I have done multiple media appearances this week including the Lars Larson Show, the Dave Elswick Show, the Scott Hennen Show and the Lou Desmond Show. I will also me a guest on the Nationally syndicated Amanda Suffecool Show discussing the impact of the new Illinois law that has a constitutional impact on the 2nd Amendment and the Illinois sheriffs that are fighting back against the Governor on this issue. Visit my Substack channel at drcurriemyers.substack.com to view my work!
Illinois sheriffs and lawmakers are pushing back on Gov. J.B. Pritzker's "assault weapons ban," promising not to enforce the policy that bans the weapons and high-capacity magazines from being sold and manufactured in the state. Pritzker signed the now-law, "Protect Illinois Communities Act," last week, which prohibits the state from manufacturing or selling semiautomatic rifles and pistols, .50-caliber guns, as well as attachments that can increase a gun’s fire rate. The Illinois Sheriffs' Association issued a statement Wednesday expressing continued opposition to the law. Simultaneously, more than 80 of the 102 sheriffs in Illinois began to post nearly identical messages promising they would not check for compliance with the law or arrest offenders of the law. A sheriff is not just running a law enforcement agency, but they also are the representative of the people on criminal justice public policy. The Constitution supersedes law. An act contrary to the Constitution of the United States should reflect in sheriff’s unwillingness to violate their oath of office. The elected sheriff and was of the most powerful positions in elected government. A sheriff is a complex position, and we need them to enforce the law and ensure peace, but also need them to ensure that they protect the citizens from arbitrary, unconfined government that may want to subject their citizens to unconstitutional, unjust laws. And that’s this week’s criminal justice memo!
Anti-police protests erupted into violence last Saturday night in downtown Atlanta, resulting in at least six arrests and raising fresh safety concerns after a tense week in Georgia during which a state trooper was shot. Multiple news media reports said that a protest in downtown Atlanta devolved into violence as protesters shot fireworks toward the local police foundation office. Atlanta Police have arrested 6 people so far, some of whom were carrying explosives. State officials had vowed to arrest any violent protesters as they pleaded for calm. Police indicated they responded to a group "damaging property at several locations" downtown and order has since been restored to the area. “While the state continues to respect peaceful protest, acts of violence against person or property will not be tolerated. Those committing such unlawful acts will be arrested and prosecuted fully," Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday. Anti-police activists have been protesting the creation of a police training academy in the Atlanta area. Earlier in the week a state trooper was shot by a protester, who was killed in a subsequent exchange of gunfire. Rioting should not be tolerated” and called the violence that has taken place across the country over the past few days a terrorist assault on our country. Rioting should not be tolerated. It cannot be allowed, and we need strong leadership from the president, from the attorney general, from governors, from mayors, from sheriffs, and police chiefs. Every American has a right to speak and to peaceably express their point of view. What you don’t have a right to do is engage in violent rioting. What you don’t have a right to do is loot. What you don’t have a right to do is to light police cars on fire and attack your fellow citizens and we need law enforcement to be unequivocal that if you do that, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted and you will spend a very long time in jail. There must be systematic law enforcement targeting Antifa and other terrorist groups who are behind the violence and looting. The terrorist assault on our country and the rioting needs to end and it needs to end now.
Memphis braces for release of body cam footage of the death of Tyre Nichols Four of the five former Memphis police officers charged with murder and other crimes in the killing of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols posted bond and were released from jail by early Friday morning, per jail records. Desmond Mills and Justin Smith each posted their $250,000 bond and were released Thursday evening while Emmitt Martin and Tadarrius Bean were released by 4 a.m. Friday. Demetrius Haley has not paid his $350k bond and remains in jail. On Friday evening, the Memphis Police Department will release body cam footage showing the police interaction during a traffic stop on Jan. 7. The footage has been described as "appalling" and "heinous." Ahead of the release of the body cam footage, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis cautioned people not to react violently after viewing it. "This is not just a professional failing, this is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual," Davis said Wednesday, saying the five officers and others who were involved in his death "failed our community, and they failed the Nichols family. That is beyond regrettable." "I expect our citizens to exercise their First Amendment right to protest, to demand action and results. But" she continued, "we need to ensure our community is safe in this process."
Chicago street vendors are bearing the brunt of the city's crime surge, and they are not at all pleased with Mayor Lori Lightfoot's advice to go cashless to counter the violent trend. The Federalist reporter Evita Duffy spoke with tamale vendors, who have been targeted by criminals, to discuss their reaction to Lightfoot's advice. "We work on a cash-only basis. Our customers are on a cash-only basis. This is very normal for impoverished communities, especially ones that have a lot of illegal migrants in it. And Lori Lightfoot would know this if she cared about them remotely. But the vendors that I talked to said she doesn't care." In the 10th police district, where Chicago's Little Village neighborhood is located, there has been a 13% increase in robberies in 2022 when compared to 2021, with 477 robberies taking place in 2022, according to public data. "It's gotten so bad that they've had to rely on local community organizations, but also local gangs for protection, which is the kind of thing that you see in Third World countries, the kind of countries that these people fled from," she continued. "They came for the American dream, and what they found is a Lori Lightfoot Chicago nightmare."
A months-long Townhall investigation reveals disturbing new details about the affluent LGBTQ-activist couple accused of sodomizing their young adopted sons—now ages 9 and 11—and distributing "homemade" child pornography of the sexual abuse. The married couple allegedly rape the two boys who were adopted through a Christian special-needs adoption agency, they were pimping out their children to nearby pedophiles in Atlanta-area suburbs. The adoptive fathers, 33-year-old government worker William Dale Zulock Jr. and 35-year-old banker Zachary "Zack" Jacoby Zulock—who was previously accused of raping a child—from Oxford, Georgia, have been indicted by a grand jury on charges of incest, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, felony sexual exploitation of children, and felony prostitution of a minor. William and Zachary are each facing over nine life sentences. The other members of this pedophile ring in the heart of the Peach State were 27-year-old Hunter Clay Lawless and 25-year-old Luis Armando Vizcarro-Sanchez, also from Georgia.
A surge in Cuban and Nicaraguan arrivals at the U.S. border with Mexico in December led to the highest number of illegal border crossings recorded during any month of Joe Biden’s presidency, authorities said Friday. The extraordinary influx came shortly before Biden introduced measures on Jan. 5 to deter Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. U.S. authorities stopped migrants 251,487 times along the Mexican border in December, up 7% from 234,896 times in November and up 40% from 179,253 times in December 2021, Customs and Border Protection said.
The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning in tourist haven towns along Mexico’s Caribbean coast amid clashes between disgruntled taxi drivers and Uber ride-share customers and drivers. The warning comes after medallion taxi drivers in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state, home to Cancun and other popular tourist areas on the Yucatán Peninsula, have been harassing and attacking drivers and passengers in Uber vehicles due to frustrations over the competition that the ride-share service provides. Taxi drivers even blocked one of the main roads leading to the hotel district in the resort of Cancun on Monday. That forced some tourists to walk or catch rides in police pickups to the airport. The State Department advised travelers that "past disputes between these services and local taxi unions have occasionally turned violent, resulting in injuries to U.S. citizens in some instances."
The Chinese regime has the largest hacking program in the world, and its artificial intelligence program is built on sensitive data the regime stole over the years, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wray warned of the cybersecurity threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) use of technological advances against the United States. Wray said the artificial intelligence program in China is “built on top of the massive troves of intellectual property” and is not constrained by the same set of laws that apply in the United States and other democracies. He said the CCP could use artificial intelligence to advance its hacking program, intellectual property theft, and repression that not only occurs in mainland China but “increasingly is a product that they export around the world” if left unchecked. “That’s something we’re deeply concerned about, and I think everyone here should be deeply concerned about,” Wray said at the forum.
T-Mobile confirmed last Thursday that an unidentified malicious intruder breached its network in late November and stole data on 37 million customers, according to a regulatory filing. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, T-Mobile said that the data breach was found on Jan. 5, adding that data exposed to the theft did not include critical information such as PINs, bank account numbers, credit card information, Social Security numbers, or government identification numbers. Instead, addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth were accessed, the filing said. “Our investigation is still ongoing, but the malicious activity appears to be fully contained at this time,” T-Mobile said, adding that the data was first accessed around Nov. 25 but wasn’t discovered for weeks later.
Continuing with cybersecurity, a hacking group associated with North Korea is responsible for stealing $100 million in cryptocurrency from the U.S. digital currency firm Harmony's Horizon bridge, according to the FBI. The Lazarus Group, also known as APT38, stole $100 million from the U.S. firm in June 2022, the FBI said Monday. Investigators also said that earlier this month "North Korean cyber actors used RAILGUN, a privacy protocol, to launder over $60 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) stolen during the June 2022 heist." The FBI said the digital currency is used to support the communist country's production of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
I am pleased to announce that I am a signatory for Public Safety Solutions for America. Collectively, we have developed four core principles 1) Properly fund the police 2) Focus time and resources on preventing and solving serious crime 3) Focus on evidence-based policies that reduce violent crime, and 4) Enact smart on crime policies like specialty courts and work and educational opportunities for former offenders. You can view more information on endviolentcrime.com.
This is Dr. Currie Myers, America’s Criminologist. Please check out my work on Substack at drcurriemyers.substack.com – Stay safe and have a great week!
Crime, Criminal Justice and Criminology Update for January 27, 2023