Progressive-left criminal justice policies are resulting in skyrocketing crime in several cities, and residents are fleeing in record numbers.
Cities governed by district attorneys backed by billionaire international leftist George Soros are all experiencing rapid increases in crime because of radical policies such as reductions in prosecution rates, de-incarceration, and reduced funding for police.
“The progressive experiment of social justice and defunding the police has been a massive failure,” writes John Bachman for Newsmax.
Soros spent $3 million on candidates for district attorney offices in cities across the United States in just one year, in a stealthy effort to overhaul the nation’s justice system to place the interests of lawbreakers far ahead of public safety.
“People like Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Kim Gardner in St. Louis, Kim Foxx in Chicago, George Gascon in Los Angeles. All of them have watched crime skyrocket in their cities,” Bachman writes.
Pro-criminal policies are evident in several cities run by the Soros-backed district attorneys. In Philadelphia, for example, Krasner has eliminated the death penalty, stopped prosecuting “low-level” crimes such as drug trafficking, and refuses to impose bail, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Philadelphia is suffering a 39 percent increase in murders this year over last.
San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin says he plans to overhaul the city’s justice system by ending the bail system, eliminating the gang enhancement law that allows a prosecutor to increase the sentence if the criminal act occurred in conjunction with gang activity, and implementing other policies that keep criminals off the streets, American Greatness reports.
In Chicago under Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, crime is up and prosecutions are down. Foxx’s mandates have resulted in cases being dropped for murder, shootings, sex crimes, drug offenses, and attacks on police officers, The Daily Signal reports.
“Just like other elected rogue prosecutors in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and St. Louis, violence is a big problem in Chicago under Foxx’s leadership,” writes Cully Simpson for The Daily Signal.
These district attorneys all have much the same policies because they were all selected and supported by George Soros, Simpson says.
“He and his prosecutorial puppets are seeking to ‘reimagine’ and fundamentally transform our criminal justice system from an adversarial system pitting prosecutors against defense counsel, to a system where criminal defense attorneys, beholden to the movement, take over DA offices and enact nonprosecution policies,” Simpson writes.
Soros also helped fund an initiative called “Second Chances” in Arizona. This effort to rewrite criminal justice laws and overhaul the system includes a variety of ways to reduce prison time for convicted criminals, American Greatness reports.
The “Earned Release Credit” program would allow convicted criminals to reduce their prison time by as much as 50 percent. There are no exceptions, so even violent offenders would be eligible, and previous felony convictions would not preclude participation. Drug offenders could have their sentences reduced by 70 percent, and other nonviolent offenders could earn one and a half days of credit for every six days served if they work or take education courses while incarcerated.
The bill won unanimous support in the state House of Representatives, Fox 10 reports. It awaits consideration in the Arizona Senate.
“In 2014, these same groups pushed Proposition 47 in California, which significantly lowered penalties for several criminal offenses,” writes Scot Musi for American Greatness. “Since then, property crimes and drug offenses have gone through the roof, adding to an already serious homelessness problem. Fraudsters and organized theft rings are migrating to the state, confident that their criminal activity is unlikely to be charged by county district attorneys.”
De-incarceration and other soft-on-crime policies will not inspire criminals to reform, says Dr. Senyo Adjibolosoo, founder and president of the International Institute for Human Factor Development.
“It is deadly and wrong thinking,” Adjibolosoo said.
Adjibolosoo says the policies of the Left assume the person being freed from prosecution will reform, but that is false. Most criminals never voluntarily take responsibility for what they did wrong, Adjibolosoo says. Few will face their own failings if they are not required to, and without that, individual reform is impossible.
“In order for a person to change, the root system has to change,” Adjibolosoo says. “That is the human factor. The only way to reform a person is through their own development. They have to understand that the change has to come from them, and they have to want to change.
“How many criminals come out of jail reformed?” Adjibolosoo said. “They just want to get out and get back at society. They are mad and are thinking about how they can do worse things when they get out.”