Double Jeopardy in Los Angeles

LAPD Morale Collapses to ‘Record Low’

‘It’s Simply Not Worth It Any Longer’

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart News

Morale within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is currently at a “record low,” thanks to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and the vilification of police by local politicians.  Robert Harris, the director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told CBS Los Angeles that officers feel “beaten” and “bruised” by the ongoing protests.

That was corroborated by a Breitbart News source within the LAPD, who said: “Morale across the rank-and-file is at a record low. Especially out on the street in patrol. We have been vilified and abandoned by the mayor, all but three of the city council members, as well as many business owners and residents of the city of Los Angeles.”

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced at the height of the riots in early June — with the National Guard on the streets — that he would be cutting the LAPD budget by up to $150 million, answering calls from activists to “defund the police.”  The following week, police officers learned they would not be paid overtime for the additional hours they spent on the streets calming the protests and riots.

The result: many police have effectively given up fighting crime.

Letter From the UK (On Crime in England)

England Policing Crisis

Crime Up 13 Per Cent, Rape up 22 Per Cent, Just One in Nine Burglaries Solved

Jack Montgomery
Breitbart London

Police recorded crimes for England and Wales surged to over five million over the last year, according to a new Office for National Statistics (ONS) bulletin.  Britain’s official statistical institute reports a 13 per cent increase in crime in the year ending June 2017, with the total number of offences surpassing five million for the first time a decade.

Violent crime appears to have increased even more sharply, with some of the headline figures including:

• 1,229,260 offences of violence against the person, an increase of 19 per cent on the previous year
• 129,700 sexual offences, an increase of 19 per cent on the previous year
• 45,100 rapes, an increase of 22 per cent on the previous year
• 36,998 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument, an increase of 26 per cent on the previous year
•  6,696 offences involving firearms, an increase of 27 per cent on the previous year — despite draconian controls on legal gun-ownership
• Non-violent crime also appears to be on the increase, with burglary up 6 per cent, theft from the person up 11 per cent,  shoplifting up 11 per cent, and vehicle-related crime up 17 per cent.

Clear-up rates are also extremely poor for some offences, with just one burglary in ten resulting in “a suspect being identified”.

"It Won't Happen Again"-- Really?

Breathtakingly Bad

For several years we have appreciated the George Gently crime series produced in the UK.  Set in the 60's in the north of England the attitudes of many police, as portrayed in successive series, seem to belong to a dim dark age.  It gives the viewer some comfort because the (soft) implication is that the attitudes reflected by some police characters in that series belong to the past.  Modern policing (it is implied) has moved way beyond such practices and attitudes.

It is a "comfort" that ought not be held.  Some recent instances and cases have come to light which paint a less soporific picture.  How much has changed for the better?  Really changed?.

The Guardian reports on a concluded review of  how West Yorkshire police and other social authorities "handled" the recent grooming and sexual exploitation of a child.  It is grim stuff.  

Police and social services in West Yorkshire were guilty of “a serious systematic failure” to safeguard a vulnerable girl who was groomed and raped by at least 13 men, an investigation has found.  A serious case review by the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board found insufficient steps were taken to protect the girl from exploitation.

Known by the pseudonym Autumn, the girl was 12 when she was assessed by the children’s charity Barnados as being at high risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE). At that point, in July 2010, she had gone missing twice from her home in Keighley, near Bradford, and had received texts and phone calls from much older, unknown men.  The review said West Yorkshire police held the belief that children such as Autumn were “actively consenting and choosing to become involved” with the men.

Although members of Autumn’s family suspected she was being exploited it was not until July 2012 that police began to actively investigate her abusers.

Soft-Despotism Hardening Up

When Sins are Criminalised

We were staggered to learn that at least one police force in the UK--Nottinghamshire Police--does not have enough to do.  The word is that Mr Plod in the 'shire is sitting in the station twiddling his thumbs, challenged with an acute case of boredom, and wondering if he should pursue another calling
But his inventive superiors, always looking for ways to keep the force busy, have come up with a doozy.  Whistling is about to be criminalised.  That will mean a whole new line of work for Mr Plod and his indolent colleagues.  Whistling in public, apparently, is one manifestation of misogyny.  And, let's be clear, misogyny is a haaaaate crime!

A police force has become the first in Britain to recognise misogyny as a hate crime, in an effort to make the county a safer place for women.  Nottinghamshire Police is recording incidents such as wolf-whistling, street harassment, verbal abuse and taking photographs without consent within the hate crime definition.  It also includes unwanted sexual advances, uninvited physical or verbal contact and using mobile phone to send unwanted messages.  [NZ Herald]

At this point we need to send out a warning to all the gypsy rovers in Nottinghamshire.  No whistling within the auditory orbit of any female--lest you be charged with a hate crime.

Theatre of the Absurd

Idleness is the Devil's Workshop

One of the strangest phenomena to emerge in our generation is the vast overreach of national governments to the point of believing they can police the whole world.  A pick pocket relieves a tourist of his wallet in Rio.  The British police issue a warrant for his arrest, and gets geared up to prosecute the perp, should they ever get their hands on him.  The British metropolitan police have become gendarmes of the world, for the world, and over the world.  

How have such bizarre beliefs and actions come about?  They are an expression of global Humanitarianism, an ideology which holds that all mankind are under the same law and accountable to it.  Alleged war criminals in Bosnia or Africa, once arrested, are hauled off to the Hague to be tried.  These overreaching claims of law and justice surely undermine the concept of sovereign nation states.  They also assert an implied doctrine, a suppressed premise--namely, that there is one law that governs all men, cultures, nations and to which all men are subject.

In a more Christian era, such a claim of universal law would have been instantly recognised as a reference to the law of Almighty God, the Ten Commandments.  But in our secular world, God has been replaced by Man, in semi-divinised form.  There is a universal law, and universal jurisprudence and it is the Law of Man.  The British police are servants apparently, not of the citizens of Great Britain, but of global Humanitarianism.  

Consequently it strikes us as bizarre that the British metropolitan police are summoning an Israeli politician for questioning on suspicion of war crimes.

Very Thankful to Live in New Zealand

The Bigger Picture

There are some good things about living in New Zealand.  One of them is the way the police handle the kind of situation which unfolded this week near Kawerau.  In an armed standoff, four police were injured by gunfire.  The alleged perpetrator had holed himself up in a house.  It took nearly 24 hours to get the guy out and surrender.

There are plenty of places in the world where, once police confirmed that the gunman was alone, the house and the gunman would have been shot to pieces.  An experienced (now retired) police negotiator described the process and disciplines applied.

Former police negotiator and detective Lance Burdett spoke to Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning about the siege and how police were handling it.  The alleged gunman has now been arrested and the siege is over.

He said police procedure for this type of incident is trained around the world - it's called Cordon, Contain and Appeal (CCA).  "There will be attempts made to contact him through all sorts of mediums, whether it's through loudhailer to get him to talk on the phone - that's the ultimate, to get him talking on the phone. Use of social media - if that's available, they'll be doing that. Any way of getting him to communicate."

Mr Burdett, who is now a negotiator instructor, said things could "turn on a knife edge" during situations like this.  "People are so unpredictable, particularly when they're emotional. So it's a bit like 50 per cent of murderers in prison are from domestic related incidents - ordinary people just suddenly snap and change."

Allegations of Institutional Evil, Part II

Get the Facts, Then Name and Shame

Rotherham sex grooming and ‘corrupt’ public sector’s collective guilt

Bill Carmichael
Yorkshire Post

THERE was some good news this week when six of the vile monsters behind the Rotherham child abuse scandal were convicted for their crimes. They will be sentenced later today.

Some of the victims were in Sheffield Crown Court to hear the jury’s verdict and see their tormenters finally face justice, after years of being ignored or branded as liars by the authorities.

But before we hang out the bunting it is worth remembering that this is just the tip of the iceberg. A 2014 report by Professor Alexis Jay made it clear that Rotherham’s child rape gangs had acted with impunity for decades and there is likely to be in the region of 1,400 victims in this one Yorkshire town alone.



Professor Alexis Jay unearthed the scale of abuse in Rotherham.

By that reckoning there must be dozens – if not hundreds – of offenders walking free today.

And let us also not forget that significant figures – not least police officers and social workers who actively colluded in the abuse – were missing from their rightful place in the dock of the court.

Ugly Thugs and Supine British Police

"Stop Being a Crusader"

Below is a story from the UK which is deeply disturbing on two counts.  The first is yet another manifestation of Islam--that grand religion of peace, according to our politicians--dealing to an ex-Islamic Christian convert.  The second issue is the complicity of the police and other UK authorities in the crimes. 

British Christian Brutally Beaten Outside Home By Muslim Neighbours Who Labelled Him a ‘Blasphemer’

By Donna Rachel Edmunds

Breitbart London

A British Christian man has been attacked on the streets of Bradford, England, by men wielding a pickaxe handle – because he converted from Islam to Christianity over a decade ago. The attack is the latest incident in a long campaign of violence and intimidation directed against the man and his family, who have been labelled “blasphemers” by their Muslim neighbours.

Father of six Nissar Hussain was brutally beaten by two hooded thugs outside his home in Mannigham in an unprovoked attack, at about 5pm on Tuesday, suffering a broken kneecap, a fractured forearm and a concussion. Police have confirmed that they are investigating the incident as a targeted attack and a religious hate crime.

The violent beating was captured on Mr Hussain’s own CCTV, set up in response to a sustained campaign of intimidation wielded against the family over the last few years.

Justice Denied

Police Corruption In the UK

Doubtless for all of us there are some things which set the blood to boil.  Here is one of ours.  We despise the "perp walk" where the presumed guilty are paraded in public, before the media, to have their arrest or interrogation blazoned across the skies.  The Americans have made a fine art of this spectacle employed when a public figure has been apprehended. Let none doubt that the presumption of innocence until proven guilty is long gone.

The UK police have adopted similar practices.  Remember the "tip off" from the police to the media that singer, Cliff Richards's home was about to be raided.  (Richards was absent at the time.)  But the media had a helicopter in the sky to record it all.  Recently it was a New Zealander who suffered under their corrupt behaviour.  Mils Muliaina is a famous All Black--at least in rugby circles.  However, recently his name has been dragged through the mud because of the UK version of the "perp walk".  He was arrested at the conclusion of a rugby game in which he had played and charged with sexual assault.  "Naturally" the TV cameras were present to record the arrest.  Mmmm.  We wonder how the Repeaters knew that was going to go down.

Sexual assault is a charge which covers a broad spectrum of activity.

Police Doing Their Lawful Duty

Some Good Apples Remain in the Barrel

We have been following various stories emanating from the UK in which authorities turned a blind eye to gross evils and crimes.  Rotherham has become a by-word for criminal negligence on the part of the police, the local councils, and bureaucrats.

But this malaise is, thankfully, not yet universal in Britain.  Consider the following story:

The Reign of the PR Meisters

Getting Away With Horrendous Crime For Years

The fruits of Unbelief, nurtured in self-sufficient "we know best" delusions, are devastating.  The curses of the Covenant are never pretty, never noble, never nice.  We have followed the horrible story of authorities in various English towns and boroughs turning Nelson's eye to horrific, systemic crime because they feared being labelled racist or of being accused of exacerbating community tensions.

Behold the cowardly inversion of the childhood proverb: "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me."  In our rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ, the rotten fruits of Unbelief have made words or labels hurtful--so much so that it is better to witness the vulnerable being tormented with far worse than with sticks and stones, than risk being defamed as a racist.  Cowardice is ever the mark of the Enemy.

Police Withheld Child Grooming Gang Report For Five Years For Fear Of Stoking Racial Tension

by Sarkis Zeronian
BretibartLondon

West Midlands Police withheld a report warning that more than 100 predominantly white children – some only 13 years old – were at serious risk of child exploitation for fear it could inflame racial tension ahead of a General Election. It was finally revealed today, under the Freedom of Information Act, that Britain’s second largest police force withheld the March 2010 document – ‘Problem Profile, Operation Protection’ – which set out how grooming gangs of 75 mainly Muslim men from Birmingham targeted schools and children’s homes across the West Midlands.

Policing in the UK

Systemic Failures

It would seem that policing in the UK is a dog's breakfast, and even that's putting it kindly.  We have been shocked by revelations of British police systematically ignoring horrendous crimes and criminal gangs out of political correctness and the values of multi-culturalism.  Apparently the grooming and systematic rape of young girls is a traditional cultural practice in Pakistan, so British police have turned a blind eye to its manifestation in the UK.

But the problems are far deeper and more systemic than we might realise.  The first problem is the prejudice against preventive policing in favour of "fire-brigade policing" (by which we mean attending actual crimes in progress).  Preventative policing now has enormous bureaucratic hurdles.  Take, for example, the bureaucratic morass that clings to the simplest prevention policing action--the issuing of a caution to a petty offender.

More Faux Outrage

Appalling Ignorance.  Beyond Appalling.

A local blogger posted the following fulmination:

UK Police lose the plot

February 12th, 2015 at 7:00 am by David Farrar The Independent reports:

A police force was forced to apologise today after one of its officers told a newsagent to hand over the names of four people in the name of community cohesion, after they bought a commemorative edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Wiltshire police confirmed that it had deleted the names of the buyers from its system, which were collected after officers toured shops warning newsagents to be vigilant during an “assessment of community tensions” in the sleepy market town following the attacks in the French capital in January.

Appalling. Beyond appalling. You buy Charlie Hebdo and the UK Police put you on a watch list. The Police officers in question should transfer to Saudi Arabia.

Hat Tip: No Right

Sounds really bad.  That's the way the media portrayed it in the UK.  But here is the Wiltshire Police statement:

Enlightened Policing

Citizens in Uniform

There are some encouraging signs coming from the NZ Police.  Over the Christmas break, the NZ Police Commissioner, Mike Bush was quoted in the NZ Herald, saying:

Behind the scenes, we have transformed the way we work. We have put preventing crime and meeting the needs of victims at the forefront of everything police do, with outstanding results.

These include a 20.1 per cent reduction in recorded crime in the past five years, meaning tens of thousands of people were spared the trauma of becoming victims. That's what New Zealand Police is all about.  And we have revolutionised the way our people work by issuing our frontline with smartphones and tablets loaded with customised apps to allow them to spend more time in their communities and less time at the office doing paperwork. On the streets is where they can make the most difference.

Granted this is a PR piece.  But it does underscore some important policing principles.  These include:

• The importance of crime prevention.
• Being victim focused.
• The importance of community and neighbourhood policing
• A constant presence on the streets.

We are sure that much more needs to be done.  One thing stands out: historically, the police force came into existence in the UK as an extension of the public's fundamental role and duty in policing their own neighbourhoods.  The police received their powers from the public, not the state.  Wherever that fundamental reality is lost, the police become more and more ineffectual, and crime soars.

Letter from NZ (About Stupid Offensive Bureaucratic Policing)

Police erode public faith with zero tolerance zeal 

Stuff
Karl Du Fresne
9th Janury, 2015 

Human nature is a perverse thing. It consistently thwarts all attempts to coerce us into behaving the way bureaucrats, politicians and assorted control freaks think we should.

Take the road toll. Since early December New Zealanders have been subjected to a ceaseless barrage of police propaganda about the futility of trying to defy speed and alcohol limits.  Stern-looking police officers have been in our faces almost daily, warning that zero tolerance would be shown to lawbreakers. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found their lecturing increasingly tiresome and patronising.

Of course the police can claim the best possible justification for all this finger-wagging: it's about saving lives. But what was the result? The road toll for the holiday period was more than double those of the previous two years. For the full year, the toll was up by 44 on the record low of 2013.  The figures suggest that people crash for all manner of reasons, and that the emphasis on speed and alcohol is therefore simplistic. 

[We are not sure that the focus upon speed and alcohol should be regarded as simplistic.  Ex-post facto examination of all fatal crashes are reported to demonstrate that they are they all-too-often causal factors.  But it is how the police focus upon these that needs to be rethought.  The artificial reductions in alcohol intake, the bureaucratic methods of testing and deployment, and the facile statistical targeting are all counter-productive, as Du Fresne points out.   Ed.]

The police focus on speed and booze because these are easy targets, and when the road toll comes down they can take the credit. In the ideal world envisaged by ever-hopeful bureaucrats, wayward citizens can be managed much as sheep are controlled by heading dogs. But people will never be harangued into driving safely; human nature is just too contrary.

The Glories of Post-Christian Britain

Multi-culturalism, Orwellianism, Censorship and Neo-Criminalism

James Bloodworth

The Independent

Thursday 1 January 2015

At some point saying “offensive” things online stopped being a social faux pas and became a potentially criminal act.

Dare to be rude about the wrong person or group and, in a bad parody of Erich Honecker’s East Germany, you could hear the knock on the door in the middle of the night and be dragged off to some dreary police cell for questioning.

I exaggerate of course, but not much: around 20,000 people in Britain have been investigated in the past three years for comments made online, with around 20 people a day being looked into by the forces of the law, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The overused Orwellian cliché has finally become the reality: Big Brother in the form of an overzealous and under regulated police force really is watching you. As Police Scotland terrifyingly informed us this week, “Please be aware that we will continue to monitor comments on social media and any offensive comments will be investigated.”

The Madness of the UK Elites

Culturally Sensitive Policing

In the United Kingdom this past year systemic abuse and extreme criminal acts over a long period of time have come to light, yet the police and local council officials have turned a blind eye and ignored them.  Some have warned darkly that what has come to light is the tip of a vast iceberg.  If you have not caught up with the explosive revelations, take a look at reports about Rotherham. 

The question is, how could this come to pass?  While the causes are always multi-form it would appear that a large contributing factor is the sea-change that took place in the UK police force fifteen or so years ago.  As a result of the Macpherson Report into the apparently racially motivated slaying of  Stephen Lawrence the police were officially required to become racist in their approach to community policing and crime.  We mean, of course, they were required to apply a filter of "multi-cultural sensitivities" to crime.  Race was mandated as a filter in apprehending and detecting crime.

First of all, let's define racism.  The Macpherson Report helpfully provided its definition:

A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person. [Maitland Report, p.376]

No doubt, dear reader, you have just fallen off your chair. Racist incidents take place whenever anyone perceives they have.  This bizarre claim was to become part of police and government procedures.  But worse, the police had to take race (that is, the cultures of different races) into account when policing.

Nanny Bloomberg Unmasked

The Witch Who Eats Children

Nanny Bloomberg, when he was mayor of  New York, was always hectoring folk to make them healthy, wealthy and wise.  Nanny passed lots of laws banning things like sugar--all in the effort to prevent people from living in ways that Nanny did not approve.  "It was for their own good," he said, as he departed for fresh pastures and campaigns.

Most New Yorkers, who love the Nanny State, thought that Bloomie was an all-round good guy.  He cared, that's why he passed all these laws telling us when to eat and drink and what profile our noses should assume as we breath the no-longer-free air.  He loves us. 

Except that now Nanny Bloomberg's mask has been stripped off.  He is exposed as an evil witch who kills and eats children.  Eric Garner was choked to death by the New York police whilst being arrested.  For what was he arrested, you ask?  For breaking one of Nanny Bloomberg's laws.  He was selling cigarettes on the street, free of Bloomberg's onerous, prohibitive taxes.  He was a criminal, said the police.  He had a record.  He had been arrested previously 31 times.  For what?  Murder?  Rape? Theft?  No.  He had been arrested 31 times for selling "illegal" cigarettes.  For that he deserved to die. 

you will never see fascism like a liberal trying to collect taxes.

May we suggest that instead of a criminal, Mr Garner was--in some senses--a patriot.  Here is Douglas Wilson's take on the matter:

Letter From the UK (About the Ferguson Race Riots)

A black president couldn’t stop the Ferguson race riots 

Tim Stanley
The Telegraph
August 17, 2014 

Violence continues in Ferguson, Missouri. It began on August 9 with the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager cut down by a white cop’s bullets. Peaceful demonstrations turned into looting, the local police went in with rubber bullets and tear gas, all hell broke loose and, eventually, Missouri’s governor pulled out the local police and sent in state officers instead. But the rioting only paused; it didn’t cease. And it may continue. That’s probably because it’s driven by a deep, deep anger that will take a long time to calm.
Observers might ask, “How can this be happening in an America that has elected a black president?” How can black kids still get killed by white cops and how can towns still burn in race riots?

Part of the explanation is that the recession has been especially tough on African-Americans – reinforcing historical disparities of wealth between the races. Before the credit crunch, the median net worth of a black household was $12,124, compared with $134,992 in white households. After the crunch, the black net worth fell to just $5,677, compared with $113,149 among whites. Black home equity fell by an average of 28 per cent and retirement savings by 35 per cent. In May 2014, the black unemployment rate stood at 11.5 per cent – more than double the white jobless rate of 5.4 per cent.

Letter From America (About Militarising the Police)

We Must Demilitarize the Police

Senator Rand Paul

Time Magazine

14 August, 2014

[One of the horrible consequences of political rhetoric which brands causes as a "war", as in "the war against drugs" or the "war against poverty" or the "war against terrorism" is that government authorities progressively see themselves as a military force.  When it comes to policing, it is a very small step to militarise the police, so that they resemble (and act like) an invading army, not a protector of the public.  Rand Paul's piece below is right on the money. Ed.]

The shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown is an awful tragedy that continues to send shockwaves through the community of Ferguson, Missouri and across the nation.
If I had been told to get out of the street as a teenager, there would have been a distinct possibility that I might have smarted off. But, I wouldn’t have expected to be shot.
The outrage in Ferguson is understandable—though there is never an excuse for rioting or looting. There is a legitimate role for the police to keep the peace, but there should be a difference between a police response and a military response.  The images and scenes we continue to see in Ferguson resemble war more than traditional police action.

But nowadays, police are looking, and acting, more like soldiers than cops, with bad consequences. And those who suffer the consequences are usually innocent civilians.

Glenn Reynolds, in Popular Mechanics, recognized the increasing militarization of the police five years ago. In 2009 he wrote:

Soldiers and police are supposed to be different. … Police look inward. They’re supposed to protect their fellow citizens from criminals, and to maintain order with a minimum of force.
It’s the difference between Audie Murphy and Andy Griffith. But nowadays, police are looking, and acting, more like soldiers than cops, with bad consequences. And those who suffer the consequences are usually innocent civilians.

The Cato Institute’s Walter Olson observed this week how the rising militarization of law enforcement is currently playing out in Ferguson: