Richard J. Daley was a tough Chicago mayor.
When Chicago was being burned and looted following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King and nine people were killed and areas of the west side leveled by fires, Mayor Richard J. Daley instructed police to shoot to kill anyone in the act of firebombing buildings and shoot to maim anyone who was looting stores.
Yeah that was in 1968, eons ago.Part of me wishes our leaders adopted his same “shoot to maim” policy as a way to end these organized robbery rings and issue a stern warning ahead of time.
Oh, I know. This is California. That would never happen. California leaders mollycoddle prisoners, even wanting them the right to vote. After all, we have a governor who wants to reform the infamous San Quentin State Prison into a more comfortable place for the 3,800 inmates there with less punitive measures and teach them how to cook and do laundry. But maybe some other governor could see how this could be a real solution which over half of the country would wholeheartedly applaud.
Meanwhile, we’re all sitting by idly while we watch our shopping centers and malls be taken over by lawless thugs who think they can walk in and take whatever they want – while instilling fear among the shoppers. Stores can’t make a profit when this happen and they close as a result. Just look at what’s happened in San Francisco.
When businesses close, jobs are lost and people can’t feed their families. And before you try to justify the lawlessness and tell me that thieves need to feed their families too and they can’t because of whatever reason, let me remind you that there are plenty of places – the ones which aren’t closing due to looting – still hiring workers.
Maybe police should start shooting the folks participating in these so-called flash mob robberies. That would end this problem real quick because as it is now in Gavin Newsom’s California, they’re getting away with it. All it would take is one big news story for the word to get out that 25 had been plugged at the mall, and they’d reconsider taking that job at Burger King or going back to school to obtain education and skills for higher paying jobs. Maybe peppering someone with birdshot will deliver enough consequence.
This is a growing problem in California. This is but a short list:
• In June Daniel’s Jewelers in Puente Hills in the City of Industry was taken over by four “smash and grab” suspects.
• On August 9, about 30 persons robbed $300,000 in merchandise from a Yves Saint Laurent store an Americana at Brand in Glendale.
• On Aug. 12 shoppers in Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park were frightened when dozens of thieves took over Nordstrom, smashing displays and stealing everything they could.
• On August 16, $100,000 in Gucci handbags was stolen in mob theft at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.
• On Tuesday, Aug. 22, five suspects ransacked Macy’s in Arcadia’s Santa Anita Mall during a flash-mob robbery.
It doesn’t take rocket science to see these mobs killing someone, maybe running over a child as the cowards fleeing in their expensive SUVs with the dark-tinted windows.
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Does anyone believe for one minute that the persecution of Donald J. Trump would be occurring if he wasn’t running for president?
Even the bitterest Trump hater – if they are honest – would have to admit the timing of the myriad of these ridiculous indictments only are fabricated to destroy his chances of being president again. And there is the salivating news media giddy with glee as they run mugshot after mugshot of Trump cohorts in this Democrat “We will destroy Trump and all his associates as a message to never stand up against the Deep State” debacle.
Talk about election interference!
Meanwhile, we have a DOJ that is bending over backwards to protect a president’s son who was selling influence to foreign countries and millions of dollars channeled into Biden family business ventures. Where is the same zest to prosecute a Biden and take mugshots?
Our Founding Fathers would bristle at how the current regime in the White House is attacking their political foe and every Americans should be very concerned.
Congressman Jim Jordan knows exactly what the DA in Atlanta is up to: election interference.
He fired off a letter on Thursday to DA Fani Willis, a vindictive Democrat operative, calling her out on multiple fronts. Jordan wrote: “… it is noteworthy that just four days before this indictment, you launched a new campaign fundraising website that highlighted your investigation into President Trump. Additionally, the forewoman of the special grand jury you convened to investigate President Trump earlier this year bragged during an unusual media tour about her excitement at the prospect of subpoenaing President Trump and getting to swear him in.”
Jordan also noted that “the timing of this prosecution reinforces concerns about your motivation. In February 2021, news outlets reported that you directed your office to open an investigation into President Trump. Indeed, sometime on or around February 11, 2021, your office purportedly sent a letter to several Republican officials in Georgia, requesting that they preserve documents relating to a ‘matter . . . of high priority’ that your office was investigating. Yet, you did not bring charges until two-and-a-half years later, at a time when the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in full swing. Moreover, you have requested that the trial in this matter begin on March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday and eight days before the Georgia presidential primary. It is therefore unsurprising many have speculated that this indictment and prosecution are designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”
He noted Willis seems to be seeking criminal charges for free speech protected by the First Amendment, and that states and her office raises issues about her thwarting the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and poses a threat to the operations of the federal government.
He went on to demand documents that could show how she colluded with Biden’s DOJ to bring about these charges.
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If the Democrats get their way Trump would serve the rest of his life in jail. Yet, prosecutors like the one in Atlanta are refusing to go after the real criminals:
• 886 felony arrests were declined to be prosecuted in New York City this year;
• Los Angeles County DA George Gascon is telling prosecutors they can’t bring cases to court involving making criminal threats, resisting arrest and trespassing.
• Seattle has seen a 47 percent decrease in felony prison and jail sentences in five years.
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We often hear about all the negatives with youth but there is a group of unsung heroes who are doing their part to positively affect youth.
I’m talking about the folks with Youth for Christ (YFC), spearheading a Sept. 9 event with a number of churches and organizations. The “Give Life Day” will be offered to teens in Ceres, Modesto and Stanislaus County from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9 at Modesto Covenant Church, 913 Floyd Avenue, Modesto. Approximately 50 to 100 students in sixth through 12th grades are expected to attend the event which is tailored for high school youth primarily involved in youth groups and school Equal Access Bible Clubs, and others who will receive encouragement and training on how to be a positive light on their school campuses.
Kids hunger for meaningful relationships at school — both with their peers as well as trusted adults — and studies show those connections help them to learn. This is why building meaningful relationships — particularly in the school setting — is crucial.
According to Ed Kaczmarek, a YFC director in the Valley, “Every kid has a God-shaped void, whether they come from a stable, loving home or are forced to live in less-than-ideal situations. No matter what type of challenges a student faces — stress, anxiety, depression, etc. — Youth for Christ has something that is always needed and will never go out of style… meaningful relationships.”
Topics like bullying, connecting, and authenticity are often discussed.
Kaczmarek noted at a session, one student was so rowdy and disruptive that he was sent out of the room. Kaczmarek followed him into the hall and shared how he once behaved the same way at his age because he was “dealing with a lot of brokenness at home, and he really related to what I was saying.” Kaczmarek told him that he really wanted the boy to participate, but only if he took it seriously. He agreed, went back in, and when the other students tried to get him worked up again, he ignored them and engaged with the material. He remained in the program and even went to a camp offered by YFC where he became a Christian. “It was so powerful to see how this small touchpoint made an eternal impact on his life.”
Good stuff you never read about in newspapers.
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I don’t always agree with Joe Rogan but he hit the nail on the head in his opinion of Gov. Gavin Newsom: “Nobody wants President Newsom … nobody believes in that guy. The guy’s a f-----g conman. Everything he did in California from trying to mandate vaccines for kids to being caught public without a mask and lying about the fact that he was outdoors. Nobody believes in that guy. He’s just a politician, just a stone cold narrative driven politician. Nobody thinks he’s a real human. Whether you like Trump or not, or nor whether he’s corrupt or not, that’s a human being. You know what that guy is. Same thing with RFK Jr., whether you believe he’s correct about vaccines or whether you believe his policies would be effective, you know that’s a human being. With Newsom you’ve got like this construct, this cardboard cutout of a person. I don’t think people want that but they might want that more than they want President Trump.
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The news media collectively ignored this story because it would trigger American outrage, but I’ll tell you about it.
Those of you who like and voted for Joe Biden need to know that his attorney general, Merrick Garland, has not prosecuted one death penalty case, including Patrick Wood Crusius, the 21-year-old gunman who went on a shooting rampage to kill Hispanics in El Paso, Texas.
Now word has it that the Biden White House has pulled the death penalty off the table for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of 2,977 Americans!
KSM, as he is called, also planned the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing in Indonesia that killed 202, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl by decapitation and more!
If someone who orchestrated the worst attack in U.S. history doesn’t deserve the death penalty, I don’t know who would. A logical person just can’t explain the reasoning of this administration. It’s like they have lost their minds.
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Really? Biden won’t go after a terrorist with the death penalty but now want to go after ceiling fans? This after they want to go after your gas range and gas water heaters and the like.
Apparently Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm wants federal energy efficiency standards over ceiling fans of all things! Retrofitting plants making these fans could cost manufacturers $86.6 million per year. It’s estimated that a new rule could put the nail in the coffin for 10 to 30 percent of small companies.
Is there anything the Democrats don’t want to control about our lives?
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Coming to a school near you, a four-day school week?
Don’t be surprised.
American kids are way behind in competing on the world stage. Yet some 900 districts are implementing four-day school weeks of longer hours. Thirty percent of Missouri school districts have gone to four days a week of instruction. Why? A shortage of teachers is cited.
Polls suggest Americans are split on the idea with the younger set saying yes and the older set saying no.
Among adults under 30, 63 percent favor a four-day school week. Among adults 65 and older, support dropped off substantially, landing at 41 percent.
It tells you something when the idea is more popular among adults without a college degree, 57 percent of whom said they were in favor, than adults with a college degree, 45 percent of whom said they supported the idea.
Research has shown that learning losses result and test scores suffer. Duh.
A study by Paul Thompson, an economics professor at Oregon State University found “reductions in both math and English/language arts achievement” in districts that adopted the four-day schedule.
Another study showed kids attending only four days a week lower math scores, higher absenteeism and lower on-time graduation rates.
It’s also not a policy that prepares kids for the real world once they leave school. Most jobs are five days a week, not four. We already have a culture that rejects the notion of not working hard to get ahead, instead yielding to the government to pay the bills.
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These Democrats don’t miss a beat, do they?
AG Rob Bonta is suing Chino Hills school district because they want parents informed when their child – THEIR CHILD – is confused about being male or female! Apparently Democrats want to keep parents in the dark.
Last month I told you how the school board jumped all over State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond (a Democrat) appeared before a Chino Valley School Board meeting to argue against a policy that requires administrators to inform parents if their child identifies as transgender at school.
Thurmond and Bonta claim the board adopted policy would violate the privacy rights of students. Translation: They feels parents have no right to know when their own flesh and blood – people they have the responsibility to raise – are confused about sexual issues.
California indeed is being led by a bunch of moral reprobates. Wake up California parents! Democrats are your enemy!
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
