Crime And Violence Won’t Abate On Their Own

Liberal politicians, their failed urban policies and their accomplices in the media are getting nervous heading into this November’s midterm elections over what impact the surge in crime, violence and disorder will have on their electoral prospects. This will be a great opportunity for voters to express their anger over what is happening on their streets and in their neighborhoods as large swaths of public spaces are under the control of the criminal element. This has happened because Democrat politicians in cities like Chicago. Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Memphis, just to name a few, literally and intentionally collapsed the criminal justice infrastructure.

The criminal justice infrastructure, as you know, has four main components: police on the front end, prosecutors and courts in the middle and corrections on the end. All four of these components must be functioning together or it won’t work. It doesn’t matter how many people law enforcement officers arrest if most of them escape prosecution. It doesn’t matter how many criminals are charged or indicted if some judge hands down a lenient sentence upon conviction. Example. In Milwaukee recently a 47-year-old man pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Upon entering the guilty plea, the prosecutor asked the judge to remand the suspect into custody due to the seriousness of the crime. The judge went against that recommendation and released the now-convicted rapist on a low bail at the request of the defense attorney, “so he could get his affairs in order” before sentencing. That creep a week later went to the home of his ex-girlfriend and strangled her to death in front of her children. See what I mean when I say that if just one part of the system fails, the whole system collapses?

The police are not immune from failing in their responsibility and role, either. Recently, the Milwaukee Police Department announced a policy directive to officers to no longer arrest people on most misdemeanor warrants. They have been directed to issue them a notice to appear voluntarily for a court date. That is anathema to the broken windows theory of policing in addition to going against the laws of human behavior. Just about every person with a warrant out for their arrest knows about the existence of the warrant and did nothing about it. Now that they have been given a piece of paper to appear, who thinks this person will now become an upstanding citizen and appear voluntarily in court on the warrant? In fact, the opposite will happen. Police have sent a signal that they don’t take the warrant that seriously, either. Oh, and another thing: A warrant is a court order that commands a law enforcement officer to take the person named into custody and bring them before a judge. How does an officer get away with violating that court order? This is a slippery slope, folks. Today, it’s not arresting on misdemeanor warrants, tomorrow, it’s not arresting on low-level felony warrants. And another thing: What liability does an agency and city face if an officer has stopped someone who has an active warrant and they subsequently let the perpetrator go and later he or she goes on to commit a serious felony? They had a legal means to get that person off the street, even albeit temporarily, depending on the disposition of the warrant and they did not do so. Not to mention that a thorough debriefing of the arrestee should be conducted as well to determine what other criminal activity they might be involved in or learning information about their associates. This intelligence can be shared with front-line street officers and others investigating unsolved crimes. Most people with outstanding warrants have extensive criminal involvement.

And now a new variable of criminal perpetrators is emerging. Studies are showing that more and more younger people, meaning teenagers as young as 12 and 13 are committing more violent crimes like shootings, carjackings and robberies. That can be interpreted to mean that the next generation of criminals will be coming into adulthood having had an earlier start in criminal behavior and with a more

experienced violent past embedded into their DNA. There are a number of reasons for this younger demographic turning to criminal behavior.

The juvenile justice system is antiquated. Its main goal focuses on rehabilitation, not punishment. In Wisconsin, the major objective of the juvenile justice system is to preserve the family unit by keeping the child in the dysfunctional family when there is no stability or responsible adult in charge. That model was appropriate 25 or more years ago when teens were mainly engaged in nuisance-type behavior like truancy and shoplifting, not the serious crime we see today. Society back then had more intact families, more involved parents, a successful K-12 public education system that actually educated students giving them a solid base going into adulthood and more options than criminal behavior to choose from. Consider today’s urban pathologies like absent fathers, failing schools, questionable lifestyle choices like kids turning to gangs and drugs and you have a volatile mix for the increase of criminal involvement by youths.

This next generation will also enter the adult criminal justice system with the benefit of more lax and lenient attitude. Here is what needs to happen: First, we need to stop with the naïve view that all of these career criminals can be reformed. They can’t. For many, the behavior has become deeply ingrained. It’s a lifestyle. Second, punishment needs to return to its rightful role in corrections. Too much of an emphasis on rehabilitation sends a message that society will not adequately punish criminals for their unwanted behavior. Second chance programs can occur after a period of meaningful incarceration, not before.

It should be evident to any politician and policy maker that the system is blinking red. Crime can be reduced with policy changes. Those effective changes were already in place during the historic record lows in violent and property crimes all across the country beginning in 1990 through the first decade of 2000. We got serious about reducing crime by holding lawbreakers accountable. All four parts of the criminal justice system were working in concert with each other. Police embarked on a strategy of quality of life enforcement. When arrests happened, they led to actual prosecution with bail used to keep the offenders off the streets. Today we have cities that have enacted no-bail policies even for serious crimes and prosecutors reluctant to charge criminals with those crimes. Previously, courts actually sentenced repeat offenders to longer periods of incarceration. Today, we have an over reliance on probation and parole that returns repeat offenders back onto the streets.

We need to stop letting pro-criminal groups influence public policy. They have created an environment that allows crime, violence and disorder to thrive. This has had a devastating negative impact on public life in America. Let’s end the needless death and destruction of American society.

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