In Chicago, more anarcho-tyranny – and the mayor is in favor of it
In Chicago, there was another terrible crime in which a woman on a train was doused with gasoline and set on fire. The alleged perp, Lawrence Reed (44), is what used to be called a “career criminal.” Byron York writes about his long rap sheet – which included acts of arson as well as assault on women – for which he seems to have gotten something called “mental health probation.” While in a hospital this past August, he assaulted and injured a social worker there.
By that time, Reed had had “72 arrests, eight felony convictions, and seven misdemeanor convictions — a total of 32 years in and out of the criminal justice system.” And yet the judge refused to incarcerate him, instead setting him free with an ankle bracelet monitor which turned out to be pretty much worthless.
Reed couldn’t have been locked up forever for his crimes, but he certainly should have been locked up again and not free to attack still another person. Let’s say he really is mentally ill; the mental health system doesn’t seem to be able to cure him any more than the criminal justice system can. Not all crimes can be predicted and prevented, to be sure. But this one could have been, and was not.
This was no error, either. And just to make that clear, the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, said this:
And yet, just days later, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared, “We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence.”
For MaGee — and countless others — the incarceration of a repeat offender with Reed’s record would have prevented a nightmare.
But that’s exactly what he told reporters at a Tuesday press conference, insisting, ”We have already tried that, and we have ended up with the largest prison population in the world, without solving the problems of crime and violence.
“The addiction on jails and incarceration in this country, we have moved past that,” he said, adding, “It is racist. It is immoral. It is unholy and it is not the way to drive violence down.”
Actually, although it hasn’t solved the problem, nothing else has, including all the social work and social justice theories in the world. And until that problem is solved, criminals need to be incarcerated. At least, while they are locked up, they’re not roaming around assaulting the innocent.
But – and this is the point of the word “anarcho-tyranny” in the title of this post – way too many of our leaders no longer understand this simple truth. Just because a problem isn’t totally solved by a certain approach doesn’t mean that, until there’s a better one, it shouldn’t be used. It is immoral to allow criminals free reign to harm the population, although perhaps it makes Mayor Johnson and so many others on the left feel good about themselves.
Chicago has a very high crime rate and many of the victims are black, but anarcho-tyranny means that no one on the left seems to care when black people kill black people, either. AI Google, which certainly isn’t always my go-to resource, has a pretty good definition and so I’ll use it:
Anarcho-tyranny is a political theory describing a government that is simultaneously oppressive toward law-abiding citizens while being ineffective at controlling criminal behavior. This theory posits that a government fails to perform its basic functions of protecting the public and maintaining order, while instead using its power to punish or control innocent citizens, creating a state that is both anarchic (lacking order) and tyrannical (oppressive).
I know it would never pass legal muster today, but for such criminals we need to revert to Tombstone AZ justice as was practiced in the old west: a long drop on a short rope after a 20min bar room trial.
A major problem is slack judges. “72 arrests, eight felony convictions, and seven misdemeanor convictions”. What we are doing isn’t working. We have to make judges accountable. I realize that isn’t how we used to do things, and they mostly worked OK for a long time. But for about 60 years (if not more) things have been getting worse and worse.
I also have to point out that they didn’t used to work all that well. I grew up in NY, and I’m not sure there were ANY honest judges. If there were, they were rare.
But at a minimum we may just have to take all discretion away from them. Set, fixed sentences, across the board. Not ideal, but given that we cannot trust the judges we have to show even minimum judgement, that’s what we have to do.
Another I’ve see, is that any time a felon you let off without prison commits another felony, that’s one strike against the judge. Three strikes means suspension. Second suspension entails loss of the judgeship.
There may well be better ways. But we really have to get these self-styled deities under control.
“By that time, Reed had had “72 arrests, eight felony convictions, and seven misdemeanor convictions — a total of 32 years in and out of the criminal justice system.”
“the judge refused to incarcerate him, instead setting him free with an ankle bracelet monitor,”
In this case, presumably the judge had the legal option of incarceration. If so, this judge is complicit in the murderous assault. If not legally, certainly morally. And laws, at creation, are based in the morality/zeitgiest of their time.
neo states; “It is immoral to allow criminals free reign to harm the population.”
That’s not a ‘bug’. That’s a feature. Those on the hard left intend to destroy America and build upon its ashes a new utopia.
It’s strange but we’re seeing Chicago change politically before our eyes.
I’m with GB…
Don’t for a minute think this situation is accidental. Just like the nonexistent border.
We’re getting what the left intends.
Sennacherib, hasn’t Chicago always been this way, just rather more blatant now?
I suppose there was more law and order in the days of the Richard Daley’s but that was long ago.
When Rahm Emanuel won the election for mayor my friends from back home (Louisville) teased me a bit about that. I told them at the time, you don’t understand, this is by far the least bad option in this city. Even I didn’t realize how right I was.
I’m convinced Chicago was built over an Indian burial ground.
Usually it’s restaurant locations – or the house down the street from me – but some places just seem to be cursed.
Marisa no it’s never been like this. I tend to think like John+Guilfoyle. Chicago has always been a violent place this is different.
roaming around assaulting the innocent.
99 percent of the horsepower expended in articles about such repeat assaults is deflected to agonizing – always unsuccessfully – about what’s to do with the nominal pobrecitos who commit the assaults. I’d suggest that 98 of that 99 percent should be henceforth deflected and turned to the details of the REAL pobrecitos who suffer those assaults, with sincere demands that the end of such ‘roaming around’ be immediately curtailed by all means necessary.
He’s right. You can’t incarcerate your way out of this. We’ll just have to shoot the bastards.