Category Archives: Crime

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Hold them accountable!

Meet Edwin Vargas. If you were expecting to see Mr Vargas’ mugshot in The Philadelphia Inquirer, your expectations would have been dashed, but at least the Inky covered his arrest:

Man arrested for quadruple shooting that killed 3 in Mayfair

Edwin Vargas also is charged with murder that occurred on Jan. 3. Vargas has been in custody since Jan. 18 for an earlier gun incident.

by Robert Moran | Tuesday, January 24, 2023

A 24-year-old man is facing murder charges for the deaths of three young men in a quadruple shooting on Jan. 9 in the city’s Mayfair section, police said.

We had previously noted the killings in Mayfair. We said then:

According to the city’s shooting victims database, which records only three victims, not four, and only two fatally shot, not three, as of 12:22 PM EST on Tuesday, January 10th, the victims were all Hispanic white males; what I have often called The Philadelphia Enquirer[1]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. doesn’t want to tell you that part. As of this writing, the 18-year-old victim does not appear on the database.

A check of the city’s shooting victims database, which now lists 124 shooting victims since the beginning of the year, now lists all four victims.

Mr Vargas was already behind bars, and has been charged with another murder that occurred on January 3rd, but had been locked up since January 18th for a December 30th “gun incident”. The police finally connected him with the January 3rd killing after he had been jailed, and then detectives sought a warrant for him for the triple murders.

But here comes the money line:

Court records show Vargas has been in and out of jail as an adult since late 2016, when he pleaded guilty for firearms violations.

Last July, Vargas pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a telecom device by an inmate.

On Aug. 30, he was released from prison.

Under Pennsylvania Title 18 §5123(c)(2), illegal possession of a telecom device by an inmate is a first degree misdemeanor. Under Title 30 §923(a)(7), the sentence for a first degree misdemeanor is “a fine of not less than $1,500 nor more than $10,000, or imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both.”

Yet, according to the Inquirer, Mr Vargas was locked up for less than two months for this crime.

So, Mr Vargas, “in and out of jail as an adult since late 2016”, and with who knows how many juvenile offenses under his belt, could have been locked up until 2027, but someone, somewhere, decided that nahhh, they could let him back out on the streets.

And now four people are stone-cold graveyard dead.

Mr Vargas is, of course, innocent of those four murders until proven guilty, but if he is guilty of even one of them, whoever decided to turn this fine gentleman loose has the victim’s, or victims’ blood on his hands. Will that person, or persons, ever be held accountable?

That, of course, is a rhetorical question: no, nobody will be held accountable. But if we did hold prosecutors, judges, and parole boards accountable for the crimes committed by previously convicted criminals who could have still been behind bars but were treated leniently and released before the maximum possible sentence, we would see crime rates go down dramatically, if for no other reason than the bad guys would spend more time in prison and less out on the streets. Had Mr Vargas been behind bars when he could have been, when the state already had him in custody, four more men — assuming the charges are correct — could still be alive today.

References

References
↑1 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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Killadelphia: Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Broad + Liberty’s Philadelphia Homicide Tracker noted that the dead body found on January 23rd was not classified as a homicide by the Philadelphia Police Department, although the website did not tell us how the police did categorize it. And there was no change in the PPD’s Current Crime Statistics page to indicate that it was a homicide.

But here’s the PPD’s press release on the discovery of the body, which was Broad + Liberty’s information source:

Death Investigation:

39th district .. Stabbing –3xx Hansberry Street inside at 11:50 AM  a 25-year-old black male was stabbed to the right side of his neck, under his chin. The male was pronounced (dead) on location at 11:52 AM by Medic 28. Scene held, no weapon recovered, no arrest made.

Now, I don’t know about you, but the fact that someone died from being stabbed in the neck, under his chin, and the fact that the knife was not found on the scene, sure makes that seem like a homicide to me! Broad + Liberty obviously thinks so, as would anyone with an IQ higher than Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw’s, but the Philadelphia Police Department can’t quite seem to say that’s what it is.

There are things which could make it not legally a homicide: if it was a killing in self-defense, it’s not considered a homicide under the law. A suicide is also not considered a homicide under the law, but this was no suicide, because the knife disappeared.

It would make more sense to list this as a homicide, and if it turns out to be a self-defense case, remove it from the homicide report later. As it is, it looks like Commissioner Outlaw’s minions are trying to keep the numbers down artificially.

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Lexington’s first homicide of 2023

Rigoberto Vasquez-Barradas, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Meet Rigoberto Vasquez-Barradas. Mr Vasquez-Barradas has, allegedly, been a very bad boy:

Lexington man accused of repeatedly kicking pregnant woman, leading to fetal homicide

by Christopher Leach | Tuesday, January 24, 2023 | 8:10 AM EST

A Lexington man facing a fetal homicide charge allegedly kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach three times during a physical argument, according to court documents.

No, of course the Lexington Herald-Leader did not publish Mr Vasquez-Barradas’ mugshot! I had to look that one up myself.

Rigoberto Vasquez-Barradas, 24, is charged with first-degree fetal homicide, first-degree strangulation and second-degree assault — domestic violence, Lexington police previously said in a news release. Police said they were called to a local hospital that was treating a domestic violence victim Friday morning.

Court documents say Vasquez-Barradas and a woman who was 18 weeks pregnant got into an altercation that turned physical on Thursday. Vasquez-Barradas shoved the woman to the ground four times and kicked her in the stomach three times, court documents say.

Vasquez-Barradas also strangled the woman while she was on the ground, according to court documents.

While speaking with investigators, Vasquez-Barradas admitted to shoving the woman but denied kicking her in the stomach, according to court documents.

There’s a little more at the original.

As of this writing, the murder of the unborn child is not listed in the Lexington Police Department’s 2023 homicide investigations report, but that page is not updated daily. I do wonder, however, if the powers that be will include the murder of an unborn child on that list.

Mr Vasquez-Barradas has been charged with:

  • KRS §508.020: Assault, second degree- domestic violence. Assault in the second degree is a Class C felony.
  • KRS §508.170: Strangulation, first degree. Strangulation in the first degree is a Class C felony.
  • KRS §507A.020: Fetal homicide, first degree. Fetal homicide in the first degree is a capital offense.

Under KRS §532.060(2)(c), the sentence for a Class C felony is imprisonment for “not less than five (5) years nor more than ten (10) years”. The penalty for a capital offense under KRS §532.030 is:

  • death; or
  • imprisonment for life without benefit of probation or parole; or
  • imprisonment for life without benefit of probation or parole until he has served a minimum of twenty-five (25) years of his sentence; or
  • imprisonment life; or
  • imprisonment for not less than twenty (20) years nor more than fifty (50) years.

Under that fourth possibility, imprisonment for life, a prisoner first becomes eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Me? I’m hoping that Mr Vasquez-Barradas is not allowed some lenient plea bargain arrangement and, if he is guilty, sentenced to life without parole.

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Why, it’s almost as though gun control laws don’t work!

It was just one sentence, buried far down in the story:

“I believe the weapon that was recovered at the Alhambra location is not legal to have here in the State of California,” LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said Sunday.

The New York Post reported that the alleged Monterey Park gunman, Huu Can Tran, 72, was essentially nuts:

The gunman who slaughtered 10 people at a California dance club before killing himself had been a regular patron at venue — and believed that the instructors said “evil things about him.”

Huu Can Tran, 72, opened fire at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park late Saturday with a semiautomatic pistol, killing 10 people and wounding at least 10 others before storming the rival Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, where two bystanders disarmed him.

He later killed himself inside a cargo van during a stand-off with police in Torrance, about 30 miles from Monterey Park, officials said.

The motive for his rampage after a Lunar New Year celebration remains unclear but several disturbing details have emerged about the gunman, who had once been a regular patron at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where he gave informal lessons, CNN reported.

There’s more at the original, and the Post is not behind a paywall.

It has been reported that Mr Tran was looking for his ex-wife at the two dance halls; she had been invited, but he had not. It was, as it is so often, a domestic dispute.

Mr Tran used a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a weapon not highly regarded by firearms experts, but one for which a thirty-round magazine has been available. The Los Angeles County Sheriff said that the weapon was not legal to be possessed or owned in California, but Mr Tran apparently had one anyway. Why, it’s almost as though nuts and criminals don’t obey gun control laws.

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All the News That’s Fit to Print?

There has been so much written about the criminal cases against 33-year-old government worker William Dale Zulock Jr. and 35-year-old banker Zachary “Zack” Jacoby Zulock, accused of a whole series of child rape and sexual abuse crimes against the two boys they adopted, with some of the descriptions beggaring the imagination, that I’ve had to wonder just how much of the stories is true.

According to a copy of the 17-count indictment Townhall has obtained, the adoptive dads allegedly performed oral sex on both boys, forced the children to perform oral sex on them, and anally raped their sons. In at least one instance, the anal rape injured the older Zulock child, who just turned 11-years-old in mid-December. Court records indicate that the child sexual abuse stretches back to as early as late 2019 and intensified in January 2021, March 2021, and December 2021, as the offense dates are listed.

The brothers were enrolled in third and fourth-grade, respectively, before the men were caught in a midnight July bust at the Zulock mansion, which ended with Zachary tackled to the ground and William hauled out of the house naked by armed officers.

There’s disgustingly more at the original.

But the only stories I have seen about this have come from the conservative media. As is my habit, when I wonder about these things, I do website searches of the major credentialed media sources, and guess what I found. A site search for William Zulock on The New York Times website produced zero returns, as did one for William Dale Zulock.

The New York Post reported on the case, as did WSB-TV out of Atlanta, but a Washington Post site search for Zulock yielded nothing. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did carry a story about the original arrest. Fox News had the story, but The Philadelphia Inquirer did not. The Walton County Sheriff’s Office released this arrest report.

Townhall reported that, “Zachary (is) a Biden voter and ardent Black Lives Matter advocate who championed left-wing causes on Facebook,” so yeah, he’s certainly guilty! 🙂

The Daily Mail reported that Zachary Zulock was accused of raping a 14-year-old boy in 2011, but that the case was never properly investigated and was dropped. That does lead to the obvious question, one the credentialed media would be all over if the Zulocks had been Republicans: how seriously did the “Christian special needs adoption” agency investigate the prospective adoptive parents?

So, how do we explain the fact that The New York Times, with its long-time blurb, “All the News That’s Fit to Print” didn’t print this news? Thanks to the internet, the story is a national one, and one published in New York City; there’s no way the editors of the Times didn’t know about it. Was it perhaps not fit to print because the accusations against the Zulocks are so disgusting, or was it not fit to print because it might lead to increased anti-homosexual attitudes?

Yes, that was a rhetorical question; we all know the answer.

It’s really pretty clear: the credentialed media don’t actually lie, at least not much, but they are very good at declining to publish the things which go against their editorial slant. If it’s news that they don’t want you to read, they won’t publish it.

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Being taught about white privilege, by The Philadelphia Inquirer I don't think that the newspaper realizes just what it's doing

I have used this article title twice previously, as The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote major stories on the murder of Samuel Sean Collington, a Temple University student approaching graduation. Mr Collington was a white victim, allegedly murdered by a black juvenile in a botched robbery. On December 2, 2021,the Inquirer published 14 photographs from a vigil for Mr Collington, along with another story about him. Five separate stories about the case of a murdered white guy. In September of last year, what I have frequently called The Philadelphia Enquirer[1]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. published another big story about another white recent college grad, Everett Beauregard, murdered after an attempted robbery.

When it comes to the black victims of homicide, the Inky tells us little, because so many of the black victims have been thugs themselves. As we reported on Wednesday, the newspaper deliberately deletes information on the race of victims, because the #woke[2]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading editors and staff think it will somehow be racist to do so. Yet the published stories, while they didn’t mention that Messrs Collington and Beauregard were white, published their photos, so the readers knew that they were.

And here they go again!

St. Joe’s beefed up its security after a shooting, home invasions, and assaults, but critics say it’s not enough

The number of aggravated assaults, robberies with a firearm, and thefts have increased near its main campus, and at a higher rate than the city as a whole, according to an analysis of police data.

by Susan Snyder and Chris A. Williams | Thursday, January 19, 2023 | 5:00 AM EST

The night before St. Joe’s student Tommy McBride was scheduled to serve as a coordinator at freshman orientation, he arrived at his home just four blocks from campus in Philadelphia’s Overbrook section.

“I was in my car sending a message to the leader team, telling everyone to get a good night’s rest and to get excited for the following day,” said the 21-year-old from Cherry Hill. “And as I was about to press send … a Dodge Charger pulls up right next to my car.”

Immediately, two males wearing ski masks and holding guns jumped out, pulled open his door, and dragged him out, he said. One of the gunmen fired into the air, then put a bullet in McBride’s knee.

While I do not like to use photos from the Enquirer Inquirer, I have included a screen capture of Mr McBride’s photo from the newspaper’s website — my subscription is digital only — to illustrate for readers how the newspaper, which never tells us explicitly that Mr McBride is white, lets us know anyway.

McBride never made freshman orientation that June week. He spent 12 weeks on crutches and still awaits another surgery. He and his college roommates left their house in the 2000 block of Upland Way and moved to nearby Manayunk.

“We all decided it was not safe physically and mentally to live there anymore,” he said, “especially with that not being the only incident of gun violence and crime” in the neighborhood.

Translation: Mr McBride and his roommates decided that they needed a safer, whiter neighborhood in Philly. Of course, adjacent Lower Merion was way too expensive!

I’ve done some work in Lower Merion, and I concluded that not only could I not afford a house there, I couldn’t even afford one of their driveways!

There is a long story about increasing crime incidents near St Joseph’s campus, but another illustration in the newspaper is worth more than a thousand words. You can click on the image to enlarge it. Another photo in the article, of the pleasant-looking street on which Mr McBride was shot, tells the reader how the criminal culture which has created the Philadelphia Badlands, a name the Inky hates, is moving into neighborhoods housing unarmed, unprotected, and naïve students around St Joseph’s and Drexel Universities.

In April of 2022, a survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that public safety was the most important issue concerning Philadelphians. The response of the editors? The Editorial Board told us that the real problem wasn’t crime and violence, but that white residents didn’t feel as threatened as “Black and Hispanic Philadelphians.”

Yet here, the newspaper is once again telling us about increasing crime and violence spreading to white residents. When it comes to crime, though the Inky has had some serious stories about how bad things are in Kensington, they are also telling us that things are getting worse in mostly white areas.

That the Editorial Board endorsed the George Soros-funded defense lawyer turned District Attorney, Let ’em Loose Larry Krasner, for re-election, tells us that they are not serious about fighting crime.

But maybe, just maybe, their story about crime creeping up in white areas will shake up the white, liberal voters in Chestnut Hill and Center City and Rittenhouse Square, and get them to consider that, just possibly, voting for the further left, the ‘progressive’ Democrats, in primary and general elections hasn’t worked out well for the city.

References

References
↑1 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.
↑2 From Wikipedia:

Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues.
By the late 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term broadly associated with left-wing politics and cultural issues (with the terms woke culture and woke politics also being used). It has been the subject of memes and ironic usage. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I shall confess to sometimes “ironic usage” of the term. To put it bluntly, I think that the ‘woke’ are just boneheadedly stupid.
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Killadelphia The city counts 17 homicides, but Broad + Liberty has documented 20.

We had previously noted the decline in the homicide rate in the City of Brotherly Love that began last November, and that, as of the end of November, there was actually a margin-of-error chance that the city could finish with slightly under 500 ‘official’ homicides. It didn’t work out that way, and Philly finished 2022 with 516 ‘official’ homicides, though with the number of deaths classified as ‘suspicious’ rather than homicides, the real number could be much higher. Currently, the Philadelphia Police are reporting 17 homicides as of 11:59 PM EST on Tuesday, January 17th, but Broad + Liberty are reporting 20 through that time period. The Broad + Liberty site includes its sources, and every single one of them is documented with Police Department press releases.

Of the 21 homicides noted by Broad + Liberty — their update at 11:28 AM EST this morning includes a killing this morning — 14 of the victims, 12 males and 2 females, were black, six were Hispanic (all males), and there was one Asian male constituting the victims. This is the kind of information The Philadelphia Inquirer has, in that they receive the same press releases as Broad + Liberty, but they censor out of their news stories.

Two dead, one in critical condition after shooting breaks out at a Chinese restaurant in Southwest Philly

Police said the motive is unknown, but the victims all lived close to the restaurant where the shooting occurred.

by Beatrice Forman | Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Shangri-La Chinese food takeout, August 2019, via Google Maps.

Two people were killed and another was in critical condition after a shooting at a Chinese takeout restaurant in Southwest Philadelphia.Police told reporters at least 16 shots were fired at the Shangri-La restaurant on the 5400 block of Chester Avenue around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday night as customers were picking up orders.

Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said officers found three unconscious victims on the floor of the takeout area when they arrived on the scene: a 19-year-old man, a 20-year-old man, and a 43-year-old woman. “All three victims were suffering from gunshot wounds,” Small said.

Police confirmed the 19-year-old man and the woman were pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. The 20-year-old man is in critical condition.

While Broad + Liberty reported that the two who were killed were black, I had to find out from the city’s shooting victims database that the third victim, the 20-year-old male, was also black. I would have guessed that anyway, given that the Inquirer’s story said that the two men were brothers. While Inspector Small stated that the motive was unknown, or who were the intended targets, the shootings victims database indicated that the two men suffered multiple body wounds, including a head wound to the survivor, while the slain woman was struck in the shoulder. I’d note here that the database is a pain to use, and the three shooting victims from the same incident are not listed together, but on the fifth, seventh, and nineth lines of the database, as accessed at 1:40 PM EST.

It’s still early in the year, but the difference between 17 homicides and 20 is stark. Extrapolated over the full year, it’s a difference between 365 and 429 murders for 2023. With three more dead bodies documented in the city, the Philadelphia Police Department need to explain why three people who are stone-cold graveyard dead, three people who died from gunshot wounds according to Broad + Liberty’s statistics, don’t count as homicides.

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Nice guys will never solve Kensington’s problems Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the anus here] to get things done

The Editorial Board of The Philadelphia Inquirer is, since publisher Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Hughes took over, and the firing resignation of Executive Editor Stan Wischnowski, has been the wokest of the #woke[1]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading, so it’s rare for me to see them get something even half-right, but half right they got it:

It’s going to take more than $20 million to help the people of Kensington | Editorial

Without a comprehensive plan to clear the open-air drug markets and help those struggling with addiction and homelessness, the city will be throwing good money after bad.

by The Editorial Board | Sunday, January 15, 2023 | 5:00 AM EST

The city’s plan to steer millions of dollars to Kensington to combat the opioid crisis is a much-needed welcome start. But without a comprehensive plan to address the rampant open-air drug markets and homelessness lining the main business corridor there, the city will be throwing good money after bad.

Mayor Jim Kenney announced plans to distribute $20 million to community groups in Kensington to fund a variety of efforts, including overdose prevention, home repairs, and improvements to parks and schools.

The money is part of the $200 million Philadelphia expects to receive over 18 years as part of a national settlement with Johnson & Johnson and three drug distribution firms that helped fuel the opioid crisis.

Overall, Pennsylvania expects to receive $1.6 billion as part of the settlement negotiated by then-Attorney General (and now Gov.-elect) Josh Shapiro.

To their credit, Kenney and District Attorney Larry Krasner initially balked at the city’s portion of the settlement, given the scale of the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia, which has resulted in more than 1,100 deaths annually since 2017.

Philadelphia is ground zero in the state’s opioid crisis and should receive more funding. But the city ultimately went along with the settlement, figuring it was better than nothing.

The challenge now is to not waste the opportunity — or the money. For far too long, the city has allowed Kensington to devolve into an infamous drug bazaar.

That blurb above? That was in the online version of the editorial itself. It pretty much pegs the irony meter having the Editorial Board telling us about the “opioid crisis” and the Hellhole Kensington has become, and then link an OpEd which implores making illegal drug abuse safer!

As for the “infamous drug bazaar” mentioned? That’s a link to the Inky’s story about the Mexican government using videos of Kensington’s homeless and junkies in an ad campaign to scare Mexicans away from drug use!

The scene along the main business corridor is dystopian. Homeless encampments line the trash-strewn streets along with used needles, human feces, and vomit. There are scores of people smoking, drinking, sleeping, sitting, standing, and stumbling in different states of addiction.

Those unfamiliar with the jaw-dropping sight should google videos of Kensington, as words can’t capture the daily horror. It is an appalling and embarrassing blot on the city that no leader should accept.

Let’s tell the truth here: Mayor Jim Kenney has accepted it! Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has accepted it. And District Attorney Larry Krasner has accepted it. Oh, they’ll never say that, not out loud, but the fact that they haven’t actually done anything about it speaks volumes.

I don’t particularly like copying photos from the Inquirer, but the one on the right, which you can click to enlarge, illustrates the problem, and I thought that photographer José Moreno captured it well. An unidentified junkie, passed out on litter-strewn Kensington Avenue, just a few steps from the SEPTA Market Street/Frankford rail line station, by security roll-down shutters marred by graffiti, with someone trying to see if he’s just passed out or maybe dead, while the police look on. Are the police doing anything about it? Has an ambulance been called?

Another photo can be found here.

Near the end of the editorial:

Past efforts to clamp down on drug dealing and homelessness have been successful, but short-lived. In 1998, then-Police Commissioner John Timoney launched Operation Sunrise, a major effort designed to retake control of Kensington’s streets.

In 2017, the city cleared a large heroin encampment that existed for years in a gulch along the Kensington rail line. In 2021, the city cleared two homeless encampments along Kensington Avenue.

Really? The Editorial Board could reference just three major efforts in twenty-five years? Well, perhaps there were more, and the newspaper simply didn’t have all of the information, or the Board believes that more links would make poorer prose. But I did notice that after a major story in the Inquirer on August 17, 2020, there’s no referenced story about the police making a major raid that year.

The Editorial Board noted that the l;aw abiding residents in Kensington want the police to “crack down” on the open air drug markets, on the crime and the homelessness, but one particular paragraph stands out:

“If the drug dealers are not here then the drug addicts won’t be here,” Darlene Burton, a Kensington resident and community activist, told the Editorial Board. “You have to cut off the head of the snake.”

The Board let that statement stand without challenge, but let’s tell the truth: as long as there are drug addicts, there will be people willing to sell drugs to them. And that is where all of the proposals to attach the dealers fail: the city needs to crack down on the addicts as well.

The addicts need to be arrested and charged for using illegal drugs, and they need to be kept locked up at least long enough for the drugs to get out of their systems, and go through detoxification. You can’t just offer the junkies drug rehabilitation, you have to get them through detox, and force them to go through rehab, or you are just wasting your time and money. You need to convict them of crimes, so that they can, at the very least, be put on probation with frequent, mandatory drug tests.

Why haven’t Mayor Kenney, Commissioner Outlaw, and District Attorney Krasner done anything about Kensington? Because, deep down, they know that what I wrote in the previous paragraph is necessary, and none of them are willing to invest the time or money or political capital to do that. But if the city doesn’t do that, doesn’t treat not only the drug dealers but the drug addicts seriously, then the current situation in Kensington will continue. Oh, a police action of sorts could move the junkies out every so often, but without taking care of the addicts, all that can be done is push them into Fairhill, Harrowgate, or Hunting Park.

The truth ought to be obvious: you can’t be a nice guy and solve the problems. Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the anus here].

References

References
↑1 From Wikipedia:

Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke“, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues.
By the late 2010s, woke had been adopted as a more generic slang term broadly associated with left-wing politics and cultural issues (with the terms woke culture and woke politics also being used). It has been the subject of memes and ironic usage. Its widespread use since 2014 is a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I shall confess to sometimes “ironic usage” of the term. To put it bluntly, I think that the ‘woke’ are just boneheadedly stupid.
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Criminals are stupid, or “You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!”

Can we tell the truth here? Criminals are just plain stupid!

Hunter Townsend. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Lexington detective: Men got into fight with woman, returned to scene and stabbed her

by Christopher Leach | Friday the 13th, January, 2023 | 1:31 PM EST

Two suspects accused of stabbing a 28-year-old woman first assaulted the victim and later returned to the scene to further assault her, according to court testimony given by a detective Friday.

Hunter Townsend, 25, and Keith Merritt, 52, are both facing charges of first degree assault in connection to the incident, according to court records. Both were booked into the Fayette County Detention Center the evening of Jan. 5.

According to testimony from Detective Christopher Ward with the Lexington Police Department, officers were dispatched to the Dollar Tree on Versailles Road just after 3 p.m. on Jan. 3 for a report of a subject down with blood on them. When officers arrived, paramedics were administering care to a woman suffering from multiple stab wounds.

There’s more at the original.

Keith Merritt. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Allegedly, an altercation happened in the Dollar Tree parking lot, Messrs Townsend and Merritt left, and then returned later to stab the woman multiple times. In other words, they had time to think about what they were going to do, and did it anyway!

Surveillance cameras picked up the truck Mr Townsend was driving, and were able to capture the license plate number. The victim claimed that both men stabbed her, though Mr Townsend allegedly stabbed her more often.

Under KRS §508.010 Assault in the First Degree is a Class B felony. Under KRS §532.060, the sentence for a Class B felony is not less than ten (10) years nor more than twenty (20) years imprisonment. We don’t know about what the argument was, but after driving away, thinking about it, these two fine gentlemen (allegedly) returned to the scene and tried to kill her. Though not charged with attempted murder — which is another Class B felony — it’s clear that these gentlemen were (allegedly) undertaking an act which could easily have resulted in the victim’s death.

Mr Townsend is 25 years old, at which time we’d hope he was showing some maturity, but apparently not. Mr Merritt, on the other hand, is 52 years old, and ought to have developed at least some wisdom, even if only from a hard life experience, and tried to stop his younger companion.

I would not be surprised if there were some things about which we have not yet been told, or that recreational pharmaceuticals were involved, but, you know what? I really don’t care. Try them, convict them, and sentence them to the maximum term allowable under the law. Men (allegedly) this stupid are not people we want to have walking around town.