Category: Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement
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Did Police Manpower Shortages Contribute to Virginia’s Crime Wave?
by James A. Bacon Jim Sherlock, Dick Hall-Sizemore and I have been having an excellent debate in Bacon’s Rebellion over what caused the crescendo of homicides and violent crime in Virginia over the past two years. In response to previous posts by Jim and me critical of Northern Virginia’s woke, Soros-funded prosecutors, Dick argued yesterday…
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Those Progressive Prosecutors: The Sky Hasn’t Fallen
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been much concern expressed on this blog that the policies of newly elected “progressive” prosecutors in the Commonwealth would lead to increases in crime in those jurisdictions and, perhaps, a dissolution of society. See here, here, here, and here. Based on data in the recently released Crime in Virginia 2021,…
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Homicides in Richmond Soar – Cleared Homicides Decline
by James C. Sherlock We have seen considerable reporting on violent crime in Richmond, homicides in particular. There is reason for that. The statistics are appalling and getting worse. Data from 2010-2020 show that homicides have soared since 2015; clearance rates have plummeted since 2016; 91% of the offenders and 89% of the victims are…
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Crime and Blame
by Jon Baliles One thing we already know, is that crime is out of control in the City. Jon Burkett at CBS is known as the Crime Insider and rightfully so given that is basically all he has covered in the region for two decades. He gave an interview on July 6 on WRVA’s Morning…
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Crime and (No) Punishment
Bacon’s Rebellion is pleased to begin cross-posting from RVA 5X5, the new Substack publication of Jon Baliles, who worked for the City of Richmond under Mayors Doug Wilder and Levar Stoney and been active in the civic and artistic communities for many years. by Jon Baliles Today’s edition (of RVA 5X) starts off similarly to…
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Despite Tighter Gun Laws, Firearm Violence Up in 2021
by James A. Bacon What role has the availability of guns played in the surge in violent crimes in Virginia over the past two years? The graph above summarizes the data from the 2021 Crime in Virginia report. Over the two-year period, the number of firearm-related crimes increased 10.9%, while the use of all other…
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6,000 Violent Crimes in Virginia Involved Guns Last Year
by James A. Bacon After a spate of mass shootings, gun control has moved to the top of the Democratic Party agenda. Here in Virginia, we got a reminder this morning of the omnipresent threat that gun-wielding thugs pose to public safety. Police arrested two illegal immigrants who were allegedly plotting to shoot up a…
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Four Cities Account for Almost 70% of the Increase in Virginia Homicides
While overall crime rates have remained fairly stable in Virginia since 2019, the year before social-justice protests rocked the state and nation, the homicide rate has increased alarmingly. The total number of murders and nonnegligent homicides leaped from 428 in 2019 to 562 in 2021, according to data recently published in the 2021 Crime in…
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Life in the 21st Century: No Limits to Human Depravity
by James A. Bacon Sherrell Rivera of Chesterfield County pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing her two-year-old son by putting liquid methadone in his sippy cup, giving him an unintentional fatal overdose. Rivera had a prescription for methadone to treat an opioid addiction, and son Kruz had been addicted at birth due to her drug…
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Assaults on Law-Enforcement Officers Down Slightly in 2021
by James A. Bacon Although the number of police officers assaulted in the line of duty declined somewhat in 2021, two police officers were killed last year compared to one in 2020 and one in 2019, according to data published in the 2021 Crime in Virginia report issued by the Virginia State Police. The number…
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Virginia Headline in the Associated Press
by James C. Sherlock The Associated Press published an article by the always-reliable Sarah Rankin yesterday. It was headlined: Virginia law stops early inmate releases, angering families Let’s conduct a contest. Take a minute and guess to whose families the headline refers, victims or convicted criminals. Time’s up. It seems we have a unanimous set…
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African-Americans the Main Victims of Virginia Crime Wave
by James A. Bacon The Virginia State Police has published its 2021 Crime in Virginia report, and the big news — that homicides and violent crime continued their two-year surge — seemed not to pique much interest in the mainstream media. To be sure, the television stations, where crime news is a staple, and the…
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Prosecutors Who Won’t Do Their Jobs
by Kerry Dougherty Two local prosecutors just earned an A in both Fearmongering 101 and Grandstanding 101. Ramon Fatehi of Norfolk and Stephanie Morales of Portsmouth used the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe V Wade to summon the press and draw attention to, well, themselves. The duo pronounced themselves “horrified” that the highest court would…
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Hey, Where Did All the White Supremacists Go?
by James A. Bacon If you believe the political/pundit class, Glenn Youngkin rode the path to the governorship on the back of a White backlash against his predecessor’s efforts to rectify the last 400 years of wrongs against minorities. All the while last year, the experts warned of the looming threat of White supremacists against…
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Drug Offenses Down, Violent Crime Up in 2021
The Virginia State Police (VSP) has finally published its 2021 Crime in Virginia report. I’ll be out of action for much of the day today, so I’ll settle right now for posting a few highlights. Homicides. The number of homicides (murder/nonnegligent manslaughter) increased to 562 statewide in 2021, a rate of 6.49 per 100,000. The…