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Welcome to the America’s Criminologist Podcast for January 26, 2024.

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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This week, I had the pleasure of appearing on Fox News Channel, America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino discussing the untimely deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans that died at a home in Kansas City from exposure. On January 9, the bodies of David Harrington, Ricky Johnson and Clayton McGeeney - were found in the backyard of their longtime friend Jordan Willis. They had been there since Sunday January 7, when the three men visited Willis to watch the Chiefs played the Los Angeles Chargers, which kicked off at 325pm and ended at approximately 625pm CST. Willis claims he went to bed, leaving the three men downstairs to 'hang out' with an unidentified fifth man, and knew nothing of their plight until the fiancée of one of the men broke into the home on January 9 and found him on the back porch. The police were called and soon discovered the other two bodies in the backyard. Willis opened the door to the cops in his underwear, holding an empty glass of wine.

Weather for Kansas City Sunday, January 7, 2024

January 7: High of 39, low of 29 with no snow

January 8: High of 36, low of 32, with 1.5 inches of snow

January 9: High of 32, low of 18, with 4 inches of snow

Police Response

Kansas City Missouri Police investigated the death with initial investigation and then a follow up a few days later and provided the following statement. "First and foremost, this case is 100% not being investigated as a homicide," Capt. Jake Becchina of the Kansas City Police Department previously told Fox News Digital. "There have not been any arrests [or] charges, and no one is in custody. There are no specific threats or concerns for the surrounding community. The resident at the house was cooperative with detectives the day the deceased was discovered." And we are still waiting on autopsy and toxicology reports, but initial belief is that the three died of exposure.

Unanswered questions

Willis’ attorney said his client slept "a lot of the time" during the subsequent 48 hours. Picerno said his client did not hear knocks at his door before the police arrived because he was sleeping with noise-canceling headphones and a loud fan. Willis also did not hear when the concerned woman broke into his house. Victims were unheard from for approximately 50 hours until bodies were found. Willis insists he spent the next two days in his home, not thinking that his friends' cars were still outside. The victims' families are furious and have hired an attorney to find more information. The unknown 4th person through his attorney, Andrew Talge, advised that his client arrived at the residence to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers around 7 p.m., and he left at approximately midnight. When his client left, Talge said, the other four men were awake watching "Jeopardy." This is an interesting statement since Willis claims to have already gone to sleep. Willis has since moved out of his rental home "in fear of retaliation" after a flurry of media attention about his friends' deaths, according to Picerno. He has also taken a leave of absence from his job as a data scientist at IAVI, a nonprofit that develops vaccines for infectious diseases.

Dr. C’s Opinion: This case should remain an open death investigation until the autopsy report returns to ensure there was nothing unusual in that report. This information would give us cause of death, approximate time of death, what the victims consumed and any injuries to the bodies. This would provide us with the answer to hypothermia. In the United States, between 700 and 1,500 people die every year from hypothermia. Alcohol and drugs can advance hypothermia. But three people at once in a backyard. Mountain climbing yes, stranded in a car in a blizzard for hours with no heat, yes. One person passing out outside in the backyard but three? Which brings us to the real keys to this case, is the full toxicology report. If it is alcohol or drug related, then for three people to all pass out at the same time is unusual with especially no signs of attempting to get back into the residence or seek help. Someone with a BAC level of 0.18 to 0.30 is in the confusion stage, characterized by emotional upheaval and disorientation. Then there is also cannabis. Both alcohol and drugs can decrease blood pressure and can lead to a blackout. Or if you are not used to a high dosage or change your route of administration to something new that could have effects on your system. With edibles, THC levels today can be extremely high, and one could possibly pass out from consumption, especially if one is not used to that high of a THC. Many people are taking drugs today and they are unaware of the high levels of potency of those drugs. The other key is technology. Looking at everyone that was involved cell phone footprint, use, and potential pings as well as any use of social media during this time period. There are still some unanswered questions for police to fill in the blanks, especially with respect to continual interviews of the two people last seen with the victims and a further understanding of their backgrounds and known associates. KCMOPD is a busy department and is a high crime city, so it’s safe to bet this case as been switched to their homicide unit to complete the death investigation.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war on Thursday. He was immediately taken to task on social media. Johnson joined other progressives around the country in calling for a ceasefire He said, “the killings need to stop.” Funny, that’s what the residents of Chicago say. The Chicago City Council debated and then delayed a vote on the resolution calling for a ceasefire. There were other controversial items on the agenda, but the ceasefire resolution took up the most time.

Dr C’s Opinion: Self-awareness is hard and Mayor Johnson is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Chicago is well-known for its crime rate, including a high rate of shootings. It is a city known for its murder rate.

Shootings are up 185% in Vermont from 2021 to 2022. “We are not used to this level of violence in Vermont,” Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger complained after the city racked up 5 murders. That may not sound like much, but it gives the normally sleepy city, where Bernie Sanders got his start, a higher murder rate than Philly. When James Eaton, a mentally unstable leftist who had praised Hamas, shot and wounded three Arab Muslim men outside his home, the media eagerly diverted attention from the crime wave to the shooter, who was conveniently white, while falsely blaming it on ‘Islamophobia’. The discredited hoax was not only trying to rally support for terrorists, but also to distract attention from the real perpetrators of the violence that has overtaken Bernie’s old city. The shooters in Burlington, VT are much more likely to be Muslim male teens. In 2022 it was reported that, “by mid-summer, about half of the city’s gunfire incidents were connected to a small group of new American young men.” The inaccurate euphemism “new Americans" was being used to refer to Somali and other often Muslim African immigrants. Burlington City Councilor Ali Dieng, an African Muslim immigrant who has run for mayor, has attacked the police while introducing resolutions to boycott Israel and has urged funding for social services to explore the “root causes” of the violence by members of his community.

Dr C’s Opinion: Burlington’s crime level rose sharply after the City Council had voted to defund 30% of the police department during the peak of the BLM race riots. Muslim drug gangs are killing each other while fighting over territory in Burlington VT and across much of New England. And increasingly spreading their wave of terror across America. This is once again indicative of the lack of proper immigration policies and open borders. Individuals from terrorist related countries should not be allowed into the United States, plain and simple.

Last week I mentioned that top House Republicans are requesting a briefing on the spread of illegal Chinese-backed marijuana farms across the United States from the Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Well here is a follow up. The driver of a fake Amazon van said it was his boss's idea to use the vehicle in their illegal marijuana operation in Oklahoma to avoid detection. Testifying as a prosecution witness, Ye said he picked up marijuana from 20 different Oklahoma grows for shipment out of state. He was paid $15 per pound. "They're all operated by Chinese nationals," Ye, the Chinese National driver, said through a translator. The testimony was the latest example of what law enforcement officials have been saying more and more often about the source of the corruption in the state's medical marijuana grows. "While legalization led to legitimate cannabis-related businesses throughout the state, organized criminals have overtaken the industry, "Attorney General Gentner Drummond told the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee on Jan. 10. The FBI raided the grow on May 17 and counted 19,661 plants in various stages of growth. Prosecutors in a news release Friday identified them as both Chinese nationals. “A license under state law to grow marijuana is not a license to traffic tons of black-market marijuana inside or outside Oklahoma,” U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester said. He said he also used his business van to pick up marijuana from grows. He said he started using the fake Amazon van in May 2022. He lived in Oklahoma City. On Fridays, a ton of marijuana would be loaded by forklift at the warehouse on to a semitrailer to move out of state, according to his testimony. Some Fridays, he would drive the fake Amazon van directly to the warehouse, according to evidence.

Dr C’s Opinion: Illicit Chinese-operated marijuana farms have been found across the country and pose significant risks to our nation’s security. Illicit marijuana farms provide unregulated access for consumers to Schedule 1 substances and help provide additional revenue sources to transnational criminal organizations. Many of these operations have also been found to have labor conditions that are emblematic of human trafficking and forced labor practices. In addition, Chinese investors have financed some of these illegal operations, and these investments include cash payment for large swaths of land to conduct these operations. We need serious enforcement of illicit cannabis grows across the country.

Another new story on the nexus to illegal immigration and crime. Abdul Waheed Mohammed, 31, an illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. via Chicago in 2019, was arrested by law enforcement in September following an investigation into a fraudulent enterprise targeting senior citizens. At least one individual was scammed out of more than $100,000 in gold and currency. According to KEVN Mohammed was arrested for impersonating a law enforcement officer and demanding money to dispense with fictitious warrants. In November, he was charged with aiding/abetting grand theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft and pleaded not guilty. The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office wrote that the arrest was made in concert with the South Dakota Highway Patrol and South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation. and Homeland Security Investigations. The Rapid City Journal reported that at the time of Mohammad's arrest, Lt. Stevens told reporters, “Due to the unfortunate frequency and predatory nature of these crimes, this is an important arrest. Our investigative team is happy we were able to stop further losses from this victim and make this arrest."

Continuing on the illegal immigration issues in Los Angeles, federal officials confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested 26 illegal immigrant sex offenders throughout a two-day operation in late December. The operation was focused on illegal immigrants who were specifically identified as having prior criminal convictions for sexual offenses. According to Fox News, among the illegal immigrants taken into custody were serious offenders with terrifying criminal histories citing the prioritized enforcement actions per the Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law. Just some of those sex crimes includes felony lewd acts with a child, and continuous sexual abuse, felony child molestation, felony sexual forcible oral copulation of a minor over 14 and battery by restraint.

Dr C’s Opinion: The population of unauthorized immigrants in the United States has been estimated to be around 11.39 million people, a number which has seemingly stabilized after a period of rapid growth. However, studies show that the amount of alien encounters by the United States Border Patrol has significantly increased in the last few years, with 2,214,652 registered alien apprehensions and expulsions recorded in 2022. In addition, there were 568 immigrant deaths recorded near the southwest border in the U.S., the greatest number reported by the United States Border Patrol since 1998. Let’s just conservatively estimate that only 5% are committing felony criminal acts. Folks, that is nearly 600,000 new felons in our country. Just for context do you know the number of Federal Inmates in prison? It’s about 1.2 million, that’s half the number of inmates in our current federal prison system!

Democratic lawmakers in Oregon on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping new bill that would undo a key part of the state’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law, a recognition that public opinion has soured on the measure amid rampant public drug use during the fentanyl crisis. The bill would re-criminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor, enabling police to confiscate them and crack down on their use on sidewalks and in parks, its authors said. It also aims to make it easier to prosecute dealers, to access addiction treatment medication, and to obtain and keep housing without facing discrimination for using that medication.

Dr C’s Opinion: Decriminalization does not work. All it does in embolden people to violate the law and it further exacerbates the black market. Listen folks, this doesn’t necessarily mean putting drug users in prison. In fact, contrary to what many proponents of decriminalization suggest, fewer than 15 percent of inmates of state prisons are incarcerated because of nonviolent drug crimes. For many users who have a brush with the law, court-mandated treatment and the threat of worse outcomes in the future are enough to set them on the right track. I have no wish to minimize the costs of incarceration, but court ordered treatment is the answer and that cannot be achieved through decriminalization. Decriminalization only enables addicts and my more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement and as a criminologist has led me to believe that decriminalization only makes our addiction epidemic worse.

Washington State Democrats prioritized a new bill that demands “person-first” language to address how violent sex offenders are labeled. The intent is to stop defining a sex offender by his or her crime, so they can destigmatize them. It may not even be the most offensive piece of the legislation. The SOPB legislation is spearheaded by State Rep. Tarra Simmons, a Democrat who served time for three felony convictions for possession of controlled substances and retail theft in 2011. She pushed to have a sex offender serve alongside sex offense victims and their advocates on the board. “I think that we all do better when we have a diverse legislature. That’s why I’m here,” Simmons said at a House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry hearing for the bill. “And I’m proud to be here. I think I bring some lived experience that was missing from here. And while some people may have a stigma for people who have committed a sex offense, I think they have invaluable information to share that can really guide this board.”

Dr C’s Opinion: Wokeness and person-first language, in the context of sex offenders, has been used to downplay or whitewash crimes. People on the Left as well as many supposed professionals in mental health treatment want to normalize the phrase “Minor-Attracted Persons” as a replacement for child molester or pedophile. Once again, with respect to mental health issues, are current mental health philosophy is to enable one’s problems instead of treated one’s problems.

A recent study published by Dr. Sallie Baxendale, professor of clinical neuropsychology at University College London, has called for "urgent" research to be conducted into the potentially devastating impact that so-called "puberty blocker" drugs have shown on the brain function of children. According to The Daily Mail, the study described as "alarming" demonstrated that puberty blockers given to children confused about their gender significantly risks lowering their IQs, citing Professor Baxendale. The lengthy study that focused on 25 girls under "treatment" with the drugs found that they averaged a seven-point drop in their IQs. One girl suffered what the study termed a "significant loss" in excess of 15 points and all of them suffered from "precocious puberty," the early onset of physical adulthood. Baxendale wrote, "Young people and their families are unable to give truly informed consent for these treatments as their doctors cannot tell them what the long-term effects on their cognitive development will be."
She explained in the study's abstract: "There is no evidence that cognitive effects are fully reversible following discontinuation of treatment." In the text of the study Baxendale detailed the loss of IQ, saying, "Whilst the average loss of IQ points was 7, it is noteworthy that at least one patient in this study experienced a significant loss of 15 points or more, since the highest IQ score in the group was 138 at baseline and this dropped to 123 following treatments."

Dr. C’s Opinion: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is also overrepresented in this group. In addition to increased representation of neurodiverse conditions, the rates of mental health difficulties in this population are high, with adolescents seeking gender-affirming treatments presenting with psychiatric symptoms and disorders comparable to those seen among adolescent psychiatric patients. Gender confusion is causing more and more problems in the U.S. and in recent mass shooting, there is a considerable number in the last few months that are linked to gender dysphoria.

The Notre Dame football program announced the addition of a kicker to its roster after Eric Goins was picked up after coming off a seven-year stint in the United States Army. Goins was a kicker for the military school The Citadel from 2012 to 2015, but his football career was placed on hold after he went into the army to fulfill his commitment to the armed forces. Goins, who is now 30 years old, served as an airborne infantry second lieutenant, earned his first lieutenant bars, and earned his captain’s bars after four years. He ended his service as an executive officer in a combat advisor training unit.

Dr C’s Opinion: What does this have to do with criminology? Nothing, it’s just an awesome story!

This is Dr Currie Myers, America’s Criminologist. To view my work please visit drcurriemyers.substack.com and please share and like our page! Stay safe and have a great weekend!

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Crime and Society Newsletter
America's Criminologist with Dr. Currie Myers
Talking crime and criminal justice issues with renown Criminologist Sheriff (Ret) Currie Myers, PhD, MBA. MS.
Dr Myers is an applied criminologist and public policy ethicist that is billed as "America's Criminologist" a media favorite on podcasts, radio, and television.