New York State Senator and Senate Judiciary Chairman Brad Hoylman Wants to Release Serial Killers, Rapists, Child Molesters, Cop Killers, Cannibals, You Name It. So long as they’re 55. Let’s Stop Him.

September 29, 2022 1 Comment

N.Y. State Senator Brad Hoylman, (518-455-2451 — Albany Office; hoylman@newyorksenate.gov; 212-633-8052) is sponsoring a bill that will offer early parole for ANY offender who has served at least 15 years for his crimes and has reached the age of 55 in New York State Prisons.  Brad is a member of the radical Working Families Party, though I doubt his elite New York City constituents actually walk the anti-capitalist walk promoted by WFP.  Nor will be affected by Hoylman’s radical empty-the-prisons bill, S15A.

Radically Pro-Criminal New York State Senator Brad Hoylman ... 

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“It’s Time To Re-Name the Mario Cuomo Bridge To Honor the Brinks Robbery Victims”

September 15, 2021 1 Comment

So says Richard Molloy, in an editorial published in both the Poughkeepsie Journal and reprinted in U.S.A. Today.  The Poughkeepsie Journal is my hometown paper.  I was too young to understand the organized and destructive forces at work in Nyack, New York that day in 1981, when Officers Edward O’Grady and Waverly Brown, along with Brink’s Guard Peter Paige, were gunned down by Weather Underground and Black Liberation Army (BLA) killers.   Also seriously injured were Brink’s Guard Joseph Trombino (who died later saving people from the World Trade Center on 9/11) and Police Detective Artie Keenan.  Brink’s Driver James Kelly was wounded, though less seriously.

This was not the first Brink’s heist these people committed, nor would it be their last murders of innocent guards and police.  Yet for 20 years, Presidents of the United States have inexplicably pardoning these killers (uh, only the white ones, cough) on or near the last day of their terms in presidential office.  Why do they do this? ... 

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Admissability of Evidence, Assignment of Blame: The Paterson, NJ Rape Case

March 11, 2010 1 Comment

Man rapes, tortures five daughters, impregnates them repeatedly, forces them to deliver babies at home.

Administers beatings with steel-toe boots, wooden boards.  Withholds food, doles out extreme psychological torture. ... 

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The Guilty Project, Tommy Lee Sailor (Updated): The Media Proves Me Wrong

January 26, 2010 2 Comments

The St. Petersburg Times has been digging into Tommy Lee Sailor’s past, asking hard questions about Florida’s many failures to keep Sailor behind bars.  Sailor is the serial rapist and self-described serial killer who was deemed “reformed” by Florida Corrections — until last New Year’s Eve, that is.  Only his victim’s courage, quick thinking by 911 operator Ve’Etta Bess, and quick action by the police saved that victim’s life.

So on the one side, you have the response of public safety professionals, and the victim herself.  On the other side, you have the courts, and the Department of Corrections, and Sailor’s attorneys, and even prosecutors, all agreeing to let Sailor go, or not even try him for sex crimes, not once or twice, but repeatedly. ... 

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Don’t Blame Verizon: Tommy Lee Sailor, Charlie Crist, Walter McNeil, Frederick B. Dunphy, and the Economy of Outrage

January 6, 2010 1 Comment

The Florida Department of Corrections (headed by Walter McNeil) needs to stop pointing fingers and start taking responsibility for the escape of Tommy Lee Sailor.  They’re the ones who screwed up by failing to notice when the violent serial offender absconded from his ankle monitor on New Year’s Eve, enabling Sailor to attack yet another innocent victim.

The Florida Parole Commission (headed by Frederick B. Dunphy) also needs to stop hiding and start answering questions about their decisions and policies that freed Sailor before his sentence was complete. ... 

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The Guilty Project. Death by Parole Board: Ankle Bracelet Didn’t Stop Ronald Robinson From Killing Officer Michael Crawshaw

January 4, 2010 2 Comments

It’s too bad we don’t have CSI units slapping crime tape around our parole boards.  From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Ronald Robinson, 32, of Homewood, who is charged with the slayings of Officer [Michael] Crawshaw and another man Dec. 6, has a long criminal history and a record of repeatedly violating terms of his parole . . . From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Robinson was repeatedly accused of wielding firearms on the streets of Pittsburgh and surrounding communities. In a January 1998 criminal complaint, police said Mr. Robinson choked and punched a woman and then pointed a semi-automatic gun at her. In 2001, he was accused of shooting a man in the leg.  Two years later, according to court records, a pair of witnesses told police that Mr. Robinson fired a gun in the air at Hawkins Village in Rankin. In each case, many charges were withdrawn. ... 

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The Coming Year of Prisoner “Re-Entry”: Attempted Murder in Chicago, Then Back on the Streets in a Fortnight

December 31, 2009 4 Comments

As the Justice Department and everybody else barrel forward with plans to get as many violent offenders back on the streets as quickly as possible (to save money, you know, and aid those poor benighted, imprisoned souls), here’s a reminder of the inevitable consequences of anti-incarceration-early-re-entry-alternative-sentencing-community-control chic, from the Chicago Sun-Times, via Second-City Cop:

She lost 20 teeth. She suffered a brain injury and seizures. And she struggled to pay her medical bills because she didn’t have insurance.  Jen Hall was the victim of a brutal, disfiguring beating outside a Jewel store in the South Loop in August 2008. ... 

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No-Snitch Children and No-Punishment Adults

July 17, 2009 1 Comment

Every weekday, I receive a useful summary of crime, policing, and justice news stories called Crime and Justice News, compiled by Ted Gest at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.  Considering that there are so many relevant articles from which to choose, Gest and his assistants do a good job of spotting national trends.

But, sometimes, reading through the report is singularly depressing, not only because crime is depressing, but because the trends in crime prevention that crop up regularly these days seem doomed to failure. ... 

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Another Entirely Accurate Critique of the Miami Homeless Sex Offender “Crisis”:

July 15, 2009 Leave a comment

From PROTECT, the National Association to Protect Children:

Miami’s Julia Tuttle Causeway fiasco–where about 70 “registered” sex offenders have been herded under a bridge to live–is being challenged in court by the ACLU. ... 

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Crime Denial at the New York Times: An Update

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Yesterday, while writing about the Times‘ willful misrepresentation of a child sexual assault conviction, I noted:

[W]hen I see an offender with a record of one or three instances of “inappropriate touching,” I suspect that’s the tip of the iceberg.  I suspect the conviction is the result of a plea bargain agreed to just to get the sick bastard away from the child and onto a registry, which is the most victims can reasonably hope for in the courts these days . . . ... 

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Crime Denial at the New York Times, Part 1: Regarding the Torture of (Some) Others

July 14, 2009 7 Comments

The New York Times is the most important newspaper in America, and that is unfortunate, for in their pages, ordinary criminals are frequently treated with extreme deference and sympathy, even respect.  Some types of criminals are excluded from this kid-glove treatment, but that is a subject for another day.  For the most part, ordinary (property, drug, violent, sexual) criminals comprise a protected class in the Times.  Even when it must be acknowledged that someone has, in fact, committed a crime, the newsroom’s mission merely shifts to minimizing the culpability of the offender by other means.

There are various ways of doing this.  Some have to do with selectively criticizing the justice system: for example, the Times reports criminal appeals in detail without bothering to acknowledge congruent facts that support the prosecution and conviction.  They misrepresent the circumstances that lead to (sometimes, sometimes not) wrongful convictions while showing no curiosity about the exponentially higher rate of non-prosecution of crimes. ... 

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Headline: “Series of Mistakes Helped Ex-Cop Escape” (Tools for Activists).

April 9, 2009 Leave a comment

From today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A string of mishaps — including uncertainty about whom to call, voice mail messages left unanswered for hours and previous false alarms — combined to help double-murder suspect Derrick Yancey remove his ankle monitor and escape house arrest, according to a report issued Wednesday. . . ... 

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Two Atlanta Stories. Detect A Pattern Yet?

April 7, 2009 1 Comment

Another doctor in the news for sexual offenses (thanks to Paul K).  And another predator free on bail before trial has disappeared– this time a DeKalb County cop accused of murdering his wife and a handyman:

A former DeKalb County Sheriff’s deputy, out on bond as he awaited trial in the deaths of his wife and a day laborer, has gone missing, authorities said Saturday. ... 

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“What Went Wrong” in the Murder of Four Oakland, CA Police [Update #1, Below, 3/24]

March 24, 2009 Leave a comment

Yesterday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about “what went wrong” in the quadruple murder of police officers in Oakland, California.  The focus of that story was police procedure — an understandable line of inquiry with four policemen’s lives lost at two crime scenes.  Today, both the Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times ran stories covering the problems that arise when violent offenders like Lovelle Mixon, the man who killed the officers, are released on parole.

The Chronicle, however, starts every story by stressing how rare it is that parolees resort to violence.  And, of course, killing four officers is a thankfully rare tragedy.  But, as the Chronicle itself notes, fully two-thirds of California parolees are returned to prison for violating parole.  That’s two-thirds of the state’s 122,000 parolees.  Is violence really “rare” in this vast group of offenders?  Why do some newspapers reflexively minimize such horrific numbers, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the murder of four policemen?  There are more than 16,000 parolees in California currently wanted for parole violations.  12% of parolees in California abscond immediately upon leaving prison.   ... 

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