Category: Crime

Philly to Chicago: ‘Hold My Beer’

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Every time I write about the ghastly homicide toll in Chicago, our friend Dana Pico pipes up to remind me that the per-capita homicide rate in Philadelphia is actually worse. Do the math, says Dana, and the homicide rate in Chicago currently works out to about 27 per 100,000 population annually, while in “Kill-a-delphia,” the current rate is about 35 per 100,000 annually — about 25% higher. So while the forecast in Chicago continues to be “partly cloudy with widely scattered afternoon and evening gunfire,” it’s always pouring down murder in Philadelphia:

At least three dozen people have been shot in another violent weekend in the city of Philadelphia.
Since Friday evening, at least three people have died and 33 others were injured by gunfire.
In the latest shooting, which occurred around 11:15 p.m. Sunday near Market and Peach streets in West Philadelphia, three teenagers were injured.
Police on patrol heard gunshots and rushed to the scene.
Arriving officers found three shooting victims and then spotted a male running from scene.
Police went after the suspect, but there is no word yet on whether they caught him.
In all, investigators found at least 10 shell casings in that area.
The victims, ages 16, 17, and 18, are listed as stable at the hospital.
Detectives are still working to learn exactly what led to the shooting.
Just before 3 p.m. Sunday, three people were shot on the 5500 block of Malcolm Street.
Police say a 15-year-old male, a 29-year-old male and a 19-year-old male were all injured by gunfire. All three victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
One of the youngest victims of gun violence this weekend was a 1-year-old girl who was shot in the leg Saturday. It happened around 8 p.m. at the corner of 50th Street and Haverford Avenue.
The child was transported by police to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and listed in stable condition. Officials say a 26-year-old man was also shot in the left forearm. The man is expected to survive.
And on Friday night, a quintuple shooting left one person dead and four others, including a 14-year-old, injured. It happened around 8:40 p.m. on the 2700 block of Ruby Terrace.

OK, as of this morning (after 199 days since the start of the year) there had been 304 homicides in “Kill-a-dephia,” an average of about 1.528 per day; if that average daily homicide count continues until the end of the year, there will be another 254 murders in the city this year, for a total of 558 Philadelphia homicides — an all-time record. The latest:

Philadelphia police keep getting
shot at while responding to shootings

Shoot somebody, the cops show up, and you shoot at the cops.

Fact: Joe Biden got 81% of the vote in Philadelphia.




 

Mindless Carnage Continues in Chicago

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Covering homicide in Chicago must be like covering the weather: “Partly cloudy with widely scattered afternoon and evening gunfire . . .”

At least 53 people had been shot in Chicago this weekend as of Sunday afternoon, and five of them had been killed.
At least nine of the surviving victims were under 18, with the youngest being just 8 years old.
On Saturday night, six people were shot outside a party in the South Austin neighborhood — all but two of them girls under 18.
The victims were standing on the sidewalk on Ohio Street near Lavergne Avenue at 11:40 p.m., when someone in a dark-colored sport-utility vehicle shot them all.
Three of the victims were taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County. A 15-year-old girl was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a graze wound to the head. The youngest victim, who is 12, suffered a graze wound to her hand. Family members drove her to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. The sixth victim was a 25-year-old man who was shot in the backside and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was treated and released.
At 1:05 a.m. Sunday, a shooting in South Chicago left an 8-year-old boy injured along with a 28-year-old man. They were both in a moving vehicle in the 2000 block of West 83rd Street when someone in a black sport-utility vehicle fired shots. The man was shot in the back and was treated and released from Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, while the boy was taken to Advocate Christ in good condition with a shot to the left leg.
The first fatal shooting happened at 6:48 p.m. Friday. A 26-year-old man was on the street in the 12000 block of South Union Avenue in West Pullman when a vehicle pulled up and someone inside shot him. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Lawn.
At 11:57 p.m. Friday, a man was killed and three others were injured in a shooting in the South Austin neighborhood. Police said the four men were standing outside when three other men came up and shot them all.
A 29-year-old man was shot in the head and back was pronounced dead on the scene. A 40-year-old man was shot in the hip and leg and aa 45-year-old man was also shot in the leg – both were taken to Stroger Hospital of Cook County in serious condition. A 62-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the back and was taken to Stroger in good condition.
The suspects fled in a possible gray Nissan.
At 1:46 a.m. Saturday, a 31-year-old man was shot in the head by a man he knew during a quarrel in the 2800 block of West Van Buren Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. He was pronounced dead Mount Sinai Hospital.
At 11:23 p.m. Saturday, a 27-year-old woman and a man of an unknown age were standing in the 7600 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue when someone in a black sport-utility vehicle fired shots. The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the right knee and was in fair condition, but the man was pronounced dead at the same hospital with gunshot wounds throughout the body.
At 12:38 a.m. Sunday, a 30-year-old man was on the sidewalk in the 5100 block of South Marshfield Avenue when someone in a gray sedan shot him. He was taken to the U of C Medical Center with gunshot wounds to the chest and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Criminals just cruising the streets, randomly shooting people. So far this year, 396 people have been shot dead in Chicago, and another 1,905 wounded — a casualty rate far higher than U.S. troops in Afghanistan recently, so why aren’t we withdrawing from Chicago? Oh, wait — I just remembered, Joe Biden got 82% of the vote in Chicago, so these are Democratic voters murdering each other. If not for the ammunition shortage, they might keep killing until Illinois becomes a GOP bastion.




 

Mystery Gunmen in D.C.

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Police are baffled:

Six people were injured and one 6-year-old girl killed in a shooting that took place in Washington, D.C., Friday night.
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia released a video statement regarding the shooting, which took place shortly after 11 p.m.
Executive Assistant Chief Ashan M. Benedict said police heard shots of gunfire at 2900 Block of Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue, Southeast, and rushed to the scene to find six victims injured: three male adults, two female adults and one child.
The 6-year-old girl was shot and killed at the scene and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, Benedict said.
The five adults were being treated at area hospitals Friday night with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooters are unknown, and police are asking for the public’s help in identifying them.
“We’re asking for the public’s assistance to bring these shooters to justice,” Benedict said.

Here’s a clue: I don’t think Trump supporters did it.




 

Yet Another Aspiring Rapper Update

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Say hello to Abdul Kareem Robinson, Jr., who is now in police custody, but who nearly died in 2015, when he was targeted in a shooting the Grand Park neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. News accounts noted that Robinson is “one of the sons of Abdul Karim Robinson, 44, who was among the city’s most notorious drug dealers in the 1990s”:

Police linked the elder Robinson to at least three deaths, but he was never charged in two and the charges were dropped in the third. . . .
Robinson, released from prison in 2009, also is the father of Malik Abdul Khalid Robinson, 18, who was arrested this month [May 2015] and charged with the March shooting of a 16-year-old in Jacksonville Beach. That Robinson spent weeks using social media to dare police to catch him.

Crime is the family business for the Robinsons of Jacksonville, who have been at the center of an ongoing gang war between their crew, known as ATK (“Ace’s Top Killers”) led by rapper Kenyatta “Yungeen Ace” Bullard and the rival gang KTA (“Kill Them All”) led by rapper Charles “Foolio” Jones. This gang war has been going on for four years and is the subject of international attention, with the various members of these Jacksonville rap crews releasing “diss tracks” bragging about who they murdered and disparaging dead members of the rival crews. The war reportedly started in May 2017 with the killing of 19-year-old Zion Brown, cousin of “Foolio.” In June 2018, KTA struck back in a shooting that killed three people — Trevon Bullard, 18 — the brother of “Yungeen Ace” — and their two friends, Royale D’Von Smith Jr., 18; and Jercoby Da’Shad Groover, 19. “Yungeen Ace” was shot eight times in that incident, but survived.

There have been numerous other shootings as part of this war, and “Yungeen Ace” survived again in March 2019 when three men from Jacksonville shot up a Hampton Inn in Waycross, Georgia, killing one of Ace’s associates and wounding another. So, this brings us back to the recent arrest of Abdul Robinson Jr.:

A sixth suspect sought in the early 2020 shooting death of 23-year-old Charles Quentin McCormick in a Jacksonville shopping center has been tracked down to Atlanta, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Abdul Kareem Robinson Jr., 26, will be extradited back to Jacksonville where six others already await trial in the attack in the Dames Pointe Plaza at 7001 Merrill Road, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
While Robinson’s arrest completes the search for suspects in the death of McCormick, aka rapper Lil Buck, it is part of a larger inter-gang fight also waged via rap music videos, according to court records.
Some suspects also face murder charges in the Feb. 25, 2019, shooting death of 16-year-old rapper Adrian Gainer, aka Bibby, in the Hilltop Village Apartments, court records said.

(This is a complicated story, but it helps to remember the two different victims — “Lil Buck” McCormick and “Bibby” Gainer.)

McCormick was gunned down about 11 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2020, witnessed by an off-duty officer who said the gunman stood over the victim and shot him with a rifle before getting into a Nissan Altima, the warrant said. The officer chased the car until it crashed on nearby Townsend Boulevard, and three people inside ran away.
Two of the men ran into a house where the homeowner tried to flee. But the men grabbed her by the neck, shoved her on a sofa and held her hostage before calling someone to get them, the warrant said. The intruders dressed in clothing found in her husband’s closet, then someone drove up and fled with the pair.
The ensuing police investigation saw 22-year-old Hakeem Armani Robinson arrested on Sept. 10 and charged with second-degree murder, police said. Hakeem Robinson’s 50-year-old father, Abdul Karim Robinson, also was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Robinson Jr. is Hakeem Robinson’s brother, and a member of the ATK, or Ace’s Top Killers gang.

(So, Robinson Sr. was arrested with two of his sons, Abdul and Hakeem, and keep in mind that a third Robinson, Malik, was already jailed for a 2015 shooting. The family business, you see.)

Arrests continued with Dominique Jerrod Barner, 27, charged on March 19, 2020, with second-degree murder and aggravated fleeing an officer. Police also charged 23-year-old Janera Jaranee Smith with accessory after the fact, jail records show.
Investigators had found a rifle left in the Nissan along with a handgun when they searched the car, the warrant said. A fingerprint on the handgun was found to be Hakeem Robinson’s, while a hair found on a T-shirt nearby was also identified as his after a lab test.
Further investigation revealed photos of guns on Hakeem Robinson’s Instagram account, plus a music video by McCormick with the caption “Byeeee byeeee” and emojis of waving hands, the warrant said. Another video, also posted after McCormick’s death, showed Hakeem Robinson getting a pedicure as a caption read “Kill a n—– then go get my toes done.”
Barner told detectives he was driving the Nissan with Hakeem Robinson and Leroy G. Whitaker as they searched for McCormick “with the specific intent of killing him,” the warrant said. Barner said the reason for wanting McCormick dead was that he had made a song that “talked despairingly” about Hakeem Robinson’s dead brother, Willie Addison Jr.

(Willie Addison was a known gangster.)

Addison, a rapper known as Boss Goon, was shot on Jan. 16, 2019, after he performed at a late-night rap music event at the Paradise Gentlemen’s Club at 8669 Baymeadows Road. Police said Addison and others left the club and were on Emerson Street when the shooting took place near Spring Park Road. Someone fired from another vehicle that pulled alongside their Chevrolet Tahoe, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Addison’s father, Abdul Robinson, was among those shot but not killed inside, according to news partner First Coast News. The Sheriff’s Office said that shooting “was a targeted act of violence against the occupants of the Tahoe.”
Just over a month after Addison’s death, 16-year-old Adrian Dennard Gainer Jr., a rapper known as Bibby, was shot dead in the Hilltop Village Apartments. Hakeem Robinson was also charged on March 10 with second-degree murder in that case, court records show.

(Are you following the logic of this feud? The Robinsons, part of ATK crew, blamed the KTA gang for the shooting that killed Willie “Boss Goon” Addison, and struck back against “Bibby” Gainer, a young KTA protégé of “Foolio” Jones. The mayhem continues . . .)

The arrest warrant said Gainer and another man were in a gazebo at the complex at 1646 W. 45th St. at about 3 p.m. Surveillance video spotted a gray or silver Nissan Altima drive into the complex. A witness saw Hakeem Robinson and another man identified later as Whitaker get out with semi-automatic rifles and begin shooting, the warrant said.
Gainer and the other man heard gunfire, split up and tried to flee. A witness said he saw Gainer fall to the ground as he was shot, trying to protect himself, the warrant said.
“Robinson ran up to Bibby and shot him at close range in the back of the head or neck as Bibby continued trying to shield himself,” the warrant said.
Investigators found 45 shell casings at the crime scene. And Hakeem Robinson posted several photographs and videos “bragging about the murder of ‘Bibby,'” the warrant said. . . .
Whitaker was arrested on April 15, 2020, on charges of home-invasion robbery and armed burglary at the home off Townsend Boulevard after McCormick was killed, court records show. A second-degree murder count was later added.
Meanwhile, Robinson Jr. remained at large. Then on June 24 the U.S. Marshals Service offered a $5,000 reward for information that led to his arrest. It said he was wanted by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office “for an ambush-style homicide,” according to its reward notice. . . .
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office records show he was arrested Friday in the Atlanta area on a warrant for fugitive from justice on a murder charge, awaiting extradition back to Jacksonville.

So six suspects are now in custody for these two murders, committed by Youngeen Ace’s ATK crew against members of Foolio’s KTA crew. Excuse me if I’ve lost count of all the shootings and arrests connected to this Jacksonville rap-gang war. You get the idea that there might not be any black people left alive in Jacksonville if it keeps going and guess what? It ain’t over yet. In March, Youngeen Ace’s crew released a diss track called “Who I Smoke” that’s gotten nearly 30 million views on YouTube. Foolio responded in April with a diss track called “When I See You” that begins with audio of news coverage of the 2018 shooting that put eight bullets in Youngeen Ace and killed his brother and two friends.

As for Youngeen Ace himself, he’s reportedly hiding out in Houston, and police won’t even let him perform in Jacksonville, but he knows he’s a target and somewhere there’s a bullet with his name on it, because Foolio’s KTA must avenge the murder of Bibby and Lil Buck. Just sending six people to jail won’t be enough. Youngeen Ace is a dead man walking.

PREVIOUSLY:




 

Another Aspiring Rapper Update

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Say hello to Zerail Dijon Rivera, a/k/a “Indian Red Boy.” You can also say good-bye to him while you’re at it, because the screenshot above depicts the moment when Indian Red Boy, who was doing an Instagram Live chat with a fellow rapper, looked up to see the gunman who killed him:

A young Los Angeles rapper was shot to death last week while livestreaming with a friend on Instagram, and his final tragic moments have shocked the internet.
Indian Red Boy, whose legal name is Zerail Rivera, was killed on Thursday [July 8] as he sat in his car in Hawthorne, the Hawthorne police said in a press release on Saturday. His identity was confirmed by the LA County coroner.
Police stated that “officers located a 21-year-old male slumped in the front seat of a vehicle” after he had suffered “multiple gunshot wounds.”
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Indian Red Boy was laughing and smiling while chatting with a friend when he was ambushed with gunfire. The video captures how quickly a happy moment turned deadly. He turns to his side with a look of shock. Gunshots can be heard as the car fills up with smoke. Blood then runs from the rapper’s head and nose as he tries to mouth “help” to his friend. He is clearly gasping for air and scared in his final moments.
“It appears to have been a walk-up shooting, and he appears to have been targeted,” Lt. Ti Goetz of the Hawthorne Police Department said, adding that Rivera “appears to be a gang member.”

“Appears to be a gang member”? Indian Red Boy and the friend he was talking to on IG Live, known by the nickname “Kapone,” were affiliated with a gang of Bloods from Inglewood. The rumored motive for Indian Red Boy’s assassination was that he had “dissed” the late rapper known as “Nipsey Hussle” (Ermias Joseph Asghedom) who was a member of the rival Crips gang, murdered in 2019 by a fellow Crip. Allegedly, Indian Boy Red and Kapone had defaced a mural tribute to Nipsey Hussle, although it has elsewhere been claimed that Indian Red Boy was “set up” by an angry ex-girlfriend. Of course, this isn’t an “either/or” choice — it may be that Indian Red Boy’s ex-girlfriend set him up for assassination by ratting him out to the Crips. Whatever the motive, crimes like this call into question the legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter movement because where are they when black people are killing each other?

Nothing BLM does is aimed at reducing the deadly violence that takes so many lives in the black community, indeed quite the opposite. BLM is against the cops, and therefore objectively pro-criminal. You don’t reduce violent crime by promoting an anti-law-enforcement agenda, and this bloody mayhem certainly does nothing to reduce racism.

This will not be the last “Aspiring Rapper Update” today. There is a very long list of such stories to choose from recently.




 

Aspiring Rapper Update

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Say hello to Jacquavius Dennard Smith, a/k/a “9lokkNine,” whose stage name is pronounced “Glock 9,” like the pistol, see? Regular readers may have noticed that “aspiring rapper” is a dangerous gig:

The Death of ‘Quono’
— Sept. 13, 2020

Rapper Killed by ‘Systemic Racism’ and
Semiautomatic Pistol Fire, But Mainly …
— Nov. 6, 2020

Dallas Rapper ‘Mo3’ Dies of Structural
Oppression and Gunfire, But Mainly …
— Nov. 11, 2020

Timothy ‘Lil Tim’ Leeks, 22, Charged
With Murdering Rapper King Von in Atlanta
— Nov. 11, 2020

64 Shots: Londre ‘KTS Dre’ Sylvester
Gunned Down Outside Chicago Jail
— July 12, 2021

There would appear to be a significant overlap between the rap entertainment industry and the criminal community, and while perhaps not every “aspiring rapper” is also a gang-banger, that’s the smart way to bet. Certainly 9lokkNine is an excellent role model for young thugs:

9lokkNine released his first mixtape, Kold Face Kold Case with nine tracks on January 2, 2018. He released his second mixtape, Bloodshells Revenge with 18 tracks on April 17, 2018. On May 8, 2018, 9lokkNine released a music video for his single “I Don’t Need No Help”. On July 23, 2018, he released his 17-track mixtape, Loyalty Kill Love. On August 3, 2018, he signed to Cash Money Records and Republic Records. According to a press release, the contract was worth $2 million.

TWO MILLION DOLLARS? You might expect that getting a $2 million recording contract at age 18 would be enough to induce even the most hardened outlaw to go legit. Alas, thug life is habit-forming, and 9lokkNine already had an extensive criminal record:

In September 2015, 9lokkNine, 15-years-old at the time, was arrested in connection to a shooting that left a 17-year-old hospitalized. Smith was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and unlawful discharge of a firearm and also had a violation of probation for trespassing. . . .
On October 3, 2018, 9lokkNine was arrested on multiple charges, including possession of a concealed weapon by a convicted delinquent, grand theft in the third degree, and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana.

Dope, guns, grand theft, attempted murder — these are reputation-enhancers for any aspiring rapper, and 9lokkNine was quite popular. His May 2020 video, “Why You LYING” got 20 million views on YouTube, where he had more than 350,000 subscribers to his channel.

You might think that such success would suffice to turn this young man away from criminality, but if so, you would be wrong:

Already facing racketeering and attempted murder charges in state court, Orlando rapper Jacquavius ‘9lokkNine’ Smith pleaded guilty to identity theft and weapons charges on Tuesday, records show.
Smith, 21, fraudulently applied for and received $10,000 in federal Paycheck Protection Program funds meant to help struggling businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, his plea agreement said.
He pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm, aggravated identity theft and felon in possession of a firearm.
According to records, Smith was in possession of a sawed-off semi-automatic rifle which was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. The rifle was stolen during a burglary in 2019, the plea agreement said. It was found in the garage of Smith’s grandparents’ home when the Orlando Police Department served a search warrant, the document said. Smith’s thumbprint was on the rifle magazine and his DNA was on the grip area, records said.
Because the barrel of the rifle was about nine inches instead of 16, it had to be registered, according to the plea agreement.
In the aggravated identity theft charge, Smith used the name, social security number and address belonging to a person identified in the plea agreement as “S.S.” to apply for the PPP loan and open a bank account in March, records said. A deposit arrived in the account for more than $10,000 on April 16, records said.
Smith shared an Instagram message to friends showing the loan application which was intercepted by a wiretap obtained by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the agreement said.
Smith also was caught with a weapon during an OCSO raid last month at a home on Hazenridge Way, south of Curry Ford and Dean roads. Smith was found in a bedroom where there was a duffle bag with a loaded firearm and several rounds inside. He also had 13 “auto sears” which allow semiautomatic firearms to become automatic, records said.
Smith, who has a felony record dating back to when he was 16, is prohibited from having firearms.
A judge is scheduled to sentence Smith on Oct. 6.
Authorities earlier this month announced racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) charges and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges against Smith and more than 20 other people in connection with an ongoing gang feud that has resulted in multiple shootings and homicides.
At the heart of the battle is rivalry between Smith, a key figure in the All Friends No Family gang, and fellow rapper Javarri “Hotboii” Walker, of the 438 gang, officials have said. Walker also is facing racketeering charges and was arrested Monday, jail records show.

Gosh, I wonder what’s causing the “mass incarceration” problem?




 

What’s Happening in Houston?

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Say hello to Danny Garcia Cazares. Thankfully, you can also say good-bye to him, because he’s dead now, and will no long terrorize Texas, which is what he did every day of his worthless criminal life:

Houston police said in a statement that Cazares had a history of mental illness and was arrested three times in the last year.
All three times, he was released from jail on bond.

One of the charges? Felon in possession of a firearm.

There is probably no other crime that is more predictive of murder. If there is one thing that everybody ought to be able to agree on, when it comes to crime, it’s that felons caught with guns need to be put behind bars for a long time. They are a danger to everyone in the community. And so, after Cazares — whose criminal record dates back to when he was 18, and whose sister said he had schizophrenia — is released from custody, guess what? He got a gun and shot two people:

The victim and shooter in Thursday’s downtown Houston aquarium shooting have been identified by authorities.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences identified the victim as 28-year-old Gabriel Alexander Moriones Vargas. The shooter was identified as Danny Cazares, 39.
A 24-year-old woman, who was Vargas’ wife, was injured in the shooting and taken to the hospital, police said.
The shooting occurred around 8:10 p.m. at 410 Bagby Street in the bar area on the second floor of the aquarium.
Police said video evidence showed Cazares approach Vargas and his wife in the restaurant, produce a gun and then fire multiple shots at them, before turning the gun on himself.
Authorities said the preliminary investigation, including a statement from Vargas’ wife stated that the victims did not know Cazares.
The motive in the shooting remains unknown.

Motive? Crazy people don’t need “motives”! And this guy was crazy:

According to Click2Houston, the suspect once underwent a mental health evaluation after being found “wandering around the Cy-Fair Fire Departments’ bunkhouse.”
The gun charge resulted from his niece calling police to report he was “seated at the bar with a loaded pistol in his pocket,” at a different Houston restaurant. He was also accused of “trashing a hotel room,” the television station reported.
His family told Eyewitness News that Cazares was “a sweet man” who had schizophrenia and had required hospitalization for it.

Aw, his family said he was “a sweet man.” Right, and Hitler liked puppies.

When are journalists going to stop quoting the families of heinous criminals this way? Guy shoots two people in cold blood, and we’re supposed to pity him because his family says he’s “sweet”? For all we know the entire Cazares family is a menace to society. But the real point here is, why did they let this guy out of jail on bond three times?

What the hell is going on down there in the Houston courts?

See, I can understand liberal judges giving criminals a slap on the wrist in places like San Francisco or Chicago, but Houston, Texas? Even if it’s a Democratic bastion — Joe Biden got 56% pf the vote in Harris County — it is still Texas, by God. Even a Democrat-controlled city in Texas ought to be immune to left-wing “social justice” nonsense.

For the past few months, I’ve been seeing more and more stories about cases like this in Houston, and wondering what was going on. And apparently, other people have taken notice of this problem:

These numbers are simply staggering:

In 2020, 18,796 defendants were charged with new felonies and misdemeanors while out on bond, a number that has tripled since 2015, county data shows. Approximately 89,600 individuals were charged with felonies and misdemeanors in Harris County that year. . . .
The Houston Chronicle reviewed murder cases in Harris County from 2013 to 2020 and identified 231 deaths linked to a defendant previously charged with crimes and out on bond. The review found that 79 individuals were free on multiple bonds, misdemeanor or felony, before the murder charge and of those, 38 defendants were out on multiple felony bonds. . . .
Violent crime in Houston, and elsewhere, started rising last year. It plays out in almost daily incidents that add up to a homicide rate that is one of the highest in the last three decades. Just this week, Xavier Davis, of Houston, was charged in a triple killing; he was out on bond on an unrelated family violence charge.

You can read the whole thing. That there have been more than 200 murders in eight years committed in Houston by criminals out on bond is a disgrace to Texas, and I hope that Texans will take notice.




 

64 Shots: Londre ‘KTS Dre’ Sylvester Gunned Down Outside Chicago Jail

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Getting murdered is a family tradition for some people in Chicago, and the death this week of Londre Sylvester, 31, was probably predictable. In June 2015, his younger brother, Devon “Kutthroat Von” Davis, was killed in a drive-by shooting. “Kutthroat Von” was only 21 at the time, and was a rapper best known for his song “Kill to Survive,” the lyrics of which are a paean to the violence of street gang life:

Bitch, I’m finna purge
When the Glocks load up
No lackin’, lil’ bitch look up
I was raised in the field with them demons, so what?
It’s kill to survive in the field, turn up …

Out lurking late night like a bat
That’s when a nigga aim be the best
Show no mercy, got it tatted on my chest
Kutthroat gon’ take a nigga soul
Damn Kutthroat heart so froze
Kutthroat don’t love no hoe
‘Cause a bitch ain’t shit, on Moe

“Show no mercy, got it tatted on my chest” — boasting of cruelty and violence, killing people with Glocks? Yeah, that’s popular entertainment for a certain segment of Chicago’s population for whom crime is a way of life and homicide is a hobby. The video for “Kill to Survive” shows the performer waving a laser-sighted pistol and has 4.3 million views on YouTube. So there is no surprise in the fact that “Kutthroat,” with his “heart so froze,” got gunned down by rival gangsters.

Devon “Kutthroat” Davis with his pistol

Oh, did I forget to mention that “Kill to Survive” (KTS) is actually the name of a criminal alliance of Chicago gangs (the 075 Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples from Lakeside and PocketTown)? The reference to “Moe” in Kutthroat Von’s lyrics is to “Moe Town,” a Southside neighborhood also known as the Motor Row District near I-55. The KTS “set” (as neighborhood crews are known in Chicago) is reportedly “at war with numerous sets such as NLMB, Sirconn City, GloryBoyz 3hunna.” It is alleged that Kutthroat Von himself perpetrated at least two murders, including the 2014 drive-by shooting of Keith “Keke” Bonds.

Hey, did I forget to mention that no one was ever charged with the 2015 murder of Kutthroat? Because in some years, 70% or more of the homicides in Chicago are never solved, there are literally hundreds of murderers walking the streets, if they haven’t themselves been killed in the endless violence, or sent to prison on other charges. So, the dead Kutthroat’s brother Londre Sylvester used the gang slogan “KTS” as a stage name for his own career as a rapper, and actually had “Kill to Survive” tattooed on his neck. Class act, these guys.

Murder is a family tradition, and in 2016, Vincent Davis Sr., 43, the father of Devon and Londre, was gunned down in Chicago. Five months later, prosecutors charged Devontay Murray, 19, who was already in custody on an unrelated robbery charge, with that murder.

Devontay Murray, accused of killing Vincent Davis Sr.

If you do the math, you realize Vincent Davis Sr. was only 17 when his oldest son Londre was born, one of eight children the senior Davis sired before his death at age 43. And judging from the short and violent lives of his sons, murder is the family business. Londre recently spent time in the Cook County Jail on a gun charge:

Court records indicate Sylvester’s fiancee had put up $5,000 on Friday to secure his release on charges of violating a previous bond in a 2020 gun case. . . .
Court records indicate Sylvester had been jailed in June for violating conditions of his bond in the 2020 gun case but had been living under house arrest since last December with a GPS monitoring device.
A judge had granted him four hours each Thursday to leave the house to run errands, but sheriff’s officials claimed he’d violated those conditions by visiting “various locations in Chicago and Wisconsin” on June 11.
Sylvester’s public defender called for a bond hearing, claiming Sylvester was arrested June 11 “after running errands during the allotted time on the allotted day of the week.” Judge Lawrence Flood set bond at $50,000, requiring a deposit of $5,000.
The gun case stemmed from an April 2020 arrest when someone reported Sylvester carrying a gun in his car in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood. Officers spotted Sylvester behind the wheel of a white Jaguar sedan, parked beside a pump at a gas station in the 8200 block of South Halsted Street, according to a police report.
When they approached the car, officers saw that Sylvester, who was on parole for a 2015 gun conviction, had a 9 mm Glock pistol in his lap.
One of the officers tried to grab the gun from Sylvester as Sylvester put the car in gear, the report states. Two officers struggled with Sylvester and wrestled him out of the car.

See, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is a crime, but when murder is the family business, gun ownership is a prerequisite, so it was impossible for Londre “KTS Dre” Sylvester to pursue his criminal occupation without a gun, and that’s why he was in jail. Until his fiancee bailed him out, and he met his predictable fate:

A man who was apparently ambushed after being released from the Cook County Jail in Chicago suffered as many as 64 bullet wounds to his head and other parts of his body, police said.
The shooting Saturday night killed 31-year-old Londre Sylvester, who is also reportedly known as a rapper in Chicago, a police report said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Sylvester had just been released after being fitted for electronic monitoring and was walking to a waiting vehicle when several suspects “exited two separate vehicles and all began to shoot in Sylvester’s direction, striking him numerous times,” the police report said. . . .
Following Saturday night’s shooting, the suspects reentered their vehicles and fled the scene, police said.
A 60-year-old woman who was with Sylvester was shot in one of her knees and was hospitalized in good condition, police said. A second woman, who is in her 30s, suffered a graze wound to her mouth, police said.

Sixty-four bullet wounds.

The suspects are still at large — a frightening thought, but then you remember that as many as 70% of murders in Chicago go unsolved, so “suspects at large” describes hundreds of people in Chicago.

Out lurking late night like a bat
That’s when a nigga aim be the best
Show no mercy, got it tatted on my chest

My advice? Stay away from Chicago.