Category: Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement
-
Bacon Bits: Your Tax Dollars at Work
The Big Dig ain’t got nothing on us. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) board has approved $250 million in additional funding to pay for cost overruns on Phase II of the Silver Line rail project, which, incidentally, was supposed to begin service in 2018, and Metro officials now hope will begin this fall. Fairfax…
-
Charlottesville’s Dysfunctional City Government and the Left’s Four-Card Monty
by James C. Sherlock In Canada, three-card monte is illegal. It is banned by name in Canadian law because the mark has no chance of winning. In fact, anyone who wins can be presumed to be a shill. Four-card monte dominates public debate in America. Like its street game counterpart, only shills win. For the left,…
-
Arrests for Marijuana, Harder Drugs Plummeted in 2021
by James A. Bacon The war on drugs in Virginia — or, more precisely, the war on marijuana — is mostly over. Last year Virginia law-enforcement authorities made only 2,466 marijuana-related arrests, according to the Crime in Virginia 2021 report published by the Virginia State Police. That’s roughly one-twelfth the number of arrests made four…
-
Seven Years for Shooting a Guy Eight Times. Sounds Like a Pretty Good Deal.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For all those folks on this blog who are concerned about “woke” prosecutors, leniency toward murderers, and enforcement of gun laws, here is a case to consider. A 17-year-old Black kid goes to a house to purchase four ounces of marijuana for $400. While meeting with the 19-year-old seller, the kid pulls…
-
About Those 30 Police Shootings in Virginia Last Year…
by James A. Bacon Police shootings generate an inordinate amount of attention in the media, but the number of incidents is remarkably rare. Of the millions of interactions in 2021 between police and citizens here in Virginia, including 187,000 arrests, there were 30 police shootings resulting in injury or death, according to the Crime in…
-
Prison Commissaries and Telephone Calls
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Jim Bacon recently posted an article about the cost of telephone calls, commissary items, etc. that prisoners in jails encounter. Having been for many years the analyst at the Department of Planning and Budget assigned to handle budget matters related to the Department of Corrections (DOC), I can add some further explanation…
-
Portsmouth: Chaos + Casino = Chaos
by James C. Sherlock Portsmouth has a lot of problems. Look for them to get worse in February when its new casino is scheduled to open. A key thing you need to know about the casino is that it is the realization of Louise Lucas’ vision. Senator Lucas has spent 22 years promoting a casino…
-
Waaah. Rappahannock Jail Inmates Don’t Get Free Wi-Fi.
by James A. Bacon I’m guessing that we’re supposed to feel sorry for Shelley Tibbs, whose sorrowful tale is told in a Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star article about “prison profiteering.” Ms. Tibbs’s son was booked into Rappahannock Regional Jail one recent Friday — on what charges, we are not told. All we know is that he…
-
Marcus Alerts in Virginia and Risks to Unarmed Responders
by James C. Sherlock The Marcus Alert is named after Marcus-David Peters, a teacher killed by Richmond police in 2018 amid a mental health crisis. The Marcus Alert system requires coordination between 911 and regional crisis call centers and establishes a specialized behavioral health response from a combination of behavioral health professionals and law enforcement…
-
Richmond Cops Say a Mass Shooting Was Foiled By a Concerned Citizen
by Kerry Dougherty In the wake of the horrific mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, it’s clear that the massacre might have been avoided if the suspect’s parents had done their part to keep weapons out of the hands of their clearly deranged son. The suspect, Robert Crimo III, has reportedly confessed to the atrocities…
-
Did Police Manpower Shortages Contribute to Virginia’s Crime Wave?
by James A. Bacon Jim Sherlock, Dick Hall-Sizemore and I have been having an excellent debate in Bacon’s Rebellion over what caused the crescendo of homicides and violent crime in Virginia over the past two years. In response to previous posts by Jim and me critical of Northern Virginia’s woke, Soros-funded prosecutors, Dick argued yesterday…
-
Those Progressive Prosecutors: The Sky Hasn’t Fallen
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been much concern expressed on this blog that the policies of newly elected “progressive” prosecutors in the Commonwealth would lead to increases in crime in those jurisdictions and, perhaps, a dissolution of society. See here, here, here, and here. Based on data in the recently released Crime in Virginia 2021,…
-
Homicides in Richmond Soar – Cleared Homicides Decline
by James C. Sherlock We have seen considerable reporting on violent crime in Richmond, homicides in particular. There is reason for that. The statistics are appalling and getting worse. Data from 2010-2020 show that homicides have soared since 2015; clearance rates have plummeted since 2016; 91% of the offenders and 89% of the victims are…
-
Crime and Blame
by Jon Baliles One thing we already know, is that crime is out of control in the City. Jon Burkett at CBS is known as the Crime Insider and rightfully so given that is basically all he has covered in the region for two decades. He gave an interview on July 6 on WRVA’s Morning…