Free Republic

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed five new laws Wednesday to intensify penalties and strengthen enforcement against those who prey upon minors and participate in sex trafficking. According to the governor’s office, HB 1545 bars adults from “pattern(s) of communication” with minors involving “explicit and detailed verbal descriptions of sexual activity,” strengthens penalties for child porn possession, promoting underage sexual performances, and similar crimes, and making both categories of offenses third-degree felonies. HB 1131 creates an Online Sting Operations Grant Program within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) that provides for annual funding of sting operations and the necessary...

A paper at the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), founded by researcher John Lott, shows how faith in the police, arrest rates, and crime reporting are all interrelated. The paper is titled " The Collapse in Law Enforcement: As Arrest Rates Plummet, People Have Been Less Willing to Report Crime", published on April 5, 2024. As faith in the police collapses, reporting of crime drops, and so do arrest rates and clearance rates for both violent crimes and property crimes. This has the classic look of a positive feedback loop. The consequences are far from positive. It is not a...

This is the shocking moment a Good Samaritan attempted to gun down an alleged carjacker before being mowed down and killed by the man. Jonathan Adam Lecompte, 38, died after being struck and thrown into the air by the stolen vehicle after he fired four shots at a carjacker outside a Burger King. The incident happened last month in Lumberton, North Carolina, after police say Ricky Alex Driggers, 28, stole a vehicle and then hit Lecompte. Authorities charged Driggers with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted common law robbery, larceny of a motor vehicle and felony fleeing to elude. Footage...

Guatemala’s Attorney General is investigating ongoing criminal claims that a number of American tax payer funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating both inside and outside the United States are complicit in the ongoing trafficking, abuse and disappearance of children from its nation, according to an official Guatemalan letter obtained by this investigative columnist. The Guatemalan government is seeking full cooperation from the State of Texas, where the accusations of abuse have been reported, government officials told SaraACarter.com. A letter from Guatemalan Attorney General María Consuelo Porras was sent to Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday. Porras asked Paxton for immediate assistance...

Syracuse, N.Y. — Two police officers were killed Sunday night in a shootout on a suburban street in Salina. A Syracuse police officer and an Onondaga County sheriff’s deputy were both killed when they went to follow up on a traffic stop where the driver sped away, said Syracuse Police Chief Joe Cecile.

A paper at the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), founded by researcher John Lott, shows how faith in the police, arrest rates, and crime reporting are all interrelated. The paper is titled ” The Collapse in Law Enforcement: As Arrest Rates Plummet, People Have Been Less Willing to Report Crime,” published on April 5, 2024. As faith in the police collapses, reporting of crime drops, and so do arrest rates and clearance rates for both violent crimes and property crimes. This has the classic look of a positive feedback loop. The consequences are far from positive. It is not a...

Fifty-six years after a Florida milkman vanished after doing his route, the mystery of his murder has been solved, closing one of the oldest cold casesA murderous mystery has finally been solved as fifty-six years after the truth behind a Florida milkman's death has been uncovered. The man failed to return home after his rounds, and now the mystery has been solved, closing the oldest cold case in Indian River County Sheriff’s Office history. Two people who say the suspect confessed to them helped investigators finally understand who killed Hiram “Ross” Grayam, a decorated World War II veteran who...

A married substitute teacher was arrested in Nebraska after she was caught undressed in the backseat of a car with a teenage boy, according to authorities. Douglas County Sheriff's deputies identified Erin Ward, 45, on Saturday after they were notified about a suspicious car parked on a dead-end road around 3am near 10200th block and North 189th Street. As they approached a gray 2015 Honda Pilot, police said that they spotted Ward and a 17-year-old boy in the backseat as she was putting her clothes back on. The boy then hopped into the driver's seat and fled the scene before...

Police believe killer Joel Cauchi was 'targeting women' after fatally stabbing six people in a horror rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction. … The 40-year-old's motives have yet to be confirmed, but a police source claims investigators believe Cauchi was 'definitely targeting women'. The source explained police had viewed extensive footage of Cauchi's movements throughout the shopping centre and observed him selecting his victims. 'I don't think there's any other way to look at it,' the source told the Daily Telegraph. 'You can see on the footage he walks past other people. He just keeps moving past them and then attacks...

A stretch of Jackson Heights has devolved into an illegal migrant shopping district — an unchecked open-air market where everything from women to stolen goods can be had, The Post has learned. Roosevelt Avenue near 91st Street is littered daily with migrant vendors hawking goods they ripped off from shopkeepers just steps away, while prostitutes proposition passersby at all hours — and frustrated merchants and residents say they’re helpless to do anything about it. “It’s relentless,” said Milton Reyes, who manages Mi Farmacia pharmacy on the avenue. “You should see it on Saturdays. It’s so heavy you can’t even step...

Four people have been arrested after a huge Oklahoma SWAT raid over the kidnapping and murder of a Kansas mother and her friend, who disappeared while en route to pick up her children. A convoy of 20 police vehicles, including SWAT trucks, was spotted traveling swiftly along a dirt track in the Oklahoma panhandle on Saturday. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests shortly after, saying there was evidence to indicate foul play. Among the four arrested people are Tifany Adams, 54, the children's grandmother and Adams' boyfriend, Tad Cullum, 43, according to NewsNation. The other two arrested...

News from the Big Apple these days is as discouraging as it is unsurprising. Who could have imagined that when America’s largest city decriminalized crime, defunded its police, harassed and prosecuted police officers, praised criminals and declared them protected members of an oppressed class, did away with bail, and virtue signaled praise for criminal illegal immigrants, crime might increase and run rampant? We’ve been treated to daily stories of illegals assaulting police officers, thugs pushing people onto subway tracks, sometimes killing them, out of control robberies, carjackings, organized shoplifting, most crimes committed by people with prodigious arrest/conviction records who were...

SOUTH CHARLESTON, Ohio (WCMH) — Deputies in Clark County have arrested a man in his 80s accused of murdering an Uber driver while both were being targeted by a “scam call.” William Brock, 81, faces a felony charge of murder with additional counts possible, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators accused him of shooting Lo-Letha Hall multiple times on March 25 after she went to his house on an Uber assignment. Investigators first came to Brock’s property, about four miles west of South Charleston in Clark County, when he called them and said he shot someone attempting a...

A married teacher has been arrested over an alleged sexual relationship with a student after they were caught in 'states of undress' in a nature preserve. Jessica Sawicki, 37, from Point Pleasant, New Jersey, taught English at Hamilton High School West in Trenton, which is about a 20-minute drive from the preserve. She is accused of sexually assaulting the student - who has been described as 'at least 16 but not yet 18' - at the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Upper Freehold.

The hero cop who took down a knifeman, ending his killing spree can be revealed. NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott came face-to-face with the 40-year-old man dressed in a Kangaroos rugby league jersey and brandishing a knife as she responded to the fatal stabbings of six people in Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon. Witnesses said the officer only had time to yell “put it down” before the knifeman charged her. After the man lunged at Inspector Scott, she shot him dead. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Inspector Scott was “doing well under the circumstances” on Saturday evening. “She...

A heroic police officer fatally shot a knife-wielding maniac who killed five people and stabbed several others — including a small child — inside a popular Sydney mall Saturday afternoon. Authorities received calls around 3:30 p.m. local time that a knife-wielding man was attacking people at Westfield Bondi Junction, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said during a press conference. Footage obtained by 9News Sydney showed the suspect, wearing a gold and green rugby jersey and shorts, brandishing a long knife and approaching several horrified shoppers. Hundreds of people were captured running for the mall’s exits during the stabbing spree....

A man died and another was questioned after an argument between a woman's ex-boyfriend and her friend ended in gunfire Wednesday in a Hialeah neighborhood. Hialeah Police officials said officers responded to a call of a shooting in the 4000 block of West 13th Lane around 6:40 a.m. and found a man dead at the scene. Police spokesperson Eddie Rodriguez said the man who died, identified as 26-year-old Christian Rueda, arrived at his ex's place and saw another man leaving the house. "This is an ex-boyfriend (Rueda) that she’s had problems with in the past, restraining orders, stalking," Rodriguez said....

A crafty squatter bilked his landlord of at least $72,000 in rent for his Lower East Side apartment — then made tens of thousands in profit by subletting the unit, the owner charges. For three years, computer programmer Thor Boucher hasn’t paid a cent of his bargain-rate $2,000-a-month, two-bedroom, one-bathroom Essex Street pad, claiming he didn’t have to because the building was noisy and shook, according to landlord Ed Yau and Manhattan Civil Court documents. The alleged freeloader had no qualms renting the space out, though, charging as much as $1950 per room monthly since November 2021 on platforms including...

Neighbors of a gay couple in Maryland were shocked to find out they were arrested for possession of child pornography after getting flagged by IKEA. 41-year-old Robert Sherer and 54-year-old Robert Books were arrested Wednesday after police were tipped off about Sherer allegedly downloading child pornography on his work computer. He worked as a senior resolutions generalist at IKEA in White Marsh. The company, which is based in Sweden, notified Swedish police about the alarming discovery after confirming the accusation. Police notified their counterparts in Maryland, who began investigating the couple in March.

This week, former football star, accused murderer, and convicted armed robber OJ Simpson died of cancer. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed condolences saying "our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time. In many ways, he led a tragic life. On the one hand, there were the glories of his achievements on the football field and in the movies he starred in. On the other, there was the tragic murder of his wife Nicole. He was left as a single father of his two young children after a jury found him not guilty of murdering their mother."...