The Tale of “Nonviolent” Criminals and Other Comments
Crime Watch: The Tale of “Nonviolent” Offenders
“’Nonviolent crime’ is a myth. Even supposedly minor violations of the law are usually accompanied by threats of violence.” notes Rafael A. Mangual of City Journal.
A San Francisco store clerk has just died after being hit with a baseball bat by a man he was trying to stop from stealing beer.
Had the clerk allowed “the thief to take what he wanted,” progressive prosecutors would have released the criminal on the grounds “of the nonviolent nature of the crime.”
But if ignored, “stealing would allow a person who was in truth willing and able to kill more than $10 to stay on the street.”
It’s not just theft: In March, “a New York City subway driver was stabbed to death after asking another man to stop smoking marijuana on the train.”
Progressives who want to empty prisons of “nonviolent” offenders “fundamentally misjudge the reality of crime.”
From right: Democrats stubbornly oppose school choice
“Americans want education reform. Why not the Democrats?” asks Jennifer Stefano at Newsweek. “Despite overwhelming bipartisan voter support for education reform, efforts to increase enrollment and parental financial flexibility remain a partisan issue.”
Two Democrats — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Georgia State Assemblyman Mesha Mainor — “made headlines” this summer over education reform, but “Shapiro backed down from his own proposal because of pressure from his party,” the pressure which prompted Mainor to join the GOP.
“True education reform requires lawmakers willing to represent the will of their constituents,” but the special interests have a “stranglehold” on Democrats.
We need “bolder elected officials like Mesha Mainor” — and more Democratic politicians, including Shapiro, need to “channel the same courage.”
Urban Beat: The Blue Exodus and 2024
“Republican states are significantly outperforming their blue counterparts economically,” prompting many people to move and putting President Biden’s re-election at risk. argues Joel Kotkin at UnHerd.
“The strongest support for Joe Biden comes from the regions – particularly the West Coast and Northeast – that are doing the worst economically and demographically.”
And “the biggest destination for relocations from the biggest places where people are getting lost — San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York — are sunbelt cities like Atlanta, Houston, and Miami.”
Democrats must “get a foothold in these booming states” or “they’ll find themselves oddly like the old Confederacy: outnumbered and lacking the resources to improve their position.”
Diplomatic desk: RIP, Bill Richardson
Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who died Friday at the age of 75, “cultivated a unique specialty in foreign policy, positioning himself as an envoy — sometimes secretive and not always more welcome to U.S. officials — to help foreign leaders , Americans, to brutalize.” Presidents and other officials would not or could not deal with it directly,” recalls Michael Crowley of the New York Times.
He was “well suited” for the role of the “middleman for strong men”: “He had a flair for flattery and a quick, self-deprecating sense of humour.”
The former United Nations ambassador “became known as something of a dictator whisperer, meeting with the likes of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and more than one member of North Korea’s ruling Kim dynasty.”
Several of his trips are widely credited with facilitating the release of imprisoned Americans whose release through official channels could not be secured for practical or political reasons.”
View of the campus: student ignorance about diversity
A survey shows that many students are “shutting the door to the diversity of thought that fuels innovation and progress” and shows “the essential role that economic freedom plays in that progress.” notes John Bitzan in The Hill.
A significant number of students want to exclude speakers with dissenting views, omit “troubling” readings, and report professors who express unpopular political opinions.
And many do not see “economic freedom as a catalyst for prosperity.”
But “students must be aware of the positive domino effect of diversity of thought on innovation” in order to “be active participants in shaping a future that continues on this path of progress”.
– Compiled by the editors of the Post
