Category Archives: Victimless Crimes

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday evening that he would move to pardon anyone in the state who flouted mask or social distancing mandatessomething that should be welcome news to anyone who supports criminal justice reform.

It likely won't be, at least not among his more energetic detractors. Known by some as "DeathSantis," the governor carved out a reputation during the COVID-19 pandemic for being skeptical of virus-related restrictions. Though the per capita death rate in Florida is not much higher than California'swhere even outdoor dining was shuttered for a chunk of the fall and winterhis approach earned him much scorn across the country, with some media outlets contorting themselves in knots to castigate his approach.

But whether or not you're behind the basic tenets of criminal justice reform shouldn't turn on the political persuasion of who is doing the reforming. Catalyzing DeSantis' announcement were the arrests of Mike and Jillian Carnevale, gym owners in Broward County, Florida, who faced up to 120 days in jail for permitting people to exercise sans masks.

"It's a total overreach," said DeSantis on Laura Ingraham's Fox News program, adding that he will issue pardons when he meets with the state's clemency board in the coming months. "These things with health should be advisory, they should not be punitive."

That the government would lock anyone in a cage for allowing other people to make their own choices on face coverings is patently bonkers. Yet the Carnevales are far from the only ones who have fallen victim to an excessively punitive approach. Perhaps DeSantis could apply his newfound attitude on overcriminalization to the many other offenses that have people languishing away behind bars for stupid reasons.

Let's start with the obvious: weed. In Florida, those arrested for marijuana possession under 20 grams face a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison. Those caught with more than 25 grams face up to 15 years behind bars, with a mandatory sentence of three years.

It's likely that DeSantis, a law-and-order Republican, views the Carnevales' crimes as victimless. Are they? Several COVID-19 outbreaks have been traced back to gyms where people forewent masks, including at a gym in Hawaii where 21 people contracted the virus over a three-day period and a gym in Chicago where 55 people contracted it during a week in August. Those gyms implemented social distancing measures, but allowed exercisers to ditch the face coverings.

Such gymgoers may have later given the virus to others. Smoking marijuana, however, is actually victimlesswhether or not you agree with the choice morally. Florida has recorded about 36,000 deaths from COVID-19 over the last year; there have been zero recorded deaths from weed in U.S. history.

DeSantis isn't convinced. "Not while I'm governor," he saidin 2019 when asked how he felt about legalizing recreational cannabis. "I mean look, when that is introduced with teenagers and young people I think it has a really detrimental effect to their well-being and their maturity." That isn't supported by the evidence. A study released byJAMA Pediatrics found that legalizing the drug may actually cause teens tolose interest in weed, something supported by preliminary data in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.

But even if DeSantis' claim were truethat recreational cannabis would have some sort of dire influence on teenage maturitythere's a pretty hefty tradeoff involved: people wasting away in prisons and/or buckling under crippling fines for making a personal choice he does not agree with. Arguably more consequential is opting not to wear a mask when exercising, which, in theory, may have spurred someone's untimely death.

If you were wondering where DeSantis stood in the criminal justice discussions happening nationwide since last May, he recently set the tone by signing some new legislation: an "anti-riot" bill. On the surface, it's not all badvery few serious people are in favor of burning and looting cities. But there are a few troubling components, like the part that prevents anyone arrested of "unlawful assembly" from being released before they go to court. Unlawful assembly is notoriously vague, and essentially allows police officers to arrest anyone protesting, whether or not they actually present a threat. This from the governor who claims to support free speech.

"I think they've been treated poorly," DeSantis said last night, "but fortunately they've got a governor that cares." There are many other people in Florida who have been treated poorly. Does he care about them?

Excerpt from:

Ron DeSantis Will Pardon COVID Violators. Why Stop There? - Reason

A number of men were locked up for sexual offences over April.

Their disgusting crimes range from paedophilia to instances of rape and sexual assault.

Below are the names, faces and stories of every criminals jailed for sexual offences across London in April.

Two disgusting predators who raped and robbed two women in their home in Hackney were put behind bars this month.

Edmilson Caimanque and David Fonseca broke into the home on June 12, 2019 armed with knives and an axe.

After raping the two women who were inside the address, they heartlessly stole 1,250 and a mobile phone before leaving.

DNA evidence from the examination linked Caimanque to both rapes and a review of phone data showed him to be within the vicinity of the scene at the time of the incident.

CCTV evidence identified two other people of interest to the police. After reviewing mobile phone activity, Fonseca and another man Adilson Mendes-Namdja-Uare, were identified as suspects.

DNA evidence also linked Fonseca to one of the rapes.

Following a trial at Wood Green Crown Court on April 7, the three men were jailed for a combined total of 43 years.

Caimanque, 24, of St Olaves Road, Newham, was found guilty of two counts of robbery and two counts of rape. He faces two concurrent sentences - 18 years imprisonment for rape and nine years imprisonment for the robbery.

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Fonseca, 27, of Romford Road, Stratford, was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of robbery. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for rape and nine years imprisonment for robbery. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Mendes-Namdja-Uare, 23, of Lincoln Road, Newham, was found guilty of two counts of robbery and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

A professional rugby player expelled from Princeton University for committing a sex attack was jailed for 18 years after raping two women in London.

Paulo Kretteis, aged 22, earned a scholarship to the Ivy League university in New Jersey but was thrown out in May 2019 after a proven allegation of non-consensual sexual intercourse following an internal investigation, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

The dual Brazilian national, who had been selected for Brazil's under-21s rugby team, was found guilty of raping two women and making a threat to kill following a trial in January.

Kretteis, of Northolt, in Ealing, who played rugby professionally for the Ealing Trailfinders, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

A man who sexually assaulted a woman after she fell asleep on a bus in Hackney was jailed for seven years.

David OBrien, 51, of no fixed address was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday April 16 for the offence, which took place last spring.

In a victimless prosecution, O'Brien was found guilty of sexual assault by penetration, after the jury were shown CCTV footage of the incident, which happened on board a route 243 bus in Stoke Newington Road on May 31 2020.

The woman, aged in her 20s, had fallen asleep on the bus when she awoke to find O'Brien sexually assaulting her.

A paedophile streamed, watched and shared thousands of 'horrific' videos of young children being sexually abused.

Marnix Angenent, 45, was part of an online network of more than 60 like-minded individuals who 'shared their fantasies' of engaging in sexual activity with 'very young children'.

Angenent was found to be in possession of more than 7,000 category A indecent images of children, the most serious category, which included 1,663 videos.

He also had in his possession an additional 7,442 category B and 10,186 category C indecent images.

A paedophile was jailed for three years and three months after arranging to meet who he believed was a 12-year-old girl to have sex.

Bhusan Chettri, 36, formerly of Merchant Street in Mile End, Tower Hamlets, posed as a 16-year-old boy on social media to speak to who he thought was a young girl.

A serving Metropolitan Police officer was caught sending naked pictures and grooming a '13-year-old girl' in an undercover sting by colleagues.

Former Detective Constable Mark Collins, part of the Met's South Area Command Unit in South London, was on duty when some of the offences took place.

Between November 4 and November 27, 2019, he exchanged "highly sexualised" messages and pictures with a girl he believed to be just 13 on an online messaging app.

However, the account he was messaging was actually that of an undercover police officer using a decoy name.

Collins was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

Read the original post:

Every sex offender jailed in London in April and the sick crimes they committed - My London

From the August, 2005 issue of High Times comes Rick Steves ode to Amsterdam. In honor of his birthday on May 10, were republishing it below, followed by a Q&A between Rick Steves and Steve Bloom.

Ive spent a quarter of my adult life in Europe and Asia, living out of a 9 x 22 x 14-inch bag, promoting the idea that travel is accelerated living, the last great source of legal adventure for Americans. When you travel, everything is vivid; your cultural furniture is rearranged. Life is carbonated with a different and refreshing perspective. Its like smoking pot.

Travel is full of learning. A self-assured American can learn about dealing pragmatically with societal challenges through travel. In Europe, people say a community must make a choice: tolerate different lifestyles or build more prisons.

The Dutch, who have very few people in prison, are quick to remind me that America, with four percent of the planets population, holds over a quarter of its prisoners. We Dutch are businessmen, one explained. If theres a problem, we deal with it as if that person is a future customer or partner.

In Amsterdamwhere 40 percent of the traffic is two-wheeled, mailboxes have decals saying either ja or nee to junk mail and junkies are given dean needlespeople believe its futile to legislate personal morality. In the Netherlands, euthanasia, third-term abortion, prostitution and the use of marijuana are considered victimless crimes and, if not entirety legal, these actions are at least tolerated.

Dutch prostitutes are unionized, taxed, counseled and provided with health care. If a prostitute needs help and pushes her emergency button, the policerather than a pimpcome to her aid. As a result, crime and health problems associated with prostitution are minimized.

Dutch coffeeshopsmany decorated with Rastafarian colorssell marijuana to locals and tourists alike. Older users get their weed to go. Younger users enjoy the ambience and consume it there, often with loaner bongs and vaporizers. Coffeeshop proprietors work with the police to educate people about the dangers of hard drugs. The coffeeshops provide a helpful wall between the use of tolerated soft drugs and still strictly illegal hard drugs.

Conservative Dutch drug-enforcement officers report that there has been no increase in drug problems with the spread of Hollands coffeeshops. The major concern is pressure from the US and certain European Union nations (Sweden, France) to arrest pot smokers. Some European countries make a few arrests each year just to maintain favored-trade status with the US.

On my website we have a board where travelers share information about the opportunities to smoke pot in Europe (without the paranoia that comes with smoking in America). I dont understand why so many righteous people complain to me that Im promoting breaking the law.

To think that a politically driven prohibition in our country makes enjoying pot abroad evil is a gross example of ethnocentrism. The US may have a law making smoking marijuana illegal, but that has nothing to do with its legality outside of our country.

Why did you Join the advisory board of NORML?

Rick Steves: I believe its good citizenship for anyone who thinks a law is wrong to encourage our government to change it. Conversely, I believe that to have this belief and do nothing is cowardice. Advocating for the rights of people who want to smoke marijuana is what NORML does, and the best way I can help NORML is to publicly put my name on their list of supporters.

Lots of counterculture types go public with their feelings about the recreational use of pot. They surprise no one and take no heat. Millions of other people have the same take on this issue but are in circles where this would raise eyebrows and perhaps discredit themlose their job or an election. They smoke pot in hiding. No one should ever have to be shy or apologetic about working to change a law thats so ruinous to so many good people.

Whats your favorite coffeeshop In Amsterdam?

Rick Steves: The Grey Area, famous for its Cannabis Cup awards, is a good place. But my favorite is the Paradox, tucked away in the Jordaan, run by a wonderful man named Ludo, with a mellow and graceful ambience, fresh juice and my kind of music. Its an ambience that my older readers feel comfortable in and therefore is perfect for my guidebook.

Does PBS or anyone else give you flak about your marijuana advocacy?

Rick Steves: Most people in authority are smart enough to understand that my stance is correct or at least reasonable, and Im just in a better position than they are to be honest about it. If someone boycotts my travel information because they disagree with my politics, thats their loss.

Whats your No. 1 travel destination?

Rick Steves: Globally, its India. In Europe, it would be Italybecause, for a traveler, Italy offers Europes most India-like experience.

Besides Amsterdam, where have you smoked the best pot or hash in the world?

Rick Steves: Kathmandu. One of the happiest days in my life was at an open-air cafe/bakery called Pie and Chai, waiting for the next apple pie to come out of the rustic Nepali oven, listening to the Rolling Stones, surrounded by fascinating travelers from around the world and new Nepali friends. High in the Himalayas!

Whats something every stoner traveler should know?

Rick Steves: Dont buy pot on the street. Buy from a source that locals will use on a regular basis and therefore needs to be reliably good-quality. Europeans mix their bud with tobacco, which I dont like at all.

How did you become a travel personality?

Rick Steves: Im passionate about European travel. Ive made my lifes work spending a hundred days a year over there making all the mistakes, taking careful notes, then coming home and teaching fellow travelers in hopes that they can learn from my mistakes rather than their own and travel smarter. Ive done this for 30 years now.

Do you write high?

Rick Steves: Yes. When I teach a travel-writing workshop, I joke that a travel writer could make a case that his or her marijuana expenses could be written off as business expenses. Journaling when high on the road has taught me to observe things differently. I dont think the actual writing is that great, but it opens me up to experiencing thingsfrom slow-motion leech attacks to Botticellis confetti maidensdifferently, even when Im not high.

This has been a huge help to me as a travel writer. I have on occasion brainstormed captions for books while high. For example, theres a beautiful painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the Madonna and Christ child with Saint Anne. Anne speaks to Mary as the two women look, concerned, at baby Jesus. My caption: Its so sad when a childs birthday falls on Christmas.

If someone didnt have any of your DVDs, which one would you recommend getting first?

Rick Steves: I have DVDs for each of my 50 travel shows. I suppose the most important would be the three-part special on travel skills. But my guidebooks are far more helpful for travelers than my DVDs. The most important of my 30 guidebooks is my travel-skills handbook, Europe Through the Back Door. At the risk of being immodest, I consider it the Kama Sutra of European travel fun. For High Times readers, perhaps my Amsterdam guidebook would be a close second.

See the article here:

High Times Greats: Talking To Travel Writer Rick Steves About Exploring The World - High Times

"Former Oregon House Speaker Dave Hunt cited in sex trafficking sting," the New York Post reported yesterday. It's one of a number of headlines that accuse Hunta Democrat who served in the state legislature from 2003 to 2013of having been busted for sex trafficking.

He wasn't. To be considered sex trafficking (or "trafficking in persons," as Oregon's offense is officially known), a commercial sex act must involve either force, fraud, coercion, or someone under 18 years old. Hunt was simply caught by undercover cops who were conducting a prostitution sting.

The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) posted ads online, pretending to be sex workers. Eight men who took the baitincluding Hunt"were criminally cited on the charge of Commercial Sexual Solicitation," according to a PPB press release.

It seems Portland copslike so many in law enforcement these daysare not above playing hero and pretending to solve serious crimes as they spend public resources on busting adults trying to have consensual sex with other adults. So PPB has shamelessly framed their vice sting as a "human trafficking" operation, complete with grandiose statements about how "human trafficking is not a victimless crime" and PPB is working in conjunction with the feds and other departments to stop it.

Of course human trafficking is not a victimless crimeno one disputes that. But human trafficking is not what Portland cops were actually fighting here.

Huntwho now works in public affairs and serves on the board of Clackamus Community Collegeis being unfairly slandered as a sex trafficker. But before anyone starts feeling too bad for him, note that he voted in favor of a 2011 measure criminalizing the very activity that he tried to engage in.

That measure created the crime of patronizing a prostitutesince renamed commercial sexual solicitationpunishable by up to one year imprisonment, a $6,250 fine, or both when the person being patronized is an adult.

Hunt's attorney told the Portland Tribune that Hunt "denies the allegations, but respects the criminal justice process and will refrain from saying more until he has his opportunity in court."

More here:

Former Oregon House Speaker Gets Busted by Prostitution Law He Helped Put in Place - Reason

A PAEDOPHILE cost his brother his job by failing to confess to possessing sick child sex abuse images.

Andrew Beale was living at the same property as his brother in Bexhill when police got a tip off about indecent images being made.

Some of the images contained horrifying examples of abuse on a baby and upon toddlers.

The 39-year-old was living in a separate outhouse, but there were four adults living in the property at the time of the raid.

But Beale did not immediately admit to being the man responsible for downloading and making the abuse images.

It was a decision which ended up costing his brother his employment with an IT firm, Lewes Crown Court heard.

The finger of suspicion fell on all the adults at the property.

Dominic Benthall revealed how Beale was in possession of some of the worst kinds of child abuse images.

Beale had been looking at indecent images for more than ten years, it was claimed.

The police warrant at the property took place in 2019.

Kevin Light, defending, said nothing was said when police arrived and no arrest was made, and it was only when questioned that Beale admitted his sick crimes.

It included possessing more than 3,000 category C images, along with about 30 category B and 30 category A images, along with other material on old hard drives.

Mr Light said his client was living in an outhouse at the property and said Beale regrets having caused the problems for his brother.

Her Honour Judge Janet Waddicor said the incident had caused great tension between them.

She said: Presumably because this defendant did not say this is all to do with me, the finger of suspicion fell on his brother, who was working in education and lost his job.

Mr Light said Beales brother had worked for a computer firm, and said the brother did indeed lose his job.

Addressing Beale, the judge said: The police went to your home on the basis of information that indecent images of children were being distributed at that property.

You happened to be living in an outbuilding, a shed almost and three other adults were living there.

When police went there, no one put their hands up to having such material. So all four adults were under suspicion.

Three were blameless, one person had possession of these images and it was you. One of the consequences of the police search and removal of equipment was that your brother lost his job.

That is something you feel responsible for, as indeed you are. You did not say to the police the material you are looking for belongs to me.

The judge said victims shown in the images often have psychological problems through their lives.

She said: There is a market created in the abuse of children, marketed down to people such a yourself who derive pleasure, unspeakably, from looking at such images.

You may have persuaded yourself it is a victimless crime, but it is not.

Beale, of De La Warr Road, Bexhill, was given a one-year suspended prison sentence. He was ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work and complete 25 rehabilitation sessions.

He was put under the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention order restricting his access to children and computer equipment, and his hard drives and devices were ordered to be destroyed.

Read more here:

Bexhill paedophile Andrew Beale cost brother his job - The Argus

To help sustain the lie, Horowitz was duty bound to deliver another quickie Trump book within six months of the lost election. Not that The Enemy Within provides evidence that a crime was committed on November 3, 2020. Its basically a clip job, repeating the wild and disproven fraud allegations made by Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Peter Navarro, and other Trump fabulists. In the screed, Horowitz claims a vast criminal conspiracy carried out at polling places in many of the 50 states. Yet theres one little fact missing from the dossierthe name of a single person who participated in the biggest crime in American history. We have heard, of course, of victimless crimes; for Horowitz and his fellow conspiracy theorists, the alleged election fraud is a history-changing crime that hasnt a single named perpetrator.

Trumps best legal minds, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell (and their mouthpieces in Trump media), did put forth the names of two guilty parties: Hugo Chvez (deceased) and Dominion voting machines. But when Dominion began filing billion-dollar lawsuits, most of the Trump world backtracked or recanted. For Horowitz, the Democratic Party is guilty of terrible crimes that no one can prove, while the MAGA criminals who stormed the Capitol under the glare of hundreds of video cameras are as white as snow and as red, white, and blue as the patriots of 1776. The protesters inside the Capitol are heroes, Horowitz tweeted on January 6, as the mob ransacked the Senate and House chambers and threatened to kill his friend, Mike Pence. They will not be able to stop the steal, but they will expose the lies that are defending the steal. Shame on the Republicans who caved to Bidens criminals.

One of the laugh lines in The Enemy Within is the outrage Horowitz directs against what he calls the liberal tax-exempt advocacy culture, a category in which he includes the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that uses a successful but sinister political fundraising strategy. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. According to the official IRS website, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. We arent lawyers, but those prohibitions sound as if they would apply to the Horowitz Freedom Centers relentless support of Trump, as well as its financial support, to the tune of $175,000 (as reported in The Washington Post and The Intercept), of the Party for Freedom of the Dutch ethno-nationalist politician (some would say white supremacist) Geert Wilders, then campaigning for the Netherlands Parliament. (The first of the donations came in March 2014; later that year, Wilders was a speaker at the Restoration Weekend.)

The IRS appears reluctant to provide any serious oversight, so Horowitz manages to raise a significant percentage of the Freedom Centers yearly $6 million budget through tax-exempt donations from conservative foundations and individual big funders. That budget allows Horowitz to take a salary of over $600,000, according to the centers latest tax filing. Some portion of the centers budget is also raised through Horowitzs signed fundraising letters, which go out to a vast email list. Horowitz typically begins each with a personal salutation, and then issues a dire warning: America is about to be overrun by radical Islamists or Central American immigrants, or educators are turning public schools into centers for leftist indoctrination. Then comes the pitch: Send me $35 or $50 so the Freedom Center can continue fighting to save the country.

Read the rest here:

Our Friend David Horowitz, the Trump Propagandist - The New Republic

A former star of the popular reality show "Farmer Wants a Wife" has been jailed for possessing and distributing images and videos of child sexual abuse, described by a Perth judge as "vile" and "of the upmost depravity".

Matthew Eric Goyder, who appeared in the 2016 series of the show, was arrested last year after chatting onlineto someone he thought was a 37-year-old woman but who was actually an undercover police officer.

Goyder, who employedthe user name PilbaraBoy90, then sent the officer two videos showing girls aged between fourand eightyears being sexually abused.

Police searched the apartment where Goyder was staying and seized a laptop computer that was found to contain more than 4,000 images and videos of children someas young as 6 months being abused.

ABC News: Jon Sambell

District Court Judge Karen Shepherd said the material was "of the upmost depravity and depicted the most serious sexual abuse of children".

"[Put] simply it is vile ... it depicts high levels of perversion and debauchery and it is degrading," Judge Shepherd said.

The court heard Goyder suffered various mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, and Judge Shepherd accepted that had played a role in his offending.

However, she said those issues were intertwined with Goyder's drug use and he himself had claimed he only offended because he was using methylamphetamine, which made him "hypersexual".

The court was told Goyder had used the drug over many years, and had decided in 2015 to go on the TV reality program to fill a void in his life after a stint in drug rehabilitation in Thailand.

In a letter Goyder provided to the court, he said hewas genuinely seeking love and a relationship, and he did fall for someone but it did not end up how he would have liked.

Facebook: Farmer Wants a Wife Australia

Hesaid the program had "really messed" with hismindand ended up shattering his self-confidence,leading to his life "spiraling out of control."

Did you know we offer a local version of the ABC News homepage? Watch below to see how you can set yours, and get more WA stories.

(Hint: You'll have to go back to the home page to do this)

The court heard Goyder had also suffered a hypoxic brain injury in 2019, which his lawyers submittedhad affected his thinking and made him "disinhibited".

Judge Shepherd accepted that Goyder was remorseful and that he had pleaded guilty at an early stage.

She also noted Goyder had made extensive efforts to rehabilitate himself, including spending 13 months at a drug rehabilitation facility.

The judge also took into account that Goyder, by putting himself in the spotlight, had suffered a degree of public humiliation because of the media attention given to the case.

However, she said the offences were so serious that only a jail term of two years was appropriate.

Judge Shepherd said the crimes were not so-called "victimless" ones, because real children were abused, violated and degraded in the production of the material.

Goyder will have to serve half the term before being eligible for parole, meaning his earliest possible release date will bein May 2022.

Excerpt from:

Former reality TV farmer Matt Goyder given two-year jail term over child exploitation material - ABC News

Police have seized an estimated 15 million worth of counterfeit branded clothing, shoes, electrical goods, watches, jewellery, and perfume during three days of raids in Cheetham Hill.

Suspected fake medication was also found and seized in raids on four premises in the area, near to Manchester city centre.

In total more than 45,000 items were confiscated, including suspected counterfeit shoes, clothing, handbags, watches, make up, perfume, sunglasses, batteries, headphones and medication.

Fake brand labels have also been uncovered- these are often imported separately to be sewn onto counterfeit clothing and shoes to give them a cachet.

Mobile phones and cash has also been removed from those arrested.

The joint action between the three forces, Border Force and Immigration Services, saw seven people arrested - six for offences relating to the importation and distribution of counterfeit goods and one for intent to supply prescription drugs.

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Four premises in Strangeways, Manchester, were raided by officers between Monday April 19 and Wednesday April 21 in the targeted raids.

The large-scale operation aimed to crackdown on the sale of counterfeit goods.

Search warrants, which developed from a previous operation that involved the sale and distribution of counterfeit items, saw 60 officers and staff working together.

Officers said the seized items would result in losses of 15 million for legitimate retailers.

Supt Peter Ratcliffe, of the City of London Polices Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said: Selling counterfeit goods is illegal and, in the case of counterfeit electricals and medication, extremely dangerous.

This huge three-day operation, plus the number of arrests and vast amount of evidence seized, should send a strong message to other criminals involved in counterfeit goods that it wont be tolerated.

For the public, it is vital to remember you dont know what other crimes you are funding when buying counterfeit goods, or the conditions those working for the criminals are conducting their business in.

This operation showed the effectiveness of partnership working and I thank Greater Manchester Police, and our other partners involved, for all their help.

Det Supt Paul Denn from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit said: Buying and selling counterfeit goods is not a victimless crime.

"As well as damaging legitimate businesses, it helps to fund organised crime, and with that often comes violence.

Whenever we receive intelligence about illegal goods, we will always work closely with our colleagues in the City of London Police and other partners to investigate and take the appropriate action.

Insp Helen Hallworth, of Greater Manchester Police said: "Working in partnerships such as this is instrumental when tackling counterfeit operations, as each unit is able to bring its own precise specialisms to help achieve the most effective policing operation.

"City of London is the national policing lead for fraud and we welcome their involvement along with that from our other partners from the NW PIPCU unit as well as Immigration and Border Force when tackling counterfeit operations within the Greater Manchester area.

"Please be under no false illusions that the selling of counterfeit goods is a victimless crime.

"Selling counterfeit goods is illegal and the money made in these shops helps to fund organised crime, lining the pockets of criminals for much more sinister crimes which can have a devastating impact on our communities.

"Finally, be aware that counterfeit goods can pose a serious health risk to individuals as they have not undergone the health and safety checks that are mandatory for mainstream goods.

Read this article:

15m haul of counterfeit goods seized in Cheetham Hill in three days of raids - Manchester Evening News

Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Planet Money's newsletter. You can sign up here.

After the death of George Floyd opened up a national debate about policing, Morgan Williams and his colleagues turned to the tools of economics to try and provide some evidence to help inform the conversation. He recently released research that supports the case for police reform while also reminding us why police are important for public safety.

Williams is an economist at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He researches the economics of crime and incarceration policy, with a particular focus on racial inequality. Raised in the South Bronx, Williams still lives and works not too far from where he grew up.

Whether you're an activist who's been shouting "defund the police" in the streets, or a conservative who flies a "thin blue line" flag in front of your house, if you're looking for someone to rile you up with a megaphone, Williams is not your guy. In these hyperpolarized times, Williams stands apart in speaking the technical language of a wonk with the cool emotions of a data-cruncher. "We want to be as a scientifically objective as possible," he says about his and his colleagues' work.

Morgan C. Williams Jr. Valjean E. Guerra II/Morgan Williams hide caption

Morgan C. Williams Jr.

Williams and his colleagues, Aaron Chalfin, Benjamin Hansen, and Emily Weisburst, got motivated to answer questions like: What is the measurable value of adding a new police officer to patrol a city? Do additional officers prevent homicides? How many people do these officers arrest and for what? And how do bigger police forces affect Black communities?

They gathered data from the FBI and other public data sources for 242 cities between the years 1981 and 2018. They obtained figures on police employment, homicide rates, reported crimes, arrests, and more. And they used technically-savvy statistical techniques to estimate the effects of expanding the size of police forces on things like preventing homicides and increasing arrests (read their working paper for more depth, and, also spend a few hours reading about "instrumental variable" regression, which is pretty freaking genius).

The Impact Of One More Officer

Williams and his colleagues find adding a new police officer to a city prevents between 0.06 and 0.1 homicides, which means that the average city would need to hire between 10 and 17 new police officers to save one life a year. They estimate that costs taxpayers annually between $1.3 and $2.2 million. The federal government puts the value of a statistical life at around $10 million (Planet Money did a whole episode on how that number was chosen). So, Williams says, from that perspective, investing in more police officers to save lives provides a pretty good bang for the buck. Adding more police, they find, also reduces other serious crimes, like robbery, rape, and aggravated assault.

Even more, Williams and his coauthors find that, in the average city, larger police forces result in Black lives saved at about twice the rate of white lives saved (relative to their percentage of the population). When you consider African Americans are much more likely to live in dense, poverty-stricken areas with high homicide rates leading to more opportunities for police officers to potentially prevent victimization that may help explain this finding.

We should note, however, that one broad, average statistic on one measure of policing outcomes says nothing about other potential problems with policing such as excessive use of force, racial profiling, or other issues that remain top of mind as story after story of Black people getting killed, beaten, or mistreated by the police circulates in the media. But, Williams says, reducing the homicide rate and other serious crimes is certainly a benefit for everyone.

While they find serious crimes fall after the average city expands its police force, the economists find that arrests for serious crimes also fall. The simultaneous reduction of both serious crime and arrests for serious crime suggests it's not arrests that are driving the reduction. Instead, it suggests merely having more police officers around drives it. These findings are consistent with other research that finds concentrating police in "hotspot" crime areas appears to be an effective way to reduce crime.

For Williams, this growing evidence about the power of deterrence is super important for those concerned about our bloated criminal justice system, which continues to lock up Black people at an astonishing rate. It shows that adding more police to a neighborhood could have the benefit of lowering the rate of serious crimes without the police necessarily having to lock up a bunch of people.

But, at the same time, Williams and his coauthors also find adding more police officers to a city means more people getting arrested for petty, low-level, victimless crimes, like disorderly conduct, drinking in public, drug possession, and loitering. Black people are disproportionately the target of these low-level arrests, saddling them with crippling court fees and forcing many kids sometimes unnecessarily into the criminal justice system.

More Police May Leave Some Cities Worse Off

The economists also find troubling evidence that suggests cities with the largest populations of Black people like many of those in the South and Midwest don't see the same policing benefits as the average cities in their study. Adding additional police officers in these cities doesn't seem to lower the homicide rate. Meanwhile, more police officers in these cities seems to result in even more arrests of Black people for low-level crimes. The authors believe it supports a narrative that "Black communities are simultaneously over and under-policed." The economists don't have a solid explanation for why bigger police forces appear to lead to worse outcomes in these cities, and they plan to investigate these findings more deeply in future research.

The Big Picture

Bottom line, the picture the economists' data sketches out is complicated. On the one hand, Black communities generally appear to benefit from larger police departments when it comes to lowering the homicide rate and the rate of other serious crimes. But their data also shows these findings don't seem true for cities with the largest Black populations. And throughout the country, they find significant racial disparities in low-level arrests, with lots of Black people getting prosecuted for low-level crimes, resulting in many lives damaged without necessarily improving public safety.

"We're getting plenty of policing, but it might not always be the type of policing that keeps people safe," Williams says regarding these findings. And that suggests one way we could reform police departments: get them to use less manpower to arrest people for petty crimes and use more manpower to fight and solve serious crimes.

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When You Add More Police To A City, What Happens? - NPR

Police in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, arrested one teen and seized bicycles from a group of friends in a scuffle over traffic violations and a failure to register their bikes with the state, according to a viral video. It's yet another example of the effects of overcriminalization, which increases interactions between civilians and police with little benefit to actual public safety.

"I told you guys you're supposed to have licenses," one officer says in the clip as the cops attempt to get the boys to surrender their bikes. "The sergeant warned you about your bikes, so you guys are warned. I gave you a warning."

One teen gives in. "Drop the bike or you're gonna get arrested too," says another cop in the background, addressing the other boys who are slower to dismount.

In a longer video posted to YouTube, the boys are repeatedly promised that they won't lose their bikes. The teen who first complied is then arrested, and all of their bicycles are taken by the cops.

"You know that we told you guys to stay on the sidewalk," the cop says in a video exchange with one of the teens who filmed their conversation when he returned to get his bike. "You guys knew that you were going against traffic. It is for your safety. You think I want to be here taking bikes away? Like, this is so asinine. Like, we have so much better stuff to do with our time."

She is correct on most counts. It is asinine, and the Perth Amboy Police Department definitely has better stuff to do with their time.

But she didn't stop there: "Is your bike registered with us? I don't have to give it back to you," she notes, harking back to the licensing scuffle referenced during the first confrontation. "You have the receipt to prove that that bike is your bike? I don't have to give it back to you."

They did, in fact, give the bikes back. But not before taking the opportunity to flex some state power over trivial matters like minor traffic infractions and bike registrations.

New Jersey does not require residents to register their bikes. Perth Amboy does, however. According to local law, a bicycle must be registered for any purpose, whether you're renting it out or it's your personal vehicle.

"No person shall ride, operate or propel a bicycle upon any street or other public highway in the city without first obtaining and having secured and attached to such bicycle a proper license tag as hereinafter provided," the statute reads.

"We live way in Edison, cuz," says the arrested teen as he is handcuffed and placed in a police cruiser. "We live way in Edison."

In theory, such a rule exists to helpyou if your bike is stolen. In this case, though, it became yet another tool in the police department's arsenal to wield power over a group of teens.

Such interactions further degrade trust in law enforcement, who, as the cop in the video admits, should be off doing more important things. (At least six officers were on the scene to address the traffic infractions and bike licenses.) These types of interactions canand dosometimes turn deadly. A woman called the police after observing that Ramon Lopez, a Phoenix man, was loitering, "jumping around," and wearing "ripped pants" in a parking lot. He was chased by police, pinned on searing hot asphalt, and later died.

As a rule, victimless crimes should be of little interest to the state. For whatever the government chooses to zero in on, they must feel comfortable using deadly force. Is a minor traffic violation or a bike registration really worth it?

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Cops Seize Bikes and Arrest 1 Teen Over Traffic Violations and Bike Licenses - Reason