Let's Put A Face On It
Because these bloody weekends we're having aren't just a numbers game
Meet Nicholas Bobo, Paratrooper with the legendary 82nd Airborne. Father to a daughter, husband, son. Decorated veteran. Promoted to Sergeant. Shot and killed outside his apartment in Fayetteville, North Carolina this weekend.
Why? Who the hell knows. What could possibly be a good reason. Looks perhaps like a carjacking at this point. But here’s a kid (yes, kid — he was all of 22) willing to wear the uniform (“the bag,” as cops call it), ready to fight and die for his country. Instead, looks like he died for his car.
This story won’t make much national news — it’s not New York or L.A. But the Sergeant’s senseless death and the town of Fayetteville, NC are a microcosm of much of the nation right now. Violent crimes in Fayetteville (meaning, of course, illegal handgun crimes) are up — murder by 50% for the last full year’s numbers. Overall, Cumberland County, where Fayetteville is located, outpaces the rest of the state by 150% in violent felonies.
And naturally, Fayetteville can’t fill its police ranks. There are currently 29 vacancies — in a department of 425. Could it be down to the anti-cop sentiment so pervasive in our cities these days? The former Sheriff of Asheville, NC — a tourist destination that has seen a 31% surge in violent crime over five years, as well as an ongoing officer retention problem — certainly thinks so.
Overall, violent crime in North Carolina is up 13% this year, homelessness in the cities is out of control, and Mexican cartel activity is increasing.
Governor Roy Cooper’s response to all this? Pardons on homicide charges, signing a bill “limiting local laws that criminalize poverty” (whatever that means), and vetoing a bill that would require North Carolina’s sheriffs to cooperate with ICE. And his signature initiative, known as TREC - The Task Force For Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, announced after the killing of George Floyd.
I don’t know what happened to Sgt. Bobo. But if this soldier did indeed die for his lousy car — in a state with a clear violent crime problem, and few apparent answers other than virtue-signaling — this Governor and his Attorney General should attend Sgt. Bobo’s funeral.
Bring some flowers, fellas. It’s the least you could do.
The competition continues! (Who knew there were any virtues left to signal?). Illinois is set to enact the so-called SAFE-T Act, which will essentially eliminate bail statewide. Governor Pritzker, up for re-election this year, has signed the bill, which will go into effect January 1st. Madison County, Ill. State’s Attorney Thomas Haine calls it “the greatest jailbreak in Madison County history.” According to Haine, a full half of his county’s inmates will be set free on January 1, 2023 — which, if true, presumably means it will happen statewide. Two other state’s attorney’s have actually filed suit to stop the bill. In the Illinois courts. Good luck with that.
The arguments on both sides are the usual — “cash bail harms the poor” v. “keep dangerous perps in jail” (here’s your humble narrator discussing the issue on the excellent Mark Reardon show). For those who live in New York City — which has a similar provision — we have a pretty good idea how this ends. Here’s a weekend example: A gentleman who went berserk with a hatchet in McDonald’s — and was immediately released (see the uncut video here — wasn’t exactly a Happy Meal).
Meanwhile just take a quick look at this roundup of Chicago over the weekend. It defies belief. And it includes this man, who shot a 12-year old in the head at a birthday party.
Aaaand… yes! He was out on bail.
Gov. Pritzker, Mayor Lightfoot, DA Kim Foxx: You own this. And you’ll own the SAFE-T Act and its effects as well. Chicagoans will be watching. If any are left.
A border story you’re not hearing about: American ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, appears to have forgotten which country he actually works for. In a well-supported editorial for the Denver Gazette, the paper’s board notes that the ambassador won’t even speak to them regarding the fact that he has “done nothing substantial to mitigate the human rights crisis at our southern border, human trafficking, or our country’s fentanyl crisis” (fentanyl currently kills more American ages 18 to 45 than anything else).
Salazar apparently bears something of a grudge over the fact that leftist Mexican President Obrador lost a presidential bid in 2006, and — get this — “supports relitigation of a fair election” (now where have we heard that before?).
Salazar has apparently even broken with his boss, President Biden. According to the New York Times (yup, you read that right), Salazar has shown, “a worrying pattern, in which (he) has appeared to contradict his own government’s policies in the interest of aligning himself with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.”
Salazar also is reported to have an “icy” relationship with the American DEA, the agency best-situated to interdict fentanyl shipments.
So we have a crisis on our Mexican border, millions of migrants flooding our cities (New York is officially out of room), human trafficking, fentanyl killing thousands… and our ambassador is apparently siding against the country and his President.
Let us ask a simple question, which bears serious contemplation: Why?
And let’s add a second question, just because: Why are we contemplating that question, and not Antony Blinken?
And here we have the most effective law enforcement strategy known — the perps themselves:
See you soon. Until then, be safe.