On February 11, 2015, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II, reversed an order of the Walworth County Circuit Court, and ordered a new trial for a minor child, identified as Charles C.S. Jr., aged fourteen at the time of his conviction. See, State v. Charles C. S., Jr., No. 2014AP1045, unpublished (Wis. Ct. App.…
Crime
Crime
Updated: Student who allegedly made social media school threat is located at Delavan High School
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
9:36 AM: UPDATE: The phone used and person who sent the threat have been located at Delavan High School, according to Delavan Police Chief Tim O’Neill. O’Neill said it was a male student and he is in custody at Delavan High School. Officials said Delavan High School was on full lock-down for about 20 minutes…
Crime, Open Government, University
Support the Campus Accountability and Safety Act
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Discussion is better than silence; knowledge trumps ignorance. Thousands of universities receive federal funds, including our own campus. Under the law, those universities are required, since the Clery Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f), 34 C.F.R. 668.46 to record and report instances of crime on and near their campuses. (UW-System schools publish that information in compliance…
Crime, Law, University
The Dean’s Drug-War Equality Argument
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I’m sorry I didn’t get to this sooner, but one of UW-Whitewater Dean of Students Mary Beth Mackin’s remarks about drug busts on campus deserves a reply. She’s offered an argument for equality of treatment on and off campus. Her argument implies that she either misunderstands the underlying justification for equality arguments, or that she…
City, Crime
An Evening Not Worth Having
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s video online from a security camera of two people stepping into the Birge Fountain, climbing on the statue, tugging on it until a piece comes off, and (presumably) stealing that piece. (For prior FW posts against vandalism, see The Crude Illegitimacy of Vandalism and Update: Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity.) Watching the video, it…
Crime
Update: Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
Yesterday, I posted about a lack of information on April vandalism amounting to about fifty-thousand dollars in damage at the Spring Creek Golf Center. (See, Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity.) Today, fortuitously, there’s a story at the DU with an update about the investigation: Seven Whitewater juveniles eyed in Cold Spring golf course vandalism. Here’s…
Crime, Free Markets
Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
Not long ago, at a nearby golf course, vandals caused tens of thousands in property damage. A newspaper account reported the damage at about $50,000, and included photos of the scene. I’m not a patron of the course, and don’t know the owners. I have, though, cycled past it many times. The course has always…
Crime, Health, Walworth County
The Long, Hard Roads
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Over at the Gazette, there’s a story entitled, Walworth County officials hope drug court for heroin addicts will start in June (subscription required). The story, from reporter Andrea Anderson, is about a hoped-for program of rehabilitation for heroin addicts. The program would apply to Walworth County residents, addicted to, and charged with possession of, heroin. If…
Crime, Elkhorn, Health, Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty, Police, Walworth County
The End of the Beginning
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Crime, Daily Adams, Local Government, Official Misconduct, Photography, Police, Technology
Local Policing and Point-of-View Cameras
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a story about my town’s (Whitewater, Wisconsin’s) decision to equip its on-patrol officers with point-of-view cameras. A small video camera will record officer interactions with residents. Reportedly, all interactions will be recorded, and at the end of each shift, officers [will] download all videos into a general file that would get deleted automatically after…
Crime, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
Is This What Janesville’s Leaders Really Meant by ‘Regionalization’?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
About two months ago, Janesville’s City Manager, Eric Levitt, came to Whitewater asking for money to support a public transit bus to benefit Generac (and anyone else Janesville’s transportation director will undoubtedly throw into the mix to justify ten thousand from Whitewater and hundreds of thousands from taxpayers in total). During his appearance before Whitewater’s…
Crime, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty
The Beatles on Revolution and the Constitutional Order
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Not every election ends as one hopes. That’s true for major-party members, and at least as much for members of third parties. There are millions of people disappointed that Pres. Obama was re-elected, as there were many who were disappointed that Pres. Bush was re-elected. Neither outcome is what many Americans wanted, although in both…
Crime
Needless Risk
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Property crimes, of theft or vandalism, are inherently wrong: they deprive hardworking people of the products of their own efforts, to the benefit of the dishonest, destructive, or shiftless. When those crimes come with a threat of personal violence against their victims, they are even more serious. (Here one speaks of actual, verifiable threats, not…
Crime, Law
How to Tell a Tide’s Turning
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
After National Review repeatedly questions a grand policy, and the Wall Street Journal prints an essay against that same policy, the tide’s turned in a meaningful way. Bonus indicators: (1) defenders of the current policy have to justify it in ways they wouldn’t imagine necessary a decade earlier, and (2) David Frum – self-professed conservative…