Category: Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement
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COPN’s Regional Monopolies Helped Boost Virginia Hospitals’ Operating Margins to more than 3x National Median in 2020
by James C. Sherlock Virginians have been assured forever by the hospital lobby that the non-profit regional monopolies established and protected by COPN nearly everywhere but Richmond: are benign public servants with a charitable mission; certainly don’t drive up costs; that competition does not matter; that the State Medical Facilities Plan on which COPN is…
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Things Fall Apart: Peoples’ Republic of Charlottesville Edition
by James A. Bacon While various student groups at the University of Virginia are calling for defunding local law-enforcement programs, some parents of UVa students support a stronger police presence around the university after a wave of shootings last year. An open letter addressed to UVa President Jim Ryan and university police chief Tim Longo…
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What Should We Make of the Uptick in Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes?
by James A. Bacon On his first day as Governor, Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order establishing the Commission to Combat Anti-Semitism. “Our nation and our commonwealth have seen an intolerable rise in antisemitism in recent years,” said the order. “Sadly, in 2020, Virginia experienced a record number of antisemitic incidents…. Every incident of antisemitism…
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Virginia Penalties for Battery Against School and Healthcare Personnel are a Problem
by James C. Sherlock Virginia has a law that, having been amended piecemeal over the years, is inconsistent, inflexible and may not provide the protections that lawmakers or potential victims intended. The law is Code of Virginia § 18.2-57. Assault and battery; penalty. A member of the Fairfax County bar has reported that progressive Commonwealth’s Attorney…
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More Morrissey! We Can’t Get Enough!
by James A. Bacon Love him or hate him, Senator Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, is hands down the most colorful politician in Virginia. The list of his transgressions against ethics and law is too long belabor here. I refer you to his Wikipedia biography, specifically the sections on “Reprimand, suspensions and first law license revocation,” “Conviction…
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What Does Virginia Law Say About Commonwealth’s Attorney Decisions Not to Prosecute Entire Classes of Laws?
by James C. Sherlock I posed two questions in my last article. Can a Commonwealth’s Attorney (CA) decide to decline prosecution of an entire class of misdemeanors? If so, are there any constraints available in the law? By law and precedent the answer to both questions is yes. A CA has discretion in prosecuting misdemeanors.…
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What Kind of Society Do Virginians Want? The Case of Fairfax County
by James C. Sherlock Yesterday I offered for consideration a lengthy list of misdemeanors that Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano in Fairfax County is declining to prosecute. I did that with a hope that the House of Delegates will amend and pass HB 1198. Today I am going to ask Virginians to consider in what type of society…
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Some Virginia Senate Democrats Vote in Committee to Define Deviancy Down
by James C. Sherlock The primary obligation of government has always been to protect its populace from harm. That is the basis of the social contract. The people give up absolute individual liberty to achieve group safety. Necessary restrictions on government power started in English-speaking countries with the Magna Carta. In the United States Constitution they…
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Showdown at the GA Corral
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares recently announced on the nationally televised Laura Ingraham show that “there’s a new sheriff in town.” That new sheriff was gunned down Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The issue was Miyares’s marquee proposal to broaden the Attorney General’s authority to prosecute criminal cases in circuit court.…
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Richmond Fentanyl Deaths Reported by RTD. Next: Efforts to Arrest and Prosecute Local Dealers?
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes reporters commit errors of omission. Especially when a pet cause is threatened by the facts. Left-leaning newspapers, which include the large majority of such outlets, tend to write that an “SUV” ran down a crowd at a Christmas parade or that an “illegal gun” shot a cop. That removes personal…
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Dean Wormer Lives
by James C. Sherlock On Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand auditioned successfully for the role of Dean Wormer in an unannounced remake of Animal House. He has ordered the out-of-school suspension of any student intentionally removing or refusing to wear a face covering indoors on school property or transportation.…
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The Rioters Among Us
by James A. Bacon I’ve not given much attention to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol because this is a Virginia blog, not a blog about Donald Trump and the 2020 presidential election. But maybe I should. Many of the rioters came from Virginia. We have U.S. Capitol rioters among us. How dangerous…
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AG Miyares and Safe Schools
by Kerry Dougherty On Day One in office, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that his office would be investigating Loudoun County schools. He’s vowed to learn exactly how an accused sex offender who allegedly attacked one girl in May 2021 at Stone Bridge High was quietly moved to another Loudoun County school, Broad Run…
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“Second Look” Bill Would Cut Sentences for Violent Criminals
by Hans Bader The District of Columbia has a violent crime rate that is five times Virginia’s. In 2018, the violent crime rate was 995.9 per 100,000 inhabitants in Washington, D.C., compared to only 200 per 100,000 in Virginia. Yet some politicians want to make Virginia more like the District of Columbia. A bipartisan bill…
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Were Herring’s Last Actions as AG Racist?
by James A. Bacon Attorney General Mark Herring wound up his last day in office today with an announcement that he is holding three more gas stations “accountable” for alleged price gouging during the Colonial Pipeline emergency in the spring of 2021, bringing the total to six enforcement actions. As I noted in a previous…