The Justice Department charged a dozen foreign-born individuals with operating fake daycares in a scheme to steal more than $10 million from taxpayers, The Daily Wire has learned.
More than 250 law enforcement officers arrested the accused early Thursday morning and executed search warrants at their San Diego homes, which they claimed to be using as childcare centers, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. Eleven of those arrested are naturalized United States citizens, while one has a green card and a pending application for citizenship.
The fraudsters hail from Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan.
<div id="attachment_1178923" style="width: 921px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1178923" class="wp-image-1178923 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Untitled-design-2026-09-15T104452.854-911x576.jpg" alt="" width="911" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Untitled-design-2026-09-15T104452.854-911x576.jpg 911w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Untitled-design-2026-09-15T104452.854-300x190.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Untitled-design-2026-09-15T104452.854-768x486.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Untitled-design-2026-09-15T104452.854.jpg 1230w" sizes=" (max-width: 911px) 100vw, 911px" />Credit: DOJ</div>
The 12 individuals obtained California licenses to open home childcare centers. They then registered with Child Development Associates (CDA) and the YMCA to receive subsidies to help low-income families pay for childcare.
California receives funding for the aid program from the Department of Health and Human Services.
To receive the funds, the defendants had to submit monthly attendance records showing the exact dates and times they cared for each child. The accused allegedly falsified attendance records to claim they cared for the children when they actually did not.
The individuals received the payments based on the fraudulent records, according to the Justice Department.
&#8220;Today is a bad day for home daycare fraud,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement on Tuesday. &#8220;These are the first charges alleging this type of fraud since the formation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division.&#8221;
&#8220;These fraudsters may have criminally gamed the system before. But today, the game is over,&#8221; he said.
Abdulrahman Ayman Alawad, a 25-year-old who was born in Syria, claimed his daycare looked after 23 children in March 2026 and 25 children in April 2026, the Justice Department said.
Surveillance recordings taken during 57 days of those two months showed just one day of children coming and going from the facility, according to federal authorities. It happened to be the same day a state inspector showed up for an unannounced visit.
Abdulrahman and the children showed up only after the inspector arrived, the Justice Department said. Border crossing records also showed that Abdulrahman and several other defendants were not present in the United States when they submitted attendance records purporting to care for children at their California centers.
One of the individuals, Turkiya Mamdouh Alawad, also of Syria, departed the United States on or about January 1, 2024, before returning to the country around January 30, 2024, the Justice Department said. While she was out of the country, the 63-year-old submitted attendance records to CDA and the YMCA for January 2024 and received eight direct deposits from the organizations totaling $14,970 in February 2024.
Several of the accused received more than $1 million in payments while running their schemes.
All 12 of the accused are charged with wire fraud, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years behind bars and a fine of $500,000. Some of the alleged fraudsters have also been hit with money laundering charges, which carry the same punishment.
IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman said the &#8220;takedown exposes a sprawling&#8221; and lucrative &#8220;fraud scheme.&#8221;
&#8220;By following the money, IRS Criminal Investigation uncovered patterns of deceit that revealed twelve ghost daycare operations billing for children who were never present,&#8221; Koopman said.
&#8220;This was not a victimless crime,&#8221; Koopman added. &#8220;It deprived working parents of critical support and eroded trust in programs meant to protect the most vulnerable in our communities. We remain steadfast in our commitment to safeguarding federal funds and ensuring that those who exploit public programs for personal gain are held fully accountable.&#8221;
The latest charges are part of efforts by the White House Fraud Task Force, led by Vice President JD Vance, to investigate and root out fraud throughout the United States. In May, Vance announced that the White House was suspending enrollment of home health companies in Ohio’s Medicaid program for six months following a Daily Wire investigative series into home healthcare waste, fraud, and abuse. In that series, The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak exposed widespread alleged Medicaid fraud across the state in Ohio’s home health sector.
On Monday, the Justice Department and Small Business Administration announced that their summer crackdown on COVID-era fraud resulted in DOJ enforcement against 160 defendants who were tied to about $245 million in intended losses.
During a Kansas City press conference on Monday afternoon, Vance told The Daily Wire that officials in former President Joe Biden’s administration were aware of the fraud, calling the matter an “open secret.”
“Everybody knew people were skimming off the top,” he shared. “Absolutely, we need to be looking into the officials who are turning a blind eye to this stuff.”
As of August 2026, the Task Force says it has uncovered almost $230 billion in fraud, stopped $56 billion in fraudulent payments, and enforced more than $55 billion in indictments, civil penalties, and settlements.

Empty preschool classroom with colorful children’s toys and furniture

EXCLUSIVE: Fraudsters From Terror-Plagued Countries Made Millions Off Fake U.S. Daycares

daycare fraud

department of justice

jd vance

san diego

white house fraud task force

The radicalized teenage suspects who shot up the Islamic Center of San Diego and killed three adult victims, including a security guard, aligned themselves with Adolf Hitler and spewed hatred against Muslims and Jews in a manifesto. 
The suspects, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, targeted a mosque in their rampage, but appeared to hate many different groups of people, police said
“We also identified writings and various ideologies outlining religious and racial beliefs of how the world they envisioned should look. They didn’t discriminate on who they hated,” Mark Remily, special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego office, said in a Tuesday press briefing. 
Clark and Vazquez wrote a “nihilistic” manifesto before killing three people and then each other, <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/19/us-news/manifesto-reveals-motive-behind-islamic-center-of-san-diego-shooting/">according to the New York Post</a>, which cited law enforcement sources.
“The 75-page document is laden with the same Nazi iconography that Clark was seen wearing during a horrifying livestream video of the attack, including the Black Sun, which is associated with Nazi SS head Heinrich Himmler, and Atomwaffen, which is tied to a violent neo-Nazi group,” the Post reported on Tuesday. 
The writings reportedly contained a chaotic blend of anti-Trump, anti-liberal, antisemitic, and homophobic rhetoric, tied together by a deep sense of resentment of their personal life standing.
A section believed to have been written by Clark reportedly drew ideological alignment with Hitler and expressed deep disdain for both Left and Right-wing ideology. The manifesto cites convicted mass killers — including Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh, and Anders Breivik — as sources of inspiration, the Post reported. 
Clark reportedly targeted Muslims, Jews, and gay people in his writings and expressed a desire to spark an “all-out race war” that would usher in the “collapse of society.” 
Vazquez, in his section of the manifesto, described being short as a source of deep pain and humiliation.
“I would say we&#8217;re still too early in the investigation to say that the Islamic Center of San Diego was the specific target,” Remily said. “We&#8217;re still looking through electronics to give us the answers. But again, what I can say is they definitely had a broad hatred towards a lot of folks.” 
Authorities searched two residences in connection with the investigation and seized 30 firearms and a crossbow.
“I can tell you at this point the guns were not registered to these individuals and belong to the parents of one of the individuals, and exactly how they came into they were able to obtain them still under investigation,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told reporters. 
The security guard shot to death “played a pivotal role” in stopping more casualties and likely saved the lives of school-aged children nearby, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said Monday.
On Monday afternoon, authorities said the mother of one of the suspects contacted the San Diego Police Department at 9:42 am to report that her son had gone missing, along with multiple firearms, and her car. She said he was suicidal and was probably with a friend.
SDPD said officers received reports of gunfire at the center located at 7050 Eckstrom Avenue at 11:43 am local time and responded within four minutes. Police found all three victims dead outside the center, then cleared each room amid a “chaotic” scene. No officers fired a shot during the active shooter incident, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-respond-to-reports-of-active-shooter-near-islamic-center?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Two+Teenagers+Identified+As+Gunmen+Who+Killed+Three+At+San+Diego+Mosque">The Daily Wire previously reported.</a>
“Officers were in the area still talking with mom, trying to piece together where they might be, the locations that she felt that they would be at, and that was just a few blocks away,” Chief Wahl said. “Those officers, once they heard what was happening at the Islamic Center, immediately dispatched themselves to the mosque.”
The teenage shooters, according to police, met each other online. 
“Through the course of that online communication, they discovered that they were both residing in the San Diego area, and they became acquaintances or associates in person, and had in-person contact at that point, but in terms of how the radicalization occurred, we&#8217;re still digging into all of it,” Remily said. 
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US-RELIGION-CRIME

Teen Mosque Shooters Plotted ‘All-Out Race War’ In Hitler-Praising Manifesto

islam

Mosque Shooting

News

The full force of the British government rushed to condemn the San Diego mosque shooting and comfort the country&#8217;s Muslim community despite repeated silence on antisemitic and anti-Christian attacks in the United States and on their own streets.
On Monday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-respond-to-reports-of-active-shooter-near-islamic-center?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Up+Next&amp;rowType=Up+Next+Carousel&amp;title=Two+Teenagers+Identified+As+Gunmen+Who+Killed+Three+At+San+Diego+Mosque">two teenagers, ages 17 and 18, killed three adults</a> — including a security guard — at the Islamic Center of San Diego in the Clairemont neighborhood. No motive has been provided, but investigators are reportedly reviewing “possible anti-Islamic writings” found in the car with the dead suspects, according to NBC News. 
The shooting sparked condemnation in the United States and across the pond in the U.K. 
&#8220;I condemn the deadly attack on a mosque in San Diego. My thoughts are with those affected. I know many Muslims in the U.K. will be shaken by this, worried about their safety when going about their lives and attending mosque, and what it says about the times we’re living in,&#8221; embattled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted on social media.
&#8220;I understand those fears. Violence like this does not happen in a vacuum. It grows in an environment where division and anti-Muslim hostility are normalized. That is intolerable. We must all come together against it,&#8221; he added. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I condemn the deadly attack on a mosque in San Diego. My thoughts are with those affected.
I know many Muslims in the UK will be shaken by this, worried about their safety when going about their lives and attending mosque, and what it says about the times we’re living in. I…
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/2056642583955140639?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
Britain’s Metropolitan Police joined the chorus, releasing a statement aimed at reassuring the nation’s Muslim community.
&#8220;While the details of the incident continue to emerge, it is clear that this attack will cause deep concern and distress within Muslim communities across the United Kingdom and over the world,&#8221; the police department said. &#8220;It is an awful reality that Muslim communities continue to face heightened levels of threat. We know this attack will not only bring profound sadness but also significant concern about safety among Muslim Londoners.&#8221; 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
San Diego Islamic Center Attack
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist: &#8220;Our thoughts are with the loved ones of those who have been killed or injured in the terrible attack at the Islamic Center in San Diego, and with the emergency services who responded.&#8221;
📰⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/DJfksF32Fv">pic.twitter.com/DJfksF32Fv</a>
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) <a href="https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/2056711924633498030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
The Daily Wire could not find U.K. Metropolitan Police statements on antisemitic or anti-Christian attacks in the United States, including the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-we-know-about-the-trans-identifying-gunman-who-slaughtered-catholic-school-children">transgender-identifying 23-year-old who shot and killed</a> two children and injured 28 other people at a Minneapolis Catholic school last summer.
Nor did the U.K. government weigh in on the June 2025 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-sentenced-after-deadly-antisemitic-firebombing?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=26&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Illegal+Immigrant+Sentenced+After+Deadly+Antisemitic+Firebombing">antisemitic firebomb attack in Boulder</a>, when an Egyptian national hurled Molotov cocktails at Jewish demonstrators supporting the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others, including a Holocaust survivor.
In January 2025, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s far-Left Labour Party blocked a push by the Conservative Party to open an investigation into Pakistani child rape gangs that garnered significant international attention, <a href="http://The Daily Wire previously reported.">The Daily Wire previously reported.</a>
The selective outrage drew the attention of some social media critics.
&#8220;They didn’t do this when 30 Christians were butchered in Plateau, Nigeria, last week, or when Omar Mateen gunned down 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, or when women were sexually assaulted en masse on New Year’s Eve in Cologne,&#8221; one X user wrote. &#8220;So why are they doing this?&#8221; 
The Daily Wire reached out to the Metropolitan Police but did not receive a response in time for publication.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
They didn’t do this when 30 Christians were butchered in Plateau, Nigeria, last week, or when Omar Mateen gunned down 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, or when women were sexually assaulted en masse on New Year’s Eve in Cologne.
So why are they doing this? <a href="https://t.co/DVyDT6TZSR">https://t.co/DVyDT6TZSR</a>
— Shahana Ashur (@AshurShahana) <a href="https://twitter.com/AshurShahana/status/2056739626870612406?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
Authorities said the mother of one of the suspects in the mosque shooting contacted the San Diego Police Department at 9:42 a.m. to report that her son had gone missing, along with multiple firearms, and her car. She said he was suicidal and was probably with a friend.

PM Starmer Visits Community Centre In Hertfordshire

Brits Rush To The Comfort Of Muslims After Mosque Shooting In U.S.

california

Keir Starmer

shooting

One of the San Diego Padres&#8217; top prospects self-deported to Mexico after pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to The Athletic.
Border Patrol agents caught Humberto Cruz, who came legally to the United States, in October transporting two Mexican illegal immigrants at the Arizona border. The Padres signed Cruz, the right-handed pitcher from Mexico, in February 2024 for a $750,000 bonus, the outlet <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7264972/2026/05/08/top-padres-prospect-self-deported-to-mexico-after-plea-related-to-human-smuggling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Cruz, 19, later pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to improper entry and expressed &#8220;sincere regret for a recent lapse in judgment that has caused disappointment to many people I deeply respect,&#8221; he said in a statement issued by the Padres.
&#8220;I understand that my actions have fallen short of the standards expected of me as a professional and as a representative of this organization,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I take responsibility for my conduct and recognize the impact it has had on my teammates, the club, and those who support us. To my teammates and coaches, I apologize for becoming a distraction and for not upholding the level of professionalism you deserve. To the fans, I am sorry for letting you down and for failing to meet the trust placed in me.&#8221;
Cruz went on to say he&#8217;s &#8220;committed to reflecting on this moment, learning from it, and taking the appropriate steps to move forward in a positive and responsible manner.&#8221;
&#8220;I will cooperate fully with the organization and any steps required of me. … Thank you to everyone who has reached out with support and honesty. I understand that trust must be earned, and I am prepared to do that through my actions going forward,&#8221; he added.
On the morning of Oct. 28, Border Patrol agents observed a 2020 BMW SUV with Mexican license plates traveling south near Lukeville, Arizona, with one man inside, according to The Athletic, citing a criminal complaint. The agents grew suspicious after seeing the same car an hour later traveling north with multiple people inside.
They pulled them over, finding Cruz in the driver&#8217;s seat with two Mexican illegal immigrants in tow, according to the report. One of the passengers was deported four days before through Nogales, Arizona.
Cruz waived his Miranda rights, telling the agents that he responded to a call on social media for drivers &#8220;to pick up people for easy money,&#8221; The Athletic reported. He was offered $1,000 for each person he picked up at different locations through pin drops sent to his phone by an unknown contact.
The human smuggling operator instructed Cruz to drive to Tucson and then to Phoenix, according to The Athletic. Cruz also apparently admitted that he knew the people he picked up &#8220;were illegal.&#8221;
Federal authorities charged Cruz with one felony count of transportation of illegal aliens for profit and one misdemeanor count of accessory after the fact to improper entry, the outlet reported. He entered into a plea agreement that resulted in the dismissal of the felony charge in exchange for a guilty plea on the misdemeanor and a 30-day sentence with credit for time served.
Cruz entered the plea four months before being placed on the minor-league restricted list, according to The Athletic. He was already expected to miss the 2026 season following his elbow surgery in September.
He is ranked as the Padres&#8217; fifth top prospect, <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/padres-prospect-transporting-undocumented-immigrants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to CBS Sports.

Untitled design – 2026-05-11T083814.401

Top MLB Prospect Self-Deports After Smuggling Illegal Immigrants

baseball

Border

Smuggling

In Southern California, local officials are now handing out air purifiers to residents choking on the stench of raw sewage — yes, including human waste — flowing across the border from Mexico.
Roughly 25 million gallons of untreated sewage from America’s southern neighbor reportedly spill into the Pacific Ocean each day, and in parts of San Diego County, the cross-border torrent has turned what should be crisp seaside air into the unmistakable funk of a porta-potty.
By Wednesday morning, the mess had grown loud enough to reach the White House, as President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social.
“Mexico must take care of its water and sewage problem, IMMEDIATELY. It is a true Threat to the People of Texas, California, and the United States of America!” Trump warned, attaching a local news segment as evidence of the unfolding mess.
In California, the mouth of the Tijuana River, which flows through Mexico, empties into the Pacific just north of the border near Imperial Beach.
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The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District spent the week handing out hundreds of air purifiers and replacement filters to residents in the South Bay, a cluster of communities pressed against the Mexico border. <a href="https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/cross-border-contamination/san-diego-county-distributes-air-purifiers-to-south-bay-residents-impacted-by-cross-border-sewage-pollution/509-b9ac548e-a218-45d7-817f-4b2d81eb57e8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS 8 News</a> reported that people living there &#8220;continue to grapple with foul odors and polluted air stemming from cross-border sewage flow.&#8221;
Last week, the situation worsened after a break in a Mexican sewer line <a href="https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/new-sewage-line-break-sends-120-000-gallons-of-raw-waste-to-south-bay-communities">reportedly</a> sent 120,000 gallons of sewage into the South Bay. The ongoing pollution has already dragged down home values, closed some beaches, and affected Navy SEAL training.
Leon Benham, who has lived in the area for more than 60 years, <a href="https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/new-sewage-line-break-sends-120-000-gallons-of-raw-waste-to-south-bay-communities">told</a> KGTV that raw sewage has contaminated his backyard. He is the founder of Citizens for Coast Conservancy, which has reportedly spent years advocating for solutions.
&#8220;When the offshore flow comes in, we can smell the stink, you know, we can smell it,&#8221; he said.
Residents largely viewed the air purifiers as a temporary band-aid, not a fix. Baron Parlow, the founder of Stop the Poop, told CBS 8 that local officials simply handing out filters wasn’t anywhere close to enough.
&#8220;Where [are] all the tough sanctions on the source Mexico?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Where&#8217;s all the pressure to get Mexico to stop the poo?&#8221;
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin reacted to President Trump&#8217;s demand on social media.
&#8220;The Trump Admin has been taking important action to PERMANENTLY END the flow of disgusting raw sewage from Mexico into the United States,&#8221; he posted on X on Wednesday. &#8220;We are working very closely with our Mexican counterparts to ensure San Diego area beaches can reopen, foul odors cease, and the Tijuana River Valley gets cleaned up as quickly as humanly possible. This will also be great for our Navy SEALs who train in the area.&#8221;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

untreated sewage spills into the ocean at Dockweiler State Beach

Trump Demands Mexico Stop Flow Of Raw Sewage Into The U.S.

mexico

texas

trump administration

united states

President Joe Biden complained Wednesday that what he was able to accomplish during his time in the White House is “changing so rapidly” under President Donald Trump.
Biden delivered the keynote speech in front of a conference of human resources professionals put on by the Society for Human Resource Management in San Diego. The former president’s roughly hour-long address was his lengthiest public remarks since he announced his cancer diagnosis in May.
“Many of the things I worked so damn hard, that I thought I changed in the country, are changing so rapidly,” he said, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-in-rare-remarks-since-presidency-warns-his-accomplishments-are-coming-undone-18c58c50">The Wall Street Journal</a>.
Biden also said he has been advising European leaders on how to handle Trump. The 82-year-old ex-president said that European officials have called him and asked him to get involved in politics again. Biden said he is not involved, but is still talking to and advising U.S. and European lawmakers.
“We strengthened NATO in a significant way,” Biden told the conference, adding that now “I’m getting calls — I’m not going to go into it, I can’t — from a number of European leaders asking me to get engaged.”
“I’m not, but I’m giving advice,&#8221; Biden said.
The White House pushed back on Biden’s claims. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that Biden’s leadership left “America weaker than ever before,” according to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-says-world-leaders-are-asking-him-for-advice-in-new-trump-era/">The Daily Beast</a>.
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“Absolutely no one is calling Joe Biden for advice because his disastrous foreign policy left America weaker than ever before. Thanks to President Trump, NATO allies have made a historic 5% defense spending pledge, Iran’s nuclear capabilities are obliterated, and our country’s standing on the world stage is restored,” Kelly said.
Last month, Trump scored a diplomatic win with NATO countries, convincing all but Spain to increase defense spending to 5% of each country’s relative GDP. The 5% target <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_49198.htm">includes</a> 3.5% dedicated to core defense requirements and at least 1.5% on security and defense-related “critical infrastructure,” including strengthening each country’s “defense industrial base.”
“There is absolute conviction with my colleagues at the table that, given this threat from the Russians, given the international security situation, there is no alternative,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-triumphs-nato-bows-to-u-s-pressure-with-5-defense-pledge">said</a> of the increase.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden Says His Accomplishments Are Disappearing ‘So Rapidly’ Under Trump

donald trump

Elections

joe biden

politics

Early Thursday morning, a private jet crashed in U.S. Navy-owned housing in San Diego, killing three members of the music agency Sound Talent Group, including its founder.
Sound Talent Group has represented Hanson, Vanessa Carlton, Sum 41, Pierce the Veil, I Prevail, Set it Off, Story of the Year, Silverstein, Parkway Drive, and Eve 6. “Since launching in 2018, STG has grown to more than three dozen employees with offices in New York City, Nashville, and San Diego,” the company’s <a href="https://soundtalentgroup.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> states.
Sound Talent Group co-founder Dave Shapiro, the owner of the plane, was listed as one of the fatalities; the crash caused a fire to race down the street. “San Diego police officer Anthony Carrasco said five people from a single family were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation after evacuating to a nearby school,” AP <a href="https://apnews.com/article/plane-crash-san-diego-5e465454fc0282a81adafc1bfdc142a1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. “At least 100 residents were evacuated.”
City Councilmember Raul Campillo said local residents spoke of “military families helping military families out of their homes, jumping out of windows and avoiding fire.”
“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl stated.
“Audio recorded by <a href="http://www.liveatc.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">www.liveATC.net</a> includes a brief transmission from the pilot calling out that he was on final approach to the Montgomery-Gibbs airport and was about 3 miles out at 3:45 a.m.,” AP noted, adding that reports said it was very foggy at the time of the crash.
Aviation attorney Barry Newman pointed out that early in the morning and in foggy weather, the plane was probably using an instrument flight rules plan, but once the aircraft descends to 673 feet above ground, the pilot also had to rely on his own visual perception. “If a pilot descends to that level and he can’t see the runway, he has to call for a missed approach or divert to another airport,” he said.

US-ACCIDENT-CRASH

3 Dead In San Diego Plane Crash That Killed Music Talent Agency Founder, Employees

Airplane crash

General

plane crash

U.S.

This is the first part of an edited <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/michael-knowles-live-at-yaf-ordo-amoris-the-hierarchy-of-political-love">speech</a>, titled “‘Ordo Amoris’: The Hierarchy of Political Love,” delivered by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show">Michael Knowles</a> at the YAF Freedom Conference in San Diego, California.
* * *
It’s always nice to be in San Diego. I feel even better about it now that we have a functioning southern border again. We’re less than 20 miles from Tijuana. But since January 20, our odds of running into face-tattooed foreign gangsters in the Gaslamp Quarter has dropped precipitously. 
The ones who are still here are most likely in hiding right now. They know that at any moment, Tom Homan might leap out from behind a corner with a big butterfly net and drag them all back to Mexico. This is a happy turn of events. But some on the Left seem not to realize it. Some of the Left argue — and even some on the squishy Right argue — that rounding up and deporting even the very worst illegal aliens in our country is somehow anti-American.
Now, whatever you think about mass deportations, it’s silly to argue that it’s anti-American. Deporting people is a tried-and-true American tradition, whether we’re talking about Indian Removal in 1830; the Palmer Raids in 1919 and 1920, which deported foreign communists; deportation of Japanese nationals after Pearl Harbor; Operation Wetback in 1954, which deported well over a million people in a single year; the deportation of Haitians and Cubans who had arrived during the Mariel boatlift in 1980; or any other number of deportations. 
One can argue over the necessity or prudence of those various deportations, most of which, ironically, were carried out by prominent Democrat presidents. But no one can argue that deportations aren’t American. As a simple matter of history, mass deportations are as American as apple pie.
The “anti-American” charge vanquished, opponents of immigration enforcement will next argue that deportations are somehow “un-Christian.” This claim is contradicted by the plain text of scripture. Deportations or worse — usually worse — are frequently carried out with approval in the Bible. Just ask the Canaanites. (Or the Amorites. Or the Hittites. Or the Perizzites, the Hivites, or the Jebusites.)
Now, in fairness, scripture also instructs us not to oppress or mistreat foreigners who live in our lands. “Thou shalt not molest a stranger, nor afflict him: for yourselves also were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2022%3A21&amp;version=DRA">22:21</a>). Quite right. But what exactly does it mean not to “molest” or “afflict” the stranger? We are not left idly to wonder. Scripture tells us.
Just 10 chapters prior in the Book of Exodus, we read, “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you” (Exodus <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2012%3A%2049&amp;version=ESV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">12:49</a>). Further, in Deuteronomy, we read, “Cursed be he who perverts the justice due to the sojourner” (Deuteronomy <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2027%3A19&amp;version=RSV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">27:19</a>). To hear the open borders crowd tell it, it’s the enforcement of the law which oppresses the foreigner. But scripture says the opposite. 
Scripture tells us that it’s lawlessness which oppresses the foreigner. The injunction not to oppress the foreigner does not run contrary to justice; rather, it is bound up in the execution of justice. God demands that the civil authority give the foreigner his due; He doesn’t demand that it give him more than his due. He tells us that there must be one law common to native and foreigner alike; he does not insist that foreigners be given a more lenient law, that foreigners be given special privileges over and above those afforded to citizens. Civil authorities must give appropriate care to foreigners, but they have to care for their own citizens too.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
So how do we determine the right balance between hospitality to foreigners and the enforcement of justice owed to citizens and foreigners alike?
Our Vice President JD Vance took a stab at that question on TV, and his answer sparked a national debate. Vice President Vance <a href="https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2025/02/full-time-vice-president-part-time-public-theologian/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “There’s this old school — and I think a very Christian concept, by the way — that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.” 
It’s a simple enough concept. Let’s say you’re walking by a public pool, and you see a random little kid drowning. Any decent person would immediately jump in to save the kid. (That actually happened to my father a few years ago at his apartment complex. He saw the kid, he jumped in, and he pulled him out of the water.) Everyone applauds. You’re a hero.
Now imagine you’re walking past the same pool — it’s a very large pool — and you see two kids drowning, each at a different end. One of the toddlers is that same random kid and the other is your own son. You, being a decent person, want to save both. But you help your own son first. In fact, if you did not — if you were to ignore the cries of your son and go to help the other boy first — everyone would not applaud when you climbed out of the pool. You would not be a hero. You would have made a moral error. Because you, as a father, have a greater responsibility to your own son than you do to someone else’s son.
This is common sense. But is it Christian? Immediately after Vance made those remarks, a former U.K. government minister and current Yale professor, Rory Stewart, said no. He <a href="https://x.com/RoryStewartUK/status/1884952501197078922" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “A bizarre take on John <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015%3A12-13&amp;version=ESV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15:12-13</a>”— which is “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” “Less Christian,” Stewart wrote, “and more pagan tribal. We should start worrying when politicians become theologians, assume to speak for Jesus, and tell us in which order to love.” 
This comment was ironic, of course, because Rory Stewart is also a politician presuming to speak for Our Lord, albeit with far less knowledge and seriousness than JD Vance. Vance shot back. He <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/1885073046400012538?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “Just google ‘ordo amoris,’” which means “order of love,” a concept developed most notably by Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Just a quick pause for a moment. Can we just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful it is that we have a vice president lecturing leftists on moral philosophy in Latin? I knew the second Trump administration was going to be good. I had high hopes. But even I did not have “vice president explicating scholastic philosophy in Latin” hopes. I remember in 2016 when many on the Right yelled at me for supporting Trump on the grounds that he wasn’t a “true conservative.” Now his vice president is invoking Saint Thomas Aquinas in Latin on X. How much more conservative do you want him to get?
But I digress. At this point in the conversation, after Vance had dunked on the U.K. politician-turned-Yale professor, another Yale figure — James Surowiecki, editor of The Yale Review — decided to chime in <a href="https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1885302779058557080" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to claim</a> that “ordo amoris is not in the Gospels.” He claimed, “It’s an essentially Aristotelian concept that Aquinas, cleverly if unconvincingly, imported into Catholic theology.” 
Now, up until this point, I was aware that very few people presently associated with Yale had even a passing familiarity with the Bible. But with that comment it became clear that these Yale luminaries don’t even know their Aristotle! What is going on in New Haven? This is embarrassing.
The ordo amoris — or the ordo caritatis, as Saint Thomas would call it — is not “essentially Aristotelian,” and Saint Thomas — among the clearest thinkers who ever lived — did not import that or any other concept “unconvincingly” into Catholic theology. Aristotle touches on the concept broadly in Book IV of “Nicomachean Ethics,” where he writes that “the liberal man” — liberal in this case meaning “generous” — “like other virtuous men, will give for the sake of the noble, and rightly; for he will give to the right people, the right amounts, and at the right time, with all the other qualifications that accompany right giving.”
Early Christian writers, notably Saints Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Bernard of Clairvaux, also discuss this order of charity, all before Saint Thomas, who brings the concept to its fullest expression in the “Summa Theologiae,” Secunda Secundae, Question 26, where he <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3026.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “There must needs be some order in things loved out of charity, which order is in reference to the first principle of that love, which is God.”
So, we are obligated as a matter of reason to love God before ourselves, then to love ourselves before our neighbors, then to love our neighbors more than our own bodies, then to love those neighbors nearer to us more than those further away from us, then to love those connected to us by ties of blood more than others, and so on.

MixCollage-02-Mar-2025-08-03-PM-3563

The Hierarchy Of Love: Balancing Hospitality And Justice

bible

Catholic

christianity

illegal immigration

Michael Knowles

Another major fire has engulfed an area in Los Angeles County, as the Hughes Fire that started on Wednesday morning north of Santa Clarita and near Castaic has covered more than 10,000 acres and is only 14% contained.
According to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, roughly 31,000 area residents threatened by the Hughes Fire were under evacuation orders and 23,000 under evacuation warnings by Wednesday night.
“We’re still expecting some dry humidity and then gusts of winds possible up to 60 mph,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief David Acuna said. “It’s super dry. Anyone spark will have a new start of a fire that establishes and raises quickly.”
Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Sheila Kelliher reassured the public, telling <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/23/us/hughes-fire-los-angeles-county-thursday/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> that water supply should not be a problem, as fire crews have access to Castaic Lake and other reservoirs.
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However, a new problem may arise this weekend as rain is expected to fall, possibly causing mudslides. “The Los Angeles and San Diego areas will get more rain this weekend than in the last six months combined,” CNN reported.
<p style="font-weight: 400;" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cm69hvgoy000u356mgjhdhl4a@published" data-editable="text" data-component-name="paragraph" data-article-gutter="true" data-analytics-observe="on">“A lot of that rain may fall in a relatively short amount of time,” Ariel Cohen, who the National Weather Service office in Los Angeles, conjectured, which could lead to “the possibility of at least shallow debris flows, mudslides and landslides. The burn scars, with the widespread loss of trees, shrubs and vegetation, will have a much lower capability of handling the rain and will be more susceptible to failure. It behaves more like cement; the ground can’t accept the water, so it all goes to runoff immediately.&#8221;
<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-864109" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-3-1024x391.png" alt="" width="1024" height="391" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-3-1024x391.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-3-300x115.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-3-768x293.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-3-1536x587.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-3-2048x782.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
<p style="font-weight: 400;" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cm69hvgoy000u356mgjhdhl4a@published" data-editable="text" data-component-name="paragraph" data-article-gutter="true" data-analytics-observe="on">The prospective mudslides could be dangerous, “taking down other structures and certainly be a threat to life and property,” Cohen said. Meanwhile, the catastrophic Palisades Fire, which has killed 11 people, burned more than 23,000 acres, and destroyed 6,662 structures, is <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/live/la-fire-updates-huges-eaton-palisades-red-flag-warning" target="_blank" rel="noopener">still</a> only 72% contained. The Eaton Fire, which killed 17 people and burned more than 14,000 acres, is 95% contained.

New rapidly spreading ‘Hughes Fire’ erupts near Los Angeles, more than 9,000 acres burned

SoCal Fire Update: Another Blaze Erupts, Mudslides Feared

los angeles

los angeles county

Severe Weather

Wildfires

A Customs and Border Protection pilot was killed Monday in a helicopter crash near the California-Mexico border. 
CBP said that the agent, an unidentified Air Interdiction Agent, was on a security mission when the helicopter went down in Potrero, California, in San Diego County. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation and Safety Board are <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-customs-border-protection-pilot-killed-helicopter-crash-near-san-diego" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigating</a> the crash. 
“On December 16, a CBP Air and Marine Operations aircraft on a border security mission was involved in an aviation mishap in the vicinity of Potrero, California,” a CBP spokesman <a href="https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/1868825846208983182" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “Tragically, a CBP Air Interdiction Agent &#8211; the pilot and sole occupant of the aircraft &#8211; was pronounced deceased at the scene. Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.”
NBC San Diego <a href="https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/1-dead-helicopter-crashes-far-east-san-diego-county/3702060/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the helicopter went down in the middle of a field in a hemp farm. 
According to CBP, Air Interdiction Agents “perform air law enforcement operations involving the detection, prevention, interdiction, and apprehension of terrorist, terrorist weapons and other contraband and persons from illegally entering or attacking the United States.”
Earlier this year, the San Diego sector became one of the hot spots for illegal crossings into the United States, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/04/us/san-diego-migrants-california.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">including</a> over 37,000 in April alone. 
Republican San Diego County Board Supervisor Jim Desmond <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/new-ordinance-san-diego-countys-sanctuary-status/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last week that the area is one of the worst in the country for human and drug trafficking. He told NewsNation that around 155,000 illegal migrants have been released into San Diego since 2022. 
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The board <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/san-diego-county-board-of-supervisors-votes-to-protect-violent-illegals-sheriff-fires-back" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> last week 3-1 for a policy that would turn the jurisdiction into a “super sanctuary” county, thereby preventing its sheriff’s department from notifying ICE about illegal immigrants who had committed violent crimes.
However, San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez indicated that she would disregard the board’s policy. 
“The Sheriff’s Office will not change its practices based on the Board resolution and policy that was passed at today’s meeting. The Board of Supervisors does not set policy for the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff, as an independently elected official, sets the policy for the Sheriff’s Office. California law prohibits the Board of Supervisors from interfering with the independent, constitutionally and statutorily designated investigative functions of the Sheriff, and is clear that the Sheriff has the sole and exclusive authority to operate the county jails.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Border Protection Agent Killed In Helicopter Crash Near California-Mexico Border

Customs and Border Protection (CPB)

On Tuesday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 for a policy that would turn the jurisdiction into a “super sanctuary” county, thereby preventing its sheriff&#8217;s department from notifying ICE about illegal immigrants who had committed violent crimes.
The policy goes beyond California state law and will <a href="https://apnews.com/article/san-diego-county-trump-deportation-sanctuary-ee8603c35d2ee6700d1eda22139bcf88">require</a> a judge&#8217;s order for ICE to receive assistance from the county to transfer illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes to immigration authorities.
San Diego County Sheriff Kelly A. Martinez <a href="https://www.sdsheriff.gov/Home/Components/News/News/3102/16">immediately responded</a>, issuing a statement that said: “The Sheriff&#8217;s Office will not change its practices based on the Board resolution and policy that was passed at today&#8217;s meeting. The Board of Supervisors does not set policy for the Sheriff&#8217;s Office. The Sheriff, as an independently elected official, sets the policy for the Sheriff&#8217;s Office. California law prohibits the Board of Supervisors from interfering with the independent, constitutionally and statutorily designated investigative functions of the Sheriff, and is clear that the Sheriff has the sole and exclusive authority to operate the county jails.”
“I think this policy goes beyond California’s existing sanctuary laws by adding an additional layer of bureaucracy that hinders local law enforcement from directly notifying ICE about illegal immigrants who are currently in our jails,” Supervisor Jim Desmond, the lone dissenting vote, declared. “And they have committed heinous crimes, including child abuse or endangerment, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but only if this conviction is for a felony, possession of an unlawful deadly weapon, gang-related offenses, a crime resulting in death or involving personal affliction or great bodily injury, possession or use of a firearm in the commission of an offense, torture, rape, and kidnapping. That’s the population we’re talking about.”
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He pointed out that if an illegal immigrant committed one of those crimes, “San Diego County would be legally prohibited from directly coordinating with ICE &#8230; effectively protecting these offenders from deportation.”
“Today’s outrageous decision to turn San Diego County into a ‘Super’ Sanctuary County is an affront to every law-abiding citizen who values safety and justice,” Desmond <a href="https://x.com/jim_desmond/status/1866611711022862592">wrote</a> on X. “The Board of Supervisors’ 3-1 vote to embrace this radical policy is a direct betrayal of the people we are sworn to protect. This reckless measure not only goes far beyond California&#8217;s already extreme Sanctuary State laws but actively endangers our communities by shielding illegal immigrant criminals from deportation.”
“I have already been in contact with the incoming Administration and will fight relentlessly to undo this disastrous policy and ensure that illegal immigrant criminals are removed from our neighborhoods,” he concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today’s outrageous decision to turn San Diego County into a “Super” Sanctuary County is an affront to every law-abiding citizen who values safety and justice. The Board of Supervisors’ 3-1 vote to embrace this radical policy is a direct betrayal of the people we are sworn to… <a href="https://t.co/LypCR5S1GX">pic.twitter.com/LypCR5S1GX</a>
&mdash; Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) <a href="https://twitter.com/jim_desmond/status/1866611711022862592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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San Diego Interstate 8 Sign

San Diego County Board Of Supervisors Votes To Protect Violent Illegals. Sheriff Fires Back.

illegal immigrants

immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Sheriff

It&#8217;s not every day that you accidentally stumble upon a vast conspiracy among the nation&#8217;s various local police departments — especially when it&#8217;s a conspiracy that relates to the upcoming presidential election. But yesterday, as I was watching some reporting about New York City&#8217;s decision to decriminalize jaywalking, that&#8217;s exactly what I did.
In case you missed it, yes, New York&#8217;s city council just voted to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-legalizes-jaywalking-supporters-complain-laws-against-it-had-racial-implications" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decriminalize jaywalking</a>. No one&#8217;s going to get any more tickets for crossing against the light, or for walking in the middle of the street. Technically, jaywalkers still don&#8217;t have the right of way, so I guess they might have some liability if they cause an accident. But realistically, it&#8217;s open season for jaywalking in the city. The mayor, Eric Adams, didn&#8217;t take any official action on this bill to decriminalize jaywalking — probably because he&#8217;s busy with the Biden administration&#8217;s attempts to throw him in prison — so the bill has now automatically become law.
Here&#8217;s a report on the new law from a local news station. And as you listen to this, pay close attention to what the male anchor says in the beginning:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 NY Jaywalking" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5gpOg5MXeuU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
That&#8217;s an interesting little hypothetical. The Democrat politician asks: &#8220;When was the last time you said, &#8216;I&#8217;m happy they caught that jaywalker?'&#8221; And then the reporter says &#8220;Never.&#8221; Therefore, we&#8217;re meant to conclude we don&#8217;t need the law against jaywalking.
First of all, if you&#8217;ve ever been unfortunate enough to drive a vehicle in New York, then the answer to this question would be a resounding &#8220;Yes.&#8221; You would scream with joy if the police arrested every single pedestrian who was walking in the road, even if they were there legally. Pedestrians make driving about a million times slower and more annoying in New York. Drivers in New York wouldn&#8217;t shed a single tear if it became a capital offense to jaywalk.
But even if we pretend that&#8217;s not true, it&#8217;s a pretty interesting argument that these women are advancing, if you think about it. They&#8217;re saying that, if you&#8217;ve never stopped yourself and said, &#8220;I&#8217;m happy they caught that guy for violating law X,&#8221; then we don&#8217;t need law X anymore.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1476-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
It&#8217;s arguably not a bad way of looking at things, but coming from Democrats in New York, it&#8217;s a pretty entertaining approach. Imagine these people applying this principle to, say, New York&#8217;s business records law — the one they accused Trump of violating. Prior to Trump, has anyone in the history of New York ever found themselves saying that they&#8217;re really glad that someone was held accountable for victimless, misdemeanor record keeping violations that happened 7 years ago? Obviously the answer to that question is no. So why do we have those laws on the books? It would be fun to watch that politician (and the reporter) answer that particular question.
It would also be entertaining to ask these women whether we should get rid of, say, the entire tax code while we&#8217;re at it. After all, I don&#8217;t see anyone celebrating IRS agents who audit people for not reporting $600 they just received on Venmo. So why don&#8217;t we decriminalize every single accounting offense and tax code violation? Those aren&#8217;t rhetorical questions. It&#8217;d be a great idea. But of course, these questions never occur to Democrats in New York. They&#8217;re enforcing &#8220;equity,&#8221; not logic.
In any event, back to my conspiracy. You may have noticed how the anchor (and the politician) explained the reasoning for this new law. But let&#8217;s focus on the anchor for now, because he actually seems pretty skeptical of the law. As the anchor put it, &#8220;The overwhelming majority of jaywalking tickets were given to minorities. So why didn&#8217;t they just level the playing field on these tickets?&#8221;
In other words, the anchor wants to know why the police didn&#8217;t simply ticket more white people for jaywalking, while ticketing fewer blacks and Hispanics. Wouldn&#8217;t that solve the whole problem? If we did that, then instead of 90% of jaywalking tickets going to black people and Hispanics, we could make it closer to, say, 40%. And then racial equity will be achieved.
This is the kind of question you only ask when you&#8217;ve been subjected to decades of lies about crime statistics by Democrats like Kamala Harris and Barack Obama, to the point that you actually believe them. It&#8217;s a question that makes a very significant assumption that happens to have no basis in reality. And that assumption is that members of every racial group are jaywalking at precisely the same rates.
If you truly believe that assumption is true, then there is indeed a vast conspiracy among thousands of local police departments, all over the country. There&#8217;s no other explanation for what&#8217;s going on. That&#8217;s because, as I&#8217;ve discovered, these so-called &#8220;racial disparities&#8221; in jaywalking enforcement happen to exist everywhere — not just in New York. 
Here&#8217;s a report from San Diego from a couple of years ago, for example. For some reason, they interviewed a guy who had a beef over his jaywalking ticket. And then they get into the statistics, which reveal just how deep the rot goes in the San Diego police department. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 SAN DIEGO" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pBJ7hnmDTvs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So, 16% of the tickets went to blacks, even though they make up only 6% of the population. And this is &#8220;proof,&#8221; according to the activist, that the police are racist. There can&#8217;t be any other explanation for that data. And she doesn&#8217;t stop there: &#8220;Black people are disproportionately affected by almost every type of decriminalization.&#8221;
Well, that gives you some sense of just how widespread the conspiracy is. Across every type of crime, across the entire country, the police are enforcing laws in a racist manner. It can&#8217;t possibly be that different demographic groups are committing different rates of crime. That&#8217;s just unthinkable. Instead, you&#8217;re commanded to think that any difference in crime statistics must be due to one thing and one thing only, which is racist cops.
A few weeks ago, I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-shockingly-easy-test-has-been-deemed-racist-heres-why" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talked about</a> how the DOJ used this &#8220;reasoning&#8221; during the Obama administration to sue various police departments for enforcing the law. One of the cities they went after was Ferguson, Missouri — which also happens to have an issue with &#8220;disproportionate&#8221; jaywalking tickets. That&#8217;s how vast this conspiracy of racist traffic cops is. Watch:
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The data just keeps coming in. If you&#8217;re keeping track, from New York to San Diego to Ferguson, racist traffic cops are &#8220;targeting&#8221; black Americans for jaywalking. In fact these racist cops are so brazen that they&#8217;ll often target these black Americans *on video*. That&#8217;s what happened in Jacksonville a few years ago. This is a video from Vox that tries really, really hard to present a police officer as racist for doing his job and enforcing the law. Watch:
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From this clip, we can conclude that even when there&#8217;s video of a cop enforcing the law in a calm and impartial way — and even when everyone concedes that these people were jaywalking — we&#8217;re told it&#8217;s still racist because of those statistics. It doesn&#8217;t matter if black people are on video jaywalking, basically. It&#8217;s illegal to ticket them for it because then you&#8217;ll have a &#8220;disparate impact.&#8221;
It&#8217;s hard to overstate how widespread this moral panic has become. Over the past few years, especially at the height of BLM, there were national news stories about supposedly &#8220;racist&#8221; jaywalking arrests. Here&#8217;s one of them in Tulsa:
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The lawyer&#8217;s not even arguing his client is innocent, really. He&#8217;s implying that the optics are bad for the police because they should know that it&#8217;s racist to enforce jaywalking laws against black people. 
This incident made national news. There was a legal battle that stretched on for years. Apparently the police eventually paid a $20,000 settlement over it. And they did nothing wrong. When people are in the middle of the road, you can grab them and arrest them. You can even put them on the ground when they&#8217;re not responding. That&#8217;s how the law should work. But in cities like New York, it&#8217;s not the law anymore.
This is a battle the Left has waged for a very long time. Last year, the Left-wing outlet Mother Jones published an article <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/02/legalize-jaywalking/">entitled</a>, &#8220;The Case for Legalizing Jaywalking.&#8221; It makes all the predictable &#8220;disparate impact&#8221; arguments, where they assume that any statistical disparity is somehow proof of racism. 
And then there&#8217;s <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/02/legalize-jaywalking/">this paragraph</a>, which is a real doozy:
<blockquote>The notion that pedestrians should be relegated to sidewalks and allowed to cross the street only when a walk sign tells them it’s safe is a relatively new phenomenon. &#8230; Groups ranging from the Chicago Motor Club and the Automobile Club of Southern California to the National Safety Council and the Boy Scouts began using the word &#8216;jaywalker&#8217; in the late 1910s and early 1920s to insult pedestrians who had the audacity to enter the roadway outside of intersections. &#8230; Los Angeles passed the first anti-jaywalking ordinance in 1925, which became a model for other cities across the country. Discrimination soon followed.</blockquote>
Yes, according to Mother Jones, the idea that you shouldn&#8217;t walk in the middle of the street is a &#8220;relatively new phenomenon&#8221; that only began in the late 1910s and early 1920s. It&#8217;s possible — and I&#8217;m just spitballing here — that one reason for this change might be that cars themselves are a relatively new phenomenon that only became popular in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Maybe that&#8217;s why the idea of jaywalking came about &#8220;relatively recently,&#8221; as in, a century ago. This is like saying air sickness is a relatively new phenomenon that only began after people started flying in airplanes. It kind of goes without saying.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
But this is the level of &#8220;argument&#8221; you get when &#8220;equity&#8221; is the objective. You have to act surprised that we didn&#8217;t have jaywalking laws before we had cars. You&#8217;re reduced to inventing vast conspiracies to explain inconvenient data. In essence, you have to make yourself as dumb as Kamala Harris — all in the service of a delusional and counterfactual ideology.
In this particular case, the consequences couldn&#8217;t be any more obvious. You can visit any third-world country to see what it’s like when cars and pedestrians share the road equally. It&#8217;s total chaos. I’m not usually one to defend government regulation, but our roads are clearly safer and more orderly because of the laws and regulations in place. New York City is getting rid of a common-sense law that obviously makes the roads safer for everyone.
And they&#8217;re doing it because of the same guiding principle that the Biden-Harris administration outlined in a day-one executive order, which is to pursue &#8220;equity&#8221; in all aspects of government. We&#8217;ve talked a lot about the specific policy ramifications of electing someone like Kamala Harris, but this is another consequence that&#8217;s worth talking about. Presidents don&#8217;t just set policy. They also set a tone and a broader agenda. They set an example for people to follow all over the country.
A Kamala Harris administration would encourage and incentivize many more laws like the one that just passed in New York. A second Trump administration, on the other hand, would send a very clear signal that people are tired of lawlessness. It would mean that we can finally put an end to the fiction that every police department in the country is conspiring to &#8220;target&#8221; any particular racial group. It would be a rebuke of the policies of &#8220;racial equity&#8221; that have gotten so many people killed, across every demographic. That&#8217;s a rebuke that, for people living in New York, may come too late. But for the rest of us, it can&#8217;t come soon enough.

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