Shootings Surge in Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Los Angeles
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michael Moore noted a surge in shootings in Mayor Eric Garcetti’s (D) Los Angeles, California, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Moore alluded to at least 11 shootings between Tuesday and Friday of last week alone, which have come as part of a general rise in the city’s violent crime.
He further indicated that as of Friday, October 2, 2020, 40 people under the age of 18 had been shot in the city, including nine under the age of ten.
“This is a pace of shooting and violence that we’ve not seen in years, and it has grown from an effort that began (and) issues that we saw in June and July, and now has continued to accelerate,” Moore said. “This is violence that’s impacting not just people standing on a corner against other individuals standing on a corner. This is violence that is hitting our very young and our very innocent.”
Democrat cities around the country have witnessed a surge in violence during 2020.
For example, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago is consistently in the news regarding shootings and shooting deaths. Breitbart News reported the city had topped 3,100 shooting victims for the year by September 28, 2020. The Chicago Tribune reported the exact number of shooting victims at 3,132.
The Tribune also noted that the number of homicides from January 1, 2020, through September 28, 2020, was 576; CNN reported there were fewer than 500 for all of 2019.
The New York Times summed up the violence in Democrat-run cities with a story showing that 18 of the 20 cities projected to have highest murder rate in 2020 have Democrat mayors.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
Violent
Crime Up Twice the National Average in Part of California
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2017/09/27/violent-crime-up-double-the-national-average-in-part-of-california/
Photo: Twitter/@ArlingtonPD
Violent crime is up across
the country, but in some pockets of California, violent offenses —
including murder, rape, robbery and assault — are up twice the national
average, according to an FBI report released Monday.
While property crimes were down both nationally and in
California, violent crimes spiked almost 4% in the Golden State, even though
some in academia made a point to downplay the dramatic increase, according to
the San Francisco Chronicle:
In California, 1,930 people were slain last year, an increase of
3.7 percent that came on the heels of a rise of 9.7 percent the previous year.
But the 2016 rate — 4.9 victims for every 100,000 population — is relatively
low compared with the rate 10 years earlier (6.9) and far lower than the rate
in 1980 (14.4).
“The overall picture is that homicide and violent crime rates
went up dramatically in the 1970s and ’80s and ’90s, and then underwent a
dramatic drop in the last 20 years, and leveled off,” said Robert Weisberg, a
Stanford University criminal law professor and co-director of the school’s
Criminal Justice Center.
The FBI’s 2016 numbers, he said, “are not inconsistent with
that.”
Still, Bay Area law enforcement officials have expressed concern
about the recent trend, opening up a debate over whether crime has gone up due
to several factors, including the effort to reduce jail and prison populations
and a struggle in some places to recruit and retain officers.
And Bay Area law enforcement officials are not the only ones
wondering if recent prison and sentencing reforms have led to the dramatic
increase.
Sacramento’s NBC affiliate (KCRA) reports that
the
[v]iolent crime rate — which includes the number of homicides,
rape, robbery and assault — was 716.3 per 100,000 people in 2016. Nationally,
the violent crime rate was 386.3.
With violent crime in Sacramento rising at twice the national rate, there are
additional questions about the impact of Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature
prison reform, known as “AB109 Realignment.” That measure transferred many
dangerous and violent felons from state to county supervision, and effectively
commuted many sentences. It also put violent felons back on the streets
and ended state parole supervision for those offenders altogether.
In February, California’s law enforcement community was rocked
when a Whittier police officer, Keith Boyer, 53, was murdered by an unsupervised AB109 offender, who would have been behind bars had he been subject to state
parole supervision.
While Brown has not yet signed the “Sanctuary State” bill, which would
make California a sanctuary for criminal illegal aliens, it is
unlikely that the latest alarming rise in violent crime would stop him.
Tim Donnelly is a former California State Assemblyman and Author, currently on
a book tour for his new book: Patriot Not Politician: Win or Go Homeless. He also ran for governor in 2014.
“With increasing homelessness, a soft approach to
criminal prosecution, and the ongoing embracing of illegal immigration, violent
crimes are increasing after having seen a reduction the past few years.”
P.F. WHALEN
Undeterred,
on September 2, state lawmakers sent a budget to
Governor Newsom calling for $600 million in spending increases and
a reduction in state revenue with the extension of earned
income tax credits for immigrants and illegal aliens. Balance sheet
be damned, California must cater to illegal aliens. P.F. WHALEN
California: The Golden State
in Utter Decay
By P.F. Whalen
California
is a mess; no secret there. But the degree of decline that befalls
it, and the quickness with which that decline is moving, seems to be largely
ignored, particularly by Californians themselves. The nation's most
populous state, and arguably its most naturally beautiful, is falling apart
virtually everywhere we look. Yet state and local governments not
only insist on moving forward with leftist policies, but continually double
down by moving even farther left, and the state's voters return them to office
with ever-increasing electoral margins. California's current
approach to virtually all aspects of society — the economy, environment, legal
system and culture — is unsustainable, and the time for reckoning is
rapidly approaching.
The
current crisis in California that is getting the most national attention is the
plague of wildfires throughout much of the northern part of the
state. Such fires have ravaged the area for
millennia, long before the presence of any European settlers, but that has not
stopped California leftists and their media from pointing fingers at climate
change and President Trump. Avoiding responsibility for a crisis by
blaming anyone and anything with even a remote chance of culpability is the
California way — which leads to a failure to develop real
solutions. None of California's leaders, least of all Democratic
governor Gavin Newsom, have accepted any responsibility for the government's
role in the fires. Evidence clearly shows that the decision by the state to
revive "fire suppression" efforts, a practice that essentially delays
the inevitable and results in even larger wildfires (and was mostly
discontinued in the 1960s), has been a major contributor to the magnitude of
this year's fires. But has the government of California even paused
to reconsider the strategy? Sadly, no.
Wildfires,
unfortunately, are among the least of California's
woes. Homelessness in the state has become a major problem, and one
that is having a significant impact on the quality of life for
taxpayers. According to a San Francisco Chronicle article published last
December, "[w]hile the latest counts compiled by the federal government
show that America's homeless population is growing again after more than a
decade of declines, the entire national increase and more can be attributed to
California alone." In other words, homelessness continues to be
on the decline in the U.S. if we exclude California. So how does
California plan on addressing the problem? A bill passed by the
state's Legislature earlier this month will empower Governor Newsom to appoint
a "Homelessness Czar." Government actions, including
regulations which aggressively target landlords and programs that provide
handouts enticing the homeless to settle in the state, have perpetuated the
homeless situation, but more taxpayer dollars and government interference is
always the solution for California. Got a problem? Throw
money at it, and let the government make it worse.
With
increasing homelessness, a soft approach to criminal prosecution, and the
ongoing embracing of illegal immigration, violent crimes are increasing after
having seen a reduction the past few years. According to The Trace,
"homicides are sharply up this year" in California as a whole, and
cities such as Oakland, with a 26% increase, have seen a significant
increase in the number of murders. With the jump in violent crimes,
what steps has California's government taken to reduce certain
crimes? They recently passed the controversial bill S.B. 145, which will ultimately
end up reducing accountability and sentences for adults who sexually assault
children as young as 14. What a brilliant idea. Apparently,
California's leadership believes that the pedophile community had been treated
unfairly.
In
spite of an abundance of bad news items hitting California on a regular basis,
the most ominous challenge is undoubtedly the fiscal time bomb that looms, and
whose ticking grows louder by the day. Already one of the highest taxed states in the
U.S., California had a reported government debt of
over $1.5 trillion as of 2017 — long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and an
amount that has surely increased dramatically since. Undeterred, on
September 2, state lawmakers sent a budget to
Governor Newsom calling for $600 million in spending increases and
a reduction in state revenue with the extension of earned
income tax credits for immigrants and illegal aliens. Balance sheet
be damned, California must cater to illegal aliens.
Increasing
spending and decreasing revenue is a lousy recipe for getting one's fiscal
house in order — particularly one that is already a disaster. The
state government appears to be counting on an eventual federal bailout from its
financial predicament, but that help is not going to happen, nor should it.
California
industries have recognized the signals and are taking action. High-profile
companies and leaders have announced their plans to leave the state or have
openly proclaimed their considerations for the idea. Media outlet
The Daily Wire, with co-owner Ben Shapiro, recently announced its plan to move to
Nashville; podcast giant Joe Rogan is taking his ball and moving to Texas; and Elon
Musk is moving Tesla's
headquarters out-of-state, and possibly manufacturing operations as
well. Other businesses will surely follow, as the hostility
toward industry through taxes and oppressive regulations continues
unimpeded. State lawmakers are not intimidated by the idea of losing
millions of dollars in revenue and have recently taken the bold step of
adding a layer of government regulations to existing and would-be
businesses. Another bill recently passed by the state legislature
will "mandate ethnic, racial or LGBT diversity on corporate boards" —
more government intervention in the private sector in the name of virtue and
another assault on the philosophy of meritocracy.
California
has some of the most appealing weather in the world, but pleasant weather goes
only so far. Residents enjoy the state's natural wonders such as the
lovely Napa Valley, Yosemite National Park, and the glorious pacific coast
highway, but they have been choosing to leave anyway at
an increasing rate in a phenomenon that is being called "The California
Exodus." The state population decreased by almost 200,000 in
2018, and over 28,000 left the San Francisco Bay area alone in a single quarter
last year. Inevitably, the question that Californians have to
consider is this: while it may be bad now, is there a chance it is going to get
better?
California,
the bluest of blue states, has rising crime and
homelessness. California has fearsome wildfires and rolling
electrical blackouts due to government mismanagement of its forests and energy
systems. California has an ever-increasing budget deficit with no
end in sight. Yet California's tone-deaf politicians continue to
enjoy immense support from their oblivious electorate. Many
residents cherish the song lyric that laments, "Going to California with
an aching in my heart." Unfortunately, the time has come for
many to recognize reality, and to leave California with a similar
aching. California is decaying before our eyes, and it is not going
to get better.
P.F. Whalen is a conservative blogger at TheBlueStateConservative.com. His
work has appeared in multiple publications, including American Thinker, the
Western Journal, and Human Events. Follow him on Twitter at @pf_whalen.
HOME TO
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, NANCY PELOSI, KAMALA HARRIS AND GAVIN NEWSOM
Adios,
Sanctuary La Raza Welfare State of California
A fifth-generation Californian
laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse.
By Steve Baldwin
American Spectator
What’s clear is that the producers are leaving
the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens,
now estimated to number over 2.6 million (BLOG: THE NUMBER IS CLOSER TO 15
MILLION ILLEAGLS). The Federation for American
Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion (DATED: NOW
ABOUT $35 BILLION YEARLY AND THAT IS ON THE STATE LEVEL ONLY. COUNTIES PAY OUT
MORE) on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education,
Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs.
Liberals
claim they more than make that up with taxes paid, but that’s simply not true.
It’s not even close. FAIR estimates illegal aliens in California contribute
only $1.21 billion in tax revenue, which means they cost California $20.6 billion,
or at least $1,800 per household.
Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg,
claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to
support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has
documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few
skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting
them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If
illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way,
California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming.
Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens
has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who
entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of
the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in
2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for
illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were
illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the
18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those
statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer,
they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown
administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes.
That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a
“sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the
border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
"If the racist "Sensenbrenner Legislation" passes the US
Senate, there is no doubt that a massive civil disobedience movement will
emerge. Eventually labor union power can merge with the immigrant civil rights
and "Immigrant Sanctuary" movements to enable us to either
form a new political party or to do heavy duty reforming of the existing
Democratic Party. The next and final steps would follow and that is to elect our
own governors of all the states within Aztlan."
Indeed, California goes out of its way to
attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that
cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor
Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With
over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt
compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the
DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University
of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for
illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations
all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers
hear about this program. I can’t afford college
education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a
college education.
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