Slate has up a new article titled, "Why Public Apathy Isn't All Bad." The gist of it is that the public's apathy toward criminal justice issues has paved the way for quiet criminal justice "reform." "Reform" is used in the article to mean the same thing it always does in this context, to wit, "slashing sentences for criminals." If someone other than criminals are the most direct and immediate beneficiaries of this "reform," no one has told me who else it might be.
The article gets its mileage out of using the word "apathy" where "complacency" would be more precise. The public has indeed become more complacent about crime. This has happened for one perfectly obvious reason: there's so much less of it. And there is so much less because of -- ready now? -- exactly the successful measures (longer sentences, more prisons, more police, more targeting of police resources) the people pushing the "reforms" opposed tooth and nail.
The Slate article is a useful iteration of the anthem actually at the heart of the sentencing "reform" movement: "Since the country has achieved so much success with more incarceration and police, it's time to march back to failure."
(HT to SL&P).
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