Posted on 11/27/2019 5:25:08 PM PST by bitt
Jeffrey A. Rosen is the deputy attorney general of the United States
Thanks to sensible law enforcement policies, violent crime rates dropped by half nationwide over the past three decades. Although increases occurred in 2015-2016, the rates again dropped during the first two years of the Trump administration. But reductions in crime are neither automatic nor inevitable. They are the result of federal, state and local law enforcement and prosecutors working together to enforce the laws.
Unfortunately, a trend is emerging that could threaten the hard-fought progress in public safety. A small but troubling number of state and local prosecutors are vowing that they will not enforce entire categories of core criminal offenses, as part of a misguided experiment in “social justice reform.”
A prosecutor has a vital role: to enforce the law fairly and keep the public safe. These purportedly progressive district attorneys, however, are shirking that duty in favor of unfounded decriminalization policies they claim are necessary to fix a “broken” system.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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‘A small but troubling number of state and local prosecutors are vowing that they will not enforce entire categories of core criminal offenses, as part of a misguided experiment in “social justice reform.”’
And in the cities that have allowed that, the crime rate has sky rocketed....what a surprise.
We are all aware of the corrupt cop as stereotyped in media. They do exist. But often a good decent cop will bust someone for something small because they believe that person has done something much worse and may do it again. Better to get them removed from society even for a short while. This progressive “zero zero tolerance” view of the crime is jaded. Take each case as they come. I’d rather see an armed robber taken off the street for a year and a $10,000 fine for public urination, than let him walk around because they don’t want to prosecute homeless people.
Qualifying the word “justice” with words like “social” or “economic” or “climate” defines a qualified, incomplete sort of justice. “Qualified justice” is an oxymoron.
If citizens perceive that they will not receive fair justice in the courtrooms and legal retribution for horrible crimes, then those citizens may decide to take the law into their own hands.
Our early history in the old west is full of vigilante groups who believed justice was not being meted out.
” decent cop will bust someone for something small because they believe that person has done something much worse”
The definition of corrupt.
Vigilante groups actually date back to the 1750s on the Frontier of North Carolina.
Well that is not actually the definition of corrupt, but I get your point. A crime is a crime is a crime. I said take each case as they come. Letting everyone walk on small crimes because the prosecutions disproportionately land on an unfortunate but largely non-violent group makes no sense when faced with a violent person doing the same crime.
I suppose we’ll disagree.
Cops “deciding” who to arrest, and by implication, who to let slide based on the cop’s opinion of what an individual may also be guilty of... Is quite the definition of a corrupted justice system.
In other words, I don’t want people urinating in public. But hey it happens. Catch someone doing it who has no criminal record imo he doesn’t deserve the same fate as someone who has been arrested a number of times for violent felonies and plea bargained their way to minimum sentences. The first guy, maybe some public service as a penalty. The second guy, the maximum sentence allowed by law.
I get it. I don’t agree.
If it’s illegal to urinate in public, bust those who do for THAT crime.
I don’t think we’ll disagree much. Just a question of clarification. Either cops have some discretion, or they don’t. That discretion will break both ways. Sometimes to let a relatively mild issue go with a warning, sometimes to bust a hard guy.
The prosecutors and district attorneys are the ones who are dictating policy now. And so they are telling cops “no discretion”. We’re not gonna prosecute this that or the other. Doesn’t matter who, why or where. I think that is “zero zero tolerance”. It doesn’t make any more sense than “zero tolerance”. It’s like expelling a kid from school because he made a gun gesture with his fingers. Maybe you would expel a kid like that who has a history of violence and intimidation, but maybe you would use it as an opportunity to teach good manners for a different kid.
But that is what I said. Bust ‘em all. But then, when it lands on the prosecutors desk, right now anyway in places like San Francisco they are just dismissing the charge entirely. Maybe in a lot of cases it should be dismissed. But if you got a guy who’s been arrested for armed robbery and assault before... why not put him away for the max? Or revoke his parole/probation?
It shouldn’t be a case where all who are prosecuted for the same crime get the same penalty. Some people actually do deserve a harder penalty. The cops, the prosecutors and the judges all have plenty of discretion. And I will agree with you completely, that opens the door for a lot of potential for abuse.
But, it is also a form of checks and balances. If the cops abuse their discretion, which I think abhorrent, the D.A. and the judge may get a chance to put that in balance. But to handcuff the cops and tell them “don’t even bother arresting anyone for public urination” even if it’s a guy with 3 violent strikes... makes no sense to me. And actually eliminates one layer of checks and balances.
Fair enough.
In Texas, now, the Left controls not only most of the big cities, but also the counties that contain those cities.
And given the discretion that prosecutors have, having the Left control that process is great if you are an ethnic who lives in LaHood and you’re into robbing, assault, and rape. However, if you from the ‘oppressing class’ (i.e., white) and you make even a minor mistake, you could be looking at years in jail.
It is for that reason that I’ve told my kids to STAY CLEAR of these counties and simply live outside them - in red counties. That way if, for example, you have a shoot a guy who’s about to rape your daughter, he goes to jail (assuming he lives) and not you. It’s really that simple.
George S0r0s. We have one here - arbitrarily suspended the death penalty. Also the Chicago prosecutor in the Jussie Smolett case. S0r0s has spent millions getting these misfits elected all around... anything to weaken the United States.
This is the result of the Thirdworldization of the US; the authorities understand that the primitives we import, and those we already had, simply can’t function in a society with any expectations.
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