In May of 2011, about two weeks after Governor Brown signed legislation (AB109 ie. Public Safety Realignment) allowing the early release of thousands of state prison inmates, Associate Justice Alito wrote a dissent in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Plata noting that the "premature release of approximately 46,000 criminals, the equivalent of three Army divisions...is gambling with the safety of the people of California." When the law took effect in October of that year, CJLF began reporting on the significant number of of violent crimes being committed by criminals released into California counties by the inmate release law. These reports were dismissed by supporters of Realignment and some think tanks. Examples include a May 29 OpEd in the Sacramento Bee by former California Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg who wrote " A year ago we heard fear-mongering voices warning of dangerous criminals being released." She boasted that the law has successfully reduced the state prison population and criminals on parole "without a spike in crime." Later FBI numbers indicated that both violent and property crime in California did spike in 2012, leveled off in 2013, increased slightly in 2014 and then spiked by 13% over the first six months of last year. This after nearly two decades of declining crime rates.
State leaders who ignored the "fear mongers" are still in denial, as
thousands of innocent people have become victims of violence, theft and
fraud.
At his acceptance speech to the GOP national convention last week, nominee Donald Trump said that President Obama's non-enforcement of the law and executive orders releasing tens of thousands of illegal alien felons into US communities was threatening public safety nationally with tragic results. He also noted that the President's repeated characterization of police as racist and the criminal justice system as structurally biased against people of color, had marked officers for assassination and encouraged police to back off, resulting in massive increases in shootings and murder in many of the country's large cities.
Last Friday, the President fired back as reported by CNN, calling Trump and Republicans fear mongers and saying "this idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people."
Really?
Does the President not watch television news or read a newspaper? Did he miss the body count from daily shootings in Baltimore, Chicago and Washington DC and the scores of mass shootings and terrorist attacks which occur somewhere in America almost weekly? How about the crisis level increases in drug overdoses?
It seems abundantly clear that the President is not aware of the reporting from his own law enforcement agencies. He certainly has no clue about what jubes with the experience of most of the people he swore an oath to serve.
At his acceptance speech to the GOP national convention last week, nominee Donald Trump said that President Obama's non-enforcement of the law and executive orders releasing tens of thousands of illegal alien felons into US communities was threatening public safety nationally with tragic results. He also noted that the President's repeated characterization of police as racist and the criminal justice system as structurally biased against people of color, had marked officers for assassination and encouraged police to back off, resulting in massive increases in shootings and murder in many of the country's large cities.
Last Friday, the President fired back as reported by CNN, calling Trump and Republicans fear mongers and saying "this idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people."
Really?
Does the President not watch television news or read a newspaper? Did he miss the body count from daily shootings in Baltimore, Chicago and Washington DC and the scores of mass shootings and terrorist attacks which occur somewhere in America almost weekly? How about the crisis level increases in drug overdoses?
It seems abundantly clear that the President is not aware of the reporting from his own law enforcement agencies. He certainly has no clue about what jubes with the experience of most of the people he swore an oath to serve.
In just about any large city in America the nightly TV news will be of murders and other violent crimes. It’s almost like the nightly reporting of the body count during the Vietnam era.