Staggering Number of Children Molested at School, 4,000 Criminals in St. Louis Get Free Pass, LA Destroys Road Improvements Community Group Implemented For Free (The Five for 05/24/22)
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Let’s dive into the news.
[one]
A staggering number of teachers have been arrested in 2022 on charges for child sex crimes.
Fox News reports:
At least 135 teachers and teachers’ aides have been arrested so far this year on child sex-related crimes in the U.S., ranging from child pornography to raping students.
An analysis conducted by Fox News Digital looked at local news stories week by week featuring arrests of teachers and teachers’ aides on child sex-related crimes in school districts across the country. Arrests that weren't publicized were not counted in the analysis, meaning the true number may well be higher.
The analysis found that at least 135 teachers and teachers’ aides have been arrested in 41 states between January 1 and May 13, which works out to about an arrest a day on average.
The vast majority of the arrested educators were men.
Many of the arrests involved especially heinous allegations.
On April 11, police in California charged Anthony James Phillips, a 61-year-old former teacher at Cupertino Middle School in Sunnyvale, with aggravated sexual assault of a child, forcible penetration with a foreign object, and forcible penetration with a foreign object upon a child.
Phillips is accused of raping a student in 2009 when he was still a teacher at Cupertino.
Anessa Paige Gower, a 35-year-old former biology teacher at Making Waves Academy in Richmond, California, was charged with 29 counts of child molestation on April 8.
Gower is accused of sexually abusing seven students between 2021-2022 when she was a teacher at Making Waves, with allegations including forcible sodomy of minors and sharing sexually graphic photos over online platforms. She is due back in court on June 2..
On one hand, conservatives are probably overplaying their hand a bit calling everyone they don’t like a “groomer.” (My fries were cold—groomer waiter!).
On the other, some liberals seem to be incapable of seeing this wave of child molestation as a real issue…despite the fact that the hard data tells a clear story.
[two]
In my current hometown of St. Louis, more than 4,000 cases sit in limbo, because the District Attorney…just isn’t doing anything about them.
Thousands of local criminal cases are sitting in legal limbo with victims waiting for justice while the people accused of committing the crimes are walking free.
“It was just heartbreaking to see my son lifeless at eight months,” says Josephine Cotton through her tears.
Cotton and her family are still grieving months after losing her son Jyhaad to a drug overdose, while the baby was in the care of a relative. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office has the information, Jyhaad’s father Joseph Cotton stressed “they need to do something!”
Jyhaad’s death occurred last year, but to date, no charges and no justice. It cannot go unpunished, Joseph insists. There must be some accountability somewhere.
It’s the kind of pain and frustration many in St Louis feel and they anxiously want answers and accountability after falling victim to crimes. But experts say new data obtained by News 4 revealed an alarming problem with the criminal justice system in St. Louis.
“With so many cases listed as pending application is a huge problem,” says Criminology Professor Richard Rosenfeld. “It needs to be addressed immediately.” Rosenfeld has studied crime in St. Louis for decades and admits he has never seen a backlog of cases as bad as today’s.
Here’s what we are talking about, cases referred to as pending application of warrant or “PAWS”. They’re criminal cases St. Louis police have solved, IDed a suspect, and brought to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office (CAO) for charges. In the past, officers would apply in person in the warrant office in the St. Louis City courthouse. But at the start of the pandemic, the prosecutor’s office went to an email system instead and still has not returned to normal operations.
After News 4′s Investigative Team received a tip about a massive backlog of cases just sitting at the Circuit Attorney’s Office and going nowhere, we started making requests. The police department acknowledges a “notable” increase in the number of PAW cases. So, just how many? More than 4,400 cases. An astonishing number to Professor Rosenfeld.
In the last two St. Louis mayoral primary elections, people living in the poorest, most crime-ridden parts of the city voted for the candidate who promised to be the toughest on crime, while white, upper middle class and affluent voters favored candidates who took positions softer on crime.
In turn, companies flee crime-ridden cities, leaving fewer opportunities for the working class and poor to get ahead.
Sadly, St. Louis is a prime example of this phenomenon, with upper middle class and rich voters putting leaders in place that make the city more dangerous and drives away economic opportunity for those in lower income brackets.
Copy/paste this trend across dozens of cities in the U.S.
[three]
NOTE: This story was written over the weekend, before the Texas shooting.
A mass shooting in Chicago over the weekend has flown almost completely under the radar.
Chicago police say a suspected gunman is in custody after nine people were shot when someone opened fire into a group of people during a "disturbance" in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood.
Charges were pending as of Friday morning, according to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, but at least one other person connected the shooting is still being sought.
Authorities said gunfire erupted during an argument between two groups near a McDonald's in the 800 block of North State Street.
Brown said two groups were arguing when someone fired a gun into the crowd of people. The incident was captured on video near the scene, he said.
"We see on video where a person with a gun fires into the crowd - basically this is a disturbance, a personal conflict - hitting the nine people, killing two, wounding seven," Brown said.
[four]
A group of Cuban immigrants were rescued from a dangerous, home-made boat in the Atlantic, only to be returned to the Communist dictatorship they were fleeing
“The Coast Guard and our partners have increased air and surface patrols in the Florida Straits, Windward and Mona Passages,” said Robert Copeland, a Coast Guard District Seven enforcement officer. “These waterways are dangerous, unpredictable and the risk for loss of life is great.”
Since Oct. 1, 2021, Coast Guard crews interdicted 1,910 Cubans compared to:
5,396 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2016
1,468 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2017
259 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2018
313 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2019
49 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2020
838 Cuban Migrants in Fiscal Year 2021
Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention.
In the first half of the year, more than one million people have crossed into the U.S. illegally, but for some reason we don’t accept refugees from a Communist nation with a history of executing political dissenters, LGBT individuals and other groups.
Apparently immigrants who walk to the US are refugees.
But people who risk their lives to float to the U.S. are bad.
I can’t explain this logic…but it’s what our actions as a nation point to.
Tragic.
[five]
A secretive group in Los Angeles has responded to the city’s lack of response for services…by installing crosswalks themselves.
And Los Angeles is responding by….destroying them.
The illegal crosswalks remained untouched for weeks, but on Friday Los Angeles city workers were on site steaming them away.
The set of four crosswalks popped up at a busy residential intersection in March, allegedly painted by a secretive group that calls itself Crosswalk Collective LA. At the time, the group told NPR they were tired of waiting on the city to make what they said are much needed improvements for pedestrians. So they DIY'ed it, taking matters into their own hands.
Still, they also knew this day would come. The city has a policy in place to remove any unauthorized installations.
So, the city government doesn’t have time or resources to provide safety solutions for pedestrians…
…but they do have time and resources to destroy solutions created by the city’s citizens, free of charge.
…leaving pedestrians less safe.
Lades and gentlemen…the government.
Slow.
Clap.
Until the next one,
-sth