Tag: crime

2022 Biggest Year Ever For Crypto Hacking with $3.8 Billion Stolen, Primarily from DeFi Protocols and by North Korea-linked Attackers

2022 was the biggest year ever for crypto hacking, with $3.8 billion stolen from cryptocurrency businesses.

Hacking activity ebbed and flowed throughout the year, with huge spikes in March and October, the latter of which became the biggest single month ever for cryptocurrency hacking, as $775.7 million was stolen in 32 separate attacks.

Below, we’ll dive into what kinds of platforms were most affected by hacks, and take a look at the role of North Korea-linked hackers, who drove much of 2022’s crypto hacking activity and shattered their own yearly record for most cryptocurrency stolen. 

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Was LBJ a “Serial Killer” Who Advanced His Career By Murdering at Least 6 Other Men Who Stood In His Way?

On June 3, 1961, Henry Marshall was found dead on his farm near Bryan in Robertson County, Texas. He had been shot five times with his own rifle.

Marshall, 51, had worked as a clerk with the Robertson County office of the Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA), holding a senior post in the agency. In 1960, he was asked to investigate the activities of Billie Sol Estes, a wealthy benefactor of Lyndon B. Johnson, whom he found to have engaged in an illegal scheme to buy cotton allotments.

According to Barr McClellan, who worked for the Austin, Texas, law firm of Clark, Thomas & Winters which represented Lyndon Johnson, Johnson had enlisted Billie Sol Estes to help him raise money to defeat John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Democratic Party primary. The two had a close relationship dating back to the 1950s.

Heralded in local media as the “wonder boy of Texas agriculture,” Estes had pioneered the use of irrigation pumps that were run by natural gas (which was less expensive than electricity) and by discovering the benefits of anhydrous ammonia as fertilizer.[1] A master at using the government for enrichment, Estes, according to a confession he gave after he was released from prison in 1984, became Johnson’s cutout for $10 million in illegal kickbacks ($100 million in 2022).[2]

When LBJ wanted large sums of money, Billie Sol gave it to him; in return he received key government contracts—the price being kickbacks to LBJ whenever he wanted it. McClellan wrote that “this way of doing political business in Texas was nothing short of a banana republic.”[3]

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University Tells Women Not to Call Police on Sex Offender Migrant Because It’s Racist

A university in Berlin told women being repeatedly harassed by a sex offender migrant male not to call the police as it may be seen as racist.

The suspect has been sexually harassing female students for weeks around campus at Berlin’s Free University, but the left-wing General Students’ Committee (AStA) has urged them not to alert authorities.

The Morgenpost newspaper reported on an email sent out to students by the group which said women should be wary of appearing racist and putting the sex offender at risk.

“We would like to point out that police operations for people affected by racism are generally associated with an increased risk of experiencing police violence,” the email stated, adding that most police officers are “not sufficiently trained in dealing with psychologically exceptional situations.”

“Therefore such engagements often ‘by unnecessary use of force are escalated.’” the statement added.

Morgenpost reported that the university’s email indicated, “the concern here is obviously less for the potential victim than for the perpetrator.”

Instead of calling the police, the letter says students should instead contact the security service of the university or the social psychiatric service.

“However, the latter can only apprehend an individual with their consent and thus is an unhelpful suggestion,” reports Remix News.

“Despite an intervention, the sex offender appears to resist any attempts to change his ways. Apparently, there was at least one conversation between students and the alleged sex offender, but he has shown no willingness to stop harassing women.”

Berlin police responded to the story by urging women to call them if they felt unsafe.

“Anyone who is in danger or affected by a crime or becomes aware of an emergency situation of others should not let anything or anyone stop them from acting. Call us – dial 110! We are here for you,” the police department tweeted.

Such behavior is nothing new in Germany, which has accepted millions of migrants, the vast majority of them young men, from the Middle East and North Africa over the last decade.

After the mass molestation of women in Cologne by migrant men on New Year’s Eve 2015, the local feminist group infamously responded by visiting the city’s migrant center and handing out flowers to asylum seekers.

Berlin was also hit by a wave of unrest on December 31st last year, although outside of the city itself the media barely covered the story.

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Study Reveals: Several Chicago Neighborhoods Riskier for Young Men Than What U.S. Troops Faced in Iraq and Afghanistan… And It’s Not Just Chicago

A new report published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found that the most violent ZIP code in Chicago is even deadlier for young men between the ages of 18-29 than what U.S. soldiers faced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Chicago Sun Times reports: 

“You fight in an Army combat brigade, you come back and say, ‘My God, I was in the thick of it for a year, and look at the risks I faced,’ ” says Brandon del Pozo, a Brown University researcher and former New York City cop who worked with three other scholars to examine violence in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles. “In Garfield Park, these young men face those risks every single year. And the risks accumulate.”

ZIP code 60624 is bordered by Cicero Avenue on the west, Chicago Avenue on the north, Homan Avenue on the east and Roosevelt Road on the south. Garfield Park is in the middle.

Among men ages 18 to 29, the annual rate of firearm homicides in that ZIP code was 1,277 per 100,000 people in 2021 and 2022, the study found, compared with an annual death rate for U.S. troops in a heavily engaged combat brigade in Iraq of 675 per 100,000.

Even when the researchers expanded their sample to include Chicago ZIP codes ranked in the top 10% of violence, young men still faced a greater risk of dying than soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, the study found.

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‘Defund the Police’ LA City Council member asks LAPD for EXTRA patrols around his office after his car broke down and had to be left in the parking lot overnight

A newly-elected Los Angeles city councillor who campaigned on a pledge to abolish the police has been left red-faced after a staff member rang the LAPD to request protection for his broken-down car. 

Hugo Soto-Martinez, a trade union activist and member of the Democratic Socialist party, was elected in December.

Soto-Martinez campaigned against ‘armed militias occupying our neighborhoods,’ saying that the existing policing system was ‘completely corrupt, immoral, and needs to be changed drastically.’ 

On Thursday night, a member of his team placed a call to the LAPD just before 10pm requesting assistance, because Soto-Martinez’s white Lexus had broken down.

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NJ Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour fatally shot outside her home

New Jersey Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was gunned down outside her home late Wednesday, crashing her car after being repeatedly shot while behind the wheel, officials said.

Dwumfour, 30, was found dead in her white Nissan SUV after it crashed near the Camelot at La Mer apartment complex in Sayreville, NJ, ABC 7 News reported.

The Republican councilwoman was found with multiple gunshot wounds, and pronounced dead at the scene, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed Thursday morning.

Some locals told RLS Media that the gunman was spotted racing off to the Garden State Parkway, which edges the complex. No other details were given on possible identifying details or a weapon.

Dwumfour — who also preached for a Nigerian-based church group — appeared to be the intended target, authorities told the outlet, stressing that there was no obvious motive.

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11 US cities — all governed by Democratic mayors — listed among 50 most dangerous in world

Eleven U.S. cities rank among the 50 most dangerous in the world, according to a recent report published by Numbeo, a global quality of life database. All 11 are governed by Democratic mayors.

Three U.S. cities — Baltimore, Memphis and Detroit — are ranked among the 20 most dangerous cities on the planet.

The three cities have more in common than just violent crime. All three are run by Democrats. 

Baltimore ranks #15 on the annual dangerous cities list, with Memphis and Detroit close behind at #18 and #19, respectively.

Brandon Scott, just 38 years of age, is the mayor of Baltimore. Jim Strickland Jr., an attorney and politician, is the 64th and current mayor of Memphis, where the Memphis police department has just announced plans to permanently deactivate the unit that five of the officers involved in the vicious beating of Tyre Nichols belonged to. Mike Duggan, meanwhile, is currently serving as the mayor of Detroit. 

Two more U.S. cities run by Democrats appear among the 30 most dangerous in the world: Albuquerque (#23), where 45-year-old Tim Keller serves as the 30th mayor, and St. Louis (#27), where Tishaura Oneda Jones has served as mayor since April of 2021.

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It’s Happening: Judge Orders Release of Bodycam Footage From Paul Pelosi Hammer Attack

Stop, hammer time. A California judge has ordered the release of police bodycam footage and portions of a 911 call from the Paul Pelosi home invasion last October. On October 28, 2022, Paul Pelosi was assaulted by David DePape, who wearing only underwear and armed with hammers, gained access to the home of the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though there were no signs of forced entry. Mr. Pelosi let police into the house after escaping to the bathroom to make an emergency phone call. 

That’s when initial reports said DePape attacked Pelosi with a hammer, which led to emergency brain surgery. He fully recovered, but the incident was one of the most bizarre. The security camera footage and the police bodycams weren’t released. Still, a lawsuit filed by multiple news organizations demanded that all video and audio evidence emanating from this bizarre home invasion be released. The motion was granted yesterday (via NBC News): 

A coalition of news organizations will gain access Thursday to all courtroom evidence from last year’s attack on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their San Francisco home. 

San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Stephen Murphy on Wednesday granted a motion filed by a group of 13 news organizations, including NBC News and The New York Times, requesting the release of evidence in the case against David DePape, the man accused of assaulting Paul Pelosi. 

The evidence consists of video from a body camera worn by an officer who responded at the Pelosis’ home on Oct. 28, a 911 call Paul Pelosi made to police, parts of a police interview with DePape and security video taken during the break-in recorded by U.S. Capitol Police in Washington. 

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Lori Lightfoot Blames Robbery Victims, Tells Them to Stop Carrying Cash

LGBT-BLM Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed robbery victims for the crimes of their attackers, telling citizens of Chicago that her solution for curtailing crime in the rabidly dangerous city is for people to stop carrying cash. Lightfoot is currently seeking re-election to another term as Mayor of Chicago, with a 9-candidate election slated for February 28th. Every single one of them is a Democrat.

Candidates for Mayor of Chicago gathered last night for a debate, sponsored by ABC7 News, which largely became focused on the city’s out-of-control crime, which makes regular headlines not just in the United States, but all over the globe, despite an intensely-enforced gun control program. Lately, property crimes and muggings have skyrocketed, as those walking down the street, or operating food trucks are being targeted on a regular basis.

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How Effective Are Police?

A 2020 paper published in the Alabama Law Review and written by Shima Baughman, professor of law at the University of Utah, puts paid to the illusion that cops solve crimes.

TV cops solve crimes. Real cops, not so much.

From the Abstract (emphasis added):

In recent years, the national conversation in criminal justice has centered on police. Are police using excessive force? Should they be monitored more closely? … The implied core question across these national debates is whether police are effective at their jobs. Yet we have not explored how effective police are or determined how best to measure police effectiveness.

This article endeavors to measure how effectively police perform at their core function — solving crime. The metric most commonly used to measure police effectiveness at crime solving is a “clearance rate”: the proportion of reported crimes for which police arrest a person and refer them for prosecution. But clearance rates are inadequate for many reasons, including the fact that they are highly manipulable. 

This Article therefore provides a set of new metrics that have never been used systematically to study police effectiveness — referred to as “criminal accountability” metrics. Criminal accountability examines the full course of a crime to determine whether police detect and ultimately resolve committed crime. Taking into account the prevalence and the number of crimes police solve, the proportion of crimes solved in America is dramatically lower than we realize. Only with a clearer conversation, rooted in accurate data about the effectiveness of the American police system, can we attempt a path toward increased criminal accountability and public safety.

She goes on to note that “the scholarly discussion has focused on how police are doing crime solving: With too much force? With the right monitoring? With proper technology? These discussions assume that police are solving crimes. The prior scholarship has also tackled police performance in specific arenas but has not examined how to measure whether police are effective at their jobs.”

The goal of the paper, then, is to answer the question, “What is the best way to determine police effectiveness?”

As the Abstract notes, using “clearance rates” is misleading. Clearance rate is defined as “the proportion of reported crime for which police arrest a person and refer them for prosecution.” Part of the problem with this metric is the amount of data it misses. For example:

How many individuals are victims of a crime but failed to report it to police? How often do police arrest the right people? Which crimes are police most likely to make arrests for? How many police clearances result in a conviction? How many crimes did police not make arrests for but resolved in other ways? None of this information is tracked [by the “clearance rate” metric].

The paper concludes that police, indeed, are remarkably ineffective at solving crime, their supposed primary function.

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