“More than four years after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, now 26, was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the city’s worst terrorist attack, the proceeding has shifted to the federal appeals court in Boston. The focus will now be on the conduct of prosecutors, defense attorneys, the presiding judge — even the jury — with one central question at issue: Did Tsarnaev get a fair trial?

“Oral arguments before three judges of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit are slated for Thursday. Tsarnaev is not expected to attend. Instead, lawyers are set to joust for two hours over legal questions such as whether the trial should have been held in Boston, and whether jurors failed to reveal their anti-Tsarnaev biases to the judge.
— Boston Globe, 12/7/19

There is this accepted belief that all who are brought before a judge are being prosecuted by ethical legal personnel who behave accordingly. We’re to believe that judges are beyond reproach and their verdicts are fair. But depending on where you live, that’s not always the case and many lives were permanently ruined and those responsible continue to receive generous taxpayer-funded compensation to this day.

Massachusetts prosecutors have violated defendants’ rights to a fair trial regularly and without punishment, even as wrongfully convicted victims of tainted prosecutions have spent years in prison before being freed, decades of court rulings show.

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court have reversed at least 120 criminal convictions since 1985 in part or entirely because of the prosecuting attorney’s misconduct described in the judges’ rationale for the overturned verdicts.

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting found no case in Massachusetts where a prosecutor was disbarred for professional misconduct since 1974, when the state Board of Bar Overseers was created to hear complaints against attorneys. Only two public reprimands for professional misconduct were found in that 42-year span, and they came without fines or other punishment.

At least seven prosecutors whose behavior prompted courts to reverse convictions went on to higher posts. Some became judges and district attorneys.
— WGBH, 4/3/16

What does it say about a system where you can be highly compensated to screw people over knowing that in that rare instance if you’re busted, you’ll receive no punitive repercussion, in fact you may even be promoted?

BTW — If you’re a busted judge, you just need to cry.

Judge Shelley M Richmond Joseph and trial court officer Wesley MacGregor are accused of conspiring to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from taking an undocumented immigrant into custody at Newton District Court on April 2, 2018.

Joseph had allegedly ordered the courtroom recording device to be turned off for 52 seconds while she and the defendant Jose Medina-Perez’s lawyer had a conversation about getting him out of the courthouse instead of handing him over to an ICE officer, according to the indictment. MacGregor allegedly used his access badge to release Medina-Perez through a rear door.

Joseph was seen crying when she left federal court in Boston Thursday.
— Daily Mail, 4/26/19

What this has revealed is yet another branch of government employees who are quick to show no mercy those who come before them in a court of law but will circle the wagons and shield themselves from the ramifications of their own illegal actions.

The judge’s supporters say she is no crusader, but an inexperienced judge who stumbled into a bitterly contested area of the law. They warn that if the case goes forward, it will open the door for prosecution of other judges, undercutting their independence, as the country grapples with its deep divisions over immigration.

“Prosecution of other judges….” You mean there are more law-breaking judges and if so, will we ever find out how many?

Judge Joseph has refused a plea deal that would have allowed her to avoid prosecution if she admitted violating federal law, signaling that she is prepared to go to trial in a case that could drag on for years. For a federal prosecutor to indict a state judge is so rare that, in search of a Massachusetts precedent, observers have cast back to 1787, when Judge William Whiting was removed from the bench for defending a farmer’s rebellion against state tax collectors.

This summer, the state Supreme Judicial Court ordered the restoration of her $184,000 salary while the case is pending, for fear that the threat of being stripped of a paycheck would make judges hesitant to challenge prosecutors, diminishing the “over-all independence of the judiciary.”
— New York Times, 11/16/19

Heaven forbid a Massachusetts judge be in peril of not making a mortgage payment, paying utilities or eating; something they show little consideration of when passing their decisions down on those who’ve professed their innocence against prosecutors who are only interested in their win totals so they can hopefully size themselves for black robes.

“It’s one thing to make a mistake. It’s another to have your life ruined. I hope she’ll emerge from this, but it’s a tough way to learn a lesson.”
— Scott Harshbarger, former state attorney general

Ironic hearing this come from someone who slept well after sending people, who pled their innocence, up the river.

Judicial malfeasance should not be considered an anomaly, but we are talking about the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Defense attorneys will also argue that trial Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. erroneously withheld evidence from jurors that Tsarnaev’s older brother and accomplice, Tamerlan, had brutally killed three people two years earlier — a point that could have bolstered their argument that Tamerlan was the mastermind of the bombing and, had he lived to be tried, the only one deserving of a death sentence.

Regardless of your opinion on the sentence and your position on the death penalty, everyone brought into a United States court of law deserves a fair trial. Prosecutors shouldn’t be messing with or withholding evidence and the same should go for judges. People brought before the legal system should also not be used as stepping stones for personal advancement, thus rendering their lives irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

And we won’t even get into the numerous Massachusetts politicians, mostly Democrat, who’ve broken all kinds of laws, and some are walking free to this day.

Former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi was one of many government officials in Massachusetts who have been indicted.

DiMasi is one of THREE Democrat House speakers indicted. Something about fish rotting from the head down…?

Some politicians have used their legislative powers for illicit private gain, and some have faced arraignment due to misconduct in public.

From bribery and extortion to patronage and nepotism to drunken driving and sexual assault, politicians in Massachusetts have been arrested for almost all kinds of violations.
— Boston.com

This is what happens when prosecutorial wolves guard the people’s hen house and apparently will continue to happen for the foreseeable future.

Had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election, it would be demanded that Republicans respect the will of the people and they would as they always have. There would be no Indivisible, #Resist or #Resistance movement. But because she lost and Democrats decided they wouldn’t respect the agreed-to process of Electoral College results and not a goal post-moving popular vote, the left has given themselves license to act out in any fashion current events dictate.

Their violence is clearly on the uptick and it’s only a matter of time where their violence is no longer just reactionary but on the offense.

Shots fired at ICE Administrative Offices in San Antonio, Tex. are setting off alarm bells for what officials say has become a dangerous trend.

“To fire indiscriminately into any building- let alone a federal building, let alone a federal facility- is not an act of protest. It is an act of violence,” said Christopher Combs, FBI Special Agent in charge of San Antonio’s Division.

This targeted attack on ICE is one of four in the last month or so, the others occurring in Tacoma, Washington, Aurora Colorado and Washington, D.C. “We cannot allow political discourse to lead us to the point of violence where federal employees innocent people doing their jobs are put into harm’s way”, Combs said.

This follows a string of rallies, including on the streets of New York, the blocking of buildings and roads in Washington D.C. and the removal of an American flag at an ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado later replaced it with a Mexican flag and defaced “Blue Lives Matter’ one.
— KTVL CBS10

Republicans and conservatives traditionally do not take to the streets, disrupting traffic and committing acts of vandalism as a pattern of “peaceful protest”. Republicans and conservatives don’t trash areas where they’ve actually take the time to obtain permits for their rallies. Liberals routinely do all of the above and they’ve taken it to the next level.

FBI agents are searching for suspects in connection with shots fired at two ICE buildings early Tuesday morning. The shooting first reported took place around 3 a.m. Tuesday on the 1700 block of NE Loop 410 near Brookhaven Drive. We’re told another shooting happened at a separate ICE facility around the same time. Investigators say that multiple shots were fired on two floors targeting ICE officials. No one was hit, but windows were broken in the building. One person was injured, it’s not clear how they were, though.

“I don’t think there’s a question that they knew which floors the ice offices were,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Chris Combs said Tuesday. The building shot at has multiple tenants, with the ICE facility located on upper floors. “All of the shots that we have found are on the floors where ICE had offices,” Combs explained. “This is no question a very targeted attack. It’s not a secret facility, you can go online, it’s out there. So they did some research, they knew what floors ICE was on, they knew what buildings they were and and they hit those.”

ICE ERO San Antonio Field Office Director Daniel Bible says the national discourse surrounding ICE and the topic of immigration is reckless, blaming today’s shooting on politicians, media and activists.

“This attack at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office in San Antonio is completely without justification,” said Bible. “Political rhetoric and misinformation that various politicians, media outlets and activist groups recklessly disseminate to the American people regarding the ICE mission only serve to further encourage these violent acts. ICE officers put their lives on the line each and every day to keep our communities safe. This disturbing public discourse shrouds our critical law enforcement function and unnecessarily puts our officers’ safety at risk.”
— News 4 San Antonio, 8/13/19

Like college professors and/or high school teachers who inspire their students to risk arrest and possible injury to participate in any manner of protest while staying behind in the safety of their faculty lounges, media and the activist/pundit class inspire aggressive acts from the safety of their studios and offices.

This was at least the fourth act of aggression directed at ICE offices since early July. Protesters outside a facility in Aurora, Colorado pulled down an American flag and raised a Mexican one in its place on July 12. Two days later, a self-described anti-fascist apparently tried to set an ICE facility on fire in Tacoma, Washington. On July 16, nearly a dozen protesters were arrested for unlawfully entering ICE offices in Washington, D.C.

At a time when many Democrats say President Trump bears some responsibility for a mass shooting in El Paso allegedly driven by anti-immigrant anger, some Republicans maintain anti-ICE rhetoric by prominent Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is encouraging violence on the left.

Ocasio-Cortez is one of many Democrats who have lashed out at ICE in recent months over the treatment of migrant families detained at the southern border and undocumented immigrants swept up in raids inside the country. She and others have called for the agency to be abolished.
— KTVL CBS10

Of course, when those who intentionally block the freedom of movement of others find themselves in the peril, the media chooses sides and affords them victim status.

The protesters were sitting on the pavement to block staff from parking at a Rhode Island prison that works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a black pickup truck swerved toward them. The protesters shouted as the driver laid on the horn, and the truck briefly stopped. And then, the driver hit the gas.

…

In a viral video captured by bystanders, the protesters screamed and jumped out of the way. Several were struck, according to organizers of the Wednesday night demonstration at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I. Some were treated at a hospital, though none were severely injured.

“It was terrifying because we didn’t know what exactly his intention was,” Amy Anthony, a spokesman for Never Again Action, a Jewish activist group that planned the protest, told The Washington Post. “It certainly appeared he was trying to hit us.”
— Washington Post, 8/15/19

As Bill Maher basically told the nation, the United States may not be so “divided”. In other words, we’ll be unified and there will be peace on the streets ONLY if Democrats are allowed to win the next presidential election and have unfettered control over policy, thus our lives.

With all the allusions to a coming “civil war”, it may ultimately come down to this…

“Peace only results after victory.”
— The Limbaugh Doctrine

Thinly-veiled blackmail can also be considered protected political speech and until the sore losers get their way, expect an uptick in incendiary commentary and subtle marching orders. If there was ever an argument for declaring anyone a domestic terror threat, the left has long since made their case.

For all appearances at this moment, it looks like they won’t get their way in 2020 and their lashing out and punishing those who won’t give them their way has really yet to begin.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her staff, AGAIN, thought she had some got’cha brownie points while former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan showed her the difference between an adult professional and an arrogant child with power. Don’t even get us started on the embarrassment that is Rep. Gerry Connolly.

Again, these children were brought across the United States border by those who intended on violating our sovereign border by either sneaking across it or claiming asylum. Either way, there is a process they willfully ignored and that’s the only reason why their children find themselves in the predicament they’re in.

But to hear these Democrats lament about their alleged ill-treatment of children, while they gleefully vote around the country to kill American babies (after-birth abortion) whenever a mother feels like it, is just sick.

How can they be held accountable?

Well, there’s 8 U.S. Code § 1324 for starters.

Harboring — Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) makes it an offense for any person who — knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.

The problem is countless of Americans have been impacted by the presence of illegal aliens; many have had personal property stolen and the physical damages range from varying degrees of injury from drunk drivers, assaults, rapes and murder, yet elected officials wish to protect them over citizens.

In the case of a few states, illegals are being protected by the same elected politicians who’ve been tasked with protecting the public.

It’s not only politicians that make it easy for illegal aliens to freely move and thus avoid apprehension from law enforcement.

There are a myriad of nonprofits who assist illegal aliens in obtaining all kinds of local, state, and federal government benefits ranging from food, cash, legal and housing assistance. They are essentially aiding and abetting illegal activities but under the umbrella of their nonprofit status, also receive tax benefits and protections while sheltering those who’ve broken at least one federal law, if not more.

Politicians and activists who support them should not be above the law and imagine how these politicians might uphold their sworn duties if they faced the ramification of their actions and were held responsible for the lives affected and/or lost.

Penalties — The basic statutory maximum penalty for violating 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(i) and (v)(I) (alien smuggling and conspiracy) is a fine under title 18, imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both. In addition, significant enhanced penalties are provided for in violations of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1) involving serious bodily injury or placing life in jeopardy. Moreover, if the violation results in the death of any person, the defendant may be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years.

Think about the thousands of Americans who’d be here today had those who took the oath to uphold our laws, done their jobs in the first place and had been appropriately punished when they blew off our laws for self-serving political motivations.

UPDATE

If not for the obvious agenda and indifference to the safety of the American people, the following could not be said with a straight face.

“They are not criminals,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said of migrants who cross without authorization. “They haven’t committed a crime against someone, and they are not acting violently or in a way that’s harmful to people. And I would argue they are not harming people indirectly either.”

“If you call them criminals, it’s a lot easier to get people to turn against them than if you call them undocumented immigrants,” Becerra said.
— Huffington Post, 4/3/19

Nah, they don’t harm anyone after they get here either. Just don’t read news reports daily.

UPDATE

As is often the case, irony rears its ugly head. California legislators have told ICE to butt out and leave illegals alone… that is until they got their way and now have to assume the costs.

San Diego County is suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the rising cost of asylum seekers. The Southern California county filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the heads of the agencies within the department, claiming the county has suffered from the release of asylum-seeking migrants.

Many illegal immigrants can not be immediately deported and must be allowed to stay in the country to wait out their court case, because of loopholes in immigration law.

“Loopholes”…? Try judges, lawmakers, immigration lawyers and nonprofits who advocate for illegals over US Immigration law.

Due to limited funds and housing resources, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were forced to stop implementing their “safe release” policy last fall, which provided asylum seekers assistance to reach destinations outside of San Diego. The county is now left to front the bill for the upkeep of migrant shelters and medical care, which is estimated to cost millions of dollars.

This lawsuit is a dramatic shift for San Diego as supervisors last April voted to back the Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging California sanctuary laws.
— One America News Network, 4/4/19

Maybe if Sacramento Democrats weren’t so welcoming of illegal aliens, the rest of the state wouldn’t find themselves in the dire situation they (and the nation) now find themselves in.

UPDATE

While the left insists the United States is a better place because of “undocumented immigrants”, reality is another thing….

There has been a 50 percent jump in illegal immigrant gang members coming into the United States this year, according to the former Border Patrol chief.

What’s more, he warned in Senate testimony Thursday, loopholes in federal law will result in some 650,000 illegal immigrants — more than the population of Wyoming — being released into the United States, where most will “never to be heard from again.”

According to Mark Morgan, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol from 2016-2017, the border situation is at a crisis point.
— Washington Examiner, 4/4/19

NIMBY UPDATE

Democrats care for the undocumented and have created “sanctuary” designations for some of their cities and states, but all hell broke loose when President Trump stated that he’s considering diverting the overflow of illegal aliens to their municipalities.

Trump: Let’s see if sanctuary cities have open arms

The response of liberal Democrat horror was predictable.

Trump’s plan to send migrant detainees to sanctuary cities draws concerns about cost, legality

They didn’t care much about the cost when the American taxpayer was left footing the bill for people who have no legal right to be here.

Trump proposal for ‘sanctuary cities’ infuriates Dems

Why “furious”? Just a couple of days ago, they welcomed the illegals.

Trump threatens to dump immigrants into California’s ‘sanctuary cities’
Trump Threatens To Send Detained Immigrants To ‘Sanctuary Cities
Trump’s ‘sanctuary city’ tweets draws angry reaction in Seattle, Burien

Oh, NOW they’re concerned about “public safety”….

Trump’s Sanctuary-Cities Threat Is His Latest Bid to Govern by Sabotage

Sabotage? What do you call the two-plus year Mueller probe of a candidate and president of a crime that never happened? The same people who assault the political opposition in restaurants, in front of the homes, etc. are now lamenting “bully” tactics? Puh-leez.

U.S. mayors decry Trump sanctuary city threat, ‘prepared to welcome’ migrants

They say that now….

Portland Mayor: Trump’s Threat to Bus Immigrants to Sanctuary Cities Is “Unconscionable”

It sounds so “unconscionable” and heartless when they intentionally leave out the word “illegal”.

Also unconscionable are the hundreds of people whose lives have been directly and negatively affected by those who the federal, state and local politicians decided not to protect the public from.

As Americans, we should only care about three things: (1) are the immigrants in the U.S. illegally; (2) have they committed violent crimes predominantly against U.S. citizens; and (3) had these criminals not been in our country illegally, these crimes, the victimization of our citizens and the costs of their crimes borne by American taxpayers could have been completely avoided.

Research conducted by the federal government oversight organization Judicial Watch in 2014 documents that 50 percent of all federal crimes were committed near our border with Mexico.

The pro-illegal immigrant lobby consistently misrepresents the criminal involvement of illegal immigrants as compared to immigrants who legally enter the U.S. and American citizens, saying that illegal immigrants commit less crimes than their counterparts.

According to the FBI, 67,642 murders were committed in the U.S. from 2005 through 2008, and 115,717 from 2003 through 2009. The General Accounting Office documents that criminal immigrants committed 25,064 of these murders.

Illegal immigrants clearly commit a level of violent and drug related crimes disproportionate to their population.
— Ron Martinelli, retired San Jose (CA) police detective

While they live in protected homes, workplaces and some even have round-the-clock armed security, they left the public at risk from those whose very first act in the United States was a violation of federal law.

Police: Man arrested after responding to undercover prostitution sting
Utah man arrested in Cheyenne prostitution sting
Man charged in undercover child sex sting in Rice Lake
Leamington man caught in online police paedophile sting operation
He drove 2 hours to have sex with a Richland teen. Police swapped condoms for cuffs
11 men arrested in Pleasanton prostitution sting
Police: Man arrested in Columbia Co. during online child sex sting
Live 5 Investigates: Officers pose as prostitutes in undercover sting

That’s only recent news and those doing the stings believe they are doing the public a service.

We have religious leaders, politicians, your homeless, your average Joe out there. We have everybody that solicits prostitution, all different walks of life, as well as the women that are engaged in prostitution come from all different walks of life. The prostitution isn’t going away, but neither are we. We’re going to continue to focus on that.
— Salt Lake police detective Greg Wilking

“Your average Joe out there” and despite mentioning that women are engaged in prostitution, it’s the arrest of the men that garners the headlines. You can’t tell us that if women weren’t similarly targeted in a wide sting net, fish wouldn’t be caught, but we don’t see police departments targeting women with comparative zeal.

Not to in any way excuse men seeking sex with underage girls, but someone also need talk to those in the exploitative entertainment industry who’ve hypersexualized very young girls for decades in ways highly inappropriate but profitable, and then lecture us when young girls are “victims” of perverse desire.

Police departments pat themselves on the back, the media promotes, citations and promotions are issued, setting someone up in an attempt to separate people from their freedom is something not considered an ethical tactic and government law enforcement is specifically cautioned.

645. Entrapment
Entrapment is a complete defense to a criminal charge, on the theory that “Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person’s mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute.”
— Department of Justice

Obviously, responding to sexual online messages from anyone you don’t know is a very stupid thing and you kinda’ deserve the ramifications should you get caught up in a police-inspired sting. But we’re also told that initial police sting operations can be as innocent as a “young girl” asking for “help” before a sexual aspect is gradually introduced. Too many men are currently languishing in prison because of predatory police divisions who spend more time online than going after documented sex traffickers and violent offenders, many of whom come from south of the border and now infect declared sanctuary cities and beyond.

In Los Angeles, 15 women and girls were forced by a family-run human trafficking organization into prostitution. As a result of the investigation, seven Guatemalan and two Mexican nationals were found guilty of conspiracy, sex trafficking of children by force and importation and harboring of illegal aliens for purposes of prostitution. They received prison sentences ranging from two to 40 years depending on their level of involvement.
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 1/16/13

Many women are physically leading sex trafficking rings and while they do receive minimal fanfare in local media, they receive scant, if any national media attention because the activist narrative must remain that women are ALWAYS the victim, NEVER the predator.

But we see entire departments created with one purpose: police officers successfully role-playing as young females to entrap weak men of all ages and professions to justify created jobs and the taxpayer resources required.

While citizens are victimized by crime that affects their persons and property, police departments have personnel sitting behind computers, pretending to be someone they’re not and doing so in sexually-provocative manners (which requires what kind of mind?), and targeting American unsuspecting men under color of law.