Law and Order

A water drop and ripples

For reference, this is what horrifying racism actually looks like.

By Justin Katz | December 29, 2021 |

With Rhode Island’s politics-watchers all atwitter and fainting over a white woman’s expression of regret about a lost friendship that seems to her to have been related to differing races, the need for context seems urgent.  For comparison, consider this story out of London: The attack, which took place at 7.20pm on December 2, happened…

A water drop and ripples

The school gun panic reveals we’re being ruled by predators and prey.

By Justin Katz | December 20, 2021 |

In separate incidents, Woonsocket arrested two 12 year olds.  The photo accompanying Lauren Clem’s Valley Breeze article is worth a glance.  It shows a child being led away in handcuffs by a much larger police officer while another carries his backpack. One of the children (although I don’t know whether it was this one) involved a…

The ACI in Cranston

Prison statistics probably aren’t a stronghold for progressives.

By Justin Katz | December 14, 2021 |

Somewhere in the wilds of Rhode Island progressive social media in the past couple months, I came across the Rhode Island Department of Corrections’ “Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Population Report.” I think the context in which it was deployed like a statistical weapon was to support the claim that inmates at the state Adult Correctional…

A hooded man in shadows

Providence murder mysteries can be solved if you use the word, “gangs.”

By Justin Katz | December 13, 2021 |

Nobody should feel encouraged by statements from Democrat Mayor Jorge Elorza or the other Democrats who run the city after another shooting in Providence on Saturday night.  Elorza may claim to “understand that our community needs and deserves to feel safe,” but that isn’t possible when authorities refuse to be clear about what’s going on.…

A water drop and ripples

Canceling a police training academy’s classes shows how crazy we’ve gone.

By Justin Katz | December 8, 2021 |

Canceling the remaining classes among a group of presumably very fit police candidates because one person with symptoms and six people without symptoms tested positive for COVID shows how crazy and weak we’ve become. We’re going to be paying for this recent shift in attitudes for decades, and one suspects the people pushing it expect…

Gavel with a speech bubble

RI unions have gotten away with implied intimidation for too long.

By Justin Katz | December 2, 2021 |

Here’s an interesting section from William Jacobson’s running notes from the Rhode Island Superior Court hearing in the case of the National Education Association of Rhode Island and Nicole Solas: The court then moved onto that anti-SLAPP portion of the case. Union attorney says Solas didn’t present evidence of bad faith or motive of harassment.…

A water drop and ripples

Hiring police saves black lives.

By Justin Katz | December 1, 2021 |

That’s the finding of a study by criminologists at several universities: “Although the total reduction in homicide is roughly equal across Black and white victims, the decline in homicide is twice as large for Black victims in per capita terms,” the team said. Researchers on the project include Professor Benjamin Hansen of the University of…

A man with a bullet mask

Some keywords are strangely missing from news about increased shootings in Providence.

By Justin Katz | November 30, 2021 |

According to a chart published as part of WPRI’s report on the increase in victims of shootings in Providence, the city has regressed nearly to its 2015 level after steadily falling until 2020.  The number hit a low of 35 in 2019 and then more than doubled in 2020 and has increased from that point…

Broken plates

It’s well past time for the domestic abuse narrative to change.

By Justin Katz | November 23, 2021 |

Reacting to Joe Biden’s comments on the Waukesha Christmas parade massacre, Brown University political science professor Wendy Schiller linked the incident to domestic violence: Here’s an idea. Take domestic violence more seriously at every level of government. Biden should know as he authored the original Violence Against Women Act. Although the mainstream narrative doesn’t make…

Cash, cuffs, and the American flag

The COPS Hiring Program is yet another way government spends tax dollars to force the spending of more tax dollars.

By Justin Katz | November 20, 2021 |

It adds up, of course, but when government is trillions of dollars in debt, a hundred million here and there seems hardly to count.  That may be part of the reason that news of grants like the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program doesn’t typically question where the…