Free Republic

Twelve years ago, officials in Vallejo, Calif., reluctantly took a step that activists are now urging in cities across the country: They defunded their police department. Unable to pay its bills after the 2008 financial crisis, Vallejo filed for bankruptcy and cut its police force nearly in half - to fewer than 80 officers, from a pre-recession high of more than 150. At the time, the working-class city of 122,000 north of San Francisco struggled with high rates of violent crime and simmering mistrust of its police department. It didn't seem like things could get much worse. And then they...

It felt like deja vu for Dave Martin as he watched silent security footage of an individual breaking into his San Francisco bar in June. Within the first 16 months after it opened, Pine Tar Grill, Martin’s San Francisco Giants-themed business on Folsom Street filled with sports memorabilia, was burglarized three times. The final incident was caught on camera, showing a person breaking the glass of the front door at around 4 a.m. to steal cash, sports-related bobblehead toys and computers, Martin said. Repairs cost thousands of dollars and were a big factor in his decision to close the bar...

Newly elected San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin grabbed headlines earlier this week after saying he would not prosecute “quality-of-life” crimes including public urination -- but that’s only part of what’s on the agenda for the 39-year-old former public defender with a past that's radical even by California standards.

Two-thirds of Americans say the use of marijuana should be legal, reflecting a steady increase over the past decade, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The share of U.S. adults who oppose legalization has fallen from 52% in 2010 to 32% today. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (91%) say marijuana should be legal either for medical and recreational use (59%) or that it should be legal just for medical use (32%). Fewer than one-in-ten (8%) prefer to keep marijuana illegal in all circumstances, according to the survey, conducted Sept. 3 to 15 on Pew Research Center’s...

Marijuana reform activists have created a new super PAC aimed exclusively at defeating Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, the House Rules Committee chairman who has blocked cannabis reform legislation from reaching the House floor. Marijuana Policy Project founder and former Executive Director Rob Kampia is leading the effort, which he said is crucial to legalizing medical marijuana federally and affirming federalism for recreational pot, two policies supported in principle by President Trump. “Everyone knows who he is and that he’s our biggest problem on Capitol Hill. Half of my job has already been done by Pete Sessions himself," Kampia told...

Live coverage of South American communists.

HAVANA — The latest developments in Pope Francis' visit to Cuba and the United States. All times local EDT: 4:30 p.m. Cuban President Raul Castro is praising Pope Francis' critiques of the global economic system, saying it has "globalized capital and turned money into its idol." In a lengthy speech welcoming the pope at Havana's international airport, Castro says Cuba's communist government has "founded an equitable society with social justice." He thanks the pope for mediating negotiations on detente between the United States and Cuba. Castro is also calling for the end of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba and...

A chilling video of Maryland police silencing an innocent student who was recording the arrests of two other people has civil libertarians outraged. The arrests were made at night on the streets of Towson, Maryland. A University of Maryland-Baltimore County student who witnessed the arrests decided to record them using his cell phone. The student, 21-year-old Sergio Gutierrez, was soon approached by officers who objected — wrongly — to his actions. Gutierrez repeatedly told the officers that he knew he had the right to film them, but the cops were prepared to use any excuse to shut him down. First...

WASHINGTON -- A group of scholars, social scientists, and psychologists are sounding alarm bells that pornography is much more harmful to society than most people think. The group recently revealed before the National Press Club startling new evidence of how widespread porn has become in the U.S.