Venezuelan Crime Rate Plummets

As two NYPD cops were shot a few weeks in Queens by a recent Venezuelan immigrant and Tren de Aragua gang member, it seems like a lot of Venezuela’s crime problem has migrated to the United States.  That is to be expected to some degree.  That country is in crisis, and our borders are wide open.  Not every immigrant is an upstanding citizen.

But as Officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu were thankfully released from the hospital with minor injuries, we took a look at the crime trends in Venezuela.  Crime is down – a lot.  Significantly more than you would expect with a normal migration trend. 

From 2022 to 2023, the homicide rate (murders per 100,000 people) is down from 35.3 to 26.8 – a 24% drop in one year.  That is remarkable for a country “in crisis.”  More recently a Venezuelan official stated that overall crime dropped 32% so far in 2024 compared to 2023. 

 

Venezuelan politicians deny that they are pushing criminals to the United States.  But this quote from a Venezuelan crime tracker should give us a good idea of what is happening: “Crime is falling in Venezuela because of the destruction of the country’s economy…because of the loss of opportunities for crime.”  So, a failing economy and chaos is causing less crime?  Right.  If there’s one mango left in the entire nation, the criminals would steal it.

We think the migration thing sounds just slightly more plausible.  Maybe we can wait for the Biden Administration to give us the real scoop? 

You know – because they’ve been so honest about our own crime numbers….

Woke DA torments Cop

In Minnesota a State Trooper has been under indictment and preparing for a murder trial for the past 10 months.  For a cop, living under a murder indictment is a stress like no other. 

On the night of July 31, 2023, Troopers from the Minnesota State Patrol pulled over Ricky Cobb II for driving with his lights off.  Cobb was wanted for violating an order of protection.  When Trooper Ryan Londregan attempted to take Cobb out of the car, Cobb began to drive away.  Londregan reached into the car, attempting to stop Cobb.  During the struggle, and with the car moving, Londregan fired two shots, killing Cobb.

An illegal gun was found in Cobb’s car, near the center console (which never seemed to make the news).  Londregan stated that Cobb was pulling on his unholstered gun as he drove away.  Some questionable tactical decisions aside (don’t reach into an occupied car), this seemed like a case that was legally justified.  Yes, there would be a civil suit, and the Cobb family has that right, but criminal?  No way.

Enter the longtime Hennepin Chief County Public Defender Mary Moriarty.   These days she is posing as the Hennepin County District Attorney.  She gained that position in a 2022 election, running on a woke platform of justice reform and going after cops – and with over $500,000 worth of George Soros’s money.  She kept her campaign promises, dismantling the idea of justice in Hennepin County and seizing upon the shooting of Ricky Cobb to prosecute a cop. 

After months of investigation, Moriarty indicted Londregan in January 2024 over the objections of her own use-of-force expert and the Minnesota State Police’s training expert.  Even the Democrat Governor of Minnesota condemned the indictment. 

Undeterred, Moriarty moved forward with the prosecution.  Assistant District Attorneys on the case quit and an outside counsel (which cost a fortune) had to be brought in.  Even they couldn’t justify the prosecution, and last week Moriarty finally dropped the case. 

Moriarty naturally blamed the defense team for her inability to take the case to trial.  Umm.. that is their job, right?

Trooper Londregan is surely breathing a sigh of relief, but that type of stress does not just go away.  Add Mary Moriarty to the list of woke DA’s that see ideology over the law and will do anything to damage the justice system in this country. 

Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!