The Scourge of Progressive Prosecutors

The election, in recent years, of several so called “progressive” district attorneys (or state’s attorneys depending upon where you live) is confusing pheonomina that seems to defy common sense. “The prosecutors’ campaigns have been funded by the bogeyman of the Right, billionaire leftist George Soros, and animated by extreme left-wing political movements such as Black Lives Matter. The politicization of what was, in its origins, an apolitical law-enforcement function will have serious consequences for public safety and order,” notes Craig Trainor in his recent City Journal article.

Noting that even the America Bar Association considers the duty of prosecutors to increase public safety, Trainor finds that “progressive prosecutors don’t share this understanding of their role.”  Their principle objective is in ending “mass incarceration,” by deploying “an array of slogans about structural racism, disparate outcomes, and white supremacy. The relationship between this woke rhetoric and preventing an unreformed felon from robbing and raping again is never made clear.”

In fact, electing progressives to force a woke political agenda on prosecution agencies conflicts with self-interest of the very people who voted for them.  “Who wants to be assaulted because the prosecutor is giving hardened criminals outpatient therapy instead of time in state prison?”  How many Susan Sarandons are actually voting for this?

“Prosecutors enjoy immense discretion. In individual cases where the facts and equities compel an appropriate decision to decline prosecution, they are acting in the finest traditions of American justice when they do so. But progressive prosecutors engage in systemic oath-breaking when, as a matter of express and undifferentiated policy, they refuse to enforce the duly enacted criminal laws of their state. In these cases, there are good-faith grounds to charge them with “engag[ing] in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice,” a kind of catch-all provision of the (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct.”

The fact is, progressive prosecutors are waiving bail on suspects and undercharging and undersentencing serious and often habitual criminals to further the goal of “social justice.”  Trainor believes that, rather than wait for voters to throw them out, progressive prosecutors should be confronted in the courts for dereliction of duty.  The Association of Deputy District Attorneys in Los Angeles pursued a variant of this, having recently won the first round of a lawsuit charging progressive DA George Gascón with forcing his deputies to ignore state law.  In some jurisdictions, LA being one of them, the District Attorney can also be recalled.

Every avenue available to remove progressives from office and depoliticize the prosecution of criminals must be taken.