Author Archives: Dana Pico

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Suspected murderer nabbed

Danzell Cruze, from the Kentucky Offender Online Lookup.

We noted, two weeks ago, that the Lexington Herald-Leader declined to publish the mugshots of two murder suspects on the lam. Naturally, The First Street Journal found the mugshots, and yes, we published them!

Well, we are happy to report that Danzell Cruse, the death of 38-year-old Jocko Green, has been apprehended:

    Man apprehended in Central Kentucky, charged with a Lexington murder, police say

    By Jeremy Chisenhall | July 9, 2021 | 1:43 PM | Updated: 4:14 PM EDT

    A Lexington murder suspect has been apprehended and charged with the shooting death of a 38-year-old man, Lexington police said Friday.

    Danzell Cruse, 26, was located and arrested Thursday in Frankfort, police said. He’s accused of shooting and killing 38-year-old Jocko Green. Green was found in a parking lot outside an apartment complex in the 600 block of Winnie Street on June 17, police said.

    Green was taken to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital after he was shot, police said. He died about three hours later, according to the Fayette County coroner’s office.

There’s more at the original. Mr Cruse was apprehended due to work by the United States Marshalls and the Frankfort Police Department.

The Herald-Leader did not publish Mr Cruse’s mugshot with the current story, but, since he’s now off the streets, I suppose he no longer falls under the McClatchy Mugshot Policy guidelines for an exception to the no mugshot publication rules.

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Killadelphia The killers are playing catch up; The Philadelphia Inquirer is not

It was just yesterday that we noted that The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t seem to pay much notice to the murders of young black males in the City of Brotherly Love. I pointed out, in the footnote, that with 287 homicides in 188 days (as of 11:59 PM on July 7th) equaled 1.5266 homicides per day, projecting a total of 557 for the year.

Well, it looks like the city’s thugs realized that they weren’t quite meeting their quota, because after two straight days of the Philadelphia Police Department reporting only one homicide, the gang bangers caught up: the Current Crime Statistics page shows 291 killings as of 11:59 PM on July 8th. 291 ÷ 189 days in the year, = 1.5397 homicides per day, for a projected 562 for the year.

The Inquirer? Digging into several pages of their website at 8:30 AM — now at 4:42 PM, current update — this morning, I couldn’t find a single story, not so much as what Inquirer columnist Helen Ubiñas called a “handful of lines in a media alert,” although it’s possible I just didn’t dig into the right place.

Nevertheless, the editors and journolists[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term … Continue reading at the Inquirer didn’t think that four homicides yesterday was worth noting on the website’s main page, where readers had a chance of spotting such.

Why? Because black lives don’t matter to the editors and staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer! Oh, they matter if taken by a white police officer, matter a very great deal, but when one black thug kills another black thug, which is what the vast majority of the city’s homicides are, it just doesn’t fit Teh Narrative that the “anti-racist news organization” wants to tell. Maybe it’s time for me to break out that Philadelphia Enquirer[2]RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt. logo once more.

References

References
↑1 The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.
↑2 RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt.
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It’s being set up again!

Long-term readers of The First Street Journal — both of them — know that my trust of Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) is so great that if he told me that 2 + 2 = 4, I’d check his math. I noted his attempts to have the state Supreme Court invalidate Senate Bill 1, House Bill 1, and other legislation which would restrict his ’emergency powers’ under KRS 39A, saying that it was necessary that he have those powers as defined before the General Assembly passed, over his veto, restrictions on how they could be used. The Kentucky Supreme Court has yet to issue its ruling, but I must admit: given how the justices have bent over backward for Mr Beshear, both when he was state Attorney General and now, as Governor, I am not confident that the Court will uphold the laws. Continue reading →

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The “anti-racist” Philadelphia Inquirer shows how much it values white lives over black ones

We have previously noted that the vast majority of homicide victims in Philadelphia are black, but when one black gang banger kills another black gang banger, it isn’t really news anymore, not to the Inquirer. Instead, the paper paid more attention to the accidental killing of Jason Kutt, a white teenager shot at Nockamixon State Park, an hour outside of the city. That’s four separate stories; how many do the mostly black victims get?

Well, now it’s story number five: Continue reading →

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More journolism from The Philadelphia Inquirer The Inquirer writes its headline to stir up resentment toward the Philadelphia Police Department

Screenshot from Philadelphia Inquirer’s website, July 7, 2021, 4:42 PM EDT. Click to enlarge.

Sometimes you just know what you have to do: take a screenshot as documentary evidence, before someone tries to make history vanish.[1]I pointed out the tremendous bias in a tweet to Gabriel Escobar, the editor of the Inquirer, so it’s at least possible that the headline will be changed, not that I expect it. The screen capture to the right was taken by me, at 4:42 PM EDT on Wednesday, July 7, 2021.

References

References
↑1 I pointed out the tremendous bias in a tweet to Gabriel Escobar, the editor of the Inquirer, so it’s at least possible that the headline will be changed, not that I expect it.
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Hold them accountable! Judge Vivian L Medinilla should be held responsible for the murders of innocent people by a thug she let loose

We have noted the murder of Christine Lugo, the Dunkin’ Donuts manager senselessly murdered on June 5th, after having given the robber the cash drawer for which he asked.

The alleged killer, Keith Gibson, also spelled Gibbson, is now facing multiple homicide and other felony charges. From the Delaware News-Journal:

After ‘brutal crime spree,’ Keith Gibson indicted on 41 felonies including multiple murder charges

Esteban Parra | Delaware News Journal | July 6, 2021 | 4:58 PM EDT | Updated: 8:32 PM EDT

A 39-year-old man linked to multiple killings in Delaware and Philadelphia has been indicted on 41 felony charges in connection with multiple slayings, assaults and robberies, the Delaware Attorney General’s Office said on Tuesday.

Keith Gibson went on a “brutal crime spree” in Delaware, killing two people and hurting four others over the course of about three weeks, prosecutors say. Gibson is also a suspect in multiple slayings committed in Pennsylvania earlier this year, including that of his 54-year-old mother.

“This indictment lays out one of the most vicious, staggering crime sprees I’ve seen in my career,” Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement. “It is even more disturbing to think, based on what investigators have revealed in Pennsylvania, that this may just be the tip of the iceberg.

“We have assigned some of the DOJ’s most experienced prosecutors to this case,” she added, “and we will ensure that this man faces justice for the senseless carnage that he has caused.”

Gibson, who was previously convicted of manslaughter and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, was released from prison on Dec. 20 after 13 years of incarceration. He violated the terms of his probation and was briefly held before being released again on April 27 – even after probation officers disclosed he was suspected in his mother’s killing.

Delaware prosecutors say Gibson shot and killed 28-year-old Leslie Ruiz-Basilio on May 15 during a robbery at a Metro by T-Mobile store in Elsmere. He also stole her vehicle, according to prosecutors.

There’s more at the original, which unfortunately includes this:

For subscribers: How a man wanted in 3 recent killings in Philadelphia, Delaware was out on the street

I did telephone the News-Journal reporter, to see if he’d bend the rules and e-mail that story to me, but, alas!, he wouldn’t.

Which brings us to WHYY’s version version:

How a Delaware man now suspected in four murders avoided prison after violating probation

By Cris Barrish | June 16, 2021

When Keith Gibson faced a judge in Delaware in April for violating his probation by being out of state, authorities knew Philadelphia police suspected him in the murder of his mother in February.

Gibson’s probation officer had initially wanted him back behind bars for six-and-a-half years. That’s the time left on the 20-year sentence he received in 2010 for manslaughter and a weapons count before being put on probation in 2020.

But after a debate in court this spring, Gibson was released from custody on April 27.

Since regaining his freedom, Gibson is suspected of committing three more killings, according to Philadelphia police. And on Wednesday, Philadelphia authorities approved a murder charge against Gibson in the death of his mother, 54-year-old Christine Gibson, at her home.

The story of how Gibson escaped a lengthy prison term two months ago is revealed in documents obtained by WHYY News, including his probation report and transcripts of two hearings before Superior Court Judge Vivian L. Medinilla.

Superior Court Judge Vivian L Medinilla, formerly Vivian Rapposelli. Click to enlarge.

Remember that name: Superior Court Judge Vivian L. Medinilla.

Delaware probation officials initially asked for Mr Gibson to be returned to prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence, which would have been 6½ years. Had Judge Medinilla ordered that, Mr Gibson would have been where he belonged, behind bars, on the morning Miss Lugo was murdered.

Instead, at a second hearing, state probation officials changed their recommendation to thirty days.

Asked why the recommendation was lowered, Department of Correction Commissioner Claire DeMatteis told WHYY the case is yet another in a troubling “pattern” of judges and defense attorneys pushing back on probation officers who seek “hard jail time” for violent offenders who violate the terms of their release.

I get it: defense attorneys are always going to be “pushing back” on probation officers trying to put their clients back behind bars; that’s what defense attorneys do, they try to defend their clients.

But judges pushing back? Judges should look at every case impartially, and not be “pushing back” against incarcerating violent offenders. Here’s a kicker:

Medinilla told the parties she would not consider the Philadelphia murder investigation in her deliberations. She also said she could sentence Gibson that day but was going to “defer” to give (Meghan) Crist (Mr Gibson’s public defender) and (Larry S) Charles (Mr Gibson’s probation officer) time to speak about “a proper consideration of the sentence.”

Mr Charles had prepared a report on Mr Gibson, trying to get him put back behind bars. WHYY said that his report included:

  • Philadelphia police had told him Gibson was the “prime suspect” in his mother’s killing. Charles wrote that “early reports suggest Mr. Gibson’s mother informed numerous friends and family members if something were to happen to me, her son would be the one responsible.”
  • Gibson’s “extensive history of violence’’ and “documented anger issues,” including 64 previous criminal charges, with nine convictions for felonies and 15 for misdemeanors. Besides the manslaughter/weapons conviction, which had been pleaded down from a first-degree murder count, his other offenses included assault and terroristic threatening.
  • He had also violated probation 14 times over the years.

But Judge Medinilla told Mr Charles that she would not consider the Philadelphia Police Department’s concerns that Mr Gibson was a murder suspect in Pennsylvania. Is it any wonder that, two weeks later, when the Judge was to consider putting Mr Gibson back behind bars, Mr Charles recommendation changed? He already knew that the judge was going to be soft-hearted and soft-headed. Why else would she have released a man who could legitimately be locked up on probation violations when that man was suspected of murder, the murder of his own mother?

She noted that while Charles was seeking “a significant amount” of prison time, “I’ll give you an opportunity to consider that and look to determine whether that’s an appropriate sanction in light of the finding that Mr. Gibson was in violation only to the extent that he was in Pennsylvania instead of here in Delaware.”

There’s a lot more at the original, but one thing stands out to me: Judge Medinilla handcuffed Mr Charles by refusing to consider the report from Philadelphia, and she released Mr Gibson that day — he was sentenced to 30 days, but, by the time of the second hearing, he had already served that — and while the probation officer might have done more, the blame for this belongs squarely on Judge Medinilla. Assuming that Mr Gibson is the man person who murdered Miss Lugo, and the others he is suspected of killing, Judge Medinilla is just as responsible for those killings as Mr Gibson.

Will Judge Medinilla be held accountable for her actions? No, of course not, she is legally immune from the consequences of her decisions.

There was no need for Judge Medinilla to let Mr Gibson loose. He was already guilty of violating his probation, and she could have ordered him back to jail without the state having to prove anything else; no trial was required. With the Philly police already pointing to him as a murder suspect, why would any judge in his right mind turn him loose when it was not necessary?

It wasn’t even necessary to lock up Mr Gibson for the 6½ years Mr Charles originally sought. She could have ordered him back to prison for six months, or a year, to give Philadelphia Police more time to make their case against him for the killing of his mother. Even just that much, and several people who are now stone-cold graveyard dead would (allegedly) be alive today.

But no, she couldn’t do even that much. I know, I know: we cannot prosecute Judge Medinilla for her incredibly poor judgement, but at least she can be publicly shamed for it. How else can she be held accountable?

 

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Update to Lexington homicides

On May 22nd, I noted the Lexington Herald-Leader article on the killing of Demonte Washington, and subsequently noted that Mr Washington’s killing has not appeared on the Lexington Police Department’s Homicide investigations page.

I was finally able to get in touch with Sergeant Donnell Gordon of the LPD and ask about that; Mr Washington’s killing has been ruled a justifiable homicide. I had searched the Herald-Leader’s website, for subsequent stories on Mr Washington, but there were none, meaning that either the newspaper didn’t pursue the story, or, if informed that the homicide was ruled justifiable, didn’t see it as significant to publish the information.

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More poor journalism from the Lexington Herald-Leader Does the newspaper have no editors?

Justin Tyler Ainslie. Source: Oldham County jail, via BustedNewspaper.com Click to enlarge.

In printing his name, the Lexington Herald-Leader enabled search engines to find that with which Justin Tyler Ainslie was charged. Considering the charges, whether he is found guilty or not, in the real world, he’s going to have to change his name, because otherwise, he’s toast. Unlike our ‘local’ McClatchy newspapers, I publish mugshots.

    Lexington man facing federal charges after thousands of child pornography images found

    By Morgan Eads | July 7, 2021 | 7:42 AM EDT

    A Lexington man is facing federal charges of receiving and distributing child pornography after a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children led investigators to thousands of explicit images of children on his cellphone.

    Justin Tyler Ainslie was identified as the user of a phone line and Google account that uploaded images of child sexual abuse to cloud-based storage, according to a federal affidavit. The images were noticed in May of 2020 by Synchronoss Technologies, Inc., and the company, which provides storage services to Verizon customers, reported the images to the Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

    Lexington police were notified and obtained search warrants for the Synchronoss account, Google account and Verizon phone number connected to the tip, according to the affidavit. The investigators learned that the accounts were owned by Ainslie. . . .

    On June 21, 2021, a special agent with Homeland Security and a Lexington police detective reviewed evidence found on Ainslie’s cellphone and KIK account. The analysis found about 11,524 image files and 1,501 video files of suspected child sexual abuse, according to the federal affidavit.

Mr Ainslie was arrested on November 10, 2020. The Herald-Leader story noted that he was released after posting a $10,000 bond. The story states that he admitted to detectives with the Lexington Police Department that ha had received, viewed, and subsequently shared child pornography images. Assuming that the LPD detectives recorded Mr Ainslie’s interrogation, the case against him should have been open-and-shut. Despite the courts being seriously restricted, due to Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) COVID-19 restrictions, this should have been a plea deal arranged with Mr Ainslie’s attorney, by telephone, and he should have already been in jail. Instead, he has his first court appearance scheduled for later today.

The Herald-Leader story is, unfortunately, an example of poor writing and poor journalism. Were the Homeland Security agent and LPD detective reviewing evidence seized in November, or did they seize a cell phone he had after his release on bond? My first impression was that law enforcement had caught him again for violations while he was out on bond, but, on second reading — and being able to review things is why print sources are so important to me — I realized that was not what the article said.

Was Mr Ainslie caught a second time? It certainly sounds like it! But it could just as easily have been that the LPD had seized his phone when he was arrested in November, and they were just getting around to reviewing the evidence with the feds in June. The Herald-Leader article is not over long, and Morgan Eads, the reporter, could have clarified that with a single sentence.

More, an editor, a second set of eyes, should have caught the problem. Are there no editors at the Herald-Leader?

Yeah, I get it: newspapers across the country are in difficult financial straits. But the Herald-Leader simply doesn’t have that many new stories to review; a quick look at the newspaper’s website main page shows only six non-sports stories dated today. And it has always been the responsibility of editors to check reporters’ stories for grammar (hah!), spelling and poorly crafted sentences.

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With just half the year gone, Philadelphia has already topped yearly homicide totals for 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 In promising to become "anti-racist," The Philadelphia Inquirer has become racist

We noted, just three weeks ago, that the City of Brotherly Love’s terrible homicide rate had topped the entire year’s total for 2013 and 2014:

    According to the Philadelphia Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page, as of the end of Tuesday, June 15th, the city hit what could wryly be called a milestone, it’s 250th murder. The math is pretty bad: 250 homicides ÷ 166 days = 1.506 per day, × 365 = 549.70 murders for the year. The evil, reich-wing Donald Trump has been out of office for just five days short of five months now, the very liberal, opposed to mass incarceration District Attorney Larry Krasner has been renominated, the pandemic restrictions have (mostly) been lifted, and Philly’s murder rate is increasing.

Well, as Mickey East, formerly a political science professor at the University of Kentucky used to say, to encourage students to get their work done, tempus is fugiting, and now, three weeks later, the Philadelphia Police Department is reporting 285 homicides as of 11:59 PM on Monday, July 5th. 285 homicides ÷ 186 days = 1.532 per day, putting the city on schedule for 559.27 for the year. Those 285 homicides now top the year’s totals for 2015 and 2016, 280 and 277 homicides, respectively. At least as of 5:15 PM, The Philadelphia Inquirer had taken no notice of that fact, at least on its website’s main page.

In just 20 days, the murder rate has increased enough to add 9 or 10 more dead bodies on Philly’s mean streets, but, as already noted, The Philadelphia Inquirer, “an anti-racist news organization” according to publisher Elizabeth Hughes, doesn’t care unless one of those killed was an ‘innocent,’ or a ‘somebody,‘ or a cute little white girl.

What did Miss Hughes say the Inquirer would do to make itself into that “anti-racist news organization” she wanted it to be?

    A month after the (Buildings Matter, Too) headline was published, the newsroom began a comprehensive process to examine nearly every facet of what our journalists do. Almost 80 staffers, more than a third of the newsroom, have convened every week since. In working groups, they discuss complex issues and make recommendations that are then considered by a steering committee made up of managers and frontline staffers. To date, all have been adopted.

    Here’s a sampling of what has been done or is close to being launched:

    • Producing an antiracism workflow guide for the newsroom that provides specific questions that reporters and editors should ask themselves at various stages of producing our journalism.
    • Establishing a Community News Desk to address long-standing shortcomings in how our journalism portrays Philadelphia communities, which have often been stigmatized by coverage that over-emphasizes crime.
    • Creating an internal forum for journalists to seek guidance on potentially sensitive content and to ensure that antiracism is central to the journalism.
    • Commissioning an independent audit of our journalism that resulted in a critical assessment. Many of the recommendations are being addressed, and a process for tracking progress is being developed.
    • Training our staff and managers on how to recognize and avoid cultural bias.
    • Examining our crime and criminal justice coverage with Free Press, a nonprofit focused on racial justice in media.

And the result of all of that? Other than to criticize “gun violence,” a term which makes it sound as though inanimate firearms somehow levitate and shoot people all by themselves, the Inquirer almost never personalizes the actual shooters, never blames the people who pick up the guns and start firing.[1]A notable exception to that would be Keith Gibbson, but he is accused of killing an ‘innocent,’ Christine Lugo. Even saying that, the stories stopped after just two articles. In their great desire not to be racist, the Inquirer has become the racists they decry, examining everything through the prism of race, and deciding what to print, and not to print, based on its effects on race. That is, quite literally, discriminating on the basis of race! In “examin(ing) nearly every facet of what (their) journalists do,” they have become not journalists, but journolists![2]The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term … Continue reading

As I previously noted, I ran across a photo of the masthead of The Philadelphia Inquirer from February 25, 1953, and noticed the ‘taglines’ that it used: “Public Ledger” and “An Independent Newspaper for All the People”. By Public ledger, the Inquirer was setting itself up as Philadelphia’s newspaper of record, which Wikipedia defines as “a major newspaper with large circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative.” That Wikipedia article named four newspapers of record for the United States: The New York Times (Founded 1851), The Washington Post (1877), The Los Angeles Times (1881) and The Wall Street Journal (1889). First printed on Monday, June 1, 1829, the then Pennsylvania Inquirer is older than any of them. “An editorial in the first issue of The Pennsylvania Inquirer promised that the paper would be devoted to the right of a minority to voice their opinion and ‘the maintenance of the rights and liberties of the people, equally against the abuses as the usurpation of power.’”

The newspaper, by its publisher’s own admission, no longer cares about anything as radical as the ‘public’s right to know,’ because knowing the truth, the unvarnished truth, might perpetuate stereotypes about who commits crime in our community.[3]That quote is specifically from the Sacramento Bee, and forms the basis of the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, but it is clearly a reflection of what the Inquirer does as well. But, at least the publisher has admitted what she wants to do; I, for one, will continue to point that out.

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References
↑1 A notable exception to that would be Keith Gibbson, but he is accused of killing an ‘innocent,’ Christine Lugo. Even saying that, the stories stopped after just two articles.
↑2 The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.
↑3 That quote is specifically from the Sacramento Bee, and forms the basis of the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, but it is clearly a reflection of what the Inquirer does as well.