, because it is.
But the key part of that segment for our purposes is what Daniel Nagin says in that clip. He reports that, &#8220;There&#8217;s little evidence that making punishments even more severe than they already are has an incremental effect.&#8221; Right away, that&#8217;s a different argument from the one the DOJ is making. The DOJ said flat-out that, &#8220;draconian punishments&#8221; don&#8217;t deter crime. But the argument this Carnegie Mellon professor is advancing in that clip is that, if you make our existing punishments more severe, then they won&#8217;t deter crime that much. Those are two completely different arguments.
This little inconsistency confused me enough to look up Nagin&#8217;s actual paper — the one the DOJ cites in its manifesto on deterrence. And in that article, you&#8217;ll find two main claims.
The first one is the idea he outlines in that video clip, &#8220;There is little evidence that increases in the length of already long prison sentences yield general deterrence effects that are sufficiently large to justify their social and economic costs.&#8221; In other words, he&#8217;s saying that existing prison sentences are a sufficient deterrent, and we don&#8217;t need to make them longer.
But afterwards in the paper, Nagin goes on to say pretty much what the DOJ claims. He says, &#8220;I have concluded that there is little evidence of a specific deterrent effect arising from the experience of imprisonment compared with the experience of noncustodial sanctions such as probation. .. It is clear that lengthy prison sentences cannot be justified on a deterrence-based, crime prevention basis.&#8221;
Those claims don&#8217;t follow at all. His starting point is that we don&#8217;t need to make prison sentences longer. And somehow, without showing his work, he ends up with a declaration that criminals don&#8217;t really care about their punishments, only whether they&#8217;re apprehended — as though apprehension without punishment matters to anyone. We might as well just sentence everyone to probation, is what he&#8217;s saying.
The technical term for this kind of argument is that it&#8217;s garbage. It&#8217;s a clearly absurd result, but it&#8217;s the basis for the DOJ&#8217;s entire argument against deterrence. This is the document that the DOJ cites to justify its policy of releasing as many criminals as possible — or at least, criminals who share the DOJ&#8217;s politics. It&#8217;s hard to overemphasize how truly bizarre and incredible this is.
But it gets weirder. Citing Nagin&#8217;s research, the DOJ goes on to claim that, &#8220;Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn’t a very effective way to deter crime.&#8221;
Again, that&#8217;s a direct quote from a document produced by the DOJ in 2016. &#8220;Sending an individual convicted of a crime to prison isn&#8217;t a very effective way to deter crime.&#8221; They&#8217;re saying that because some random Carnegie Mellon professor just wrote it down a few years earlier. Again, they don&#8217;t really clarify this point. Here&#8217;s the extent of the DOJ&#8217;s explanation: “Prisons are good for punishing criminals and keeping them off the street, but prison sentences (particularly long sentences) are unlikely to deter future crime. Prisons actually may have the opposite effect: Inmates learn more effective crime strategies from each other, and time spent in prison may desensitize many to the threat of future imprisonment.&#8221;
If this is true, it’s an argument for giving out even longer punishments, not shorter ones. In fact, this is a solid reason to be much more generous in handing out life sentences. If you give a life sentence — and actually make it a life sentence, meaning that the person isn&#8217;t released after 25 years or whatever — then the deterrence issue, at least for that individual, is a moot point. He’s gone. He’s off the street for good. But the DOJ doesn&#8217;t mention this possibility in the memo. Instead they conclude that we should let people out of jail sooner, after just telling us that jail only makes criminals more dangerous.
The rest of the DOJ document continues along these lines.
The third bullet point in the DOJ&#8217;s document says, &#8220;Police deter crime by increasing the perception that criminals will be caught and punished.&#8221; (This was the earth-shattering revelation that shocked those news reporters). 
Number four: &#8220;Increasing the severity of punishment does little to deter crime.&#8221;
And number five: &#8220;There is no proof that the death penalty deters criminals.&#8221;
Those latter two bullet points contradict everything we know about the human condition. Obviously longer, harsh prison sentences deter crime. This is a basic fact of human psychology. People are less likely to do something if the consequences are very bad. That doesn’t mean nobody will do it. It doesn&#8217;t mean that everyone will respond to incentives like a rational person. It just means fewer people will do it. It&#8217;s impossible for a reasonable person to deny this point because it is again a basic fact of human behavior, well established over the course of thousands of years of human civilization.
That’s why they have no way of disproving it. All they have are random studies done by quack sociologists which are supposed to outweigh the collective experience of all mankind for the past 10 thousand years. And by the way, these random studies contradict the random studies I cited earlier — the ones CBS News reported on back in 2007.
That&#8217;s a cue that it&#8217;s a good idea to ignore all of these studies, and use common sense. The DOJ is stacking a handful of research papers against the totality of human experience, and expect us to believe the research papers. Which is also how they come up with the ridiculous proposition that the death penalty doesn’t deter crime. Obviously people are less likely to do something if you kill them for doing it. If the death penalty in its current form is less effective as a deterrence than it has been in the past, that&#8217;s only because we put so much time in between conviction and punishment that the punishment loses much of its societal impact.
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And again, the DOJ&#8217;s arguments are all assuming that &#8220;deterrence&#8221; is somehow the only relevant goal. But long prison sentences have another important goal, known as &#8220;incapacitation.&#8221; They remove violent criminals from the public, so they can&#8217;t hurt anyone again. 
Later on in the document, the DOJ does briefly touch on the goal of incapacitation. Here&#8217;s what they say: &#8220;Individuals grow out of criminal activity as they age. &#8230; A more severe (i.e., lengthy) prison sentence for convicted individuals who are naturally aging out of crime does achieve the goal of punishment and incapacitation. But that incapacitation is a costly way to deter future crimes by aging individuals who already are less likely to commit those crimes by virtue of age.&#8221;
This is how the DOJ views criminal justice. They actually say that sending criminals to prison for a long time might be pointless because they&#8217;ll grow out of being criminals anyway. This is the type of thinking that is directing the justice system from the very top, and the mental rot goes all the way down from there.
But the DOJ does make one point that makes sense, which is that it&#8217;s impossible to say which criminals are likely to reoffend, and which criminals are likely to &#8220;age out&#8221; of a life of crime. That&#8217;s true. Really, it&#8217;s impossible to conduct a fully accurate study of deterrence. There&#8217;s no way to quantify the number of people who would have committed a crime had the punishments been softer, or the number who did commit one because the punishments were too soft. This would require not only self-reported data (which is notoriously unreliable) but also a person&#8217;s speculations about their theoretical mental states in some other possible universe. There&#8217;s just no way to compile that into a statistic and call it science.
We ultimately have to fall back on the history of human societies and our own basic common sense intuitions about how human beings operate and what sorts of things incentivize and disincentivize them.
And all of that points back to a simple and straightforward conclusion: if you want less crime, you have one choice. It&#8217;s the choice that academics and public health experts and politicians have avoided making for decades now. You have to punish criminals, and you have to punish them severely.

Chalk Outline at Police Crime Scene

Why The Criminal Justice System Gave Up On Punishing Criminals

Death Penalty

Jail

Prison

Woke Culture

The largest public school district in Iowa changed its employment practices to consider hiring people with criminal records after years of potential workers failing background checks due to past misdemeanor or felony convictions.
Superintendent Ian Roberts of the Des Moines Public School District, which serves approximately 30,000 students at more than 60 different schools, announced the change during a public forum on Sunday, according to local media.
&#8220;I believe that people are so much better than the worst thing they&#8217;ve ever done,&#8221; Roberts said, according to the <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/education/2023/10/05/new-des-moines-public-schools-policy-changes-aim-to-remove-employment-barriers-diversify-staff/71038946007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Des Moines Register</a>. &#8220;I have overturned at least … five or six decisions around not hiring individuals based on something in their background because they have an opportunity not only for them to be redeemed, but for them to add value to the students that we are serving.&#8221;
Roberts said the school board granted him the &#8220;green light to make the right decisions&#8221; but contended that the district would decline to hire an individual who could endanger students, staff, or educators.
Top administrators said the shift comes amid the school district&#8217;s attempt to diversify its teachers and staff of nearly 5,000. The outlet cited Iowa Department of Education statistics, which reports about 80% of the staff members are white, while two-thirds of the district&#8217;s students are Hispanic and black.
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Phil Roeder, a spokesperson for the district, told the outlet that state law requires background checks for employees every five years.
Susan Tallman, the district&#8217;s talent and personnel director, told the outlet that having a criminal offense on a background check does not automatically disqualify an applicant.
The district&#8217;s change in hiring practices comes after officials <a href="https://www.weareiowa.com/article/news/education/des-moines-public-schools-dmps-replacing-sro-school-resource-officers-new-program-safety-urban-dreams/524-338775a7-2eda-4321-9ee3-545fedbdf9b7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> ended its contract with school resource officers from the Des Moines Police Department more than two years ago, citing concerns over law enforcement disproportionality overusing authority towards students of color.
Instead, district officials used other methods to keep campuses safe with coordinators, monitors, and facilitators.
However, after the first year of the new system, parents and police <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/des-moines/2022/02/28/des-moines-public-schools-school-resource-officers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Axios that student behavioral problems reached a &#8220;fever pitch,&#8221; as the outlet reports.
Parents raised concerns about a rise in violence and bullying at some schools in the district, while police reports show a range of weapons, from guns to bricks, have been identified in school fights. Other records reported by the outlet showed students assaulting teachers and staff.

Iowa School District Changes Hiring Policy To Consider Applicants With Criminal History: Report

Iowa School District Changes Hiring Policy To Consider Applicants With Criminal History

Des Moines

Education

Iowa

Public Schools

U.S.

A 21-year-old man who was convicted of shooting 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson inside of Seattle’s 2020 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/capitol-hill-autonomous-zone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Capitol Hill Organized Protest</a> (CHOP) zone was sentenced to 14 years behind bars on Friday.
Marcel Long <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/man-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-in-fatal-chop-shooting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was handed</a> down the prison sentence by King County Superior Court Judge Karen Donohue. Long will also have to provide restitution to Anderson’s family, who slammed the judge over the plea deal. 
“I don’t even know why we’re sitting up here because they made a deal that we didn’t even agree on. They wanted this deal. He wanted this deal,” Horace Anderson Sr. <a href="https://twitter.com/choeshow/status/1675018065267032064" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during the sentencing hearing, pointing to Long. “We didn’t want that deal. I said take it to trial and just let God figure it out. That’s what his mom said. But instead, we were force-fed this deal and we had to take it.” 
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FATHER&#39;S FURY: Horace Anderson closed out the victim impact statements Friday afternoon in King County Superior Court. His lasted more than 30 minutes. This is a cut down version of some key moments. Like the others, Lorenzo&#39;s dad shared the pain and grief of losing his son. But… <a href="https://t.co/A0Xl1mfjRc">pic.twitter.com/A0Xl1mfjRc</a>
&mdash; Jonathan Choe Journalist (Seattle) (@choeshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/choeshow/status/1675018065267032064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Court documents show that the killing, which occurred during the protests in Seattle after the death of George Floyd, was downgraded from first to second-degree murder. Long was not arrested until one year after the killing. 
Long ran after Anderson and shot him after the two had an argument. Anderson did not immediately receive medical care because city responders were hesitant to enter CHOP. 
Police claimed a hostile crowd prevented them from entering the CHOP zone to clear the way for medics. Anderson reportedly had to be treated by civilians and was taken to Harborview Medical Center in the back of a pickup truck.
The city of Seattle <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/his-son-was-killed-after-seattle-police-abandoned-their-precinct-in-the-chop-zone-now-hes-settled-a-wrongful-death-lawsuit-with-the-city" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously gave Anderson $500,000</a> in a settlement over the incident. 
During the sentencing, Anderson’s sister yelled at Long during the family’s turn to address the court. Through tears, she said that she “hated” Long. 
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EMOTIONALLY CHARGED SENTENCING: Friday afternoon, court was temporarily halted during victim impact statements after an outburst by Donnitta Sinclair. She&#39;s the grief stricken mother of Lorenzo Anderson who was murdered by Marcel Long in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Seattle?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Seattle</a>&#39;s CHAZ/CHOP zone during the… <a href="https://t.co/cWOiTvC501">pic.twitter.com/cWOiTvC501</a>
&mdash; Jonathan Choe Journalist (Seattle) (@choeshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/choeshow/status/1674951744504344576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
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At one point during the sentencing, Anderson’s mother started walking toward Long and said that she was not going to let them “disrespect my son.” After police stepped in her way, she walked toward the judge and yelled at her, video shows. Chaos ensued in the courtroom, with parties on both sides yelling and screaming at each other. 
According to the Seattle Times, prosecutors argued that Long had developmental issues, and was at the state of an 11-14-year-old at the time of the shooting. His exposure to violence growing up in his community was also considered. 
“I would like to thank you for trying to understand the mistake of a kid in the streets but most of all I’m thankful for helping me understand the life I don’t want, but one I need, by simply just wanting me to change,” Long wrote in a letter to Anderson’s family.

Memorial And Rally For Peace Held In Seattle After Violent Incidents At CHOP Zone

Family Of Man Killed In CHOP Rips Seattle Prosecutors, Judge Over Killer’s Sentence

2020

Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone

Seattle

An 18-year-old girl from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a> has sued the city of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/st-louis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St. Louis</a> after she had both legs amputated after being struck by a car in an accident police said was caused in part by a man out on bond. 
Janae Edmondson, a high school volleyball player competing in a tournament in St. Louis, was pinned between two cars in February, causing her to lose both legs. According to the police, Daniel Riley, a 21-year-old man who <a href="https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/janae-edmonson-sues-city-of-st-louis/63-c9046a4e-49e8-4128-94ee-763e80af0493#:~:text=Janae%20Edmondson%20and%20her%20family,armed%20robbery%20case%20in%202020." target="_blank" rel="noopener">was out on bond</a> for an armed robbery case, was driving a vehicle that slammed into another car that struck Edmondson. 
Edmondson “had her bright future brutally ripped away when she was crushed between two vehicles following a car crash, leading to amputation of both her legs. The crash, involving a robbery suspect who had violated the terms of his bond dozens of times over several months, was completely preventable,” the lawsuit <a href="https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/c3/6c36d792-109d-11ee-b27b-db19304fb8f1/6493a6130dba5.pdf.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a>. 
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The ordeal brought waves of negative publicity and eventually, among other incidents, led to the resignation of St. Louis&#39; top prosecutor, Kim Gardner. Now, Janae Edmondson is seeking damages from the city, as she accuses the government of negligence. <a href="https://t.co/07S87qImqU">https://t.co/07S87qImqU</a>
&mdash; St. Louis Business Journal (@stlouisbiz) <a href="https://twitter.com/stlouisbiz/status/1671673197891125248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Defendants in the case include St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, Riley, and the other driver involved. 
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This is Daniel Riley, the man accused of causing a crash in downtown St. Louis that severely injured a young volleyball player. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/News4Investigates?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#News4Investigates</a> is digging into his background and learning he never should have been driving. More on <a href="https://twitter.com/KMOV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KMOV</a> at 6 <a href="https://t.co/MMoxEgmGPl">pic.twitter.com/MMoxEgmGPl</a>
&mdash; Susan El Khoury (@SusanElKhoury) <a href="https://twitter.com/SusanElKhoury/status/1628101097851060246?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
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According to the lawsuit, Riley violated the terms of his bond by allowing the battery on the GPS tracker monitoring him to die and leaving house arrest over 50 times, all without having his bond revoked. 
The robbery charge for Riley stemmed from an incident in 2020, and the case is still ongoing. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/soros-backed-prosecutor-kim-gardner-resigning-over-gop-pressure-to-remove-her-criminal-contempt-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kim Gardner</a>, St. Louis’s former far-Left prosecutor, came under fire for Riley being out of jail. 
Riley has pleaded <a href="https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/crash-daniel-riley-plead-not-guilty-janae-edmondson/63-de7a0611-b60a-4008-9c06-d691d6ae6a20#:~:text=Daniel%20Riley%20to%20plead%20not%20guilty%20for%20crash%20that%20critically,18." target="_blank" rel="noopener">not guilty</a> to charges stemming from the crash and still faces the armed robbery case. 
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Both drivers involved in the accident, Riley and Elizabeth Smith, were driving without or with suspended driver&#8217;s licenses and were speeding, the lawsuit alleges. Edmondson also says that the city bears responsibility for the dangerous roadway where the accident occurred. 
Edmondson, who barely survived the accident and was in the hospital for 40 days, had been accepted into the University of Tennessee Southern to play volleyball. Afterward, Edmondson <a href="https://www.dnj.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/04/26/janae-edmondson-volleyball-scholarship-mtsu-legs-amputated-smyrna/70140442007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was given</a> a partial scholarship to Middle Tennessee State University to help manage the volleyball program. 
A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/pray-for-janae" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GoFundMe</a> started by Edmondson’s family has raised more than $800,000 for Edmondson, who lives in Smyrna, Tennessee. 
“[Edmondson] joined Planet Fitness (to help her get even stronger for prosthetics, coming soon we hope) and she got to throw out the first pitch at the Sounds game in Nashville. Blessed for her strength! Blessed for our community! Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support,” the most recent update from the family says.

Barges On Mississippi River As Grain Shipments Falls

Teen Who Lost Legs In Car Accident Sues St. Louis After Man Charged Was Out On Bond

Missouri

St. Louis

Tennessee

Volleyball

The attorney for hip-hop artist Kodak Black, who was sentenced to three years in prison for falsifying information on federal forms to buy firearms, ripped the plea deal given to Hunter Biden, who had admitted to the facts of a similar crime.
Biden received a pretrial diversion agreement over the gun charge; Black was sentenced in 2019 but had a 46-month sentence commuted in 2021 by former President Trump.
“There&#8217;s no such thing as not getting jail time on a gun charge on any kind of gun charge,” Bradford Cohen, Black’s criminal defense attorney told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kodak-blacks-lawyer-slams-hunter-biden-plea-deal-after-rapper-sentenced-to-3-years-for-same-crime?intcmp=tw_fnc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News Digital</a>. He added on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CtuN1ctrLpF/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>, “2 tiers of justice? Kodak was charged for the same crime. Got over 3 years. Mr. Biden will not serve a day. Feels right? Do FBI agents and federal authorities take cases personally?”
“I’ve never seen anyone where this offense was charged,” Cohen pointed out, “and they didn&#8217;t get some sort of prison sentence. And in fact, most of the time in federal court, you very rarely see people get anything but a prison sentence.”
“A federal crime is supposed to be a federal crime,” Cohen continued. “And federal crimes are supposed to be very serious federal crimes, and that&#8217;s why you look at prison sentences. &#8230; I think that this is like, you know, they figured the easiest way for them to save face [was] to charge him, not give him prison, and then hope that [Joe] Biden doesn&#8217;t give him a pardon until he&#8217;s on his way out.”
Black, who had a <a href="https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/a-timeline-of-kodak-blacks-arrests-alleged-crimes-and-other-legal-troubles-11178496" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prior criminal record</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/arts/music/kodak-black-jail-sentencing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> he had lied on background check forms while buying more than one firearm; two of the guns were later found by the police at crime scenes, according to prosecutors.
“Young people do stupid things,” U.S. District Court Judge Federico Moreno <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2019/11/13/kodak-black-sentenced-to-3-years-and-10-months-in-federal-prison/">told</a> Black at his trial. “But the problem is that you’ve been doing stupid things since you were 15.”
“I’m sorry for the actions that led me for where I’m standing,” Black said before he was sentenced. “I do take full responsibility for my mishap.”
Hunter Biden answered  “no” to a question on a background-check questionnaire asking, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” He had been discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine Five years prior to that.
At the beginning of March, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boss-of-titanic-sub-company-didnt-want-50-year-old-white-guys-on-his-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> Attorney General Merrick Garland of potentially criminal evidence against Hunter Biden, saying, “Recent lawfully protected whistleblower disclosures to my office indicate that the Justice Department and the FBI had at one time over a dozen sources who provided potentially criminal information relating to Hunter Biden. &#8230; The alleged volume and similarity of the information would demand that the Justice Department investigate the truth and accuracy of the information.”

‘Kodak Was Charged For The Same Crime’: Hip Hop Star’s Lawyer Condemns Hunter Biden Plea Deal

Hip Hop

Hunter Biden

Plea deal

A man who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">identifies</a> as a woman will move to a women’s prison and receive a nearly half-million dollar payout after a settlement with the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MDOC).
Christina Lusk, 57, was convicted of a First Degree Felony drug charge in 2019 and <a href="https://coms.doc.state.mn.us/PublicViewer/OffenderDetails/Index/151045/Fugitive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">incarcerated</a> in <a href="https://mn.gov/doc/facilities/willow-river-moose-lake/moose-lake.jsp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MCF Moose Lake</a>, a medium-security men’s prison. Lusk sued MDOC in 2022, <a href="https://www.genderjustice.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/lusk-v-doc-complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arguing</a> that MDOC’s placement of Lusk in a men’s prison based “solely on genitalia” is unconstitutional and unenforceable. The settlement includes Lusk’s transport to Minnesota’s women-only Shakopee prison and access to “gender affirming healthcare,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/01/1179301244/minnesota-settlement-lawsuit-transgender-inmate-christina-lusk-prison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NPR</a> reported. On top of the new placement, Lusk will receive a $495,000 payout, which includes $250,000 in legal fees.
“With this settlement, the Department of Corrections takes an important and necessary step toward fulfilling its responsibilities to the people in its care,” stated Gender Justice Legal Director Jess Braverman, whose organization represented the inmate along with Robins Kaplan LLP.
In 2019, MDOC’s Transgender Committee <a href="https://www.genderjustice.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/lusk-v-doc-complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recommended</a> Lusk be placed at MCF Moose Lake with “shower alone” and “single cell housing” restrictions. As <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/06/09/transgender-woman-incarcerated-in-mens-prison-sues-for-discrimination#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MPRNews</a> reported when the lawsuit was filed, Lusk alleged that the Transgender Committee denied the inmate’s requests “without explanation.”
However, the MDOC adopted <a href="https://policy.doc.mn.gov/DocPolicy/PolicyDoc?name=202.045.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new guidelines</a> in January 2023 regarding accommodations for trans-identifying prisoners. MDOC’s January 2023 policies require the Transgender Committee to take the inmate’s gender identity into consideration, with the inmate’s safety considered a priority.
“As part of settling the lawsuit and in accordance with the [M]DOC&#8217;s new transgender policy, the DOC has agreed to provide [Lusk] access to a transgender healthcare specialist to determine if gender-affirming surgery is medically necessary” the MDOC said in a statement. “The [M]DOC will also assist her in obtaining surgery if the specialist determines it is necessary.”
MDOC Commissioner Paul Schnell stated, “The DOC is constitutionally obligated to provide medically necessary care for incarcerated people, which includes treatment for gender dysphoria.” Schnell also claimed MDOC has a “legal obligation” to provide Lusk “the medical care she needs [and] deserves.”
“Thanks to Christina Lusk&#8217;s willingness to speak out, transgender people in custody will now have expanded access to the housing and health care they need, and the legal protections they deserve,” Braverman said.
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Lusk is set for release in May 2024.
Minnesota’s policy of deciding transgender cases <a href="https://news.wgcu.org/2023-06-01/a-trans-inmate-wins-health-care-and-will-move-to-womens-prison-after-suing-minnesota" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aligns with federal standards</a>, which call for case-by-case determinations. Despite this, these determinations tend to lean toward housing inmates in accordance with their biological sex.

Collage Maker-01-Jun-2023-02-10-PM-8892

Trans-Identifying Man To Be Placed In Women’s Prison, Receive Nearly $500K After Settlement

Trans-Identifying Man To Be Placed In Women's Prison, Receive Nearly $500K After Settlement

Minnesota

Social Issues

Transgender

Liberalism is a mental disorder, or so the saying goes. That expression appears to be proven correct every single day. For example, take the latest story out of Arlington, Virginia, as evidence that some leftists have become so open-minded that their brains have fallen out.
Over Memorial Day Weekend,  Adam Theo, a candidate for the Arlington County Board and a social justice activist, tweeted that he was horribly beaten up and bloodied to a pulp after he intervened in what appeared to be a couple fighting. The male suspect brutally attacked him before dragging a female companion off into the darkness, Theo said.
Photos posted online show that Theo was left with two bruised eyes and a giant slash on his neck. He suffered senseless injuries no innocent person should be put through — especially not somebody trying to break up a fight.
&#8220;I lost count after punch no. 6. His GF pulled him back long enough for me to stumble away, but not far enough as he broke away from her and went for another series of blows. About 15 in total I think?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Samaritans came to aid and called 911, with the guy dragging the woman away screaming. Last I heard while sitting in Virginia Hospital Center he&#8217;d not yet been caught.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/ArlingtonVaPD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArlingtonVaPD</a> can you provide an update on the assault on Arlington resident Adam Theo in Clarendon? He says he gave info to police. Can you share this report? Where did this occur? Can you share a description of the attacker? The neighborhood needs this info for its protection <a href="https://t.co/w94bfe7fCZ">pic.twitter.com/w94bfe7fCZ</a>
&mdash; Clarendon Bros (@ClarendonBros) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClarendonBros/status/1663502983135391744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It&#8217;s an awful attack. You would think anybody who experienced something like that would want the maniac behind it in jail.
Not Theo. Theo wants to see his assailant go to a diversion program and be placed in restorative justice.
&#8220;Assuming @ArlingtonVaPD catches him, I want to persue #RestorativeJustice,&#8221; he <a href="https://archive.ph/saCvh#selection-1569.0-1591.178" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> from his now locked Twitter account. &#8220;I want programs to deal with such anger &amp; possibly substance abuse. Jail doesn&#8217;t fix people — it just releases problems back out into society even worse than when they went in.&#8221;
Restorative justice programs have been tried in the most liberal of cities. For example, in Los Angeles, District Attorney George Gascon believes in restorative justice. One of the criminals placed in Gascon&#8217;s soft-on-crime program was <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-man-avoided-prison-212405042.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently arrested for allegedly murdering</a> his neighbor. He evaded jail time after slashing somebody in the neck.
Sounds pretty similar to the man who allegedly attacked Theo. Nonetheless, the Leftist wants criminals to avoid jail time — even if it means putting people a future risk.
To be clear, nobody is mocking Theo for this horrendous assault. But, how can a political philosophy be taken seriously when promoters of said ideology get beaten to a pulp in the street and still think the man who did it shouldn&#8217;t be behind bars — because that&#8217;s what their philosophy dictates?
On Monday evening, Theo was going to get some ramen and sushi. Sometime after that, he <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dc-area-activist-wants-anger-management-restorative-justice-attacker-hospital" target="_blank" rel="noopener">updated</a> his Twitter bio to say, &#8220;Temporarily locked to fend off right-winger trolls flooding my TL with racist slurs &amp; attacking friends.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Restorative Justice, Emoji

Local Virginia Leftist Candidate Bloodily Pummeled, But Wants Restorative Justice — Not Jail — For Attacker

Social Justice

Virginia

Researchers from the University of Florida said a new accidental discovery could help solve criminal activity or find missing persons after learning investigators could collect human DNA samples from the air.
According to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02056-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution,</a> researchers learned the potential source for fighting crime while studying endangered sea turtles and analyzing sand samples at a beach where the reptiles lay eggs.
&#8220;We cough, spit, shed and flush our DNA into all of these places and countless more,&#8221; the university&#8217;s team said in a <a href="https://news.ufl.edu/2023/05/human-dna-everywhere-ethics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news release</a>.
David Duffy, the UF professor of wildlife disease genomics who led the project, said the discovery of gathering genetic information from a scoop of sand, a vial of water, or a person&#8217;s breath presents ethical dilemmas that scientists and regulators could face about privacy and surveillance to data ownership.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been consistently surprised throughout this project at how much human DNA we find and the quality of that DNA,&#8221; Duffy said. &#8220;In most cases, the quality is almost equivalent to if you took a sample from a person.&#8221;
Researchers said they collected human DNA everywhere they looked, except isolated islands and remote national parks. The team found samples near ocean and river waters surrounding the university&#8217;s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital. Duffy said even as far as his native land of Ireland.
&#8220;It&#8217;s standard in science to make these sequences publicly available,&#8221; Duffy said. &#8220;But that also means if you don&#8217;t screen out human information, anyone can come along and harvest this information. That raises issues around consent.&#8221;
Now that human DNA could be found and readily sampled, Duffy urged lawmakers and the scientific communities to push for consent and privacy measures.
&#8220;Any time we make a technological advance, there are beneficial things that the technology can be used for and concerning things that the technology can be used for. It&#8217;s no different here,&#8221; Duffy said. &#8220;These are issues we are trying to raise early so policy makers and society have time to develop regulations.&#8221;

Green sea turtle

Florida Researchers Collect Human DNA In Air While Studying Sea Turtles, Suggests New Discovery Could Help Solve Criminal Activity

Researchers Collect Human DNA In Air While Studying Sea Turtles, Suggests New Discovery Could Help Solve Criminal Activity

University of Florida

Marine veteran Daniel Penny turned himself in to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york-city" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York City</a> police on Friday morning after learning that he would face a second-degree manslaughter charge over the death of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jordan-neely" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jordan Neely</a>.
Neely, a homeless man with over 40 arrests and a history of mental health issues, was placed in a chokehold by Penny on a New York City subway after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marine-who-put-jordan-neely-in-chokehold-on-nyc-subway-to-face-criminal-charges-over-his-death-reports" target="_blank" rel="noopener">witnesses say</a> Neely embarked on an aggressive rant and began screaming that he did not care if he went to jail. 
“This morning, Daniel Penny surrendered at the 5th Precinct at the request of the New York County District Attorney’s office. He did so voluntarily and with the sort of dignity and integrity that is characteristic of his history of service to this grateful nation,” <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/12/daniel-penny-surrenders-to-police-in-fatal-chokehold-of-jordan-neely/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Thomas Kenniff, a lawyer for Penny. 
The decision to charge Penny was made by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and came after protests over Neely’s death. Video shows Penny, 24, arriving at the 5th Precinct in lower Manhattan to surrender to police. He is expected to be arraigned on Friday afternoon. If convicted, Penny could face 15 years in prison. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
HAPPENING NOW: Daniel Penny surrendered to authorities at the NYPD’s 5th precinct. He’s facing a 2nd degree manslaughter charge in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nbc4ny?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nbc4ny</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JordanNeely?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JordanNeely</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NYC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NYC</a> <a href="https://t.co/1ZRsW4LXL2">pic.twitter.com/1ZRsW4LXL2</a>
&mdash; Tracie Strahan (@tstrahan4NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/tstrahan4NY/status/1656996931518840834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The NYC medical examiner said last week that Neely died from a “chokehold” and ruled the incident a “homicide,” although criminal proceedings would be necessary to determine intent or culpability.
A statement from Penny’s lawyers said that he, alongside others, acted in self-defense to protect other passengers on the subway. 
“When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived. Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death,” the statement said. 
Neely had an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-details-emerge-about-altercation-between-unstable-nyc-homeless-man-and-decorated-marine-criminal-charges-weighed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extensive criminal history</a>, including several guilty pleas for violence-related charges. Two years ago, he was arrested for punching a 67-year-old female in the face and knocking her to the ground as she exited a subway station, as well as for attempting to kidnap a 7-year-old girl he was seen dragging down a street, according to The New York Daily News. 
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He pleaded guilty to felony assault over the first incident but never completed his alternative-to-incarceration program, for which he missed a compliance court date in February, and pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child over the second incident and was sentenced to four months in jail.

US-JUSTICE-TRANSPORT-SOCIAL

Marine Vet Accused Of Killing Jordan Neely Turns Himself In After Charge Against Him Revealed

Alvin Bragg

Jordan Neely

New York City

Voters in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wisconsin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wisconsin</a> head to the polls on Tuesday to decide the balance of the state Supreme Court in one of the most expensive court races in history. 
Neither candidate running for the open seat belongs to a political party. Conservative candidate and former Justice Dan Kelly, backed by most Republicans, is facing off against liberal candidate Judge Janet Protasiewicz, the preferred candidate of most Democrats, with the winner determining the ideological slant of the divided court and earning a 10-year term on the court. 
Protasiewicz has reportedly been <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaign/wisconsin-supreme-court-voters-tuesday" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backed</a> by donations from left-wing billionaire George Soros and Gov. J.B Pritzker (D-IL), while Kelly has received support from groups like Fair Courts America, a conservative judicial organization. Total spending has exceeded $40 million, an astronomical amount compared to previous years when total spending was only around $10 million. 
Hollywood has even thrown its weight behind Protasiewicz, with director Steven Speilberg contributing to her campaign and actor Mark Ruffalo <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo/status/1642894601559191553">encouraging</a> voters to “change the future of Wisconsin by electing Janet Protasiewicz &amp; flipping the state supreme court.”
Both candidates have suggested that the other is unfit to serve, with Kelly pointing to Protasiewicz&#8217;s left-wing ties and claiming she has a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/elections/liberal-wisconsin-supreme-court-nom-let-off-domestic-abuser-he-was-later-convicted-of-attempted-murder/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">soft-on-crime</a> sentencing history, while Protasiewicz linked Kelly to attempts to challenge the 2020 presidential election in the Badger State. 
“This election is about protecting the Rule of Law. My opponent has promised to force her personal politics on everyone in Wisconsin. She would choose the Rule of Janet over the Rule of Law. We cannot let her win,” Kelly <a href="https://twitter.com/JusticeDanKelly/status/1641446503540736002" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last week. 
During a debate earlier this year, Protasiewicz <a href="https://www.wpr.org/dan-kelly-janet-protasiewicz-debate-wisconsin-supreme-court-seat" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that she was “running against probably one of the most extreme partisan characters in the history of the state.&#8221; 
Though officially non-partisan, the candidates have nearly polar opposite views, with Protasiewicz openly championing her support for abortion and Kelly receiving the endorsements of key pro-life groups in the state. Protasiewicz had an ad <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcJ-fATj2uc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">featuring a woman</a> celebrating an abortion because the child could have been born with disabilities. 
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The election could be a deciding factor in a case over Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban, which became relevant after Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer. 
The candidates could also play a key role in deciding the fate of other laws in the state, including election integrity measures, election maps, and gun laws. Last year, the state made a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wisconsin-supreme-court-bans-uses-of-drop-boxes-in-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bombshell ruling</a>, saying that Wisconsin voters could not turn their ballots into unmanned drop boxes and that voters would not be allowed to give them to others to drop off for them. This case, decided 4-3, would likely have been different with a different balance on the court. 
Republicans currently control the state&#8217;s general assembly, but Democrat Gov. Tony Evers won re-election in November, meaning lawmakers are limited in what laws they can get passed.

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