Criminals are really victims?

In December, Christopher DeGroot wrote in part in Taki's Magazine,

Like The New York Times and other leading liberal newspapers, The Philadelphia Inquirer frequently publishes articles which seek to persuade readers that criminals are really victims, and that, therefore, what they deserve is not retribution but “treatment.”

Read more here.

"Hold off until Monday!"

Glenn Reynolds links to a story about a police Department in Braintree, Mass. that has a sense of humor.

The Braintree Police Department had some fun explaining to residents that they should “hold off” on any crimes they are planning this weekend.

In a Facebook post, they wrote, “Folks. Due to the extreme heat, we are asking anyone thinking of doing criminal activity to hold off until Monday.”

They said doing so would be dangerous because of the hot temperatures.

Read more here.

"People often ask why law enforcement is so focused on people having their hands out of their pockets and visible to the officer."

Viewer Discretion Advised:

People often ask why law enforcement is so focused on people having their hands out of their pockets and visible to the officer.

Well, this is how fast things can go from being a casual encounter to a person trying to take the officer’s life. pic.twitter.com/qctzo4vbPC

— Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association (@MNSheriffs) January 26, 2019

Recognizing criminal behavior

As we try to understand how to recognize and treat criminals, we return to Stanton Samenow's book entitled Inside the Criminal Mind. These quotes are from his chapter entitled People as Pawns.

Jake, a 31-year-old lifelong criminal, boasted that he would bed down on his first date "whoever I can get my hands on." This was true enough, given the sleazy women he knew. But Lisa proved to be a stubborn exception. That she would only kiss and hug made her all the more tantalizing and Jake all the more determined. As he dated her, he persuaded Lisa that he was in love. In fact, Jake half managed to convince himself that he might enjoy marrying and settling down. Once he proposed marriage, Lisa's resistance to intercourse melted. Having scored sexually, Jake began to feel restless, then trapped by the impending marriage. Several weeks before the wedding, Jake vanished, never to be heard from by Lisa again. He had achieved all that he had wanted.

Later in the chapter, Samenow looks at the subject of rape.

...At stake in rape is the criminal's affirmation of his image of himself as powerful and desirable. The assailant believes that his victim already wants him or will want him once she gives him a chance. Her attempts to ward him off only heighten his excitement. Then he tries to reduce her to a quivering, pleading speck of humanity and helps himself to what he believes was rightfully his from the start. Brute force is rarely necessary because intimidation works.

...The criminal chooses to view people only in terms of their use to him. They are like property. From adolescence, when the criminal refers to "my girl," he really is asserting that she belongs to him, but considers her as disposable as an old tattered shirt. He does not develop a concept of what a love relationship entails. He may be charming, but rarely tender or considerate. He insists that a woman change to suit him, but he requires that she accept him just the way he is.

Knowing criminals

Do you have someone in your life whose behavior is baffling or concerning to you? From time to time I publish quotes from a book entitled Inside the Criminal Mind by Stanton Samenow. Let's start by looking at the issue of peer pressure. Is that what causes a young person to become a criminal?

No! Samenow writes,

Far from being enticed into crime, the criminal as a child admires and cultivates those who are in on the action.

What about alcohol and drug use?

"I wanted one continuous high all the time." The delinquent knows how to find what he wants. He is open to anything new and exciting and has chosen to associate with others who are willing to accommodate him.

What about his attitude toward school? He convinces himself that he is

smarter than the others. He objects to others telling him what to do, whether at school or anywhere else.

Said one teacher, "When Ed is in my class, his behavior ranges from belligerent to spaced out." Even though these youngsters have been regarded as unmotivated, inattentive, passive, negative, sad, hostile, and withdrawn, teachers usually find something favorably to say. ...Teachers comment positively on these youngsters' charm, perceptiveness, and generosity, which surface from time to time. ...A child may be bright, but this may not be evident because his restlessness, impatience and distractability lower his scores.

What about the criminal at work?

Some criminals are smooth rather than contentious, ingratiating rather than surly, devious rather than intimidating. They pretend to be interested in what others have to say.

...It is the routine of a job that gets to many criminals, who seem allergic to routine anywhere in life. In order to overcome the tedium, some use drugs while at work. When the criminal is "high," his day is bearable, for drugs help his mind soar from the mundane to the exciting. In addition, there is the intrigue of finding which fellow workers are users, locating new sources for buying drugs, or discovering markets in which to make sales.

They exploit the workplace as they do any other situation, using it for their own immediate gain or as a cover.

People as Pawns

The criminal values people only insofar as they bend to his will or can be coerced or manipulated into doing what he wants. ...Constantly he is sizing up his prospects for exploiting people and situations. To him, the world is a chessboard, with other people serving as pawns to gratify his desires.

The criminal's attitude toward people is mercurial, dependent on whether they serve him. One day he may regard a person as his bosom pal and the next as his mortal enemy. Even his appraisal of his mother vacillates from saintly to satanic, depending on how readily she does his bidding. ...Only he knows when and where he will strike. He enjoys playing games with people's minds and catching them off guard.

Plain talk

From Oregon Muse:

"You know the idiot who shot up that school in Florida last week? He broke the law. In fact, he broke a bunch of laws. This is why he is called a "criminal". Criminals break laws. They do not abide by them. So, in the wake of the shootings, why do people, politicians mainly, want to pass more laws? What do they think they're accomplishing? Is the next psycho who gets ahold of a gun suddenly going to put it back down and say whoa, wait, I can't shoot up a bunch of kids because that would be against the law? That's not how criminals think. Because criminals are, by definition, law-breakers. So they will break the new law just like they've broken the other laws that are already on the books. Come on, this isn't rocket science."
(h/t Candace Owens)

Drone helps catch crooks

Emory Bryan reports,

TULSA, Oklahoma - Two men were arrested Monday morning after a business burglary - and a short chase - by a drone.
An eyewitness saw the break-in happening.

That eyewitness was talking to a drone pilot outside The Vault, where the break-in happened, so when the suspects took off, the drone did too.

David Bell flies his drone downtown often, mainly just to get beauty shots.

"Pretty amazing little thing," Bell said.

Before today, he's never needed to chase down burglars.

He was outside the Vault, upstairs at what's called the Tom Tom Room, when he and another man saw someone come out of a broken window with two bottles of scotch.

It's not the first time business owner Libby Billings has dealt with a burglar.

"Maybe they're a little drunk or need a fix, I don't know, but all three times, they've been caught because I have cameras," Billings said.

This time, the cameras were inside, and overhead.


When the burglars left the vault, they walked across the street to a park bench and started drinking. What they didn't know was that they were being followed overhead, by a drone.

"He's oblivious of it, never heard it I guess," Bell said. "[He] went down to a park bench, sat down and started drinking the bottle of liquor he stole."

With Bell watching the live feed, the police were guided right to them.

Officers arrested two men, one for public intoxication and the other for the break-in.

"They were busted, but they kind of didn't believe that," Billings said. "'What? You have a drone?' Yes, we do."

Billings figures the damage is about $1,000, the investment in cameras worth it to catch criminals, but the added advantage of a drone was something even she hadn't counted on.

On criminals...

h/t Oregon Muse

Unfairly persecuting landlords

Jeff Jacoby asks at the Boston Globe,

If you don’t rent to criminals, are you a racist?
YOU’RE A PRIVATE landlord, renting apartments in a building you bought with your savings from years of hard work and modest living. You take pride in maintaining your property, keeping it clean, comfortable, and attractive. You charge a fair rent and treat your tenants with courtesy and respect. Your tenants, in turn, appreciate the care you put into the building. And they trust you to screen prospective tenants wisely, accepting only residents who won’t jeopardize the building’s safe and neighborly character. That’s why you only consider applications from individuals who are employed or in school, whose credit scores are strong, and who have no criminal record.

Most Americans would look at you and likely see a prudent, levelheaded property owner. Not the Obama administration. The Department of Housing and Urban Development warned last week that landlords who refuse to rent to anyone with a criminal record are in violation of the Fair Housing Act and can be prosecuted and fined for racial discrimination.

In a 10-page “guidance” issued on April 4, the federal agency announced that any landlord with a blanket policy of not renting to people with a criminal conviction is effectively discriminating on the basis of race or national origin. “Because of widespread racial and ethnic disparities in the US criminal justice system,” HUD’s new guidelines read, “criminal history-based restrictions on access to housing are likely disproportionately to burden African-Americans and Hispanics. . . . [T]herefore such a practice would violate the Fair Housing Act.”

The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing “because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.” Felons and former prison inmates are not a protected class under the law. Having a criminal record is not a proxy for being a racial or ethnic minority, and “disparate impact” theory does not make it OK to penalize landlords who are concerned about the safety of their property and the security of their tenants.

Read more here.

We can choose not to wear the gag of political correctness

"Undocumented immigrant?" Kurt Schlichter writes,

Being here illegally is not a mere technicality. This is not a simple matter of a lack of documentation, as if the issue is that Jose went from Oaxaca to Fresno and getting the proper paperwork somehow slipped his mind. Ironically, one of the many problems posed by illegal aliens is that they are documented – with fake identifications, fake work papers, and fake Social Security numbers.

While they are not all “workers,” they are all “aliens.” The illegal alien scumbag who murdered Kate Steinle wasn’t a busy little beaver bringing home the chorizo to his family, all of whom were likewise employed. Calling them “workers” is simply another lie designed to distract from the critical point – many aren’t “workers,” and those of us who aren’t aliens are paying for them.

"Anchor babies?" Schlichter writes,

...“anchor babies” are not merely “babies.” They are the babies of illegal aliens birthed within the territory and jurisdiction of the U.S.A. (sorry, 14th Amendment revisionists) who are then used as a means for the rest of their family to stay here permanently and weasel from us benefits to which they are not morally entitled.

A “baby,” in contrast, is any kind of baby – unless it’s been carried into a Planned Parenthood butcher shop.

Of course, the language liars don’t only try their scam when the subject is illegal immigration. Everyone remembers “global warming,” which got replaced by “climate change” when the globe failed to cooperate and warm. With “climate change,” every kind of weather supports their thesis. Hotter, colder, the same, it doesn’t matter – it’s critical to give liberal elites more of our money and sovereignty right now or else weather will keep happening!

And then there’s “thug,” which is the perfect term to describe an enormous strong-arm robber who unwisely decided to try and punch out a cop. The left would replace this accurate, evocative descriptor with “honor student,” as if Michael Brown was wearing his mortarboard when he tossed around that convenience store clerk prior to making his final miscalculation.

What happened in Baltimore was a “riot” perpetrated by “criminals,” not a “demonstration” conducted by “community members.”

The losers trying to murder Westerners from Tunisia to Chattanooga are “Islamic terrorists,” not generic “militants” whose shouts of “Allah akbar” offer no hint about their motivation. When a jihadi fanboy murders over a dozen Americans in a (good guy only) gun-free zone, it is “terrorism,” not “workplace violence.”

No, it’s not “a procedure” used to extract “products of conception” that are then “donated for research.” It’s the “dismemberment of a human baby by giggling ghouls who sell off the shredded pieces to the highest bidder.” Maybe if the mom was an illegal alien it would become a “baby,” and the liberals would finally object to it being torn apart.

Politically, pushing back against PC is a winning strategy. Donald Trump has practically built his whole campaign around doing that. Jeb Bush got his first good news cycle in months by refusing to kow tow. Others did too when they showed some courage; Marco Rubio put months of rebuilding at risk when he didn’t.

People are tired of being commanded to lie, because when you consciously use language that fails to fully and accurately describe its subject, that’s a lie. Political correctness is a gag we choose to wear ourselves. And we can choose not to.

Read more here.