Progressive DA distr atty
see main
merri ok
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see chesa boudin SF dem
see fla ga
see bragg
see soros BS
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MMA
Fox News defends Texas man convicted of murdering Black Lives Matter protester and attacks DA who prosecuted the case
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he would seek a pardon for convicted murderer Daniel Perry after Fox's Tucker Carlson asked him to
Written by Spencer Silva
Research contributions from Torri Lonergan
Published 04/12/23
Fox News personalities are rallying behind Daniel Perry, a Texas man who was convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester, and attacking the district attorney overseeing his case.
On April 7, a Travis County jury convicted Perry of murdering a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally in 2020. Perry, then an active-duty Army sergeant and ride-share driver, shot and killed an armed protester named Garrett Foster. In June 2020, a month before the shooting, Perry texted a friend saying, “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex.” Perry’s attorney claimed that he was acting in self-defense, but witnesses indicated that he was driving dangerously close to protesters and that Foster never aimed his weapon at Perry. The jury sided with witnesses who contradicted Perry.
Nonetheless, Tucker Carlson and other Fox News personalities defended Perry and attacked Travis County District Attorney José Garza, whose office prosecuted the case, claiming that Garza unfairly targeted an upstanding conservative and is a shill for philanthropist George Soros.
Carlson campaigns for pardon and rails against “Soros-funded” DA guilty of “legal atrocity”
The same day Perry was convicted, Carlson dedicated a segment of his show to arguing that Perry had acted in self-defense against a “mob of rioters” that included Foster, whom Carlson smeared as “a militant with a history of waving his rifle at people.” Carlson also blamed Austin’s “Soros-funded” district attorney for engineering a politically motivated murder charge, claiming that “means in the state of Texas, if you have the wrong politics, you’re not allowed to defend yourself.”
Carlson ended the segment by criticizing Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his apparent unwillingness to discuss the “legal atrocity” on Carlson's show. Abbott’s absence, Carlson argued, amounted to an endorsement of the murder conviction. “So that is Greg Abbott’s position: There is no right of self-defense in Texas.”
The next day, Abbott answered Carlson’s call and tweeted that he was “working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.”
Video
Citation
From the April 7, 2023, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight
Carlson and Fox News have demonstrated a pattern of blaming “Soros-backed” district attorneys and prosecutors for supposedly allowing crime to go unchecked, but then reflexively defending acts of violence committed against left-wing protestors by perpetrators sympathetic to its right-wing audience. Perhaps the most memorable example is Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois resident who shot several protesters — killing two — during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and subsequently rose to right-wing fame.
In fact, Carlson called upon Rittenhouse to help him plead Perry’s case during his April 10 prime-time show. The two spent an entire segment petitioning Abbott to pardon Perry. Rittenhouse told Carlson that Perry “defended himself” and argued that Perry “knows what he did was right.” For his part, Carlson said, “George Soros can’t pay for people to put his political opponents in jail and then have a Republican governor ignore it.”
After Rittenhouse was acquitted of homicide charges in 2021, Carlson lavished praise on Rittenhouse, calling him a “sweet kid,” while other Fox personalities and guests described Rittenhouse as “a bit of an icon” and a “good kid” who just did “what the government should have done.”
Fox personalities lionize Perry and criticize “activist DA” who “doesn't believe in law and order”
As with Rittenhouse, Fox News is lionizing Perry and framing him as a victim of a “Soros-backed” district attorney with a political agenda:
On Fox & Friends First, guest co-host Ashley Strohmier described racial justice protests as “riots” before noting of the district attorney, “Garza is being criticized for letting numerous criminals off easy,” and interviewing the family of a murder victim in Austin who said Garza “cherry-picks who he would like to prosecute and who he lets go.”
Video
Citation
From the April 11, 2023 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends First
Fox & Friends guest co-host Lisa Boothe asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who is under federal investigation for allegedly using his position to solicit bribes — if he agreed that “progressive district attorneys are trying to do across the country is nullify our right to self-defense.” Paxton responded that Soros is “dropping nuclear bombs on our state.”
In other segments, Boothe claimed that, in Perry’s situation, “I would shoot” and argued that the “far-left Austin DA” and other progressives do not want citizens to defend themselves. “What it comes down to is these DAs, these progressive DAs in the country, they don’t want you to engage in self-defense,” she argued. “I guess you're just supposed to allow yourself to die?”
On America Reports, one of Fox News’ so-called “straight news” programs, Fox guest Leo Terrell applauded Abbott for “doing the right thing” and argued that Perry had “acted in self-defense.” Terrell then argued that Garza was a “DA who doesn't believe in law and order; he believes in George Soros.” (Guest co-host Bill Melugin also described Garza as “Soros-backed” during a follow-up question.)
During the same segment, co-host Sandra Smith played a clip featuring Perry’s mother pleading her son’s case. Smith described her sympathetically as “a mother who has gone through quite a lot here, and understandable, her emotion here.”
Video
Citation
From the April 10, 2023, edition of Fox News' America Reports
During the April 11 edition of Outnumbered, Fox panelists agreed that Perry had been the victim of a rogue district attorney. Co-host Kayleigh McEnany argued that Garza had “campaigned on prosecuting cops” and cited a local crime commission’s charges that Garza had withheld critical evidence from investigations. “When you're a rogue DA funded by George Soros, you get results like this,” McEnany said.
Meanwhile, right-wing radio host Ben Ferguson argued that Perry had been the victim of an “activist DA” who targeted him for being in the military. “You go to the police, you tell them where you are, you tell them what happened. They say you're good. It's self-defense. You're OK. And a year later, an activist DA comes in and says no, you're in the military. I'm going to go after you because you're in the military."
Video
Citation
From the April 11, 2023, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered
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Tucker Carlson claims that George Soros is funding the “collapse of civilization”
09/13/22 8:50 PM EDT
04/03/23 8:32 PM EDT
Fox News has ignored Trump's incitement of violence and racist attack on DA Alvin Bragg
03/24/23
poster target tough on crime 2a violent immigr crime wave eg
dave mccormick pa
SECOND AMENDMENT
Dave is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and believes law-abiding citizens have an individual right to own firearms for self-defense, hunting, collecting, and sport-shooting, for any lawful reason, and neither Congress nor the states can take that away. As a responsible gun owner and a concerned father, Dave believes that we must increase school security across the board, and provide the money to do so, with school security officers. Second, we need to expand our mental health programs and reduce the stigma associated with seeking treatment. Third, prosecutors like Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner have to enforce the laws we have on the books. It’s unacceptable that some of the cities with the most stringent gun laws have the highest violent crime rates because of a lack of enforcement by liberal prosecutors. Finally, we need to make sure our law enforcement have the resources they need to protect our communities, and that we have rigorous background check systems, as we have in Pennsylvania. We need to preserve our rights while keeping guns out of the hands of criminals.
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an 5 25
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is among the progressive prosecutors who MAGA Republicans love to hate. And much to MAGA's chagrin, he moved closer to a third term following a landslide Democratic primary victory on Tuesday, May 20.
Krasner received an aggressive primary challenge from Judge Pat Dugan, who attacked Krasner as soft on crime and ran as a centrist Blue Dog Democrat. The Philly DA, however, defended his record, arguing that his emphasis on criminal justice reform has reduced, not increased, violent crime in the city. And Krasner made the election a referendum on national politics, railing against President Donald Trump and his ally, Elon Musk.
The primary's outcome wasn't even close: Krasner defeated Dugan by roughly 28 percent. Dugan has ruled out the possibility of running as a Republican in the general election, and so far, no one in the GOP has entered the race for Philly DA.
READ MORE: 'Cruelty is the point': Trump’s Capitol Hill rant panned as MAGA warns 'Johnson hasn’t done his job'
Krasner's victory is receiving a lot of responses on the Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter — some of them from angry MAGA Republicans.
The Protect Kamala Harris account tweeted, "Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has won the Democratic primary for his re-election campaign. Krasner is known for suing Elon Musk for election interference in 2024 and being tough on Trump. RETWEET to congratulate Krasner on his victory!"
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Daniel Pearson had a moderate tone, posting, "If there was really widespread anger and discontent with Larry Krasner, he wouldn't be winning comfortably tonight, and turnout wouldn't be in the gutter….. Do I think Philadelphia loves Larry? No. But for the most part people think he's doing okay even if they have a few grievances."
But MAGA users are furious.
READ MORE:'Don’t know if I’m going to survive': Inside the 'unconditional chaos' at Social Security
The Joe Kernan's Bodyguard account, @JoeKernenSentry, tweeted, "Krasner won yet again in my beloved city of Philadelphia. Soon the city will be depleted. This guy is the biggest POS. It’s such a shame."
Republican Billy Davember posted, "Knew Larry Krasner was going to defeat Pat Dugan, doesn't mean it still doesn't hurt. I wish people in Philly weren't so r-------."
The Philly Crime Update account wrote, "Larry Krasner wins again and no one can really complain about that. He won convincingly This is what the folks want."
In a separate tweet, Philly Crime Update posted, "Philly is a special place. People obviously like the things he says and don’t pay attention to his failures.
Daniel Lacinski told Philly Crime Update, "I agree it’s a special place but unless the residents are 'special ed,' the system is rigged."
READ MORE:MAGA Catholics 'not a fan' of Leo as new Pope calls 'for a united church'
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big gun death spike vs robbery? pandemic
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kpfa kat 1123 oaklandpassed 50%divert $from copsto beteer ppl, not implemented; no city hasdefunded cops; blue flu to let crime get worse
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AN 8 23 NO LNX
'Fascist' and 'tyrant': DeSantis blasted for ousting another elected Democratic state attorney
David BadashandThe New Civil Rights MovementAugust 09, 2023
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected. Mr. Warren is not Black.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis Wednesday morning, for the second time, suspended an elected Democratic State Attorney and replaced them with an appointee of his own choosing.
DeSantis, who is also running for president, says he is suspending Florida State Attorney Monique Worrell “for neglecting her duty to faithfully prosecute crime in her jurisdiction.”
“I am appointing Judge Andrew Bain to step in and take over the duties of the State Attorney’s Office in the 9th Circuit,” DeSantis announced on social media. “The people of Central Florida deserve a State Attorney that will prosecute criminals and keep our communities safe.”
Florida State Attorney Monique Worrell won her office in 2020. Her term runs for four years. Judge Bain, a member of the right-wing Federalist Society, was appointed to the bench by Gov. DeSantis in 2020.
READ MORE: Trump Spins Wild Attack Against Fulton County DA Fani Willis Ahead of Possible Indictment
One year ago, almost to the day, Governor DeSantis suspended from office Andrew Warren, another Democratic elected State Attorney, also for alleged “neglect of duty.”
The New York Times on Wednesday called Gov. DeSantis’ removal of the state attorneys a “drastic and exceedingly rare step.”
“Critics, and even a federal judge,” The Times reported, “decried Mr. DeSantis’s ouster of Mr. Warren as politically motivated. But Mr. Warren remains out of office — and Mr. DeSantis mentions his removal in just about every campaign stump speech.”
Critics are again blasting DeSantis.
“This is literally just a dictator overruling the people, kicking out a duly elected official he doesn’t agree with and putting in his own pawn. This shouldn’t happen in America. And the guy who did it shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the White House,” said David Rothkopf, a noted foreign policy, national security and political affairs expert and commentator.
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida, blasted Gov. DeSantis as a “Fascist” who “hates democracy.”
“Struggling to raise money for his failing campaign and trailing by 40 points in the polls, Ron DeSantis removes a Black woman, Monique Worrell, from her duly elected office in Florida in a desperate, antidemocratic ploy to win MAGA voters,” observed attorney, former White House aide, author, and political commentator Keith Boykin.
READ MORE: Trump Disparages America’s Transgender Service Members at Rally: ‘We Had It Banned’
“This is absolutely disgusting,” wrote Florida state Democratic Rep. Anna V. Eskamani. “State Attorney Monique Worrell is a duly elected official and the only Black woman serving as State Attorney in Florida right now. Her removal is a complete slap in the face to Orange and Osceola County residents and another example of Governor DeSantis eroding our local control and democracy. This politically motivated action by the Governor in a predominantly democratic part of the state should alarm everyone. DeSantis is extreme, unfit to serve, and must be held accountable.”
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, slammed the Florida governor.
“Ron DeSantis not only punishes corporations, like Disney, for advancing causes, like LGBTQ rights, that he disfavors. He also removes from office duly elected officials who dare criticize the imperial Ron DeSantis. The latest victim is a Florida State Attorney, Monique Worrell, a black woman elected by the people, only to be removed by a tyrant.”
“The self-proclaimed small-government conservatives are actually authoritarians who are all too willing to use big-government power to enforce cancel culture against their political opponents,” Torres added. “There’s a word for this: hypocrisy.”
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mma 4 23
JOHN RATCLIFFE (FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE): Well, Maria, I mean, the point is this is election interference. We don't know how – no one really knows how this is going to play out. We just know that it is going to be a factor. We have crossed the Rubicon from people saying, you know, on the left, President Trump should be indicted to the discussion is going to be President Trump was indicted. And however long this case takes, and very clearly, it's not going to play out throughout the court system in less than the year that it's going to take to, you know, to, you know, reach a Republican nominee.
And so this action, this political persecution is going to influence our politics every single day for the next year until a Republican nominee is chosen, and that is, by definition, election interference. This is wholly inappropriate, you know, a complete perversion of our political system, and I think people need to, hopefully, understand and see what's going on here through these imposter D.A.s like Alvin Bragg. But this is coast to coast, you know? This is Kim Foxx in Chicago, this is George Gascon in California, this isGeorge Soros funding all of these people where we've put socialists in charge of the American judicial system. We've put people who don't understand or appreciate orstand up for American values in charge of our legal system to distort it intentionally and deliberately and, unfortunately, Donald Trump is the first but won't be the last person to be persecuted under that system.
MARIA BARTIROMO (FOX NEWS HOST): Well, this is a really good point that you're making because George Soros makes no apology for it. In fact, he wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal just a couple of weeks ago. You're talking about the $40 million that he has donated to get these D.A.s in place. He says I've done it transparently. I've no intention of stopping. The funds I provide enable sensible, reform-minded candidates to receive a hearing from the public. Judging by the results, the public likes what it's hearing. I'm not sure which public he's talking to becausethese D.A.s are using bail reform to put criminals back on the streetexcept if it's Donald Trump.
RATCLIFFE: Maria, they're not D.A.s, they're imposter D.A.s. These are political plants. These are people who are only being supported with, you know, $40 million – in the case of Alvin Bragg a million dollars from George Soros [NOPE]– only because of a promise that you're in this position, you will pursue political prosecution of our opponents, those on the right. And that is, again, happening coast to coast, and that's really what's at stake. This should be a clarion call to Americans who otherwise don't tune in to politics ordon't think that it affects them. It absolutely has, and the bedrock principles of our justice system are clearly under assault where, again, we have socialists who are anathema to, you know, American values in charge largely of our judicial system, you know, through these state D.A.s and prosecutors.
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note called prog or Soros backed if gop does no like target eg trump
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https://www.alternet.org/brian-kemp-republicans/
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GA legis law to remove DA's ?! spkr? sponsor fake elector scheme??!
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[[https://www.alternet.org/dictatorship-florida-prosecutor-desantis-suspend/
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no lnx
https://www.alternet.org/autocrat-desantis-analyst-danger-democracy/
'Heartless aspiring autocrat': MSNBC legal analyst cautions Ron DeSantis is a 'danger to democracy'
Maya Boddie March 12, 2023 ]]
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presumably violence ok for defense, look what you made me do
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-says-expect-vigilante-justice-because-das-dont-do-anything-anymore
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mma 10 22
Fox News personalities and guests have long attacked Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, and now Pennsylvania lawmakers are trying to impeach him.
Earlier in September, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives sent Krasner a subpoena to hand over documents that pertain to the way he prosecutes crime, and Krasner refused to comply. Conservatives have attacked him over this and ultimately the state House voted to hold him in contempt. Krasner did partially comply with the subpoena despite calling it “undemocratic,” but he refused to hand over documents that might violate grand jury secrecy laws.
Now part of the push to impeach Krasner, who was overwhelmingly reelected in 2021, is a report that argues his policies contributed to a rise in Philadelphia’s crime rate. But criminology experts have taken issue with the report’s methodology, saying its conclusions are shaky. Texas A&M economics professor Jennifer Doleac wrote, “The errors are so egregious that publishing this article in this journal feels like malpractice.”
In reality, there does *not* seem to be a correlation between high crime rates and progressive prosecutors. In fact, one study shows that cities with progressive DAs actually saw slower growth in homicides and no correlation to high crime.
These discussions are lost in the right-wing echo chamber, where pundits relentlessly criticize progressive prosecutors. Right-wing media have singled out crime as a wedge issue to push conservative candidates onto voters, and their attacks have included district attorneys. Earlier this year, right-wing media successfully pushed for the recall vote of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and now they are looking to Philadelphia as their next target.
Many Fox News personalities argued Krasner was failing in his role in prosecuting criminals, decontextualizing Philadelphia’s crime rate from national crime rates and citing total numbers of murders rather than per capita rates. This makes Philadelphia’s crime appear higher than it actually is since the city has a large population.
Right-wing media are calling for or justifying Krasner’s removal, blaming him for crime rates, and engaging in antisemitic fearmongering about a link to Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros:
Justifying and calling for Krasner’s removal
- Fox News’ David Lee Miller uncritically cited the discredited report in his coverage of Krasner’s impeachment, saying, “A portion of their interim report says violent crime in Philadelphia increased to unprecedented and unacceptable levels during DA Krasner's watch.”
- During an interview with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Fox anchor Harris Faulkner misleadingly cited total murder numbers as opposed to per capita numbers, saying, “The numbers don't lie. More than 380 murders in Philadelphia this year. New York and Los Angeles nearly as bad. The people want change. Those are blue cities. The people want change. Recall efforts are now underway to try to boot Krasner from his position.”
- On October 25, Faulkner again promoted the attempt to oust Krasner: “Outrage in Philadelphia over liberal District Attorney Larry Krasner. A scathing nw report details his dismal failure to keep crime under control. He has been under pressure before. Now it's really on.”
- Fox News host Jeanine Pirro attacked Krasner as “inept” and a “liar” before adding, “He should not be DA. He should be the public defender.”
- Right-wing Pennsylvania radio host Chris Stigall called for arresting Krasner for not complying with a subpoena from the state legislature: “If we had a Republican governor like DeSantis in Florida you know what we'd do? At bare minimum suspend Larry Krasner if not outright arrest him today for not complying with the subpoena.”
Blaming Krasner for high crime rates
- Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas parroted GOP talking points, saying, “Republicans insist it has everything to do with Krasner. Since he was elected DA in 2017, the city's murder rate is up 70% while retail theft, armed robbery, property, and violent crime all continue to surge.”
- Fox News anchor Julie Banderas claimed Krasner’s policies have failed, citing one example: “The latest example of Philadelphia's progressive district attorney Larry Krasner and his soft-on-crime policies are not working out. This is horrendous. A Philadelphia man — here’s just one example — who was exonerated for a 2012 murder in Philadelphia is now the suspect in a recent deadly shooting.”
- Former GOP Senate candidate George Bochetto attacked Krasner on Fox & Friends, saying, “Larry Krasner, our district attorney, refuses to carry out his responsibilities. Refuses to enforce bail. Refuses to violate parole violators and put them back in jail.”
- Fox News correspondent Nate Foy said: “Krasner is often blamed for the murder of Philadelphia police officer James O'Connor in 2020” because “Krasner's office let him [the shooter] walk free without bail.”
Linking Krasner to George Soros
- Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed there is “an attempt, of course, to destroy the middle class” with crime, adding, “So in Philadelphia a lot of these crimes can be traced to one man, Soros-backed DA Larry Krasner. He’s decided not to charge many robbers with crimes. … If you stop charging people with certain crimes, they commit more of them. That seems like an obvious observation. And again, it's more evidence this is not an accident.”
- While discussing crime in Philadelphia, Fox News contributor Leo Terrell said: “The Democrats have abandoned the victims and for some crazy, perverted reason are backing the criminals. I can mention two words, George Soros, George Soros, George Soros, because his money is allowing these prosecutors to stay in office.”
- Along with displaying a photo of Krasner, Fox host Laura Ingraham said: “So, as the bodies keep piling up needlessly in districts run by Soros-picked DAs, is it not worth asking, ‘What would save more lives today? Gun control, or recalling every DA that George Soros funded?’”
- Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain fearmongered about Soros spending “$40 million in the past 10 years, to electing DAs like Alvin Bragg, Kim Fox in Chicago, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia. And by the way, that's only a sampling. Fifty percent of your district attorneys in the biggest cities across the country are elected with the backing of George Soros.”
- Fox News host Jesse Watters said Krasner was “funded with big bucks by George Soros,” adding, “In Philly, where under Larry Krasner — they call him Uncle Larry — the city has seen a surge in violence.”
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an 10 22
:{:{In the 2022 midterms, countless Republican candidates — hoping to distract voters from the abortion issue — have been focusing heavily on violent crime and blaming Democrats for the crime rates in major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia. Crime was one of the subjects that Democratic nominee Joy Hofmeister and incumbent Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt debated on Wednesday, October 19, when Hofmeister reminded him how high the murder rates are in some red states.}:
Hofmeister told Stitt, “The fact is, the rates of violent crime are higher in Oklahoma, under your watch, than in New York and California. That’s a fact.”}:
Stitt disagreed, not surprisingly. But when podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted video of that part of the debate, he illustrated her point by also tweeting a study released in March 2022 by the centrist Democratic think tankThe Third Way — which found that “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
READ MORE: How GOP nominees are attacking Democrats as 'soft on crime' with Fox News' help: report
The Third Way reported that “some ‘blue cities, like Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, have seen real and persistent increases in homicides.” But looking at states, The Third Way reported that “murder rates are far higher in Trump-voting red states than Biden-voting blue states.”
According to The Third Way, “We found that murder rates are, on average, 40 percent higher in the 25 states Donald Trump won in the last presidential election compared to those that voted for Joe Biden. In addition, murder rates in many of these red states dwarf those in blue states like New York, California, and Massachusetts. And finally, many of the states with the worst murder rates — like Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas — are ones that few would describe as urban. Only 2 of America’s top 100 cities in population are located in these high murder rate states.”
The Standard Journal, on October 19, published an article attacking The Third Way’s study. But journalist Ronald Brownstein, in an article published by The Atlantic the following day, points to a new study by the Center for American Progress (CPA) that, Brownstein writes, “reinforces” what The Third Way had to say back in March.
Brownstein reports, “Countering conventional wisdom, the study found that homicides over recent years increased less rapidly in cities with progressive prosecutors than in those with more traditional district attorneys. It also found no meaningful differences between cities with progressive or traditional DAs in the trends for larceny and robbery…. The data, from CAP, a liberal think tank and advocacy organization, reinforces the message from a study released earlier this year by Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. That report found that per capita murder rates in 2020 were 40 percent higher in states that voted for Donald Trump than in those that voted for President Joe Biden.”
READ MORE: The crime-fighting policy Republicans refuse to acknowledge
According to Brownstein, “The CAP study represents probably the most comprehensive attempt yet to quantify the progressive prosecutors’ effect on crime rates. Looking at the period from 2015 to 2019, for instance, the study found that murder rates increased in a smaller share of cities with progressive prosecutors, 56 percent, than in those with traditional prosecutors, 68 percent, or prosecutors who fell in the middle, 62 percent. The study used a classification system for local DAs developed by a former federal prosecutor who is a critic of the progressive movement.”
READ MORE: Watch: Matt Gaetz's solution to gun violence is to perpetually arm everybody everywhere
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put blk woman in jail for trying to reg to woke after 2 agy told her she cd, 80x days in jail, proved inno "suffiecient"
https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/republican-voter-suppression-loses-reelection/Tenn memphis
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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-hosts-tucker-carlson-and-jeanine-pirro-warn-progressive-district-attorneys-will-drive
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thieves now mock the rule of law in 'progressive' cities ...
Jun 17, 2021In January 2020, San Francisco's new "progressive" district attorney, Chesa Boudin (a son of convicted cop killers), made decreasing penalties for nonviolent offenses a cornerstone of his ...
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https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/wisconsin-bail/
xmas holiday mkt, so not political? kochs boast about crim just reform? recent left DA wins eg SF?
After an SUV plowed through a holiday parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin on November 21, killing five people and injuring 48, including many children, hard-right pundits treated the subsequent arrest of Darrell Brooks like a gift.
Jennifer Van Laar, the editor of popular conservative blog Red State, tweeted, "FIFTY PAGES in Darrell Brooks' criminal record. Drugs, violence, crimes of moral turpitude, sexual offenses. But hey, let's allow him to bond out on $1000 even though he's charged with jumping bail."
Alt-right troll Jack Posobiec and COVID-19 disinformation spreader Chuck Callesto echoed this idea. Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson went a step further, blaming Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm for the incident. So did Mike Cernovich, who ripped into Chisholm as a "Soros DA," despite Chisholm never receiving money from George Soros or his affiliated PACs.
DA Chisholm, as a writer at Red State put it, is allegedly a "radical leftist who has sought to institute 'criminal justice reform' via 'bail reform.'" It is insinuated that Chisholm quietly ushered Brooks out on a serious and recent domestic violence charge on $1,000 bail, then rolled it back in the media after the tragedy, claiming that his deputy prosecutor made a mistake (Chisholm has now launched an investigation into the Brooks bail decision).
Such commentators are in desperate need of a fact-check.
Wisconsin is not like California or New Jersey, which saw bail reform legislation pass in the last few years. It has not had a substantial amendment to its bail law in at least 10 years, according to the Wisconsin state legislature's website.
However, the current law does state that a judge can hold a person charged with a crime in jail pretrial "only upon a finding by the court that there is a reasonable basis to believe that bail is necessary to assure appearance in court."
Meanwhile, both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature have been dominated by Republicans every year in the last decade.
Besides which, if we look at bail reform on a statistical, rather than anecdotal, level, it does not reduce public safety. The vast majority of people facing charges return to court regardless of money bail. In addition, detaining people pretrial, effectively punishing poverty, is "criminogenic," because people lose their jobs and community ties are weakened.
"Money bail compromises public safety," according to analysis from the Prison Policy Initiative.
As Cernovich points out to support his cause, Chisholm has delivered criminal justice reform talking points. But Chisholm has rarely delivered anything on decarcerationbuttalking points. The Democrat, first elected in 2006, has spent much of his career carefully avoiding policies that would make right-wing opponents angry.
In 2017, for example, Chisholm explained how he refuses to categorically drop marijuana possession cases, despite many of his peers elsewhere doing just that.
Chisholm is also the orchestrator of a national strategy to increase the use of drug-induced homicide prosecutions to people who sell drugs as murderers, despite people who have overdosed often not wanting this response. He has sent Assistant District Attorney Patricia Daughtery to national conferences to evangelize these prosecutions. Daughtery has gone so far as to advise officials to build cases using tactics that are disrespectful to the same people she is supposedly trying to protect, such as using the cell phones of people who overdosed.
Additionally, during Chisholm's tenure, Wisconsin had the highest rate of Black incarceration in the nation, with about 65 percent of Black Wisconsinites living in Milwaukee County. University of Wisconsin law professor Ion Meyn has raised concerns that part of this is due to higher prosecution rates and lower plea bargain rates for Black suspects.
Amid Chisholm's middle-of-the-road approach to his office, Milwaukee has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country, with 1,332 incidents for every 100,000 residents. His attempt to please everyone and incense no one has achieved little, and there are numerous progressive steps he should be taking. Chances are, the politicization of the Brooks case will increase the DA's timidity and push him in the opposite direction.
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10 21 an
progressive district attorneysacross the country are pushing back against aggressive, Republican-backed state laws that are seen as assaults on democracy. According to The Associated Press, progressive local officials have developed ways to work around controversial laws.
From charges for low-level marijuana offenses to restrictive laws targeting protesters, progressive district attorneys have decided on a simple way to get around the laws: they are simply refusing to enforce them.The APdescribes their approach as "a strategy at work in response to some of the most controversial new changes in recent years — near-total abortion bans, voting restrictions, limits on certain protest activity, laws aimed at LGBTQ people, and restrictions on mask requirements."
In Nashville, Tenn., District Attorney General Glenn Funk (D)has made a habit of not enforcing Republican-backed state laws. Speaking to AP News, he explained his stance.
"It's also incumbent, I think, upon public officials who disagree to stand up and say so," Funk told The Associated Press. "Because if people who are elected officials just stay quiet in the face of unconstitutional laws being passed, in the face of a social debate that might actually be dehumanizing large sections of our population, then if nobody speaks up, then the impression is that there is a not another side to this argument and that there really is no argument."
One advantage progressive DAs have is the fact that their approach is popular among voters in the deep-blue states where they hold positions. The strategy has also served as a strong politically favorable tactic for their re-election campaigns.
"The real limit on this is political," said William & Mary Law School professor Jeffrey Bellin. "These prosecutors have to stand for election almost everywhere in the country. Ultimately, the limit on this is popularity."
APalso notes how the laws typically lean in favor of prosecutors as they "wield wide discretion over whom to charge with crimes, and they can hold off based on factors that include the strength of an individual case, the severity of the offense and, sometimes, the prosecutor's views on a law's constitutionality."
Miriam Krinsky, executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, explained what the progressive district attorney movement could signify going forward.
"We know that our country has seen a past where some have sought to criminalize interracial marriage or individuals of different race who choose to sit at a lunch counter together, or ride a bus together, or use certain bathrooms and certain drinking fountains," said Krinsky. "Change often starts at the ground and moves its way on up."
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an 820
‘progressive prosecutor’ movement is spreading — but unevenly
It is hard for prosecutors to let go of the prosecutorial identity, as seen by the numerous US politicians and pundits who use the refrain “as a former prosecutor” to…
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https://theconversation.com/how-being-tough-on-crime-became-a-political-liability-128515
Kamala Harris recently dropped out of the presidential race after months of attacks from the left for her “tough-on-crime” record as San Francisco’s district attorney and as California’s attorney general.
A few years ago, the idea that being tough on crime would be a liability – not an asset – was unthinkable for both Democrats and Republicans.
Bill Clinton, during the 1992 presidential race, interrupted his campaign so he could return to Arkansas to witness the execution of a mentally disabled man. During Harris’ 2014 reelection campaign for attorney general, she actively sought – and won – the endorsements of more than 50 law enforcement groups en route to a landslide victory.
But something has changed in recent years. Harris’ failure to gain traction as a presidential candidate has coincided with a growing number of “progressive prosecutors.”
In the past, I would have scoffed at the notion of a progressive prosecutor. It would have seemed like a ridiculous oxymoron.
But in one of the most stunning shifts in American politics in recent memory, a wave of elected prosecutors have bucked a decadeslong tough-on-crime approach adopted by both major parties. These prosecutors are refusing to send low-level, non-violent offenders to prison, diverting defendants into treatment programs, working to eradicate the death penalty and reversing wrongful convictions.
The unchecked power of prosecutors
In 1968, when I was 8 years old, my father was sentenced to 22 to 55 years in the Ohio State Penitentiary for the possession and sale of marijuana. During the trial, the district attorney had repeatedly assured the jurors that he hadn’t promised the state’s principal witness – then serving a long sentence – leniency in return for testifying against my father.
In truth, they had struck that very bargain. After studying the warden’s own law books, my father appealed the conviction, representing himself. He was ultimately vindicated by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after proving that the district attorney had deliberately lied to the jury.
That was in 1974. I went on to become a lawyer and law professor. During the years I spent teaching and studying the relationship between race and the law, the prison population exploded, and my distrust toward government prosecutors only deepened. Too often, it seemed like they were bringing excessively punitive charges in order to force defendants into plea deals. Too often, their approach seemed to reflect a longing for retribution and revenge rather than rehabilitation.
In 2017, law professor John Pfaff was able to show that mass incarceration was due, first and foremost, to the nearly unchecked power of district attorneys.
With reported crimes and arrests steadily declining in the 1990s and 2000s, you might have expected incarceration rates to also fall. Instead, they soared. Pfaff traces this perplexing trend to one key statistic: Between 1994 and 2008, the probability that a district attorney would file a felony charge against someone who’s been arrested roughly doubled, from about 1 in 3 to nearly 2 in 3.
more than stiff drug laws, punitive judges, overzealous cops or private prisons, prosecutors had been the main drivers of a prison population that had quadrupled since the mid-1980s.
Meanwhile, black Americans continued to be disproportionately incarcerated. In 2017, there were 1,549 black prisoners for every 100,000 black adults – nearly six times the incarceration rate for whites and nearly double the rate for Hispanics.
This prosecutorial approach wasn’t punished at the ballot box; instead, racking up convictions and plea deals seemed to bolster the political careers of district attorneys.
The new sheriffs in town
No longer.
Since 2013, roughly 30 reform-minded prosecutors have been elected. A few now preside over prosecutorial staffs in some of the nation’s biggest cities, like Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner and Boston’s Rachael Rollins. But they also include chief prosecutors of smaller municipalities, like Satana Deberry, who was elected district attorney of Durham County, North Carolina, in 2018, and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, the commonwealth’s attorney of Arlington County, Virginia, who won on a platform of ending mass incarceration in 2019.
These prosecutors are reinventing the role of the modern district attorney. Krasner, for example, campaigned on eliminating cash bail, reining in police misconduct and upending a system of mass incarceration that disproportionately imprisons people of color. He won with nearly 75% of the vote in the general election.
In 2018, before a packed lecture hall, Krasner
that ending racialized mass incarceration is “the most important civil rights issue of our time.” He pointed out that the key difference between a traditional prosecutor and progressive one is that the latter is a “prosecutor with compassion” and “a public defender with power.”
This growing crop of “prosecutors with compassion” and “public defenders with power” has upended my own binary way of thinking about the role of the district attorney.
I’ve realized that a district attorney can adopt a fundamentally different moral compass and conception of justice. While traditional “law and order” prosecutors possess a moral, legal and political compass that sharply distinguishes between victims and perpetrators, I’d argue that truly progressive prosecutors recognize that “hurt people hurt people” and refuse to subordinate the values of restoration, rehabilitation and redemption to those of retribution, retaliation and revenge.
These two sets of values can collide. Many entrenched judges, prosecutors, police chiefs, police unions and legislators have loudly opposed – or have actively resisted – this shift to restoration and redemption.
Progressive prosecutors, according to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, are “undercutting the police, letting criminals off the hook, and refusing to enforce the law.” In a December rally,President Trumpsingled out Krasner, calling him “the worst district attorney,” one who “lets killers out almost immediately.”
The experience of Aramis Ayala, the state attorney for the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, is a classic example of the obstacles these new prosecutors can face. After being elected in 2016, she announced that she would no longer seek the death penalty for any defendants tried by her office. Florida Gov. Rick Scott responded by reassigning 24 aggravated murder cases to another state attorney who was amenable to the death penalty.
Ayala sued to have the cases returned to her jurisdiction. She lost.
What changed?
Nonetheless, progressive prosecutors would have never attained power in the first place if their views didn’t resonate with voters.
Michelle Alexander’s 2010 book, “The New Jim Crow,” deserves some credit for changing the way activists thought about crime and punishment. Alexander cast mass incarceration as a civil rights crisis by showing that people didn’t simply end up in jail because they were bad people who made poor choices. Nor did prison populations explode simply because there were more crimes being committed. Instead, mass incarceration was closely intertwined with race, poverty and government policy.
Among civil rights activists, issues like affirmative action in higher education had been consuming a lot of time, energy and resources. Alexander’s book helped redirect attention to racialized mass incarceration as a main battlefront in U.S. race relations.
Since its formation in 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement has made criminal justice reform a centerpiece of their activism. In Los Angeles, for example, the local chapter has led weekly demonstrations for over two years in front of the Hall of Justice. They’re protesting Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey for failing to adequately address police misconduct.
Lacey, who is up for reelection, faces two opponents. Both of them – former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and former public defender Rachel Rossi – are running on progressive platforms.
In March, we’ll see if the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office – the nation’s largest county-wide prosecutorial agency – will be the latest to join the progressive prosecutor movement.
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https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/stunning-report-reveals-that-nearly-5-million-americans-are-jailed-each-year/
no lnx
Stunning report reveals that nearly 5 million Americans are jailed each year
Written by Filter August 26, 2019...
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https://www.npr.org/2021/11/26/1059391712/behind-the-loud-pushback-against-progressive-district-attorneys-across-the-count
Nearly two years ago, San Francisco voters elected one of the most progressive district attorneys in the nation. And since becomingDA, Chesa Boudin has promoted the policies he said he would, like rolling back mass incarceration, ending cash bail and ending tougher sentencing rules for most gang members, among other major reforms. But now, amid a rise in crime, some San Franciscans are trying to kick him out of office. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.
ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE: Former Assistant District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is exactly the kind of ally DA Chesa Boudin, who's white, needs to help enact his reformist policies. Jenkins, like Boudin, sees the justice system as biased and broken.
BROOKE JENKINS: That is a part of the reason why I became a criminal prosecutor. I am half Black and half Latina and felt that bringing a diverse background into this role would help assist with those efforts.
WESTERVELT: But in a devastating blow, Jenkins last month resigned in protest and is now volunteering for Safer SF Without Boudin, the campaign to remove her former boss from office. A recall measure goes before voters here next year. Jenkins says the DA's office under Boudin is a chaotic, ideologically driven mess. The former public defender, she alleges, is an inexperienced and imperious manager who reflexively sides with offenders, including chronic and violent ones, by pursuing inexplicably lenient sentences.
JENKINS: We have seen public safety and the rights and needs of victims be disregarded. As crime has increased, he has made decisions not to hold perpetrators accountable in any fashion, and that is not reform.
WESTERVELT: Detractors blame Boudin's progressive policies on bail, gangs and restorative justice for opening the door to criminal mayhem. Unfairly or not, he's being blamed for everything from pharmacy closings to a spike in homicides.For Jenkins, it's personal. A breaking point for her was when her husband's 18-year-old cousin was murdered here.She says Boudin intervened to stop prosecutors from using gang enhancements, a move she says will likely undermine the case.
Jenkins is one of 40 attorneys who have resigned since Boudin took office. That's nearly a third of all attorney positions. The exodus, she says, leaves the most important units, including homicide and sexual assault, run by inexperienced prosecutors and former public defenders Boudin has hired from his previous office.
JENKINS: They have zero experience prosecuting cases, with only a defense background that oftentimes is ideologically opposed to criminal prosecution.
WESTERVELT: Boudin counters that her allegations and the recall effort cartoonishly misrepresent his record.
CHESA BOUDIN: Republicans, operatives, police unions are exploiting changes related to COVID and policies aimed at increasing racial justice to spread fear and undermine reform.
WESTERVELT: Boudin's emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment is influenced by his parents, who spent decades in prison as accomplices to murder and robbery as members of the radical leftist Weather Underground. San Franciscans, Boudin says, elected him to create real alternatives - scalable, restorative and social justice programs, not to simply put more Black, brown and poor people behind bars.
BOUDIN: The trademark policies of my administration - ending bail, creating an independent innocence commission to ensure that innocent people aren't languishing behind bars, creating a primary caregiver diversion program, expanding victim services - those are things that are both wildly popular among San Francisco voters and that are dramatically improving access to justice and public safety.
WESTERVELT: But almost no one here feels safer. Crimes, including assault, theft and homicides, are up in the city. Fatal drug overdoses and crimes against Asian Americans are, too. Over the weekend, dozens of criminals swarmed high-end stores such as Louis Vuitton and Hermes in San Francisco's Union Square in an organized smash-and-grab robbery frenzy that rattled a city already on edge about crime. Cannabis dispensaries here were also robbed.
Marisa Rodriguez heads the Union Square Business Alliance.
MARISA RODRIGUEZ: This is organized crime. These are people who have made a decision to come downtown and to commit vandalism and theft, and it has to stop.
WESTERVELT: Boudin and his supporters dismiss the recall movement as moneyed Republican and police union efforts to derail meaningful reforms. But, in fact, the recall group Safer SF has lots of political and ethnic diversity behind it, a fact they're showcasing in new TV ads. They include an African American dad whose toddler was recently murdered and an Asian American former head of the city's Democratic Party.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: ...Communities of color.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any 6-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of San Francisco and not get any justice.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Chesa's failure has resulted in an increase in crime against Asian Americans.
WESTERVELT: Still, it's not clear the stream of ads and press releases denouncing Boudin is resonating with San Franciscans, says sociologist Patrick Lopez-Aguado, a criminal justice specialist at Santa Clara University.
PATRICK LOPEZ-AGUADO: I don't know that the noise of the backlash is necessarily representative of what most voters think or want.
WESTERVELT: The pushback against reformist DAs in other cities has been loud but so far largely unsuccessful. The fallout from Boudin's efforts at system-wide change is being closely watched by those advocating criminal justice reform nationally.Like the failed recall against Governor Gavin Newsom, Boudin says the backlash is being supercharged by pandemic angst and its historic disruptions to lives, businesses and the courts.
BOUDIN: Look; I've never been in office before 2020. It's a steep learning curve.
WESTERVELT: A somewhat chastened Chesa Boudin insists he's learned from his stumbles, including, he says, the need to do a much better job communicating the why and how of his reforms.
BOUDIN: Of course I've made mistakes, and I've learned a tremendous amount about my office. There's room for improvement, and I'm committed to doing better in the months and years ahead.
WESTERVELT: Boudin responded to the recent organized robbery attacks downtown, sounding more like a traditionalist than one of the nation's most progressive reformers. Boudin, on Twitter, denounced what he called the looting, praised the swift police response and added of those arrested, standby for felony charges. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, San Francisco.
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Behind the loud pushback against progressive district ...
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San Francisco's progressive nightmare - UnHerd
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SAN FRANCISCO DA FACES SECOND RECALL EFFORT AS RESIDENTS 'FED UP' WITH PROGRESSIVE 'ZERO CONSEQUENCE' POLICIES Chesa Boudin, second from left, is shown with wife Valerie Block, far left, his father...
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