Bacon's Rebellion

  • Assaults on Police Officers Up in 2023

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Is the level of crime in Virginia getting worse or getting better? The answer depends largely on what metric you use. If you focus on the declining number of homicides between 2022 and 2023 (the year for which statewide Virginia data have just been released), then it definitely looks like violent crime is heading down. But if you focus instead on the number of aggravated assaults, violent crime is up. The fact is, according to the statistics published by the Virginia State Police in its “Crime in Virginia 2023” report, last year was a mixed bag, with some categories of crime logging fewer offenses and some more.

    The numbers matter because people want to know if their communities are getting safer or less safe. Is society trending toward order or disorder?

    To address those questions, I look at two sets of statistics that reflect police interactions with the public: the number of police-involved shootings and the number of assaults on police officers. If society is trending toward order and stability, police will have fewer violent encounters with the public. If society is trending toward disorder, people will be more likely to confront police and/or resist arrest, leading to more such encounters.

    Over the five years between 2018 and 2023, the number of assaults on Virginia police officers more than doubled to 3,243, and injuries (mostly minor) almost tripled. Fortunately, the number of Virginia officers killed in the line of duty remains fairly low at one or two per year (although the only acceptable number is zero).

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  • 2023 Crime Rate: Homicides Down But Otherwise Little Change

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    James A. Bacon

    Homicides in Virginia were lower in 2023 than the year before but aggravated assaults were up, and the overall number of criminal incidents climbed slightly, according to data published in the Virginia State Police’s “Crime in Virginia 2023″ report.

    The number of homicides (murder and non-negligent homicide) fell to 520 in 2023, reversing a surge that began in 2020 during the George Floyd protests, and peaked at 621 in 2022. There were other bits of good news, including a modest decline in the number of forcible sex offenses.

    Otherwise, there is little to indicate that the post-Floyd crime wave has receded. The total number of crimes of all types reported increased 2%. The number of aggravated assaults hit 14,317, up about 3% from the previous year.

    Burglaries, robberies, and larcenies each were down but, despite the decriminalization of marijuana, drug offenses were up significantly, cocaine and crack, most notably. So were pornography and motor vehicle theft.

    Hate crimes were higher, and assaults against law enforcement officers were up. I’ll have more about both in future posts.

    All told, it was a mixed bag. If anyone tells you crime is down in Virginia, they’re blowing smoke. — JAB

     

     

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • UVA’s Religious Diversity Task Force Issues Report

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Responding to a report from the Task Force on Religious Diversity and Belonging, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors passed a resolution at a special board meeting Thursday, directing the administration to “ensure that there is zero tolerance for harassment, bias, and discrimination based on religious differences on University Grounds.”

    Formed in December after the University was engulfed in controversy over the conflict in Israel and Gaza, the task force had made a series of recommendations on how the University can “foster greater connection and understanding within and between different religious groups.” Those recommendations are summarized in UVA Today and detailed in the task force’s Final Report. 

    The underlying assumption of the report is that to enhance “belonging,” the University needs to grant greater accommodations to students, faculty, and staff of “minoritized” and “marginalized” religions.

    At no point did the report consider the possibility that the University places too much emphasis on students’ “identity” or that the organized cultivation of grievances by multifarious oppressed minorities might contribute to the very alienation among Muslims and Jews that the task force was asked to address.

    At UVA the answer to every perceived problem invites solutions that only administrators and faculty members can deliver. Thus, the task force’s proposed remedies entail more administrative “communication,” more administratively abetted “dialogue,” more courses on religious topics, and more accommodations on Grounds for religious practices.

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  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Still Clueless

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Stephen Cummings, Virginia Secretary of Finance

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    In a break from the practices of previous governors, Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed an outsider totally unfamiliar with state government in general and Virginia in particular to be his Secretary of Finance. Before his appointment, Steve Cummings had held several high-level positions in investment banking. After two and a half years on the job, Cummings still has a lot to learn.

    The governor recently met with the General Assembly money committees in the annual meeting to report on the year-end financial status of the Commonwealth. As is customary, Cummings spoke to the committees after the governor and provided additional details on the year-end financial report. 

    As reported by the Washington Post, one of his slides had a footnote noting “a backlog of corporate refunds [that] had accumulated from prior years.” Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who was in the audience asked about it. (Earle-Sears is not a member of any of the committees and, ordinarily, the committees do not take questions from the audience at this meeting.  However, the chair of the committee, due to her position, extended her the courtesy of asking for an explanation.)

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  • Shut the Bleep Up, You Bleeping Bleep!

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    James A. Bacon

    In an analysis of 1.7 million tweets, WordTips has found that Americans swear more than any other nationality. And with the exception of those bleeping bleeps in Maryland, Virginians swear more than other Americans.

    I don’t know who those bleeping mother-bleepers are who befoul the discourse in Virginia, but I’m pleased to say that Bacon’s Rebellion keeps the bleepers out of our comments. We’re a no bleep zone. — JAB

     

  • This Year’s SOLs Don’t Look Any Better from the Perspective of Race

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    It’s been four years since Virginia public schools canceled their Standards of Learning (SOL) exams in response to the COVID-19 epidemic. When the SOLs resumed in the spring of 2021, they exposed massive learning loss across all categories of students. This spring — three years later — exams showed that students had clawed part of the way back to the pre-COVID status quo.

    A breakdown of SOL scores by race/ethnicity offers a few rays of hope, but the big takeaway is the persistence of the same racial/ethnic disparities that existed before the epidemic.

    The happiest news that can be gleaned from the test scores occurs in the English Writing exams. Pass rates for Whites and Blacks in 2023-24 both exceed those of the pre-pandemic 2018-19. Those scores were nothing to brag about — 85% for Whites and 61% for Blacks — but I’m highlighting them because we’re all desperate for a return to normalcy and that’s the only scrap of good news in sight. Asians, Hispanics and American Indians (who I’ve included in this analysis despite their small numbers) have yet to return to the pre-COVID norm.

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  • What the H-E-Double Hockeysticks?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) maps cities, counties, and states across the country whose practices obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

    Types of obstruction include not complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers.

    According to CIS mapping data, Virginia has one of the largest clusters in the country of non-cooperating law-enforcement authorities.

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  • Dominion Wind Partnership Deal Drawing No Opposition at SCC

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposal to sell a half-interest in its first offshore wind farm to a hedge fund is drawing no opposition at the State Corporation Commission, which will hold a hearing on the issue August 27.

    The only analysis of the impact of the transaction has come from the SCC’s own staff, which filed comments on July 23. The Office of the Attorney General and an industrial energy consumer group have also joined the case as participants, but neither has filed any testimony, pro or con. No public comments have been filed, and the environmental activists who participate in many energy development cases are not involved.

    The case file as it stands is here. The SCC staff conclusion is easily summed up with:

    Staff also does not oppose a finding from the Commission that “adequate service to the public at just and reasonable rates will not be impaired or jeopardized” by the proposed transfer of the CVOW (Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind) Property.

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  • Masking the Motive to Wear Masks

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    James A. Bacon

    Stu Smith at StuStuStudios captured this message from a Virginia Commonwealth University student stating objections to VCU’s recent tightening of codes of conduct. The young woman is upset that the new rules will inhibit pro-Palestinian students from exercising their right to free speech by interfering with the rights of others to go about their business, although she doesn’t put it quite that way.

    Here’s my favorite part: “Last May students wrote messages in support of Palestine, passed out flyers demanding VCU’s disclosure and divestment from Israel, and distributed masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

    She neglected to mention that student protesters also set up a tent encampment and resisted arrest. But let that pass. Does anyone believe that the motive for passing out masks was to prevent the spread of COVID-19? As we used to say back in my college days, har de har har.

    Let’s take a trip down memory lane.

    (more…)

  • Incremental Gains on the SOLs

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Lipstick on a pig

    Virginia’s public schools face a long, hard slog before they reverse the damage done by prolonged school closings during the COVID epidemic. Virginia students made minor gains in Standards of Learning exams taken in the spring of 2024, but still fall far short of pre-COVID levels of achievement, according to data released by the Youngkin administration today.

    Putting lipstick on a pig, administration officials credited higher standards, a crackdown on absenteeism, longer school hours, summer programs, and high-intensity reading tutoring for reversing some of what Governor Glenn Youngkin termed “the worst pandemic learning loss in the nation.”

    Students showed notable gains in the pass rates for English writing, equaling pre-COVID levels. They scored smaller gains in English Reading, Math and Science but remained significantly below pre-COVID levels. They lost a little ground in History and Social Science.

    In a statement made Tuesday morning, Youngkin also blamed previous administrations. Under the Northam administration, he noted, Virginia ranked 46th among the states for reopening classrooms. He also cited “a systematic reduction of expectations,” and an “honesty gap” about how Virginia students’ performance was eroding even before COVID.

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  • Pardon Our Technical Difficulties

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    James A. Bacon

    Bacon’s Rebellion readers, please hang in there. We are experiencing technical issues of uncertain origin. There are indications that the blog is experiencing a Denial of Service attack from overseas, but we’re not sure. (We could understand if certain Americans wanted to take us out– but Russians or Chinese? Do they even know we exist?)

    We’re working on it. As we try one thing and then another, you may experience significant lag times in viewing the blog. We appreciate your patience. — JAB

  • It Might Be Too Late to Fix School Discipline

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    James A. Bacon

    by Dr. Kathleen Smith

    In a recent article about his new book, E.D. Hirsch argues that “child-centered individualism started the slide in American education.” Although he refers to the slide in academic outcomes, in my opinion, child-centered individualism is responsible for increased school disciplinary responses as well.

    As an educator in Petersburg, including the time spent as a (deciding) member of many disciplinary hearing committees, I have listened to hours of parents communicating why their child or adolescent had disruptive behaviors so serious that they warranted referral for expulsion or alternative interventions outside the accepted convention of suspension.

    For decades now, schools mostly follow constructivism theory — the child is taught to construct his/her own learning. However, when a child or adolescent is left alone to “construct a response to a situation” — like what to do when someone posts something ugly about you on social media, or what to do when you don’t like the teacher telling you what to do — the “constructed reaction” often opens the door for a multitude of responses not acceptable to general society (e.g. school shootings, suicide).

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  • Teacher Vacancies Up Again

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    As K-12 schools open up this week, the good news is that the school-bus shortage has eased a bit. According to the Virginia Mercury, the bus driver vacancy rate is down 5% compared to last year. There’s still a shortfall that leaves school districts scrambling for bus drivers, but the situation is not as bleak as it has been.

    The bigger, badder news is that teacher vacancies have gotten worse. Citing Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) data, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Virginia public schools have 230 more vacancies than last year. That amounts to a 4.74% vacancy rate.

    The shortfall comes not from a lack of funding. The 2022-24 biennial budget contained $19.2 billion for public education, a 20% increase over the previous biennium. The current biennial budget steers another $2.5 billion to schools, an additional 13% boost. Teachers are getting 3% raises this year and next.

    But you can count on the Virginia Education Association to take a partisan cheap shot against Governor Glenn Youngkin.

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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