Crime
Apparently, a lot of postal workers get robbed in Chicago. During these robberies, the robbers like to take what’s called an “arrow key,” which is a master key for the blue post office boxes conveniently located around cities. To combat this, Chicago police officers sometimes set up surveillance on the more out-of-the-way blue mailboxes to catch people opening them. Around 3:00 a.m on May 2, 2023, Richard Thompson used a stolen arrow key to open a blue box at the corner of Racine and Adams in Chicago. He was arrested, had the key, burglary tools, and admitted to robbing a postman. In addition to the new charge, Thompson had five previous felony convictions. Thompson’s bail bond was set at an anemic $100 and he was released with electronic monitoring.
Guess what Richard Thompson allegedly did a few months later, on November 10, 2023? That’s right, he, again allegedly, robbed a postal employee and stole his arrow key. Federal prosecutors took this second case and issued an arrest warrant for Thompson. He has now been arrested and is incarcerated on the federal charges.
Mail theft has gotten so bad in Chicago, as reported by the local news, that the authorities have advised people to not “put anything in the mail that you don’t want to wind up in the hands of criminals.”
The mail service does not have to be disrupted like this. The good, hardworking people of Chicago do not have to suffer such low expectations for the operation of their city. The mail robberies can be stopped by abandoning disastrous progressive judicial policies and punishing the robbers.
More crime
In 2020, the people of Portland elected Mike Schmidt, who ran as a “progressive prosecutor.” Schmidt campaigned on the idea that he would not prosecute most drug and property crimes. As a result of Schmidt’s practices, and similar policies in the state, crime in Portland exploded. They are suffering record homicide rates and record drug overdoses. Even though Portland is one of the most progressive areas in the country, it appears that even they have a limit to how much of this lawlessness they will tolerate. Tuesday of this week was primary election day in Oregon, and the Portland Prosecutor race was on the ballot. Portland voters took the opportunity to elect a more moderate prosecutor, Nathan Vasquez. Vasquez, who used to be a Republican but ran as a Democrat, was actually a deputy prosecutor in Schmidt’s office. Central to his campaign, Vasquez promised, “I am committed to ending open-air drug use, to ending open-air drug dealing that we have suffered in this community. I am also committed to restoring the idea that it is okay to hold people accountable.” The people of Portland should be commended for making this choice. If one of the most progressive areas in the country can reject the corrosive soft-on-crime ideology that has swept the nation, there is hope for the rest of us.
Free speech
A couple of weeks ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito, gave a commencement address at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Justice Alito focused his remarks on free speech. He said, “Right now in the world outside this beautiful campus, troubled waters are slamming against some of our most fundamental principles. Support for freedom of speech is declining dangerously.” We should heed Justice Alito’s warning. Free speech is developing as a prominent issue of our age.
Other
It is the season for commencement speeches. Most people make fun of them, but I tend to like them. Arguably, the best one ever given is David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon College speech. You can read or listen to it here.
A great one so far this year is by Robert Parham, a business professor at University of Virginia. In the speech, Parham notes that as a professor at UVA he is required to submit a statement to the university of his DEIB goals (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging). Parham says his DEIB goal is to abolish the DEIB department at UVA.
Throughout the speech, Parham argues that woke ideology has infected people like a disease and convinced many that the world is evil and that it is their fault for being too white, too racist, too greedy or too privileged. He rejects all of this and points out that we live in the greatest time in human history. He extolls the wonders of capitalism and technology. He tells the students to stop feeling personally responsible for historical ills and to go be free and happy.
No word yet on whether he has been fired for being heretical on a college campus. I encourage you to read the entire speech here.
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