Tag: crime

Maine Abolishes Civil Forfeiture, Now Requires A Criminal Conviction To Take Property

Maine became the fourth state to abolish civil forfeiture, a practice that enables law enforcement to confiscate millions of dollars worth of property without ever filing criminal charges. Taking effect on Tuesday without the governor’s signature, LD 1521 fully repeals Maine’s civil forfeiture laws, while simultaneously bolstering its criminal forfeiture process, which only authorizes forfeiture after a criminal conviction (apart from a few narrow circumstances, like the owner’s death or deportation). 

Although civil forfeiture is typically defended as a way to fight back against drug kingpins, in reality, many forfeiture cases have been remarkably petty. In Maine, half of all cash forfeitures were under $1,670. 

“It’s a very simple concept; you don’t lose your property unless you used it in the commission of a crime, or knowingly allowed someone else to use it in the commission of a crime,” bill sponsor Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham wrote in May testimony supporting his bill. “It is time to end this work around that makes people prove innocence, rather than prosecutors proving guilt. This is one of the founding principles of our country.” 

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Fusion Centers Enter Kids As Young As 1 Year Old In Secret Gang Databases

Recent documents from the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. (MPD) and the Boston Police Department (BPD) show that Regional Intelligence Centers (RIC) are encouraging police officers to put children and adults in secret gang databases.

Last month an article in The Intercept showed that police gang databases are riddled with civil rights violations and errors. It revealed how police used civilian analysts to create flawed RIC (Fusion Center) gang member databases.

“A spreadsheet of the MPD database shared internally the next month included a supposed gang member who was less than 1 year old, as well as 2, 3, 5, and 6-year-olds. The 2,575 names in the spreadsheet also included children as young as 14.”

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San Francisco DA official says crime surge fears linked to racism

A senior official in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office linked fears of a crime surge to racism in a tweet that raised eyebrows Sunday evening. 

Kate Chatfield, a senior director in far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office, downplayed safety concerns amid a nationwide crime spike. 

Chatfield was reacting to a Twitter user who said that “every single one of my friends right now is considering leaving” San Francisco due to crime fears. “My friends are scared for their children, and their husbands are scared for their wives,” the user wrote. 

“‘Husbands are scared for their wives’ —-your reminder that the ‘crime surge’ crowd shares the same ideology as The Birth of a Nation,” Chatfield fired back, referring to an early 20th-century White supremacist film. 

Chatfield locked her Twitter account – making it so only her followers can see her tweets – after her comment about crime fears drew sharp criticism online. Boudin’s office didn’t immediately return Fox News’ request for comment. 

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Senior San Francisco Official Compares Those who Complain about Surging Crime and Looting to KKK Members

Kate Chatfield, a senior director in District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office, compared those who complain about crime and protecting their wives and family to KKK members.

This was after Neiman Marcus store was looted on Monday.

Kate Chatfield compared those who complain and worry about the San Francisco crime surge to those who produced the KKK film “Birth of a Nation” that was given a viewing in Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s White House.

This is today’s Democrat Party. This is where it leads — always.

Kate Chatfield later set her Twitter account to “private.”

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Vatican Indicts Cardinal And 9 Other Suspects On Embezzlement, Fraud

A Vatican judge indicted a cardinal and 9 other suspects on charges of money laundering, fraud, and abuse of office Saturday, according to the Independent.

The suspects are accused of withholding millions of euros from the Holy See and investing money that was donated to the pope for charity work, the Independent reported.

Italian broker Gianluigi Torzi is accused of using 15 million euros that he withheld from the Vatican to invest in a London building in 2018. Former Holy See official Cardinal Angelo Becciu was indicted for helping organize the investment when he was the Secretariat of State’s chief of staff, according to Independent. 

Another suspect, an Italian intelligence expert, was accused of using Holy See money to buy luxury goods, the Independent reported.

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AOC warns about ‘hysteria’ over rising crime just months after accusing GOP colleagues of trying to murder her

Ocasio-Cortez later agreed with far-left Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) who said during the video event that law enforcement should be defunded.

The progressive Squad member and Bowman have both been staunch proponents of the “Defund the Police” movement.

Bowman, however, despite his fiery rhetoric against “white supremacist” police, begged the Yonkers Police Department for increased police presence where he lives due to alleged “death threats” after the Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6.

The pair discuss how to push the defunding police agenda further, despite the disastrous results it has produced. Ocasio-Cortez tells her congressional colleague:

“We are seeing these headlines about percentage increases [of violent crimes]. Now, I wanna say that any amount of harm is unacceptable and too much.”

“But, I also wanna make sure that this hysteria … you know, that this doesn’t drive a hysteria, and that we look at these numbers in context so that we can make responsible decisions about what to allocate … in that context,” she added.

Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out that just last month, Ocasio-Cortez had the power to stop $2 billion in additional funds for the Capitol Police that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted. All she had to do was vote “no” like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Aryanna Pressley (D-MA).

“Instead, she voted ‘present’ to get more police protection for herself,” he said.

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Oakland’s violence-prevention chief was held up by gunmen during a news interview just days after the city defunded its police department

Last week, the city council in Oakland, California decided to formally defund its police department of more than $18 million, a journey that started with a pledge last July during all those fun BLM riots.

Since the woke council announced that it would strip its public officers of resources, crime has predictably spiked in the city, just like it has around the nation.

Oakland has had nearly twice the number of murders as it did at this time last year and all violent crimes – including homicide, rapes, robberies, and assaults – are up 13%.

When you play stupid games, however, you win even stupider prizes – a fact that became all too apparent when two armed robbers held up the city’s chief of violence prevention while he was doing a TV interview AT CITY HALL!

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Doctoral Candidate Who Sought to Prove Justice System Was ‘Racist Against Blacks’ Stabbed to Death by Black Male in Chicago

Anat Kimchi, a 31-year-old Israeli-born doctoral candidate and scholar at the University of Maryland, wrote a paper published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology in 2019 attempting to prove America’s criminal justice system was racist against “young black offenders” and “black drug offenders.”

While visiting Chicago over the weekend, Kimchi was ambushed and stabbed in the back and neck while walking near a homeless encampment at 401 South Wacker at around 3:35 p.m. Police said witnesses told them the assailant was a homeless “slim black male with long dreadlocks who wore a red bandana and a blue tank top,” CWB Chicago reported.

Every last media outlet appears to have hid the suspect’s description in accordance with their new rules against “amplifying narratives that connect Black and brown communities to crime” but CWB Chicago reported it straight.

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