Politicians are wreaking havoc on American communities by favoring criminals; it’s a national security issue

National security comes in many forms. Most obvious is the building and maintaining of armed forces to protect against invasion or attacks on national interests.

A less examined component of national security is the execution of laws at home. Enforcement of criminal laws is in fact protecting our most vital national interest, our citizens.

Politicians have made a series of ideologically driven decisions that have served as a signal for criminals to increase their activities and thus puts citizens lives at risk.

Obvious increases in crime resulting from fewer prosecutions and reduction in sentencing have made life hard for citizens who obey the law but easier for criminals.

By now almost everyone has seen large groups of criminals storming stores, stealing massive amounts of goods.

We need only observe major cities from coast-to-coast, mostly led by political machines for several decades, to understand the source of the problem. Most of the increases in crime occur in Democrat-led cities.

Now we, as a nation, must take charge of the nation and rid ourselves of elected officials who do not respect our law and have an apparent disdain for citizens.

New York City, the nation’s largest city, is under the spell of a district attorney, Alvin Bragg.

In at least one instance of a criminal being stopped by an elderly shopkeeper, Bragg initially charged the shopkeeper with a crime.  Only a large public outcry forced Bragg to drop the charges.

In September, a man wielding an axe beat patrons of a McDonalds and menaced others as he used the axe to vandalize the store. After he was arrested, Bragg decided to charge the man with a crime that allowed him to walk free without posting bail.

In Los Angeles, the second largest city in the nation, district attorney George Gascón has built a reputation for being exceptionally soft on crime. Since taking office in 2020, he “issued a special directive that prevents prosecutors in his office from seeking the death penalty, sentencing enhancements or cash bail in non-violent cases.”

Several of his own deputies supported a recall election that has since failed. Nonetheless, it is reported that he has retaliated against the prosecutors. Denouncing Gascón appears to be a bigger crime than, say, actual crime.

Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, is led by a local prosecutor the Cook County State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx.

Many will remember her as she chose not to prosecute the now-infamous Jussie Smollett after he fabricated facts and insisted he was attacked by racists who were Trump supporters. It was later confirmed that he paid individuals to stage the fake attack.

After outrage mounted following the clear evidence that the incident was a hoax, and Smollett received favorable treatment, a special prosecutor was assigned to investigate the matter.

A special prosecutor found “evidence that establishes substantial abuse of discretion and operational failures by the (Cook County State's Attorney Office) (Foxx’ office) in prosecuting and resolving the Initial Smollett Case.” The special prosecutor also found numerous “misleading and false statements” by her office.

A local Cook County judge appointed a special prosecutor and Smollett was convicted for perpetrating the hoax. Kim Foxx did not contribute to the prosecution.

All three dangerous prosecutors remain in office.

The one common thread is that Bragg, Gascón, and Foxx were all supported by billionaire George Soros. One would have to believe, judging by his actions, that he is attempting to see our cities fall into a state of chaos.

People throughout the country, especially in bigger cities, are not secure and they do not need a calculator to know this. They live with it. Crime is up, including violent crime.

As a matter of national security, steps need to be taken at both state and federal levels, make our cities and states safe. Some politicians are going in the opposite direction. This is not strictly a Republican vs. Democrat issue. Leaders in both parties, particularly at the local level, are gaining more realization of the connection between soft-on-crime measures and increases in crime.

Decisive actions must occur and must occur quickly irrespective of election-year pressures. The actions have to be concrete and obvious.

Clear actions start with a reversal of efforts to defund the police at all levels. Across the nation, efforts to defund police, have likely led to less vigorous engagement by officers wary of being labeled as abusive.  Who really suffers from this? The people most in need of the most engagement with police particularly in large cities.

No doubt there are significantly fewer people choosing to pursue careers in law enforcement, and early retirements have increased. Cities and states must also reverse this trend even if it is in their self-interest.

Narrow sentencing options for courts. We trust judges and juries, but sentencing is something legislatures and executives, and the people, should have a say in. More thought must go into how and why, and for how long, we incarcerate convicted criminals.  This thought has to go into legislation and cannot be exclusively the prerogatives of judges.

Reinstitute cash bail wherever it has been eliminated. Safety of the public is the guiding principle. Cashless bail theoretically was designed to make the judicial system fairer for persons arrested and charged before their trials. What is instead happening is that repeat criminals are walking out of jail within hours of arrest only to offend again.

Cash bail has never been a perfect solution, but it will undoubtedly reduce immediate repeat offenses and will almost certainly save lives. Cashless bail across a large spectrum of crimes, including some violent offenses, is not working.

Take action against elected or appointed prosecutors who openly decide to ignore criminal offenses. Require prosecutors to enforce laws duly passed by legislatures. Any policy that expresses the idea that specific or lists of crimes will not be prosecuted must result in district attorneys losing their positions.

Tighten the southern border and finish the wall. Thousands of illegal immigrants are pouring over the border daily. Among that group are most certainly criminals who will continue their crimes in the U.S. Why permit this flow --- and even encourage it --- when human trafficking and movement of drugs into our country, including fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, is such a big part of the illegal crossings.

We need to keep criminals off the street. Arrest, prosecute and put criminals in jail to protect our law-abiding citizens.

---

James Hutton is a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army. Follow him on Twitter @jehutton, GETTR @jehutton, and Truth Social @jehutton