Legal briefs
Crime
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” That’s the U.S. Postal Service motto. On July 19 this year, postal worker Octavia Redmond did not have to contend with bad weather or the gloom of night. Rather, she walked along her postal route in Chicago that day around 11:30 a.m. enjoying sunny skies and mild temperatures. She stopped to talk with Woodrow Davis about the beautiful weather for a few moments while he was walking his dogs along her route. Another customer, Kim Sanders, offered Octavia some water and talked with her a bit. A few minutes later, shots rang out in the neighborhood, and Octavia lay dead in the street. No one saw who did it.
There were no suspects for months. Recently, though, a fifteen-year-old boy was arrested for the murder. The investigation continues for other suspects.
I have written previously in this column, here, about the alarming number of postal workers robbed in Chicago. Violent criminals routinely steal what are called “arrow keys” from postal workers at gunpoint. The arrow keys are universal keys that open the blue mail drop boxes. Criminals like to open the boxes and steal what’s inside. Now, it has gone from robbery to murder of postal workers like Octavia. Postal robbers have been getting a slap on the wrist in Chicago, which has perpetuated this conduct. Maybe things will change now. Read more here.
More crime
Guns are banned in The United Kingdom. They did this in response to mass casualty shooting crimes. The gun ban has not stopped deadly crimes, however. Criminals in the UK just switched to killing a lot of people with knives. So, in September, 2024 the UK banned knives. Well, not all knives, just any knives with blades over eight inches, any machetes, and what they call “zombie knives,” which are knives with a serrated edge or holes or spikes. But guess what? People kept on stabbing, now with regular knives. So, there are calls for expanding the knife ban. British actor, Idris Elba, recently released a documentary on the UK “knife crisis.” Promoting the film, Elba said, “Banning the sale of zombie knives is a positive step...” He continued, “Not all kitchen knives need to have a point on them, that sounds like a crazy thing to say, but you can still cut your food without the point on your knife, which is an innovative way to look at it.”
As is plain from the progression from guns to zombie knives to regular knives, if the UK bans all knives, people will just kill each other with clubs. Ban clubs, and people will use their hands. Presumably, there is already a ban on murder. May I suggest, Mr. Elba, that the problem is not the knives? You can read more here.
Still more crime
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined the link between marijuana and schizophrenia. The authors took the date of legalization of marijuana in Canada as a dividing line. They found that prior to legalization, the rate of schizophrenia in the population was 3.7%. Following legalization, the rate of schizophrenia in the population nearly tripled to 10.3%. The authors cannot go so far as to say that marijuana use causes the increase in schizophrenia, but a tripling of the incidence is disturbing and should be a warning sign to states considering legalization. Here is the study.
Free speech
A recent poll by FIRE, an organization dedicated to free speech, found that 80% of respondents agreed that “words can be violence.”
No, they can’t.
Other
As a state employee, I am included in the Indiana State Personnel Department’s State Employees’ Community Campaign (SECC) and get their emails. According to their website, the SECC “seeks to provide state employees with opportunities to be conscientious citizens.” I don’t really know what that means. Recently, they hosted a state employee virtual lip sync battle. I could participate, the email said, by Zooming in at 11:00 am for the battle! Voting began at 1:00. I did not participate, but I’m led to imagine that people all over the state were online lip syncing instead of doing other more important things like, you know, their jobs.
I’m sure it’s just me, but can’t we just do the work the citizens of Indiana are paying us to do? Why does everything have to be so dumb?
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