Tag: crime

A Tour Of America’s Blue-topias

I lived in Massachusetts for a number of years and even at one time owned a home there. The home was in a town called Cotuit, on the Cape, a small, pretty town that recalled the atmosphere of the television show Lost or the novel Lord of the Flies. There was an equivalent feeling of desolation and desperation and the strange notion that cannibal zombies ran the town. We determined that it was not the place we wanted to spend our free time, even though I have to say that the clam strips were delicious.

When I was a student, I lived in the Boston area, and that was a different feel, more of what we can find in our Blue American cities today. I have to say that Cambridge was ahead of its time. When I worked on the student janitorial crew, my boss, one of the wisest men in Boston—a dyed-in-the-wool Bruins, Red Sox, and Patriots fan and Vietnam vet—comforted me one day as we sat together on the steps in Radcliffe Yard. Bob said to me, “Donnie, the thing you need to know about this place is that it’s basically an insane asylum where the inmates would never think of leaving.” It is a fact of my life that the best advice I have ever received has not come from professors or academics, and certainly not lawyers, but working people.

As effed up as Massachusetts is, even I was stunned to see the spectacle of the governor signing what, in my view, amounts to infanticide into law while a bunch of cackling celebrants stood around her clapping. This finally even got a rise from the local Catholic bishops, not a frequent event because God forbid they should lose parishioners. Clearly, I have more fieldwork to do in Massachusetts to understand the delirious reaction of women to removing legal restrictions on aborting their own children at an advanced stage of pregnancy. But I suppose we can take solace in knowing that this lunacy—which was once largely confined to university campuses—is now active throughout the country, and especially in America’s major cities.

So, I think it is time we took a tour of some of our major cities and important organizations so we can show the fecundity of choices that we have in terms of where to live in the relevant blue states.

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FLASHBACK: Pfizer CEO Said People Who ‘Spread Misinformation’ About Covid Vaccines Are “Criminals” – As Fauci Secretly Knew Jabs Cause Miscarriages

Remember this?

In November 2021, Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, said people who dare to “spread misinformation’ about Covid vaccines are “criminals.”

Albert Bourla, a veterinarian who was born in Greece, attacked the First Amendment and used his platform to intimidate Americans.

Bourla said people who circulate misinformation about Covid jabs and dare speak ill of his product are “criminals.”

“Those people are criminals,” Bourla told Atlantic Council CEO Frederick Kempe nearly five years ago. “They’re not bad people. They’re criminals because they have literally cost millions of lives.”

Bourla issued a veiled threat, warning Americans that life won’t return to normal until the vaccine holdouts take the jab.

This was during the height of the Biden-era Covid vaccine mandates, where people were being fired for refusing the jab.

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Migrant From Ghana Arrested Multiple Times in Two Weeks For Raping, Sexually Assaulting Women in Oklahoma

A migrant from Ghana has been arrested at least three times in the last two weeks for raping and sexually assaulting women in Oklahoma.

26-year-old Jeff Kufi Asare, a foreign national from Ghana, has sexually assaulted four women this month.

Koco reported:

Jeff Asare has been in jail three times in the last two weeks, all for allegedly assaulting women.

On Aug. 1, near Northwest 23rd Street and Classen Boulevard, police responded to a possible rape. Asare allegedly pushed a woman against a bus stop window and put his hands down her pants.

Another woman told police that Asare came up behind her while she was walking on Classen Boulevard, pulled her pants down, and fled after she pushed him away. He was arrested for sexual battery and indecent exposure.

Five days later, near Scissortail Park, Asare allegedly walked up behind a woman, grabbed her buttocks multiple times, and began digging in his pants. When the woman asked him to leave, he walked away. Police later spotted him and arrested him for sexual battery.

Six days after that, on Wednesday, Asare allegedly approached a woman from behind on the Lake Hefner Trail, pulled her down, and attempted to rape her. Firefighters intervened and called police.

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Thieves Steal Four Renaissance Artworks in Sicilian Museum Heist

Thieves stole four works attributed to the Sicilian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina from a regional museum in the Sicilian city of Messina on the Italian Ferragosto holiday, the news agency LaPresse reported Sunday.

The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems Saturday evening at the MuMe regional museum to make off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated from 1473, as well as the double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and dead Christ in Pietà, which was removed from an armored display case, LaPresse reported.

“We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina´s most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world,” MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency. She said the theft occurred just before 10 p.m.

The Italian government in March bought a devotional painting titled “Ecce Homo” by da Messina for $14.9 million from Sotheby’s auction house in New York – raising the profile of the early Renaissance painter.

Lynda Albertson, an art-crime analyst, said the works are instantly recognizable, impeding any effort to sell them through reputable channels.

“Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that – to their cost,” Albertson, who is the chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica. She said such famous artworks often pass from one criminal to another, serving as collateral for other illicit activity.

The museum was closed Sunday while investigators gathered evidence. Neither museum officials nor the Carabinieri could immediately be reached for comment.

The Ferragosto holiday, which marks the feast of the Assumption of Mary, marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season.

The theft comes just days after police in the northern Italian city of Parma announced that they had recovered three stolen artworks by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth about 10 million euros ($11.5 million). Five people have been detained in the March 22-23 theft from the Magnani Rocca Foundation located in the Parma province.

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Homeless Repeat Criminal Who Broke into Portland Business Files $10 Million Lawsuit After Getting Shot by Owner 

A career criminal with a lengthy record of burglaries and thefts who broke into a Portland countertop fabrication business and was shot three times by the owner while attempting to flee is now seeking $10 million in a civil lawsuit, arguing the property owner used excessive force against him.

The incident took place on March 6, 2023, around 5:30 a.m.

The criminal, 43-year-old Kenneth Voyles, who was homeless and had methamphetamine in his system, entered Touchstone Granite & Marble Inc. by pulling plywood off a damaged garage door and cutting through metal bars.

Voyles later claimed he was looking for food and to get out of the cold but also admitted he intended to rob the place.

Inside the building, he ran into the 70-year-old owner, James Grant, an Army veteran with a concealed weapons permit who had been living in a back room of the business.

Grant, who was not wearing his hearing aids, confronted Voyles, threw a cup of urine and tiles at him, and ordered him to leave.

“I go, ‘Stop!’ Like, ‘Please stop!’” Voyles claimed in court, according to a report from the Post Millennial. “He’s assaulting me. He was pretty angry.”

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Valuable Stolen Picasso Found Hanging on Milwaukee Apartment Wall After Tenant Was Evicted

A stolen Pablo Picasso print worth $50,000 has been claimed by its rightful owner after it was discovered by a landlord in Wisconsin while cleaning out a vacant apartment.

Gallery owner Bill DeLind thought the print by the iconic Spanish artist was gone for good after it was stolen in 2018 from his Milwaukee showroom.

Then, last week, he got a call from police. They wanted him to took at the reduction-style image that a Milwaukee landlord had discovered while turning around one of his apartments.

DeLind knew immediately what he was looking at. It was his stolen “Torero” print, one of 30 known to exist signed by Picasso, the New York Post and other outlets reported.

“I was overwhelmed,” DeLind said Friday. “I was at a loss for words. It was an overwhelming moment for me.”

“It was indeed mine,” he added. “It came back full circle.”

The landlord, Tim Dertz, told WISN-TV that he found the print while cleaning out an apartment of a tenant he had to evict.

“It was kind of in a weird spot hanging on a wall,” Tim Dertz told the station, per the Post’s report. “It looked like it had been there for a long, long time because it had tons of dust across the top of it.”

The landlord said he showed it to an antique dealer friend who recognized it as an authentic Picasso.

Dertz handed it over to police, who then contacted DeLind.

The Milwaukee Police Department told the Post Friday that the statute of limitations for theft and property crimes is generally six years. Still, the case remains under investigation, the department said.

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Former Assistant Anoka County Attorney charged for alleged role in sex trafficking operation

A former Assistant Anoka County Attorney is facing 26 charges related to her alleged role in a sex trafficking operation in the Twin Cities area.

Andrea Leigh Sampson, 35, has been charged with 13 counts of promoting prostitution of an individual and 13 counts of receiving profits from prostitution.

Sampson’s arrest comes from an investigation that has been ongoing since 2021 by various law enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota BCA and the Human Trafficking Task Force.

According to court documents, Sampson, along with three others, Frank Reeves, Viktoriya Komonash and Katherine Thomes, are accused of operating or playing a role in a sex trafficking organization in Hennepin County and surrounding areas.

According to court documents, the organization would operate a website called “Minnesota Erotica Personals,” where various women would be “posted” for users to request sexual transactions.

Sampson’s alleged role in the operation was to secure and provide locations where these “transactions” could occur, as well as creating and maintaining multiple LLCs, which court documents claim appeared to have been shell companies to help hide profits coming in from the sex trafficking.

Properties owned by Sampson have allegedly been found to be where some of the women advertised on the website had their photos taken and where some “transactions” occurred.

Court documents stated law enforcement spoke with various women throughout the investigation regarding their experiences with the group and the “Minnesota Erotica Personals” website.

13 of those women were later identified as victims in court documents.

In a statement, Anoka County Attorney Brad Johnson confirmed Sampson was once an assistant attorney with the county, assigned to the office’s Family Law and Civil Division.

According to Johnson, the BCA spoke with top members of the Anoka County Attorney’s Office on Feb. 25, 2026, and informed them it was investigating Johnson.

The Anoka County Attorney’s Office placed Sampson on administrative leave, and her last day of employment was March 9.

Sampson is currently in custody in Hennepin County; her first court date is scheduled for Aug. 17.

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New York City Losing Millions to Fare Skippers as People Embrace Zohran Mamdani’s Promise of ‘FREE’ Buses

During the mayoral race, communist Zohran Mamdani made the promise of ‘free’ buses a central part of his campaign. He hasn’t delivered on this promise yet, but that hasn’t stopped New Yorkers from pretending that he did and skipping bus fares.

The lost revenue is costing the city millions, which could put a damper on the mayor’s many other promises of free stuff.

It’s just the sort of basic economics that people on the left refuse to understand.

FOX News reports:

New Yorkers take Zohran Mamdani free bus promise literally as MTA loses millions in skipped fares

Political promises of “free buses” in New York City are contributing to a spike in fare evasion that is costing the city’s mass transit system millions of dollars, transit officials warn.

In July, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman Janno Lieber blamed political rhetoric for fueling fare evasion, though he never mentioned Mayor Zohran Mamdani by name.

“There’s a trend that broke out,” Lieber told reporters following a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, according to the New York Post. “With malice towards none, I say all of the talk of free buses, it has an impact.”

The MTA reported that paid bus ridership fell nearly 8% in June compared to the same month last year. During Mamdani’s first six months in office, bus fare revenue fell by $31 million compared to the first half of 2025. Agency estimates show nearly half of bus riders now skip the $3 fare.

Mamdani made the slogan “fast and free buses” a major part of his 2025 mayoral campaign. However, the MTA is controlled by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state, rather than City Hall. While the mayor and Hochul unveiled plans on July 8 to focus instead on speeding up bus routes, experts and union leaders say the “free bus” rhetoric has already contributed to fare evasion.

Who could have predicted this, besides every conservative in the country?

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Actor charged with 24 felony counts in alleged child sexual abuse case

A California actor and producer is facing 24 felony charges after investigators said he used online casting calls to contact minors as part of an alleged pattern of child sexual abuse spanning decades.

Shane Ryan Gledhill, 46, of Lompoc, was arrested Aug. 3 after Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s detectives spent nearly five years investigating accusations of exploitation.

Gledhill, whose work involved projects connected to actors including Shelley Duvall, Tom Arnold, Richard Dreyfuss and Ed Harris, was initially booked on 15 felony charges. That total has now climbed to 24.

The investigation began in November 2021, when a 17-year-old survivor approached Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s investigators about what they described as suspicious and inappropriate conduct involving Gledhill when she was 15, according to authorities.

That initial report led to an investigation that eventually identified nine survivors, the Sheriff’s Office said. All were minors at the time of the alleged offenses.

In February 2022, investigators executed a search warrant at his residence in Lompoc. Investigators seized thousands of digital files, which underwent an extensive forensic examination.

The Sheriff’s Office said the investigation uncovered a pattern in which Gledhill allegedly used online casting calls and film-making projects to contact aspiring young actors.

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A Flock Camera Flagged Her Car in a Homicide by Mistake. Police Pulled Her Over at Gunpoint Twice

A Wisconsin woman was stopped by police with guns drawn twice in one week after an automated license plate camera wrongly linked her car to a Milwaukee homicide. Milwaukee police say the alert should have been deleted days earlier, but a staffer never cleared it.

According to Local 12, Amber Newell was driving on I-94 in Brookfield, west of Milwaukee, on the afternoon of August 6 when a Flock camera flagged her vehicle as connected to a homicide investigation. FOX6 Milwaukee reported that video from the interstate showed multiple officers with guns drawn and a passenger sticking their hands out the window. After Brookfield officers reached out to the Milwaukee Police Department to verify the alert, MPD responded that the vehicle and its occupants were no longer of interest, and the people were let go. Newell told FOX6 the same thing had happened to her earlier that week.

The issue was not the camera reading her plate wrong. Milwaukee police said this was a personnel problem, not a Flock problem: staff failed to remove a wanted vehicle alert from the system after it was no longer needed. Brookfield Police Chief Christopher Garcia has defended the stop, and Milwaukee police back him up, saying his officers acted on the information they had. Newell described the fear in plain terms. “I haven’t been asleep since this has happened,” she said. “Every time I close my eyes, all I can see is guns.” She also said her young daughter is now afraid to ride in the car.

Flock Safety operates a network of roughly 120,000 cameras across the country, and the system works by photographing plates, timestamping them, logging a location, and checking each read against police hotlists. When a plate matches, officers get an alert. That means your car’s movements can land in a searchable database whether or not you are suspected of anything, and the accuracy of any given stop depends entirely on whether the underlying list is correct and current.

The louder story this year has been deliberate abuse. Milwaukee alone has seen two officers charged: Josue Ayala, who prosecutors say searched a partner’s plate and that partner’s ex nearly 200 times, and internal affairs detective Tehrangi Chapman, who was later charged after allegedly misusing the same system he was assigned to investigate. The Institute for Justice has documented at least a couple dozen cases nationwide of officers using plate readers to track romantic interests, and a Washington Post review found at least 50 officers accused of misusing these systems. Cities are reacting. Chandler, Arizona pulled 40 Flock cameras this month after an audit turned up an anomaly it could not explain through normal police work.

What happened to Newell is different from stalking, but it comes from the same weak point: an audit trail and an accuracy check only work if a person is actually watching them. A separate running tally of reported Flock errors found drivers who were repeatedly stopped after their own plates were mistakenly added to hotlists, and one man who spent 13 days in jail after a camera capture misidentified his car. Flock has said its cameras are about 99% accurate, but at tens of billions of reads a month, even a tiny error rate becomes a steady stream of real people staring down real guns. 

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