by James C. Sherlock
Crime, especially violent crime, is a constant topic in private conversations and in public politics, and thus here on Bacon’s Rebellion.
Comments on BR crime-related articles turn quickly to race, often without basis in fact.
I will offer below the actual crime statistics by race from 2021, the latest available year, in an attempt to cure that.
Then I will write about the causes.
I will almost certainly be called a racist. Continue reading
Posted in Budgets, Children and families, Civil Rights, Crime , corrections and law enforcement, Culture wars, Democracy and Western Civilization, Demographics, Education (K-12), Efficiency in government, General Assembly, Governance, Government Oversight, Health Care, Housing, Land use & development, Law enforcement, Mental illness and substance abuse, Parental Rights, Politics, Public corruption, Public safety & health, Race and race relations
Tagged James Sherlock
University Police Department officer Wallace Goode patrols along the Corner district on March 14th. (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)
by James C. Sherlock
The University of Virginia has to be careful what its officials say because of the ongoing lawsuits over the November massacre. But the school is taking concrete steps to address the spike in violent crime in Charlottesville.
I congratulate them.
UVA Today ran an article on those initiatives on March 15th.
In the early morning hours of March 18, a UVa contractor was shot and killed across the street from the Rotunda.
More needs to be done, but carefully. Continue reading
by Kerry Dougherty
Lemme make sure I understand this: Virginia’s ACLU, that left-wing organization that sat on its derriere during Gov. Ralph Northam’s unconstitutional closure of churches and businesses, is suddenly active again.
Its lawyers want Virginia’s convicted felons to automatically get their voting rights back, even if they haven’t made restitution to their victims or paid their court costs. No matter how heinous their crimes or how repentant or unrepentant they are.
The priorities of this group are fully on display: they’re more worried about rapists and child molesters and carjackers being able to vote than they ever were about people of faith who simply wanted to attend worship services, or ordinary decent Virginians who simply wanted to earn a living during Covid.
Some of us waited in vain for those who claim to hold the U.S. Constitution dear to stand up to the dictatorial Gov. Northam, but the civil liberties crowd sat those battles out.
Yet now that a Republican governor is doing what the Virginia Supreme Court has ordered — that is, to review every felon’s request for a restoration of rights individually — they’re back in action.
The great defenders of civil liberties. For criminals, anyway.
Continue reading
Image taken from video: Deputies remove Irvo Otieno’s body from his room.
by James A. Bacon
Earlier this month, five Memphis police officers were charged with the murder of Tyre Nichols, a young Black man, after severely beating him during a traffic stop. Predictably, the mainstream media framed the story as an example of systemic racism in policing, even though all five police officers also were Black. Somehow, it was argued, the Black officers had internalized the culture of White supremacy.
Heather MacDonald with the Manhattan Institute offered a different interpretation. The officers ignored protocol for traffic stops. They failed to follow the chain of command. They issued contradictory orders. They botched the deployment of a taser and pepper spray. They ignored strict orders not to strike a suspect in the head unless he poses an imminent threat. None of this has anything to do with racism, she wrote, and everything to do with deficiencies in recruitment and training.
A similar incident has occurred in Virginia. Although it has not generated the same level of attention, it raises many of the same issues. Second-degree murder charges have been filed against seven Henrico County sheriff deputies and three hospital workers for the beating death of a mentally ill patient, Irvo Otieno, at Central State Hospital. The violence seems less motivated by maliciousness than incompetence but, whatever the case, the force was excessive. Continue reading
by Jon Baliles
Well, it seems Mayor Levar Stoney has finally picked up on a problem on Richmond’s streets that many of us have known about for three-plus years. If you live downtown, or in the Fan, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, the Museum District, Randolph, Scott’s Addition, Byrd Park, Malvern Gardens, parts of Northside, Monroe Ward, or several other neighborhoods, the sound of jet-like roaring from annoying packs of motorcycles has permeated the air at night (usually on weekends) in a way that would wake Rip Van Winkle with ease.
And for three-plus years, nothing has been done. I have talked to those in public safety who have been told for years that these insanely loud gatherings of cyclists, noisemakers, and idiots — whatever you want to call them — are off limits for stopping or arresting, even if they gather by the dozens (even during the day) and violate the city’s un-enforced noise ordinance or dozens of traffic laws in and around Bryan Park, Byrd Park, or on Broad Street.
But this past Thursday afternoon, several noisy riders caught the mayor’s attention in Shockoe Bottom. He not only called the police chief to track them with an airplane, but he also later made sure that all the local media outlets (all three TV stations and the Times-Dispatch) knew about it. The result was three young men from the Tri-Cities area were arrested (ages 19, 18, 17), one stolen gun was recovered, and one teen escaped.
Continue reading
Every so often you might read some uplifting story in the news — a woman is rescued from a burning car, a charity raises money to buy Christmas toys for homeless tots — that makes you feel better about the world. Don’t be gulled. We live in the wealthiest society with the highest level of education and the most advanced technology the world has ever seen. Yet things are getting worse! Signs of the times pulled from today’s headlines:
Virginia sees highest number of babies born with syphilis in several decades. Reports WAVY-TV: The number of syphilis cases in Virginia has rebounded to the highest level in years. The rate among women has surged 159% between 2013 and 2021, which drives up the rate of syphilis in newborns. The Virginia Department of Health reported 20 cases of congenital syphilis last year, the highest number in three decades. Up to 40% are born stillborn or die from the infection. Survivors can have deformed bones, an enlarged liver, blindness or deafness.
Meanwhile, the death rate of American kids is skyrocketing. Deaths of American kids spiked 205% between 2019 and 2020, the result of increased car wrecks, shootings and drug overdoses, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. According to Virginia Commonwealth University researcher Steven Woolf , even poisonings are up. Woolf said he has not seen an increase like this in his career. “This is a red flashing light. We need to understand the causes and address them immediately to protect our children.” Motor vehicle fatalities remain the highest cause of childhood death, but homicides and suicides are catching up. Continue reading
by Kerry Dougherty
Oh look. Another garbage bill courtesy of Virginia’s soft-on-crime Democrats!
Want to see what’s coming our way if Dems regain control of the General Assembly and Governor’s Mansion?
Check out SB1080.
Yep, a gaggle of Virginia’s leading lefties pushed a measure that would classify felons younger than 21 as JUVENILES. Virginia law currently calls those criminals older than 18 ADULTS.
Because that’s what they are.
Continue reading
by James C. Sherlock
I received an update yesterday from the NAACP on legislation that caught their interest in the 2023 General Assembly.
One bill that did not pass, but got party line Democratic support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, in turn caught my eye.
It was SB 1080 Juvenile and domestic relations district courts; adjudication of delinquency. Patrons were Senators Edwards, Boysko and Surovell. It was not some fringe bill. This is a mainstream Democratic goal.
The NAACP wanted me to know they wanted it reintroduced next year.
Delinquency is currently defined as criminal complaints for felonies or misdemeanors filed against a juvenile age 17 and under.
Democrats, unanimous in the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted to create a newly-defined class of “underage persons,” 18-20, and handle them in the juvenile justice system as well.
Seriously. Twenty-year-old felons in juvenile detention facilities.
They voted for that. Continue reading
by Kerry Dougherty
Imagine for a moment that you are the victim of a violent crime. The perpetrator has been arrested and you thought he was about to go on trial when you learn that your local prosecutor — one of those squishy soft-on-crime types who was bankrolled by George Soros — already entered into a sweet plea deal with your attacker. You were never notified, so the judge signed off on it.
Now this predator is back on the streets.
It happens. And Virginia has several prosecutors who fall into the criminals-first-victims-second camp.
Well, thanks to bipartisan efforts by the General Assembly, this sort of chicanery is over.
SB 989, a bill that just passed both houses of the state legislature and is certain to be signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, requires prosecutors to contact crime victims BEFORE they enter into plea agreements.
Commonwealth’s attorneys are not obligated to do what the victim wants, but they have to listen. Current Virginia law only requires prosecutors to notify victims if the victims ask to be notified.
The best part of this bill? It passed with overwhelming majorities in both houses. Introduced by Sen. Mark J. Peake, a Republican from Lynchburg at the behest of Attorney General Jason Miyares, the measure sailed through the House of Delegates 79-20 and the Senate by a vote of 30 to 10.
Shoot, even Louise “Brick Wall” Lucas voted for it.
Who would vote against such a common-sense, pro-victim bill?
Newly elected Sen. Aaron Rouse, who represents the 7th District that includes part of Virginia Beach and Norfolk, that’s who.
Congratulations, voters of the 7th. You replaced tough-on-crime Jen Kiggans with someone who doesn’t even want prosecutors to speak with crime victims before entering into deals that are favorable to the criminals who hurt them.
What were you thinking?
Republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.
Ramin Fatehi
by James A. Bacon
Excellent reporting by the Virginia Mercury’s Jim Morrison highlights the debate in Norfolk over the rising homicide rate since 2020. In this two-part series (here and here) he describes how the city’s “progressive” Commonwealth Attorney Ramin Fatehi, who campaigned on the premise that structural racism is the root cause of criminality, has become the focus of the controversy.
Fatehi has championed a panoply of policies to combat “explicit and implicit bias, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the criminalization of poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and substance-use disorder.” In practice that has meant seeking cash bail less often and charging suspects with lesser crimes, often reducing felonies to misdemeanors.
Norfolk’s 2022 homicide total, 63, was the highest the city had seen since the mid-1990s. In 2021, there were 62 murders. From 2012 through 2019, the city suffered between 29 and 43 murders annually.
Fatehi, of course, blames outside factors such as economic insecurity, the flood of guns, and the COVID pandemic. The spike in homicides has occurred in many places, he says, not just in cities with progressive prosecutors.
It is difficult to disentangle the “root causes” of the increase in homicides because the surge coincided with three social/economic tidal waves: the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd protests in 2020, and the economy’s increasingly acute labor shortage in multiple professions including law enforcement. Fatehi did not assume office until January 2022. Continue reading
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
During the height of the war on drugs, schools adopted “zero-tolerance” policies. No student was allowed to possess any drug of any kind, even an aspirin or a prescription medication for which he had a prescription. Any such products had to be deposited with the school nurse and taken in the presence of the school nurse. This meant that a female student could not keep aspirin or Advil, for example, in her backpack to use to ease the pain of menstrual cramps. When the cramps became particularly bad, she had to go to the infirmary and retrieve her over-the-counter medications that she had left with the nurse.
Presumably, these policies were meant to show that the schools meant business when it came to drugs. I always thought it was a sign of cowardice. Schools and principals were not willing to use a little common sense and discretion. Rather than having to exercise some thought and judgment, they took the easy way—ban everything.
This still might the approach used. I don’t know. Continue reading
Abigail Zwerner
Courtesy AP
by James C. Sherlock
On February 16, USA Today published a story by Jeanine Santucci. That is the latest in an excellent series of reports on the shooting of Newport News first grade teacher Abigail Zwerner.
Her article, “Virginia 6-year-old who shot his teacher exposes flaws in how schools treat students with disabilities.” raises questions that Virginians need to answer.
Any school official or teacher will tell you:
Few school divisions will claim to have any of that under control.
JLARC in 2020 concurred with that assessment in Virginia.
Longstanding shortage of special education teachers persists, and many school divisions rely on under-prepared teachers to fill gaps.
IEPs are not consistently designed effectively.
School divisions are not consistently preparing students with disabilities for life after high school.
Courtesy NBC 6 6’7” 270 pound student assaults teaching aide
by James C. Sherlock
In 2019, the National Education Association (NEA) published Threatened and Attacked By Students: When Work Hurts, urging lawmakers to address the crisis of unsafe behaviors in schools.
Read about Chesterfield schools in that article.
Unfazed, progressives in 2020 in full control of the General Assembly, led by now-Congresswoman-elect Jennifer McClellan, looked to break what they considered a “school-to-prison pipeline.”
They changed Virginia law to eliminate the requirement for principals to report misdemeanor assault and battery in Virginia schools, on school buses or at school-sponsored events to law enforcement.
Even battery on school staff.
It would seem to me, if I worked in a school, useful to require such violence to be reported to law enforcement.
But maybe that’s just me. Continue reading
by Kerry Dougherty
I have a new hero. I don’t know her real name but in her Southeast Washington D.C. neighborhood, they just call her “Grandma.”
Last Friday Grandma was on her way to chemo when a 15-year-old punk walked up and ordered her to hand over her car keys.
“I have a gun,” he said.
“Baby, you’d better shoot me because you’re not taking my car,” she shot back.
A struggle ensued — Grandma’s hand was sliced by the keys — but she screamed for help and help arrived. Her grandson and some other neighborhood boys heard the commotion, and ran to her defense.
The would-be car jacker was taken away in an ambulance.
Score one for the good guys. And for Grandma.
Continue reading
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn on Saturday, February 25. Time to check on the status of some issues that have been discussed on this blog.
Budget bill. The budget bill contains not only the usual appropriations, but also all those tax cuts proposed by the Governor. There is activity behind the scenes, but, so far, no public hint that any sort of compromise is near.
Utility bills. One major utility regulation bill has been passed, but the others are in conference. I will defer to Steve Haner to comment on these as he deems fit.
SCC judgeships. Last year, the General Assembly could not agree on a person to fill a vacant SCC judgeship. The House supported one person; the Senate favored another. In late 2020, one of the two sitting judges, Judith Jagdmann, announced her retirement with a year left on her appointment. That left two vacancies, seeming to solve the problem: Each legislative house could have its own favorite. But, there was a fly in the ointment. ne vacancy, Jagdmann’s, was only for the year left on her term. The other vacancy was for a full six years. Who was going to get the short straw? Another impasse. Continue reading
