Good day my friends! Welcome to the America’s Criminologist Podcast for February 21, 2025. This is Dr Currie Myers with some interesting criminal justice news and events that have occurred in the United States recently.
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My new book, “The Advent of Feral Man” is now available on Substack drcurriemyers.substack.com for all paid subscribers. In this book, I present compelling evidence that within the last decade, America is going into a quick decent into the “wilding” of human beings. A phenomenon that is perpetuated by the lack of faith, family, and formation in our human development. If you are a paid subscriber to my Substack you will have access to my book and all my other published works. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Don’t forget my podcast also available on Spotify on America’s Criminologist with Dr. Currie Myers. And please join me on X. This is a very important platform for distributing my work. @DrCurrieMyers. I also have a new podcast out dedicated to reigniting faith, family, and formation in our lives. It called the St Michaels Group Podcast that’s stmichaelsgroup.substack.com and it is also available on Spotify. This podcast is once a week and totally free for listeners.
This Tuesday on the Lou Desmond & Company Show, I was the guest host for the drive time slot for the California Inland Empire station of KMET, San Bernardino. My guest was Dr. John A. Gentry is an adjunct professor for the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Missouri State University. He was for 12 years an intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he worked mainly economic issues associated with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries. He is a retired U.S. Army Reserve officer, with most assignments in special operations and intelligence arenas. Dr. Gentry and I discussed the current geopolitical landscape included the Great War on Terror and the recent designation of the Mexican Drug Cartels, DEI in the Intelligence Community, fraud, abuse, and internal corruption of the intelligence agencies, and restructuring and reforms needed in the Intel Community. His book, Neutering the CIA: Why US Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences is available where most books are sold! If you prefer to see the video of this broadcast, you can go here!
Here are my pressing issues that I have offered an opinion on as an applied criminologist, ethicist and career law enforcement officer at the local, state, and federal level:
KASH Patel’s confirmation as FBI Director marks a pivotal moment for the agency. A former national security official and chief investigator for the House Intelligence Committee, Patel brings a reformist approach focused on restoring integrity and public trust in the bureau. Patel’s leadership is crucial at a time when the FBI has faced criticism for perceived political bias, overreach, and failures in enforcing the law equally. His experience in counterterrorism and his role in exposing misconduct in past FBI investigations make him uniquely qualified to clean house and return the agency to its core mission—protecting Americans from crime and threats, not engaging in political warfare.
Key reforms under Patel’s tenure could include:
Restoring Accountability: Implementing strict oversight to ensure investigations remain nonpartisan and law enforcement actions are not influenced by political interests.
Eliminating Bureaucratic Corruption: Reviewing and restructuring leadership to remove those who have contributed to the agency’s credibility issues.
Refocusing on Crime and National Security: Shifting FBI resources back toward combating violent crime, counterintelligence threats, and border security issues instead of political cases.
Enhancing Whistleblower Protections: Encouraging internal reporting of misconduct to prevent abuses of power.
With Patel at the helm, the FBI has an opportunity to reclaim its reputation as the premier federal law enforcement agency, enforcing the law without fear or favor. His leadership will be a test of whether true institutional reform is possible in Washington.
PROMOTIONS in law enforcement organizations are a pivotal mechanism for recognizing talent, incentivizing performance, and ensuring organizational growth. Merit-based promotion systems, which prioritize individual achievement and competency over factors such as seniority, favoritism, or identity characteristics, have long been championed as the fairest and most effective approach. However, implementing such systems is not without challenges. To fully appreciate the benefits and nuances of merit-based promotions, it is crucial to examine their fairness, effectiveness, potential pitfalls, and strategies for successful implementation. Read the full perspective here!
IN A stunning and disturbing development, CNN's chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins appeared to endorse a defense fund for an alleged terrorist and murderer, Luigi Mangione, only to quietly delete her social media post after receiving backlash. The situation raises troubling questions about the role of the media in shaping public perceptions of crime and justice. This incident is not isolated; rather, it is emblematic of a growing phenomenon in which certain media and cultural figures seek to justify, excuse, or even romanticize violent criminals. Read the full perspective here!
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Okay here is my five-minute blitz on CJ News and Information for this week:
PRESIDENT Trump on Tuesday announced that he instructed the Justice Department to terminate all US attorneys appointed under the Biden administration – claiming the federal agency has been “politicized like never before.” Trump, who has repeatedly argued former President Joe Biden “weaponized” the DOJ to bring federal charges against him, said his latest slew of firings will restore confidence in the justice system. “Over the past four years, the Department of Justice has been politicized like never before,” the commander in chief wrote in a Truth Social post.
Dr C’s Take: Well bye! USA’s serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States. A President has not only the right but should ensure that he/she has USA’s in place that implement the criminal justice policies of that Administration.
BORDER crossings have plummeted considerably since President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, according to a report from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). The report notes a whopping 85 percent drop in apprehensions at the southern border compared to the same time period in 2024. This suggests that Trump’s election has discouraged many would-be illegal immigrants from attempting to gain entry into the country.
Dr. C’s Take: Focused deterrence works, works well, and always works. If you have a crime problem, then focused deterrence policies are the answer!
LEONARD Peltier, the 80-year-old activist and "remorseless killer" who has been in prison for just shy of 50 years in connection with a 1975 ambush shooting that left two FBI agents dead on a South Dakota reservation, is headed home. In one of his last moves in office, former President Joe Biden granted Peltier clemency over fiery objections from both former FBI Director Christopher Wray and the FBI Agents Association. Peltier was serving two consecutive life sentences for his role in the slayings of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. He received another seven years on top of that for an armed escape attempt.
Dr C’s Take: This is a tragedy. A president with no ability to understand his decisions was able to grant clemency to a person who was a domestic terrorist. This was more than just a shootout with police. Peltier executed the two agents after they were wounded on the ground and could no longer engage the suspect. It was assassinations. Peltier was a member of the activist American Indian Movement or AIM. But he was more than just an activist at the time of the FBI slayings at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he was the subject of an active arrest warrant for the attempted murder of a police officer in Wisconsin.
JUST days after U.S. Vice President JD Vance lambasted Germany and other European states for failing to live up to Western ideals of liberty, particularly on the issue of free speech, CBS’s 60 Minutes news magazine broadcast footage of police raids over social media posts and interviews with prosecutors defending the draconian practice.
Dr C’s Take: America was this close to having similar laws restricting freedom of speech. Great Britian and Canada already has such laws in place and now some left wing, European counties are following suit. This is plain and simple, freedom of speech allows for people to say anything, but it also allows people to use their freedom of speech to castigate or ridicule others’ opinions. Further freedom of speech restrictions is subjective and not objective in nature. So, the question is, who becomes the arbiter of those restrictions? It is dangerous to a society and has never turned out well for countries that use such draconian tactics.
SEVEN men from Chile have been charged in Florida federal court with orchestrating burglaries at the homes of prominent professional athletes around the country, according to a criminal complaint. The FBI complaint doesn't name the athletes, but lists burglaries already made public involving the Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as players for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies. According to the complaint, the defendants are part of a burglary ring that “is known to target high-profile professional athletes when they are known to be away from home.” The men allegedly stole about $2 million in watches, jewelry, cash and other valuables, including a safe they later cracked. Each defendant is charged with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. It wasn't clear Wednesday whether they are in custody, and Tampa federal court records don't list attorneys for any of them.
Dr C’s Take: Law enforcement across the United States was seeing a markable increase in Chilean nationals, also known as tourist burglars or “lanzas internacionales,” involved in organized burglary rings. These groups, often referred to as “South American Theft Groups” (SATGs), are known for targeting affluent neighborhoods and committing high-value burglaries. These groups are highly organized and are not confined to a single cohesive group but are a pattern observed across multiple independent criminal enterprises and are operating in multiple states. The methods used by these burglars to enter the country vary, but some common approaches include Visa Overstays in which they enter the US legally on tourist visas or other temporary visas, but they overstay their authorized period of stay and remain in the country illegally. There was also a significant increase in Chileans entering the border illegally via U.S. border crossings. A notable claim surfaced in a June 2023 post on X by Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, stating that the Chilean Ambassador to the U.S. admitted in a letter that over 350,000 Chilean nationals entered the U.S. in 2022 "without the required criminal background checks."
THIRTY Republican Senators have signed a letter urging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to rescind regulatory gun controls implemented during the Biden administration. The Senators posited President Donald Trump’s February 7 executive order as the impetus for the letter. Trump used the order “to assess any ongoing infringements” of the right to keep and bear arms.
Dr C’s Take: ATF’s “zero tolerance” policy needs to be halted. This policy which has been used to shut down numerous gun stores over just clerical errors on paperwork. It’s time for the ATF to refocus their efforts on their original mandate - to keep felonies criminals from having, selling, and using firearms!
For 2024, the total line of duty deaths in law enforcement was 145 officers. So far in 2025 there have been 9 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Here are those that have died in February thus far:
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This is Dr Currie Myers, America’s Criminologist. To view my work please visit drcurriemyers.substack.com and please share and like our page! And please remember my friends at Howard Wagyu for some of the best beef in America. Howard Wagyu, Kansas homegrown Wagyu Beef so tender you can cut your steak with a fork! Stay safe and have a great weekend!
Dr C
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