Tag Archives: ethics

A DA Misunderstands

Posted on by
Reply

Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Becton has decided that looters’ “needs” should matter in a prosecutor’s assessment of whether he should charge them with their crimes.

Becton’s full guidelines for charging an individual with looting are:

  1. Was this theft offense substantially motivated by the state of emergency, or simply a theft offense which occurred contemporaneous to the declared state of emergency?
    1. Factors to consider in making this determination:
      1. Was the target business open or closed to the public during the state of emergency?
      2. What was the manner and means by which the suspect gained entry to the business?
      3. What was the nature/quantity/value of the goods targeted?
      4. Was the theft committed for financial gain or personal need?
      5. Is there an articulable reason why another statute wouldn’t adequately address the particular incident?

A defendant’s “needs” are centered on his motive for committing the crime of which he’s accused. As such, they’re best considered by a jury during the penalty phase of the trial. “Needs” have no place in deciding whether the public, or the specific victims of the crime, should be allowed access to justice after having been, in the present context, looted, their property vandalized, destroyed, or stolen.

Even a California district attorney must understand this.

“Better Have an Army”

Posted on by
Reply

In response to President Donald Trump’s statement that he wants to stop Federal funds from going to “anarchist jurisdictions,” which include New York City, Seattle, Portland, and DC, among others, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) issued this threat:

He can’t come back to New York. He can’t. He’s going to walk down the street in New York? Forget bodyguards, he better have an army if he thinks he’s going to walk down the street in New York.

Yes, Fredo Cuomo’s older brother said that out loud.

It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.

Leaks

Posted on by
Reply

Congressman Adam Schiff (D, CA), who sits in the House Intelligence Committee Chairman’s chair, is upset. It seems Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has decided to stop giving verbal briefings of intelligence matters to the House as a whole, but will instead provide written briefings only, and only to House members with the clearances necessary to receive the briefings—a vastly smaller number than the 435 politicians that make up the fully populated House.  After all, Ratcliffe has said,

within minutes of one of those briefings ending, a number of members of Congress went to a number of different outlets and leaked classified information for political purposes to create a narrative that simply isn’t true, that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China.

Naturally, Schiff twisted his panties over that. He’s beefing that [Fox News‘ cite]

the Trump administration is “hid[ing] behind documents or withhold[ing] documents” and “concealing the truth [and] concealing Russians are again intervening to help the president in his reelection.”

Of course, this is a lie; those documents and the rest of the information are being provided via those written briefings to a more carefully selected (by the House, yet) and more careful audience. Those written briefings will make it harder to leak, easier to demonstrate the biased nature of the leaks, and easier to trace and identify the leaker.

Maybe the real problem is that Schiff won’t be able to leak so extensively.

A Choice

Posted on by
Reply

The Trump campaign has as one of its focuses, law and order, and it points to the rioting and looting so rampant in so many cities.

if Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the White House, “No one will be safe.” Vice President Mike Pence used almost the same words in his speech a day earlier, and one of the campaign’s most-aired recent ads employs similar language.
…his team is banking that the chaotic images from places such as Kenosha, WI, and Portland, OR, won’t just rally their base, but sway undecided voters and suburban voters who had been moving away from Mr Trump.

The Biden campaign demurs from that,

noting that the unrest is taking place under Mr Trump’s watch. “This happens to be Donald Trump’s America,” Mr Biden said on Thursday.

This is a cynical and disingenuous distortion of the facts.

All of that rioting and looting is taking place in Progressive-Democrat-run cities, on Progressive-Democrat mayors’ watches. In the particular case of Portland, the mayor has overtly refused Federal help in controlling and then ending the rioting and looting.

With law enforcement being entirely local, the Feds cannot move in, cannot provide assistance, unless

Grassroots

Posted on by
Reply

The Progressive-Democratic Party has them.

Violent clashes erupted in Washington, DC, between protesters and police after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Thursday night.

And

Protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St John’s Church….

And

US Senator Rand Paul (R, KY) said he was attacked by a “crazed mob” of more than 100 people after leaving the White House following President Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

And

An elderly couple was confronted as they crossed the street by at least one protester who screamed at them while making an obscene gesture, according to a video.

And the ongoing rioting and looting in Progressive-Democrat-run cities, like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, ….

These are the Progressive-Democratic Party’s grass roots.

This is why no one in Party talked about those rioters and looters Party’s poll numbers started to fall, why Progressive-Democrats were deafeningly silent all through their convention and in the weeks before that.

It’s why, even now, they’re commenting only in empty platitudes, with no concrete intention, much less an actual plan, to act against the violence.