On Thurs., Jan. 13, a young Black male walked into an upscale L.A. furniture store where Brianna Kupfer was working alone and stabbed her to death. It was that simple.
In a subsequent interview her father, Todd, while sobbing intermittently, blamed his beautiful 24 year old daughter’s death on “progressive” initiatives across the States, and more specifically in California, where dangerous, repeat criminals are released back into society for reasons of “equity” and “compassion.” Such initiatives, of course, are based on the insane informing paradigm of the Left whereby members of certain “oppressed” demographics can offend repeatedly with only minor legal repercussions, while those arbitrarily deemed to be privileged need only, for example, break a window in the Capitol building to be kept in solitary confinement with no chance of bail for months on end.
Brianna’s killer, who has just recently been taken into custody, is one Shawn Laval Smith. Arrested more than once in the recent past for offenses such as illegal possession of a deadly weapon, assault on a cop and possession of a stolen vehicle, he was nevertheless wandering the streets of L.A. a free man.
Recently elected New York City D.A. Alvin Bragg, claiming prosecutorial discretion is “a bedrock principle embedded in our constitution,” has declared that certain crimes, depending upon the specifics of their commission, will be treated with far greater tolerance than in the past. Among these are assaults, robberies, trespassing, resisting arrest, etc. The details of his proposals are too complicated to summarize here but they would seem to be based on the dangerous and highly debatable hypothesis that repeat offenders, however recidivistic, who have not injured others in the past, are not likely to do so in the future. Those who commit robberies with an unloaded gun, for example, are deemed to be clearly uninterested in violence and ought to be treated accordingly.
Daily I watch videos of retail outlets across America being pillaged by hooligans who, due to initiatives such as the de-fund movement, more often than not escape unchallenged or, if caught, are back on the street within 24 hours. Sections of various cities, most of them run by Democrats, look like war zones. All are outraged, of course, when small family-owned businesses are victimized but the unspoken yet very real subtext of our “progressive” culture implies that when commercial giants such as Walmarts are targeted, they are more or less getting what they deserve as representatives of that heartless, capitalist oligarchy responsible for the inequalities so loathed by the political Left.
I have discussed elsewhere California’s Prop 47 passed by the Democrats in 2014 which raised from $400 to $950 the threshold beyond which a misdemeanor becomes a felony. Asked if the measure would not automatically increase criminal activity, Alex Bastian, an advisor of L.A. District Attorney George Gascon, actually said its intent was “to adjust for inflation and cost of living.” I almost lost consciousness when I read this. Those entrusted with enforcing the Rule of Law are now apparently concerned with the profits of those who flagrantly defy the law!
Over the holidays L. A. and San Fran. exploded with criminal activity. On Jan. 4 Cal. Democrat Rudy Salas proposed scrapping Prop 47. In the same way, of course, various Democratically dominated cities which chose to de-fund their police forces have since chosen to go in the opposite direction.
The naivete of the “progressive” approach to crime is rooted in the delusion that there is no such thing as human evil, that criminals are inevitably the victims of circumstances beyond their control. History says otherwise! In a recent Fox News appearance, retired Police Lieutenant Randy Sutton accused the D.A.s of California’s two largest cities of actually seeming to “embrace” criminality. One can only wonder at the reaction of those tens of thousands across the States who have had their property and well-being imperiled by a legal establishment that seems as much concerned with the welfare of criminals as with their victims. One can only wonder at the sleepless nights and endless suffering of those who have lost loved ones at the hands of repeat criminals still prowling America’s streets because our “progressive” leaders have utterly forsaken the concept of Man as a moral being.
Does the “prosecutorial discretion” invoked by N.Y.’s Alvin Bragg include the right to endanger the welfare of law abiding citizens out of concern for those with absolutely no respect for either the Law or anyone else? Or is defending them a fundamental responsibility of all democratically elected governments, the failure to do so, of course, inevitably entailing a decline into the sort of chaos and barbarity evident in so much of the non-Western world?
Democratic legislators bray proudly about the hundreds of millions of dollars saved by their prison “reforms.” One wonders what sum might induce Brianna Kupfer’s father to concede that the financial rewards resulting from the release of those such as Shawn Laval Smith actually outweigh the loss of his dearly beloved daughter.