Any Questions Why Criminals Are Not Deterred in Blue Cities?

 1/27/25 KGO:

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A small business owner in San Francisco's Richmond District is beyond frustrated after his shop was targeted in four smash-and-grab burglaries involving vehicles ramming into the front door within six months. The latest incident has left him and neighbors questioning whether police could have done more to stop the suspects.

The most recent break-in occurred early Wednesday around 3:15 a.m. when a car crashed into the front of Cigarettes Cheaper at 17th and Geary. Surveillance footage shows multiple suspects fleeing the scene with what the owner estimates was $20,000 to $30,000 worth of cigarettes.

"It's not safe. It's horrible," said Rosie Cavan, who works in the building next door. "We've been here a little over a year and I think a car has driven in this guy's front door probably five or six times."

Despite nearly 20 security cameras capturing the thefts, suspects have continued to evade arrest. Surveillance footage from the latest burglary shows two San Francisco police officers arriving on the scene, lights flashing. They exit their police cruiser, guns drawn as the suspects load cartons into a getaway vehicle. The officers do not approach the suspects who then flee the scene in two vehicles. This was perplexing and infuriating to the owner, who after so many break-ins, declined to go on camera out of safety concerns.

Remember if poliice approach the criminals and attempt to arrest them, a gunfight might break out and the police will become "racists."   Heck, the malefactors might be white but I suspect police know who they will be shooting and know better.

Suddenly, My Father's 20 Years Running From the FBI Do Not Seem So Weird

4/24/21 New York Post reports on a woman who failed to return a VHS tape of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 1999 and had a felony arrest warrant for her.

Admiiting Your Neighbors Lack Self-Control

Gateway Pundit gives examples of the warnings being sent out by local governments around Ferguson, Missouri out of fear of the grand jury decision:

The City of Berkeley, near Ferguson, released this statement warning residents to stock up on water, food and medicine before the verdict is announced.

*Make sure you have plenty of bottled water (a gallon per person per day), and non-perishable, easy-to-access food in case you cannot get to a local store for a few days.

Essentially, a statement that they think the black community is going to riot, and civilization will briefly end.

Taking Sides In The Narcotrafficking Wars in Mexico

If true, this account from January 13, 2014 Business Insider would seem like an impeachable offense (and not just for the current clown in the Oval Office), because it is a violation of drug trafficking treaties the U.S. has signed:

An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

Sinaloa, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S....

Here's what DEA agent Manuel Castanon told the Chicago court:

"On March 17, 2009, I met for approximately 30 minutes in a hotel room in Mexico City with Vincente Zambada-Niebla and two other individuals — DEA agent David Herrod and a cooperating source [Sinaloa lawyer Loya Castro] with whom I had worked since 2005. ... I did all of the talking on behalf of [the] DEA."

A few hours later, Mexican Marines arrested Zambada-Niebla (a.k.a. "El Vicentillo") on charges of trafficking more than a billion dollars in cocaine and heroin. Castanon and three other agents then visited Zambada-Niebla in prison, where the Sinaloa officer "reiterated his desire to cooperate," according to Castanon.

El Universal, citing court documents, reports that DEA agents met with high-level Sinaloa officials more than 50 times since 2000.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-and-the-sinaloa-cartel-2014-1#ixzz2qOwJtlRb

Oh, and Fast & Furious raises its ugly head again:

Zambada-Niebla's lawyer claimed to the court that in the late 1990s, Castro struck a deal with U.S. agents in which Sinaloa would provide information about rival drug trafficking organizations while the U.S. would dismiss its case against the Sinaloa lawyer and refrain from interfering with Sinaloa drug trafficking activities or actively prosecuting Sinaloa leadership....

Zambada-Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals. (If true, that re-raises the issue regarding what Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the gun-running arrangements.)

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-and-the-sinaloa-cartel-2014-1#ixzz2qOwlm4nr

Reducing Recidivism

June 5, 2013 Slate has an article about an approach to probation that Hawaii uses which has substantially reduced recidivism by offenders and even more dramatically reduced drug addiction among probationers.  Most amazingly of all:

“Ordinarily, when you ask an inmate why he’s behind bars, it’s always someone else’s fault,” Hawken said. “ ‘I’m in jail because the judge is an SOB’; ‘I’m in jail because my probation officer had a bad day.’ ” But in Honolulu she encountered men and women who, unbidden and unpressured, praised the system that put them away, and told her they were locked up because they had “messed up”—something so unusual, she said, that it made her skin tingle. “That language of personal responsibility is unimaginable if you’re a criminal justice researcher.”

HOPE’s creator is an unrelentingly sunny and vigorous man named Steven Alm. He became a judge in 2001 after serving as Hawaii’s U.S. attorney. During his first week in office, he encountered rampant recidivism and a probation system that struck him as “crazy”: Probation officers would let slide up to 10 or 15 probation violations before they recommended to a judge that offenders be sent to prison. This practice is common in the rest of the United States, and because there are so many Americans on probation, its ramifications are enormous.

After his first, frustrating week on the job, Judge Alm began thinking about how he disciplined his kids. Children punished under a system that is consistent, predictable, and prompt, he knew, are less likely to misbehave than children who face delayed, arbitrary, and unpredictable punishment, and it was his insight to see that these parenting truisms could be applied to the incarceration system he oversaw. “I thought about how I was raised and how I raise my kids. Tell ’em what the rules are and then if there’s misbehavior you give them a consequence immediately. That’s what good parenting is all about.”

This should not be a radical idea.  Which is more likely to make you drive the speed limit?  A .01% probability that you will get a $150 ticket?  Or a 10% probability that you will get a $20 ticket?  The more certain you are that punishment will happen, the more likely you are to do what you are supposed to do.  

Good News About Parolees

This came from the January 29, 2012 Idaho Falls Post Register:

Statewide, there are about 15,100 offenders under supervision, said Nancy Espeseth, District 7 Probation and Parole manager.

Idaho's rate of parolees who commit new crimes is 38 percent, not including the parole violations that offenders may rack up while under supervision, Espeseth said.

First-time probationers have a lower rate, with a 6 percent chance of reoffending, she said.

Although some offenders struggle with successfully completing probation and parole requirements, "it can, and it is done," Espeseth said.

"The people that come through those doors are broken people," she said. "They have numerous problems - drug addiction, marital problems, employment problems, financial problems - and the chances of them violating probation is a reality and it's there."

What this means is that 62% of offenders on parole do not end up committing a new crime while they are being supervised.  That's an encouraging sign, and the article goes on to talk about the various programs that Idaho uses to try and fix these "broken people."  

And by the way, one of the reasons that I am far less confident that legalizing all drugs is going to be the wonderful solution that many want to believe is this comment from one of the parolees, and which I know reflects the situation for most felons:

Perotto, 37, was placed on probation for eight years following a 2007 kidnapping conviction that also sent him to jail for a year. He said he never would have committed the crime if he hadn't been addicted to methamphetamine.

While Perotto admits his addiction led him to a life of crime, he also fears trying to live his life without drugs.

One of the reasons that just about modern societies have tried to find ways to regulate or prohibit various intoxicants is because many people--usually a minority of users--can't seem to use intoxicants without it turning into a crime against others.  That alcohol is legal while most of the other intoxicants are illegal isn't because alcohol isn't a similar problem, but because alcohol has become so hopelessly intertwined with our culture that it seems impossible to root it out.  The prospect of other intoxicants also become this integral to our culture (as marijuana is rapidly doing) is discouraging.