Caitlin Bassett writes for the Federalist about links between the rise of left-of-center prosecutors and an increase in crime rates.
The number of homicides in the United States increased around 30 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported last week, along with a 5.6 percent increase in violent crime in the same period.
This is no wonder, when prosecutors across the country have ceased prosecuting in the name of racial and economic equity. From Los Angeles and San Francisco to the Eastern seaboard, city attorneys are declining to prosecute cases, denying justice to victims, and creating dangerous cities.
Just as critical race theory has bled out of the big cities into small and unsuspecting jurisdictions, so too might prosecutors with visions of “reimagining” the criminal justice system come to a town near you.
Seattle deserves special recognition for its failure to provide even basic law and order, and things may be about to get worse as the city votes in November for a new city attorney. Responsible for prosecuting misdemeanors, the Seattle City Attorney’s Office has become a leftist experiment lab under Pete Holmes. …
… The situation in Seattle may soon go from bad to worse, as voters seem poised to replace a non-prosecuting prosecutor with a candidate who has actively encouraged criminal behavior. Holmes, city attorney since 2009, conceded a three-way primary race in August to his competitors: law-and-order moderate candidate Ann Davison and punishment opponent Nicole Thomas-Kennedy.
“I would like to abolish most of the criminal legal system,” Thomas-Kennedy told Fox13, “but it is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
As the city faces a 3,000 municipal court case backlog, Thomas-Kennedy would scale back prosecuting to even greater extremes. …
… Even traditional liberals see the dangers of electing someone like Thomas-Kennedy. Most recently, two former Democratic governors of Washington State – Christine Gregoire and Gary Locke – endorsed Davison. In a statement about her endorsement of the Republican Davison, Gregoire told Fox13 News that she couldn’t throw her support behind “a person who believes in anarchy” (referencing Thomas-Kennedy).
