With every passing week we are horrified by the stories we see, read, and hear, about career criminals harming, even killing, innocent law-abiding citizens. The assaults being committed by criminals are unconscionable, inexcusable, and mostly preventable. By now it should be clear that there are people who can/will not be rehabilitated. It shouldn’t take a degree in Criminal Justice to understand the danger presented by people who seem to have been born with no moral compass. That our elected representatives refuse to address this issue is a dereliction of duty. Unless we are willing to play Russian Roulette with our lives, and the lives of our children and grandchildren, it is time for us to get off of the couch. We must identify, then replace, every elected official who is literally putting our lives in danger to promote their ideologies.
Crime is a complex issue. Having said that, we could reduce the danger criminals pose to law-abiding citizens by employing a couple of relatively simple remedies. The easiest way to reduce crime is to lock up violent criminals and deport illegal aliens. The Biden administration invited many millions of people from all over the world to enter our country illegally. (Dems. are finding it increasingly difficult to sell their drivel to Americans. They opened our borders in hopes of gaining new voters). First, we must continue to root out and deport criminal illegal aliens. Many of them came here to grow the criminal enterprises of foreign cartels. They brought with them an influx of drugs that have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. In the U.S. during the fiscal years of 2023 and 2024, there were 114,000 and 87,000 drug overdose deaths respectively, in the U.S. It was the #1 killer of young people between the ages of 15-44. In just 2 years we lost about 1/2 as many Americans to drug overdoses as we did military personnel in all of WWII!
To those who think we are being cruel and should stop deporting criminal illegals I pose the following statistic. The average Boeing 747 airplane carries a passenger load of approximately 500 people. If 4 jumbo jets were crashing every week, we would demand that the President do everything in his power to stop it. We should support President Trump’s efforts to remove as many illegals, especially criminal illegals, as fast as possible. You can be sure that if evidence suggested illegals had a propensity to vote for Republicans, Democrats would have placed a bounty on them.
Second, all law-abiding citizens must unite to defeat every elected official who refuses to enforce our laws. If a local District Attorney or Prosecuting Attorney provides a list of crimes they will not prosecute, we must remove them from office. It is not their job to pick and choose which laws they will enforce. Experience shows that low level criminals who suffer zero consequences for their crimes become repeat offenders. And historically, their crimes increase in severity. The U.S. Sentencing Commission reports that 63.8% of violent offenders are repeat offenders. On average they commit a new crime in 18 months. We would, at least theoretically, witness a serious reduction in violent crime if we simply jailed violent offenders. It is not theoretical that those incarcerated are unable to commit additional crimes. We would all be safer.
Approximately 1/2 of the states have passed some form of “3 strikes” legislation. Even true “blue” states like California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington enacted them. The laws require mandatory life sentences for criminals found guilty of 3 felonies. The laws had their desired effect. California reported that, after a second felony conviction, repeat offenders who would be committing their 3rd offense went down by 20%. Studies showed in the decade following the passage of these state laws, the prison population rose, and the crime rate fell. Duh! Alas, sleazy D.A.s and Prosecutors have found ways to work around the law. They pled felonies down to misdemeanors or refuse to prosecute certain felonies at all. Add the catch and release policies created by no cash bail instituted by some states and there are too many violent criminals roaming our streets.
Too many people we elect have chosen to protect criminals and illegal aliens instead of victims, or potential victims. And like it or not. we are all potential victims. In 2015, Kate Steinle was murdered by an illegal alien in San Francisco. He had been deported multiple times. Members of Congress who too often live in gated communities with taxpayer funded security details couldn’t muster the courage to pass “Kate’s Law”. The law would have required stricter penalties for people convicted of certain crimes who re-enter the U.S. after having been deported.
If nothing I have said has moved you, I’ll go for the heart strings. Fellow parents and grandparents, this could happen to us. None of the victims I mention below ever imagined such a thing could happen to them or a loved one. Kate Steinle was murdered by an illegal alien who had been deported multiple times, had a seven-felony rap sheet, and used a stolen gun. Kate’s father, Jim, said the last words he will ever hear from his daughter were, “help me dad”. I have a daughter and multiple granddaughters. I tear up every time I think about those words. Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old refugee from Ukraine, was stabbed to death last month by a man with a rap sheet a mile long. She came to the U.S. to escape the horrible violence in her home country. Her mother and father will never see their daughter again. Last week a 69-year-old man was stabbed at a gas station in Indianapolis. He is in critical condition. The assailant has been arrested 90+ times and has never spent a day in prison. When will some random judge look at his record and say, you know, I don’t think this 41-year-old man is getting it, and sentences him to jail? As an aside, the Prosecutor in this case has already reduced the charges against this career criminal to aggravated assault. I could write pages about the miscarriages of justice being wrought on victims and law-abiding citizens alike. I’ll close with one last tearjerker. Just this last week we heard from Mr. Steve Federico. He was grieving the loss of his murdered 22-year-old daughter, Logan. A random career criminal dragged her out of bed and murdered her, execution style. Mr. Federico said: “She was forced to her knees with her hands over her head, begging for her life, begging for her hero, her father, me, who couldn’t be there . . .” The perpetrator is a 30-year-old career criminal. He had been arrested nearly 40 times, 27 of which were for felonies. Authority’s refusal to properly punish him, resulted in the death of an innocent young woman, and heartbroken parents. Perhaps a parent’s worst nightmare is losing a child. It must be even worse if the loss was preventable. All of the above deaths, perhaps thousands of others, were avoidable.
Unfortunately, we are left with just a couple of options. 1. We can do nothing and watch these heinous atrocities continue. 2. We can keep our children and grandchildren within our sight 100% of the time. (Not realistic). 3. We can become informed, then engage in the process of ridding ourselves of elected officials who refuse to keep us from becoming victims. It will take time, “mama bears” are reaping the rewards of a lot of hard work done in our public-school systems a couple of years ago. At the state level we must demand that our representatives create mandatory sentencing laws for those who commit violent crimes. We must monitor local Prosecutors, staying on the lookout for those who refuse to prosecute all crimes. When judges produce a dismal record of preferential treatment toward criminals and against victims, we must move to vote them out of office if they are elected and impeach them if they are appointed. On a national basis, we must demand that Congress bring back “Kate’s Law” for another vote. Then remove those from office who vote against it.
It will be a long slog through quicksand. Progressive Left Democrats will fight us every step of the way. But our form of government, our Republic, demands diligence from We the People. All of the government employees mentioned above receive their paychecks from our tax dollars. They are our employees. We must never forget that.
Thank you for taking the time to read my latest post. Please share it with any of your acquaintances who have children or grandchildren they would like to keep from becoming victims. Bob