Democracy isn’t a right, it’s a choice
~ Fear once again turns progressive policies into punitive action.
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For decades we have labored under the illusion that crime is as inevitable as weather, an illness, or armed conflict in geopolitical affairs, something that can only be treated by one of two methods – amputation or euthanasia.
The associative consequences of our “crime-fighting” efforts are as shocking as the body count records being tallied up across the nation: the largest carceral state in the world, recidivism rates above 70 percent, wrongful convictions a recurring reality, justice now a commodity dependant on race and financial resources, and behind it all some of the most draconian sentencing laws in the world – both, just as expensive as they are ineffective at reducing crime.
Altogether a collection of failures that our elected leaders are hesitant to address for fear of what the electorate would do if the truth were revealed.
More than a dozen major cities set new homicide records in 2021, some cities like Albuquerque hitting triple digits for the first time ever. And as we all know, violence and murder are strong motivators to push for more of the same, especially when our elected leaders - those who we expect to study the evidence, evaluate all available options, and return to us with innovative ideas for improving our lives while keeping us safe are more concerned with preserving their political careers than they are with improving our lives.
Governor Grisham giving speech at legislative session: Source att.yahoo.com
The truth that we reluctantly acknowledge is that our leaders have become so entrenched in partisan warfare that they've delegated their duties to staffers and lobbyists who only push agendas that benefit their current or future benefactors. And guess what, you’d I, we aren’t considered their benefactors – unless our exercise of free speech happens to include large campaign contributions.
Yet, despite these and so many other challenges there are a growing number of influential voices pushing for progressive policies to end mass incarceration, rethink mandatory minimums, abolish the death penalty, vindicate the wrongfully convicted, put an end to discriminatory bail and pretrial detention efforts, and the list goes on.
Efforts now being threatened by the same pervasive fear that has brought us to this position of failed policy and empty rhetoric in the first place.
NM State Senator recently changed his party affiliation from Democrat
to undisclosed or “Independant” Source: NM Political report.com
Syndicated columnist Megan McArdle recently wrote a piece titled, Get crime under control before it distorts politics, again. Her premise is that if we don't act fast, “pervasive fear” is going to once again take us down the rabbit hole of poor political decisions like the “infamous” 1994 crime bill, policies that essentially invented mass incarceration; destabilized countless families, and otherwise alienated entire minority subsets with rhetoric and policies meant to conquer and divide the already socially and economically disadvantaged.