Category: Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement
-
Predatory Virginia Nursing Home Owners
by James C. Sherlock Merriam Webster: Pred*a*tor: (noun) one who injures or exploits others for personal gain or profit. The most medically vulnerable of us reside in skilled nursing facilities (SNF). Nobody plans to be there, but that is where about thirty thousand Virginians find themselves at any one time. People who are moved from hospitals…
-
Occupational Hazard, 1 of 4
by Joe Fitzgerald Harrisonburg police rescued a possible abduction victim one day last month after shooting the apparent perpetrator. A city press release said a domestic dispute on Old Furnace Road around 6:30 p.m. turned into an abduction. Police pursued the suspect’s vehicle to downtown, where they shot the suspect, who was apparently armed. The…
-
No Ready Answer for Increase in Police-Involved Shootings
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I like to do what I call “poking around the numbers.” Breaking down datasets for large entities, such as statewide data, can yield enlightening, and sometimes surprising, results. I was intrigued by the Virginia State Police report of officer-involved shootings that Jim Bacon reported on earlier. The big increase from 2021 to…
-
Past Time for Serious Sanctions for the Commonwealth’s Worst Nursing Homes
by James C. Sherlock Effective May 1 of this year, Karen Shelton M.D. became Virginia’s Health Commissioner. Dr. Shelton is now the licensor and regulator of Virginia’s nursing homes. By law, state-licensed nursing homes must comply with federal and state laws and standards. By regulation, the Health Commissioner “may impose such administrative sanctions or take such…
-
Virginia Police Shooting Incidents Up 43% in 2022
by James A. Bacon Along with the surge in homicides and assaults on police officers, the number of police shootings in Virginia jumped 43% last year, according to data from the Virginia State Police 2022 Crime in Virginia report. The shootings resulted in 22 fatalities, up from 18 the previous year. The increase since 2019,…
-
Perspective Needed on the State Crime Report
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The 2022 increase in the Virginia crime rate in all categories except drugs reported by Jim Bacon in an earlier article on this blog is indeed worrisome. In the short term, crime rates can fluctuate. However, Virginia, and the nation, have experienced an overall decrease in crime rates over past two decades…
-
Assaults on Virginia Police Up 62% Last Year
by James A. Bacon Alongside the continued rise in the number of homicides in Virginia, the year 2022 saw a dramatic increase in the number of assaults on police. Two officers were killed and 2,903 assaulted, according to data released by the Virginia State Police in its 2022 Crime in Virginia report. The number of…
-
What Hath Wokeness Wrought?
by James A. Bacon The surge in homicides in Virginia continued unabated for the third straight year in 2022, with number of deaths from homicide and non-negligent manslaughter reaching 621. The homicide epidemic in Virginia disproportionately affected Blacks. Blacks accounted for 90% of the increase in the number of murder victims since 2019, the year…
-
The Problem Isn’t Guns, It’s Richmond
by Shaun Kenney Do you ever sit around and wish that a public figure would actually stand up and call out a problem for what it is? Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears is out there doing just that when it comes to Richmond’s rising tide of violence. Virginia Democrats have responded to last week’s tragedy at…
-
A Supplement to James Sherlock’s Post
by Dick Hall-Sizemore James Sherlock has done yeoman’s work on this blog with his pointing out the failure of state government to adequately regulate the nursing homes in the Commonwealth. I commend him for his perseverance on this issue. In doing some research on the budget issues related to this topic, I encountered enough additional…
-
Scandal in Plain Sight – Virginia’s Failed Regulation of Law-Avoiding Nursing Home Owners
by James C. Sherlock One of the most important and heart-wrenching decisions families make for their elderly loved ones is whether they are able to keep them in their homes as they get older and sicker. Sometimes that is not feasible for a long list of reasons in each case. More than 30,000 Virginians live…
-
Judge Orders LCPS to Turn Over Investigation into the Assaults and Rape at Two County Schools
by Jeanine Martin Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge James P. Fischer has ordered Loudoun County Public Schools to turn over its internal investigation into the assaults and rape that occurred in 2021 at two Loudoun County high schools. The school system had argued that it was privileged information that they need not share with the…
-
FIVE QUESTIONS: Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares
by Shaun Kenney Last week, TRS was able to sit down and talk with Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares (R-VA) about the challenges he is facing from opioid and fentanyl abuse to the FBI Richmond’s targeting of Catholics in the public square. Miyares — a longstanding conservative in the tradition of Ronald Reagan and a…
-
Retail Politics and the Social Compact
by Richard Tangard While I waited in the grocery store checkout line, a scowling, angry-looking man walked in through the automatic door. As I placed my items on the conveyor, his purposeful stride took him into a nearby aisle. Moments later he emerged carrying two cases of beer, snarled at several employees, and stomped out…
-
Virginia Democrats – “Progressive for Who?”
by James C. Sherlock “Progressive for who?” That question was asked by Al Sharpton directly to a gathering of his supporters at a conference hosted by his National Action Network while flanked by Lori Lightfoot, Eric Adams and two other big city Democratic mayors. “Anybody that tells you they’re progressive but don’t care about dealing…