Category: Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement
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Mayor Stoney and His Left-Wing Critics
by James A. Bacon Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney published an op-ed in the New York Times a few days ago defending his actions last summer during the tumultuous protests and riots following the George Floyd killing. I was thinking of writing a post this morning critiquing the piece from a conservative perspective. But then I…
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Virginia Democrats Are Stuck with the Parole Board Scandal
by Kerry Dougherty Looks like someone’s trying to defuse what’s going to be a red hot campaign issue this fall: Public safety. Gov. Ralph Northam yesterday boasted that Virginia had one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country. He claimed that only 24% of the commonwealth’s convicts reoffend within four years of release. That is good…
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Fredericksburg Incident Exposes Tactical Divide Between Black Activists
by James A. Bacon Back in April, Isiah Brown made a 911 call to the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office concerning a domestic dispute. Brown told the dispatcher that he was going to kill his brother but also said he was unarmed. When a deputy arrived, Brown was walking down the street away from his house…
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Dodging Emails Versus Dodging Bullets
by James A. Bacon What the Richmond Times-Dispatch considers news this morning… Headline: “Task force creating Richmond police oversight board publicly calls out Chief Smith.” Excerpt: “At some point, the unwillingness to engage with this body does start to feel like arrogance. I don’t think we can overlook it,” task force member and University of…
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Descano’s Unconstitutional Actions
by Emilio Jaksetic Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve T. Descano has invoked his prosecutorial discretion to issue several “criminal justice reforms.” (Copies are available here.) As part of these reforms, Descano refuses: (1) to prosecute any person for simple possession of marijuana; (2) to prosecute any person for felony larceny for any amount less than…
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Crazy Talk: Jennifer McClellan
by James A. Bacon If you’re looking for craziness in Virginia, it’s not hard to find. By “crazy,” I mean disconnected from reality. Crazy people are commonly found among the homeless, in state mental institutions, and in the General Assembly. This gem comes from Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, during a televised Democratic Party gubernatorial debate.…
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More Nonsense from AG Candidates
By Dick Hall-Sizemore A recent article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch has compelled me to once again mount my soapbox about one of my favorite peeves — the misleading claims, and understanding, of the role of the Virginia Attorney General. I will say upfront that I realize that mine is a lost cause and, furthermore, what…
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Mentally Ill in Jails, Part 3: Costs, Legislative Initiatives, and a Modest Proposal
By Dick Hall-Sizemore (Note: This is the third, and final, post in a series examining the issue of mentally ill people being held in jails. Earlier posts can be found here and here.) Costs. In comments to the previous installments, several readers brought up the issue of the cost of providing services for the mentally ill…
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Virginia Pols Call for Passage of George Floyd Act
by Hans Bader After the murder conviction of the policeman who killed George Floyd, Virginia’s progressive politicians are calling for passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would allow police departments to be sued when police stops aren’t racially and sexually balanced. Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03) said, “This verdict is a start,…
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Yeah, the Parole Board Scandal Really Is a Scandal
by James A. Bacon Bacon’s Rebellion has not given the biggest scandal of the Northam administration (since Blackface) the attention it deserves. In fact, we have given the matter little attention at all. Sorry, folks, we don’t have the resources to do it all. And there’s no need when the mainstream media is doing a…
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Where Are the Parents?
by Kerry Dougherty America has a problem. And I’m not talking about the police or racism or a political schism as wide as the ocean. I’m talking about parents. Rather, the lack of parents. In recent weeks the nation has been shocked by a series of horrific stories about kids being killed — by the…
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Norfolk Sacks Police Officer for $25 Contribution to Rittenhouse Defense Fund
by Kerry Dougherty Lemme get this straight: A high-ranking Norfolk police officer with 19 years of service was fired yesterday because he anonymously contributed 25 bucks to the defense fund of then-17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who is accused of killing two people during riots in Kenosha, WI, last summer. It appears Lt. William K. Kelly III…
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Is U.S. 460 Really a “Race Trap” for Blacks?
by James A. Bacon On April 17 The Virginian-Pilot published an article with the following headline: “Not a speed trap, a race trap: Black Virginians say they’ve been racially profiled in and around Windsor for decades.” The highly publicized traffic-stop encounter in which two white policemen pepper-sprayed Caron Nazario, a black army lieutenant, on U.S.…
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Culture Wars and the Law
by James C. Sherlock We have reported here significant evidence of the criminal harassment of two conservative students, one a student council member at the University of Virginia and the other a soccer player at Virginia Tech, for their political views. Both have been treated as administrative matters at the two universities. That is a…
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Mentally Ill in Jail, Part 2 — State and Local Efforts to Address the Issue
by Dick Hall-Sizemore (Note: This is the second installment of a discussion on mentally ill people in Virginia’s jails. Part 1 of this series set out the scope of the problem.) Although senior policymakers are aware of the large number of mentally ill people in jails and acknowledge the seriousness of the problem, the state…