Going back to the height of THE pandemic, polling by Gallup showed public confidence in key institutions was low. Even as the news media has pushed narratives focusing on other institutions, the public held the media in very low regard. Like trust in Congress low. There are many reasons to hold the media in low regard. A leading choice since 2020, THE pandemic excuse. That excuse was a favorite for the Associated Press (AP) and others in the media. While ridiculous, the beyond simplistic cover story was used to explain away huge problems caused by horrible public policies. Issues like a crushed economy. Well sure. But also rising violence and even reckless driving. But, this week National Public Radio (NPR) read from a new script. Rising traffic deaths just may have more to do with the consequences from lessened traffic enforcement by the police than Covid. Shocking. Well not really. [Click the link below to read more.]
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At Secure 1776 we waited a week to issue our New Year’s post to make a point. There is no special magic at the stroke of midnight ending the last day of any December. Not with the dropping of a ball in Times Square, nor with the dropping of a musical note in Nashville. Not with the flipping of the calendar to any January 1st. As far as holidays go, New Years commemorates little more than Ground Hog Day does. Time passes. It is true that most of us seek more time. Time to get things right. Many hope to achieve significant accomplishments, and have more time for enjoyment. Yet, individually and as a society we tend to waste a lot of time. We tend not to spend enough of it seeking truth. Such is the case with the public safety crisis that continues in far too many communities. [Click the link below to read more.]
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The Manhattan Institute and its City Journal are premier resources relative to understanding crime and social issues impacting the nation. This is particularly true relative to the struggles of urban life in New York City. On 21 December 2022, City Journal posted an insightful discussion about crime and crime control. What works and what does not work. The exchange is from the 2022 George L. Kelling Lecture hosted by the Manhattan Institute. The lecture featured Raymond Kelly, an impressive leader in the police profession. Kelly served twice as the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). He was among the NYPD leaders that helped to bring about the turnaround in crime in New York City during the 1990s. The lecture should be required learning for all politicians, before they are allowed to tinker with the laws and procedures that are essential to public safety. [Click the link below to read more.]
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The Associated Press (AP) continues to publish stories suggesting a causation link between THE pandemic and crime. No, not investigative journalism seeking to examine whether a virus was created through banned gain of function research. Not journalism suggesting the use of a biological weapon as a war crime. Simply, crime and violence on our streets. AP continues to cite THE pandemic as a key explanation for the continuing lawlessness that exploded in 2020 across America. As we all know, the spark of that explosion occurred in May 2020 in Minneapolis. Yet, let us not forget, that just days before that spark, the news media was citing THE pandemic as the reason why crime in America was declining. It is beyond time to stop using THE pandemic as a bogeyman to gloss over the lawlessness issue that persists in far too much of our nation. [Click the link below to read more.]
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It has long been said, “knowledge is power.” It is important to note that the pronouncement is not “information is power.” In the “Bizzaro World” of the news media, so much of what passes as the “news” is little more than information. The rise of 24-hour cable news has provided more time to pass more information. But, often the platform simply passes the same information in a mind-numbing extended loop whose output does not foster actual knowledge. Pseudo-knowledge is advanced through the frequent use of split-screen commentators and political operatives advancing their own narratives. These often competing narratives generally distort true factual analysis, and they often end in an incomprehensible mash of over-talking and shouting. This phenomenon crosses the spectrum of political, social, and daily-life topics, particularly when there is an overlap into politics. Lawlessness is one of these topics. Even the local – allegedly straight news – news programming runs a steady flow of lawless incident-of-the-day segments, particularly when the incidents are violent with shock-seeking video. These segments are generally little more than sensationalized information, and rarely is their presentation one that advances knowledge. Secure 1776 offers this “cops ask questions” question in Latin: “Cui bono?” Translation: “Who benefits?” [Click the link below to read more.]
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Well it has started. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has begun to terminate department members over Covid-19 vaccinations. As reported by the Los Angeles Daily News, two LAPD officers were fired following recent “Board of Rights” administrative hearings. The terminations were reported by the LAPD at the Los Angeles Police Commission meeting held on Tuesday, 8 March 2022. These two officers join another LAPD officer, who was previously terminated on 8 February 2022. The firings are based upon the failure of the accused officers to comply with the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for Los Angeles city employees. Such controversial vaccine mandates have faced increased questioning over efficacy, safety, autonomy concerning personal healthcare choices, as well as individual and religious liberty. Seven additional LAPD officers, and four civilian department members, face termination hearings in the coming weeks. For months, governmental actions, including vaccine, masking and social distancing mandates, as well as lockdowns and forced business and school closures have come under challenge at the federal, state and local levels. More recently, these actions have been substantially rolled back. Here is a “cops ask questions” question: Is Los Angeles safer after these terminations? [Click the link below to read more.]
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Last November we posted an editorial on how the City of Chicago, under the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, closed its only Juvenile Intervention and Support Center (JISC). In December, Secure 1776 followed up with an analysis of carjackings and the connections to juvenile crime. Carjackings have spiked across the country since 2020. An escalating carjacking problem has been particularly noteworthy in urban areas. Many cities have experienced a continuing surge. But the problem is particularly evident in Chicago. Yesterday, 7 February 2022, Mayor Lightfoot held a press conference with Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent David Brown, a representative from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and other officials. In the press conference, Mayor Lightfoot indicated that half of those arrested in connection to Chicago’s carjackings are juveniles. She also made an interesting statement on the cause of the rising juvenile crime connection – “remote learning.” [Click the link below to read more.]
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Journalism and politics are supposed to be two professions comprised of smart people. Smart people that have the ability to correctly connect the dots. However, a divided political landscape has encouraged a deliberate blindness. The result, some of the smart people do connect the dots, but they don’t want you to do so. Instead they rely on the old magician’s trick of distractions. For example, their most recent go to: “it’s the pandemic.” An answer big enough to cover nearly every failure. Failing schools. The pandemic. A crashed economy. The pandemic. But, even with these issues it would be more accurate to say the failures were the response to the pandemic, not the pandemic. Covid didn’t, month after month, close schools or lockdown the economy for most Americans (lest we forget, big pharma and Amazon did great). Politicians, unelected bureaucrats (one in government for 50-plus years), and a complicit media led that charge. To say Covid is the cause for the rise in gun violence AND reckless driving? Please. Even a magician would be embarrassed by that sleight of hand. No, the dots to be connected there do not end at “the pandemic.” The “connect the dots” answer is that our political elites and the media have sought to blame a virus for their increasing acceptance of lawlessness. [Click the link below to read more.]
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Covid-19 pandemic response lockdowns and mandates have come at tremendous cost. In urban areas across America, the pandemic has been blamed for a long list of problems – including rising violence. Some of that blame is a convenient political cover for misguided justice “reform” initiatives, non-prosecutor prosecutors, and unrealistic demands for “tragedy-free” policing. Constitutional rights to speech, assembly, religion and bodily autonomy have been trampled, and science has been corrupted. Among the biggest casualties during the pandemic has been the truth. Secure 1776 hopes to further the cause of truth with a recommendation to view a 26 January 2022 presentation by Dr. Scott Atlas. Quoting Dr. Atlas: “There is no public benefit” to the Covid-19 vaccines (ref. 54:50 in the below video presentation). The benefit is only to the person taking the vaccine – specifically with respect to those individuals with several co-morbidities and who are at high risk of severe illness or death from Covid. Given the risks the vaccines themselves pose – vaccine mandates for otherwise healthy people are not supported by the data. Firing employees (public or otherwise) for not taking the (still experimental) vaccines is beyond unreasonable. Worse, firing unvaccinated police officers, and using the police as the face and muscle of pandemic restrictions enforcement, weakens overall public safety. [Click the link below to read more.]
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“Good morning” is a greeting that is commonly shared early in the day. The expression acknowledges the start of a new day, as well as a statement of hope. Yet we have also heard the greeting shortened to just “morning.” The shortened expression makes no claim beyond a statement of time. Fatigue and a discouraged sense of what the new day has in store can often explain why the shortened greeting is used. The greeting “Happy New Year” is similar to “good morning,” and it too seeks to express hope for the time ahead. As a nation we lived through 2020, the year like no other. The year 2020 was one with many issues, including significant public safety disappointments. Sadly, relative to violence, 2021 was also a disappointing year. A “happy” new year in 2022 will require resolve beyond the mere use of an optimistic greeting. [Click the link below to read more.]
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Last week, several news sites made reference to an internal email sent from a former commander with the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The email was sent to several CPD members by Captain Melvin Roman on his last day before retiring. The email was a “within the family” message. It was subsequently released publicly by someone other than Captain Roman. The coverage of the email – not the email itself – was a spectacle Chicago moment. Anyone who actually knows Mel Roman knows that he is not one to seek the personal spotlight. He has always been the type of leader to focus on the needs of those he was responsible to lead. He delighted in turning the spotlight toward their accomplishments. That fact alone should help us move past the spectacle and seek the leadership lessons that were offered. [Click the link below to read more.]
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Last week in our “Cops Ask Questions” series we asked whether the Chicago City Council would assert its authority. Whenever 26 or more members of the city’s council rise in opposition to a Chicago mayor, that is indeed remarkable. Well on Friday, the council for the second time in a week demonstrated it is not remarkable. The council could not muster enough votes to reverse the mayoral edict mandating the vaccination of city employees. The council did however muster enough votes to approve a 30% increase in the annual city budget. Now that qualifies as a spectacle for a lawless city, with huge financial problems. Several local violent crimes also provided more “spectacle Chicago” moments of another kind. Not in the exciting and impressive sense. No, in the “spectacular crash” kind of way. [Click the link below to read more.]
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Since 2015, Secure 1776 founder Thomas Lemmer has encouraged others in the public safety profession to ask themselves a core question. “Which is more important, perception or reality?” Determining the answer requires critical thinking. That truth alone points the way toward the answer, as critical thinking is an increasingly discouraged activity. Why? Because when we think critically, we are less vulnerable to nonsense and deliberate propaganda. Providing some context to the core question may help identify the answer. So, in the perception versus reality dynamic, which has more impact on public safety? Perception or reality? We ask you to think critically about this issue a moment or two. [Click the link below to read more.]
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The Chicago City Council has an interesting history. Since at least the days of King Richard I, a.k.a. Mayor Richard J. Daley, most often Chicago’s mayor, whoever the mayor is, exercises more authority than the city’s charter might suggest. In theory, the 50-member city council has the upper political hand, and the authority to direct city policy. In truth, the council rarely actually leads the way on important issues of local governance. In the discussion of Chicago’s public safety and the vaccine mandate ordered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, as of this posting 13 members of the Chicago City Council have suggested that the council has a voice. Here is another “Cops Ask Questions” question. Will 13 more council members sign on to an interesting city ordinance proposal? [Click the link below to read more.]
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Yesterday we at Secure 1776 posted on the risk to public safety that is intertwined with Chicago’s vaccine mandate for city employees. In “Cops Ask Questions, Pandemic Politics,” we pointed out that of course, cops are among those that are asking questions. We strongly recommend reading that post and watching the associated videos. Chicago is among those places where the implementation of forced vaccination approaches raises grave concerns. Here we provide a reminder about the tie between public safety and the Constitution of the United States of America. A leaked telephone conversation involving a senior U.S. Department of Justice attorney provides another reason why cops ask questions. [Click the link below to read more.]
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