ActRight

Last night, there were violent protests at Berkeley University against guest speaker Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart News. Occupy Oakland tweeted “We won this night. We will control the streets. We will liberate the…

The revelation is part of 549 new emails released by the government watchdog group.

Last week, President Donald Trump again expressed concern that the violence in Chicago was “totally out of control.” “We’re going to have to do something about Chicago,” the president said. While it’s unclear what Trump has in mind, it is undoubtedly true that the Chicago police department is a mess, with the city suffering ever increasing murder rates. Some analysts, such as Heather Mac Donald in the Wall Street Journal, focus on the damage created by President Obama trying to run local police departments via the U.S. Justice Department, but the problems facing Chicago go well beyond that and certainly aren’t new. The quality of Chicago’s policing has been deteriorating for decades. Back in 1991, 67 percent of murderers were arrested. When Mayor Richard M. Daley finally left office 20 years later, in 2011, the arrest rate was down to 30 percent. This troubling drop only continued after Rahm Emanuel became mayor, hitting a new low of 20 percent in 2016. Unfortunately, the true figure is even worse, because Chicago has been intentionally misclassifying murders as non-murders. Nationally, in 2015, 61.5 percent of murders resulted in an arrest — almost two out of every three. And unlike Chicago’s arrest rate, the national rate has been fairly constant over the decades. Chicago’s problems are a result of putting politics ahead of sensible policing for decades. For example, after becoming mayor, Emanuel did three unfortunate things to the Chicago police force: 1) Emanuel closed down detective bureaus in Chicago’s highest-crime districts, relocating them to often distant locations. 2) The mayor disbanded many gang task forces. 3) In cooperation with the ACLU, Emanuel instituted new, voluminous forms that have to be filled out by police each time they stop someone to investigate a crime. All this time wasted filling out forms is time that can’t be spent policing neighborhoods. These policies have made it much more difficult to catch criminals, and when you don’t catch criminals, the result is more crime. The detective-bureau relocations have been disastrous. Detectives who had worked for years in high-crime neighborhoods suddenly found themselves working other areas of the city, their hard-earned, neighborhood-specific knowledge of likely culprits and informants now rendered irrelevant. As one detective told Chicago magazine, “All the expertise you once had is useless when you’re working on the other side of town. You might as well put me in a new city.” Moving detectives from crime hotspots also means longer travel times. These delays were not only a waste of time — they made detectives less effective at doing their jobs of tracking down witnesses and keeping track of evidence. The result was more unsolved crimes. If budget cuts necessitated closures, then detective bureaus in low-crime areas ought to have been considered first. But that would have met with tougher political resistance, because of the affluent and politically well-connected people who live there. So much for the Democrats’ claims that they care about poor minorities. Chicago’s police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, blames gangs for the violence. Regarding all the murders over Christmas, Johnson was blunt about the source of the violence: “These were deliberate and planned shootings by one gang against another. . . . This was followed by several acts of retaliation.” But Emanuel’s decision early in his administration to gut gang task forces, a move that undid the hard work that had allowed the police to infiltrate many gangs, is not something that can easily be undone. The arrest rates are low for gang murders because witnesses are loath to get on a gang’s bad side. But in Chicago the situation is especially bad because witnesses have very little hope that gang members will ever be put away. In Chicago the situation is especially bad because witnesses have very little hope that gang members will ever be put away. The agreement with the ACLU was a politically motivated result of Laquan McDonald’s videotaped shooting by police. Emanuel caused a stronger backlash by delaying the release of the video until after his reelection. As arrest rates have fallen and murder rates have risen, Daley and Emanuel have kept pushing responsibility on others. After all, they claim, it isn’t their fault that state legislatures and the U.S. Congress haven’t passed sufficiently strict gun-control laws. Back in 2010, Daley claimed that the increased crime rate was “all about guns, and that’s why the crusade is on.” Emanuel has made similar claims. The problem of unsolved crimes seems to have gone unnoticed. Democrats have learned nothing from Chicago’s failed experiment in banning guns, which began in late 1982. After the ban, the city’s murder rates stopped falling and started soaring — not only in absolute terms, but also relative to adjacent counties and other large cities. Democrats need to learn that gun control primarily disarms law-abiding citizens. Police matter in crime prevention — and so do policing policies. Chicago’s problems run much deeper than something that has occurred over the last couple years. The city’s politicians need to stop trying to buck their responsibility for their failed policies. — John R. Lott Jr. is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of The War on Guns.

A UC Berkeley rioter and thug who bragged on about beating conservatives outside the Milo Yiannopoulos speech on Wednesday night ...

If you think free speech is assault but assault is free speech, you’re a moron of world-historical proportions.

These days software is better than people at playing chess, identifying faces in crowds and answering weird questions on Jeopardy.Maybe we should ask it to improve our politics.That’s the idea behind a bill with a particularly high geek quotient that...

Is Islam a religion of peace? Is it compatible with Western liberalism? Or does Islam need a reformation, just as Christianity had the Protestant Reformation...

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet.

A nonprofit legal organization has filed a civil rights suit against New York City Public schools for ‘systematic mistreatment' when families homeschool.

    Politics in America is often quite shallow and full of stereotypes. Conservatives are often portrayed as working class citizens sometimes bordering on redneck, while establishment Republicans are big business people who have little regard for the common citizen. Liberals are fun and loving people who are sexual deviants and flamboyantly obnoxious people. In terms of the LGBT community, it is often seen as a leftwing movement and both sides of the spectrum are to blame. Largely due to social conservatives, the potential support of the LGBT community is turned away over religious stances and negative prejudice. Because of this, it is easy for liberals to take political ownership of the community. Remember when Caitlyn Jenner, the former Bruce Jenner who became a transwoman, came out against Hillary Clinton while defiantly supporting Senator Ted Cruz for President? Liberals came unhinged and with a vengeance. All of a sudden the lines about not being a real woman were no longer social conservative lines, but now were ammunition for intolerant?

The White House Correspondents dinner, aka “the nerd prom,” may be in trouble. The New York Times reports that both Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, two Conde Nast publications, have pul…

Failing that, let’s agree that Roger Goodell deserves a little public humiliation, and Tom Brady is just the man to deliver it.

While news focused on the controversy and chaos, the underlying question is untouched: why should the United States accept refugees from Australia?

Internet researcher Katica has again discovered the FBI quietly, and without explanation, just released another batch of documents from the ?ongoing? FBI investigation into Hillary Clin…

These senators don’t recognize repeal is the first step to fixing health care in America.

Couldn't happen to a nicer charity.

While journalists were getting worked up over a quip about Arnold Schwarzenegger, Trump said something more consequential at the National Prayer Breakfast

Liberal protesters (even violent ones) often ostentatiously advertise their own kindness and love—no matter who their civil disobedience hurts.

If President Trump is a budding authoritarian, as his critics allege, one of the safeguards is Judge Neil Gorsuch. For all that Trump has flouted norms and gotten off to an at-times amateurish star…

Judge tells Cornell it can't ignore the plain words of its own sexual-misconduct policy.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean came to the defense of violent rioters who started fires at UC Berkeley and attacked Trump supporters, saying the rioters are "our children" and "will soon run America.

Faith Goldy of TheRebel.media asks: Why is Western feminism so afraid to criticize Islam? MORE: http://www.therebel.media/the_truth_about_feminism_and_islam ...

Last week, President Donald Trump again expressed concern that the violence in Chicago was “totally out of control.” “We’re going to have to do something about Chicago,” the president said. While it’s unclear what Trump has in mind, it is undoubtedly true that the Chicago police department is a mess, with the city suffering ever increasing murder rates. Some analysts, such as Heather Mac Donald in the Wall Street Journal, focus on the damage created by President Obama trying to run local police departments via the U.S. Justice Department, but the problems facing Chicago go well beyond that and certainly aren’t new. The quality of Chicago’s policing has been deteriorating for decades. Back in 1991, 67 percent of murderers were arrested. When Mayor Richard M. Daley finally left office 20 years later, in 2011, the arrest rate was down to 30 percent. This troubling drop only continued after Rahm Emanuel became mayor, hitting a new low of 20 percent in 2016. Unfortunately, the true figure is even worse, because Chicago has been intentionally misclassifying murders as non-murders. Nationally, in 2015, 61.5 percent of murders resulted in an arrest — almost two out of every three. And unlike Chicago’s arrest rate, the national rate has been fairly constant over the decades. Chicago’s problems are a result of putting politics ahead of sensible policing for decades. For example, after becoming mayor, Emanuel did three unfortunate things to the Chicago police force: 1) Emanuel closed down detective bureaus in Chicago’s highest-crime districts, relocating them to often distant locations. 2) The mayor disbanded many gang task forces. 3) In cooperation with the ACLU, Emanuel instituted new, voluminous forms that have to be filled out by police each time they stop someone to investigate a crime. All this time wasted filling out forms is time that can’t be spent policing neighborhoods. These policies have made it much more difficult to catch criminals, and when you don’t catch criminals, the result is more crime. The detective-bureau relocations have been disastrous. Detectives who had worked for years in high-crime neighborhoods suddenly found themselves working other areas of the city, their hard-earned, neighborhood-specific knowledge of likely culprits and informants now rendered irrelevant. As one detective told Chicago magazine, “All the expertise you once had is useless when you’re working on the other side of town. You might as well put me in a new city.” Moving detectives from crime hotspots also means longer travel times. These delays were not only a waste of time — they made detectives less effective at doing their jobs of tracking down witnesses and keeping track of evidence. The result was more unsolved crimes. If budget cuts necessitated closures, then detective bureaus in low-crime areas ought to have been considered first. But that would have met with tougher political resistance, because of the affluent and politically well-connected people who live there. So much for the Democrats’ claims that they care about poor minorities. Chicago’s police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, blames gangs for the violence. Regarding all the murders over Christmas, Johnson was blunt about the source of the violence: “These were deliberate and planned shootings by one gang against another. . . . This was followed by several acts of retaliation.” But Emanuel’s decision early in his administration to gut gang task forces, a move that undid the hard work that had allowed the police to infiltrate many gangs, is not something that can easily be undone. The arrest rates are low for gang murders because witnesses are loath to get on a gang’s bad side. But in Chicago the situation is especially bad because witnesses have very little hope that gang members will ever be put away. In Chicago the situation is especially bad because witnesses have very little hope that gang members will ever be put away. The agreement with the ACLU was a politically motivated result of Laquan McDonald’s videotaped shooting by police. Emanuel caused a stronger backlash by delaying the release of the video until after his reelection. As arrest rates have fallen and murder rates have risen, Daley and Emanuel have kept pushing responsibility on others. After all, they claim, it isn’t their fault that state legislatures and the U.S. Congress haven’t passed sufficiently strict gun-control laws. Back in 2010, Daley claimed that the increased crime rate was “all about guns, and that’s why the crusade is on.” Emanuel has made similar claims. The problem of unsolved crimes seems to have gone unnoticed. Democrats have learned nothing from Chicago’s failed experiment in banning guns, which began in late 1982. After the ban, the city’s murder rates stopped falling and started soaring — not only in absolute terms, but also relative to adjacent counties and other large cities. Democrats need to learn that gun control primarily disarms law-abiding citizens. Police matter in crime prevention — and so do policing policies. Chicago’s problems run much deeper than something that has occurred over the last couple years. The city’s politicians need to stop trying to buck their responsibility for their failed policies. — John R. Lott Jr. is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of The War on Guns.

Once again, there's evidence suggesting traditional polls aren't accurately measuring support for the president and his policies.

Scholar Michael Eric Dyson, author of 'Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America,' argues that white people should open individual reparations accounts...