Put Y'all Back in Chains, page 10
Sentencing Reform Gamble
For years, the Left has pushed the false claim that America’s criminal justice system unfairly targets blacks. Progressives point to “three strikes and you’re out” laws, heightened penalties for violent crimes, and mandatory minimums as culprits. The effort to reform sentencing rules at both the federal and state level hasn’t made much progress, certainly not in the minds of progressives. What the modern Left sees as social justice or equity, most Americans see as a license to steal, rape, and engage in mayhem. The Left has all but given up on this effort legislatively.
Rather than continuing to make the case—also known as the hard work of self-government—that the U.S. justice system is too punitive and hardhearted toward criminals, progressives have successfully short-circuited the existing criminal justice system by getting radicals elected as local prosecutors all over the county.
District Attorneys Won’t Throw the Book
Leftwing plutocrats like Laura and John Arnold have used their wealth to put in power prosecutors who refuse to prosecute. By selectively targeting district attorney races in key elections, they’ve turned America’s criminal justice system into a criminal injustice system. Take Philadelphia, where the Arnolds supported the election of Larry Krasner in 2018. He Immediately stopped the use of cash bail for what he called low-level crimes: criminal mischief, prostitution, a range of drug crimes, DUI, forgery, and even resisting arrest.
Since his election, crime has ballooned in the city. He has dismissed or actually lost some 55 percent of drug-dealing-related cases in his office.40 Similarly, his office lost, or failed to prosecute, nearly half of illegal firearm arrests. In three short years, the number of homicides in the city increased from 353 to more than 520 in 2021.41
In the fall of 2022, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to impeach Krasner.42 The Pennsylvania House cited his failure to prosecute some crimes, his policies on bail, failing to keep victims informed of the cases he’s prosecuting, and his attempts to obstruct the Pennsylvania House’s investigation.43
Instead of aiding victims and working to keep violent criminals incarcerated, these new prosecutors are either very lenient with violent felons or refuse to charge them altogether. Instead of enforcing the laws as they exist, they wave a magic wand and (mis)enforce laws as progressives wished the laws might be.
The so-called progressive district attorneys undermine punishment in the name of their racial equity agenda and foist the consequences on America, often hurting blacks the most.
A report issued in early 2022 by the Capital Research Center showed that since 2016, more than $29 million in funding from George Soros and other progressive groups has gone specifically o back left-wing district attorney candidates.44
The reach of these radicals is truly remarkable, but when you have nearly $30 million in campaign support, you can truly transform the criminal justice system.
Diana Becton
Contra Costa County, California.
$275,000k from Soros in 2018
George Gascon
Los Angeles County, California.
Part of a $6M in 2018
Monique Worrell
Ninth Judicial Circuit (Orange and Osceola Counties), Florida.
$1 Million from Soros in 2020.
Darius Pattillo
Henry County, Georgia.
$150k in 2016
Kim Foxx
Cook County (Chicago), Illinois.
$2 Million in 2018
James Stewart
Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
$1 million in radical funding
Scott Colom
Circuit Court District Sixteen, Mississippi.
$950k in 2015
Jody Owens
Hinds County, Mississippi.
$500k in 2019.
Kim Gardner
St. Louis, Missouri.
$116k in Soros funds in 2021
Raul Torrez
Bernalillo County (Albuquerque), New Mexico.
$107k in funding in 2016
Alvin Bragg
Manhattan, New York.
$1.1M in 2021.
David Clegg
Ulster County, New York.
$184k in 2019.
Larry Krasner
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
$2M in 2019.
Jack Stollsteimer
Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
$100k in 2019.
Joe Gonzalez
Bexar County (San Antonio), Texas.
$1M in 2018 in Soros support.
John Creuzot
Dallas County, Texas.
$236k in support.
Brian Middleton
Fort Bend County, Texas. k in 2019
Kim Ogg
Harris County (Houston), Texas.
$600k In 2016
José Garza
Travis County (Austin), Texas.
$400k in 2020
Parisa Dehghani-Tafti
Arlington County and City of Falls Church, Virginia.
$600k in 2019
Steve Descano
Fairfax County, Virginia.
$600k in 2019.
Buta Biberaj
Loudoun County, Virginia.
$650k in 2019
Ramin Fatehi
Norfolk County, Virginia.
$220k in 202145
Not surprisingly, the result of this approach has been a huge spike in crime. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, crime data from 22 cities nationwide—including Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Memphis, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia—showed 218 more murders overall in 2021 than in 2020.46
Crime Data for President Biden’s First Year
►Aggravated and gun assault rates were higher in 2021 than in 2020. Aggravated assaults increased by 4 percent, while gun assaults went up by 8 percent.
►Motor vehicle theft rates were 14 percent higher in 2021 than the year before.
►Domestic violence incidents increased by nearly 4 percent between 2020 and 2021.
Council on Criminal Justice – January 26, 2022
Anti-crime efforts should focus on ending dangerous crime for all Americans. Instead of focusing on the race of criminals, protecting all victims should be the priority, and blacks, who are disproportionately victims, will benefit the most.
Road Rage Rollins
Though these faux prosecutors have been elected all across the US, President Biden (in order not to be left out) nominated a major progressive, Suffolk County, Massachusetts District Attorney Rachael Rollins to be one of his U.S. attorneys. As expected, Rollins had been quite successful as a district attorney in weaponizing her status to “transform” criminal justice in the Boston area. This made her the perfect candidate for an unelected federal role.
Elected as Suffolk County district attorney in 2018, Rollins set off almost immediately to impose a radical agenda. She single-handedly decided that her office would limit the prosecutions of certain crimes that “unfairly” targeted the dispossessed. Among her achievements was announcing wholesale that her office would ignore, dismiss, or plea out defendants arrested for at least 15 different charges.
15 Crimes Rollins Rubber Stamped47
Like her fellow radical district attorneys, Rollins never stopped to focus on whether criminals should stop committing dangerous crimes, such as resisting arrest, drug distribution, larceny, or wanton destruction of property, but focused instead on whether society had unfairly over-criminalized these actions as a way to harm these accused persons.
Rollins publicly expressed her antipathy for law enforcement at a June 1, 2020, press event about “peaceful protests” in Boston in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Standing next to Boston’s mayor and police commissioner, Rollins explained that she was “exhausted” because police officers “shoot us in the street as if we were animals.”48
In early 2021, while awaiting confirmation, Rollins was investigated over a road-rage incident arising from a Christmas shopping parking-lot dispute. According to Katie Lawson, the shopper who filed the complaint, Rollins—who was using her official vehicle at the time—allegedly impersonated a police officer, including using verbal threats, to arrest Katie Lawson. Rollins reportedly even turned on her police lights to further create the impression that she was an officer of the law.49 Progressives might not want to punish felons, but in Rollins’s, case they sure are committed to get that close-in parking spot at the mall.
After the incident, Rollins took to Twitter to call Katie Lawson a “racist.”50 While the investigation closed without a recommendation, the troubling behavior pattern would appear again when Rollins was caught on video tape threatening a news crew that tried to cover her initial investigation.51 Not surprisingly, Rollins’ confirmation as U.S. Attorney to the Massachusetts District was contentious. In fact, Vice President Harris ended up casting the tie-breaking vote in order for her to be confirmed.
Bragg About Helping Criminals
The other DAs are just as bad.
In the summer of 2022, America recoiled upon hearing the news of the arrest of 51 year old bodega worker Jose Alba. Alba was charged with the murder of 35-year-old Austin Simon, whom he stabbed trying to defend himself at his deli. While the progressive prosecutor focused on Alba, the facts showed that it was Simon who was the aggressor, not Alba.
Video surveillance would show Simon’s girlfriend berating Alba after her government issued food-stamp debit card was declined. Only moments later, Simon entered the store, walked behind the counter, and shoved Alba against the wall. Simon then stood over Alba and blocked his exit.
The New York Post reported that Alba had tried to defuse the situation when it started: “Papa, I don’t want a problem, papa,” Jose Alba, says.52
Only by using a knife to defend himself did Alba live. Unfortunately, Simon died.
Alba’s saga is just one of many instances sending the same message. It is one that Soros-backed prosecutors and the left have been pushing for years: you do not have the right to defend yourself, ever.
To add insult to injury, David Simon—whose brother Austin Simon was stabbed on July 1 by Alba in self-defense—has hired an attorney as he prepares to file suit against the Blue Moon convenience store in Hamilton Heights.
Meanwhile, after the uproar over charging Alba, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg changed course and abruptly dropped the charges.
The high-profile reversal was a rare circumstance for Bragg, who, as one of the nation’s woke prosecutors in America, has made criminal justice (not victim justice) his primary focus.
A former federal prosecutor, Bragg campaigned as a reformer and convinced New Yorkers to select him to replace Cy Vance, the city’s District Attorney for more than a decade. But reform doesn’t appear to be his goal. Transformational justice, perhaps.
With much fanfare, Bragg’s office issued a memorandum outlining his new plan for criminal justice reform.53 Charges that in the past would have been prosecuted will no longer be processed. They include:
►Possessing marijuana
►Refusing to pay the fare for public transportation
►Trespassing
►Failing to pay fines for unlicensed operation of motor vehicle
►Committing any traffic infraction
►Resisting arrest
►Obstructing governmental administration
►Engaging in prostitution
►Most other misdemeanor offenses
That’s right. The NY DA’s office will simply not prosecute these cases under any circumstances.
He also announced that “non-incarceration” would be the presumption in all criminal prosecutions except in cases of:54
►Homicide
►A felony where the victim suffered serious physical injury from a deadly weapon
►Domestic violence felonies
►Sex offenses, such as rape and child sexual abuse
►Public corruption
►Mafia or Racketeering
►Major economic crimes
Notably not eligible for incarceration would be cases of home invasions not leading to “serious physical injury,” auto theft, or distribution of narcotics to youth.
Moreover, there was nothing stopping the ability of the DA’s office to take a person accused of a crime eligible for pre-trial detention to have his case “reassessed”55 and have the case charged as a non-incarceration type prosecution. In fact, the news record is replete with instances of criminals having their charges substantially reduced.
Recidivists Need a Second Chance Too
Career criminal Marcus Wright, 37, was charged with grand larceny in April 2022 but was allowed to plead down to misdemeanor petty larceny. He was able to literally walk out of the courthouse without any jail time.56 Wright, who has thirty-six busts on his rap sheet, used that freedom to punch a woman in a random attack in Chelsea.57 Wright was released again almost immediately.
Law and Disorder
Even a massive brawl with police isn’t sufficient to be eligible for pre-trial detention in Bragg’s world. In an incident that started off as a noise complaint, a brawl broke out between dozens of people and the NYPD.58 Kimberly Rivera, Felicia Davis, and several other bystanders punched officers when asked to stop blasting songs on a street corner in Harlem.59 Despite the entire event being video-taped, Bragg’s office reduced the felony assault charges of Rivera to a misdemeanor, and Davis—who actually had set up the outdoor speaker—got an even better deal: all charges dropped.60
Is an Axe a Deadly Weapon?
In another videotaped case, Michael Palacios, who pulled out a tomahawk and went on a rampage against customers and staff at a NYC McDonalds, was given a slap on the wrist.61 Does Bragg think an axe isn’t a deadly weapon, or is it that, since customers fled, no one was seriously injured? We only know that Palacios’ charges were reduced to misdemeanors, thanks to Bragg.62
Bragg Ignores Rapes Too
In February of 2022, a teenage relative of Justin Washington reported to police that she was raped while the two were watching television together in East Harlem. Initially charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, and forcible touching, Washington was kept in jail with a $25,000 cash bond that he couldn’t post. However, three weeks later, Bragg’s office reduced Washington’s charges to third-degree rape, and his bail was reduced to $12,000, which was sufficient for him to get released.
In the fall of 2022, NY DA Alvin Bragg’s office promised the twenty-five-year old Washington an even sweeter deal: a thirty-day jail sentence with five years of probation and the ability to plead down to a charge of coercion. Supposedly, this was done to protect the victim.63
Shortly after this offer, Washington went on a sex crime spree, victimizing five more New Yorkers.
Victim 1: An 18-year-old male. Reportedly, Washington broke in through the victim’s window early in the morning, reached into the young man’s underwear while the young man was wearing them, and demanded a payment. After accusing the victim of not being understanding, he fled.
Victim 2: Within an hour, police say, he climbed up the fire escape of a building on Davidson Avenue. He began banging on the window of an apartment where a 26-year-old woman was home with only her 9-month-old son at the time. The startled victim says that when she pulled back the curtains, she saw Washington masturbating.
Victim 3: Incredibly, Washington actually broke into another apartment in the same building just minutes later. According to the 49-year-old female victim, he straddled her, ripped her nightgown, and once again demanded payment. Court records say the assault was only interrupted when the victim struck Washington several times with a hammer.64 Of course, she was terrified and told the press that she was grateful that her children weren’t home at the time, adding that “she can’t bear to be alone in her apartment since Washington broke in and tried to sexually assault her.”65
Victim 4: Less than half an hour later, Washington struck again. Prosecutors say he went to an apartment on Aqueduct Avenue, slipped his hand through a woman’s bathroom window, stole her underwear, and then pleasured himself.
Victim 5: Moments after taking the previous victim’s underwear, he was caught on surveillance footage molesting a homeless woman, including pulling down her pants and once again pleasuring himself, simultaneously. Her mistake: she had been sleeping in the lobby of the Aqueduct Building that he had just broken into. Thanks to the intervention of a passersby, she was able to escape.66
