Commentary Magazine has a long and wonderfully wide-ranging article about two present-day phenomena on a collision course:  The Critical Race Theory alliances that have captured much of President Biden’s attention and seem to be shaping his criminal justice policies; and the massive (indeed, unprecedented) surge in violent crime we have seen unfolding for more than a year  —  a surge most pronounced in the cities friendliest to CRT and “progressive prosecutors,” e.g., Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

The basic question the article presents is whether Biden has forgotten his past support for sober criminal justice policies and the life-saving success he (and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) had with them, and whether, if so, we are headed back to the bloody failures of the Sixties and Seventies  —  failures that exact a disproportionately high toll on minority communities.

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Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón issued a statement yesterday which released the results from a survey of crime victims in Los Angeles County. The polling results were described by Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ), a sentencing reform group funded by George Soros.  In the their release yesterday the following was said, “According to polling, 65 percent of respondents favored taking individual circumstances into account over automatically adding extra years onto a sentence because of prior convictions”. This statement addresses one of the many questions included in this survey that were framed in a leading manner. 

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Fox News writer Lucas Manfredi explains in an article yesterday afternoon, “Homicides in Oakland, California have surged 400% citywide in 2021, according to the latest crime analysis data shared by the city’s police department.” The article states that there has been a surge in homicides in 4 of the 5 Areas of Oakland. As of December 2020, the City of Oakland began making budget cuts in response to a movement to reallocate funding and defund the Oakland Police Department. 

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A California murderer, who confessed to killing at least seven young women between 1977 and 1987, was put to death at the state’s Mule Creek Prison on February 28, at the age of 81.  Appropriately, the criminal known as the I-5 Strangler died by strangulation at the hands of his cellmate, convicted murderer Jason Budrow.  Ryan Sabalow of the Sacramento Bee reports that Roger Kibbe confessed the murders to detectives in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty.  Vito Bertocchini, the retired San Joaquin Sheriff’s detective that worked the case, believes that Kibbe left more victims.  If this killer had been charged after Governor Newsom had granted a blanket reprieve to all the murderers on death row, it is unlikely he would have volunteered any information about his victims.  Thanks to Newsom’s edict, Budrow was able to kill his cellmate with relative impunity.   Even if prosecutors are able to secure a death sentence for him, it is unlikely he will ever be executed.  Perhaps the state should move this guy into another murderer’s cell.

With the sanctuary state of California offering free medical care, driver’s licenses, education and other benefits to illegal aliens, along with protection from deportation, and the Biden administration announcement that it will grant amnesty to illegals, reinstate chain migration and not turn away any unaccompanied minors, why wouldn’t foreign nationals pay human smugglers (called coyotes) to get them into the Golden State?  The Associated Press reports that the Ford Expedition that crashed into a semi truck near El Centro, CA on March 2, was carrying 25 people, 13 of which died in the crash.  The vehicle was one of two SUVs that drove through a hole in California’s border fence to smuggle Mexicans into the U.S.  The second, a Chevy Suburban, caught fire on the highway and all 19 passengers were taken into custody.  Under current U.S. and California law, they will undoubtedly be released, and perhaps bused to a U.S. City.  The welcome mat has been laid out and for the coyotes business is booming.