“Law and Order”

Denying Bail To The Coutts Four Is A Political Decision And Act

Five hundred and ten days ago just after midnight on February 14, 2022 – heavily armed RCMP squads raided three trailer-homes in the border town of Coutts, Alberta and started arresting people for Conspiracy to Murder Police Officers in Support of a Plot to Overthrow the Government during the Freedom Convoy protests in Alberta.

After a series of court appearances, four men remain in jail – denied bail for reasons of… well, we don’t know why they were denied bail. A court order prohibits publishing most details of the ongoing case and hearings.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", "Justice", "Law and Order", Canada

Daniel Penny pleads not guilty in NYC subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely

A stoic Daniel Penny pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges in a packed Manhattan courtroom Wednesday morning for the chokehold death of homeless man Jordan Neely.

The 24-year-old former Marine — who appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court clean-shaven and wearing a blue suit and maroon tie — was arraigned on charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide during the brief, minutes-long hearing.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Justice", "Law and Order"

Canadians of all stripes fed up with government line on crime, drugs: poll

Canadians of all ages and walks of life are fed up with the status quo on how their governments are responding to spiking rates of crime and addiction, according to a wide-ranging new Leger poll commissioned by Postmedia.

On everything from bail to involuntary addiction treatment to the decriminalization of drugs, Canadian public opinion was found to be almost entirely at odds with the priorities being championed by provincial and federal governments.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Justice", "Law and Order", Canada

A Look at the Suspects, Many With Long Criminal Histories, Behind Random Attacks in Canada

Canadians have been falling victim to unprovoked stranger attacks with increasing frequency—in the middle of the day, in stores, or walking down the street. A man in London, Ontario, was even stabbed while sitting in his car waiting for a train to pass.

Some say Canada’s growing drug problem is to blame, with drug-induced psychosis sending addicts on violent rampages. Others say the problem is a lax criminal justice system that allows the most violent to repeatedly offend.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Justice", "Law and Order", Crime

Pierre Poilievre calls for public safety minister to resign over Bernardo prison revelations

Nobody tells him nothin

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Wednesday that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino should resign over his handling of convicted killer Paul Bernardo’s controversial prison transfer.

CBC News reported Tuesday that Mendicino’s office knew for months that one of Canada’s most high-profile murderers would be moved by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) to a medium-security institution.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Justice", "Law and Order", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, WTF?

Appeal court cuts five years from sentence of man who beat, choked mother outside Edmonton daycare .. because Indigenous

A man who brutally attacked a mother outside her children’s daycare will serve four years in prison instead of nine years after Alberta’s top court found a judge failed to properly assess how the accused’s Indigenous background affected his level of culpability.

He was Indigenous? Well in that case Mom had it comin.

h/t Lesley

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Justice", "Law and Order", Canada, WTF?

Police agencies are desperate to hire. But they say few want the job.

The San Francisco Police Department is down more than 600 officers, almost 30 percent of its allotment. Phoenix needs about 500 more officers to be fully staffed. The D.C. police force is smaller than it has been in 50 years, despite troubling gun violence and carjackings, as officers leave faster than they can be replaced.

Police departments across the country are struggling to fill their ranks, creating what many current and former officials say is a staffing emergency that threatens public safety.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Law and Order"

Is Justice Still Blind in Canada?

Equality under the law is the cornerstone of liberal democracy. But judges across the country are now factoring race into sentencing.

Edward Smith didn’t think the color of his skin had anything to do with it.

He was 23, and he’d come to Canada in 2005 from West Africa. Now, he lived with his mother and sister in Edmonton, the capital of the western province of Alberta.

Racism—overt or systemic—didn’t make him take part in an armed robbery of an Airbnb in July 2019, he said. He’d decided on his own to help his cousin, who had told Smith that the people staying at the Airbnb had robbed him and that he was trying to get his money back. Smith agreed to help, but he didn’t want any guns involved. So they compromised: they’d bring a gun, but it would be unloaded.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Identity Politics", "Justice", "Law and Order"

GOLDSTEIN: Our soft-on-crime philosophy began 50 years ago

Federal Justice Minister David Lametti is right when he says passing federal legislation to toughen bail conditions for repeat violent offenders — which he says he will introduce during the current session of Parliament — won’t in and of itself address legitimate concerns about public safety.

He’s also right, as he told the CBC’s The House on Saturday, that Ottawa alone can’t address the problem of violence — that provinces and municipalities have a responsibility as well.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Justice", "Law and Order"

Girls accused in swarming murder yawn and snicker in juvenile court

Some of the girls smirked; some of them yawned. Some looked tense; some looked like this was all an amusing lark.

On a day of yet another seemingly random murder downtown, seven of the eight teens charged in last month’s shocking swarming and fatal stabbing of Ken Lee — a man who had struggled with homelessness — once again appeared in juvenile court.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Law and Order"

Los Angeles Descends Into Insanity

Oh, what a blessing it is to be retired from the Los Angeles Police Department.

I am proud of the career I had with the LAPD, which spanned more than 30 years, beginning in the early 1980s. It was an era when, though there were many times we asked ourselves, “Who are these morons we’re working for?” was not yet marked by the genuine insanity that afflicts so many currently serving in city government and the upper ranks of the department.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Law and Order", WTF?

Should Canada follow U.S. lead and make anti-impaired technology mandatory in all new cars?

One of the worst aspects of seeing your family ripped apart by a drunk driver, said Brenda Simmons, is knowing that it could have been avoided with political will and the right application of technology.

“If somebody didn’t have the decency, or they didn’t have the decision-making capacity [and they] still decide to get behind the wheel, if that vehicle didn’t start because of some mandatory technology, my son would still be here,” she told CBC News.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Law and Order", "Surveillance Society"