Free Republic

Legislators may be off for spring recess, but debates about their bills are still happening outside committee rooms. One spicy intra-party exchange between Democratic Assemblymembers focuses on a measure about retail theft — underscoring the difficult balance for lawmakers responding to public concerns about crime, while not over-policing historically targeted communities.Los Angeles Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, vice chairperson of the Legislative Progressive Caucus, introduced Assembly Bill 1990, which would allow police officers to make warrantless arrests for misdemeanor shoplifting offenses (as in, items that total $950 or less) if officers have probable cause. Officers do not need to be present when...

If you own a home and don’t want to lose it, keep reading. Homeowners who go on vacation or a business trip, even for just a week, are returning to find their house overtaken by trespassers who fraudulently claim a right to be there. It’s happening to tens of thousands of homeowners from New York City to Atlanta and Los Angeles. When owners call the police, they’re told police can’t help. It’s a civil matter, and they have to file an eviction lawsuit, which can drag on for months or years because housing courts are backlogged. Meanwhile, owners are out...

For decades, Democrats have controlled the nation’s largest cities. The results have been catastrophic, including high crime rates, blight, failing public educational systems, rampant poverty, and an expanding homeless population. These horrific outcomes are due to Democrats supporting failed policies, such as raising taxes, increasing regulations, growing the government, and refusing to prosecute violent criminals. Consequently, citizens voted with their feet and left in droves, a trend which has started to accelerate. For example, while the country’s population soared sixty million to 341 million since 2000, it was a much different situation in the progressive hellhole of Chicago. The “Windy...

It Begins… Entire NYC Mall Closes Over Theft

Baltimore is in the throes of a policing apocalypse, and the situation is nothing short of apocalyptic. Last week, just THREE police officers were left to patrol an entire district teeming with 61,000 residents. Let that sink in. Calls for help, including reports of child assault, are going unanswered because the police simply can't keep up. It's a dire state of affairs when law enforcement is unable to respond to the most basic calls for assistance. Adding insult to injury, the department is now forced to postpone police training in a desperate bid to address the severe shortages. But how...

South American “crime tourists” who exploit the US visa system to enter the country and commit burglaries have now infiltrated at least half the states in America and taken “millions of untraceable” goods, The Post has learned. The organized groups of burglars and jewel thieves, particularly from Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, have been targeting wealthy homes across the US for decades, but their crimes have spread — and recently soared in some cities, authorities say. “They travel to cities across the nation – including in Maricopa County – and steal millions in untraceable items,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel...

Crime on the subways has become significantly more violent since the pandemic with the number of felony assaults soaring when compared to pre-pandemic levels, an analysis by The Post revealed. The number of attacks on trains that left victims injured jumped 53% from 2023’s 570 felony assaults to the 373 reported in 2019, according to stats. Those 200 extra felony assaults meant that attacks resulting in substantial injury accounted for 25% of 2,285 major crimes reported on trains and in stations in 2023, compared to just 15% of the 2,499 major crimes in 2019, the data

For years now, Oakland has been battling an onslaught of burned, stripped and abandoned vehicles that have made certain parts of the city feel like a scene from a John Carpenter sci-fi epic — and new data presented at an Oakland Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting on March 12 indicates that this pervasive issue is only getting worse. The city received more than 11,000 requests to clear out abandoned vehicles from June 1 to Nov. 30, 2023, which was a “staggering increase,” according to Michael Ford, parking and mobility manager at Oakland’s Department of Transportation, who spoke during the...

CHICAGO — The debate over the future of gas stoves in Chicago has been heating up in recent months. Under one proposal, called the “Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance,” the City Council could ultimately ban gas stoves in all new construction projects. Chicago is not the only government agency looking at ways to limit gas emissions. Last year, New York became the first state to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in new buildings. Prominent Chicago Chef Rick Bayless made the transition in his restaurants years ago. “We wanted to make everything as environmentally friendly as possible,” said Bayless,...

Democrats are no longer coy about their disdain for constitutional freedoms. They used to put on a show, pretending to be champions of free speech and swearing that they didn't want to take our guns. Biden era leftists have abandoned all pretense and now sneer at freedoms that many of us hold dear. After they leveraged COVID panic to help usher Team Biden into the Oval Office.. they got tired of carrying on the fiction. Biden's puppet masters have been flying one freak flag after another .. Ketanji Brown Jackson is Joe Biden's legacy on the court .. a real...

The Old Gray Lady continues to behave like a Karen triggered by people’s ability to express their opinions about elections freely online. Darn that pesky free speech! The New York Times effectively wrote what amounted to a 3,984-word eulogy for the death of the dystopian thought police. The Times mourned that former President Donald Trump’s “Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation.” The newspaper — acting like a speech gatekeeper — bemoaned that Trump and free speech absolutists “have successfully stymied the effort to filter election lies online.” But the same outlet that’s whining about “disinformation” and “election lies” is...

The men involved in the New York subway shooting this week were nonwhite. That creates a problem for the pro-crime left. During a press conference immediately following the incident, subway system CEO and Chairman Janno Lieber rushed to get ahead of any obvious questions about how and why this happened. “When you bring a gun on the train and you start a fight, it’s just — it’s not right and it’s absolutely outrageous,” he said. “That’s what happened here. Someone brought a gun on the train and started a fight. That’s why we need to keep fighting against guns.”Suffice it...

Only days after one passenger shot and killed another aboard a West Side bus filled with other riders, Chicago Transit Authority union leader Keith Hill says he’s now open to seeing the Illinois National Guard provide security for the long-troubled system. “Since 2017, my call has been for extra security, a presence on the transit system,” Hill told The Center Square. “From a worker standpoint, the workers need to feel safe. When a person rides the system, they should feel safe getting from point A to point B.” Late Tuesday night, a 53-year-old man began waving a knife around while...

Tennessee State Senator Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) warned state Republicans on Thursday moments after the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill prohibiting local governments from inhibiting law enforcement that her Democrat constituents may respond with riots. @FoxNashville posted footage of the Thursday press conference at which Oliver and other Democrat legislators held at the Capitol in which they announced their disapproval of the bill. The legislation easily passed in the State Senate on Thursday in a partisan vote 26 to 6. The previous week, the Tennessee House passed the bill in a partisan 68 to 24 vote. “So yeah, we’re gonna...

Citizens in a residential area of San Francisco are bolstering their homes with chicken wire in a bid to keep out intruders. Happening in the city's Richmond District, the safety measures come amid a recent jump in burglaries, robberies, and homicides in the affluent neighborhood. Headline-grabbing incidents like thieves making off with a Bank of America ATM earlier this year have even longtime residents on edge - with some installing cameras and safety locks along with the unconventional farm equipment. Several have attended community meetings and made posts on social media as the rampant crime wave persists. In interviews with...

In the face of an alarming rise in car thefts, Toronto Police Service (TPS) Constable Marco Ricciardi has offered a controversial tip to residents: leave car keys in the front door to avoid violent home invasions. During a community safety meeting in Etobicoke, Constable Ricciardi addressed the issue, stating, “To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your fobs at your front door because they’re breaking into your home to steal your car. They don’t want anything else.” In short, don’t make it hard for thieves to steal your car. This is what an unarmed society looks...

Oakland police see rise in smash-and-grab suspects targeting people sitting in their cars

Concerned parents calling themselves SafeBears have raised $40,000 to pay for security guards or “safety ambassadors” to patrol the UC Berkeley campus area for a few weeks in early March. UC Berkeley may be one of America’s most prestigious schools, but its location in the California Bay Area has parents and students both wary of safety on campus. A group called SafeBears, that touts itself as comprising “1,300+ Cal parents and community allies working to improve safety for UC Berkeley students,” has worked to solve the problem themselves, hoping their prototypical program of patrols around campus will inspire the college...

The city of Toronto has a car theft problem, and it doesn't sound like police have much of a clue as to how to combat it. In a recent safety meeting, one officer even gave advice that basically boiled down to: If thieves come knocking to steal your car, just let 'em have it. As reported by blogTO, Toronto Police Service Constable Marco Ricciardi said, "To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your [key] fobs at your front door because they're breaking into your home to steal your car. They don't want anything else." On the...

According to New York state law, squatters are “classified as tenants and receive temporary rights as such” after occupying a property for 30 days. New York State law dictates that if an owner wants to reclaim property from a squatter after 30 days, they must prove a right to the property and proceed with legal eviction proceedings. The Landas are taking Flores to landlord-tenant court to evict him. But it’s been a long process. ABC 7 reported that the couple already had five hearings in civil court but the process has been repeatedly delayed.