On Sept. 21 of 2019, the home of Illinois mother Cassandra Tanner Miller was invaded by her estranged husband Christopher Michael Miller who clearly had vengeance on his mind. While Casandra and her 9 year old daughter Camryn managed to escape his violence somewhat though not entirely unscathed, he savagely shot his 18 month old son Colton in the head 9 times before turning the gun on himself.
Having been charged with aggravated battery in a 2017 incident which had not yet been settled, he was arrested again in Aug. of 2019, approximately a month before the murder of his son, for felony cocaine possession. While he had been told, after his initial arrest, to turn in those weapons he held as a member of the National Guard, he had not done so. Throughout 2018 and 2019, Cassandra contacted both the authorities at the National Guard informing them of Christopher’s continued drug abuse and mental deterioration, as well as his Illinois prosecutors asking them why he had not been arrested for failing to relinquish his weapons. In both cases she was ignored. Absurdly, when he was taken into custody again in Aug. of 2019, he was released with no bail requirement whatsoever.
Since her son’s death, Cassandra has lobbied aggressively to have those loopholes closed which would allow a potentially violent criminal back into society as he/she awaited trial. She recently met with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker imploring him not to pass a piece of legislation, HB3653, which, while mandating many reasonable changes designed to decrease police violence and increase their accountability before the public while at the same time eliminating bail requirements which have an undue impact on the poor, also, according to a statement released by Republicans, entails “the immediate release of persons arrested for burglary, arson and kidnapping onto our streets while they await trial.” Pritzker’s quest is clearly to purge Illinois’s legal system of what he sees as “systemic racism” but burglars, arsonists and kidnappers, whatever their race, clearly have no respect for the lives of others and, from a “conservative” perspective, ought to be kept in custody until their case is settled.
Apparently 7 out of 10 in the State of Illinois who have had their firearm permits revoked have not turned in their weapons. And of course the weekly murder rates in Chicago are an abomination. Is the disproportionate number of murders committed by Black men caused by their White “oppressors” or ought those who actually pull the triggers and wield the knives to be held to account? To assume the former, as of course most “liberals” do, is to accede to the paradoxical bigotry of low expectations, the racist belief that Black people can’t possibly take charge of their own lives.
Just recently, incited by Cassandra Miller, State Representative David Welter launched Colton’s Task Force to investigate possible ways of stemming the tide of domestic violence. It is to present its findings to the Illinois legislature in 2022. I am no thoughtless advocate of the “Me Too” movement which can very easily destroy a man’s life through baseless accusations. At the same time Women can inflict violence on Men without ever resorting to physical abuse. But that “man” who beats or threatens to beat any woman or child needs to be kept behind bars until unequivocally rehabilitated. That is to say that no matter the race or financial status of the accused, where violence is a distinct possibility, the overwhelming consideration of the legal establishment needs to be focused on potential victims rather than their assailants. If incarcerating 100 men for an extended period of time saves but one woman or child from their abuse, their incarceration is well justified. If releasing 100 Black men from custody in the name of “racial equity” means one more innocent human being might have his life devastated, then to hell with “racial equity.” In a “conservative” world where people are still held accountable for their behavior, it is the Innocent who need to be protected, indeed who are worthy of our compassion, rather than those who, entitled by the absurd Ethos of the Left, feel justified in brutalizing others because they are poor or feel marginalized.
The Bill passed by Pritzker’s Democrats is 700 pages long and I am obviously not familiar with all of its provisions. I have no problem with attempts to help those guilty of non-violent crimes held in custody because they cannot afford bail, but the primary obligation of any Civilized Legal System needs to be first and foremost the protection of the Well-Being of the Innocent rather than the imposition of some eminently arbitrary notion of “social justice.” Sadly of course, that is no longer the case here in the “progressive” West.
As most informed “conservatives” know, billionaire George Soros has contributed to the election of a number of radically “progressive” district attorneys across the States. One, George Gascon, who received over 2 million dollars from Soros, was sworn into office as the District Attorney of L.A. on Dec 7, 2020. Less than three months later, an energetic Recall effort led by Sheriff Alex Villanueva and several Victims Rights groups is seeking to have him removed from office. The Recall Website explains that he is pursuing a “radical agenda that ignores victims, disregards the law and endangers the lives and livelihoods of all Angelinos.” His elimination of Bail requirements on his first day in office must have seemed like an open invitation to those criminally inclined. Perhaps no fact better illustrates the bias of his sympathies than his hiring of public defender Tiffany Blacknell who, having referred to all L.A. cops as “barbarians,” recently tweeted: “Prison is obsolete. We need to re-imagine America without it.”
Those given to de-funding the police, abolishing prisons and putting the “rights” of criminals before the rights of their victims, are utterly naive. Indeed a survey of their literature reveals that while “progressives” see power elites as inherently cruel, they absurdly tend to exonerate the rest of the species as their innocent victims. Evil doesn’t apparently exist among women, the poor, people of color, etc. As I have said elsewhere, it’s an inane contradiction yet one that pervades the sentimental Left.
Good and Evil transcend Class, Gender and Race. Only a fool would think otherwise. As we are Moral Beings capable of governing our actions, we must be held accountable before the Law. Only a fool would think otherwise. As expressing empathy towards the perpetrators of Evil only encourages them in their vileness, a truly Civilized Society must make its first priority the defense and welfare of the Innocent. Only a fool would think otherwise. Unfortunately, we live in a world of fools!
Canada under Trudeau is on the same path as California. I shan’t burden you with the details at this moment, but our new Justice Minister David Lametti is clearly committed to reducing the number of crimes [72] which Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper saddled with minimum mandatory sentences. “Experts” say his Draconian policies in no way reduced crime here in Canada. I am in no position to comment. But what is distressing is that the assault on Harper’s Law and Order regime was begun in 2015 by Canada’s Supreme Court which removed two species of crime of a gun related nature from his list of targeted transgressions. We are not talking shop lifters here! Are not people carrying guns a lethal threat? If only one in a hundred prematurely released because of the Court’s ruling should slaughter another human being, has not the Court utterly failed in its primary responsibility?
Life is all we have and the murder of a single innocent human being because of the “compassionate” concerns of our “progressives” is appalling. My question to them is: Where is your compassion for the Colton Millers of the world? His mother will be haunted by his death every day for the rest of her life. Am I a heartless monster because my empathy is invariably, unequivocally for the Victims of crime rather than its Perpetrators, or are “progressives” in fact the monsters putting law abiding citizens at risk because the incarceration rates among various demographics don’t meet their simplistic statistical expectations?
Yes, if only 20% of the population is Black, then only 20% of prison inmates should be Black! Such is the sophisticated “moral” vision of the Left.