Tag Archives: #Crime

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Is the Lexington Herald-Leader guilty of sheltering a criminal suspect?

As we have previously noted, the Lexington Herald-Leader is bound by the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, which states that McClatchy publications will not print photos of criminal suspects, unless certain conditions are met. One of the exceptions editors are supposed to consider — and all exceptions to the policy must be approved by an editor — is “Is there an urgent threat to the community?”

On Wednesday, July 28th, Lexington police officers, working with United States Marshals, attempted to arrest Mr Dockery at a home in the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court. The suspect allegedly shot at police, and at least one officer returned fire and wounded Mr Dockery. The Herald-Leader was all kinds of upset that the LPD would not release the names of either the suspect or the officer who shot him.

    Officials haven’t identified the Lexington police officer who fired his gun, nor have they identified the suspect who was shot. He was served with a murder warrant after being taken to a Lexington hospital, according to Lexington police. Police hadn’t yet confirmed who shot the man. It was unclear if U.S. Marshals also fired at him.

    Kentucky State Police are investigating the shooting and Lexington police told the Herald-Leader the release of any additional information would have to be approved by the state agency. Lexington police declined to answer several questions about the shooting during a press conference Wednesday after providing a news release.

The Kentucky State Police, rather than the Lexington Police Department, investigates all officer involved shootings. It would normally be considered a good thing that an agency not involved in the incident would do the investigations.

Well, for the Herald-Leader, which is reluctant to print the mugshots of even “armed and dangerous” criminals, not knowing which officer shot the suspect was just too, too much, so the newspaper kept investigating. At least so far, the officer has not been publicly identified.

    Documents divulge name of man injured in shooting involving Lexington police officer

    By Karla Ward | July 30, 2021 | 9:45 PM EDT

    Court documents provide a description of what police say led up to a shooting in which law enforcement officers injured a homicide suspect at a Lexington home Wednesday.

    The man who was shot is identified as Brandon Dockery, according to documents filed in Fayette District Court in a related case.

    Police said in the court documents that when they went to a home on the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court and made contact with Dockery at the front door, he kept “his hand in his pocket as if he had a weapon” and “continued to ignore officer’s commands.”

    Dockery can be heard saying “I don’t want to die,” on body camera footage, police said in the documents.

The article continues to note that the police initially used a stun gun to subdue Mr Dockery, and an exchange of gunfire followed when the taser apparently failed to incapacitate the suspect. A jammed handgun was found in Mr Dockery’s possession, which has investigators believing that the suspect shot at the arresting officers until it jammed on him.

While the Herald-Leader does not print mugshots of criminal suspects, The First Street Journal does, if we can obtain them. The mugshot of Mr Dockery is not from any Herald-Leader article, but from the Lexington Police Department’s homicide investigations page. I obtained this photo at the time of June 25th story, when Mr Dockery was still on the loose.

So, how did Karla Ward, the newspaper reporter, find out the name of the suspect shot, a name officials had declined to release prior to the completion of the investigation?

    Courtney Jade Brown. Screen capture from WKYT-TV.

    The information was included in a criminal complaint charging Courtney Jade Brown, 26, with first-degree hindering prosecution/apprehension in connection with Dockery’s apprehension. . . .

    The complaint against Brown states that officers and federal agents were doing surveillance at Brown’s residence on Thirlstane Court after learning that Dockery had been in contact with Brown recently and had been “staying there regularly since June.”

    When they saw Brown leave Wednesday morning, Lexington police immediately stopped her at the Speedway at New Circle and Meadow Lane.

    During an interview with a detective from the U.S. Marshal’s Service at the gas station, Brown said she didn’t know where Dockery was and lied when asked if he was at her home, the complaint states.

After interviewing Miss Brown, the LPD and US Marshalls went straight to her home, where Mr Dockery was found. Miss Brown was arrested, charged and released on Thursday.

Of course, the Herald-Leader did not choose to print Miss Brown’s photo either, even though my source for it, WKYT-TV is the newspaper’s ‘news partner,’ and the WKYT story was published at 4:38 PM EDT, three hours and 7 minutes prior to the Herald-Leader’s story. The Herald-Leader certainly had access to the photo.

Obvious question: if Miss Brown is guilty of sheltering Mr Dockery from the police, is the Herald-Leader guilty of the same thing? The residence in question is on a single family homes street, and if the Herald-Leader had published Mr Dockery’s mugshot, perhaps one of the neighbors might have seen it, recognized him, and reported it to the police. The police clearly suspected that Mr Dockery was at Miss Brown’s residence, as they were keeping the place under surveillance, but must not have had enough evidence he was there to execute a warrant there. Had a neighbor spotted the suspect, and reported it to the police, perhaps the warrant could have been executed weeks earlier.

Yes, I know: that would be a difficult case to make. But the McClatchy Mugshot Policy is clearly not helping law enforcement, or serving what so many media outlets have termed the “public’s right to know.” The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists states:

  • Responsibility: The public’s right to know of events of public importance and interest is the overriding mission of the mass media. The purpose of distributing news and enlightened opinion is to serve the general welfare.
  • Freedom of the Press: Freedom of the press is to be guarded as an inalienable right of people in a free society. It carries with it the freedom and the responsibility to discuss, question, and challenge actions and utterances of our government and of our public and private institutions. Journalists uphold the right to speak unpopular opinions and the privilege to agree with the majority.
  • Ethics: Journalists must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know the truth. . . . . Journalists will seek news that serves the public interest, despite the obstacles. They will make constant efforts to assure that the public’s business is conducted in public and that public records are open to public inspection.

Can someone tell me how the McClatchy Mugshot Policy and the Lexington Herald-Leader’s adherence to it, even in the case of armed and dangerous suspects, serves the public’s right to know or the general welfare? How does it serve the public’s interest, despite the obstacles? Mr Dockery has been criminally charged with murder, the most serious crime there is, yet the Herald-Leader chose to withhold from the public information which could have led to his apprehension as much as a month earlier.

Perhaps the McClatchy newspapers have chosen instead to adhere to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional 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

It’s simple: in their efforts not to “disproportionately harm people of color,”[2]Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy. the Herald-Leader is sacrificing the public’s right to know.

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 Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy.
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Street justice The kind of justice you seek when you are boneheadedly stupid

Michael Lemond. Photo: Fayette County Detention Center.

We have previously noted the shooting, and blinding, of then-five year old Malakai Roberts; Michael Lemond and Teyo Waite, both 18, have been charged.

So why did they do it? It was a f(ornicating) mistake! They were shooting at the wrong house!

    Detective: Shooters accused of blinding Lexington boy ‘simply got the wrong house.’

    By Jeremy Chisenhall | July 27, 2021 | 10:49 AM | Updated: 12:05 PM EDT

    The young men accused of blinding a 5-year-old Lexington child shot into the wrong house, a Lexington detective testified Tuesday.

    Detective Jordan Tyree said Tuesday that the suspects in the Dec. 21 shooting intended to target the home of another person with whom 18-year-old Michael Lemond had gotten into an argument on social media. The intended target allegedly disrespected the victim of a 2019 homicide. But the suspects had the wrong address.

Teyo Waite. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center.

I understand that ‘disrespect’ used as a verb is a part of street language, but it seems to me that Jeremy Chisenhall, the article author, and Peter Baniak, the Lexington Herald-Leader’s editor, showed great disrespect for the English language by doing the same thing.

So, Messrs Lemond and Waite, the alleged shooters, were doubly stupid: they were ‘beefing’ with some other guy, looked up his address, and got the wrong one. They had to show him good, but didn’t even have the courage to face him. Instead they fired into a house, from the street, and blinded a child for life.

Young Mr Roberts has also lost his senses of smell and taste.

Detective Tyree said, “There were numerous bullet holes all through the upstairs and downstairs of the house.” In other words, spray and pray, the mark of a poor shooter. Young Mr Roberts mother, Cacy Roberts, was also struck by a bullet, which entered and exited her arm.

    Lemond also allegedly texted someone else about an hour before the shooting and told them “I love you … but I can’t let this s**t slide,” Tyree said.

    The intended target, who lived near where the shooting happened, allegedly “disrespected” Bryant Gaston, the victim in a fatal 2019 shooting. A 15-year-old was charged with murder in Gaston’s death.

Well, at least Mr Chisenhall put “disrespected” in quotation marks this time, indicating that it was slang.

Mr Lemond, again allegedly, got into an argument on social media with someone, so, again allegedly, he went after them with a gun. Street justice!

The detective revealed that Mr Lemond confessed, and gave up Mr Waite on the shooting as well.

So, over an argument on social media, Messrs Lemond and Waite decided that it would be a wise idea to show up at someone’s house and spray it with bullets. They got the wrong house, had no idea at whom they were shooting, and even if they had gotten the right house, had no way to tell if they were actually going to hit their target.

The Herald-Leader stated that each man male faced two counts of assault and two counts of wanton endangerment.

508.010 Assault in the first degree.

(1) A person is guilty of assault in the first degree when:
(a) He intentionally causes serious physical injury to another person by means of
a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument; or
(b) Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human
life he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to
another and thereby causes serious physical injury to another person.
(2) Assault in the first degree is a Class B felony.

508.060 Wanton endangerment in the first degree.
(1) A person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when, under
circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he
wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious
physical injury to another person.
(2) Wanton endangerment in the first degree is a Class D felony.

A Class B felony is punishable by 10 to 20 years in a Kentucky state prison, while a Class D felony is punishable by at least one year and no more than five years in state prison. In theory, if convicted on all charges, the offenses are all charged in the first degree, and sentenced to the maximum with sentences to run consecutively, each suspect could get fifty years (20 + 20 + 5 + 5 = 50) in the state penitentiary. Fifty years could keep them locked up until they are 68 years old. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that, if convicted, the judge would set sentencing in that fashion. Sadly, the attorneys and prosecutors will probably work out some sort of plea bargain arrangement which will let the defendants out of jail while they are still relatively young men males. If the prosecution really does have the goods on the defendants, they should not agree to any plea bargain which does not sentence the defendants to the maximum.

Young Mr Roberts will never see anything again, never smell or taste anything again, for the rest of his life; the defendants, if convicted, should spend the rest of their miserable lives behind bars.

I urge you to donate to young Mr Roberts.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer proves my point

We have said, umpteen times, that The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t really care about homicides in the City of Brotherly Love unless the victim is an innocent, a ‘somebody,’ or a cute little white girl.

    Two young athletes were fatally shot this week, leaving West Philadelphia school communities shattered: ‘This can’t be normal’

    “This can’t be normal, this can’t be accepted,” a Boys’ Latin football coach said he told his players. “You have a victim, but you also have a family behind them that are left to pick up the pieces.”

    By Anna Orso | Friday, July 23, 2021

    It had been just a few weeks since K.J. Johnson got his driver’s license. He picked up friends, including his childhood pal Tommie Frazier, and headed to play basketball on Wednesday, a sunny afternoon in West Philly.

    The ride ended in tragedy. Johnson, 16, and Frazier, 18, were fatally shot just after noon while seated in a car on the 200 block of North 56th Street in West Philadelphia, after unidentified gunmen fired into the vehicle. Another 16-year-old was wounded by the bullets fired in broad daylight near a day care and a bus stop.

    As of Friday, no one had been arrested and homicide investigators were still searching for video and witnesses. Police said they found 17 shell casings at the scene.

There’s plenty more at the original, but it all boils down to the same thing we’ve written about before: the victims were good high school athletes, the victims were somebodies.

A previous story noted that:

    The shooting happened at 12:10 p.m. on the 200 block of North 56th Street, when unidentified gunmen opened fire on the teens as they sat in a car, said Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Naish.

    Two males, ages 16 and 18 — whom police did not identify — were pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center after each was struck several times. The other teen, a 16-year-old boy, was taken to Lankenau Medical Center in stable condition, police said.

Seated in a car, each struck several times, and the police recovered 17 shell casings at the scene. This wasn’t random; these victims were deliberately targeted.

Was Mr McCain telling me that I’ve been too much of a broken record on Philadelphia murders? 🙂

Next came another story:

    He ‘didn’t deserve to die this way,’ says family of the 22-year-old killed outside Pat’s Steaks

    Police have charged a Reading man with murder in connection with the killing of David Padro Jr., a 22-year-old from Camden.

    by Anna Orso and Mensah M. Dean | Updated: July 23, 2021

    David Padro Sr. expected to spend this weekend like he did the last one: surrounded by family and hanging out by his pool in South Jersey with his 22-year-old son.

    Instead, he’s planning his son’s funeral.

    David Padro Jr., 22, was fatally shot early Thursday morning in South Philadelphia outside Pat’s King of Steaks, the famed cheesesteak joint where he had stopped for a bite. His father said Padro, of Camden, was in Philadelphia with his girlfriend to go to a nightclub when they stopped to eat and an argument broke out among patrons.

    Then, police say, Paul C. Burkert, a 36-year-old from Reading, pulled a gun. Padro was shot in the shoulder and abdomen and transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 1 a.m. Police said Burkert fled the scene and then turned himself in to National Park Police at Independence Mall.

Burkert faces murder and weapons charges. Court records show he pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge in Berks County in 2019 and was prohibited from possessing a firearm. No attorney for him was listed in court records Friday.

Gee, a convicted druggie, probably a drug dealer, carrying a handgun while out to buy a cheesesteak. He may have been from Reading, but that was real Philadelphia of him!

The Inquirer reported that, despite previous rumors that it was an altercation between Eagles and Giants fans, it was an altercation over a parking space. A photo accompanying the story shows just how crowded Philly’s narrow streets are in that area.

But both cases show what the Inquirer does. They pick some unusual aspect, high school basketball players, or out-or-towners who didn’t know each other, while the typical murders, one bad guy shooting another bad guy, get ignored, and they get mostly ignored because the city doesn’t want to face the real problem: it’s not guns, but a culture which says it’s perfectly reasonable to pull out your Glock and blast someone else.

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No jail term will ever be long enough

As we have noted so many times previously, the Lexington Herald-Leader follows the McClatchy Mugshot Policy and does not print the photos of accused criminals.

    Lexington teen accused of attacking his mom is charged in shooting that blinded child

    By Jeremy Chisenhall | July 22, 2021 | 11:19 AM | Updated: July 22, 2021 | 4:27 PM

    Michael Lemond. Photo: Fayette County Detention Center.

    A Lexington teenager accused of punching and shooting his mother has been linked to a 2020 shooting that left a 5-year-old boy blind, according to police and new court records.

    Michael Lemond, 18, was charged with two counts of first-degree assault Wednesday after police accused him of firing the shots that struck 5-year-old Malakai Roberts and Roberts’ mother, Cacy Roberts. Malakai was permanently blinded by the shooting after one of the shots went through his head.

    The shooting happened around 2 a.m. on Dec. 21, according to police. The shots were fired from outside the Roberts’ home on Catera Trace. Malakai’s injuries were initially considered life-threatening. Four other people were in the home when the shooting occurred, police said at the time.

It seems that Mr Lemond is, allegedly, of course, not a very nice guy. He was already locked up at the time of these new charges, because he had (allegedly) punched and fired three shots at his own mother, on May 23rd. Police recovered three shell casings at the site.

Malakai Roberts was playing inside his own home, when a bullet came through from outside. The Herald-Leader doesn’t publish mugshots, because they might be harmful to the offenders, but, not to worry, young Mr Roberts will never see the mugshots of the men males responsible for shooting him, because he is permanently blind. When Mr Lemond gets out of jail, he will still be able to see.

    2nd Lexington teen charged in shooting that blinded a 5-year-old boy

    By Jeremy Chisenhall | July 23, 2021 | 7:13 AM

    Teyo Waite. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center.

    A second teenager has been charged with assault in a shooting that blinded a 5-year-old boy and injured his mother, according to Lexington police.

    Teyo Waite, 18, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of assault plus two counts of wanton endangerment, according to jail records. Police confirmed Waite was charged in connection a shooting on Catera Trace which blinded Malakai Roberts, who’s now 6. His mother, Cacy Roberts, was also shot. Other people were in the home at the time, according to arrest records.

    The shooting happened around 2 a.m. on Dec. 21, police said. It was one of several shootings that occurred. Malakai was blinded by a bullet that went through his temple and narrowly missed his brain, his family said.

    Malakai Roberts sat with his gifts on his 6th birthday. Roberts was permanently blinded when he was unexpectedly shot by someone outside his home on Dec. 21. Photo by Cacy Roberts.

    “You won’t find a more sweet kid than Malakai despite what he’s going through,” detective Cal Mattox previously told the Herald-Leader. Mattox, a Lexington police narcotics detective, wasn’t directly involved in the shooting investigation. But he helped launch a fundraiser for the family, which has raised more than $16,500.

    Police previously charged another 18-year-old, Michael Lemond, with the same crimes in the same shooting. Lemond was already in jail due to an unrelated arrest, which occurred in May.

If you can spare the money, I urge you to go ahead and make a donation to help young Mr Roberts. The GoFundMe site has, thus far, raised $16,890 for him, but it will never, ever, be able to replace what this young boy has lost. If Messrs Waite and Lemond are convicted for the blinding of Mr Roberts, I would suggest that they should get out of prison the day that Mr Roberts regains his sight.

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I’m surprised that the Usual Suspects aren’t already out protesting But, then again, the day is still young

An article not to be found on The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website main page:

    Man fatally shot by police in Kensington after allegedly firing at officers

    The shooting occurred on the 3000 block of North Water Street.

    By Robert Moran | July 22, 2021

    An unidentified man was fatally shot by police after he allegedly fired shots at two officers during a large neighborhood fight in the city’s Kensington section Thursday evening.

    The man, described as in his late 40s or early 50s, was shot in the shoulder and abdomen just before 6:30 p.m. on the 3000 block of North Water Street near Clearfield Street, said Chief Inspector Scott Small. The man was transported by police to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:30.

    The officers were undercover as part of a long-term narcotics investigation and were sitting inside an unmarked Nissan when the fight broke out, Small said. Some of the people involved in the fight jostled up against the unmarked vehicle and then the officers saw the man allegedly pull out a gun.

    Small said the officers got out of the vehicle and identified themselves as police. The man then allegedly fired at least two shots into the crowd and in the direction of the officers, who then returned fire.

North Water Street near Clearfield Street, Google Maps streetview.

There’s more at the original. I hope that the entire exchange was caught on tape, and I’m surprised that the Usual Suspects aren’t already out protesting.

If you look at the Google Maps street view of North Water Street, with Clearfield Street the intersection visible, you’re going to see a crime-ridden neighborhood. How do I know that? Even in this streetview of a racially integrated neighborhood, you can see at least six homes in which the owners have put themselves in jail, adding bars to the fronts of their houses to keep the bad guys out. Follow the link, and toggle through, and you’ll see plenty of others.

This is the part the Inquirer never points out. Yes, I know: the reporter, Robert Moran, doesn’t have this kind of investigation as part of his job, so I can’t blame him, but somebody, somebody! at the Inquirer ought to be out there, taking pictures and doing interviews on streets like this, an obviously poorer neighborhood, in which people are spending their too-few dollars on drugs — that’s why the police were conducting an undercover investigation there — and metal bars to keep their meager possessions safe from theft.

Perhaps the Inquirer might be asking, ‘Why, in a city in which jobs are going unfilled, are so many in this neighborhood poor?’ Perhaps the Inquirer might ask, ‘Why, in a neighborhood in which people are so obviously poor, are they wasting what money they do have on drugs?’

But the Inquirer won’t ask those questions, because the #woke editors and reporters already know the answers, and sure don’t want those answers made public.

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Murder in the Gateway City

A commenter on The Other McCain asked me about the homicide rate in St Louis; we had been discussing the homicides in Philadelphia and Chicago. Why, I’m glad he asked! The Gateway City has had 103 murders so far in 2021, and, unlike other cities, the SLPD divides them up by race. Five whites, two Hispanics, and one Asian have been victims, while 95 blacks — 77 males and 18 females — have been murdered there. With a population of 294,890, and a projected 189 murders, this would give the city a homicide rate of 64.07 per 100,000.

But, as I like to do the math — and we all know that math is raaaaacist, so I must denounce myself in advance — 77 homicides of black males in 199 days works out to an estimated 141 homicides for the entire year. With an, again, guesstimated, black male population of 67,060, that works out to a black male homicide rate of 210.26 per 100,000 population.

Now, if you are a white male, estimated population 67,234, there will be 5.5 murder victims this year; I’ll round up to 6. They are facing a murder rate of 8.92 per 100,000 population.

Now, if the problem is just the availability of guns, and the white-to-black population ration in St Louis is very close, 46.53% to 46.41%, why would black males be 23.57 times more likely to be murdered there?

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How is this justice? How is this right? A crime victim faces a more serious penalty than the criminal

My good friend — OK, OK, I’ve never actually met him, but still — Robert Stacy McCain noted my “Hold my beer” remark concerning Philadelphia’s higher murder rate than Chicago’s. One of Mr McCain’s internal links was to a Fox News story, Philadelphia police keep getting shot at while responding to shootings.

    Philadelphia police are facing difficulties — from uncooperative victims to suspects shooting at officers — as the city deals with another weekend of violence.

    Officers have found it difficult to provide assistance in recent weeks when responding to incidents across the city. The city surpassed 300 homicides for the year as of Friday, highlighting the strain the Philadelphia Police Department under to handle the high level of crime in its city.

    An unknown suspect started shooting in the direction of police as officers loaded a 19-year-old with a gunshot wound in his chest into a police car a few weeks ago, setting off a difficult July.

    Three teens shot at officers responding to reports of a shooting Sunday night. The officers did not return fire, but the teens were injured: An 18-year-old was shot once in the leg, a 17-year-old was shot once in the wrist and a 16-year-old was shot in the buttocks, FOX 29 reported.

    All three victims were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

One would think that perps shooting at Philadelphia Police officers would be a big story, right? It is, I suppose, always possible that The Philadelphia Inquirer, to which I subscribe and whose website I check every day, did report that story, a story of criminal suspects shooting at the Philadelphia Police, but if the newspaper did, I missed it. Site searches for “shooting at police“, “shot at police” and “fired at responding officers” did not return any stories. Since this occurred last night, I suppose that it’s possible that the Inquirer will have something on it later today.

But it was an internal link to the Fox News story that really caught my attemtion:

    Carjacking victim in Wisconsin who shot suspect, 13, charged with recklessly endangering safety

    Kenosha police say a 13-year-old attempted to carjack a vehicle but the owner opened fire

    by Danielle Wallace | July 19, 2021

    Wisconsin authorities said Sunday that a 13-year-old female carjacking suspect, as well as a driver who shot at the girl attempting to make a getaway, will both face criminal charges.

    The shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. Friday, after Kenosha Police say a person left a vehicle running and unattended at a gas station at 50th Street and Sheridan Road. A female juvenile allegedly stole the car and was driving away when the owner fired shots at the car, striking the girl, police said.

    The girl, who has not been named by authorities, was transported to Children’s Hospital. She remained hospitalized as of Sunday, the Kenosha Police Department said in an update shared on Twitter, also announcing the 13-year-old will have charges referred to juvenile court.

    The adult who shot her remained in custody as of Sunday on a single charge of first degree recklessly endangering safety. Police did not disclose whether that individual was male or female.[1]As noted in our Stylebook, The First Street Journal does not use the silly formulation “he or she.” In English, properly understood, the masculine subsumes the feminine. This means that, in cases … Continue reading

Given that he was not charged with illegal possession of a firearm, a crime the police just love to levy, I assume here that he had his weapon legally.

So, a 13-year-old juvenile delinquent committed a crime, and will be put into the juvenile justice system, where I’m pretty sure that her wrist will hurt from a very severe slap! At 13, she is too young, under state law, to be tried as an adult. Regardless of how severe that wrist slap is, as a juvenile her record will be sealed, and she’ll have no criminal record following her as an adult.

Meanwhile, the victim of her crime is being charged under §941.30(1), “First-degree recklessly endangering safety. Whoever recklessly endangers another’s safety under circumstances which show utter disregard for human life is guilty of a Class F felony.” A Class F felony in Wisconsin is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000, a state prison sentence of up to 12 years, or both.

In other words, the crime victim faces a far more serious punishment than the criminal!

The Kenosha Police referring the charge does not mean that the prosecutor will not drop the charges, but he’s already spent at least two days locked up; he is already being punished for being a crime victim. Unless the prosecution drops the charges immediately, he’ll wind up having to pay an attorney.

How is this justice? How is this right? This victim was defending his property and himself, yet he’s the one facing the more serious penalty! He could wind up with a felony record, something which would follow him for the rest of his life, a possibly impoverishing fine — the story does not tell us the economic status of the victim — and up to a dozen years in the state penitentiary, when he ought to get a medal for taking a criminal off the streets, albeit temporarily.

References

References
↑1 As noted in our Stylebook, The First Street Journal does not use the silly formulation “he or she.” In English, properly understood, the masculine subsumes the feminine. This means that, in cases in which the sex of the person to whom a pronoun refers is unknown, the masculine is properly used, and does not indicate that that person is male, nor is it biased in favor of such an assumption. The feminine pronouns, on the other hand, do specify that the person to whom they refer is female, and not male. The victim is referred to, properly, by the masculine pronouns in this article, and this does not imply that the victim is male.
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Does anyone think that there will be widespread protests over this killing by police?

On October 26, 2020, Walter Wallace, Jr, of Philadelphia, was shot and killed by two Philadelphia Police officers as he advanced on them brandishing a kinfe.

    On October 26, 2020, Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old African-American man, was shot by Philadelphia police officers Sean Matarazzo and Thomas Munz in Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The two officers arrived in the area to respond to a domestic dispute. When they arrived, Wallace walked out of his house carrying a knife. The two officers backed away while telling him to drop the knife shortly before they each fired several rounds at Wallace, hitting him in the shoulder and chest. He later died from his wounds in the hospital. Wallace’s family stated that Wallace was having a mental health crisis.

    Wallace’s killing gained attention after a cellphone video of the incident was posted to social media platforms, where it went viral. Protests against the killing occurred throughout Philadelphia in late October. Peaceful protests took place, as well as several which escalated into violence and looting, leading to arrests, injuries to police and protesters, deployment of the Pennsylvania National Guard, and a citywide curfew. . . . .

    On October 26, 2020, police attended three separate times to Wallace’s parents’ house on the 6100 block of Locust Street in the predominantly black neighborhood of Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia. Around 3:45 p.m., during their third arrival, Officers Sean Matarazzo and Thomas Munz came in response to reports of a person screaming and a man assaulting an elderly female. Several 9-1-1 calls were made by Wallace’s sister, brother, and neighbor, telling dispatchers that Wallace was assaulting his parents. Wallace’s sister asked for a medic on the scene as her mother’s blood pressure was rising and her father was feeling faint, also informing the dispatcher that Wallace was on probation and had a criminal record. Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the police dispatch prior to the shooting said, “Tell the officers to use caution in responding to this, it’s an ongoing domestic issue going on up there.” It is unknown if the officers were familiar with Wallace prior to their arrival.

    At 3:48 p.m., the responding officers arrived at the house, standing about 15 feet away from the front. An unknown person from inside the house said, “Put the knife down,” three times. Wallace then walked out of his house and onto his porch carrying a knife in his right hand. Both officers drew their guns and yelled for Wallace to “put the knife down” around 11 times. Wallace walked down his front steps and towards the officers. He then turned away from the officers and walked towards the other end of the street. His mother followed him into the street and attempted to grab him before he brushed her aside as officers asked her to move away from Wallace.[15] An unknown woman yelled to the officers that Wallace was “mental” multiple times. Wallace then walked back into the street while Matarazzo and Munz continued to aim their guns at him, repeating for him to “put the knife down”.

    Wallace’s mother told the officers not to shoot him moments before shots were fired. An unknown man said “Get him,” and “Shoot him,” before each officer fired about seven times, with an unknown number of shots hitting Wallace. Wallace’s mother ran to him as he was dying, and yelled at officers, “You killed my son!” The shots hit Wallace in the shoulder and chest. One of the officers placed Wallace in a police vehicle and drove him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.

The Usual Suspects spent a couple of weeks rioting in the City of Brotherly Love, even though the police body camera record clearly showed Mr Wallace advancing on the officers. The officers were not equipped with Tasers.

Now we come to this, from the Lexington Herald-Leader:

    KY State Police release name of man killed in Danville officer-involved shooting

    By Rayleigh Deaton | July 16, 2021 10:40 AM | Updated: 1:28 PM EDT

    Shelby Ray Hardin. Photo from his obituary.

    The Kentucky State Police have released the name of the man shot and killed by an officer at a Danville hotel last week.

    According to KSP, 33-year-old Shelby Ray Hardin of Danville was holding his mother hostage at knifepoint at the Danville Super Motel 8 on July 6.

    When Hardin did not comply with officers’ commands to drop the knife and release his mother, Danville police officer Kyle Lyons fired a shot, investigators say.

WLEX-TV had a more detailed report:

    Danville police officers responded to a domestic disturbance in a Super 8 Motel on July 6. Once the officers arrived they encountered 33-year-old Shelby Ray Hardin, who was holding his mother hostage at knifepoint.

    Officers gave Hardin several loud verbal warnings to drop the knife and release his mother, but he ignored the officer’s instructions.

    Officer Kyle Lyons then shot at Hardin with his agency-issued gun. Hardin was pronounced dead at the scene by the Boyle County Coroner.

In both the cases of Mr Wallace in Philadelphia, and Mr Hardin in Danville, we had a suspect armed with a knife and in position to kill someone. yet, for some unknown reason, I have yet to hear of any demonstrations of riots over the police shooting of Mr Hardin. I wonder why that is.

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The Lexington Herald-Leader once again hides a mugshot, this time of a convicted child pornographer.

In our continuing coverage to tell you what the Lexington Herald-Leader will not, we note that, once again, the newspaper won’t show you what a convicted criminal looks like:

    He used app to get images from 7-year-old. Central Kentucky man gets long sentence.

    By Rayleigh Deaton | July 16, 2021 | 10:04 AM EDT

    A Berea man was sentenced to nearly 18 years in federal prison for using a minor to produce child pornography.

    According to the U.S. attorney’s office, in May 2020, 33-year-old Bradley Scott Helton communicated with a 7-year-old via an app called “Kiss Kiss: Spin the Bottle.” Helton’s plea agreement said he sent the victim sexual videos and pictures and requested the victim send sexual videos in return.

Bradley Helton

There’s more at the original. What wasn’t in the original was Mr Helton’s mugshot. That was in WTVQ-TV’s report:

    FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – A Berea, Ky., man,[1]Correction: Mr Helton may be a male, but he is certainly not a man, something which I expect will be made very clear to him in prison. Bradley Scott Helton, 33, was sentenced Thursday to 214 months in federal prison, by U.S. District Judge Gregory VanTatenhove, for using a minor to produce child pornography.

    According to Helton’s plea agreement, on May 16, 2020, he communicated with a 7-year-old victim, via an app called “Kiss Kiss: Spin the Bottle,” according to federal prosecutors.

    Helton admitted to chatting with the victim, sending the victim sexual videos and pictures, and requesting the victim send sexual videos in return, according to court records.

    Helton admitted he persuaded and used the 7-year-old victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct, for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct, prosecutors said.

    He further admitted the images traveled in interstate commerce when the victim, who was in Texas, sent them to him, in Kentucky, via the app.

    Helton pleaded guilty in March 2021.

    Under federal law, Helton must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence and will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 25 years, following his release from prison.

214 months times 0.85 = 181.9 month, or 15 years and 2 months. Mr Helton could get out of prison when he is still only 48 years old.

Why, I have to ask, did the Herald-Leader not publish Mr Helton’s mugshot? He is not, after all, someone simply accused of a crime and who might eventually be acquitted, but a man male who has admitted his guilt, a convicted child pornographer.

Mr Helton has forfeited all of his privacy rights, and what responsible journalists used to claim was the public’s right to know ought to take precedence.[2]I cannot blame Rayleigh Deaton, the article author, in that she’s an intern, not a Herald-Leader staff writer. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Kentucky Kernel, the University of … Continue reading

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↑1 Correction: Mr Helton may be a male, but he is certainly not a man, something which I expect will be made very clear to him in prison.
↑2 I cannot blame Rayleigh Deaton, the article author, in that she’s an intern, not a Herald-Leader staff writer. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Kentucky Kernel, the University of Kentucky’s student newspaper, for which I wrote just a few years after Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press.