Crime News
The Daily Signal reports on crime news with analysis and commentary on policies, crime rates, and policing debates.
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opinion
How Sanctuary Policies Have Directly Led to Thousands of Crimes Against Americans
There has been a fiery debate over the past few weeks about illegal aliens and crime, which has intensified with the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by a seven-time felon and five-time deportee as the direct result of the city’s sanctuary policy. What seems to have been overlooked in the back and forth… -
opinion
How San Francisco Aided and Abetted the Murder of Kate Steinle
After admitting to shooting and killing 32-year-old Kate Steinle, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an illegal alien, was asked why he had come to San Francisco. He responded that “he knew San Francisco was a sanctuary city where he would not be pursued by immigration officials.” “Sanctuary cities” are cities within the United States that refuse to… -
news
How Unusual Is Francisco Sanchez Case? The Facts About Illegal Immigrants and Crimes
An illegal immigrant federal officials claim was convicted of seven felonies and deported five times shot a woman on the San Francisco waterfront last Wednesday. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who was arrested an hour after the attack, admitted he shot 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle, but claimed the incident was an “accident.” Lopez-Sanchez, also known simply as Francisco… -
opinion
Export-Import Bank Connects US Taxpayers to Foreign Scandal
Marcelo Odebrecht, a Brazilian industrialist of immense wealth and power, was arrested and jailed recently on charges of corruption. He and dozens of other businessmen and politicians are accused of swindling the state-controlled oil company Petrobras—the largest business enterprise (by market capitalization) in the Southern Hemisphere. American taxpayers have a stake in this scandal: Both the… -
news
IRS Employees Erased 422 Backup Tapes Containing 24,000 of Lois Lerner’s Emails
Investigators at the Internal Revenue Service are looking to agency employees as the reason thousands of emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner were lost, and the agency’s watchdog said today their actions were a mistake. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) J. Russell George testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform… -
opinion
Brazil: Corruption Scandals Will Cast a Shadow over Obama–Rousseff Meeting
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will visit Washington next week, her first visit to the U.S. since taking office in 2011. President Obama says they will discuss “a whole range of issues, including climate change, energy, educational exchanges, and science and technology.” But for Rousseff, the Obama meeting will provide a welcome distraction from the unrelenting… -
news
After Deaths of Veterans, Federal Agencies Stonewall Probe of ‘Candy Man’ Doctor
A congressional investigation into a “Candy Land” physician who allegedly “doped up” and “zombified” veterans has uncovered disturbing new details. The probe has faced stonewalling and hostility from federal agencies, according to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (See full report at the bottom of this story.) In January 2015, reports surfaced… -
news
Law Enforcement Seizes $11,000 From 24-Year-Old at Airport Without Charging Him With a Crime
It was Feb. 17, 2014, and Charles Clarke, 24, just wanted to get home. After spending several weeks with family in Cincinnati, Ohio, Clarke arrived at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky., for a flight back to Orlando, Fla., where his mother lived and where he would be taking classes at the University… -
news
Senators Want Answers: 121 Illegal Immigrants Avoid Deportation, Now Charged With Murder
More than 100 convicted criminals who remained in the U.S. despite receiving deportation orders between 2010 and 2014 now face murder charges, according to the agency charged with carrying out such deportations of illegal immigrants. U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement reports that 121 convicted criminals who were never removed from the country face murder charges today…. -
opinion
How Gillibrand’s Military Sexual Assault Legislation Could Hurt Victims
The good news is that the number of sexual assaults in the military is going down. According to the RAND Corporation’s recent study, there has been a 27 percent decrease. No doubt, that is a direct result of the comprehensive reforms to the military justice system put in place a couple of years ago by… -
news
Study: US Arresting Fewer Criminally Convicted Illegal Immigrants
The Center for Immigration Studies recently released a report stating that arrests of non-citizens who have been convicted of a crime decreased by 32 percent since this time last year. However, the Center for Immigration Studies says this does not indicate there are fewer criminally convicted illegal immigrants in the United States, but rather, the government… -
opinion
Why One of the Country’s Toughest Cops Says We’re Overcriminalizing America
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was known as one of America’s toughest crime fighters. Then, as he details in his new book, “From Jailer to Jailed,” Kerik found himself convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to four years behind bars. This experience has turned Kerik into an advocate for criminal justice reform…. -
news
In Wake of Freddie Gray’s Death, Baltimore Sees Record Month for Murders
May marked Baltimore’s deadliest month in more than 40 years as three men were fatally shot yesterday, bringing the month’s homicide toll to 43. The Baltimore Sun reported the two separate shootings Sunday—the first killing two men after they were fatally shot in the head, the second killing one man and leaving another injured after… -
opinion
Loretta Lynch Faces Her First Test as Attorney General
A decision earlier this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has given new Attorney General Loretta Lynch her first public test: Will she break from Eric Holder’s policies by enforcing voting rights law on a race-neutral basis, as Congress intended, or will she continue Holder’s non-neutral enforcement policy? For those who don’t remember, in… -
news
Senator Again Calls for Ending Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point
Comparing Operation Choke Point to Tom Cruise’s “Minority Report,” a film where police use “psychic technology” to arrest alleged murderers before they actually commit a crime, Sen. Mike Crapo today made another attempt to end the Justice Department’s controversial program. “To explain [Operation Choke Point], I want to remind everybody of a movie that came… -
opinion
Newly Passed Human Trafficking Bill Only a Start to What US Must Do to Combat Trafficking
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015. If signed by the president, the bill would create a domestic fund for victims of child sex trafficking from fines levied against traffickers. Fines collected from traffickers will bolster local law enforcement training and capabilities, among other capacity building… -
opinion
Corruption Scandals Tarnish Chile’s Strong Rule of Law Reputation
With an overall score of 78.5, Chile remained the 7th freest economy in the world in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom and retained its rank as first in the Latin American and the Caribbean region. Beginning with the first edition of the Index in 1995, successive governments in Chile from the center-left and center-right… -
opinion
As Coast Guard Combats Drug Trafficking, Budget Shortfalls Linger
Following 19 interdictions along the Central and South American coasts, the crew of the United States Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell returned home on April 16 with over 28,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $424 million. Collectively, these busts are a significant accomplishment for the sea service; however, they only represent a portion of the… -
opinion
The Justice Department’s War on Texas’ Voter ID Law
On Tuesday, April 28, Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller will be up before a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals again, his second appearance there in two weeks. But this time, instead of arguing over the unconstitutionality of President Obama’s immigration amnesty plan, he will be arguing that the Texas voter ID… -
opinion
A Flawed Legal Analysis Is Helping Lois Lerner
On March 31, Ronald Machen, the outgoing U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote House Speaker John Boehner to inform him that the Justice Department would not present Lois Lerner’s contempt citation to a federal grand jury. The letter explaining his decision is an exercise in misdirection—the kind of misdirection that magicians use to…