Tuesday, October 13, 2015 Blessed Be the State’s Punitive Priesthood Pastor Jay Dennis, who  presides over the First Baptist Church on the Mall, a large and growing “mega-church” in Lakeland, Florida, urges his congregation to see police officers as angelic beings bearing a divine commission to impose summary punishment. They are to be obeyed, prayed […]

Tuesday, October 20, 2015 How the State’s “Justice” System Cultivates Predators like Ibn Hunter About to strike: Ibn Hunter winds up to assault a homeless woman. On occasion, government-employed police can solve a crime of violence – assuming that the act is captured on video, the offender makes a point of mugging for the camera […]

Wednesday, July 22, 2015 First, They Came for the Bar Owners….   Mission Accomplished: The shuttered Twilight Room Annex, a casualty of Oregon’s anti-Business soviet. Chris Penner, owner of the Twilight Room Annex club in Portland, Oregon, had bills to pay and a payroll to meet. He called up his business account only to find […]

Saturday, October 24, 2015 Commissar Avakian’s War Against Property Rights Keeping — or making — Portland free would be even better. Until April of this year, Christopher Penner was an entrepreneur. Now, despite the fact that he has never committed a crime against persons or property, he is an indentured servant. For several years, Penner […]

Friday, October 30, 2015 The Chain of Command and the Executioner in the Classroom “You know what the chain of command is? It’s the chain I go get and beat you with ’til ya understand who’s in ruttin’ command here.” Jayne Cobb, demonstrating why he should never be left in charge of anything, from “The […]

Thursday, November 5, 2015 Open Range, Open Season: The Killing of Jack Yantis (UPDATE, November 8)   Open range: A typical Adams County vista. “They’re calling us murderers,” protests Adams County Sheriff Ryan Zollman, referring to local residents and others who have contacted his office to express their outrage over the November 1nd killing of […]

Saturday, April 18, 2015 Protecting the Vicious, Punishing the Virtuous: Marijuana Prohibition and Idaho’s Prison-Industrial Complex From gubernatorial protege to prison commissar: Protected felon Josh Tewalt. Josh Tewalt has a drug problem that led to several arrests. Like many others afflicted with that weakness, Tewalt eventually wound up in prison. Unlike most of them, however, […]

Sunday, June 7, 2015 “Blue Privilege” and the Criminal Enterprise Called The Idaho State Police (UPDATE December 13) Homicide in progress: Seconds later, Deputy Scott Sloan killed Barry Johnson. “They’ve laid us out,” Idaho State Police Trooper Sam Ketchum reported in a text message to his superiors during an April 13, 2012 court hearing in […]

Saturday, November 14, 2015 Justice for Jack Yantis: Don’t Leave the Investigation to the “Professionals” Scene of the crime shortly after Jack Yantis was fatally shot. The first rule of bureaucratic crisis management is: “Find someone else to blame.” This is true even in agencies as small as the Adams County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Ryan […]

Sunday, November 22, 2015 Donald Trump’s Presidential “Heel Turn” Ladies and gentlemen, the 45th President of the United States. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign makes perfect sense once it is understood to be the political equivalent of what is called a “heel turn” in professional wrestling.  In 2007, before becoming a “reality TV” star in his […]

Monday, November 30, 2015 Slapdown in Steamboat Springs: The Blue Tribe Targets Two Whistleblowers  Under the reign former Chief Joel Rae, the Steamboat Springs, Colorado Police Department viewed the local citizenry as revenue-producing livestock, and officers were encouraged to “strike first and strike hard” whenever their targets displayed anything other than utter docility.  Not surprisingly, […]

Monday, December 14, 2015 When “Rescuers” Become a Death Squad: The Killing of Michael Funk Biker, veteran, grandfather, plaintiff– police victim: Michael Funk, RIP. The only casualty of an hours-long SWAT raid and hostage situation in Neenah, Wisconsin on December 5 was Michael Funk, a disabled Vietnam veteran who was a party to a $50 […]

Wednesday, December 23, 2015 Rwanda and the Evils of Politicized Christianity   “What does it tell us about the UN that not a single official thought fit to resign over the first indisputable genocide since the UN Charter was signed?” asked human rights activist Alex de Waal following the 100-day orgy of mass murder in […]

Thursday, December 31, 2015 The Real “Ferguson Effect”: Increased Police Lethality, Expanded Prosecutorial Deference Yes, only shamefully “ungrateful” Mundanes object when police kill the innocent without accountability.   Joshua Jenkins killed thirty-three-year-old Jennifer Chauvin by slamming his vehicle into her sedan at an intersection near AuSable, New York. According to police investigators, Jenkins failed to […]

Tuesday, December 30, 2014 Without “Qualified Immunity,” Would Cops Be So Quick to Kill? (See a small but significant correction below.) The story had a familiar beginning, but took an unexpected detour en route to an unanticipated conclusion.  Dante Price, a young black man, was trying to visit his girlfriend and infant son at the […]

Wednesday, August 27, 2014 Shielding the Executioner: Shaun Cowley, Paul Cassell, and the Murder of Danielle Willard During a lengthy career that includes stints as a federal prosecutor and judge, Paul Cassell has devoutly upheld the vision of 18th Century arch-authoritarian Joseph de Maistre, who taught that “all greatness, all power, all social order depends […]

Sunday, November 2, 2014 Killer on the Loose: Did Cops “Botch” a Case to Punish an Independent DA? “Comply or Die is Not the Law”: Relatives of police victims speak at Oct. 4 rally in Salt Lake.  After 72-year-old Robert Warren was shot in the face at the front door of his home in West […]

Saturday, December 27, 2014 Law-and-Order Leninism Last Easter, the Right was celebrating the Bunkerville rebellion, and the Left was calling for severe measures – drone strikes, if necessary – to beat down armed resistance to law enforcement. By Christmas, the roles were neatly reversed, with the Left protesting against the ever-growing tide of law enforcement […]