Every time I read about the latest murder, the killer’s lawyer, usually accompanied by the killer’s family, gets up in front of the cameras and claims that the killer was suffering a “mental health crisis.” “He was a good boy,” they allege. “He didn’t deserve to get murdered by the police in this way.”

We made it through another one. Here are a dozen of my wishes for the new year:

Sarah Ravani is a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. She writes a lot about the Oakland Police Department, and none of it is complimentary. In fact, every time Sarah writes about OPD it’s with a nasty, negative tone.

The notion of “housing first,” which is so popular among left wing activists in Oakland, has been criticized by Donald Trump, and for once, I agree with him. Housing first, says the Chronicle accurately, “provides chronically homeless people long-term subsidized housing…but does not require treatment for mental illness or addiction.” This is a huge loophole, which Trump correctly calls “a permissive approach” that blatantly allows, indeed rewards criminals, grifters and asocial types to benefit from the taxpayers’ generosity, but does nothing to actually address the causes of homelessness.

There were published reports, about two weeks ago, that former Oakland mayor Jean Quan was being seriously considered for appointment to the Oakland Police Commission. The reports emerged for about 24 hours, then quietly disappeared. It was never clear just who was advancing Quan’s name, or why. My own suspicion is that it was a trial balloon floated by Barbara Lee.