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Posts tagged ‘criminal justice reform’

Giving Violent Criminals A Free Pass Only Punishes Innocent Americans And Rewards The Left


REPORTED BY: JORDAN BOYD | MARCH 18, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/18/giving-violent-criminals-a-free-pass-only-punishes-innocent-americans-and-rewards-the-left/

crime rewarded by progressives

Gerald Brevard III, a 30-year-old known criminal who was released early from prison because of Democrat criminal justice policies, was arrested this week after he allegedly went on a multi-state shooting spree targeting homeless people.

Brevard faced felony charges in 2020 when he tried to abduct and defile one woman and burgle another in Herndon, Va. Despite the fact that Brevard had “88 prior criminal charges dating back to 2009,” leftist Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, a former Obama-era federal prosecutor, reduced the abduction charge to a misdemeanor. This allowed the criminal to return to the streets after serving possibly as few as five months of an 11-month prison sentence.

Because Descano was preoccupied with reducing sentences for violent criminals under his “progressive justice” initiative, Brevard walked free and used his freedom to allegedly attack multiple vulnerable people that social justice preeners such as Descano claim to prioritize.

Brevard was released because a Democrat attorney saw him as his next social justice cause. The criminal’s freedom, however, appears to have cost the lives of several innocent people.

A similar incident happened in Dallas last week when leftist Judge Chika Anyiam lowered violent criminal Julio Guerrero’s bond from $2 million to $500,000, which only requires a $50,000 down payment for release from jail.

Guerrero was arrested last year after allegedly shooting at police officers during an hours-long standoff. He was accused of killing a father of five children after they rubbed elbows at a club, and of shooting a 3-year-old girl in the head in a fit of road rage days later.

Guerro’s attorney Tom Cox, who has donated at least $5,000 to Anyiam since 2015, quickly posted the bail. After backlash from law enforcement and other members of her Texas community, Anyiam, who brags on her website about going soft on crime, raised the bond for the murder chargem but only to $600,000.

“These irresponsible decisions, do not make our cities safer,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia tweeted.

Unfortunately for innocent, law-abiding, and vulnerable Americans who count on the justice system to keep them safe, anecdotes like these are increasing and will only get worse. Pro-criminal attorneys and judges repeatedly lower penalties for offenders in the name of achieving “equity.”

Why do leftist lawyers and judges repeatedly release criminals who end up harming people? Because they profit from it.

In exchange for their reckless policies, many of these radical legal officials are showered with donations by leftist megadonors such as George Soros, who has poured millions through “pro-criminal justice” PACs into district attorney races across the country. Letting criminals onto the streets is now a lucrative business for leftist politicians, which makes them less likely to change their ways and risk losing funding.

These “criminal bail reform” activists plaguing the American justice system may claim it is humane and just to lower the bar for criminals, but true justice does not include the harm and slaughter of innocent men, women, and children.

Remember when Darrell Brooks Jr. allegedly used his SUV to plow over a crowd in Waukesha, Wis., killing six people and injuring 62 others just days after being let out on bail? That decision wasn’t humane, just, or equitable. Even the Democrat district attorney in Wisconsin admitted that his progressive policies were “guaranteed” to kill someone someday.

Giving violent criminals a free pass only punishes innocent Americans. It’s neither humane nor just to sacrifice law-abiding lives on the premise that releasing creeps from jail is more humane than keeping them locked up. If they truly cared about people, Democrats wouldn’t allow their failed criminal justice experiment which has already cost too many lives to continue.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordangdavidson.

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Report: Black, Latino voters reject radical far-left policies like ‘defund the police’


Reported by CHRIS ENLOE | June 27, 2021

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/report-black-latino-voters-reject-radical-far-left-policies-like-defund-the-police/

Far-left progressives who advocate radical criminal justice reform policies like “defund the police” claim abolishing traditional policing systems will benefit minority communities. But according to a New York Times report, Hispanic and black communities aren’t buying what far-left Democrats are selling.

The race to become New York City’s next mayor has focused on crime and safety. Interestingly, Eric Adams, a former New York City Police captain who denounces radical anti-police policies, won a 10-point preliminary lead in the Democratic primary, which, though held last Tuesday, probably will not be officially determined until mid-July.

The Times explained what Adams’ success means in terms of far-left Democratic policies and minority voters:

In a contest that centered on crime and public safety, Eric Adams, who emerged as the leading Democrat, focused much of his message on denouncing progressive slogans and policies that he said threatened the lives of “Black and brown babies” and were being pushed by “a lot of young, white, affluent people.” A retired police captain and Brooklyn’s borough president, he rejected calls to defund the Police Department and pledged to expand its reach in the city. Black and brown voters in Brooklyn and the Bronx flocked to his candidacy, awarding Mr. Adams with sizable leading margins in neighborhoods from Eastchester to East New York.

The results show the majority of black and Hispanic voters, two groups of people Democrats assume will support them, are more moderate than progressive Democrats assume. In fact, according to Hakeem Jefferson, an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University, the average black voter shares more in common with Adams than, say, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

“Black people talk about politics in more practical and everyday terms… What makes more sense for people who are often distrustful of broad political claims is something that’s more in the middle,” Jefferson told the Times. “The median Black voter is not AOC and is actually closer to Eric Adams.”

The phenomenon of minority voters rejecting the ideology and policy agenda of progressive Democrats is not something reserved to New Yorkers.

“[A] growing body of evidence indicates that large numbers of Black and Latino voters may simply take a more centrist view on the very issues — race and criminal justice — that progressives assumed would rally voters of color to their side,” the Times reported.

In fact, the share of white Democrats who identify as “liberal” increased from the early 2000s by more than double compared to the share of black and Hispanic Democrats who identify as liberal, according to an analysis conducted by Gallup. The analysis again suggests that black and Hispanic voters are more moderate than Democrats assume.

“Increased liberal identification has been particularly pronounced among non-Hispanic white Democrats, rising 20 percentage points from an average 34% in the early 2000s to 54% in the latest period. By contrast, Gallup trends show a nine-point rise in the percent liberal among Hispanic Democrats, from 29% to 38%, and an eight-point increase among black Democrats, from 25% to 33%,” Gallup explained.

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Oregon becomes 1st state to decriminalize cocaine, heroin, meth, other drugs


Reported by Clyde Hughes | UPI | February 2, 2021

Feb. 1 (UPI) — Oregon on Monday became the first state in the country to decriminalize virtually all illicit drugs — including the hard varieties like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. A ballot measure that was approved last fall took effect Monday, at the start of February.

Under the new law, possession of small amounts of the drugs is no longer a criminal offense. Rather, it is a civil offense that carries a $100 fine, which can be paid by undergoing a health assessment. The new law, Measure 110, also uses tens of millions of dollars from Oregon’s marijuana tax to fund addiction treatment for violators. Advocates of the new law believe there will be significant savings from the reduction of arrests and incarceration.

The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission projects that convictions for controlled substances each year will decrease by about 3,600 — more than 90%.

“Possession of larger amounts of drugs, manufacturing and distribution are still crimes,” Oregon State Police Capt. Timothy Fox said. “With a crime, there is the possibility of fines and jail time. [With civil] violations, there is only the possibility of fines.”

The law decriminalizes heroin possession under 1 gram; less than 2 grams of methamphetamine; less than 2 grams of cocaine; under 40 units of LSD; less than a gram of MDMA, or Ecstasy; less than 12 grams of psilocybin; less than 40 units of methadone and less than 40 oxycodone tablets. The new law also reduces larger amounts of cocaine, heroin, MDMA and methamphetamine from a felony to a simple possession misdemeanor.

While many states have decriminalized and fully legalized marijuana, none before Oregon have decriminalized harder street drugs like cocaine and heroin. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., said she hopes Oregon’s move will be an example for the country in dealing with drugs.

“I hope that we all become more enlightened across this country that substance abuse is not something that necessitates incarceration, but speaks to other social ills — lack of healthcare, lack of treatment, things of that nature,” Watson Coleman said.

The Oregon District Attorney’s Association — a group of 36 district attorneys, deputy district attorneys, assistant attorneys general, district attorney office managers and U.S. Attorneys serving in Oregon — opposes the law. It called the move a “dangerous approach” to the drug addiction crisis and said the measure “recklessly” decriminalizes the “most dangerous types of drugs.”

“Oregon leads the country in pain reliever misuse, methamphetamine use, prevalence of mental illness and cocaine use and yet we are nearly last in access to treatment,” the group said.

“Decriminalization will lead to an increase in acceptability of dangerous drugs, normalizing hazardous experimentation for our youth and increasing accessibility, surging supply and lowering costs of dangerous street drugs.”

Read the full article: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/02/01/Oregon-becomes-1st-state-to-decriminalize-cocaine-heroin-meth-other-drugs/1801612181508/

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