Some Leftists See The Light

Henry Ford once said: “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” How true. A person who makes no mistakes is not really living. Often, our focus is sharpened as the result of a mistake and we experience true growth.

Recently, a new City Attorney in Seattle, Ann Davison, began moving away from the George Soros initiated policy of releasing criminals without charging them with their crimes. Ms. Davison realized that a small group of criminals were responsible for a disproportionate amount of the crime in Seattle. The individuals in this criminal group had an average of 6.3 misdemeanor criminal incidents referred for prosecution in Seattle in a year, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. 

Many of these criminals were stealing to support a fentanyl habit. Often the victims who resisted the theft were assaulted in the course of the robbery.

Fortunately, Ms. Davison was able to convince the King County jails to book the misdemeanor criminals who were in this small group of repeat offenders. A huge majority of these repeat offenders were actually jailed and, as a result, their average of 6.3 misdemeanor incidents per year dropped to 2.7 incidents per year. 

Prior to this change of policy, the City of Seattle had set up a Community Court on George Soros’ recommendation. This court was extremely lenient towards repeat offenders. City Attorney Davison reached an agreement to bypass this lenient court for anyone who had been referred to the City Attorney for prosecution if they had been referred 12 or more times during the prior 5 years. 

It is not hard to understand why crime had been running rampant in Seattle when career criminals were not being punished for their crimes. It is heartening to see that even leftists can see the light when they are confronted with the anarchy of a society where criminals are not punished. These northwestern “intellectuals” learned a simple lesson: crime rates drop when laws are enforced.

San Francisco may also be going through a similar life lesson. Recently, a leftist San Francisco district supervisor made an impassioned plea for more police presence in her district. She said; “I’ve been begging this (police) department to give the Mission (district) what it deserves in terms of police presence all year long.” She further stated that she felt “betrayed” by the police department and the mayor because there were not enough police officers on the street. 

Interestingly, 3 years ago this same district supervisor stated: “I want to make it clear that I believe strongly in defunding the police and reducing the number  of officers on our force.” At that time the San Francisco Mayor, London Breed, redirected $120 million away from law enforcement. 

Surprise, surprise, the next year homicides increased by 20% and the following year homicides increased by another 17%. To paraphrase an old commercial; even a caveman could have seen this train wreck coming.

George Soros will be remembered as the billionaire who was personally responsible for the destruction of our major cities and for thousands of Americans who became victims of crimes. Soros bankrolled the campaigns of many prosecutors who, when elected, began releasing criminals without bail and reducing the charges against them. The gullible leftists believed that the lenient policies towards criminals would result in a more peaceful, loving society. 

Many of these gullible leftists have been literally mugged by reality and some are starting to turn away from these ridiculous policies they once supported. Unfortunately, many innocent people lost their lives and others have been seriously injured as a result of these lenient criminal reforms.