Bayou Renaissance Man

I note that violent street crime, shoplifting, etc. are rapidly increasing in Britain, just as much as they are in the USA.

Shoreham-by-Sea is at the forefront of a retail theft epidemic gripping Britain, as shoplifting soars to a record high.

The number of reported cases in England and Wales hit 430,104 last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, the highest since records began in 2003.

Outside Westminster, the district of Adur that is home to Shoreham-by-Sea had the joint-highest rate relative to the population, at 22 offences for every 1,000 people. 

Neighbouring Worthing, and Mansfield further afield in Nottinghamshire, shared the unwanted crown.

Sussex Police meanwhile had the second lowest solved rate for shoplifting at 10pc, ranking only behind the Metropolitan Police. 

In Shoreham Central and Beach, 97.6pc of reported shoplifting incidents were unsolved, Telegraph analysis shows.

Many businesses all across the country will know these issues all too well. As theft rates have soared, rates of those being solved have plummeted.

Only one in seven incidents of shoplifting in England and Wales were solved last year, according to Home Office figures. The figure has halved since comparable records were first published in 2016 and is now at its lowest. 

It is not just shoplifting that is on the rise. Robberies of businesses have also risen to the highest level since 2005. 

A creaking justice system, large cuts to policing and prisons on the verge of having to turn guilty people away have laid the foundations for this crisis. 

The cost of living, rising levels of addiction and organised criminals seizing the opportunity to steal with impunity have made it worse. 

. . .

It comes as thousands of prisoners will be released early in September to relieve overcrowding.

Britain’s prisons are believed to be just weeks away from running out of space, a situation that Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood blamed on the previous government and said had left left her with “no choice” but to take action.

As a result, some offenders will be released after serving only 40pc of their sentence rather than half. Exemptions will be made for sexual and serious violent offenders.

The alternative would risk “looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops”, Mahmoud said. However, this is not far from what British retailers say they are already seeing.

There's much more at the link.  It's worth reading, to tick the boxes about what Britain is seeing that we're also seeing in many parts of this country.  They're very similar - including the increasing violence of criminals.

There is, of course, another factor besides those named - one the news media dare not name, in either country, for fear of being labeled racists or bigots or whatever.  That is that both countries are dealing with a massive influx of illegal or quasi-legal aliens or "migrants".  Street crime and shoplifting is increasingly being committed by that group, sometimes almost to the exclusion of other groups.  I worked with law enforcement for decades, and maintain my contacts with them.  Almost everyone with whom I speak in that demographic tells me that it's a migrant problem - but they're not allowed to say so.  It's a firing offence if they do.  It's a politically incorrect "third rail" that they dare not touch.

I'd like to see some properly collected, collated and analyzed statistics dealing with that . . . but we can forget about that as long as left-wing progressive local, state and national governments and bureaucracy prevent them from being gathered.

Peter

Welcome to the urban world of the 2020's, in at least some American cities.  An NBC affiliate reports:

Delivery drivers in the South Bay say they're increasingly worried about becoming robbery targets.

It's happening enough that at least one company, Core Mart, is now hiring armed guards to escort its drivers.

Darrell Cortez, a retired San Jose police officer who now works in corporate and retail security, said, "Unfortunately, this is what society has become now with armed guards guarding merchandise from the retailer because there seems to be a sense of lawlessness in our society."

There's more at the link.

And we're supposed to go into those stores in those cities and spend our hard-earned money there, despite the risks posed by thieves outside and inside, aggressive panhandlers, drug addicts looking for a quick score, homeless folks with unpredictable and frequently unsafe behavior living on the streets, and who knows what else?

It makes the old Budweiser tail gunner joke sound rather more real than funny!

Sorry.  Count me out.  I prefer to live and shop in safer climes.

Peter

I guess this post could also be titled "Headline Of The Day":

A man was arrested Monday after he allegedly used fake IDs and information to make purchases at several St. Tammany Parish stores. 

Later that same day, his believed accomplice was also arrested for using a fake ID to try and bond him out of jail. 

One would think that, knowing your buddy had just been arrested over fake ID's, you might perhaps consider that the cops would be familiar with them and looking for more, wouldn't you?

Oh, well.  Looks like itinerant criminals are now in the business of providing entertainment to otherwise bored cops in Louisiana!

Peter

This car chase video made me laugh.  Considering the punishment taken by the pickup being pursued, from both its driver and the police chasing it, it might as well be a video advertisement for the toughness of the truck!

I'm glad they took that driver off the road, but I daresay he'll be back . . . more's the pity.

Peter

I'm sure many of my readers will be familiar with the (in)famous exchange of letters in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram, 1971.  Those who aren't will find the details at the link.  (Profanity alert:  lawyers aren't always polite!)

I was reminded of that well-known case by this tweet yesterday, largely by the inclusion of a word that I've censored (given that this is a family-friendly blog, most of the time).  Clickit to biggit.

I wonder if they'd also assert an equal IP right to the entire slogan, including the censored word?  That would make just about as much sense!  It's also like the computer games company that tried to trademark the expression "space marines" (despite its having been in use since the 1930's), or the comic publishers that trademarked the term "superhero".

Suffice it to say that I think the LA Police Foundation deserves the mockery.

Peter

I can get behind President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador whole-heartedly.  We recently discussed his crackdown on narco and gang violence in his country, leading to his re-election with an overwhelming majority of the vote.

His next step?

The 'unapologetic dictator' and 43rd President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele launched an anti-corruption investigation into the entire executive branch of his government. Just like Anil Kapoor-starrer Bollywood movie 'Nayak', the businessman turned politician ordered every single official to gather in an assembly, where he announced the decision to inquire them for bribery. The move is seen as a strike against graft back home in the Central American nation.

The video of Bukele asking the Attorney General to investigate the entire executive branch including the cabinet members for corruption has gone viral online. The faces of the officials sitting and gathered at the assembly could tell that they were shocked and taken aback by the move.

There's more at the link.  You'll find a video recording of President Bukele making his announcement here.

I love it!  It would be marvelous if we could do the same thing in Washington D.C., not to mention every one of our fifty State capitals.  The only problem would be to find enough uncorrupted investigators to do the work!

Peter

First, Haiti:

Haiti’s capital has been thrown into further chaos after its top warlord ordered his soldiers to “burn every house you find” – as the nation struggles to usher in a new government.

Notorious gang leader Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier, 47, was heard on social media messages on Sunday inciting his men to clash against police and burn down homes indiscriminately across Port-au-Prince, including Lower Delmas where he grew up. 

“Continue burning the houses. Make everybody leave,” says a man in the audio recordings who is believed to be Cherizier.   

“No need to know which house. Burn every house you find. Set the fire,” he adds, claiming to have sent jugs of gasoline to the gangsters. 

Local residents have verified that houses have been set a blaze in the capital, with Radio Tele Galaxie reporting loud blasts and gunfire echoing across city hall as Lower Delmas has turned into “a battlefield between police and armed gangs.”

Along with the gunfights along city hall and the National Palace, gangsters also looted the State University of Haiti’s medical facility overnight, local Radio RFM reports. 

With officials and human rights groups estimating that as much as 90% of the capital is now controlled by violent gangs, fears have grown that Cherizier has united them in an effort to seize control of the nation during a period of transition.

Sunday’s order to attack came ahead of the installation of a transitional council preparing to establish a new government after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry fled the nation. 

There's more at the link.

As we've mentioned before in these pages, successive Haitian governments (if that's a valid description of them) have allied with various gangs in order to achieve political power, then plunder the national treasury under the guise of governing.  The inevitable result is that the gangs have grown tired of ruling through middlemen, and want to govern directly, without giving up a cut of the loot to politicians.  Tragically, the people of Haiti have never risen up and demanded proper government.  If they had, this could have been nipped in the bud years ago.  They didn't;  so now they're paying the price.

Contrast this with El Salvador, where the people got fed up with the gangs, the corruption and the criminality of their society, and did something about it.

The man who transformed El Salvador from one of the most dangerous countries in the world to one of the safest, President Nayib Bukele, is despised by liberals.

. . .

In 2022, after a gang war resulted in the deaths of 87 people over a period of just three days, Bukele took action against crime. He constructed the country’s largest prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo or CECOT), with a capacity for 40,000 gang members. And he began filling it.

Out of gratitude for restoring peace in the country, voters reelected him with 85% of the vote. Human rights groups, who live in safe, wealthy Western nations, have criticized Bukele for violations of the rights of suspects.

But the logic is flawless. Only gang members have gang tattoos. If anyone else gets a gang tattoo, they will be killed by the gang. The same is true for tattoo artists.

They would be killed for giving gang tattoos to non-gang members. Additionally, part of the initiation to joining a gang is to commit a serious crime, often murder. Once they become a member, their full-time job is to commit crimes. So, logically, anyone with a gang tattoo is a gang member and has committed crimes.

. . .

The state of emergency he declared in 2022, and has renewed several times since, suspends the constitutional rights of the gang members and bypasses the corrupt courts and justice system, which had allowed the criminals to reign for decades. Since then, 75,000 gang members have been arrested, and 7,000 have been released.

Again, more at the link.

Notice how President Bukele's measures completely bypass and render impotent the corrupt liberal institutions of "justice".  You won't find progressive prosecutors letting off offenders with a token slap on the wrist, or setting them free the same day they're arrested after making them promise to attend court when summoned.  Those offenders, under El Salvador's system, are checked for gang tattoos, and video of them outside and inside jail is scrutinized.  One gang tattoo, one flashed gang sign, and they're automatically classified as gang members and imprisoned.  They have the right to argue their detention, and about 10% have been released;  but most can't demonstrate their innocence, and they're still locked up.  The people of El Salvador, delighted to be able to venture outside their homes in safety for the first time in years (if not decades), have just shown whose side they're on by re-electing President Bukele and his party with overwhelming support - to the distress and hand-wringing of said liberals and progressives, who see all their favorite soft-on-crime approaches being ground into the mud.

Now look at the USA.  States and cities where liberal, progressive attitudes are applied are drowning in crime.  Don't believe the "official" crime statistics, either - they're deliberately flawed, biased and under-reported.  Ask the people who live there.  They'll tell you the reality.  Contrast those states and cities with those where law and order takes a higher priority, and see the difference.  People from the first group are migrating to the second group as fast as they can afford to.

Tragically, the Biden administration is admitting millions upon millions of migrants from high-crime, low-trust societies (including Haiti) into the USA, without so much as a background check.  That's going to make our crime situation much, much worse.  It already is in some places.  What will we, the people of the USA, do about it?  Will we demand our own Bukele to rein in the criminals?  Or will we roll over, supine, and let the gangs dominate?

The liberals and progressives do have one accurate point in all this.  Throughout history, whenever a "strong man" appears offering a solution to crime and other ills, he's ended up becoming more or less a dictator, and often has had to be removed violently in his turn.  That's a real danger here in the USA right now.  Tragically, those same liberals and progressives don't seem to realize that their insistence on unfettered immigration from high-crime, low-trust societies is paving the way for such a dictator to arise here too.

President Bukele didn't come out of nowhere.  He rose to power through offering a relatively simple, yet Draconian, solution to El Salvador's crime problem.  How will this nation react if someone offers that recipe here?  Can our constitutional republic survive such an authoritarian figure any better than it can survive chaos and criminal anarchy?  Your guess is as good as mine . . .

Peter

I (and many other independent observers) have been complaining that crime's getting worse - much worse.  Liberal and progressive commenters, on the other hand, are insisting that it's getting better.  Their view may be typified by this article, which I'm posting just as an example.

Homicides Are Plummeting in American Cities

Nationwide, homicides dropped around 20% in 133 cities from the beginning of the year through the end of March compared with the same period in 2023, according to crime-data analyst Jeff Asher, who tabulated statistics from police departments across the country.

. . .

The declines so far in 2024, on top of last year’s drop, mirror the steep declines in homicides of the late 1990s.

“There’s just a ton of places that you can point to that are showing widespread, very positive trends,” said Asher, co-founder of criminal justice consulting firm AH Datalytics. “Nationally, you’re seeing a very similar situation to what you saw in the mid-to-late ’90s. But it’s potentially even larger in terms of the percentages and numbers of the drops.” 

There's more at the link.

Sounds great, doesn't it?  Well . . . until one looks at the reality behind the numbers, that is.

The Collapse in Law Enforcement: As Arrest Rates Plummet, People Have Been Less Willing to Report Crime

The American news media has been working overtime to convince people that violent crime is dramatically falling.

. . .

But, there is a big problem with using the FBI Uniform Crime Report data on crimes reported to police because victims don’t report most crimes ... More importantly, the number of crimes reported to police falls as the arrest rate declines. If people don’t think the police will solve their cases, they are less likely to report them to the police ... This divergence arises for several reasons. In 2021, 37% of police departments stopped reporting crime data to the FBI (including large departments for Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York), and others are underreporting crimes. But also because of the dramatic decline in arrest rates.

Figure 1, presented at the top of this post, illustrates the dramatic drop in arrest rates for violent crimes reported to the police. If you compare the last five years before COVID-19 to 2022, the arrest rate for violent crime across all cities fell by 20%. But for cities with over one million people, it fell by 54%. The drops in arrest rates by type of violent crime ranged from 15% to 27% for all cities and from 38% to 58% for cities with more than one million people ... Comparing the five years from 2015-2019 to the arrest rate in 2022 shows a drop of 33% for all cities and a 63% decline for cities with more than a million people ... only 14.6% of violent crimes result in an arrest ... only 8.4% of all violent crimes resulted in an arrest. For property crimes, the numbers are even worse. With 31.8% of property crimes reported to police and only 11.9% of those reported crimes resulting in an arrest, that means that only 3.8% of all property crimes result in an arrest. For large cities with over a million people, only 1.4% of all property crimes result in an arrest.

Again, more at the link.  Plenty of statistics are provided in graphic form to illustrate the problem.

As to why people are reluctant to report crimes, the answer's obvious.  Left-wing District Attorneys and public prosecutors are minimizing prosecutions, reducing charges, eliminating cash bail, and generally making life as easy as possible for the criminals, rather than the cops.  It's not unusual in a big city to see criminals commit multiple crimes a day, because every time they're arrested, they're out on the street again within a couple of hours.  Here's one example.

Given that reality, store security often doesn't report shoplifting, because the penalties have been reduced to no more than a slap on the wrist.  Police don't bother arresting offenders that they know will be out on the street within hours, or at most a day or two, after being charged.  Citizens don't bother reporting crimes that they know won't be dealt with by police.  All that makes criminals bolder, and boosts the chances that they'll graduate from low-level, non-violent crime to more aggressive offenses.  They develop an attitude of invincibility ("The cops can't touch me!"), and proceed to test it on more and more serious crimes.  I've heard them boast about it in jail (that used to be my job, remember?).  

The same applies even to homicides.  There are plenty of them that are never reported as such.  I know cops who are quite blatant about it.  To paraphrase one of them:  "Look, I find a body on a street in the hood. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything, and if I try to pin anything down, everyone who lives there will get aggressive.  That leads to the precinct boss coming down on me for causing a fuss, and him having to send cops he can't spare to sort it out, and do all that extra report writing and explaining to his bosses.  I just can't win.  So, I call it in as a body I found, without mentioning anything suspicious.  The coroner comes and collects it, and I go on my way.  The coroner won't make a fuss, even if he finds a gun or knife wound.  He's got too much work as it is, and he knows most of those cases are never solved.  Result is, it'll just be filed as another random fatality - anything simple and believable to enter into the books.  I recall one case where a cop and the coroner agreed that a gunshot killing would be entered as an overdose.  Nothing criminal was reported, they both had minimal paperwork, and the precinct was happy because our statistics still looked good.  What, you think someone might dig up the body five years later to check?  Doesn't happen."

Murders involving someone with a family who cares, or someone of influence, will be investigated.  The rest?  There'll be a token effort, but it won't get very far, because detectives can't get very far with such investigations in big cities.  They each have too many cases to start with, and that means their attention is spread so thin that it won't be enough to resolve many of them.  What's more, many poorer families (and those who may not speak English very well, if at all) regard the police as their enemy.  Why would they report a murder of one of their family members when it means they have to deal with the enemy?  Even worse, if a gang is involved, it'll deal harshly with any family that implicates it or its members.  Simpler to just bury their dead, mourn as a family, then move on.  Again, I speak from experience, having dealt with rather a lot of such people.

If anyone tells you crime rates are down and big cities are safer, you know at once that they're either misinformed or lying.  Don't believe them.

Peter

A murder in Chicago has a somewhat unusual sequel.

Officials say a murder victim managed to shoot his killer before dying, and, after the murderer fled, a passerby took the victim’s gun, hunted down the killer, and shot some more.

. . .

Quijuan Lewis, a 20-year-old on parole for less than two months for a gun conviction, got out of a car and crouched behind a vehicle as the victim, 36-year-old Delegance Crawl, walked down the street, prosecutors said in a detention petition.

Crawl was walking and looking at his phone when Lewis jumped out from behind the vehicle and attacked him, the petition said. Lewis allegedly struck Crawl in the head with a gun multiple times as they fought on the street. Crawl eventually pulled out his own gun.

Ultimately, prosecutors say, Lewis shot Crawl in the back of the head. And Crawl shot Lewis in the leg. As Crawl lay gravely wounded, Lewis ran to a nearby gas station for help and stashed his gun in a potato chip display, according to police and prosecutors.

Back at the shooting scene, a passerby who has not been identified picked up Crawl’s gun from beside his motionless body and marched over to the gas station. They used Crawl’s gun to shoot Lewis “multiple” times in the buttocks and then ran away, officials said in court filings.

There's more at the link.

I can't figure out precisely what was the point in shooting the perpetrator multiple times in the ass, but I'm sure there's at least some sort of criminal logic in it . . . somewhere.  Just don't ask me where.

What I can't figure out is what the passerby's interest might have been.  Was he trying to avenge his friend's murder?  If so, he wasn't very successful.  In his shoes (if he wore any) I'd have picked a better target.  Was he just a local who's fed up with all the street crime?  If so, he merely added to it rather than solved the problem.  Was there some other reason?  If so, your guess is as good as mine.  (If the second shooter wanted to discourage criminals like Lewis, this will at least have the effect of making the latter a laughing-stock in whatever jail or prison he inhabits.  It's not every gangbanger who stashes his gun in a potato chip display, only to render himself defenseless against having his ass turned into a colander!  That sort of dumbassery demands real [lack of] talent.)

I'm afraid this is the dominant culture in large patches of the urban environment in America's large cities these days.  All I can say (as I've said often before) is, get out of them.  Now.  Because things are only going to get worse there - not better.

Peter

The gang violence currently convulsing Haiti is no accident.  It's the result of deliberate efforts by politicians to use the gangs for their own purposes - until the gangs decided they could do the same for themselves, without needing the politicians.

A 1990s embargo was imposed after the military overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The embargo and the international isolation devastated the country’s small middle class, said Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”

After a U.S.-backed U.N. force pushed out the coup's leaders in 1994, a World Bank-sponsored structural adjustment led to the importation of rice from the U.S. and devastated rural agricultural society, Deibert said.

Boys without work flooded into Port-au-Prince and joined gangs. Politicians started using them as a cheap armed wing. Aristide, a priest-turned-politician, gained notoriety for using gangsters.

In December 2001, police official Guy Philippe attacked the National Palace in an attempted coup and Aristide called on the gangsters to rise from the slums, Deibert said.

“It wasn’t the police defending their government’s Palais Nacional,” remembered Deibert, who was there. “It was thousands of armed civilians.”

“Now, you have these different politicians that have been collaborating with these gangs for years, and ... it blew up in their face,” he continued.

How did weak foreign intervention hurt Haiti?

Many of the gangs retreated in the face of MINUSTAH, a U.N. force established in 2004.

Rene Preval, the only democratically elected president to win and complete two terms in a country notorious for political upheaval, took a hard line on the gangs, giving them the choice to “disarm or be killed,” said Robert Fatton, professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia.

After his presidency, subsequent leaders were at best easy on the gangs and at worst tied to them, he said.

Fatton said every key actor in Haitian society had their gangs, noting that the current situation isn't unique, but that it has deteriorated at a faster pace.

“For the last the three years, the gangs started to gain autonomy. And now they are a power unto themselves,” he said, likening them to a “mini-Mafia state.”

“The autonomy of the gangs has reached a critical point. It is why they are capable now of imposing certain conditions on the government itself," Fatton said.

"Those who created the gangs created a monster. And now the monster may not be totally in charge, but it has the capacity to block any kind of solution,” he said.

There's more at the link.

Why is this reminiscent - and perhaps prescient - of the situation in Chicago, where youth gangs have been running amok for years?  Here are a few headlines from the past decade:

28 Arrested In Mob Attacks On Mag Mile, Red Line

As Chicago magazine pointed out more than a decade ago:  "In some parts of Chicago, violent street gangs and pols quietly trade money and favors for mutual gain. The thugs flourish, the elected officials thrive—and you lose."

A few months before last February’s citywide elections, Hal Baskin’s phone started ringing. And ringing. Most of the callers were candidates for Chicago City Council, seeking the kind of help Baskin was uniquely qualified to provide.

Baskin isn’t a slick campaign strategist. He’s a former gang leader and, for several decades, a community activist who now operates a neighborhood center that aims to keep kids off the streets ... In all, he says, he helped broker meetings between roughly 30 politicians (ten sitting aldermen and 20 candidates for City Council) and at least six gang representatives.

. . .

At some of the meetings, the politicians arrived with campaign materials and occasionally with aides. The sessions were organized much like corporate-style job fairs. The gang representatives conducted hourlong interviews, one after the other, talking to as many as five candidates in a single evening. Like supplicants, the politicians came into the room alone and sat before the gang representatives, who sat behind a long table. “One candidate said, ‘I feel like I’m in the hot seat,’” recalls Baskin. “And they were.”

The former chieftains, several of them ex-convicts, represented some of the most notorious gangs on the South and West Sides, including the Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Cobras, Black P Stones, and Black Gangsters. Before the election, the gangs agreed to set aside decades-old rivalries and bloody vendettas to operate as a unified political force, which they called Black United Voters of Chicago. “They realized that if they came together, they could get the politicians to come to them,” explains Baskin.

. . .

But in the end, as with most things political in Chicago, it all came down to one question, says Davis, the community activist who helped Baskin with some of the meetings. He recalls that the gang representatives asked, “What can you give me?” The politicians, most eager to please, replied, “What do you want?”

Again, more at the link.

And what's the result of all this?  The gangs flourish, street crime is rampant, and the police are effectively not allowed to do their job through being defunded, restricted and vilified by politicians and "community activists".  Examples:

Admittedly, Chicago's gang problem has not deteriorated to the same extent as Haiti's:  but it hasn't been solved, either.  That's partly because in years past, it was largely confined to a few inner-city suburbs where gangs effectively operated in a "safe haven" - police didn't go there unless they had to.  Now, the gang culture and violence that's permeated those areas is spilling over into the central business district and other areas, and the police have been so hamstrung by budget cuts and official sanctions that they simply can't control it.

Will Chicago become like Haiti?  Hopefully not, because the authorities will crack down before that occurs:  but given the evidence of the past decade or two, and political collusion with criminal gangs as described above, it's certainly not impossible.

Nor is Chicago alone.  Look at youth mobs and gang violence in other large US cities, particularly where "imported" gangs from South America have set up new bases after flooding across our southern border, thanks to the Biden administration's policies.  There are headlines about them on an almost daily basis in New York City and elsewhere.  Note, too, that many of Haiti's gangsters have made the same journey, bringing with them the same attitudes and ruthlessness they displayed there.

Haiti is not yet a predictive model for the USA . . . but it might become one for some of our inner-city ghettoes and adjacent areas, unless our politicians wake up and do something about it.  Trouble is, too many of those politicians are behaving like Haiti's, and viewing gangs as a resource to exploit.  That way lies chaos and anarchy.

Peter

I refer to Seismic High Mass Ammunition, which offers very-heavy-for-caliber rounds in 12ga. shotgun slugs and 9mm. cartridges.  Their slogan appears to be "Heavier Hits Harder".

I've often been asked by readers and other acquaintances what I think of ammunition for which better-than-standard and/or super-high performance is claimed.  There's the Glaser Safety Slug, the infamous (and discredited) RBCD Performance Plus ammunition, the impressively named R.I.P. rounds from G2, and a host of others.  Seismic joins a long line of companies who've claimed that their ammunition is significantly better than the norm for one reason or another.

Unfortunately, all of its predecessors have failed a simple acid test.  There are people out there - not just police, who are often budget-constrained, but special forces units, private security firms contracting to governments, and so on - who literally depend for their lives upon the performance of their weapons and ammunition.  It's not just the organizations, either:  it's their individual members, most of whom earn enough to buy whatever extra gear they want, and who aren't about to waste their own money on something that's all hat and no cattle.  To the best of my knowledge, none of these units and their individual members carry any of these "specialty" rounds, because they don't perform better than standard defensive ammunition when push comes to shove.  If they did, such purchasers would be all over them.  The fact that they're not tells its own story.

Some of these ammo manufacturers have made vague claims about "As used by special forces", or something like that:  but if you press them, to pin down exactly which special forces they're talking about, they evade the issue by saying that they're contractually forbidden from identifying them.  Yeah, right.  You can rest assured that operators "on the ground" would be talking about it to their buddies if they found some hot new technology that really worked.  The almost complete absence of such chatter says it all.

If you want to take guesswork out of the equation, the solution is simple.  Buy ammunition that's been tested and approved, and is currently issued, by major law enforcement agencies and/or major security organizations.  They know what they're doing, and they trust the lives of their members to the ammunition they buy.  That's not a bad litmus test for the rest of us, and is why I carry rounds like Federal's HST or Hornady's Critical Duty in my defensive handguns.  If I have to go to court over a defensive shooting, no lawyer will be able to allege that I bought super-enhanced-lethality ammo because I wanted to "blow away" his client.  No, I'll have used rounds that any police agency might use.  That will be a perfectly adequate defense against such claims.

Peter

We've all read the warnings about the number of young, military-age men pouring over our southern border.  We've also read reports that increasing numbers of gang members have been identified among them.  That reality now appears to be coming home to roost.

The Gun Free Zone blog sets the scene.

As a Miami boy, born in the 1980s, I am familiar with waves of Cuban migrants coming to the United States.

In 1980, Fidel Casto began to empty Cuban prisons and ship them with refugees to Florida.

He famously said, “I have flushed the toilets of Cuba in the United States.”

Today, it’s Venezuela that is flushing its toilets into the United States.

. . .

Venezuela’s currently president is Nicolas Maduro, former VP to Hugo Chavez, and Chavez was buddy-buddy with Castro.

It’s not at all difficult to understand how this situation came to be.

So it makes perfect sense that Venezuela’s violent crimes are dropping, because the violent criminals are here now.

The worst part is that half of the American government is on board with this policy, evident that they refuse to send these criminals back.

It’s only going to get worse.

There's more at the link.

The result is that Venezuela's largest criminal gang is now operating in several large US cities.  Recent headlines tell the story:

It's not only Venezuelan criminals, of course.  A Honduran migrant recently raped a 14-year-old girl at knife-point in Louisiana.  The local police complain they're having immense problems trying to control crime committed by migrants.

Kenner Police Department Chief Keith Conley also railed against illegal migrants committing crimes in the area and said they pose challenges for law enforcement for many reasons.

"Lack of access to data, false identification and language barriers put local law enforcement at a huge disadvantage," Conley said.

"We cannot verify if an illegal alien is giving correct information as it pertains to names and dates of birth. It is not only a drain on police manpower, but a financial drain on local law enforcement’s budgets and taxpayers' money."

"In a 25-day period, this illegal alien caused terror in our community. We are glad he is off our streets, but will he be back? Will he have a new identity? What other crimes has he committed since he crossed our borders?"

Again, more at the link.

Solomon is a military veteran and a law enforcement officer.  He points out:

Decisions have consequences and all this feel good, pussified, we are the world bull**** that has been pushed by those in power is leading to one thing.

Americans thought **** was bad?  They're about to be ravaged.  Not so much rural areas but most certainly the big cities.

You're about to see most American big cities turn into open air cesspools.

It will take a decade or more to round up and control some of the gangs and terrorist that have crossed.

My biggest fear?

The Army is about to cut its Special Operations personnel.  We're gonna need them.  Not for operations outside the country but INSIDE!  Many of these gangs are simply too well armed to be confronted with police tactics.  Some of the best SWAT units in the US will be overwhelmed.  

We're not gonna need force multipliers aiding local agencies against some of these creatures.  We're gonna need Ranger type capabilities.

What did you say?  You want me to get to the point?

We just allowed a counter insurgency type element to walk across the border and its gonna take a military response to bring order.

Chaos in the cities is coming.  No go zones are here and the middle class and poor are about to be ravaged.

Tough on crime is coming back in style but many will be killed, raped and terrorized before Washington DC even notices.

More at the link.

To my mind, the most dangerous aspect of this criminal migrant invasion is that it's going to force many Americans into a vigilante mindset.  Speaking about Muslim fundamentalist terrorist attacks in France in 2015, I wrote:

The reaction from ordinary people like you and I won't be to truly think about the tragedy, to realize that the perpetrators were a very small minority of those who shared their faith, extremists who deserve the ultimate penalty as soon as it can be administered.  No.  The ordinary man and woman on the streets of France is going to wake up today hating all Muslims.  He or she will blame them all for the actions of a few, and will react to all of them as if they were all equally guilty.

One can't blame people for such attitudes.  When one simply can't tell whether or not an individual Muslim is also a terrorist fundamentalist, the only safety lies in treating all of them as if they presented that danger.

More at the link.

Precisely the same consideration applies to the actions of criminal migrants.  It's simply not possible for us to tell which migrants are relatively decent people, and which are criminals:  therefore, the only sane approach in high-crime cities is going to be to treat all migrants as potential criminals unless and until they prove otherwise.  That's already happened with black inner-city residents.  I'm sure most of us have seen complaints from them that too many white people treat them as criminals, whether they are or not.  Unfortunately, they live in neighborhoods where criminal gangs flourish;  therefore, they're tarred with the same brush.  It's inevitable.

That way lies vigilante justice.  If our law enforcement agencies and officers are overwhelmed by criminal migrants, the people of our cities will take the law into their own hands.  As a result, innocent people are almost guaranteed to suffer.

Who is to blame?  Not the vigilantes - they're trying to protect their own lives, families and property.  No, the responsibility lies with those who allowed those criminals to pour unchecked across our borders.  Who will call them to account?

Peter

The announcement of Gaston Glock's death last week, at the age of 94, has brought forth a wave of obituaries and reminiscences about "the way things used to be" in the firearms industry.  Very few individuals can be said to have changed the way arms manufacturers designed, built and marketed their products.  Glock stands tall in the most illustrious of that group, including inventors such as John Moses Browning, Samuel Colt and Hiram Maxim.  He does so, not because he improved the technology in the market at the time, but because he drastically streamlined and improved the productivity of the industry.  Since then, no-one's looked back.

Glock got into semi-auto pistol manufacturing in 1980 when by chance, he overheard two Austrian Army officers discussing the bidding process for a new service sidearm.  Initially rebuffed by the military powers that be, because he'd never built a firearm before and they presumed him to be ignorant, he took his case to the Austrian Minister of Defense and gained permission to compete for the Army's handgun program.  He won the contest, and - over the next couple of decades - the worldwide handgun market as well.

"That I knew nothing [about guns] was my advantage," Mr. Glock said in an interview. He bought a number of handguns and disassembled them in his workshop, examining each component for its function while weighing potential improvements. He made prototypes and test-fired them with his left hand; if he was maimed by an explosion, he could still draw blueprints with his right. The product of his efforts was a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol that he designated the Glock 17 because it was his 17th invention.

Most notably, the frame of the new Glock pistol was built of industrial plastic, making it lighter and more resistant to corrosion than the conventional all-steel guns in use up to that time. The handgun's various parts were housed in separate subgroups, making them easy to remove and replace. There was no safety or decocking lever to confuse the user. (The safety was built right into the trigger.) All told, the Glock 17 was a revolutionary new version of a weapon that had remained largely unchanged for a century.

There's more at the link.

Glock was in the right place at the right time, with a thoroughly modern engineering approach to his work that defied older stereotypes.  While more "traditional" manufacturers made each of their successive models an improvement over their predecessor, never differing that much from their forebears, Glock was willing to ask every time, "Why should this be done like that?  Is there any good reason to uphold the status quo, or can we get rid of older, more time-consuming, more material-dependent processes and use modern engineering to come at the problem(s) in a completely new way?"  To everyone's surprise, asking that question was the key to the handgun market;  and Glock made very sure to grab hold of that key and retain it as long as he possibly could.  Today, his firm dominates the handgun industry, with many clones of his designs available worldwide.

I liked the Glock from the first time I handled one.  It was lighter than most of its early competitors, and had far fewer parts (34 of them in most full-size Glocks).  That's a major step forward in simplicity.  As one who'd seen combat in the worst terrain in Africa, where complex weapons systems tended to get chewed up and spat out by the surrounding landscape at the drop of a hat, I'd long been a believer in the old proverb, "Keep It Simple, Stupid!" (K.I.S.S.).  In my personal firearms today, I continue to maintain that perspective, which is why I own more Glocks than any other brand of pistol.  They may look and feel clunky compared to a race-tuned competition pistol, and lack all the little details that illustrate that a gun is a prized possession that's been "tweaked" to express its owner's pride of ownership;  but they've never let out a "Click" instead of a "Bang!" when failure was not an option.  That sort of reliability in a personal defense weapon is worth gold, and then some.

Well, Mr. Glock has now gone to his reward.  I wonder if he was met with an honor guard of Glock-toting angels at the Pearly Gates?  If ever a man deserved such an accolade, it's him.

Peter

I guess we could call it criminal karma - or no kar-ma, as the case may be.

The incident unfolded around 11 a.m. Saturday at the Hi Lo Check Cashing on Monaco Street in the Denver suburb of Commerce City.

While the masked bandits were busy looting the storefront, they ended up being on the receiving end of what the Commerce City Police Department gleefully described as an “unexpected and ironic twist.”

“A fourth criminal stole their getaway vehicle,” cops crowed in a Facebook post brimming with schadenfreude.

. . .

Two of the suspects in the armed robbery were quickly chased down and arrested by officers who raced to the scene. A third remained at large.

There's more at the link.

I'm reminded of the tale of the New York mafioso gang who carefully plotted, planned and schemed for months to steal a shipment of jewelry from a vendor in that city.  They duly carried out their heist and got clean away.  For safety, and to prevent any member of the gang selling his share of the jewelry too soon and thereby alerting the cops to his involvement, they stashed their loot in a private safe deposit box at one of the several facilities in New York City offering such services.  You can guess what happened . . . the following weekend, another mafioso gang cleaned out the safe deposit boxes after digging their way through a wall from a neighboring business into the vault.  I understand that several mafiosi met sticky ends over the following months as the first gang basically declared war on the second, and the latter retaliated.  I'm told it took high-level Mafia intervention to cool things down before matters got out of control.

Peter

I was disgusted and angry to read that the progressive-left District Attorney in Austin, Texas has dropped charges against 17 cops - after forcing them to live through a legal and financial hell for two years as he tried any and every way he could to prosecute them for merely doing their jobs.  In case you don't remember the incident, it was connected to the George Floyd-related riots all over the country.

The DA's case was always extremely weak, and he's obviously decided that he can't win in court.  He's now withdrawn the charges.

A progressive district attorney in Austin, Texas dropped indictments against 17 police officers involved in quelling Black Lives Matter riots in 2020 in a move Austin cops past and present tell Fox News Digital was a political smear from the beginning by a top prosecutor determined to demonize police regardless of the effect on the lives of law enforcement.

Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced Monday his office dismissed 17 indictments against police officers after a grand jury indicted 19 of them in February 2022 on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after non-lethal rounds were fired into the crowd.

“Our community is safer when our community trusts enforcement. When it believes law enforcement follows that law and protects the people who live here,” Garza said at the time. “There cannot be trust if there is no accountability when law enforcement breaks the law.”

The indictments were filed despite the officers being exonerated of wrongdoing by the Austin Police Department and critics of Garza, who is backed by liberal mega donor George Soros, pointed to his campaign promises to prosecute police officers and progressive ideology accusing him of launching a “war on cops.”

“This has nothing to do with justice, has nothing do with any wrongdoing,” Austin Police officer Justin Berry, one of the indicted officers who had his charges dropped last week, told Fox News Digital in 2022. “This is simply about politics and a political agenda that has taken place with these radical liberal district attorneys.”

There's more at the link.

Of course, there are many other police officers and agencies across the country who've had to face the same sort of politically motivated legal issues.  It's never been about justice, but about intimidating law enforcement agencies and personnel so that they don't interfere with "mob justice".

Who is going to compensate these officers for their legal expenses over the past two years?  Who is going to put right the damage done to their reputations in law enforcement circles?  Once an officer has been "tarred with the brush" of a criminal charge resulting from him doing his job, his professional future is in jeopardy, even if he's not actually tried or convicted.  Even a "not guilty" verdict, which should clear his yardarm completely, isn't good enough.  I have a friend who had to endure that ordeal, and was found not guilty;  but despite that, he still could not get an "honorable" retirement classification, because of the legal cloud still hanging over his head from the case.  To my mind, that's a miscarriage of justice, to put it mildly:  but there's nothing he can do about it.  It's disgusting.

I'm very glad this prosecution has collapsed . . . but there are others elsewhere in the country that are proceeding, or have resulted in officers being convicted of "offenses" or "crimes" that, IMHO, weren't crimes at all.  This is a plague we have yet to deal with effectively.  The sooner we find a solution to it, the better.

Peter

A surprising number of police departments and other security agencies are issuing warnings about Apple's new NameDrop feature in the latest version of its iPhone operating system.  Here, for example, is what the Oakland County Sheriff's Office in California had to say:

IPHONE PRIVACY INFORMATION

If you have an iPhone and have completed the recent iOS 17 update, they have set a feature called “NameDrop” to default to ON after completing the update.

This feature allows you to share your contact information by being next to another iphone. In that section, you can also limit who can be the recipient of your AirDrop.

To shut this off go to Settings, General, AirDrop, Bringing Devices Together. Change to OFF.

And yes, we know that it allows you to share it and you can refuse but many people do not check their settings and realize how their phone works.  This particular setting defaults to on rather than have you opt in. And again, it is the area where you also decide who can access AirDrop.

PARENTS:  Don’t forget to change these settings after the update on your children’s phones as well.

In response to all these warnings, multiple media and technology resources are claiming that the threat isn't as bad as it seems, and is being overblown.  However, I want to know why the feature is switched on in the first place.  Surely, if it was in any way concerned about security, Apple should have installed the new version of its operating system with the feature switched off, so that users would have to make an informed, conscious decision to turn it on, in full awareness of any security risk that might result?  That, to me, would be the mature, sensible way to do it.  However, I'm not Apple, and the company clearly doesn't see it that way.

Fortunately, I don't have to worry about this particular feature, because I don't use an iPhone.  However, I'm sure someone will bring out something similar for Android phones in the not too distant future . . . so all of us in the non-Apple cellphone universe should learn from this, and be on our guard.

Peter

Today's award goes to a woman in Indianapolis who screwed up her own hate crime.

IMPD officers arrested a woman, who they labeled a “terrorist,” after she drove her car into a building that she thought was a Jewish school.

. . .

Ruba Almaghtheh, 34, was arrested on a preliminary charge of criminal recklessness.

According to a police report obtained by FOX59/CBS4, police were called to the building around 11:30 Friday night to investigate a hate crime. Officers said Almaghtheh backed her car into the building while several adults and children were inside.  

Almaghtheh told officers she was watching news coverage of the Israel-Hamas war on television and decided to plan an attack on the building because she was offended by the “Hebrew Israelite” symbol on the front of the building.  

Police said Almaghtheh passed by the building a couple times and called it the “Israel school.”

IMPD said she made reference to “her people back in Palestine” and told officers, “Yes. I did it on purpose.” 

However, the Anti-Defamation League defines the Israelite School of Universal and Practical Knowledge as an “extreme and antisemitic” sect of the Black Hebrew Israelites. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Black Hebrew Israelites as a hate group.

There's more at the link.

According to Wikipedia, "In 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) listed the Black Hebrew Israelites as one of the 'black nationalist groups of concern', along with the Nation of Islam and others. The SPLC has also described the Black Hebrew Israelites as a hate group which supports racial segregation, Holocaust denial, homophobia, and promotes a race war, and as of December 2019, it 'lists 144 Black Hebrew Israelite organizations as black separatist hate groups because of their antisemitic and anti-white beliefs'."

A few days ago, a Jewish journalist posted video of a violent clash between Black Hebrew Israelite and pro-Hamas demonstrators, noting that "BHI believe they are the real Jews, and Jews like me are fake Khazarians.  Did not have this on my 2023 bingo card."  The BHI demonstrators weren't attacking the others to defend Israel, but because they regarded themselves as true Israelites and Israeli Jews as imposters and false believers.  It gets complicated.

Anyway, to get back to the original report, Ms. Almaghtheh apparently attacked the BHI building because she thought it was a Jewish property marked with a Jewish symbol.  In fact, she attacked an anti-semitic, racist, extremist group that appears to want to hurt Israel and Jews as much as she does.  Talk about a jihadi own goal!

Peter

A report from Sweden suggests that some people are no longer waiting for the authorities to act against serious crime.  It's been auto-translated into English.

A 26-year-old taxi driver from the Middle East was reported for rape against a 14-year-old girl – and then found hanged in a nature reserve. Now the girl, her boyfriend and three of his brothers are suspected of the very troublesome murder, which according to the prosecutor had the character of "an execution".

The events began in February this year when the then 15-year-old girl reported that the taxi driver had raped her when she was 14.

On March 26, a taxi was found abandoned, overflowing and with the taximeter in progress on a parking at Hjälstaviken nature reserve in Enköping municipality north of Stockholm.

On April 1, the taxi driver – was found hung in a tree 500 meters from the car.

The police quickly turned their attention to the now accused youth. All young people refuse crime except the girl who admits that she attracted the man to the place – but only because he was beaten.

. . .

All the defendants deny crimes, but the evidence includes mast connections from mobile phones and DNA traces.

On a jacket, DNA was found from both the taxi driver and one of the brothers.

There's more at the link.

That's what happens when the authorities can't or won't act against criminals, particularly unwanted alien intruders (of which Sweden has an outsize proportion among its population).  It's not limited to Sweden by any means.  Friends, acquaintances and contacts of mine in law enforcement around these parts, ranging from Oklahoma City to Dallas/Fort Worth and from Amarillo to Texarkana, have all reported "unintended consequences" of crimes, sometimes fatal for the criminals, other times just very, very painful and/or impoverishing.  I'd say I've heard of at least a couple of dozen occurrences over the past year or two, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

When police will no longer respond to a crime because it's too "minor" for them to bother about, or because they're too busy elsewhere, or because it's politically incorrect to make a fuss about certain crimes and/or perpetrators . . . people will take it upon themselves to act.  The authorities don't like that, and will doubtless threaten dire consequences, but it's already happening and it's going to go on happening.  After all, if those same authorities ignore the rule of law and the provisions of our constitution by encouraging (and even paying for) massive alien invasion, they shouldn't be surprised when the crimes committed by those aliens (an increasing proportion of them, I'm told) attract consequences that also ignore the law and the constitution.  One good (?) turn deserves another, and all that sort of thing.

Of course, I don't approve of such doings and I don't recommend that readers of this blog should act that way.  Nevertheless, it's still going to happen.  For the authorities to think they can stop it by issuing severe warnings and passing yet more laws and regulations against it is utter folly.  People will do whatever they need to do to ensure their security.  It's been that way for generations, and it's not about to change.

It's very telling that many governments and their agencies are coming down more and more in favor of evil, and against good, in defiance of their citizens.  It's not just about crime - it's about every aspect of our lives.  Neil Oliver asks:  "Who are we and what is it we truly care about?"

Those are very good questions.  Highly recommended viewing.

Peter

... because the pattern of your future there became clear last night (if it wasn't already so - it should have been on the basis of past events).  Some of the headlines this morning:

Widespread Mass Looting Overnight in Philly

Absolute Pandemonium Broke Out in Philly Last Night

Some are already claiming that this was in "response" to the dismissal of charges against a police officer for the shooting of a black man a while back.  I understand that, notwithstanding the court's action, the Soros-backed progressive-left District Attorney will appeal it, and may refile charges.  Allow me to show you my shocked face that a DA would ignore a judicial ruling like that, if it didn't agree with his politics.  Faced with a judicial system like that, and knowing that they are in the politically-inspired sights of the system every time they go on patrol, and having to deal with a breakdown in law and order like last night (not to mention inner-city urban society in general), I can't for the life of me imagine why any police officer remains on duty in Philadelphia.  In their shoes, I wouldn't be.

I don't buy the "in response" line at all.  From the reports linked above, this was a well-organized action, including arrangements being made before and during the event(s) on social media;  "teens" (?) congregating in parking lots to plan their next move(s);  and registration plates being removed from cars, to make it more difficult to track their movements and link them to specific crimes.  Those aren't the actions of spontaneous protesters.  The judicial ruling may have provided a convenient pretext, a sort of social fig-leaf, for the looters, but it's clear they were acting, not reacting.  I'm sure this event was pre-planned, awaiting only a suitable occasion to launch it.

I've already noted a couple of reactions along the lines of "Well, that's the city center for you - but if you stay out of it, and don't go there unless you absolutely have to, and stay in your nice safe suburb, you won't be affected."  Folks, I have news for you.  Throughout this country, companies and corporations in the city centers are suffering due to crime, and closing stores hand over fist, and moving their offices to safer, cleaner, more salubrious locations.  Crime isn't the only factor in the latter decision, but it's a big contributor.  Do your own search for relevant news reports in your area.  If it's affecting companies and employers like that, what makes you think it won't affect you?

Here's another selection of headlines, all of them from this blog, and all in 2023.  I presume most readers have already seen them:  if not, I recommend them to your attention.

I can't say it too strongly. GET OUT OF "BLUE" BIG CITIES. NOW.

The dangers of big "blue" cities from a different perspective

Remember what I said about big "blue" cities?

Yet another Big Blue City crime warning

The danger of big cities: How can I put it any more strongly?

Here's how that last article ends.  Emphasis in original.

Folks, what more evidence can I advance to persuade you?  The reality is as plain and easy to see as the nose on your face.  If you live in almost any large American city today, but particularly those in "blue" states, governed by liberal progressive administrations, or already facing serious problems with poverty, crime, violence and racial tensions, you need to leave.  Now.  If you don't, and you run headlong into those problems as they escalate, it's on your own head - nobody else's.

I've heard all the excuses, and I'm sure they're real to many people:  but this boils down to a simple, existential pair of questions.  What's your life worth?  What are the lives of your spouse, children, etc. worth?

The answer is up to you, and the solution is in your hands.  Don't expect the government to provide one, because it's largely caused the problems to begin with. 

In his science fiction books, the late Robert A. Heinlein predicted what he called "the crazy years" when society broke down, and anarchy, fanaticism and criminality took over.  I think he was more prophetic than fictional - because we're living in them now, mostly in our big cities as yet, but increasingly all over our country.

Peter

As we've reported many times in these pages, our big cities are becoming overrun with crime and violence.  The latest report highlights Chicago, but much the same can be said of many other large, left-wing-run cities.

The decision to commit a crime in Chicago has never been easier. Criminals are almost guaranteed to profit because the chances of getting caught and punished have collapsed to near-zero. 

It’s a big reason why the city is on target to hit a post-pandemic high in major crimes in 2023, currently up 32 percent vs. last year. It’s also why crime is unlikely to slow down significantly any time soon. Mayor Brandon Johnson doesn’t show any signs of imposing a higher cost on the city’s criminals. And Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans haven’t changed their soft approach to crime either.

The math is pretty straightforward. A demoralized, restricted police force. Plus a 1 in 20 arrest rate. Plus a high rate of unreported crime. Plus a dismal 911 response rate. Plus a city leadership that’s soft on crime. All that equals a near-zero chance of criminals ever getting punished.

Not until the costs of committing crime go way up – and the equation changes – will Chicagoans see any relief. 

The chance of getting arrested in Chicago for a major crime collapsed to just 5 percent in 2022. It was already a low 10 percent just four years ago.

More than 68,000 major crimes were reported in Chicago last year. Only 3,228 of them resulted in arrests.

The arrest rate for criminal sexual assault? Just 3 percent. Ditto for Motor Vehicle Thefts. Burglaries were at only 4 percent and Robberies, 5 percent.

For thefts over $500, the chance of getting busted is even lower, at just 1 percent. There were just 201 arrests out of 20,041 crimes reported last year. And you’ll avoid arrest 96 times out of 100 across any form of theft, which The New York Times recently reported. 

It gets even better for Chicago criminals. The above data is just for crimes that are actually reported. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that nationally in 2019, “Only 40.9% of violent crimes and 32.5% of household property crimes were reported to authorities.” So the real chance of getting caught is even lower than the 5 percent.

There's more at the link.

If I lived in or near Chicago, I'd have moved already rather than subject myself to that danger.  As for other cities, I'll let news headlines speak for themselves.  Over just the past 24 hours, these reports have featured in just one newspaper:

Cops let suspect walk in heinous caught-on-camera NYC subway beating of 60-year-old woman

RIP Beverly Hills: Video shows high-end retail stores now shuttered amid LA crime wave

Short-staffed Austin police urge robbery victims not to call 911 as crime ravages city

I'm sure readers can supply many more such headlines on demand.  The problem is ALL OVER America.

So what do we do about it?  John Wilder has some basic ideas, covering not just crime but also other social ills.

If mobs are ruling the streets of San Francisco or Chicago or Malmo, the solution isn’t to study the problem with a commission.  The solution is to make crime much more uncomfortable than the reward for committing the crime.

That solution to stopping crime will involve dead criminals.  Oddly, it takes less to keep criminals in line than to stop criminality, but the solution almost always involves Rooftop Koreans and bar owners with very short shotguns and prosecutors that don’t prosecute good and honest people stopping crime.

If the problem is illegals flooding the southern border, the only actual solution is to make living in the United States a living hell for illegals.  I assure you, if sufficient pressure was applied, the illegals would deport themselves in weeks.

Have an anchor baby?  Fine.  It goes into an orphanage or with foster parents.  Illegals have to leave.  Something tells me the parents will pack up the kids as they head out.

Brought here as a young child and the United States is the only country they’ve ever known?  Not my problem.  They have to go back.

Drugs?  Simple solution.  I’ll leave that one to you.

Illegitimate kids?  Remove spousal support and child support and welfare.  Illegitimate kids will cease in a year and the baby-daddy with 20 different baby-mommas will disappear while those baby-mommas cease to have sex randomly.  Or, if they do?  They have to suffer the consequences.

What about the kids?  Yeah, heard it.  Don’t care.  It’s that sort of forced compassion that destroys nations, turns them into countries, and eventually leads to Balkanization.

I’m right and every person reading this knows it.

The wonderful part is that these solutions will take place.  Sadly, because the room is getting warmer, these solutions will take place only when the discomfort is so high that it will be unpleasant for all concerned.

Again, more at the link.

Mr. Wilder is right, of course - but the powers that be will never adopt his suggestions, because they're not politically correct.  Therefore, those of us who care about our country are probably going to have to do something about them ourselves, just as the famous "Rooftop Koreans" did in Los Angeles during the 1992 Rodney King riots.  (Language warning:  there are a few F-bombs towards the end of the video below.)

So, what to do about the mess we're in?  Brandon Smith suggests a way forward.

Say you are starting a “neighborhood watch” and people listen with an open mind. Say you are starting a militia, and people see images of fat rednecks playing Batman in the woods with their buttcracks hanging out (rednecks are some of my favorite people, by the way). They shut down immediately, and they might not even know why. It’s because they have been trained to react this way.

. . .

The reason the modern establishment media has been so hostile to the militia concept is because they fear patriot organization more than anything else. They want people isolated from each other, focused only on their own preparedness efforts but constantly vulnerable due to their limited ability to project defense or offense. If you are alone, your circle of security is your house and your front door – you are doomed. If you are part of a militia, your circle of security is your town, or your county, or perhaps even your entire state. You now have a chance to survive and stay free.

. . .

Militias need to exist whether they are approved or not. Cooperation at the state or county level should be pursued, but this is dependent on the honor of that particular local government. If they are not cooperative and are not honorable then citizens will have to organize anyway.

. . .

If a state government is not willing to back legally recognized militias, then it may be possible to organize at the county level. I would even say that the first county government to do this will start a firestorm and hundred of other counties will follow their example. All it takes is one to step forward. The same goes for state militias.

What would be the purpose of these militias? To act as a deterrent to forces with ill intent, first and foremost. We cannot allow the federal government and establishment elites to hold a monopoly on the ability to project power. If we do, then the country will be enslaved. And though I have faith in the power of asymmetric tactics, the 50 million+ gun owners now active in the US could be far more effective if they were working together to utilize those tactics. They would certainly offer a much more imposing obstacle to the elites.

Deterrence is the best possible defense. When that fails, better to have friends than to be alone.

Secondly, there is ample defense training going on all over America and there are millions of serious shooters here. Dare I say, there are more serious shooters here than in all other countries combined. And by “serious shooters” I mean skilled and dangerous shooters that can do extensive damage to an enemy. However, there is virtually no large unit training going on right now; everything is aimed at personal defense and sometimes small unit tactics. Militias would be useful in teaching Americans how to fight as a larger force if necessary.

Of course, that would be “paramilitary training” and that would be “bad,” but who cares? The optics are becoming less and less important as the system degrades and crisis rises. Finally, I think it’s time to draw the line in terms of the course our country is going, and establishing militias is a solid way to send a message.

More at the link.

I've said many times that in order to survive in a crime-ridden, insecure environment, we need to stand together with friends and family.  It's very hard for one couple (particularly with children) to prevent a home invasion or similar assault.  It's not nearly so hard if a couple of friends join in, and if all of the adults know what they're doing to ensure domestic security.  The same comes to evacuating trouble spots, or preventing rioters destroying part of your town.  Working together to survive beats dying alone, every time.  (I've buried enough friends and acquaintances in Africa over the years to be quite certain of that.  I carry a few scars to remind me of it if ever I should be in danger of forgetting the lesson.)

I can only suggest (very strongly!) that you, dear reader, take stock of your own situation, make contact with friends, family and acquaintances in your area, and discuss how to protect yourselves, your families and your property as the security situation deteriorates and crime increases.  In almost all our big cities, and increasingly in other areas too, you can no longer trust the authorities to do what's necessary to deal with crime and violence.  It's going to come down to you.

If the need arises, be ready, willing, equipped, trained and able to become a Rooftop Korean at a moment's notice.  You may have to.

Peter