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Category: Born again Cynic!
I wrote about the due process dangers and the lack of a mental health focus inherent in these red flag laws yesterday, so I won’t re-litigate those arguments here. I do find it interesting, however, that even in California these laws apparently aren’t that popular, and haven’t even been used in many counties. Wintemute and his colleagues chalk that up to a lack of information about red flag laws among law enforcement agencies and the general public, but I think they’re unfairly discounting the idea that in many counties, there’s not a lot of support for red flag gun confiscations.
In order to conduct their “research,” Wintemute and his colleagues conducted “semi-structured interviews” with ” 27 key informants, including judges, law enforcement officers, city and district attorneys, policy experts, and firearm violence researchers” to talk about how well (or not) red flag petitions are being implemented. No number crunching involved here, just subjective interviews with folks, the vast majority of whom have undoubtably already come to the conclusion that red flag laws are valuable and needed “gun safety” tools. In fact, the study authors admit as much:
Potential key informants were selected due to their experience with or demonstrated knowledge of GVROs (e.g., through published reports). They were identified through professional relationships with the authors, activity in the gun violence prevention community, public records indicating involvement in the service or disposition of GVROs, and by recommendation from other informants.
Was there a single stakeholder interviewed who has a knowledge of “Gun Violence Restraining Orders” but who thinks they’re a bad idea? Given the fact that (according to Wintemute) only 14 of California’s 58 counties had enforced a red flag gun seizure order between 2016 and 2020, it shouldn’t have been difficult to find a sheriff or D.A. with an opinion contrary to those writing the report. It sounds to me like these “researchers” simply weren’t interested in hearing another point of view. And why would they, if they already knew that the gist of the report was going to be “red flag laws are good, but here’s how they could be better”?
So the state-funded “research” center came to the completely unsurprising conclusion that more state funds are needed to improve how Gun Violence Restraining Orders are implemented. Any problems with the law (including the fact that in 50% of cases handled by one police officer, individuals refused to give up their guns) can be addressed by throwing money at it. Or rather, any problems that the gun control lobby and their political allies are willing to acknowledge can have more tax dollars thrown at it. Inherent defects like a lack of counsel for those who can’t afford to hire an attorney or a low legal standard for a finding of dangerousness, on the other hand, can be brushed aside and ignored completely.
If this sounds more like propaganda than research, I’m with you. Unfortunately, we can expect this same gun control advocacy disguised as objective science to soon be coming from our federal government, not just anti-gun academics in California, thanks to the CDC’s newfound interest in researching “gun violence.” Millions of dollars have already been appropriated to various academics around the country who’ll soon be issuing reports of their own that either lavish praise on gun control laws already in place in some states or warn of the dire consequences of not imposing those restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. It’s far more junk than science, and unfortunately its our tax dollars (well, more like our grandchildren’s tax dollars at this point, given how much we’re borrowing) that’s paying for it.
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What about your Flamethrower?
It’s tough to watch a good company inexplicably damage their brand. Until very recently, Troy Industries had an excellent reputation in the shooting sports community as a manufacturer of quality accessories for the M4/M16/AR-15 family of firearms. Unfortunately, the company’s bungled handling of two employee issues in recent weeks has damaged the company’s brand among a shooting public with long memories and little sympathy for those who abuse their trust. Troy Asymmetric, a training division of Troy Industries, first came under fire for hiring an anti-gun police chief. The company was then apparently less than honest about the terms of his departure, in what appeared to be an attempt to insulate Troy Industries from the hiring decisions at Troy Asymmetric. That breach of trust by caused some to look deeper into the instructor roster at Troy Asymmetric, where they discovered Dale Monroe. Monroe was a former FBI HRT sniper that played a small role in the debacle at Ruby Ridge as a spotter for infamous sniper Lon Horiuchi. The incident remains a sore spot for many who think Horiuchi got away with murder when he shot and killed Vicki Weaver while she was holding a baby in her arms. Instead of cutting their losses a second time and firing Monroe as well, company founder Steve Troy dug in and supported his employee. While it can be argued that Mr. Troy make a principled stand in support of Monroe, the customer base has not been sympathetic. A backlash against Troy seems to have started, though how widespread of a backlash there may be far from certain. Hammerhead Armament announced on its blog that they are now boycotting Troy’s products. Frankly, Troy isn’t going to notice when smaller retailers like Hammerhead Armament takes such a stand, not in terms of sales. Where they are going to notice the damage to their brand is if other retailers and some distributors begin joining the boycott along with customers already going out on some Internet shooting forums, and a small movement becomes an industry-wide shunning.
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I thought Covid killed everyone
FBI Reports Most Murders in Decades, Police Point to George Floyd Fallout
by Casey Harper
The Federal Bureau of Investigation released crime data Monday showing a sharp spike in homicides in 2020.
While some crimes diminished in the unusual, COVID-shutdown year, homicides rose nearly 30% and aggravated assaults rose more than 12% in one year, the first time in four years that violent crime increased from the previous year.
There were about 21,500 murders reported in 2020, the highest figure in decades.
“In 2020, there were an estimated 1,277,696 violent crimes,” the FBI said. “When compared with the estimates from 2019, the estimated number of robbery offenses fell 9.3 percent and the estimated volume of rape (revised definition) offenses decreased 12.0 percent. The estimated number of aggravated assault offenses rose 12.1 percent, and the volume of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses increased 29.4 percent.”
Violent crime rose more than 5% in 2020 while property crimes dropped nearly 8%, continuing an 18-year downward trend of property crimes.
“The 2020 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 387.8 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, and the estimated rate of property crime was 1,958.2 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants,” the FBI said. “Nationwide, there were an estimated 6,452,038 property crimes. The estimated numbers for two of the three property crimes showed declines when compared with the previous year’s estimates. Burglaries dropped 7.4 percent, larceny-thefts decreased 10.6 percent, while motor vehicle thefts rose 11.8 percent.”
U.S. residents lost an estimated $17.5 billion to property crimes last year, not including arson damage.
Police experts have tied the increase in violent crime to the reduction in police forces and rioting in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody.
“The sharp increase in murder that began with the riots and lawlessness of last summer come as no surprise,” said Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. “Seeing this troubling number now officially recorded for history gives us a fresh opportunity to examine the root political and cultural causes for this historic rise in unnecessary loss of life. We can begin by acknowledging the fact that police and enforcement of the rule of law, with accountability for lawbreakers, are essential to protect our most vulnerable communities.”
“Black and Brown communities are the real victims of these policies. Their lives are being lost and continue to be put in jeopardy,” he added.
– – –
Casey Harper is a contributor to The Center Square and a Senior Reporter for the Washington, D.C. Bureau. He previously worked for The Daily Caller, The Hill, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Casey’s work has also appeared in Fox News, Fox Business, and USA Today.
Photo “George Floyd Riots” by Chad Davis. CC BY-SA 2.0.
———————————————————————————- Gee lets me see now. You stick folks into their homes for good knows how long. Maybe take away their jobs and business with no end in sight. Throw in some Family feuds, drugs or lack of and some booze. Plus have the Media keep pounding away with the same old song. We are all gonna die unless what ever happens. Throw in some Clowns in Power who can’t seem to get their shit together. So I don’t know but it seems a perfect storm to me for some violence. Grumpy
Married couple Jeni Pearsons and Michael Store aren’t wealthy.
Pearsons works at a nonprofit theater in Los Angeles , and Store is a transportation coordinator in the film industry. The couple has been saving for retirement for years, buying silver here and there when they could afford it. To keep their property safe, they rented a safe deposit box at U.S. Private Vaults.
They thought everything was above board until news broke earlier this year about a raid at the Beverly Hills business.
The government alleged that the company conspired with customers to sell drugs, launder money, and stash ill-gotten goods.
LA COUNTY ABUSES ASSET FORFEITURE, SEIZING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY WITHOUT DUE PROCESS
Armed with a warrant, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents spent five days ripping several hundred safety deposit boxes out of the walls and laying claim to its contents.
Prosecutors argued they were within their rights and that the boxes contained weapons and drugs. They also took jewelry, precious metals, and stacks of money to an undisclosed warehouse. Their final haul was worth around $86 million.
The problem is that federal authorities took the items from people who hadn’t been accused of a crime, including Pearsons and Store.
They’ve been able to keep it because of the country’s vague standards of civil forfeiture law, which allows the government to seize property and assets without any actual evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
During the raid, the authorities also seized Joseph Ruiz’s life savings.
The unemployed chef, who had a side job selling bongs made from liquor bottles, had stored $57,000 in his safety deposit box.
Prosecutors argued that he couldn’t possibly make enough money to have that much saved up and accused him of being an unlicensed marijuana dealer.
He went to court to get his money back and won. The government dropped its case against him after he was able to provide documents that showed the source of his money was legitimate.
“It was a complete violation of my privacy,” Ruiz told the Los Angeles Times. “They tried to discredit my character.”
Ruiz is one of 800 people whose money and property were taken in the March 22 raid. Six months later, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles hasn’t been able to prove criminal wrongdoing by the majority of box holders whose belongings the government is actively trying to keep.
Like Ruiz, 65 others have filed court documents claiming the government grab was unconstitutional.
CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE CRIES OUT FOR REFORM
An investigation by the Los Angeles Times shows that the government’s reasons for taking money and property against numerous others were just as flimsy as it was in Ruiz’s case.
Agents claim drug-sniffing dogs alerted them to the scent of narcotics on the seized cash, but multiple analyses of drug-dog alerts have consistently shown high error rates, some hitting past the 50% mark.
“In effect, some of these K-9 units are worse than a coin flip,” Washington Post columnist Radley Balko said in a post about the accuracy of canine searches. He added that “while dogs are indeed capable of sniffing out illicit drugs, we’ve bred into them another overriding train: the desire to please. Even drug dogs with conscientious handlers will read their handlers’ unintentional body language and alert accordingly.”
Federal authorities have also pointed to the use of rubber bands to keep stacks of cash together, as well as other normal ways of storing currency, as tell-tale signs of money laundering and drug trafficking from the U.S. Private Vaults box holders.
The government also said in court documents that it deposited all the seized money in a bank, which experts say would make it impossible to test which drugs may have come in contact with which bills.
And even though U.S. Private Vaults was indicted in February on charges of conspiring with unnamed customers to sell drugs and launder money, no one has been charged.
The criminal case against them hasn’t moved forward, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles isn’t saying why, the Los Angeles Times reported.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Unfortunately for many of the box holders, in civil forfeiture cases, a person is often guilty until proven innocent. No criminal conviction is required, and the government only has to show that it’s more likely than not that the money or property taken was linked to illegal activity.
Civil forfeiture was initially one way to cripple large-scale criminal enterprises by taking their assets. However, the practice has been widely abused, with victims forced to give up their homes and property and then spent small fortunes trying to get them back.
“Today, aided by deeply flawed federal and state laws, many police departments use forfeiture to benefit their bottom lines, making seizures motivated by profit rather than crime-fighting,” the American Civil Liberties Union said. “For people whose property has been seized through civil asset forfeiture, legally regaining such property is notoriously difficult and expensive, with costs sometimes exceeding the value of the property.”
For Pearsons and Store, the government’s seizure of their silver is unacceptable, and they have decided to fight back.
They, along with six others, have teamed up with the Institute for Justice for a class-action lawsuit challenging the government’s raid as an illegal search.
“The government’s theory is that having cash makes you a presumptive criminal, and I think every American should be worried about that,” IJ senior attorney Rob Johnson said.
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Yeah, Yeah!
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Sadly he is probably right!
