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Progressive purity, or public safety                                                                                    

Posted at: Sep/28/2023 : Posted by: Mel

Related Category: People, The Law,

America is in the middle of what many would call the culture wars. Gender identity, crime and punishment, racism and being canceled are all aspects of this. There is no doubt that we have plenty of things in our society that need fixing. In the midst of all this chaos of thought we have backed away in many jurisdictions from punishing criminal behavior for fear of being accused of being racist. Clearly, the pursuit of extreme progressive purity on crime and criminals is coming at the expense of public safety and total indifference to victims.

On just one Saturday night this month, three DePaul University students, all women, were robbed within half an hour on their school’s Lincoln Park campus in Chicago. One of the women was hit in the face by her assailant. Across town, numerous armed robberies and murders were taking place at the same time. In all, Chicago reported at least 22 people shot and five killed over the weekend of Sept. 8, 2023.

Of course, it is the job of our elected officials to ensure public safety. To accomplish this Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has taken steps to address crime — to be specific, he has sued auto manufacturers for making catalytic converters too easy to steal. In New York Hyundai Motors is being sued for not installing engine disablers in all their vehicles making some of their models an easier target for auto thieves. So, it is the owner and Hyundai’s fault because the car got stolen…wow!

I have been taught that doing something is better than doing nothing, but it is difficult to say this is the right kind of something.

Progressives like Chicago’s Mayor Johnson fail to understand that their policies are fueling the crime wave, not fighting it. The evidence is clear: Crime is deterred by increasing the odds of prosecution. Increasing penalties has relatively little effect on crime rates; it’s really all about whether police and prosecutors will do and are allowed to do their jobs. That’s a legitimate question in areas where police are defunded, and prosecutors are pursuing social justice instead of the rule of law.

It is the certainty of being caught and the knowledge that being caught includes a punishment that deters most people from committing crime, not the fear of being punished or the severity of the punishment. Effective policing that leads to swift and certain (but not necessarily severe) sanctions is a better deterrent than the mere threat of incarceration. If you’re a parent this makes absolute sense to you. If you’re a progressive city council member I suppose you are worried about the poor downtrodden criminal.

What are the outcomes under liberal politicians such as Johnson, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and others? Even their Democratic constituents have had enough. Clearly their catch and release, or release with no bail fosters recidivism because if you do the crime and there is no punishment, why stop doing the crime. In our overly socially conscience or woke society there is now a fear that punishing criminals will brand the prosecutor and there office as racist. Outwardly that makes sense since 13% of the population is black but roughly 50% of our prison population is black. It would be easy to construe that incarcerating any black man beyond 13% of the population as a racist act, but that would be confusing Correlation with Causation. It would be easy to take the aforementioned statistics and draw any number of conclusions that were not viable but supported an agenda your specific choosing.

Note or Correlation vs Causation:
In the 1970’s there was a popular breakfast cereal that advertised eating their product every day would reduce your serum cholesterol. Outwardly this claim seemed to be true, and they sold a lot of cereal. Eventually, studied showed that eating the cereal did nothing to actually reduce cholesterol. What was really happening was that the people having the cereal for breakfast were not having bacon and eggs for breakfast and that is why their cholesterol levels dropped. This is the difference between Correlation (that the cereal company found) and actual Causation.

So having a disproportionate number of blacks in prison when compared to the overall population is a correlation, but calling is specifically racist would not be a causation.

Returning to failed policies:
In Oakland, for example, the NAACP — which is certainly not a MAGA leaning organization — has called out the city’s failed leadership and policies that are hurting minority communities. “African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland and other parts of the city,” a letter to the mayor from a Black pastor and other NAACP officials reads. “But residents from all parts of the city report that they do not feel safe.”

In a public response the Alameda County district attorney’s put out a statement saying: “We are disappointed that a great African American pastor and a great African American organization would take a false narrative on such an important matter.” Who are you going to believe, local community leaders and citizens hiding in their homes or modern progressives pushing an ideal utopian agenda?

I wonder, are Oakland officials trying to cancel the NAACP for not being woke enough?

Many Oakland residents, like other Californians, are fleeing what can more and more be described as a failed state or social experiment. While her family belongings were being loaded in a truck Oakland local Kristen Cook told a CNN reporter: “I’m not looking for the perfect safe place. I’m looking for a place where the elderly, and women with children aren’t targeted, I think we can all agree that that needs to change.”

Retailers are fleeing, as well. A big factor is the fact that in California, only a fraction of crimes are solved. With smash and grab crime way up, businesses have to deal with the losses. Raise prices, putting everything behind acrylic doors, and still the losses mount. When local policies don’t punish criminal behavior businesses eventually have to close or move to other communities. This ultimately means a community is left with less retail options and higher insurance for the remaining stores to stay open. These failed policies are not unique to Oakland, similar consequences are unfolding in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and other progressive cities across the country.

But not every big city official is getting it wrong these days. One example is Dallas, where Mayor Eric Johnson is targeting high-crime areas and coordinating with — instead of against — his police department. “DPD (Dallas Police Department) has been targeting violent street crime, specifically aggravated assaults (non-family violence), robberies and homicides,” CBS News reports. “In its first year of the program, violent crime in the city’s targeted hot spot grids dropped by 11 percent from the months before the program.” And police presence works. As a Justice Department study explains, “A criminal’s behavior is more likely to be influenced by seeing a police officer with handcuffs and a radio than by a new law increasing penalties.”

The argument that the looting and large-scale riots in Chicago were just individuals trying to right the frustration between those who have and those who don’t have is ridiculous. One Congressional Representative even said they were just doing is because they were hungry. How does an arm full of make-up or a flat screen television quell hunger? Throughout human history there has always been broad spectrum of economic disparity or wealth. Since people’s ambition, drive and skills will vary…there is no real solution, but that does not rationalize theft and looting.

Borrowing heavily from the writings of John Locke the founding fathers of the United States believed strongly that government has a moral obligation to serve people by protecting life, liberty, and property. When stores are vandalized, and property looted with no consequence to the perpetrators there is failure to protect property which is a basic role of a modern representative government. If individual property cannot be protected by institutions such as the police, then a civil society is lost, and business owners will guard their doors with loaded shotguns and communities may devolve to vigilante justice. This means the rule of law is lost.

When crimes are committed, and the criminal are caught we prosecute with three potential expectations:
1.   Hope that incarceration leads to reform, training and rehabilitation.
2.   Punishment teaches the perpetrator there is a negative outcome for their actions.
3.   Society is at least temporarily protected from this individual while incarcerated.

It is difficult to say how often items 1 & 2 will succeed, but we need to not forget the victims and enforce the 3rd outcome.

There is no doubt that returning to bail and conventional criminal prosecution will lead to a disproportionate number of one minority housed in our justice system, but that doesn’t mean our justice system is racist. We know what works to deter crime: Make prosecution and punishment a certainty. In our most progressive cities, the social experiments have clearly failed. The outcome is that we are making victims of criminals and criminals of victims. Hence the crime wave that is crashing upon our cities. We need to remember who the real victims are and work on their behalf.

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