Archive for the ‘crime’ Category

Illinoisans need to organize and fight back against impending no-cash bail law

Posted: December 5, 2021 by John Ruberry in crime
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By John Ruberry

There have been over 1,000 murders this year in Cook County, Illinois–where I live–and the county where Chicago dominates hasn’t seen that many killings since 1994. As for Chicago it has, as of three days ago, endured 777 murders in 2021. 

Liberals like to talk about root causes of crime. Indeed, the current situation is horrible. Apologists for the dramatic increase in crime over the last two years like to blame the COVID-19 outbreak. But the worst outbreaks are concentrated in deep-blue metropolitan areas with so-called prosecutors, many of whom that accepted campaign contributions from funds tied to radical leftist George Soros. 

People like Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney of Cook County. 

Here is one of those roots from one of Foxx’s poison seeds. Before the COVID outbreak Foxx, shortly after her first election in 2016, announced that her office would not pursue felony charges against accused shoplifters unless the value of the goods stolen exceeded $1,000. State law puts that threshold at $300.

And what happened? Retail threats soared. Here’s a story about that from 2019.

Five years later criminals, many of them wearing face masks, are emboldened. They don’t fear getting caught and if they are, because of the low-bail or no-bail policies of Foxx and Cook County judges–they are elected too–they are out on the street almost immediately.  Chicago and its suburbs are being plagued by gangs of flash mob thieves.

Crime will get worse in thirteen months–and the problem will be statewide as a no-cash bail law that Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, goes into effect. 

Small time criminals move on bigger crimes. Rudy Giuliani’s broken-windows theory of policing should be known as broken-windows fact.

And Chicago, with about 100,000 street gang members, has plenty of big-time crooks. 

Carjackings are out of control in Chicago and its suburbs. In the city there have been 1,444 carjackings so far this year–nearly double the annual total of just two years ago. Last month Chicago police arrested an 11-year-old “prolific carjacker.”

 As I mentioned last week John Kass, a columnist formerly with the Chicago Tribune, was demoted after back-stabbing liberal co-workers at the Trib complained that his column on Soros and the leftist “prosecutors” he funds was anti-Semitic. They lied and they know it.

Kass’ new columns and his podcasts can be found at JohnKassNews.com.

In his latest podcast Kass interviewed former local and federal prosecutor Robert Milan. It was a wide-ranging conversation, but I want to focus on his comments on the no-cash bail law, which is absurdly known as the SAFE-T Act.

“The new bill is going to make it easier to get out [of jail], Milan said, “in 2023 this already dire situation is going to get worse.”

He continued, “People have to organize victims of crimes and stand up and say, ‘This isn’t going to happen.”

Milan added, “Dangerous people should not be on the streets, period.”

So far in 2021, again as I mentioned last week, 56 people, as reported by CWB Chicago, have been accused of “killing, trying to kill, or shooting someone in Chicago this year while awaiting trial for a felony.”

A knee-jerk response of course is to vote-the-bums-out. That’s not so easy in Illinois, which, after a third-straight decennial redistricting, is burdened by gerrymandered districts designed to benefit the Democrats. Still, now is the time for Illinois’ feckless Republican Party to find an issue to rally on–and present itself as the party of personal safety. 

I believe the fight against no-cash bail will be up to rank-and-file Illinoisans, especially crime victims. The no-cash bail law, which fortunately still allows the most-heinous accused criminals to be locked up without bail, was largely a project of African-American legislators. But it is minorities, particularly blacks, who are usually the victims of violent crimes, particularly murder. 

Let’s get going, Illinois. Let’s get organized. Let’s make it not happen.

We’ve tried fighting crime the leftist way. It doesn’t work.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Lootings Will Continue Until there are Consequences

Posted: November 30, 2021 by datechguy in crime
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Captain Disko: I guess there’s nothing left for it [rears back and hits Harvey who’s been threatening them]

Harvey: You HIT me

Captain Disko: Now you just lie there and think about it

The mass looting of stores in broad daylight has spread from San Francisco.

At least two Minneapolis-area Best Buy stores are the latest victims in a flash mob that ransacked the premises, providing a possible alternative meaning to the supply chain crisis and the associated empty shelves.

Similar dystopian looting unfortunately occurred in San Francisco, Los Angles, and other lawless areas controlled by pandering, soft-on-crime Democrats on the traditional big shopping day known as Black Friday and before.

The effect of this is going to be far beyond the actual insurance loss, it’s going to mean that normal shoppers are not going to feel safe in such places.

But never fear our friends on the left have a solution for this looting problem:

As the Bay Area grapples with a wave of seemingly organized smash and grab robberies this weekend, policing and journalism analysts are cautioning against the use of the term looting…To some, the distinction may be small, but Lorenzo Boyd, PhD, Professor of Criminal Justice & Community Policing at the University of New Haven, and a retired veteran police officer, emphasized that words matter.

Because not calling it looting will make it all better.

How does this stop? Well being Sicilian the first thing that came to mind was this scene from Godfather three (which is not as bad as everyone said it was, it just wasn’t an all time great picture like the first two but I digress) where two assassins come to kill Vincent (Andy Garcia) and take Grace(Bridget Fonda) hostage:

Now the lesson here isn’t to start shooting these guys which while it would be effective in stopping it in it’s tracks and appeal to the Sicilian in me also would offend my Catholic sensibilities so I can’t advocate that, but the lesson is there has to be consequences for these actions.

Put simply until the cost for looting is prohibitive there is no incentive for people to stop doing it. Sort of like stealing elections, as long as people think they can get away with it they will do it.

When Democrats treat looters as harshly as they are treating those still being held in the Jan 6th protests it will stop.

And it’s in the best interest of people for this to stop because if the authorities decide to let this go eventually the people will turn to Vincent’s solution and it won’t turn pretty.

Ok Democrat Cities, your call.

Lots of Illinoisans are crossing the Wisconsin state line–permanently

Posted: November 21, 2021 by John Ruberry in business, crime, economy, News/opinion, politics
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By John Ruberry

“He crossed state lines with an AR-15” is a typical bellyache from leftist pontificators about Kyle Rittenhouse traveling from his home in Antioch, Illinois to help protect a business in Kenosha, Wisconsin during the riots (oops civil unrest) there last summer. 

The northern city limits of Antioch end at the Wisconsin state line. So for many people, including for Kyle Rittenhouse, travelling to Wisconsin is a daily trip. He worked in Pleasant Prairie, which is sandwiched between the Illinois state line and Kenosha. And Rittenhouse’s father and other relatives of his live in Kenosha.

Rittenhouse of course was found not guilty–and it was the correct verdict–of charges surrounding the self-defense shootings of three rioters (oops mostly peaceful protesters) in Kenosha last summer.

Do you need to fill up your gas tank? Only naive fools top off their vehicles in Illinois when there is a Wisconsin choice a short drive away. For instance, last month Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I visited Illinois Beach State Park in Zion. On our way out of the park I told Mrs. Marathon Pundit, “Let’s head up Sheridan Road and fill up our car.” And so we did. At the BP station there–which is just 50 yards north of the Illinois border, we paid 40 cents less per gallon than we would have south of the Cheese Curtain. The BP station is a large one–there were about ten vehicles filling up. And each one had Illinois license plates.

What about permanent moves to America’s Dairyland?

Just north of that border you see many manufacturing facilities and warehouses, most of them are newly built. Many of them are businesses that formerly called Illinois home. U-Line has a massive warehouse in Pleasant Prairie, they moved there, bringing 1,000 jobs, from Waukegan, Illinois in 2008. That facility has many neighbors that are equally massive. But on the Illinois side you see farms and some small scale businesses.

Why are they leaving?

Writing for the Badger Institute in 2019, Mark J. Perry said, “On 14 different measures of labor market dynamism, economic growth, various tax burdens, business climate and fiscal health, Wisconsin comes out ahead of neighboring Illinois on all but one of those measures — state individual income tax rate.” Perry added, “On net, Wisconsin has gained 116,000 Illinois residents between 2006 and 2017, an average of nearly 40 residents every day from 2014-’17.” 

Illinois has other substantial problems. Its public pension system is the second-worst funded of the 50 states–at just 39 percent–while Wisconsin’s public worker pensions are the best-funded at over 100 percent. Only an amendment to the Illinois constitution to eliminate the pension guarantee clause, a default, or hyper-inflation can solve the pension crisis. Illinois regularly contends for the title of most-corrupt state. Since I was born four Illinois governors have served time in federal prison. No governors of Wisconsin from that period have suffered the same disgrace.

Violent crime and robbery is a growing crisis in Chicago and its inner suburbs. Chicago will probably exceed 800 murders this year–numbers that the city hasn’t seen since the crack-fueled street gang wars of the mid-1990s. According to Hey Jackass there have already been over 1,400 carjackings in Chicago–nearly double than the yearly total of 2009. Flash mob robberies are occurring not just in Chicago but also the suburbs, such as this outrage where a gang of thieves on Wednesday filched over $100,000 in merchandise from a Luis Vuitton store in DuPage County. Two days later in Chicago’s downsized Magnificent Mile a flash mob of shoplifters struck Neiman Marcus–filling up three cars of merchandise. Wow, up until recently finding even an illegal parking spot was nearly impossible on the Mag Mile. Of course no one has been charged in these flash mob thefts. 

So crossing the Illinois state line into Wisconsin isn’t just a common occurrence. It’s the safe and smart move for people and businesses. 

Who knows? Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I might make that migration north too. Without a rifle. We only own a handgun.

John Ruberry regularly blogs just forty miles south of the Wisconsin border at Marathon Pundit.

Biden administration message: Sneak into America and you too can collect $450,000

Posted: October 31, 2021 by John Ruberry in Always look at the bright side of Trump, crime, immigration, News/opinion, politics
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By John Ruberry

Every once in a while you hear about a story where a burglar breaks into a home, is caught, and then sues the homeowner for damages after being shot. Here’s one example.

Getting shot is an understandable risk for a burglar. Under Trump sneaking into America had consequences.

Donald Trump promised a tough policy on illegal immigration and he followed through. Yes, Trump was very good about honoring his campaign promises. He said he’d enforce the law at the southern border–and Trump did so. It was called his “Zero Tolerance” policy. 

Joe Biden ran for office as the anti-Trump and his presidency, besides pushing America kicking and screaming into socialism, has been about repudiating his predecessor. So much for “Lunch Bucket Joe” from Scranton being a unifier. 

Illegal border crossings plummeted during the Trump presidency because the word got out that illegally crossing into America could you arrested and then sent back home. But not everyone got the message. Some migrants still entered America from Mexico, with their kids, and they were jailed. When you go to jail or prison you don’t bring your children with you. 

Now the Biden administration, according to the Wall Street Journal, is considering payments of $450,000 payments to these lawbreaking family members who were separated from their kids. There have been some lawsuits filed on behalf of the parents. Not surprisingly the ACLU is involved.

Illegal border crossings are at a 21-year high. The message received in Mexico, Central America, South America, and Haiti is clear. The border is open. C’mon over! Construction of the wall at the southern border is has ended. Yeah, yeah, I know. Vice President Kamala “Cackles” Harris, who is in charge of the southern border, unconvincingly said to migrants. “Do not come.” Yawn. Oh, there is another caravan on its way up here. Probably more than one.

Now some people considering entering America from Mexico might make the trek north because they think that maybe they too will collect a $450,000 windfall. Hold on for one moment. I’m not saying parents want be separated from their children in exchange for cash, but it’s not just Americans who see a headline on their smartphones and then come to an inaccurate conclusion without bothering to read the accompanying story.

Meanwhile American citizens make do with a couple of $600 COVID-19 payments. Families of military members killed in the line of duty receive only $400,000.

The American government has gone insane. 

Don’t blame me. I voted for Donald Trump. Twice.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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