#Crime – Odd Stuffing

The Second Amendment BUT Crowd

The runup to the general elections always bring out the worst of the so-called Second Amendment supporters. These are the ones who make statements that start off by saying “I support the Second Amendment, but…”. The BUT is always some form of unconstitutional gun control that is the exact OPPOSITE of supporting the Second Amendment. The campaign trail expectation is we will think other firearm owners and Second Amendment supporters, like ourselves, believe in gun control, so WE should also believe in gun control. HA!

The Second Amendment is short, sweet and abundantly clear.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Despite the left’s false claim it only covers the ‘state militia’ or some other creative reinterpretation of it, the Second Amendment does NOT grant the right to bear arms. It merely denies the government the authority to infringe upon the preexisting right to bear arms.

Pen & Teller have a classic, simple explanation of the Second Amendment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx23c84obwQ

When you hear a presidential candidate say “This business about taking everyone’s guns away; Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anyone’s guns away,”

BUT this same candidate has also campaigned on a mandatory gun buyback of so-called “assault weapons”.

What is a mandatory gun buyback? We’ve seen these in other countries (Australia, New Zealand, etc.) Certain or all firearms are declared unlawful and anyone who owns one must turn it into the government for compensation. Of course, the government didn’t sell these firearms to the people in the first place, so they aren’t really conducting a ‘buyback’ and the fixed amount they pay for everyone’s firearm is rarely going to be the fair market value. And what if you don’t want to sell your firearm to the government? Well, that doesn’t matter, it’s mandatory. You can voluntarily give it to them for the set amount they will give you or they can come take it from you when they charge you with possessing an illegal gun.

This isn’t just a case of semantics. Paying someone for something that you mandate they must give you, when they don’t want to give it to you, is still taking.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why the other gun control zealot goal of universal background checks is so important, how do you think they know you didn’t turn in your newly illegal gun?

Let’s also look at another previous statement from the same presidential candidate when discussing a previous San Francisco measure mandating “safe storage” in your home.

“Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn’t mean that we’re not going to walk into that home and check to see if you’re being responsible and safe.”

That’s not just violating your Second Amendment rights, it’s also violating your Fourth Amendment rights. What part of the Constitution could ever be interpreted to allow random government searches of firearm owner homes?

Gun control is a bottomless pit of progressively draconian regulations on the law-abiding population that is somehow, someway supposed to alter the criminal use of guns. What happens instead is the increasingly disarmed law-abiding population turns into the victim population.

Let’s go back to California for an example. California is at the forefront of all things gun control and is proud of the highest possible ratings from the gun control groups. They famously claim, “gun laws save lives”. But the reality on the ground is exact opposite.

California led the nation in active shooter incidents in 2021 and 2023 despite having the most restrictive gun control laws in the country. Overall crime and violence in California is rampant and getting worse every day. The mass exodus of businesses continues as companies cannot provide a safe environment for their employees or customers, or maintain a profitable business due to the widespread, uncontrolled thefts.

What does California have to show for all their gun control laws? Some of the highest levels of crime in the nation; rivaled only by those areas where gun control of the law-abiding is also a priority. But they do have a solution. Can you guess what it is?

Remember, gun control does absolutely nothing to increase public safety and the answer to fix that shortcoming is always to implement more gun control.

So, this election season, anytime you hear someone say ‘I support the Second Amendment, but… “, you should immediately question their motivation. More likely than not, it’s an anti-gun sponsored talking point trying to convince you that you too as a firearm owner should support gun control, you know… for your own safety.

Yes, there are some actual firearm owners and Second Amendment “supporters” out there who, now that they have THEIR firearms, don’t care about anyone else’s rights. These folks will figure out too late that the rights they are not standing up for were in fact their own.

Yes, your vote this year matters.

Bob

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Crime – The Means to Control

Last week I wrote about how crime is up even though our elected officials say it is down. Why the disconnect? Well, this is election season and the folks in charge want you to believe everything they’ve been doing has reduced crime and made you safer. It’s also a sell job to get you to believe more of the same thing will bring crime down even further. Naturally, it’s all a lie. Crime is skyrocketing and people are being victimized like never before. And what’s worse, it’s all part of the plan to implement tighter controls on YOU.

The strategy is playing out across the nation. Activist billionaire funded prosecutors are elected in ultra-liberal enclaves promising to reform the systematically racist and unfair criminal justice system. What they do instead is immediately publish lengthy lists of crimes they will refuse to prosecute, ignoring state and local laws and the will of the people and legislatures who created them.

Police are defunded and new laws and restrictions placed on them so they cannot do their jobs. No bail laws are created because the current system is racist and unfair, and anyone who does happen to get arrested is back out on the street within hours. Those who do make it into the court system are given slap-on-the-wrist sentences and returned to the streets. Those already in the jail/prison system are released early because of new, more lenient sentencing reforms. Prisons are closed and the overall capacity of the system goes down, further justifying the need to release prisoners early.

Is all of this sounding familiar?

What happens in the cities, towns and neighborhoods is not only inevitable, but predictable. Crime surges. Businesses and the local citizenry are understandably angry and frighted. They demand protection from the government. The government responds with the same answer they’ve always given, more government control.

Let’s head back to San Francisco for an example. Rampant crime and unsafe streets have caused an exodus of large and small businesses. The government must look like they’re doing something to fight the influx of retail crime. The solution? 400 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras placed around the city.

Yup, that’s right, the ultra-left population celebrated the introduction of voter approved, government expedited video cameras around the city as a measure to stop the wave of organized retail theft plaguing the city.

Of course, these cameras don’t just capture those involved in retail theft. They vacuum up every single car (and everything else) that passes by them. You going to the store? Logged. You going to work? Logged. You taking the kids to school? Logged. You heading into or out of the city? Logged. 24/7. Retained for as long as the city wants to.

If you’re thinking it’s a little 1984/China Social Credit System, you’re right. Every movement is captured for later analysis. And with artificial intelligence (AI) becoming more common place, it’s even easier.

Perhaps a comment from Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and sixth richest man in the world, will help to understand where this is heading. He recently shared his thoughts on the future of AI-powered surveillance tools.

“.. Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”

What you are witnessing is a problem intentionally created by the government so the people, desperate for safety, would accept the solution they offer, even though it will be used to infringe on their rights and more tightly control them.

For those of us interested in Second Amendment rights, we already know this strategy. I’ve written before that there is no gun control without dead children (Sacrificing Our Children – https://oddstuffing.com/archives/973). As disgusting as this is, anti-gun extremists are more than willing to sacrifice our children to obtain the greater goal of gun control and civilian disarmament.

The tactics are clear. Remove police officers from schools for alleged ‘explicit and implicit racism’ and an imagined ‘school-to-prison’ pipeline. Ban schools from arming teachers and staff. Ban any civilian from carrying a firearm on any school property. This leaves the unarmed and undefended schools as soft and appealing targets for deranged would-be killers. After someone takes advantage of this, they jump on the bandwagon before the children’s bodies are cold and the injured have stopped bleeding and call for the one solution, the ONLY solution they have, more gun control.

Remember, gun control does absolutely nothing to increase public safety and the answer to fix that shortcoming is always to implement more gun control.

Increasing crime, especially violent crime, only helps to implement more restrictive gun control laws on the victims. None of their so-called “solutions” ever impact the perpetrators, the ones actually committing the crimes. They must be free to commit more crime to help implement more gun control.

Yes, your vote this year matters.

Bob

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Less Reporting = Less Crime?

We’ve been hearing a lot from the President and the Democrat party about how their polices have made us safer and crime is down. They point to the FBI’s latest crime statistics showing just how much crime has fallen. But has it really? Does this match what you see in your neighborhood/town/city, in your local news, or when talking to your friends and neighbors? Unfortunately, the truth is literally the opposite.

Let’s take San Francisco, CA as an example. I wrote about San Francisco crime and the resulting mass business exodus last year (https://oddstuffing.com/archives /1063) and sadly things have only gotten worse.

Nearly every day there is a report of another retailer closing their San Francisco store. And I’m not talking about the multitude of family run, mom & pop shops who have been the lifeblood of their local neighborhoods for decades and nobody in San Francisco politics care about, I’m talking about the big, national brands where the wealthy people shop. These are businesses which have been open in the city for 10, 20, 30 plus years. You’d think that would give the city something to think about, but no.

Why are they closing? Crime. Rampant, uncontrolled crime. Not only are the stores being looted daily thanks to the softer-than-soft on crime state and city policies, but the businesses cannot provide a safe environment for customers or staff. Violent assaults are common as is property damage, drugs and harassment from the city’s homeless and criminal population.

Violence on the street is out of control and getting worse. When city officials do say something about it, usually because a celebrity was robbed, injured or killed, it’s defended as being “an isolated incident”. What’s actually rare is the city’s acknowledgement of the violence. By the way, take note of the agencies NOT reporting to the FBI below.

So why are we being told crime is down?

The latest FBI statistics do show crime is down, but what they don’t tell you is that conclusion is based on incomplete data. In 2021, the FBI went to a new NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System) for compiling and reporting data and would only accept police reports through the new system. Not all departments were able to make the switch and as a result, more than 6,000 law enforcement agencies out of 18,000 total in the United States did NOT submit their data. That’s a full 1/3 of the reporting agencies. And another 24% only reported partial crime data. While a few smaller, rural agencies might not influence the totals much, the non-reporting agencies include the Los Angeles Police and Los Angeles County Sherriff, New York City Police, Phoenix Police and San Francisco Police. For the state of California, only 49% of the law enforcement agencies, covering 48% of the population reported. You can check to see if your agency reported at: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/08/15/see-if-police-in-your-state-reported-crime-data-to-the-fbi

Keep in mind that in 2020, the year before the latest change, 16,000 agencies reported their data. Why the massive drop in reporting? Money and political priorities. Having been in law enforcement and being responsible for the department’s data submissions during a previous FBI reporting shift, a lot of work needs to be done by individual agencies. But it’s also not like these things happen overnight. Changes like this are years in the making.

So based on incomplete data, including no submissions from some of the largest, most crime infested areas of the country, the FBI declares crime is down. Did they include a clarification, a caveat or even an asterisk with an impossibly tiny font footnote explaining this was based on partial data? Of course not! The former premier law enforcement agency of the country, the ones everyone looks to for accurate, unbiased information, is once again purposely withholding the truth for the sake of partisan politics. The FBI and politicians who are saying crime is down are lying.

For a better assessment of what is going on, look at the just released Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCVS asks about 240,000 people each year whether they have been victims of crime to measure reported and unreported crime.

Between 2020 and 2023, rape increased by 42%, robbery by 63%, and aggravated assaults by 55%. Note the survey does not include homicide as that is most often reported to police.

Since 2020, the NIBRS and NCVS have been moving in opposite directions. The FBI has been finding fewer instances of crime, but people are simultaneously answering in greater numbers that they have been victims of crime.

Other than the massive gap in reporting data, there’s another reason why reported crime can be lower. When the public loses faith in the criminal justice community – the police, prosecutors, courts, and jails/prisons – they are less likely report a crime. If the police don’t show up, don’t make an arrest, or the prosecutors won’t file charges, suspects are released on no bail and take revenge against the victim, courts don’t hold people accountable and prisons let convicts out years to decades early, the public won’t see any advantage to reporting the crime.

The problem of course is the crime isn’t going to go away, it’s only going to continue to get worse and worse. Victims and those who do not wish to become victims, will continue to flee high crime cities and states in search of refuge elsewhere, just as the businesses already have. Those who cannot get out will continue to be victimized.

What will the defund the police, don’t charge the offender, don’t hold the criminal accountable and release anyone who has been ‘justice contacted’ progressive politicians do?

Well guess what, their response is all just part of the plan.

Bob

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San Francisco Price Drop!

While California in general and San Francisco specifically are known as the nation’s high price leaders, there’s at least one area where the prices are going down, down, down. I’m talking about the price of committing crime. Thanks to the policies of the politically woke left, San Francisco’s cost of crime is dropping to far more affordable levels for the city’s criminals.

Wait, you say you aren’t a criminal and this adversely affects you and/or your business? TOO BAD! You are NOT San Francisco’s priority.

Having worked in San Francisco years ago, I can attest it was a beautiful city. The key word is was. It’s now an open sewer where those who dare to walk the street must navigate the homeless encampments, aggressive and assaultive homeless and other armed street criminals, as well as human piss and poop.

Nearly every day there is a report of another retailer who is closing their San Francisco stores. And I’m not talking about the multitude of family run, mom & pop shops who have been the lifeblood of their local neighborhoods for decades and nobody in San Francisco politics care about, I’m talking about the big, national brands where the wealthy people shop. You’d think that would give the city something to think about, but no.

Stores like Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, Whole Foods, Saks off 5^th, Anthropologiem, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, Uniqlo, Arc’teryx, The RealReal, CB2, Banana Republic, Crate & Barrel, The Container Store, DSW, Marshall’s, Gap, T-Mobile, and multiple locations of both CVS and Walgreens have closed or are in the process of closing now.

The reason? Crime. Rampant, uncontrolled crime. Not only are the stores being looted daily thanks to the softer-than-soft on crime city policies, but the stores cannot provide a safe environment for customers or staff. Violent assaults are common as is property damage, drugs and harassment from the city’s homeless and criminal population.

A recent photo of Target showed rows of merchandise behind locked gates in an effort to stem the cost of the daily lootings. While I’ll give them credit for being willing to go to that extreme to stay in business at this location, what kind of a shopping experience does this provide? Every item requires a store employee to retrieve it. Even the most tolerant of the city’s remaining left-wing residents admit to going to other stores because of the severe inconvenience. How long before San Francisco stores need to go to the high-crime-mini-mart model where no customers are allowed in the store and all business is transacted through bullet proof glass?

Maybe you’re thinking, “Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?” YES the children are involved too. No longer is mass theft, looting, assaults and property damage the exclusive activity of adults. Children, including pre-teens, are involved in these crimes. Apparently, the concept of parenting left San Francisco long before the businesses did.

San Francisco has boldly responded to the cries for help from some of the remaining malls and will be stationing two city police officers at each mall, every day. Keep in mind this is the same city that defunded the police department to the tune of $120 million dollars, is down hundreds of officers and responds to calls in hours, if at all. But pulling two officers for each for the malls off the streets won’t cause a problem for the rest of the city, right?

However, the recent killing of a tech executive illustrates the level of lawlessness in San Francisco quite nicely. Prosecutors have said the accused killer could face a sentence of up to 26 years to life if convicted of all charges.

I guess I’m old because I remember when a premeditated homicide, which is what this is being charged as, called for the death penalty, or at least a mandatory sentence of life. Not so much in the City by the Bay. Technically speaking, California does have the death penalty, but the governor/Presidential wannabee decided to do away with that for all the prisoners on death row. This despite the citizens of California TWICE voting in favor of the death penalty.

Of course, getting sentenced to 26 years and serving 26 years are two completely different things in California. Although, the victim was wealthy, high up and connected in the ever-deteriorating San Francisco tech community, so that might play into the sentencing. Still, with California’s policies of emptying out prisons, even for the most heinous of criminals, I’d be damn surprised if the murderer served 10 years. We’ll see if the victim’s two young daughters have reached adulthood by the time their father’s killer is set free.

San Francisco, like the rest of the country’s large, liberal run cities are seeing what happens when you shun the police and embrace criminals. Crime is rampant and unchecked, businesses, and their customers are leaving in droves because they know they are not safe and their city governments, defunded police departments and social justice soft-on-crime prosecutors will do nothing to hold the CRIMINALS responsible for their actions.

But hey, the good news is the cost of at least one thing in San Francisco, California is going down. The bad news is it’s crime.

Bob

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