Crime watch: The Fairy Tale of ‘Nonviolent’ Offenders
“‘Nonviolent crime’ is a myth. Even supposedly minor lawbreaking is generally backed by the threat of violence,” observes City Journal’s Rafael A. Mangual.
A San Francisco shop clerk just died after a man he tried to stop stealing beer beat him with a baseball bat.
Had the clerk permitted “the thief to take what he wished,” progressive prosecutors would’ve let the criminal off, “citing the nonviolent nature of the offense.”
But ignoring “the theft would allow an individual who was in truth both willing and able to kill over $10 to remain on the street.”
It’s not just theft: In March, “a New York City subway rider was stabbed after asking another man to stop smoking marijuana inside the train car.”
Progressives who want to clear jails of “nonviolent” offenders “fundamentally misapprehend the reality of crime.”
From the right: Dems Dogged Against School Choice
“Americans want education reform. Why don’t Democrats?” asks Jennifer Stefano at Newsweek. “Despite overwhelming bipartisan support for education reform among voters, efforts to expand enrollment and financial flexibility for parents remain a party-line issue.”
Two Dems — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Georgia state Rep. Mesha Mainor — “made headlines this summer” on education reform, but “Shapiro backed away from his own proposal amid pressure from his party,” pressure that led Mainor to join the GOP.
“Real education reform requires lawmakers willing to represent the will of their constituents,” but the special interests with a “stranglehold” on Democrats.
We need “more courageous elected officials like Mesha Mainor” — and more Democratic politicians, including Shapiro, need “to channel that same courage.”
Urban beat: The Blue Exodus and 2024
“Republican states are comfortably outperforming their blue counterparts economically,” prompting many people to move and endangering President Biden’s re-election, argues Joel Kotkin at UnHerd.
“The strongest support for Joe Biden lies with the regions — notably the West Coast and the Northeast — that are doing most poorly both economically and demographically.”
And “the biggest destination for movers from the largest places losing people — San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York — are sunbelt cities like Atlanta, Houston, and Miami.”
Dems must make “inroads in these booming states,” or “they may find themselves oddly like the old Confederacy: outnumbered and lacking the resources to improve their condition.”
Diplomatic desk: RIP, Bill Richardson
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who died Friday at 75, “cultivated a unique specialty in foreign affairs, positioning himself as an emissary — sometimes a secret one, and not always a welcome one for US officials — to brutish foreign leaders whom American presidents and other officials would or could not deal with directly,” recalls The New York Times’ Michael Crowley.
He was “well suited” for the role of “middleman to strongmen”: “He had a flair for flattery, as well as a quick, self-deprecating humor.”
The ex-United Nations ambassador “became known as something of a dictator whisperer, meeting with the likes of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and more than one member of North Korea’s ruling Kim dynasty.
Several of his trips are widely credited with winning the freedom of detained Americans whose release had not been possible to secure through official channels, whether for practical or political reasons.”
Eye on campus: Student Ignorance on Diversity
A survey shows many students are “closing the door to the diversity of thought that fosters innovation and progress” and “the essential role played by economic freedom in this progress,” notes John Bitzan at The Hill.
A significant number of students want to bar speakers with differing ideas, omit “unsettling” readings and report professors who voice unpopular political opinions.
And many don’t view “economic freedom as a catalyst for prosperity.”
But “students must be aware of the positive domino effect of diversity of thought on innovation” to be “active participants in shaping a future that continues this trajectory of progress.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
