It looks as if the surge in violent crime of 2020 is holding steady and perhaps escalating in 2021. Numbers on violent crime from cities around the country have jumped by historic and unprecedented rates in the past year.
H.B. 1900 would penalize cities that defund police if they have a population of over 250,000 people by allocating the city’s sales tax money to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Activists and critics argue that “Blue Lives Matter” is offensive and even racist, but pro-police advocates say the phrase is intended to draw awareness to the sacrifices that American law enforcement make every day to fight crime and protect their country.
The Springfield Police have been flying “thin blue line” flags to support for local law enforcement and their families, but some residents in town are upset and allege the flags are too political.
Initial media reports suggested that Bryant had been unarmed when she was killed, but body cam footage released by the Columbus Police Department (CPD) revealed that she was swinging a knife at the time of the shooting.
Calls to defund the police have once again been thrust into the national spotlight after a string of high profile police shootings, but data show the rallying cry for police reformers may not hold water.
Residents may have noticed steady reports of out-of-state fentanyl and heroin dealers being apprehended in Vermont, often associated with well-organized and extremely violent inner city gangs who also traffic in guns, sex workers, and anything else that makes a profit.
The New Hampshire House of Representatives has rejected a proposal that would have allowed police officers to be sued for misconduct. The measure was rejected 184-178.
The proposal would ban the use of chokeholds, eliminate qualified immunity for police officers, and ban no-knock warrants in drug case. It would ban racial, religious and discriminatory profiling and establish a National Police Misconduct Registry among many other changes.
According to research coordinator, Emily Anderson, the -0.45% is the first time the average percentage has been a negative number, meaning that police spending across the state is decreasing. These findings are especially remarkable because data from previous years yielded much higher average percentages of police spending.
The main concern with the report was that the sample size or data used was too small to prove that Black drivers are more likely to be targeted by police officers conducting traffic stops in Shelburne.
This week, the city witnessed a telling incident. Police had removed a fence erected around the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse because it became a “symbol of divide” between law enforcement and the community. Rioters then descended on the federal courthouse and vandalized it. Now the fence is back up.