Archive for the ‘crime’ Category

To fight back against the left, I say we should refer to all Illinois criminals as “justice-impacted individuals”

Posted: May 26, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Oh, for the days when Illinois was normal.

My state is a solid blue state, but it wasn’t always that way. 

In the 20th century, only twice, in 1912 and 1916, Illinois failed to back the presidential winner in the general election.

The Land of Lincoln, the home of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, began its slide to the left in 1988, when George H.W. Bush won Illinois by just 95,000 votes in his blowout win, nationally that is, over Michael Dukakis. Democrat gerrymandering and feckless leadership from the state GOP have demoralized Illinois conservatives. Real conservatives, that is, not the country club phonies who are embarrassed by Donald Trump.

Illinois has now gone hard left, thanks to decades of gerrymandering. At the top of the heap is likely 2028 presidential candidate, J.B. Pritzker, who is nearly halfway into his second term as governor. 

To embellish his woke credentials for his presidential run, Pritzker signed into law and championed the SAFE-T Act, which abolishes cash bail in Illinois. It’s been in effect for nine months. The numbers are still coming in, but at least in Chicago, other than a slight dip in murders, violent crime is up.

Still, criminals manage to get caught and convicted in Illinois, despite the presence until December of a George Soros-funded so-called prosecutor, Kim Foxx, in the state’s largest county, Cook.

But some of those unlucky Illinois crooks soon may not soon be officially known as “felons,” “offenders,” or “convicts” or “ex-cons,” If it’s not on his desk already, it soon will be, but Illinois House Bill 4409 will classify participants in the Adult Redeploy Illinois program as “justice-impacted individuals.”

To be fair, not all convicted criminals in the state will be referred to as such if Pritzker signs HB 4409 into law, but considering that the billionaire governor has proven to be cautious about being out-woked, look for all lawbreakers to be referred to be officially classified as such in that sanitized, Orwellian phrase.

Conservatives and centrists, who, despite Democratic dominance in in the Land of Lincoln, still make up a majority in this state, have two surefire ways to fight back.

They can remind leftists that Illinois–for good reason–has been losing population annually for a decade. 

The other method of attack is to refer to criminals, when a progressive is in earshot or likely to read a social media post, as “justice-impacted individuals.” Leftists can’t process the wrongheadedness of their political beliefs, such as men being able to give birth, and they despise ridicule. 

Believers in common sense, you have your assignment. Think of yourselves as Groucho Marx and the leftist in front of you as the kind of pompous fool the legendary comedian regularly humiliated. 

With some laughs, we might be able turn Illinois, even slightly, to the right direction.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

What about the current laws? The next time someone says we need more gun control laws, tell them about Cook County, Illinois

Posted: May 19, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Cook County, Illinois, America’s second-most populous county, has suffered under seven-and-a-half years of a pro-criminal so-called prosecutor, state’s attorney Kim Foxx. 

Jussie Smollet’s pal–who is a George Soros-funded Democrat–apparently doesn’t want to leave office quietly. Foxx, who thankfully decided not to run for a third term.

Foxx is considering adopting a policy of not prosecuting motorists who are pulled over for moving violations, thinks like speeding and driving with expired license plates, if they are found with narcotics or illegally possessing guns.

I’ve repeatedly criticized Foxx on this blog. Among her most egregious examples of prosecutorial malfeasance is her policy of ignoring the Illinois threshold for felony theft of $300. She raised it to $1,000. A second standout of idiocy was her decision, since reversed, not to charge participants in a wild west style Chicago gunfight because they were engaged in “mutual combat.”

For decades, liberals and leftists in Illinois have said that most deadly violence in the Prairie State is caused by guns. After every mass shooting–the latest one happened last night on Chicago’s West Side–libs will decry the latest instance of “gun violence.” Of course, these guns don’t fire themselves. It’s people violence. And playing along with the progressives’ word games, the next logical step of course is more gun laws, or better yet, they believe, a ban on public ownership of firearms. 

The reaction to Foxx’s no-charges suggestion regarding guns and drugs found during traffic stops has been mostly, but not exclusively, negative. 

The media-shy Foxx–I prefer to call her a coward–directed her office issue a statement defending her foolish idea.

“Decades of data demonstrate that these stops do not enhance public safety,” it reads. “Instead, they perpetuate a cycle of mistrust and fear, especially in under-resourced communities. This draft policy is a crucial step towards rebuilding that trust.” 

What data? Where? When?

And “rebuilding that trust” means not enforcing gun laws? 

A Chicago alderperson, Sylvana Tabares, issued a commonsense retort against Foxx’s proposal. “It strips officers of an essential tool to get illegal guns off our streets,” Tabares said. “Residents are demanding we do more to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and make their neighborhoods safe. This does the opposite.”

The Republican nominee for Cook County’s state’s attorney, Robert Fioretti, says if Foxx’s no-charges- on-guns-and-drugs-found-in-traffic-stops policy is enacted, he’ll reverse it. The Democratic candidate, Eileen O’Neill Burke, hasn’t commented on Foxx’s proposal. However, O’Neill Burke–who I voted for in the Democratic Primary over a Foxx-wannabe–campaigned on reversing returning Cook County to the $300 threshold for prosecuting felony theft. I suspect EOB is against Foxx’s proposal.

Meanwhile, last week Cook County’s sheriff, the weaselly Tom Dart, also a Democrat, in statement suggested that there could be over 80,000 Illinoisans who have had their Firearm Owners Identification Cards revoked who still possess guns. Dart, at least in regard to Cook County, says he needs more money to track down these criminals. Cook County Jail, which Dart is in charge of, has seen a dramatic drop in inmates because of Illinois’ pro-criminal no-cash bail SAFE-T Act, but has not laid off any guards. I know, that’s because of union contracts.

When are the next round of negotiations for those jail guards’ contracts?

Now back to guns. I’m going to state the obvious. Before suggesting new firearm laws, let’s first enforce the existing ones.

John Ruberry regularly blogs from Cook County at Marathon Pundit.

Treat female murderers equally

Posted: May 4, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in crime
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Equality before the law should mean just that: equal treatment before the law, no matter who you are. Supposedly women are equal to men, yet time and time again, women are allowed to engage in awful, illegal behavior and get lighter sentences.

Look no further than this week, where Heather Pressdee, a nurse, murdered multiple old people in different nursing homes in Pennsylvania by administering more insulin than their bodies could handle. She did this deliberately, often timing it so the person would die before being taken to a hospital in order to hide her crime. It’s outrageously despicable, yet she avoided the death penalty.

You can read the sob story of Christa Pike, who brutally murdered Colleen Slemmer in 1996. The argument is she was 18 and made a mistake. Sounds reasonable right? A quick Wikipedia search describes Christa Pike’s crimes:

  • On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of the dormitory and proceeded to the woods, where Slemmer was told they wanted to make peace by offering her some marijuana.[5] Upon arrival at the secluded location, Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while Peterson acted as lookout. According to later court testimony, for the next thirty minutes Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed; and a pentagram was carved in her chest.[6][7] Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer’s skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.[5]

Keeping a piece of her skull? Carving a pentagram on her chest? That’s not a crime of passion or an accident. While not slated for execution yet, she lost her last appeal recently.

Lastly, how about the story of Miranda Cassarez, a San Antonio woman who starved her four-year-old stepson to death? The kid was only 28 pounds when he died at the local hospital. She was completely unrepentant and attempted to push the blame to anyone but herself. She’ll get 99 years in prison. I have a 4 year old at home, and while the kid sometimes drives me crazy, I can’t bear the thought of starving him to death.

Women are literally getting away with murder. True equality means we allow people, despite their gender, to suffer equal consequences before the law.

Soros-funded Chicago prosecutor will finally get tough on lawbreaking protesters–but only for the Democratic National Convention

Posted: April 28, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, election 2024, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney of Cook County, is the chief prosecutor in Chicago and its inner suburbs. 

The George Soros-funded catch-and-release Democrat has been a disaster for Cook County residents, except for the many criminals living here.

Nationally, the leftist ideologue is best known for botching the Jussie Smollett case. Yeah, I keep bringing that up, largely because Foxx supposedly throws a fit whenever her name is attached to the hate-crime hoaxer. 

Feel her rage.

By throwing his considerable weight around, both literally and symbolically, Illinois’ governor, JB Pritzker, who hopes to run for president in 2028, brought the 2024 Democratic National Convention to Chicago. This may prove to be Pritzker’s undoing. Chicago was hit hard by riots after the George Floyd murder, and the crime rate in Chicago and its core suburbs has soared since Foxx took office in 2016.

Fortunately, Foxx chose not to run for a third term. 

The campaign to succeed her was essentially a referendum on her time as state’s attorney. The winner by a hair was Eileen O’Neill Burke, who said at the end of a debate, “If you like the way things are going right now, you have a candidate in this election. It isn’t me.”

Last week, the Chicago Tribune reported that Foxx will get a little tougher in prosecuting crime. “You may not be aware, but for the last four years the public policy of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office has been not to prosecute criminal violations tied to protests and demonstrations,” the Trib’s left-of-center editorial board wrote, “if the office deems those actions ‘peaceful.'” 

“That means the office as a matter of policy won’t prosecute protesters arrested for disorderly conduct,” the op-ed continued, “unlawful gathering or criminal trespass to state-supported land, among other laws.”

As people with common sense–that is, non-leftists–know, small-time violators of the law sometimes become felons. Peaceful protests, or what liberal journalists laughingly call “mostly peaceful protests” sometimes become quite violent ones. 

Foxx’s end-of-term conversion does not mean she’s been suddenly blessed with wisdom. Crime is a very serious problem in Chicago. Nationally, liberal apologists for criminality regularly tell us that the crime rate in major cities is going down, but not only do they use the COVID year of 2020 as a comparison point, they ignore Chicago. While murder the murder rate is down slightly in Chicago, other crimes are becoming more numerous. Foxx is largely to blame, but Chicago’s mayor during the pandemic, Lori Lightfoot, as well as her neo-Marxist successor, Brandon Johnson, should hold their heads in shame too.

Instead, Foxx has cynically, in regard to DNC protesters, decided to do her job. 

Leftists are obsessed with history repeating itself. Looking past the calm 1996 Democratic Convention, they fear a repeat of the riot at Grant Park during the 1968 DNC, when Mayor Richard J. Daley’s angry cops beat up hippie protesters as millions of voters watched on television. Liberals blame that chaos for Richard Nixon’s victory that fall. 

At a protest earlier this month Joe Iosbaker, a left-wing gadfly, offered an ominous warning with a couple of questions. “Have you heard that the Democratic National Convention is coming to Chicago? Are we going to let ’em come here without a protest? This is Chicago, goddamn it — we’ve got to give them a 1968 kind of welcome.”

Foxx doesn’t want to be blamed for Donald Trump defeating Joe Biden in November. She cares more about her political party than fulfilling the duties of her job.

Pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protests are regular disturbances in downtown Chicago. Protesting, both peaceful and “mostly peaceful,” has become a habit in the city. Throw into the mix Chicago’s violent crime epidemic, and the result will be a vile stew that is set to turn toxic in late August, when the DNC convenes at the United Center.

Foxx’s “conversion,” in my opinion, will prove to be too little–too late.

Let the bad times roll. History will repeat itself in Chicago.

After the DNC leaves, Foxx can return to not prosecuting protesters who break laws until Eileen O’Neill Burke is sworn in.

John Ruberry regularly blogs in Cook County at Marathon Pundit.

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