In case the previous blog did not convince you, we have this – excerpted from Paul Mirengoff\’s excellent commentary at powerlineblog.com:
Having empowered Iran\’s criminal regime and all but ensured its long-term survival, President Obama is turning his attention to doing what he can for American criminals. In one day this week, he commuted the sentences of 46 criminals, the most presidential commutations in a single day since at least the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, according to the White House.
The president also took the time to write a personal letter to each of the 46 criminals. He has not, however, contacted the family of Kathryn Steinle who was murdered in San Francisco by an illegal alien and convicted felon who was released from prison earlier this year.
Obama has already commuted more sentences than Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush combined. And he is only getting started, as Daniel Horowitz notes in a perceptive article.
More importantly, Obama is doing all he can to persuade Americans that our criminal justice system is illegitimate. That system is “broken,” Obama insists. The way to fix it, he asserts, is through softer sentencing and earlier release for convicted felons, mostly (so far) dealers in hard drugs.
Bill Otis demonstrates that (1) the criminal justice system, far from being broken, is a contemporary American success story and (2) Obama’s prescription for “fixing” the system would lead to a significant increase in crime.
Bill cites a comprehensive study by the Department of Justice. It found:
An estimated two-thirds (68 percent) of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of release from prison, and three-quarters (77 percent) were arrested within five years. . . .
More than a third (37 percent) of prisoners who were arrested within five years of release were arrested within the first six months after release, with more than half (57 percent) arrested by the end of the first year.
The arrest rate for drug offenders within five years of release was 77 percent – the same as the rate for released criminals as a whole.
Why in the world would President Obama do this?
Paul has a few ideas on that, and I urge you to read his entire commentary to see them.
But my thought on the matter is a bit less philosophical, a bit less nuanced than his is. If you release felons into society…as you and your party petition for felons who have finished serving time be given back their voting rights…which party stands to gain?
Sometimes shortest distance between two points really is a straight line. And that is just about the straightest line I can find.
But, you might ask, what about the public? What about the danger this puts us in?
Hey, I said votes. VOTES. Got it? For a Chicago machine politician, everything else comes second.
Now recall who we elected – twice – to the presidency, and you have your answer.
