As I reported in Forecasts & Trends on Tuesday, the US murder rate spiked almost 30% in 2020, a jump not seen in decades. Along with the explosion in murders, the overall violent crime rate increased 5.6% last year. When asked why this alarming trend is happening now, most experts say it’s a combination of: 1) the record explosion of guns sales in 2020; 2) the defunding of police in large cities across the US; and 3) increased racial tensions in the wake of George Floyd’s death. All these factors played a significant role, of course.
Yet there is one other significant factor which the mainstream media rarely mentions. You need to know about this, as it may be happening where you live (or will soon). Liberal prosecutors across the country have ceased prosecuting many crimes in the name of “racial and economic equity.” From Los Angeles and San Francisco to the Eastern seaboard, city attorneys are declining to prosecute many criminal cases, denying justice to victims and creating dangerous cities.
Just as Critical Race Theory has bled out of the big cities into small and unsuspecting jurisdictions, so too might prosecutors with visions of “reimagining” the criminal justice system come to a town near you. The criminal justice system in cities across America is being hijacked by prosecutors who will do anything but prosecute. This dangerous trend creates cities flourishing with crime.
Boston District Attorney Rachael Rollins, for instance, published a memo in 2019 listing 15 misdemeanors her office would automatically decline to prosecute, including shoplifting, trespassing, and wanton or malicious destruction of property. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner released a similar memo. Steve Descano, the commonwealth’s attorney in Fairfax, Virginia, followed suit, as have others.
“As a group, they see the police as the enemy, and criminal defendants as victims,” write the Heritage Foundation’s Charles Stimson and Zack Smith. “In practice, their policies harm the very people they pretend to care about the most: low income and minority individuals.”
The results of these policies are sobering. “In a survey of six jurisdictions where progressive district attorneys serve, every city or county logged a lower overall felony-conviction rate, as well as a lower conviction rate for violent or serious crimes, than did their predecessors,” writes Jason Johnson at City Journal. “On average, the profiled prosecutors dropped 20% more felony cases. Crime has risen dramatically.”
Lest you think your own locality is immune from such extremism, remember that the insidious and false “equity ideas” of Critical Race Theory are being discovered throughout America’s schools, governments and corporations – not just isolated to big, liberal cities like Seattle and L.A. Critical Race Theory has also made its way into the Midwest, the South and is widely used by companies like Bank of America and Verizon. What starts among elites and in big cities too often spreads to the rest of the country, whether the general public desires it or not.
About a year ago, even as the United States was seized by protests against racism, many Americans had never heard the phrase “Critical Race Theory.” Now, suddenly, the term is everywhere. It makes national and international headlines and is a target for talking heads. Culture wars over Critical Race Theory have turned school boards into battlegrounds, and in higher education, the term has been tangled up in tenure battles. Dozens of United States senators have branded it “activist indoctrination.”
But C.R.T., as it is often abbreviated, is not new. It’s a graduate-level academic framework which encompasses decades of scholarly promotion in classrooms, which makes it difficult to find a satisfying answer to the basic question:
What might the solution be? It starts with an active and well-informed citizenry. The parental uprisings against teaching Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools provide a suitable example of how concerns about malfeasance in the public sector can lead to decisive grassroots action. If you haven’t already been doing so, start paying attention to what is happening in your city government and local elections. Inform yourself on every candidate, their backgrounds and their objectives.
Then, take action. Discuss your findings with your friends and neighbors. Attend public city meetings. Voice your opinion in those meetings. Vote accordingly. These prosecutors are elected by us, the general public, and it is we who hold the power to replace them with officials who will uphold the rule of law. Most importantly, Americans need to recognize the importance of reversing this trend ASAP. It has the real threat of ruining our democracy!
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