How Bad Public Policy Gets People Killed

Last week in Sacramento, California, six people were killed and a dozen bystanders wounded after a shootout in the street outside a nightclub area of the city. The usual reaction, shooting from the hip (no pun intended) without knowing any facts followed. Media reports called it a mass shooting, adding to the alarmism category of gun violence that the gun control movement likes to use. The gun control ninnies then immediately called for more gun control, including head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors who said mourning is no longer enough and called on elected officials to enact more gun control. Joe Biden, speaking from the same talking points, echoed Kerr’s drivel. Keep in mind that California already has the most stringent gun control laws in the nation. Then others took to social media in knee-jerk fashion unarmed with any facts and it was put out that a white male was the suspect. This brought about a sigh of relief in some circles among those who did not want to hear that black perpetrators were responsible. In fact, it was at least three black males who have been arrested. The original report of a white male perpetrator proved to be false.

Now we are learning some facts from Sacramento police as the investigation continues to unfold. The Los Angeles Times is now reporting that it wasn’t a mass shooting in the literal sense where a lone gunman mows down people in a place open to the public like a church, shopping mall or a school. They are now reporting that this was a shootout between rival gangs. Most of the victims were collateral damage-unintended bystanders. Three men have been arrested. All are black. It should come as a surprise to no one that both have long criminal histories. Many soft on crime elected officials are clueless about urban crime. Criminal apologists continue to blame external forces like poverty, racism, white supremacy and not enough federal and state community block grant money being spent on programs for inner-city youths. Let’s dissect that for a minute.

Generational gang involvement and other questionable lifestyle choices by young black males, failing K-12 public schools, inadequate parenting, no responsible fathers in the home for positive role modeling are all self-inflicted urban pathologies that exist in most urban cities with a significant black population. When you add failed urban policies like a soft on crime woke criminal justice system that relies too heavily on no-bail policies along with an over-reliance on probation, reduced sentences in exchange for a plea bargain and an early release from prison, you end up with a volatile mix. The inane idea to defund police agencies becomes the ignitor. Then, BOOM! You have bloodshed in the form of high instances of street crime and violence while naïve city officials wring their hands in disbelief about what is happening or what to do about it.

In the Sacramento shootout, the three suspects who have been arrested so far had long criminal histories. In the aftermath of the arrests, we get the same tired rhetoric from people.

A lawyer for one of the defendants said, “It's more than just the criminal justice system. As a community, we need to address gun violence,” she said. “We are failing everyone. We are failing our young people.” I maintain that we aren’t failing anybody, a dysfunctional black culture is. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a longtime advocate for gun control, struck a similar theme in the aftermath of the shooting by announcing that he will join legislative leaders and criminal justice reform advocates to again call for “immediate and substantial investments in crime prevention and healing services for crime victims.” The mayor acknowledged that millions of dollars have been spent on early intervention and gang prevention but that Sacramento, “needs to do even more.” He said the Sacramento police need to get more illegal guns off the street. One state senator said that, “If it takes another 107 laws to stop this

senseless gun violence then it’s worth it.” There you go, folks. They suggest the same old solution: Pour more money on it and make more new laws. That’s not the right thing to do. In fact, it’s stupid.

Let’s look into the criminal histories of the suspects. The three who have been arrested to date were all convicted felons with numerous arrests for serious acts. They aren’t supposed to possess firearms. They simply did not care about that law. That means that the California criminal justice system failed to adequately punish these career offenders on previous arrests. One of the suspects was sentenced to prison in 2018 for domestic violence and assault. Four years later, he was released early from that 10-year sentence. The prosecutor in the case opposed his early release from state prison because as she described him in a parole hearing, “He’s a career criminal and a danger to the community”. A deputy district attorney at a parole hearing described one of the suspects this way. “Inmate Martin has for his entire life, displayed a pattern of criminal behavior. While the current case on review may not be violent under the Penal Code, Inmate Martin’s criminal conduct is violent and lengthy. Inmate Martin has committed several felony violations and clearly has little regard for human life and the law.” He has prior felony convictions for robbery, felon in possession of a firearm. This slug was a ticking time bomb who was unleashed to walk among law-abiding people. He had served a prison sentence in 2016 and was arrested again in 2018. Let this serve as a reminder that these misnamed “second chance” programs do not work. They are reckless and unnecessarily put law-abiding people at risk of death and injury like the six dead and a dozen injured in Sacramento, yet Sacramento elected officials still believe that more laws are needed.

These violent career criminals are not unique solely to Sacramento. They walk among us in every urban city in America where soft criminal justice systems reign supreme. All of them pursue a progressive soft on crime agenda. Regarding what happened in Sacramento I always say, coming to a city near you.

It is time to stop these socially engineered experiments in criminal justice using human subjects like lab rats. It is time to lock these miscreants up and throw away the key. Lefties say that we can’t arrest our way out of this violent crime surge. I disagree. Yes, we can, by using jails and prisons as a crime control tool, one that led to a two-decade period of what was called, The Great Crime Decline all across America. We had historic lows in violent and nonviolent crime. That means fewer crime victims and safer neighborhoods. Were the jails and prisons full? Sure, but who cares? We were a safer America, a better America. Let’s do it again.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com