Free Republic

A couple of years ago, the city of Baltimore launched a pilot program (no pun intended) that involved having a private contractor fly a surveillance plane over the city almost constantly, recording high-resolution video of the activity on the streets. It was surprisingly successful, resulting in police being able to retrace the movements of people engaged in shootings and other crimes back to their homes or to their post-crime destinations.The public wasn’t initially informed of the program and when word leaked out there were complaints from the usual digital privacy advocates. The program was eventually terminated. This year, however, the...

(Video at link) Three people are facing gang assault charges after Buffalo Police say they were involved in a fight in Buffalo's Allentown neighborhood early Sunday morning. Police say the three people were punching, kicking, and shoving two people while at Jim's Steakout at the corner of Elmwood and Allen. Two 26-year-old men and a 27-year-old woman were arrested and charged. A 30-year-old woman was taken to ECMC where she was treated and released. No names were released as of early Monday morning. A video of the assault was posted on a Facebook page titled, "The Ugly Truth of Allentown,...

Yesterday, the Baltimore Police Department confirmed that another body dropped on the streets of Charm City had brought their 2018 murder total to 297. The unnamed victim was a known gang member, described by police as “a former Public Enemy No. 1” and had been acquitted of a firebombing over the summer. Given the city’s recent history, the odds of there not being at least three more killings over the next sixteen days are not encouraging, to put it mildly. If this plays out as expected, it will represent four years running where the death toll has exceeded 300, and...

Crime is an affliction that plagues all major cities. In the District, the past three years have seen an ebb and flow of violence ... But a close look at DC police crime stats reveals ... One veteran DC police officer is blowing the whistle on what he calls years of corruption and crime reclassification by the department. "If it's a burglary and someone enters the home, but nothing was taken they'll have us re-classify it as Unlawful Entry which brings the crime down from a felony to a misdemeanor ... Felonies are reported to the FBI – the Uniform...

Violent crime, including murders, are increasing in Denver and Colorado, according to new statistics from police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Murders in Colorado have jumped 27 percent in the last three years. In 2015 there were 173 murders, while there were 220 in 2017. ... murders in Denver have increased six percent in the last year. So far in 2018, there have been 51 murders, compared to 48 at this time last year, according to Denver Police. Police say the increase is because there are more incidents where multiple people have been killed. ... And for some perspective...

Gang violence and crime in the Windy City have not gone away under Rahm Emanuel’s leadership, though some progress has been made in specific categories of crime. Still, the endemic problems are enough to have altered the lives of many of Chicago’s residents, seemingly in a permanent fashion. The local CBS outlet looked at the effect this has had on some families and discovered some truly heartbreaking stories. In Lawndale, on the City’s west side, some parents report that they’ve become so desperate that they’ve taken to “hiding their children” rather than risking their being injured or killed in the...

While the three-year spike in violent crime in Baltimore draws most of the attention, business owners across the city have suffered a similar increase in commercial robberies. Such crime has risen 88 percent in the last five years, from 560 commercial robberies in 2013 to more than 1,000 last year. Business owners are also complaining of threats outside their stores: drug dealing, intimidation, stabbings and shootings. They’re fighting back with security measures — guards, surveillance cameras, door buzzer systems — moving out of the city or, in some cases, shutting down altogether. “Our members are very concerned,” said Cailey Locklair...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — An exclusive new Survey USA poll offered a stunning snapshot of where the Bay Area stands on immigration Monday, with the new numbers revealing that more local residents are backing President Trump’s policies than you might think. The KPIX 5 Survey USA Poll showed more than half of people support a key element of the President’s immigration policy. 53 percent said local law enforcement should always contact federal authorities about illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes. The even bigger surprise was the number of Bay Area Hispanics who supported notifying the feds. While the mayors...

New York’s criminal element has sunk to a new despicable low in 2016, as crimes against the elderly have skyrocketed thanks to a wave of violent attacks on senior citizens, according to newly released NYPD statistics. Slightly more than 1,000 people over 65 have been assaulted across the city through Oct. 31 — a 16 percent increase over the 863 old folks who were attacked in the same period in 2015, cops said.

It’s so great to be here tonight. I am honored to also be joined this evening by Governor Scott Walker, Chairman Reince Priebus, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani. We are at a decisive moment in this election. Last week, I laid out my plan to bring jobs back to our country. Yesterday, I laid out my plan to defeat Radical Islamic Terrorism. Tonight, I am going to talk about how to make our communities safe again from crime and lawlessness. Let me begin by thanking the law enforcement officers here in this city, and across this country, for their service and...

<p>Last month, the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch convened their political network to discuss a path forward. Top on the list was criminal-justice reform — a passion the Kochs share with President Obama.</p> <p>The strange bedfellows, Obama and the Kochs, argue that crime can be tackled even as punishments are reduced, but they are running headlong into Donald Trump’s counternarrative that crime is on the rise and “law and order” must be restored.</p>

Violent crime in Los Angeles increased by nearly 16 percent during the first half of this year compared with the same period a year ago, authorities said Friday. Statistics released Friday by the Los Angeles Police Department also showed an increase in property crimes by 3.8 percent, and a 6.3 percent hike in overall crime in the past 12 months. The number of homicides rose by 3.1 percent, from 130 to 134; and the number of shooting victims rose by 1.3 percent, from 537 to 544. The “year to date” figures covered the period from Jan. 1 through July 16....

CHICAGO (AP) -- Violent crimes - from homicides and rapes to robberies - have been on the rise in many major U.S. cities, yet experts can't point to a single reason why and the jump isn't enough to suggest there's a trend. Still, it is stumping law enforcement officials, who are seeking a way to combat the problem.

In certain cases computers have made strides in “predicting who will commit a violent crime.” “I believe the primary role of the state is to teach, train, and raise children. Parents have a secondary role.” - Hillary Clinton, “It Takes a Village” Sci-fi movies like Minority Report, with a trio of psychics called “recogs” who can see “pre-visions” of crimes yet to be committed, setting in motion a Pre Crime Unit, came to mind when reading about China’s effort to detect “pre-crime.” Bloomberg Business is reporting that “The Communist Party has directed one of the country’s largest state-run defense contractors,...

A new think tank report takes aim at the Black Lives Matter movement's contention that law enforcement’s use of lethal force unequally targets blacks compared to other racial or ethnic groups. According to the report by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, not only are a higher percentage of whites and Hispanics killed by police, the greater threat to blacks comes from violent criminals within their own communities. "The evidence does not support the conclusion that American police are waging a racist war against blacks," Manhattan senior fellow Heather Mac Donald writes. "The Black Lives Matter movement has been a...

One of the most interesting facts in the debate about guns and crime in the United states over the last 20+ years is that the murder rate has fallen in half while the number of guns per capita has increased from .89 in 1993 to 1.18 in 2014, an increase of 33 percent.  One of the thesis that is put forward for the decrease in murder rates is better medical technology.  Clearly, there have been significant improvements in the availability of emergency transport, access to emergency personnel through the ubiquity of cell phones and emergency providers, and better surgical...

When Taya Kyle, widow of “American Sniper” Chris Kyle, asked President Barack Obama at a town hall meeting on gun control in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, why he doesn't celebrate the fact that the overall murder rate is at an all-time low, the president admitted that violent crime has been dropping "steadily" for a long time. "The fact of the matter is, is that violent crime has been steadily declining across America for a pretty long time, and you wouldn't always know it by watching television, but overall, most cities are much safer than they were 10 years ago or 20...

When we talk about growing violence in America’s larger cities we frequently focus on New York and Baltimore. (And for good reason, to be honest.) But the nation’s capital has been experiencing its own problems along those lines lately. A rather chilling recounting of some of these “local stories” provides the backdrop for a recent op-ed column in the WaPo by Colbert I. King. I’ll confess that some of the stories of violence and mayhem King is talking about were completely unknown to me, leading the author to compare Washington to “the wild west.” One example is the case where...

You may recall that earlier this year, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was named President of the US Conference of Mayors for her outstanding work in serving the people of her city and demonstrating innovation in turning things around. As part of that process, she decided to summarily fire Police Commissioner Anthony Batts back in the beginning of July. To say the least, I expressed some reservations about the move, particularly considering that most of the questionable tactics employed by the cops during the Freddy Gray riots were handed down from City Hall. But who am I to second guess the...

Norway recently made the controversial decision to deport a large amount of Muslims with ties to radical groups. Despite all the liberals in Norway deeming this “racist”, the logical party went ahead with it and the result almost shut down every opposing voice in the government instantly. This is one of the best stories we have eve seen come from such a liberal area of the world. Violent Crime Dropped By 30%