Category: California

Democrat Terrorism: Arrest Made in Firebombing of GOP HQ in California

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Another Joe Biden voter in federal custody:

A Palm Desert man was named today in a federal criminal complaint that charges him with attempted arson in the May 31 firebombing of the East Valley Republican Women Federated (EVRWF) office in La Quinta.
Carlos Espriu, 23, who is currently in state custody, is expected to be taken into federal custody later today and make an initial appearance Friday afternoon in United States District Court.
The criminal complaint alleges that, just after 1:15 a.m. on May 31, a masked Espriu used a metal baseball bat to break windows at the EVRWF headquarters, and then he lighted an improvised incendiary device constructed of three bottles that he tossed through the windows before fleeing. Several minutes later, surveillance video shows Espriu returning to the EVRWF office, smashing more windows with the bat and reaching into building to retrieve the Molotov cocktails before walking away with the device. According to the complaint, Espriu returned to the EVRWF office about 30 seconds later, this time without a mask, and threw the set of bottles into the facility, which immediately caused a fire to start.
EVRWF offered a reward for information about the firebombing, which prompted several members of the public to come forward with information that allowed law enforcement officials to identify Espriu as the man seen in surveillance video taken by EVRWF and a nearby business, according to the complaint.
The affidavit in support of the complaint outlines steps taken by investigators to link Espriu to the firebombing. Law enforcement identified social media accounts believed to belong to Espriu, including a Twitter account that, three days before the EVRWF arson, tweeted: “I wanna go burn shit n get hit with tear gas.” They also observed Espriu repeatedly using a vehicle closely resembling one seen on the surveillance footage.
The complaint also outlines the results of search warrants executed at Espriu’s residence in July that led to the recovery of a green lighter very similar to the one used to light the Molotov cocktails, as well as audio recordings from a dashboard camera in which Espriu tells a woman in late June that he shaved his facial hair after seeing some of the surveillance video broadcast on local news. In the audio recordings, Espriu tells the woman how he manufactured the Molotov cocktails by filling three bottles with gasoline and inserting a towel into one bottle, and then he recounts the details of the firebombing as seen on the surveillance video, according to the complaint.

Arrest all Democrats. They’re planning more of this.




 

‘Drop the Knife! Drop It!’

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Here’s a simple question: How many times should a cop have to tell you, “Drop the knife”? Like, suppose that you were an idiot who had just caused a six-car traffic pileup in Los Angeles, and when the police showed up on the scene, you were waving around a razor knife.

The cop has a pistol drawn and yells at you, “Drop the knife!”

One time?

Yeah, I think most people would drop the knife the first time.

Two times?

Let’s face it, most criminals aren’t very smart. So maybe the police officer with a pistol would have to yell “drop the knife” twice.

But suppose you are such a complete idiot that you not only cause a massive accident on San Pedro Street, but after the cop — you know, the one with a pistol — tells you the second time to drop the knife, you not only fail to comply, you keep advancing toward the cop.

At this point, you’re what we call “fair game.” And perhaps someone should have warned you — yes, you, the reckless-driving idiot waving around a razor knife in the middle of San Pedro Street — that the LAPD officer you are confronting is one of the best shots in America.

 

Officer Toni McBride’s marksmanship made her nationally famous. She is literally a poster girl for the “Hot Chicks With Guns” market. Looks like you picked the wrong day to bring a knife to a gunfight:

Over the course of roughly 15 seconds, she tried to deter Hernandez with a series of seven voice commands, first, “Let me see your hands!” then, “Stay right there!” Then, three times: “Drop the knife!”

Excuse me? I don’t care who you are, three times is sufficient warning. It seems, however, that Daniel Hernandez was unusually stupid:

Hernandez kept moving slowly toward her, throwing both arms out from his sides. McBride commanded, “Drop it!” a final time, a split second before firing two shots. Hernandez keeled forward to the asphalt, but quickly pushed himself up and forward. McBride fired two more rounds, then the final two as Hernandez rolled on the ground.

 

Six shots, six hits. Good shooting, Officer McBride.

Because this is 2020, of course, everybody in L.A. is trying to turn this into an excuse for a protest. “Stupid Lives Matter,” or whatever.

UPDATE: A commenter calls attention to a highly relevant fact:

A coroner’s autopsy would later show that Hernandez had methamphetamine in his system. Witnesses said he rejected any assistance and appeared to be cutting himself in the cab of his truck. (A medical examiner later noted cut marks on Hernandez’s forearms.)

Meth is a bad drug, which can cause paranoid psychosis. We don’t know how much meth Hernandez had been doing, but the fact that he plowed his truck into another vehicle and began cutting himself would lend itself to the supposition that he was deranged, demented, delusional, off his rocker, out of his mind, and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

Proving once again that Crazy People Are Dangerous.




 

Trust the Health Experts!

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Last week, I was shocked to hear that Los Angeles was planning to be on coronavirus lockdown until August. Even if that was your plan, why would you announce more than two months of onerous restrictions so far in advance? Just extend it by two weeks now, see what happens and, if the number of new cases doesn’t meet your target, keep adding two-week extensions until you’re satisfied with the numbers. But no — August!

Trying to process this information was difficult, and then yesterday, Instapundit informed me that the person in charge of coronavirus policy Los Angeles is a former high-school principal who got a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Brandeis. “Doctor Ferrer” is not a medical doctor, and has no real scientific expertise. She got her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a major in “Community Studies.” A few years ago, when she served as executive director of Boston’s Public Health Commission, “Doctor Ferrer” was featured in a CBS News program as an expert in — wait for it — teen dating violence.

Is she really the person you want running your epidemiology operations?

This business of credentialed “experts” claiming authority to run our lives has become intolerable, and the promotion of such phony expertise has become a disgrace to the profession of journalism:

Everyone in the media was horrified last month when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced he would begin reopening the state’s economy. An April 21 headline in The Week denounced Kemp’s reckless “experiment,” and on April 22, MSNBC bemoaned the Republican governor’s “dangerous gamble.” Dana Milbank of the Washington Post declared: “Public health experts fear coronavirus will burn through Georgia like nothing has since William Tecumseh Sherman.” The Atlantic’s Amanda Mull went so far as to call Kemp’s move an “experiment in human sacrifice.” Yet perhaps the most memorable media condemnation of Kemp was from Ron Fournier, former Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, who proclaimed on Twitter: “Mark this day. Because two and three weeks from now, the Georgia death toll is blood on his hands. And as Georgians move around the country, they’ll spread more death and economic destruction.”
Well, everyone did mark the day and, after Fournier’s “two or three weeks” elapsed, they called attention to how badly wrong his prediction had been. . . .

Read the rest of my latest column at The American Spectator.




 

Democrat Concedes in CA-25 Special Election: Not Close Enough to Steal

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Even the amazing ability of California Democrats to manufacture votes through “ballot harvesting” were not enough to elect Christy Smith in Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat vacated by naked bisexual Katie Hill‘s resignation. Republican Mike Garcia won CA-25 by a 12% margin, 56-44, an advantage of more than 18,000 votes, and Smith finally conceded Wednesday afternoon. You can add Garcia’s victory to the win for Republican Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin’s 7th District, filling the seat vacated by Republican Sean Duffy’s retirement. And how did the blog FiveThirtyEight tout this on Monday?

Two Special Elections On Tuesday
Could Hint At Another Blue Wave In 2020

For some reason, they haven’t followed up on that idea. How did they get this “bellwether” so wrong? Molly Hemingway takes a look:

The case made by Geoffrey Skelley and Nathaniel Rakich was simple: Supposedly Americans strongly prefer Biden and Democrats over Trump and Republicans, and they are particularly upset with Trump and other Republicans’ attempts to reopen the country as the global Coronavirus pandemic rages.
“On Tuesday, we’ll get a taste of whether Democrats’ electoral advantage on paper will hold up in practice, as California and Wisconsin hold special elections for two vacant congressional seats. The main event is in the California 25th Congressional District, a bellwether seat in the north Los Angeles suburbs, where both parties see a chance to add to their ranks in the House. But if Democrats are also competitive in the quickly reddening, rural Wisconsin 7th Congressional District, it could signal another blue wave in the fall,” they argued. . . .

Read the whole thing.




 

A Failed State: California Admits It Can’t Teach Black Children How to Read

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An admission that will cost California taxpayers $50 million:

The state of California [on Thursday] agreed to settle a years-long, high-profile lawsuit that accused the state of depriving low-income students of color of their constitutional right to a basic education — by failing to teach them reading skills.
Under an agreement reached with plaintiffs in the complaint, Ella T. v. State of California, the state will provide $50 million specifically to improve literacy in the 75 California elementary schools with the highest concentration of third-graders scoring in the bottom tier of the state’s standardized reading exam.
The agreement, part of which needs the Legislature’s approval, also requires the state to advise public schools how to reduce disparities in discipline of students of color, according to an outline of the agreement provided by Public Counsel, the pro-bono firm representing the suit’s plaintiffs.
Public Counsel celebrated Judge Rupert Byrdsong’s approval of the settlement, calling it “a historic first step forward towards affirming the (right to literacy) for all children in California.” . . .
The plaintiffs represented by Public Counsel and the law firm Morrison & Foerster included current and former students of three California elementary schools with some of the lowest reading proficiency marks in California: La Salle Avenue Elementary in Los Angeles Unified School District, Van Buren Elementary in Stockton Unified, and the Inglewood charter school Children of Promise Preparatory Academy. The suit sought to hold the state responsible for the students’ poor literacy, noting that 11 of the country’s 26 lowest-performing large school districts were based in California.
Ella T., a 7-year-old black student at La Salle Elementary when the complaint was introduced, did not receive the “intensive support” and interventions she needed by the time she left first grade reading below kindergarten level, according to the suit.
Several other students of color represented in the complaint also were several grade levels behind in reading literacy. One black student who attended La Salle, identified in the suit as 11-year-old Russell W., did a book report for his fifth-grade class on “Cat in the Hat,” a book meant for kindergarten readers.

To understand how bad it is, look at this graph (click to enlarge):

 

In California, 77% of Asian students and 66% of white students score “proficient” on reading tests, compared to 41% of Latino students and 33% of black students. In other words, white students are twice as likely as black students to read at a “proficient” level, and two-thirds of black students are reading below grade level. The lawsuit claims that the state of California is to blame for this education disparity, and I’m perfectly willing to accept that claim, because f**k California, a state wholly controlled by the Democratic Party. If, however, you reject such a simplistic explanation, liberals will help confuse the issue:

Over the last decade . . . California has initiated sweeping reforms in an attempt to channel more resources to high-needs students and to better level the educational playing field. These and other efforts have, to some extent, improved academic outcomes — but black, Latino and poor students still lag dramatically behind Asian American, white and wealthier students. . . .

(Note the assumption that “resources,” and the distribution thereof, can lead to “improved academic outcomes.”)

UCLA researchers recently found that California was the most segregated state for Latinos, “where 58% attend intensely segregated schools,” exacerbating inequities in educational opportunities. More than half of the state’s black students are concentrated in just 25 of the state’s 1,000 school districts. Of the students enrolled in K-12 public schools in California, less than 30% are white, the researchers found. . . .

(Wait a minute — California is “the most segregated state for Latinos”? Has anyone told Nancy Pelosi about this? And what’s up with the shortage of white children in California? Maybe Democrats can start a program to import white kids to California from out of state.)

A recent study by Stanford researchers found student achievement gaps are mainly driven by school poverty — not a school’s racial composition. “Racial segregation appears to be harmful because it concentrates minority students in high-poverty schools, which are, on average, less effective than lower-poverty schools,” the study found. . . .

(Keep in mind, when they say “segregation,” they’re not talking about some kind of Jim Crow policy, but merely the fact that “minority students” go to schools in their own communities with children from similar backgrounds. And notice the assumption that the school is independently responsible for education outcomes, as opposed to the individual student being responsible. If your kid flunks math, just blame the “high-poverty” school.)

In 2018, researchers with the American Institute for Research looked at California’s spending the prior school year and calculated that, to educate all the state’s K-12 students to California’s learning standards, the state would have had to spend an extra $25.6 billion over the $66.7 billion it spent that year.

A simple solution — MORE MONEY!

Do you see now why California is circling the toilet bowl? Their entire way of thinking is limited by their liberal worldview, so that they can never understand any problem where the facts contradict their belief system. The “sweeping reforms” intended to “level the educational playing field” were premised on the idea that differences in test scores could be explained in terms of “resources,” so that all they needed to do was target more “resources” (i.e., taxpayer money) at schools with low test scores. Throw in a lot of social-justice talk about poverty and “segregation,” and you make it seem as if only a racist bigot could be skeptical of the efficacy of such “sweeping reforms.”

After years of this kind of “reform” effort, you’ve got fifth-graders doing book reports about The Cat in the Hat, and taxpayers will have to pay out an extra $50 million to settle a lawsuit, but did you notice where this money will go? To “the 75 California elementary schools with the highest concentration of third-graders scoring in the bottom tier of the state’s standardized reading exam.” Yes, the worst-performing schools in the state will get this money, so that the result is to reward failure, and does anyone think that’s actually going to solve the problem?

Liberalism is a mental disorder, and putting liberals in charge of public education guarantees that the madness will become an epidemic.

Oh, and for the record: As of the 2016-2017 school year, 54.2% of California public school students were Latino — an absolute majority — while 23.7% were white, 12.1% were Asian and 5.5% were black.

What do these numbers suggest about California’s future? Are the state’s educational problems likely to get better, or worse?




 

‘Blade Runner’ in San Francisco

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San Francisco shop owner Gilles Desaulniers:

“Our society is falling apart. . . . If people do not play by some rules, society does not function. But it feels like there is no order, there is no shame. . . . Living here feels like A Clockwork Orange and Blade Runner have both come true.”

That’s just one quote from a mind-blowing Daily Mail article by Ian Birrell about what has happened to San Francisco, a Democrat-controlled city in a Democrat-controlled state. Say what you will about San Francisco’s problems, you can’t blame their mess on right-wing Republicans, yet the people living in that urban nightmare still cling to the same left-wing beliefs that got them into their current predicament.

Liberalism is about using taxpayer money to subsidize irresponsible behavior, and then blaming the predicably bad consequences on scapegoats: The “rich,” the “racists,” the Republicans.

The problem is that, in cities like San Francisco — or Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, etc. — there simply aren’t enough of those evil white Republicans around to shoulder the blame. Because the disastrous consequences of liberal policy cannot be plausibly explained by liberal theories of what causes social problems, the explanations they offer become increasingly implausible, and the demonization of their chosen scapegoats becomes ever more extreme. If you were to ask to the average Democrat voter in San Francisco what has gone wrong in their city, however, they would excoriate the “greedy” rich people of the high-tech industry, and probably also blame Donald Trump, although the city’s problems pre-date Trump’s election, and nearly all the big-money guys in Silicon Valley give their money to Democrats. Liberals like to think of themselves as “open-minded,” but in fact their worldview is simplistic and rigid in this way. It is impossible ever to get a liberal to admit that liberalism cannot solve the problems which are caused by liberalism.

If you could go back to 1964 — the last time San Francisco had a Republican mayor — you might find problems in the city to complain about, but it wouldn’t be a dystopian nightmare of rampant drugs and crime, because people who vote Republican simply won’t tolerate that. Democrats, on the other hand, have this idea that drug addicts, psychotics and criminals are “victims of society,” and therefore they will support policies that make society more “inclusive” and “equal” for the dangerous scum who have taken over the streets of San Francisco.




 

Our Moral Superiors

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The Bain-Chekal family in 2008.

As everyone knows, the academic elite are not only intellectually superior to the rest of us, but they also constitute a quasi-religious caste, a secular priesthood whose credentials qualify them to dictate the answers to our society’s moral questions. In 2004, the University of California at Berkeley published an article celebrating faculty and staff whose enthusiasm for “civil rights” led them to take advantage of San Francisco’s pioneering recognition of same-sex marriage:

Jon Bain-Chekal, who works as an organizational consultant for the Center for Organizational Effectiveness, said that the decision to say ‘I do’ to his partner of ten years, Mark Chekal-Bain, was “a nice personal confirmation.” The two, both Cal alumni, had already exchanged vows in a ceremony with family and friends in 1999. They also registered as domestic partners with the City of Berkeley the previous year, and with the state when that option became available.

Four years later, Bain-Chekal was again featured in UC-Berkeley News, and this time he and his partner of 14 years were pictured with their recently adopted young son. Bain-Chekal was quoted about the need for “more progressive parental-leave policies that don’t focus on the 1950s version of family.” Well, a dozen years later, Bain-Chekal has against made news — not in a good way:

A Berkeley man who oversees UC Berkeley’s operating budget was arrested Thursday morning in connection with a child pornography investigation by the Berkeley Police Department, according to authorities and records online.
Jon Bain-Chekal, 49, was arrested at 8:45 a.m. on suspicion of possession of child pornography, a misdemeanor, according to jail records online.
Berkeley Police spokesman Officer Byron White said BPD’s investigation began with a tip from Internet Crimes Against Children and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Those agencies “received a Cyber tip regarding child pornography from an online account. The account was created and accessed from Jon Bain-Chekal’s residence and work.”
According to BPD, “a search warrant on the online account revealed additional images of child pornography.” On Thursday, police served search warrants at Bain-Chekal’s home and work, BPD said: “Images of child pornography were recovered from a laptop during the search warrant.”
Police said Bain-Chekal admitted, during an interview, that he had viewed and possessed child pornography. He was cited and released from jail Thursday.
White said BPD confiscated devices Thursday “that still need to be forensically searched.” He said charges could potentially be added later and that the misdemeanor charge could potentially change. White declined to say how many pornographic images or potential victims authorities have identified in connection with the case so far.
According to his listing in UC Berkeley’s online campus directory, Bain-Chekal is the director of the UC Berkeley Operating Budget and works at University Hall. On the university’s webpage for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Bain-Chekal is listed as the executive director of the Financial Planning and Analysis team, which “manages the Budget Process; Central Resource Management; Financial Planning, Reporting, & Analysis; Financial Systems Management; and VC Administration Finance Management.”

Well, let’s not jump to any conclusions, nor should we make this case the basis for any generalizations about “civil rights” enthusiasts because, after all, Bain-Chekal is entitled to a trial by a jury of his peers, and who knows what a jury in Berkeley might decide. Despite the alleged evidence and Bain-Chekal’s alleged confession, he nevertheless might be acquitted, or the charges could be reduced to something trivial. Certainly we know authorities in Berkeley, California, would not wish to unnecessarily inconvenience an employee of the university who is so well-known as an advocate of “progressive” family policies.

Excuse me, my tongue seems to be stuck in my cheek, and my eyes have rolled completely out of my head. Sarcasm can be painful.



 

Soros-Funded Crime Spree Continues

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Police say Sienna Carter (left) was kidnapped by King John Baylon (right).

After 13-year-old Sienna Carter vanished in downtown San Francisco a week ago, a frantic search ensued. The girl was found, a suspect was arrested but now has been set free to prey on other children. Why? In recent years, progressives funded by billionaire George Soros have pursued an agenda of targeting elections for state attorneys general and local district attorneys, while simultaneously promoting so-called “bail reform” initiatives. The combined effect of these left-wing programs is that dangerous criminals are turned loose on the street:

A 22-year-old Los Angeles man arrested earlier this week in connection with the weekend disappearance of a 13-year-old Mendocino County girl visiting San Francisco with her family has been released from jail pending charges.
As the Chronicle is reporting, the District Attorney’s Office — the leadership of which changes today with the swearing in of Chesa Boudin — decided to delay a charging decision in the case. Only yesterday, the paper reported that the suspect, King John Baylon, was facing 18 felonies including possession or control of child pornography, using a minor for sex acts, and kidnapping for child molestation. It’s unclear what prompted the decision to delay charges, but all suspects are legally allowed to get out of jail if prosecutors do not file charges within 48 hours of their arrest.
A spokesperson for the DA’s Office, Alex Bastian, simply said that the case remains under investigation.
Following two days of frantic efforts by the girl’s family, on social and television media, to locate her, both the girl and Baylon were spotted by bystanders who recognized her at the Ferry Building. Authorities believe that Baylon met the girl . . . on the internet. The girl came to the city with her family so that her sister could receive treatment for diabetes at UCSF’s Madison Clinic for Pediatric Diabetes. She reportedly claimed she was feeling carsick and she was then seen on surveillance video exiting the hospital. She was later spotted at a local restaurant, where she met up with the suspect.
Baylon was arrested by UCSF police, and the extent of the pending charges against him suggest that the girl may have been recruited for sex trafficking. The pending charges also included meeting a minor for lewd purposes, arranging a meeting with a minor for lewd purposes, contact with a minor for sexual offense, lewd acts upon a child, human trafficking involving a minor, and oral copulation of a person under 18.

So a sex trafficker kidnaps a 13-year-old girl and, because of “bail reform,” this creep is now back on the street, whereabouts unknown.

Thanks a lot, “progressives”!