Posted on 03/10/2008 5:48:17 PM PDT by jazusamo
For more than two centuries, the political left has been preoccupied with the fate of criminals, often while ignoring or downplaying the fate of the victims of those criminals.
So it is hardly surprising that a recent New York Times editorial has returned to a familiar theme among those on the left, on both sides of the Atlantic, with its lament that "incarceration rates have continued to rise while crime rates have fallen."
Back in 1997, New York Times writer Fox Butterfield expressed the same lament under the headline, "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling." Then, as now, liberals seemed to find it puzzling that crime rates go down when more criminals are put behind bars.
Nor is it surprising that the left uses an old and irrelevant comparison — between the cost of keeping a criminal behind bars versus the cost of higher education. According to the Times, "Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, and Oregon devote as much or more to corrections as they do to higher education."
The relevant comparison would be between the cost of keeping a criminal behind bars and the cost of letting him loose in society. But neither the New York Times nor others on the left show any interest in that comparison.
In Britain, the total cost of the prison system per year was found to be £1.9 billion, while the financial cost alone of the crimes committed per year by criminals was estimated at £60 billion.
The big difference between the two kinds of costs is not just in their amounts...
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
If Crime Fighters do too good a job, as the Republican Attorney General did in NY, who was eventually beaten by Client-9 (actually voter fraud stole the election from him).
People forget what living hell they were living in. As soon as the Quality of Life went up in NY, Bleeding Hearts returned and Client-9 won the election where all he showed in his commercial was a newly born baby. I forget what is commercial was about.
In terms of WOT, doing a GREAT job by W and company to keep the evil off of our shores is in some ways working AGAINST them. Once again Code-Pink and other lunatics are out and about because they think just because W has done a good job, there is NO REAL THREAT out there.
If you mention a threat now, they call it ‘Politics of Fear’.
Not sure what I am rambling about, but I have still not gotten over the fact that NY used to be PURE HELL. It used to be considered more unsafe than Iran in some polls. I used to live in NJ back then, and we all worried if whoever had gone to NY in the evening had not returned in time. City that never sleeps, used to be a barren place at night for most part.
Pubbies fixed it and then Bleeding Hearts got rid of them.
Eff them.
Their preoccupation with the “rights” of criminals is profit motivated. Those campaign contributions keep coming in.
Now they are moving on the issue of warrantless wiretaps. Justice is not the issue and has never been. It’s attorney power, conducted at the expense of this nation’s security.
>> Then, as now, liberals seemed to find it puzzling that crime rates go down when more criminals are put behind bars.
That’s a great tagline!
for later
Dr. Sowell is right on the mark, as always.
You’re right to go on about it.
Until the libtards stop putting the rights of criminals ahead of the rights of law abiding citizens it’s not going to change.
Good article. Other than illegal immigration, it seems crime is not discussed as an election issue. Why not? So often we see these horrible “surprise” stories that some rapist has raped again, or child molester has molested again, or robber has robbed again, or a guy with 4 or 5 DUI’s finally kills someone in a car accident. The damage to society and the personal suffering inflicted by criminals whose sentences are too light or who are not even prosecuted in some cases, is heart breaking.
You’re correct, crime in the country has taken a back seat to the WOT and the illegals and it shouldn’t have happened.
What is/was Client-9?
Unless that threat is GlowBull DumbWarming! That's real!!!!!!!
Client-9?
Spitzer of New York.
Will take his place along side looter guy, tourist guy, and Baghdad Bob as Freeper legends.
I wish this man would run for office, any national office!
As with the whole range of Left, the Liberals sympathize with criminals. Farther left they are considered to be Social Allies, doing their part to keep the capitalists and middle class in line and helping to redistribute wealth.
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