LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva
LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Image via Alex Villanueva Twitter.
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Under orders from government officials, many local jails and state prisons across America are sending bad guys  — allegedly non-violent offenders — out into the community and not arresting some criminals. And all too often, so-called “progressive” politicians are working to simultaneously stop firearm and ammo sales to good guys amid the Chinese coronavirus emergency.

What could possibly go wrong with this soft-on-crime scheme?

Take Los Angeles, for example. The LA County Sheriff, someone who never misses a chance to appear in front of TV cameras, has done just this in recent days. The NRA-ILA has the story.

Los Angeles Sheriff Works to Empty Jails While Disparaging Second Amendment Rights

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has an unorthodox plan for ensuring public safety during the COVID-19 pandemic: free imprisoned inmates, look the other way on crime, and try to suppress law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

We all know we are supposed to vigorously wash our hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus. We didn’t know, however, that lawmen were supposed to wash their hands of vigorously enforcing the law.

Nevertheless, the U.K. Daily Mail reports that with the urging of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (not known for its public health expertise), Villanueva has released over 600 inmates, including those with less than 30 days left to serve on their sentences. The article also states that the daily number of arrests across Los Angeles County has in the same period dropped some 80%.

While arrests may have declined 80%, you can bet that California’s politicians haven’t reformed the state’s criminals. Far from it.

Even worse, from the Daily Mail story, the Legal Aid Society in New York City urges police to stop making arrests altogether.

Legal Aid Society’s Tina Luongo said: ‘City Hall must place an immediate moratorium on arrests, and for the hundreds of clients we have languishing in DOC custody pretrial or because of a parole violation, we call for their immediate release.’

Maybe if Tina’s clients behaved themselves, they wouldn’t “languish” in jail.

Meanwhile, back in the Golden State, the LA County Sheriff counsels against buying a gun for self-defense. Especially with people suffering from cabin fever.

You might think that with the department’s reduced enforcement efforts, Sheriff Villanueva would understand and support the public’s desire to provide for its own safety during the extraordinary emergency posed by COVID-19. Indeed, other media reports indicate that scores of Californians are buying firearms for the first time as a safeguard against the fast-developing crisis, with lines outside one Los Angeles County gun store having recently stretched down the block.

You would, however, be wrong.

During the same press conference in which he announced the steps to reduce his jail population, Villanueva told the assembled media, “Buying guns is a bad idea.” Incredibly, his rationale for this statement was that “you have a lot of people now that are at home” because of efforts to combat the pandemic, which supposedly makes them susceptible to “cabin fever.”

If a little cabin fever makes Sheriff Villaneuva want to shoot his family members, maybe someone should file for one of California’s Red Flag orders against him. Or maybe the Sheriff should hang out with different family members.

Plenty of Americans in free states have ignored the anti-self-defense messaging from gun-hating politicians and civilian disarmament advocates. Instead, they have voted with their wallets to secure guns and ammunition to defend their homes and families in these uncertain times.

 

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86 COMMENTS

  1. right now most cops don’t need to be told by the ACLU not to make a bunch of arrests. Departments have no PPE, they’re starting to get sick, and judges just release the bad guys without so much as a bond anyway.

    Urban areas are going to get squirrely before this is over.

    • “Departments have no PPE, they’re starting to get sick, and judges just release the bad guys without so much as a bond anyway.”

      Just heard a report on this end a prison guard has tested positive.

      I fully expect them to empty the prisons and for the crime rate to skyrocket, and the cops to do nothing about it since there will only be a few, if any, cops not sick to make arrests.

      “You know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby! You’re gonna DIE!!!!”

  2. He’s a disgrace to the Sheriff’s dept. ( he’s not the only one either) Sheriff’s are supposed to uphold the U S Constitution, NOT work for the governor or mayor, most of them do, but there are some bad ones out there, especially in California,

    • There isn’t a sheriff of Los Angeles County in the last several decades who was pro-2A. Instead, he (they were all men) and the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department are in complete agreement that “more guns means more gun crime,” and therefore making it impossible for residents to obtain CCWs and difficult to buy firearms and ammunition is a good thing because there will be fewer guns “in the street.” In one of the early lawsuits here, former (and now disgraced) Sheriff Lee Baca and the then LAPD Chief testified to this exactly, even though neither could point to any study that supported their position. Villanueva is a hand-picked successor who was sworn to uphold the principles of his predecessors.

    • They answer to their voters. Their oath to the Constitution is no more magical than any other. That’s why I roll my eyes when people hold the office on a pedestal.

      With a Sheriff you are getting a politician cop instead of a politician’s flunky as a cop. The only real difference is the audience they’re playing to. If you like their politics, you’ll think they’re good. If not, well…

  3. With the name Villaneuva and the actions he has taken, I question his Loyalty and Patriotism. Is he taking California back for Mexico?

  4. Unlike those poor slobs in Commiefornia or NY I can defend me & mine in suburban Cook County,ILL. As they empty Cook County Jail. Fun times for all😃😋😏

    • Trust me. You do not want any civil unrest. Just read up what happened in Sarajevo during their civil war.

      Think Hell is bad? It was worse in Kosovo.

      We need to do everything we can to prevent such a happening.

      • Trust me. They want civil unrest. They have been working on creating it since they have undermined the Traditional family of one man and one woman. Just look at the inner cities now.
        They have been very honest in demanding the removal of the father and his guns from the traditional family structure. And replace him with a government welfare check and the guns of a big city police department.

  5. By that same logic, the mayor of L.A. told people that they couldn’t go to their family vacation homes in the mountains. It must be to protect the coyotes and bobcats up there.
    (John, will there be GSL newspapers this month? Where to get them?)

    • “By that same logic, the mayor of L.A. told people that they couldn’t go to their family vacation homes in the mountains.”

      Got a link on that one?

      That’s some arrogance to tell someone they cannot go to a home they own.

      On the other hand, the residents of those places might be tempted to open fire on ‘city slickers’ they think are invading them.

      It’s gonna get really interesting when the panicked city slickers try and flee their rat-trap and make a run for the countryside. Because those people will not tolerate that bullshit… 🙂

      • Actually, no.

        If the city slickers bring the infection with them, there is no infrastructure or services that can handle the infection rate.

        They don’t want an epidemic to arrive, with tiny hospitals, and few public safety people available.

        • In Texas, in the next county over from where I live, we had someone from New York bring the Corona Virus to us. Hope it wasn’t intentional.

    • Victoria,
      Just to let you know I received my April 2020 issue in the mail yesterday. So it should be on the way.

  6. One need only look to LA City’s and County’s historical track records when it comes to protecting residents during periods of ‘social unease’, it’s every family for themselves. The default response is to “blockade and contain”, those inside the “blockade” are on their own.

    • They wonder why we don’t trust them. Because we look at the historical examples.

      Actions (or inaction) speak louder than words.

    • I would like to remind people that during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the job of the police was to confiscate weapons and count dead bodies. Yeah, they were there to help. LOL

  7. I will clean all my guns, have a small mill to set up, and then might use it to build a couple p80s and an AR receiver as I’ve got all the parts to fight “cabin fever”. This guy seems to have a problem filling his spare time.

    • The Progressive universe where the reality distortion field is so strong ideology overrules reality in their minds.

  8. A complete breakdown might be the best possible outcome. It seems to government only exists to keep good people from killing the bad.

  9. Not to mention police forces in New York, Chiraq, San Francisco and L.A. are being told to not arrest anyone for nonviolent offenses. Being the very thugs being released who have no home no money and no jobs. Where do you think they are going to turn to get what they need. Good Luck Out There…You are Going to Need It.

    • Perhaps Tina could take some in as an example for the rest of us unenlightened proles.

      In less than a week she will be found raped and murdered and her house ransacked.

    • They’re creating the perfect reasons to expand government, restrict rights, pass more gun control, and further push socialism.

      It’s a Win Win for the leftists.

  10. Perhaps this “slap in the face” is the beginning of a new CA? Something needs to wake up a citizenry that obviously stands for nothing and falls for anything that drops from the behinds of Berkley trust fund dorm room marxist punks.
    I pity those who know better and have to put up with sicko self serving anti gun ratbassturds.

  11. Wow this guy assuming cabin fever leads to murder.

    Ugh. Michigan’s 3rd most populated county is also releasing inmates from the jail.

    • Jeff,

      As I started to read your comment, my mind jumped ahead and figured that you were going to say, “If anyone has reason to get cabin fever and come out shooting, it would be the people in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula!”

      (And yet the violent crime rate in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is nil — like every other rural northern region of the United States.)

      • “(And yet the violent crime rate in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is nil — like every other rural northern region of the United States.)”

        Just wait until the panicked down-state people start driving north when Detroit and Gary turn into hell-holes.

        (I suppose the peaceful people up there will consider it pest control instead of ‘crime’…)

      • “And yet the violent crime rate in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is nil…”

        It depends on how you define “violent crime”. In terms of murders it’s close to nil. There’s the occasional whacko and the cops are, uh, “unprepared” for it. Just ask Jodie Watts. Murdered in my hometown literally yards from the cop shop. Raped and stabbed up with a screwdriver. Turned out that David Goodreau was a serial killer who, even when the cops had him in custody for attempted burglary (trying to break into another lady’s house to off her), was only found to be a serial killer because he talked with his priest and decided to confess.

        Then there’s the domestic violence. It’s off the charts because at least half of the people in da U.P. are functional alcoholics. Yeah, that old guy can skate and play hockey but he’s already had enough to put most people under the table.

        I grew up there. Pretty country if you’re not there for the winter, and even then it’s pretty if you’re only visiting. Sometimes I feel some sort of nostalgic pull for that area. Then I remember that Klaes Ashford was right when he said “You let nostalgia trick you and you’ll regret it badly.”.

  12. And yet, in spite of the ruling class’ best efforts, their reliable voters are quietly going to gun stores in droves and purchasing their first ever firearms.

    I was utterly shocked to learn today that a nice neighbor of mine — who definitely espouses most/all Progressive ideals — purchased their first handgun and their first ever “AK-15” in the last two weeks. It is so taboo at their home that mom and dad dare not let their adult children know that mom and dad have come over to the “dark side”.

    I am going to bug them (in a good, endearing, neighborly way) to come over to my home so that I can train them on their first firearm purchase. Lord knows they will need training.

    The real challenge now will be finding a location for live-fire range practice since all of the public ranges are closed as far as I know. And while I have two fairly close friends within 2 miles of me who have their own back yard range, I don’t want to wear out my welcome with an endless parade of trainees.

    • One of my more liberal friends acquired an AR-15 three years ago from a LEO friend of his who was leaving CA and wanted to help him get a gun before he left. So his LEO friend took him to a LGS, helped him choose a quality AR, and took him to the range to get him started.

      That was the only time my friend ever fired it. He recently took it out of the closet and showed it to me, then asked me if we could go to the range so he could learn from scratch again. He had no idea how to load, unload, unpin, clean, lube, sight in, anything. So there are definitely people out there who have/had a gun in storage and are now waking up and dusting it off. They need our help.

    • “The real challenge now will be finding a location for live-fire range practice since all of the public ranges are closed as far as I know.”

      Is there federal land in range of your vehicle? Do you know someone ‘out in the sticks’?

      Ask, and you may receive…

    • Bad move. The kids will find them. They should at least teach them “stop, don’t touch, run away, tell a grown up.” Better would be to let the kids safely handle unloaded firearms to remove any mystique, but I’m doubtful the parents could safely handle the firearms themselves. Best would be to teach whichever 4 rules you like, but again I doubt the parents know, practice, or could teach them.

  13. But they did announce they will step up enforcement on businesses that refuse to close forever.

    What is government putting most of their focus on?

    – Don’t respond to all crimes were there is a victim
    – Declare gun shops not essential
    – Refuse to process gun licenses
    – Refuse to do background checks
    – Release some inmates for their safety
    – Make less arrests

    At least Louisiana was bold enough to declare their unlawful “martial law.”

  14. I stopped reading at “‘Chinese’ coronavirus emergency.” Cut that shit out. Just call it the coronavirus. I swear I saw Zimmerman just do that in an article too, but can’t find it now… if I’m not making it up in my mind, I didn’t read past that one either. We all know where it originated.

    F**k, this website is getting shittier articles by the day. I swore it off during your, autoload, virus laden advertising crisis and I definitely didn’t come back to TTAG to hear you spew this crap. Don’t give the left any more ammo than they already have by showing your intolerance.

    • It’s called the Chinese coronavirus because that is where it came from. If you are concerned about your Chinese comrades losing “face” over this, then the Chinese premier and the rest of the party can remove their face, and the rest of their head, from their behinds. It their inaction, bungling, and coverup that not only unleashed a global pandemic but has also started a global economic recession. China is willing to lose lives by the millions than lose “face”.

      • millions or billions wouldn’t put much of a dent in the population. I hope this c19 gives some governments a wake up call. Can you imagine the cluster fck that a nuke war would bring. Most countries are totally unprepared to salvage a majority of the population.

      • Do you call HIV the “African Virus”?

        No, I didn’t think so.

        And Spanish Flu probably started in Kansas btw.

        • HIV was originally known as GRID, or Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease. And the Spanish flu was called that because of WW1 censorship neutral Spain was the first country to report it. By then the flu had travelled from Kansas to New York, across the Atlantic to Bordeaux, and then spread so far even the Germans were infected.

          Calling COVID19 the Chinese coronavirus upsets the Chinese government. So it is the best name for it.

        • to Southern Cross
          “HIV was originally known as GRID, or Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease.”

          I have not heard that in a very long time now. That title, a type of medical diagnosis honesty was banned back in the 1980s. Just as they refused to be honest with how HIV was primarily transmitted. They now are incapable of being honest with who and where this current virus came from.
          They refused to stop HIV positive people from coming into the USA back then. And now the same people refuse to close American borders.

        • That reminds me of an old joke. What’s the hardest thing about getting AIDS? Convincing your parents that you’re Haitian. The 3 initial high risk groups were identified as gays, hemophiliacs (frequent blood transfusions from unscreened blood supply), and Haitians (high incidence). Now blood is screened, we know it can be transmitted via vaginal sex (although less easily than anal), and it just was spreading undetected in Haiti.

      • Put the one finger you used to hunt and peck “yer” asinine post back in your nose where it feels at home, Darkman.

    • “I stopped reading at “‘Chinese’ coronavirus emergency.” Cut that shit out. Just call it the coronavirus.”

      Pandemics take the name of where they originate, that’s just the way it is.

      Consider it an excellent opportunity for you to work on your coping skills, OK? 🙂

      • No, they don’t. They get a name plastered on them for propaganda purposes. That’s why a flu that originated in North America, possibly Kansas or NYC, got named the “Spanish Flu.”

        And that’s why the same idiots who were downplaying this and doing NOTHING for 2 months except dumping their stocks want to blame it on China.

        Stop swallowing the BS.

      • That’s nice. I cope just fine, but you don’t read very well. I’m a staunch supporter of the 2nd amendment. Should we, as average rank and file citizens, be allowed machine guns *without NFA bullshit*? Yep.

        Most of your bullshit responses reaffirmed why we will eventually lose what’s left of our second amendment rights. You don’t even comprehend that I’m trying to help our cause by removing stigmatization from the most basic of posts. I don’t even know why I’m bothering to respond to the ignoramus here…

        • Well, Golly, Dude, us ignoramuses here just don’t have the intellect to fully comprehend and appreciate the veritable BOON with which you are gifting us, and will thus indubitably fail to show all due and proper respect and gratitude for it. You simply cannot expect such as we, ignoramuses all, to be hearty in our approbation and lavish in our praise. Pearls before swine, and all that.

          Alas.

          However, if you go over to that dark corner of your basement and squeeze yourself into it ‘just so,’ you just MIGHT be able to have sex with yourself. Give it a try. Think of it as ‘Social Distancing.’

    • Get out of here you communist scum…. you wanna lick on a puny Chinese peter, you go right ahead, otherwise GTFO !!!!

      THIS IS A NASTY DISEASE, FROM THE NASTY CHINESE SCUM WHO EAT BATS IN THEIR SOUP ….. NASTY MFERS!!!

      CHINESE KING FLU!!!!!!

      NOW THEN, YOU GTFO WITH THAT SHIET….

    • This shit came from China, it was hushed by the Chinese government and deserves to be called The Chinese virus. Or Kung-Flu is you still feel like joking. That doesn’t mean that we are not tolerant towards Chinese people, or Asians as whole.

      You don’t like what Dan posts? That’s unfortunate. But don’t despair, the internet is wide and there is something for everyone’s taste. Even for little Nancy like yourself. You should try Mother Jones.

  15. No worries Sheriff Villaneuva, the roof Koreans have all gotten over their exposure to the Kung Flu, and they have more ammo then back when the Rodney King verdict was announced.
    Listen carefully Sheriff, you can hear “Ret de games begin” being spoken from the rooftops.
    Enjoy hiding under your desk during the riot.

    • Villanueva just announced that he’s adding 1300 to patrol duty. LASD has 10K uniformed, so where are these “extra” LEOs coming from?

      Probably been pulled from outlying areas of the County to service Downtown. I used to see 5 to 10 LE vehicles per day in my local valley for most of my life. I’ve seen a total of three over the past full week. And we’re not supposed to expect an increase in crime over the coming weeks as this plays out? Imagine all those businesses I’m seeing everywhere that are shuttered and unprotected because they were deemed to be “non essential”. Lots of stuff in those buildings waiting to be pilfered.

    • Some days I’m glad that I am old and have memories of the Rodney King LA riots. Those Koreans knew how to protect their lives and buildings. Too bad though for the unarmed caucasian trucker who got pulled out of his truck and nearly beat to death. That scene from TV has permanently burned an image in my aging brain.

  16. “No man, we’re safe in here, nothing can get to us” …. If they really want to make it work the only laws that should be enforced are traffic laws. Somebody creeping around your place at 3 in the morning winds up DITY( dead in the yard) no big deal, wrong yard, wrong time. What to do with the body? Why eat it of course, a criminal has to taste better then a politician, unless you like eating shtt.

  17. Since the LACo Sheriff Has been forced to house State felons in county facilities(because of overcrowding in the state system), he has a tough job to do.He has to keep the kids(young gang bangers and the stupid ones that are in county on joyriding or minor drug influence/possession) away from the older so-called non-violent state convicts(some that have spent half their lives in prison). He has a huge balancing act to keep general population from becoming the same as a state prison system.
    I don’t know if he can keep them seperate by law, but I do know that the racial gangs inside(even at the county level) are worse than they have ever been. It already takes a couple of weeks to get on the list to visit someone in an LACo lockup. If you can not bail your kid out, you might not even see him before he is arraigned, the pressures being put on him inside are many and great, so he just might plea to something just to get out(Ca has plea deals for felonies that put a felony on your record with no jail time).
    That happened to my niece’s boyfriend, I wasn’t able to talk him out of it. It was a self defense situation, but after 3 weeks inside, he would have signed anything to get out.

    • Libertarians Liberals and the Left are very grateful that hundreds if not thousands of prisoners are being released all across the country. They are very grateful that the police will stop arresting people.
      Now if they will just support criminals being shot dead on site by law abiding crime victims.

  18. Here’s an update (GOTTA LOVE IT!):

    The Los Angeles County sheriff said Tuesday gun shops are not essential businesses and ordered deputies to make sure they were closed during the coronavirus crisis — a move that was contradicted hours later when the county’s top lawyer said the shops could be open.

    Los Angeles, the nation’s largest county with 10 million residents, enacted a stay-at-home order last week that required all nonessential businesses to close to slow the spread of the virus.

    The county order — and an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom — did not specifically mention gun shops, prompting the Los Angeles County counsel’s office to issue a statement late Tuesday saying it has “opined that gun stores qualify as essential businesses.”

    It was not immediately clear what the conflicting guidance meant for gun stores.

    • It sucks being an essential service. But at least I have a job and getting paid. Downunder unemployment has spiked to nearly 10% and may soon reach 15%. The worst since the great depression.

      Thanks China. I hope the global recession bites you on the behind. How are you going to recover when no one can buy your goods?

    • “a move that was contradicted hours later when the county’s top lawyer said the shops could be open.”

      Sounds like his political ‘betters’ will sit him down and explain to him that gun stores had better be “non-essential” if he knows what’s good for him, I suspect… 🙂

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