Category: Crime

Going for the “burnout” vote? The felon vote, maybe? Or just a desperate move to “buy” votes before the mid-terms?

North Carolina governor pushes to legalize marijuana possession after Biden pardons: ‘End this stigma’

I don’t care if they legalize weed (but I’d hoped they’d have some means to determine intoxication level before doing so), but past possession cases were still violations of the law. If you don’t like the law, then change it; but until then you’re still a criminal if you violate the law.

Note that he’s not offering to pardon the offenders himself. Know why? Because if he did this before the election no past offender would need to vote for him; they’d stay home on poll day and get high. But if he suggests that he might – if he is kept in office – well, hope is a powerful motivator.

But it’s still no different than bribing people for their votes.

… then why limit it to health care workers?

Bill makes it felony to threaten, attack health care workers

What’s the purpose of these laws, and their “hate crime” analogues? Is it to exact revenge for their victims? Or is it to deter such attacks by making them painful for the criminals? Either way, why am I – an ordinary citizen not part of some special interest group (pronounced “voting block”) – not offered the same opportunity for revenge and/or crime deterrence? And if these enhanced penalties work, thereby reducing crime against the selected group, why don’t we increase the penalties for attacking all residents?

Oh… because that would make sense. It would also decimate the soft-on-crime policies of liberal DA’s.

If we want a return to law and order, then we need to lock up the criminals – and punish them equally for each crime irrespective of the class/group status of the victim (or the class/group status of the perpetrator!).

I keep saying that abortion and gun control are flip sides of the same coin (here and here, for example). Now along comes Gov. Newsom to prove my point. His new law is effectively designed to “get even” with Texas for their recent abortion law, which is still winding its way through the Texas state court system.

California bill to allow citizens to enforce gun ban modeled after Texas heartbeat bill draws Newsom’s support

General gibberish and hyperbole (via Newsom) from the article:

If the conservative-controlled court upholds the Texas law and not California’s, it would show “hypocrisy,” he argued. 

“Or it’ll get them to reconsider the absurdity of their previous decision,” Newsom said, adding: “There is no principled way the U.S. Supreme Court cannot uphold this California law. None. Period full stop. It is quite literally modeled after the law they just upheld in Texas.”

Only the Supreme Court has NOT upheld the Texas law; so far they have only ruled on technical issues involving the case as it works its way through the lower court system (which should be allowed to run its course). In the end, when the right argument makes its way to the Supreme Court, I’m sure that the Texas law will be struck down (as will Newsom’s gun law).

I think the real reason for this law is stated by others cited in the article:

To Gallagher, California’s Republican Assembly leader, Newsom’s move is an attempt to appease a disapproving public sick of rising crime.

“He knows that he’s in trouble, and he’s using this as a sideshow distraction to introduce another gun law, so hopefully people will not see and pay attention to his terrible record on their quality of life,” he said. “The governor needs to focus his efforts on things that will lower the cost of living for Californians, actually solve homelessness, instead of one-off gestures that aren’t going to do anything to stop gun violence.”