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More Evidence That Criminals, Not Poverty, Cause Crime

Posted by Playful Walrus on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 6:07:23 PM
How often has the Left blamed crime on poverty? In reality, the connection is more often the other away around - crime causes poverty. However, like several other recent reports over the last several years, this article by Joel Rubin and Richard Winton in the left-leaning Los Angeles Times reports…
Crime in Los Angeles County dropped again in 2009 despite rising unemployment and the bad economy, continuing a slide that has pushed homicides to levels not seen since the 1960s.
There's a lot of good news.
The number of property-related crimes, such as burglary and theft, also declined generally this year, including a surprisingly large drop in the number of stolen automobiles.

The trend extended into other parts of Southern California and several major cities around the country.
This isn't just a brief anomaly.
For the LAPD, the statistics marked the seventh consecutive year in which the rate of serious crimes has declined.
So what does this mean?
The overall progress made this year around the country further refuted a once widely accepted belief that crime rates rise amid economic downturns.

Criminologists have long puzzled over the effect the economy and society's ills have on crime rates.
Here's comes the beard-scratching...
One explanation suggests that layoffs have resulted in an increase in the number of people remaining at home and serving as "guardians" against crime in their neighborhoods, Kelling said.
And this is definitely a Lefty explanation…
Richard B. Rosenfeld, president of the American Society of Criminology, added that the federal government's decision to extend unemployment benefits may have staved off some crime.
But they do give some credit where it is really due.
Kelling and Rosenfeld emphasized that much of the credit for the extended decline in Los Angeles belongs to the LAPD, which has continued to refine crime-fighting strategies and strengthen ties with community groups in neighborhoods where it was once viewed with distrust and hostility.
The article never gets to one of the biggest reasons crime rates have declined: Three Strikes and similar sentencing. Being poor doesn't turn someone into a criminal. As it turns out, there is a small percentage of the population - and some of them are rich - who commit most of the violent crime and serious property crime. When you lock these people up, crime rates go down. Yes, good policing makes a difference. Yes, it is good for people to voluntary reach out and help others who are desperate. But let's not ignore the correlation between sentencing and crime rates.

While we're all sinners, very few of us lead a life of ongoing serious crime. It is a basic function of government to remove serious criminals from the rest of us. When we do lock career criminals up, we have significantly less crime. This is not magic.

One of the best things we can do for the people living in the more blighted areas is to attack the gangs in a "sweep and hold" situaton where the National Guard and ICE assist local law enforcement in disrupting the grip gangs have in these places.
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Another Country's Criminal

Posted by Playful Walrus on Thursday, September 17, 2009 7:02:57 PM
Here's a story by the Orange County Register's Jon Cassidy that I couldn't let slip by.
A man arrested and charged with murdering a prostitute at a Garden Grove hotel is a gang member who has been deported to Mexico three times in the last decade, Garden Grove police said at a press conference this morning.

Cesar Gomez, 34, of El Monte, is scheduled to be arraigned on a murder charge Monday at West Justice Center.

He is accused of strangling Ashley Lilly, 24, of Inglewood, to death at the Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort on Harbor Boulevard some time late Aug. 20 or early Aug. 21.
I'm no supporter of prostitution (financially or morally), but that someone is a prostitute does not make her any less of a human being, and does not justify her murder. Of course, she made the chances of a crime like this against her more likely when she chose to engage in her own criminal activity.
Lilly had been severely beaten in the face and choked by hand, and her room had been ransacked, police said. She had not been sexually assaulted, police said.
What a waste of human potential this murderer is.

After getting some of his rap sheet, we get this quote:
"We arrest these criminals, the DA does a good job prosecuting them, but beyond that our system is overwhelmed and broken," Polisar said. "Our borders are like revolving doors for these criminals. It's like sweeping back the ocean with a whisk broom."
We should bill Mexico for every dime we spend on this guy. Si se puede.
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Dying Charlie Manson Follower NOT Released

Posted by Playful Walrus on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 1:28:48 PM
Maybe the situation with Scotland releaseing the Libyan terrorist mass murderer is apples and this is oranges. Regardless, I give kudos to the panel that decided to keep murderer Susan Atkins in prison. This story appeared in the Los Angeles Times back on September 3, and was written by Richard Winton and Hector Becerra.
For the second time in as many years, a state parole board voted unanimously Wednesday to deny one of Charles Manson's fiercest followers her request for a "compassionate release" so that she can die at home.
She should have been executed many years ago. It would not be compassionate, on the whole, to release her to die at home.
Convicted murderer Susan Atkins, 61, is terminally ill with cancer and has only months to live, doctors say.
Cancer is awful - it is a horrible way to die. But if anyone is going to get it, why not a murderer?
The issue of mercy has long haunted Atkins. Nearly 40 years ago, actress Sharon Tate begged the knife-wielding Atkins to spare her life and that of her unborn child.

"She asked me to let her baby live," Atkins told parole officials in 1993. "I told her I didn't have mercy for her."
I pray that Atkins has repented and thrown herself on the mercy of the Lord.
Atkins is serving a life sentence for the 1969 slaying of Tate, 26, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and musician Gary Hinman.

She has served 38 years in prison, longer than any other female in the state.
Fitting.
After fatally stabbing Tate, prosecutors said, Atkins tasted the actress' blood and used it to write "PIG" on the front door of the home.

During her trial, which took more than nine months, Atkins seemed to show no remorse and maintained utter devotion to Manson, whom she called "Jesus Christ," "the devil" and "the soul."
Cults can be extremely dangerous, and you don’t have to be stupid or gullible to get into one. But you have to be responsible for your own actions.
Atkins is now considered a model prisoner known for helping others.
You mean she hasn't killed any other pregnant actresses while in prison? You don’t say.
She has been married to an Orange County attorney for the last 21 years.
Some people will marry anyone.
In recent years, she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. One of her legs has been amputated and the other is paralyzed, authorities said.

Some of her supporters have argued that releasing Atkins would save the state substantial amounts of money in medical and prison expenses.
Well, yeah, releasing any prisoner would save the state incarceration costs.

These people were trying to incite mass mayhem via murder. Just because one of them gets a terminal illness is no reason to grant parole.
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Rewarding the Bad Guys

Posted by Playful Walrus on Monday, July 27, 2009 9:00:00 PM
You mean gangsta chic might no go over well in court?  Click on over to this Hector Bacerra article in the Los Angeles Times to see what Richard Rodriguez's attorney is trying to do to his appearance.  Gang membership tattoos may be covered up.

I wrote about Rodriguez earlier - he (allegedly) led cops on a dangerous high speed chase, and at the end of it, got what some cops are calling a "distraction kick" to his head while he was apparently prone - and it was caught on video.
The attorney for a gang member kicked in the head by an El Monte police officer at the end of a televised car chase thinks his client has a great case. On Thursday, Nick Pacheco filed a $5-million legal claim against the city on behalf of the 23-year-old.
Even if the El Monte officer's actions had been completely unwarranted, along the lines of stranger coming up and assaulting Rodriguez, it's not worth $5 million.  A wrongful death case for Rodriguez wouldn't be worth $1 million.
In the booking photo, Rodriguez's head is shaved, and the name of his gang hangs over his lip. Tattoos climb his neck. In the "after" rendition, he's wearing a black suit with a metallic gray tie, neatly combed hair and a lush mustache.
Too bad for him he can’t cover up the video of him driving like he did.
Pacheco, a former L.A. councilman, said his client suffers from headaches and blurred vision, among other symptoms.
Conveniently, they all seem to be entirely impossible to objectively document.  The City of El Monte already has high sales tax rates.  It would be a shame if they had to go higher to pay a gangster who ran from the cops and endangered others.
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Publicly Grieving Violent Lives Ended

Posted by Playful Walrus on Monday, July 13, 2009 7:00:00 PM
I don't know about other places, but in the Los Angeles area, there is a familiar pattern when it comes to officer-involved-shootings in which an African-American with a long record is killed in "the hood" - Athens, Compton, northern Long Beach, Inglewood, South (Central) L.A., etc.  This happens regardless of the skin color or ethnic extraction of the officers, but of course it can be intensified if the officers are "white".

Even though the deceased has a rap sheet, and often an extensive, violent, and gang-riddled rap sheet, this is typically what happens:

1. Beginning immediately after the incident, relatives of the deceased (who are almost never eyewitnesses) insist that he was either doing absolutely nothing wrong, or that if he was doing something wrong, the officers' reaction was criminally disproportionate.

2. These same people will stand on sidewalk where this happened to talk to news media, usually sobbing, holding each other, and making a scene, and calling for investigations and "justice".

3. A Victicrat "Community Organizer" with the same skin color (NEVER with a different skin color) who is a professional camera hog will be there, his arm around one of the grieving family members, talking into the cameras.

I don't see this happening in other places, like middle class neighborhoods or various ethic enclaves.  It is almost middle-eastern in the public nature and "show" of the grieving.

Yes, nobody likes to lose a loved one.  Yes, police officers, have, at times, screwed up, and yes, police officers have, at times, intentionally engaged in persecution of poor African-Americans.

But I’m getting desensitized.  Just once, I’d like of these Community Organizers to be shown looking into the camera and saying, "Our community needs to stop accepting violent criminal activity and start shunning criminals - because they cause far more harm to our community than any trigger-happy or racist officer."

Usually, the officers acted appropriately and with restraint, and are vindicated.  But you'll never see an apology given to the officers who keep these neighborhood from descending into complete chaos.

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Los Angeles Rioters: Idiots on Display

Posted by Playful Walrus on Monday, June 15, 2009 10:49:59 AM
When someone cites the Rodney King riots as some sort of profound social movement of rebellion against oppression, they are forgetting things like what happened last night in downtown Los Angeles after the Lakers won the NBA Championship.  There is an element in the large cities, including Los Angeles, comprised of thugs with little respect for property or law.  They will riot for no reason whatsoever.

And, of course, if the LAPD were to actually aggressively protect innocent people and property, the city would be hit with lawsuits and these morons would make out like bandits, and so would their slimy lawyers.

It is times like this that I seriously- no joke - would not be opposed to martial law and shooting-to-kill in the area where the riot is taking place.  Now, some people scoff and say "Hey, it's just property that's being damaged."  That isn't the point.  The primary internal function of government is order.  These mobs could have easily turned murderous, and I'd rather they be the ones to die than some innocent shopkeeper.

Shame on those who vandalizing and destroying property last night.  It is embarrassing that pro athletes even have to record public service announcements pleading with people not to riot.
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