Free Republic

Shoplifting has spiked across the country so far this year — even as many major crimes like homicide dropped back to pre-pandemic levels, a major national crime study showed. Rates of shoplifting rose an average 24% during the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) Mid-Year Crime Report released Thursday. The study reviewed crime statistics from 23 cities across the US, finding shoplifting has steadily been on the rise since the country began emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic around 2022. Shoplifting has gotten lots of attention in recent...

CHICAGO — Police are investigating five robberies, some of which turned violent, that were reported early Tuesday morning in the Loop, Lincoln Park, and Lakeview. There are indications that the same people may have committed some of the crimes. In one incident, a 22-year-old woman was pepper sprayed and robbed near the Lincoln Park Zoo around 12:15 a.m. She was near the intersection of Fullerton and Cannon Drive when a man sprayed her and took her phone, according to initial information. EMS took her to St. Joseph Hospital for treatment. The other four robberies, all similar in nature, occurred within...

An Asian woman’s disturbing description of being randomly attacked by a drug addict outside a Long Island City restaurant has gone viral — as she’s left terrified after the shocking incident. Chinese immigrant Runing Lao, 30, told The Post she’s scared to go back to work since the surprise attack as she left the Chipotle near the corner of Purves Street and Jackson Avenue at about 1 p.m. on July 17. “I was maybe five or 10 steps away from Chipotle … and this woman just starts to beat me for no reason,” Lao, who works in real estate, said...

Minnesota Freedom Fund posted bail for rapists and other violent criminals

Most Americans fear the U.S. is “spiraling” out of control, a Reuters/Ipsos survey released days after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump found. The two-day survey, which ended polling on Tuesday, found four out of ten asserting that the country is “spiraling” out of control, and an even greater figure, 86 percent, believe “acts of violence” are “throwing this country into chaos,” per reporting from Axios: The two-day poll, which closed Tuesday and included 992 registered voters, showed that 56% were “very concerned” about this and 30% were “somewhat concerned” following Saturday’s Pennsylvania rally shooting that killed one...

In sunny Chicago, Illinois, on the weekend of Independence Day, 2024, we are told that 109 people were shot, 19 of them fatally. This of course doesn’t include the always-unknown numbers of people who were shot at but missed, and those who were shot but chose not to seek medical care, and those who were stabbed, slugged, or clubbed, because the gun is the only weapon in which most modern journalists are interested. Statistics of any kind are rarely truly comprehensive. But still, “109 shot, 19 fatally” is in itself a scary enough number for a four-day weekend in a...

CHICAGO — Two pizzeria employees were tied up during an after-hours armed robbery in the Loop overnight. An employee at Lou Malnati’s, 805 South State, called 911 after freeing themselves around 1:45 a.m. Without identifying the business by name, Chicago police said a man and woman confronted a male employee as he exited a back door near a garbage area. The male robber grabbed the employee, put a knife to his throat, and forced him back into the restaurant, police said.

Nearly half of Jewish voters have felt at risk because of their religious identity while living in the Empire State — while more than a third said that New York is no longer a safe haven for their people, a shocking new poll reveals. The survey conducted for the pro-Israel New York Solidarity Network found that 44% of the 1,200 Jewish voters in New York City and other counties queried said they have felt unsafe, as did 67% of identifiable Orthodox Jews. More than a third — 35% — said they agreed with the statement: “New York is no longer...

The Sacramento City Attorney’s Office warned a chain retail store that it could face a public nuisance charge due to a large number of phone calls placed to police when thieves repeatedly stole from its Land Park location. A person with knowledge of the warning, but not authorized to speak publicly due to the fear of retaliation, told The Sacramento Bee that city officials threatened the Target at 2505 Riverside Blvd. in the past year with an administrative fine. A Sacramento police spokesman confirmed the location — a site that prompted heavy ire from Land Park residents due to repeated...

Whether you like leftism or not (I don’t), one of the most admirable things about leftists is that they are long-term planners. Conservatives dream of quick fixes, but leftists put systems in place and then patiently wait for them to come to fruition. San Francisco perfectly illustrates how this works...and it goes back to the 1960s. At the end of June, a San Francisco convenience store was robbed and vandalized. This happened in a city that no longer polices minor crimes (allowing it to boast that its crime statistics have improved), thereby paving the way for major crimes. The city,...

CHICAGO — With the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system soon to be removed from Chicago’s streets, so-called “reform” activists are turning their attention to another tool police find useful: traffic stops. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in May that her office is developing a policy not to prosecute gun, theft, and drug charges stemming from certain traffic stops. Foxx said her staff would refuse to file charges in most cases if evidence was found during a traffic stop for missing license plates, expired registrations, and other minor infractions. She called the anticipated change “a public safety enhancement effort.” “Armed...

Delivery drivers in the South Bay say they're increasingly worried about becoming robbery targets. It's happening enough that at least one company, Core Mart, is now hiring armed guards to escort its drivers. ... Flavio Lopez works for another delivery company and said he wishes he had a guard or at least a second person to help him keep an eye on the merchandise. Lopez hasn’t been robbed, but he has had run-ins downtown. "Stuff you gotta deal with downtown," he said. "It is what it is." Darrell Cortez, a retired San Jose police officer who now works in corporate...

If President Joe Biden is taken off the top of the presidential ballot and replaced with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, there are two names that should play a prominent part in the 2024 campaign: Patricia McKay and Will O’Neill. McKay, 68, was a New Zealand woman and tourist who was killed in broad daylight outside of a mall in Orange County, California on Tuesday, allegedly by a group of armed robbers who shot at her and then killed her by running her over with their car. O’Neill is the Republican mayor of the city where she was killed. However, he...

OAKLAND, Calif. - A major sideshow erupted on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge overnight. It's becoming a common occurrence in the Bay Area. The sideshow in the middle of the night came to a close with a fireworks show. Participants shot them 30 feet into the sky with cars taking over the bridge around 2 a.m. Sunday, causing traffic to come to a halt for about an hour. Video shows multiple cars pulling donuts, getting dangerously close to spectators. Passengers hung out of car windows and sat in truck beds, as drivers spun in circles. "You could hear...

A mob of looters ransacked an Oakland gas station convenience store and caused thousands of dollars in damage as the frustrated store manager claimed police took nine hours to respond to his plea for help. The horde, who had just attended a nearby car sideshow, broke into the 76 Station near the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, according to ABC 7 News Bay Area. Owner Sam Mardaie estimated approximately 80 to 100 people broke through his store’s front door and grabbed everything they could get their hands on.

More than 50 cars were involved in a street takeover in downtown Los Angeles early Saturday as some went up in flames, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Video shows a car completely engulfed by a fire, sitting in the middle of an intersection as a thick black cloud of smoke rises from the vehicle. Other cars can be seen as they try to drive around the inferno. LAPD said several vehicles were impounded after authorities responded to the area near East 18th Street and Main Street, where participants intentionally set two of the cars on fire. Firefighters received...

Tough penalties for drug crimes and thefts could make a comeback in California as voters will have a chance in the fall to overturn a nearly decade-old law that downgraded some nonviolent offenses to misdemeanors.California voters in November will weigh in on bringing back felony charges for offenders facing their third drug possession or third theft offense.District attorneys throughout the state pushed to revisit the lighter sentences that first came about from the 2014 ballot measure, Proposition 47, which supporters argued at the time would save the state money by keeping low-level offenders out of jail.But California has changed in...

Honduras still has a long way to go to dismantle the “narco-state” that grew under ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, jailed this week for smuggling a deluge of cocaine into the United States, experts said. Hernandez, 55, spent years in positions of power cozying up to kingpins from some of Latin America’s most notorious cartels, which placed proxies in state institutions while he pocketed millions of dollars in drug money. Extradited to the United States upon leaving office in 2022, Hernandez was sentenced this week to 45 years in jail for his crimes after prosecutors said he had turned his country...

On June 6, 2024, Judge Joseph P. Whyte ordered the convictions of Mark and Patricia McCloskey to be expunged. The McCloskeys gained fame for defending their home in St. Louis, Missouri, from an unruly mob of BLM protestors who threatened them. Disgraced prosecutor Kim Gardner brought the prosecutions against the McCloskeys. Gardner was politically aligned with the BLM protestors. The pistol Patricia McCloskey brandished appears to have been inoperable. When the police impounded the McCloskeys’ guns, it was reported they did not find ammunition for the rifle that was held by Mark McCloskey. The McCloskeys may have been bluffing. Eventually,...

A video has just surfaced revealing the arrest of Joseph Iniguez, a top aide to controversial (George Soros) Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon. The incident occurred during a traffic stop in 2021 as Iniguez and his then-fiance were returning from a wedding. Iniguez, who was Gascon’s chief of staff at the time, was captured on video asserting, “You’ve pulled over the wrong person, let me tell you.” He went on to urge the officers to check his license plates, insinuating that his status as a high-ranking prosecutor should exempt him from scrutiny. The video also shows Iniguez repeatedly instructing...