Some lies are hard to tell, because someone is going to demand proof. You cured cancer? Prove it. You captured a space alien? Where is he. But some lies are easy to tell, if one doesn’t feel a twinge of shame about lying, because they defy proof and exist only in our belief.  Following the tragedy of Micah Johnson’s murder of five Dallas cops, Police Chief David Brown spoke the words that gave the appearance that he and his force would rise above the petty outrage.

Sounding stern but frustrated, he used blunt words to urge people to reach out and support police, specifically challenging those who marched in protest of the recent slaying of black men by officers to help build a better society.

“Serve your community; don’t be a part of the problem,” he said. “We’re hiring. Get off of that protest line and put your application in.”

While others accused, castigated the protesters whom they blamed for fostering the hatred that produced killers, Brown offered an alternative. Continue reading →

From the news reports the day after the parents of 7-year-old autistic Alexis Wartena called the Amarillo police to report their daughter was missing, one would think they’re heroes.

Police said Wartena is non-verbal autistic but will answer to her name. Her family is from out-of-state and was passing through Amarillo. There are five children in the family and Wartena’s parents said they took their eyes off the child for a few minutes and she left the hotel room.

Tuesday evening, law enforcement officers flooded the area, searching for her. Police K-9s were brought in, officers were on horse back and the Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter, as well as tracking dogs were bought in to assist in the search. A room-to-room search of the motel was also conducted. They also searched vehicles in the parking lot.

If one stops at the myriad things being done to find this little girl, it would be a tragic situation, and the police response would be as much as one could hope for.  Thank the lord for the cops, protecting and serving, helping, being there when you need them. Continue reading →

That people are searching for solutions to improve the relationship between police and the public is good. Better than good. Great. But that doesn’t mean any idea that fits inside a fortune cookie is worthy of serious consideration, even if it is, apparently, worthy of space on the pages of the New York Times.*

Beginning with the requisite anecdote, this one about Stockton, California and its police chief, Eric Jones, building “public trust,” former Times editorial board member Tina Rosenberg Timesspslains “a strategy to build police-citizen trust.”

Stockton is one of six American cities taking part in a new experimentfunded by the Department of Justice. (The others are Birmingham, Ala.; Pittsburgh; Gary, Ind.; Fort Worth; and Minneapolis.) The cities are beginning programs to promote racial reconciliation; to address the racial biases all of us carry; and to gain the community’s trust using an idea known as procedural justice.

Well, promoting racial reconciliation sounds nice. Gaining the community’s trust is a good thing. But what’s this “idea known as procedural justice”? Continue reading →

The plea agreement was contingent upon whether a state court conviction for child pornography compelled a mandatory minimum of ten years.  When the 10th Circuit held it did, District of Colorado Senior Judge John Kane’s hands were tied. He sentenced Shawn Cheever to the ten year mandatory minimum, and explained in detail why it was the wrong sentence and defied the mandate of § 3553(a).

Section 3553(a) provides evaluative criteria to achieve balance between the order of society intended to be protected by punishment and the utilitarian view that every human being must be afforded dignity. The stated criteria often clash and not all apply in every case, but they demand individuated considerations: No one size fits all.

The object of this balancing process is not to fill in the blank of some mechanical calculation, but to impose a decent, appropriate and deserved sentence under all attendant circumstances. The imposition of mandatory minima removes that balancing from the sentencing calculus and is therefore antithetical to the adjudicative process. The result is a punishment without any expression of rational justification. The ten year mandatory minimum in this case preempts the formulation of a sentence that is sufficient, but not “greater than necessary” to achieve the salutary purposes of Section 3553(a).

And lest any cry “recidivism,” that too was addressed: Continue reading →

Commenter: Seems to me she has leprosy. Does she have leprosy?

Me: What makes you think she has leprosy?

Commenter: I don’t know. That’s why I asked you.

Don’t do this. I get it. You have no clue what you’re talking about. Some random idea pops into your head, lacking any basis in reality, but there it is. Now you want to know whether your random thought is true, so you ask a question.  You feel this need to let this question out. If you don’t let it out, you feel like you will burst. So out it comes.

Don’t do this. There is no limit to the random ideas that pop into people’s heads. Most are not good ideas. Just because you’re special does not mean your random ideas are better than anyone else’s.  Ask yourself a few questions before commenting. Continue reading →

Some people believe in legislative solutions.  Got a problem? Pass a law. That will fix it, because, you know, law. And when mean people like me make fun of their naiveté, they get very angry because they believe that if there is a law, people will obey. The irony is that these are often people who think poorly of compliance with authority, yet resort to exactly the same method of achieving their goal as they reject otherwise.

Enter the New York City Council, the mothership of progressive fixes.  A law was proposed, and lots of people liked it.

The bills, known as the Right to Know Act, require officers to identify and explain themselves when they stop people, and to make sure people know when they can refuse to be searched. These are timely, sensible ideas, echoing recommendations made by President Obama’s task force on 21st-century policing. Though the Right to Know Act has been bottled up in the Council for two years, it has broad support among Council members and community organizations, and sponsors say it would pass easily if it ever came to a vote.

What’s not to like?  Cops behaving well? Cops informing people why they’re being stopped, that they can exercise their constitutional right not to consent to a search? There is nothing bad here.

Naturally, the cops hate it. Of course, there is nothing to prevent New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton from telling his cops to do this anyway. But he didn’t. He won’t. It’s not as if he serves at the pleasure of New York’s most progressive mayor ever. But the big issue for Bratton isn’t that the ideas incorporated in the law are so dangerous and counterproductive, but cops just don’t like being told what they have to do. Continue reading →

David Berkowitz, better known as “Son of Sam,” killed because Harvey, his neighbor Sam’s dog, commanded him to do so.  He was, of course, a homicidal psycho. For people who are not, taking your marching orders from dogs is generally frowned upon, unless you work for the government in law enforcement.

A New Mexico woman has reached a $475,000 settlement with the Customs and Border Protection agency after she had claimed she was subjected to six hours of illegal cavity searches.

Contrary to whomever decided that the word “claimed” was a good choice of verbs, there is no question that she was subjected to six hours of illegal cavity searches, and other sundry wrongs. Vaginal. Rectal. You name it.  On top of the rather piddling settlement with Customs, she settled with the hospital that was all too happy to rape her as well.

The woman settled her case against the University Medical Center of El Paso, who conducted the search on behalf of CBP, for $1.1 million in 2014.

Continue reading →

May the force be with you? Not in Austin, Texas, baby. Which is odd, since even though it’s the capital of the Republic, most Texans view Austin as the Texas version of Portlandia, some odd enclave of hippies munching down on kale chips with their barbecue. Fortunately, the Austin Police are there to remind those libs that it’s still Texas.

Austin police forced to taser man as group of kids gathers to watch

Forced? As in, someone put a gun to their heads and said, tase ’em or else?  Not quite.

On Friday, two Austin police officers on patrol in the downtown area of East 7th street near The Austin Resource Center (ARCH), saw a man sitting in a swivel office chair in the middle of a sidewalk. The man was described in police documents as a 6 foot 9 inch, 300 pound, black male by the name of James Houston.

Whatever exactly Houston was up to, which concededly emitted an unpleasant odor, it wasn’t violence.  He posed no threat of harm to the cops. He was a big guy, tall, heavy, but contrary to the post hoc rationalizations of scaredy cats, size isn’t a crime. It’s an excuse. Continue reading →

What made lawyer Andrea Burton wear a Black Lives Matter button to Judge Milich’s Youngstown courtroom? She wanted to. When it comes to an expression of political opinion, it requires no more reason than that. Which is why some found it outrageous that Judge Milich held Burton in contempt for her refusal to remove the button.

Burton argued that her First Amendment rights overrule the Supreme Case law — and Milich’s discretion — and refused the his instructions because she didn’t want to remain “neutral to injustice.”

There is a serious question as to why Judge Milich felt it necessary to flex his judicial muscles over a BLM button. It’s not as if Burton’s button was disruptive to the decorum of the courtroom. If anything, the judge’s demand that the button be removed was more disruptive at the time, and certainly more disruptive in the long haul as it becomes a source of debate and anger.

Whether this is properly described as making a mountain out of a molehill, it was a choice made by the court that Judge Milich didn’t have to make. Like Burton’s choice to wear the button, it was Judge Milich’s choice to make a big deal of it. But he did. Continue reading →

The New York Times’ newest public editor explains the anomaly:

They don’t come in swarms but they land at a steady clip, these reader letters probing why The Times refers to some women as “Ms.” and others as “Mrs.” This week, readers were circling the convention coverage, suspicious as to why Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, was labeled “Ms.” Trump while the president’s wife, Michelle Obama, was deemed a “Mrs.” One person writing in suggested that whoever made this decision must have intended to disparage the Trump marriage.

The Times disparage Trump? Pshaw.  But with Hillary Clinton a mere heartbeat away from the presidency, a position that has been subject to the title “Mr. President” ever since George Washington decided “your awesomeness” wasn’t appropriate, what to do?

It’s the women who get to choose their courtesy titles at this modern institution. According to The Times’s internal rules, women will be referred to as “Ms.” unless they’ve elected to be a “Mrs.” Michelle Obama chose Mrs. back when her husband was seeking the White House. As for Melania Trump, she has yet to express a preference (thus the default “Ms.,” although reporters have been asked to determine her preference).

Continue reading →