California: excusing rape, drugs and burglary; soon to excuse murder?

“Of course, BZ,” you exclaim, “that headline can’t be correct.”

Except that, well, yes, it is correct. California currently excuses some cases of rape and, via a grand new bill signed by the addled Governor Jerry Brown (whom the CHP allows out in public only on certain monitored days of lucidity), may end up excusing murder.

They’ve laid the groundwork themselves via AB 1810. More on that later. “But where,” you may ask, “would California get the idea to excuse murder, BZ?”

Would it shock you if I were to suggest Canada? Is this headline sufficiently startling for you? From the VanCourier.com:

Strangling off-duty cop gave killer PTSD, defence tells sentencing judge

by Aly Thompson

HALIFAX — A lawyer for a Halifax man who strangled an off-duty police officer argues that his mental illness — brought on by the murder — should be a mitigating factor in deciding his parole eligibility.

Christopher Garnier, 30, was convicted in December of second-degree murder and interfering with a dead body in the 2015 death of 36-year-old Catherine Campbell.

The jury found that Garnier strangled Campbell, a Truro police officer, and used a compost bin to dump her body near a harbour bridge on Sept. 11, 2015, after the pair met at a Halifax bar.

The murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence, but a hearing to determine when Garnier will be able to apply for parole is scheduled for Monday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

In submissions filed with the court, defence lawyer Joel Pink said his client was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by a psychiatrist hired by the defence, Dr. Stephen Hucker, and by the psychologist who is currently treating him.

The event that brought on the PTSD: the murder itself.

“What a novel idea,” Leftists galloping under their purple-clouded skies say, clutching their safety pins, unicorns and Tide pods.

Novel indeed. Let’s examine some of California’s past bills and propositions that ably assisted the realm’s proud acquisition of #1 Shithole State. What an accomplishment! (We’ll get to AB 1810 in a bit.)

First came Proposition 47, approved by California’s idiot voters in 2014. Yes, I’m talking to anyone and everyone who voted to shoot common sense in the head. Otherwise known in the California criminal justice system (yes, there is justice for criminals in California; just not for victims) as “realignment,” it placed the onus for housing and caring for hundreds and hundreds of serious felons — many whom had done time, for example, in Pelican Bay’s SHU for multiple murders or the murders of prison staff and other inmates — from secure state facilities into absolutely unprepared county facilities.

Low grade county facilities whose antiquated designs were better suited to house drunks, batterers, warrant violators and the like. Only some jails, like those in LA County for example, had the ability to house extremely violent offenders. Temporarily. And that space — as with space around all 58 California counties — was limited.

So limited that, operating under a consent decree, a number of County of Los Angeles buses (they’ve got a large fleet) were filled to capacity with inmates constantly driven around LA in order to avoid being accused, under that consent decree, of violating the maximum number of inmates housed within the jail during certain periods of time. I shite thee not. A 24/7 Inmate Bus Tour of LA environs.

Proposition 47 also reduced these crimes to misdemeanors:

The law includes simple possession of heroin and cocaine. Prior to Proposition 47, only simple possession of marijuana for personal use was a misdemeanor.

So check this out as well:

Proposition 47 also added a new misdemeanor section to the Penal Code: Penal Code section §459.5:  Shoplifting, entering commercial establishment during regular business hours, with intent to commit larceny, where the value does not exceed $950 (or intent to commit larceny does not exceed that amount). If you could, prior to Prop 47, prove intent to steal (entering the store with concealed bags, etc), you could charge a felony under 459 PC. No more.

If you are charged with one of the above crimes, and eligible for Proposition 47, then you will only be charged with a misdemeanor, which means:

The conviction does not carry state prison time, as a felony conviction does.  Misdemeanor convictions carry 6 months-1 year, as the maximum amount of jail time. With probation, no jail time may be possible.

Translated: A thief can now steal something valued under $950 on a daily basis and it will never rise to felony status. You want real world? Here’s real world:

“Every bicycle in our building has been stolen,” says Karen Burns, president of a San Francisco condo association. “I’ve caught so many people stealing packages. They don’t care. They know nothing will happen to them. It’s crazy. It’s horrible. I feel like these people need to go to jail.”

Proposition 47 didn’t stop with theft. The personal use of illegal drugs was also reclassified to a misdemeanor. Although the intent may have been kind (it’s cruel to punish people for having an addiction) and practical (they’ll emerge from prison hardened, and a felony on their record makes it more difficult to reintegrate into society), the downstream impact on the community at large has been disastrous. In San Fransisco, for example, shooting up in public is commonplace, whether it’s on the steps of City Hall, in front of a supermarket, or at the entrance to a children’s playground.

I have this video as proof.

Don’t believe the studies in California. Believe reality.

Residents who are experiencing an uptick in so-called low-level crimes in their neighborhoods are baffled by studies indicating otherwise. For example, a December 2017 Center on Criminal and Juvenile Justice report shows property crimes down by an average of 18.1 percent across the state. Those numbers are false, says Michael Rushford, president of the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public-interest law organization: “More, not fewer, of these crimes are being committed, but people aren’t reporting them. In most cases they have to do it online, and they end up not doing it. They don’t believe anything will happen, so don’t see the point. And they’re right.”

But wait; there’s more.

Certainly San Franciscans aren’t debating whether or not crime is up. They know it is. In January, Police Chief William Scott acknowledged a 24 percent jump in property crimes from 2016 to 2017. Auto break-ins have soared in every district, and the arrest rate for them is an astonishing 1.6 percent. Citizens are right to feel disgusted and demoralized. In areas such as the Tenderloin, which is home for many of the city’s low-income immigrants, impoverished senior citizens, and families with young children, quality of life has deteriorated. Now more than ever, residents and merchants are living with a proliferation of addicts who roll up their sleeves, inject, and then nod off on the sidewalks or career down the street and into traffic. To fulfill customer demand, dealers sell packets of powder or pills in plain view of passers-by. There is no reason to hide. Why not shoot up wherever you want, leave bloody syringes in piles, steal, and deal when there are few if any consequences?

But there are repercussions, and they’ve felt by every person — young and old, rich and poor — who is robbed and lives among the growing cadre of drug users and dealers and what it’s all done to their neighborhoods.

Here’s a pertinent example from a defense law firm in California:

Herman is sitting in his car using cocaine, and a police car pulls up behind him. The police see that Herman has 100 grams of cocaine open, in addition to the actual cocaine he is using. The officers arrest Herman. Herman is charged and convicted of a felony under Health and Safety Code section 11350 for simple possession of a controlled substance for personal use. With the felony, Herman serves time in jail, loses his right to vote, sit on a jury, and has to inform potential employers that he has a felony conviction, when applying for jobs.

After Proposition 47:

Same scenario. Herman can only be charged and convicted of a misdemeanor conviction. His diligent attorney is able to negotiate a plea that does not include jail time. At the conclusion of his probation, he will be eligible for an expungement, and will not have to inform potential employers that he has been convicted of any crime, when applying for jobs.

What This Means:

Simple Possession of a Controlled Substance for personal use, under Health and Safety Code section 11350 is now always charged as a misdemeanor4.  Unless Herman was arrested with scales, baggies, or any other indication that he intended to sell the cocaine in his possession, regardless of the amount, Herman can only be charged with a misdemeanor offense under Health and Safety Code section 11350, possession of a controlled substance for personal use.

Read that again: regardless of the amount. Herman can have an entire kilo of cocaine and it’s only a misdemeanor. I mean, hell, Herman will eventually get around to all of it, right?

Here’s another bit of reality:

(Criminal, Semisi) Sina said he rejoiced when he first heard about Proposition 47. He said he didn’t start stealing bicycles until the proposition raised the threshold for a felony theft to $950.

“Proposition 47, it’s cool,” Sina said. “Like for me, I can go do a [commercial] burglary and know that if it’s not over $900, they’ll just give me a ticket and let me go.”

He was sentenced to rehab five times this year but did not show up for a single session.

Man, that’s a forehead-slapper. Never saw that coming.

In Sacramento County, for example, theft cases aren’t even prosecuted for items under $950 in value. That means, in essence, you can steal with impunity. Guess what? Property crimes skyrocketed. And dope? Hell, marijuana is legal in California. Yet, California can’t manage to acquire a sufficient amount of dope for buyers, and many of those considering official sales are having second thoughts due to the regulations, policies and massive fees associated with distributors. Licenses easily run up to $75,000 and beyond. California thinks dope is going to be a perennial cash cow. Translated: the State of California could fuck up selling ice in hell.

How about California’s Proposition 57, passed by walking dead California voters in 2016?

Yet Proposition 47’s crafting was superior to what Californians witnessed in Proposition 57, which voters approved in 2016. This law made it easier for “nonviolent” felons to win parole. But again, its authors failed to sweat the details, using an existing, over-broad list of nonviolent crimes that included rape of an unconscious person and violent child abuse. The worst fears about Proposition 57 were confirmed in February, when a state judge ruled that the state could not retroactively rewrite the measure in a way that denied possible early release to thousands of violent sex offenders.

I know you’re still wondering: “what the hell does this have to do with murders in California, BZ?” Roll with me, we’re getting there.

From NBCLosAngeles.com:

Inmates with Violent Pasts Paroled Under Prop. 57

by Eric Leonard

A number of California prison inmates who committed violent crimes, including stabbings and shootings, have been granted parole under Proposition 57’s Nonviolent Parole Program, according to records obtained by NBC 4.

Prop. 57, approved by voters in 2016, promised to reduce the state’s overcrowded prisons by expanding parole eligibility for nonviolent criminals, and by encouraging inmates to take part in rehabilitation, therapy, and vocational programs.

How did California do that? Wait for it. Wait for it.

By reducing some more reprehensible crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The proposition purposely changed the definition of a “violent crime” in California. Read this:

Some violent felonies that are now reclassified as nonviolent include rape of an unconscious person or use of a date rape drug, domestic violence, exploding a destructive device with intent to cause injury and assault with a deadly weapon.

No. I’m not kidding.

Among crimes not on that list — and therefore possibly viewed as nonviolent — are assault with force, rape of an unconscious person, battery with serious injury, some domestic violence, some child abuse and exploding a destructive device with intent to commit injury.

No. I’m not kidding. And yes, we’ve finally arrived at my headline reference. From the SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:

Now, in the worst example of rushed reform yet, Gov. Jerry Brown this week signed into law Assembly Bill 1810 — a budget “trailer bill” with no credited author that takes effect immediately. It includes a provision that appears to allow defendants charged with any crime to get the charges put on hold and perhaps eventually dismissed if they can persuade a judge that the offense resulted from a mental disorder that a mental health expert says is treatable.

A case can be made that a defendant’s mental illness should be considered by prosecutors and judges — it’s certainly relevant. Senate Bill 215, now before the Legislature, would have allowed this in defined, limited circumstances. But instead of vetoing AB 1810 and letting this debate proceed, Brown short-circuited it. He did so despite being warned by San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan that this is “the most irresponsible legislation our state has ever seen” and that it would “wreak havoc in our criminal justice system.”

You see where I’m going now. Any sort of a “mental issue” can now, in California, possibly yield some kind of a demented “get out of jail free” card.

If a defendant in California makes a claim that they committed a specified crime due to some sort of mental health problem — and the judge agrees — they may find themselves eligible for “diversion” instead of prosecution for said crime. But wait. It gets better. The defendant receives whatever “counseling” is decided to be appropriate. And once they’re declared to be “better” they don’t go back to court to stand trial for the offense; oh no. Their record gets sealed. And they walk out of the facility and out of court. A California criminal version of ServPro: “like it never happened.”

Let’s go down the list:

  • No restitution? Check!
  • No responsibility? Check!
  • No input from prosecutors at all? Check!
  • No protection of any victim or victims? Check!
  • No chance to question anyone? Check!
  • No chance to even question the psychiatrists involved at all? Check!
  • No justice whatsoever? Double check!

Under the law, defendants who fall within the category of “mental disorder” include those who have the following illnesses: male hypoactive sexual disorder; sexual sadism; voyeurism; pyromania; oppositional defiant disorder and kleptomania.

The language in the bill only stipulates that the defendant “substantially comply” with diversion to earn a dismissal. What is the standard for “substantial”?

You will never know, as his or her record was expunged by a judge who gave this person an incredible break by allowing this two-year diversion program.

Diversion where? In a custodial facility? In an open-style halfway house in the community? At home?

Let’s examine the “disorders.”

  • You could rape or kill (or both) a female because you have “male hypoactive sexual disorder.
  • You could beat women unconscious, incapacitate them, penetrate them, commit mayhem, because you have “sexual sadism.”
  • Women could beat men in the same fashion. We’re equal, after all.
  • You could peep into windows or expose yourself to children, because you have “voyeurism.” Why stop there? You could climb inside the house and kill everyone.
  • You could set fires or wildfires resulting in billions of dollars in damage, thousands of acres scorched, vegetation and trees eliminated, the air fouled for weeks and weeks with countless burning deaths, because you have “pyromania.”
  • You could kill cops or anyone in any kind of an authority position — perhaps politicians or judges as well — because you have “oppositional defiant disorder.”
  • You could steal anything and everything from now into perpetuity, because you have “kleptomania.”

Now re-read that article at the top of my post. Certainly we have a ready excuse for that. Hell, there may even be an app for that.

This is dangerous beyond dangerous, in a state that is already manic-depressive — and refusing to take its meds.

If anyone thought California politicians actually possessed brains, I must disabuse you of that execrable notion. They instead contain sweetbreads, giblets and loose marbles.

Boy, am I being kind.

And wow, shit is about to get real in California. Pass the popcorn.

BZ

P.S.

Avoid California. Do not come here, do not visit, do not drop by to see your Aunt Sharise, do not come here for a vacation, stay the hell away from San Francisco (unless you’re interesting in carting away some wild and festering communicable disease that won’t ever respond to antibiotics), don’t purchase food grown here, don’t buy plants or animals raised here but — more importantly — do your level best to ensure California keep its contagious and poisoned thoughts and policies within its own pus-ridden borders and, most importantly, import them not. Sometimes states exist as putrid examples of what not to do with a once-beautiful landscape.

Schadenfreude and Jerry Brown

California Governor Jerry Brown decided back in 2015 that he was going to live in the original Governors Mansion in downtown Sacramento, located at 1526 H Street between 15th and 16th Streets — where his father Edmund G. “Pat” Brown used to live as governor in the 1960s.

The mansion issues are, well, fairly obvious. There is no real fence per se, anyone can hop the thing. The portico on the west side provides the real security — plus other CHP DPS (Dignitary Protection Section) fixes and features that you might guess are present on the grounds.

Figure 1: CHP utilizing genetically-modified giant horses to guard the capitol area in downtown Sacramento. This is a real photograph and not Photoshopped (okay, I’ll spill: it’s a Clydesdale acquired from Budweiser in Vallejo at a reduced rate).

With that orientation and background in mind, let’s get into the gist of the story, from KFIAM640.com:

Homeless Man Arrested After Walking into Gov. Jerry Brown’s Residence

by RJ Johnson

A 51-year-old homeless man is in jail today after he allegedly walked into Gov. Jerry Brown’s mansion on H Street in Sacramento.

According to the CHP, Steven Seeley was arrested for trespassing “on the executive residence property, breaking a side window on the first floor of the residence.”

Seeley told the Sacramento Bee that he entered the history governor’s mansion without any interference from Brown’s security detail (that was apparently on site through the entire incident). The homeless man told reporters that he had spotted some wild animals, possibly lions or cougars, on the streets of midtown Sacramento. He says he walked through the door of the mansion to warn Brown’s security detail because he knew they had “big guns.”

Seeley is partially correct. CHP’s DPS have guns; perhaps not “big” like .50 caliber “big” just clanking about the hallways, but certainly of sufficient size and heft to perform an adequate task at the mansion.

Here’s where it becomes interesting.

Seeley says he entered Brown’s residence to help prevent the governor from being attacked. 

“I was looking for the security staff, but I didn’t see anybody,” Seeley said Thursday. “I thought the governor was in trouble, I thought he was in danger of being attacked by the wild animals, so I walked in. I yelled ‘Jerry.'”

Seeley says that after he walked inside and didn’t see anyone, he heard muffled roaring and hid inside a small room or closet. He then left through a window in the room that led to a fenced-in yard, breaking the window and cutting himself in the process.

He did it out of love for our governor. Now that’s one selfless act, if you ask me. He tells us so, here.

But wait, there’s more.

He walked back out into the street, looking for help, asking multiple passers-by for help calling 911. Eventually, a couple pulled over and took him to the hospital where he underwent surgery and later arrested. 

Yeah. Two days later.

You see, there’s just a wee bit of schadenfreude involved for any number of reasons.

  • First: it was a homeless man. California loves its homeless. Wait. Until it doesn’t and they actually threaten someone important to the state — certainly not you or me;
  • Second: it was a mentally unhinged individual who felt compelled to enter the mansion due to the presence of lions or cougars (the four-footed variety; shame on you!) outside. California loves its unhinged. Wait. Until it doesn’t and they actually threaten someone important to the state — certainly not you or me;
  • Third: Governor Brown became apoplectic himself, threw camshafts and went 210/190 when he discovered his wife, Anne Gust, was present in the mansion when the incident occurred on April 19th — to the point that he demanded the man be arrested for a felony and that he do prison time.

Hang on; it gets better.

  • Fourth: — and you’re gonna love this one — that didn’t happen. Remember: the homeless nutcase was officially arrested for trespassing, which is a misdemeanor in California. Just above an infraction, which is what you have when an officer issues you, say, a traffic ticket.
  • Fifth: up to a few years ago this man could have been charged with 459 PC, burglary, a felony in the state. But because of measures and propositions (Brown’s lovingly-inspired Propositions 47 and 57 in this case) voted upon by politicians and the electorate, authorities know that, in today’s California environment, the intake DA will larf his or her arse off but upon seeing that report cross their desk.

Hence the misdemeanor charge of “trespassing,” 602 PC. All because of Jerry Brown-sponsored Leftist initiatives and laws to adjudge arrestees much less harshly because of the challenging environments they encountered as harmless and innocent children.

“Governor Brown and Schadenfreude, table for two, your table is ready.”

Drink up, Jerry.

BZ

 

BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Thursday, September 7th, 2017

Featuring Right thinking from a left brain, doing the job the American Media Maggots won’t, embracing ubiquitous, sagacious perspicacity and broadcasting behind enemy lines in Occupied Fornicalia from the veritable Belly of the Beast, the Bill Mill in Sacramento, Fornicalia, I continue to proffer my thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to utilize their studio and hijack their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, thanks to my shameless contract, as well as appear on the Sack Heads Radio Show each Wednesday evening.

Tonight in the Saloon:

  • Jersey Joe is in our thoughts and prayers as Hurricane Irma bears down upon him in Florida, and may possibly be in its direct path;
  • How do you evacuate a state whose only escape route is north, on I-75?
  • There is no portion of the US that isn’t directly affected by natural disasters;
  • Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and wildfires;
  • Happy stories and good times: 5 nurses suspended for three weeks for opening a body bag to check out his generous genitals;
  • Happy stories and good times: Taco Bell employees shoot and kill robber;
  • The funeral for 21-year veteran Sacramento Sheriff’s Department Deputy Bob French was Thursday, shot and killed by a vehicle theft ring suspect;
  • At the same hour of the funeral, two Sacramento Police Department officers were shot by a murder suspect who was subsequently killed;
  • The suspect was sophisticated and took advantage of the situation in order to tactically ambush the officers who had not yet attempted to effect a vehicle stop;
  • Ambushes on peace officers are up 167%;
  • California Governor Jerry Brown has peace officer blood on his hands as do other Demorat politicians due to their Leftist policies thanks to AB 109, realignment, and Propositions 47 and 57;
  • Support the Houston PD if you can, at http://www.assisttheofficer.com/
  • A former federal officer is found dead in the Potomac, once a member of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s protectorate detail;
  • Details about the US’s most deadly nuclear weapon, the B61-12;
  • Gun confiscation on the US Virgin Islands;
  • Charlottesville PD sued, as should all the other Leftist departments;
  • To law enforcement: honor your oaths, eschew illegal orders;
  • Make a stand. Do your damned jobs. I did. You should and must.

If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, please click on start.

Listen to “BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon, Thursday, September 7th, 2017” on Spreaker.

If you care to watch the show on YouTube, please click on start. Pay no attention to the labeling; it’s actually my show.

Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin (on Twitter @BZep and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.

As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.

Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives in podcast? Go here. Want to watch the past shows on YouTube? Please visit the SHR Media Network YouTube channel here.

BZ

Cops despised, ambushed, killed = rising crime

And yes, there is a correlation.

Let’s first listen to America’s Sheriff, David Clarke.

Sheriff Clarke: Look, this guy continually for eight years has rubbed the stain of slavery,  has rubbed white people’s nose in the stain of slavery. He’s done it for eight years. He’s about 150 years removed from slavery. Nobody said forget about it but you have to move on at some point and he will not allow America to do that. And until he leaves the White House we’re going to continue to have to put up with this nonsense. People are tired of it, they’ve proved it on November 8th that Latinos, black people, white people, and other ethnicities have said we’ve had enough of this racial divide in America, and they really want to move on from it. But this president will not allow them to do that.

Obama has consistently taken the immediate side of American blacks. From, first, 2009:

“But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3 … that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.”

The part the American Media Maggots conveniently forgot to include:

“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played,” Obama said Wednesday night while taking questions after a White House news conference.

But that’s okay, the Divider-In-Chief had a job to do and a meme to follow. The American Media Maggots owed total obeisance and provided same, blindly and without question.

What was later said:

The President has acknowledged that he fueled the controversy when he said that the police “acted stupidly” for arresting Prof Gates after he protested vociferously about Sgt Crowley’s actions during a burglary investigation.

Despite that, black Communist Van Jones said

Van Jones: The right wing and the law enforcement establishment brought the wrath of God down on the White House. I was there, and suddenly he’s (Obama) forced to do a beer summit to sit eye-to-eye with a racist police officer. As a black man, even the most powerful man in the world cannot speak about race and, if he does, he’s then forced to sit humbly across the table from a racist police officer.

And therein the tone was set for eight extremely difficult and costly years. Barack Hussein Obama sought not to unite, but to divide on as many levels as he could construct.

As the Divider-In-Chief, Obama’s entire agenda revolved around striating people by class, sex, race, religion, earnings, region, state, city, county, clothing, music, laws, wages, bathroom, healthcare, culture, employment, family, mode of transport, piercings, energy consumption, food, cable channels watched, tattoos, light bulbs, media consumed, social settings, the way you view America, even your writings, statements and thoughts.

Then let’s examine the cold, hard statistics.

From the ChicagoTribune.com:

Few answers as Chicago hit with worst violence in nearly 20 years

by Jeremy Gorner

A persistent reality for some of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods, violence unnerved far reaches of the city in 2016 as shootings and homicides soared. Not since the drug-fueled bloodshed of the mid-1990s had the city witnessed such a toll.

Some neighborhoods, already scarred and gutted by years of violence, suffered inordinately. But the danger spread into more neighborhoods, too, and randomness became an all-too-familiar element to many shootings.

Grim milestones added up: The deadliest month in 23 years. The deadliest day in 13 years. 4,300 people shot. As the year wound down, with the promise of a new year coming soon, a violent Christmas Day.

Perhaps it might be said that Leftist and Demorat policies are finally catching up with reality.

In 2016, about 91 percent of Chicago’s homicides were committed with a firearm, up from 88 percent last year, the study showed. When you compare that with 1998, the last time Chicago recorded over 700 homicides, about 76 percent of those victims were killed with guns, official Police Department statistics show.

Los Angeles’ homicides committed with guns averaged 72 percent from 2011 to 2015, and 60 percent in New York City, the study noted.

Then there is this.

Looking back to 1998, when Chicago recorded 704 homicides, the city was in the midst of a homicide decline from more than 900 earlier in the decade. The turn of the millennium saw a bottoming out, with homicides dropping to 453 at the end of 2004 — around the time the Police Department began relying on computerized data to know where to deploy officers where they’re needed the most. The tally rose again somewhat, then went down again in 2014, when the city recorded 416 slayings.

Continue reading. About this time you should be asking yourself one profound and fundamental question. Yet let us continue, from the AP.org:

1 of Chicago’s bloodiest years ends with 762 homicides

by Don Babwin

CHICAGO (AP) — One of the most violent years in Chicago history ended with a sobering tally: 762 homicides, the most in two decades in the city and more than New York and Los Angeles combined.

Please let that brain-soak a moment. More than NY and LA combined.

From the LATimes.com:

Violent crime in L.A. jumps for third straight year as police deal with gang, homeless issues

by Cindy Chang and Maya Lau

Violent crime increased in Los Angeles for the third straight year as police tried to stem a rash of homicides and gang-related shootings while dealing with a growing homeless population.

With more than 290 people killed in the city this year, homicides also rose for the third year in a row. Still, the city remains far safer than a decade ago, when 480 people were killed and there were 46% more robberies than this year.

Relatively speaking, Los Angeles doesn’t have shite on the major eastern high-rise, high-population, low-footprint, urban rat cages because it is so spread out. Except:

According to statistics from the Los Angeles Police Department, robberies were up by 13%, aggravated assaults were up by 10% and rapes were down by 4% through Dec. 17, compared with the same period last year. Homicides were up by 5%.

Overall, violent crime was up by 10% over last year and 38% over two years ago.

Imagine that. After the passage of AB 109, Prop 47 and Prop 57, Californians are shocked — shocked, I tell you — that crime is rising.

Marijuana is lawful. The threshold for property crimes amounting to a felony has risen from $400 to $950. Stealing a firearm out of a car is only — ho-hum — a misdemeanor. Property crime is therefore rising. Juvenile prostitution is now legal. California cities exist as social petri-dish experiments where actual citizen safety and common decency is secondary. Disdain for any form of authority is likewise rising.

The once-beautiful city of San Francisco is now a piss-and-shite-ridden open-air toilet. Courts in SF are ignoring — literally — thousands of quality of life citations issued by the SFPD because to support those summonses would be harsh and judgmental.

A year ago, the Superior Court judges who hear such cases stopped issuing bench warrants for no-show defendants. And just last month, Judge Christopher Hite in the court’s traffic division — where quality-of-life citations are handled — flushed all 64,713 outstanding warrants that had been issued for such cases from January 2011 through October 2015.

The judge who did that, by the way, is a former public defender. Please commence with the “I didn’t see that coming” comments.

What might that make the officers issuing those citations think? Perhaps that their work is unvalued, completely disregarded? Perhaps law enforcement might be realizing that “if that’s the kind of law enforcement you want, that’s the kind of law enforcement you’re going to get”?

The anti-police climate is clearly emboldening criminals of all stripes, from murderers to anarchists to teenagers.

I can tell you unequivocally why crime in certain cities and areas is rising. There are currently over 20 agencies being monitored by the feds and operating under a consent decree. Law enforcement agencies nationwide are being told that they “over-police.” They are being told they cannot stop and frisk. Their administrations are, because of social politics, becoming indifferent. Support is vanishing. Cops are guilty first. Micromanaging is the norm. Discretion is removed. Public concern for the lives of LEOs is not as strong as its concern for the lives of suspects.

Additionally, ambushes of police are at their highest in over a decade, more than 20 deaths in 2016 due to ambush. This helps to create a climate where people feel justified in assaulting law enforcement officers. People are beginning to think they possess not just a right but a duty to resist any form of arrest or hands-on involvement by law enforcement.

A bulletin last week by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a federal agency that supports local police departments, counted the number of officers killed by ambush as 20 so far this year, up from six in 2015. Organizations that record police officer deaths, such as the FBI and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, vary in their exact numbers, but all agree that fatal ambush attacks have reached the highest level in more than ten years.

Consequently, because of directives and the obvious, officers are pulling back from what is known as “self-initiated activity.”

Yes, officers are handling the calls to which they are dispatched with professionalism and integrity, but in terms of digging into the neighborhood or the community, they have withdrawn because they have been told explicitly to do so by their administrators, and/or via pressure from community leaders, societal pressure, and self-interest.

Crime rates and statistics are also trending up because of little follow-up by prosecutors on impolitical cases, and by recent propositions and laws that have decriminalized some acts, reduced them from felonies to misdemeanors, or eliminated them wholesale. I again point out AB 109, Prop 47 and Prop 57 in California. Property crimes and crimes involving drugs have skyrocketed because criminals are not stupid.

Law enforcement officers realize they are already targeted for ambush, injury and death. Their situations are to the point where they must recognize and handle not only officer survival but, examining the long run, career survival. Just like anyone else they have bills to pay, mortgages, families, children, personal obligations.

UNITED STATES – JANUARY 5: A controversial painting by Missouri student David Pulphus depicting police as animals hangs in the tunnel connecting the U.S. Capitol to the Cannon House Office building as part of the annual student art exhibit on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. The painting was selected as the 2016 Congressional Art Competition winner from Rep. William Lacy Clay’s district in the St. Louis area. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

I wonder why law enforcement thinks this painting, created by a black NFL player, might be offensive and denigrates officers nationwide?

I have always said that America gets the kind of policing it deserves. The Ferguson Effect truly does exist and was acknowledged by FBI’s Director James Comey.

Cops are human. They respond to pressure and directives. They also want to go home to their families and loved ones at the end of watch. Accused of over-policing? Yes, many are saying, we are responding to your demands.

Yes, there is a correlation. It pleases Leftists but, perhaps soon, they may not be quite so pleased.

Prognostications for 2017?

Cloudy, with a chance of severe turbulence.

BZ