https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/why-i-support-reform-prosecutors-law-enforces-jail-prison-crime-rate-justice-police-funding-11659277441

Why I Support Reform Prosecutors

Justice or safety? It’s a false choice. They reinforce each other.

By George SorosJuly 31, 2022 1:59 pm ET

An investigator photographs evidence in Albuquerque, N.M., June 13.

Photo: Roberto E. Rosales/Zuma Press

Like most of us, I’m concerned about crime. One of government’s most important roles is to ensure public safety. I have been involved in efforts to reform the criminal-justice system for the more than 30 years I have been a philanthropist.

Yet our system is rife with injustices that make us all less safe. The idea that we need to choose between justice and safety is false. They reinforce each other: If people trust the justice system, it will work. And if the system works, public safety will improve.

We need to acknowledge that black people in the U.S. are five times as likely to be sent to jail as white people. That is an injustice that undermines our democracy.

We spend $81 billion every year keeping around two million people in prisons and jails. We need to invest more in preventing crime with strategies that work—deploying mental-health professionals in crisis situations, investing in youth job programs, and creating opportunities for education behind bars. This reduces the likelihood that those prisoners will commit new crimes after release.

In recent years, reform-minded prosecutors and other law-enforcement officials around the country have been coalescing around an agenda that promises to be more effective and just. This agenda includes prioritizing the resources of the criminal-justice system to protect people against violent crime. It urges that we treat drug addiction as a disease, not a crime. And it seeks to end the criminalization of poverty and mental illness.

This agenda, aiming at both safety and justice, is based on both common sense and evidence. It’s popular. It’s effective. The goal is not defunding the police but restoring trust between the police and the policed, a partnership that fosters the solving of crimes.

Some politicians and pundits have tried to blame recent spikes in crime on the policies of reform-minded prosecutors. The research I’ve seen says otherwise. The most rigorous academic study, analyzing data across 35 jurisdictions, shows no connection between the election of reform-minded prosecutors and local crime rates. In fact, violent crime in recent years has generally been increasing more quickly in jurisdictions without reform-minded prosecutors. Murder rates have been rising fastest in some Republican states led by tough-on-crime politicians.

Serious scholars researching causes behind the recent increase in crime have pointed to other factors: a disturbing rise in mental illness among young people due to the isolation imposed by Covid lockdowns, a pullback in policing in the wake of public criminal-justice reform protests, and increases in gun trafficking. Many of the same people who call for more-punitive criminal-justice policies also support looser gun laws.

This is why I have supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform. I have done it transparently, and I have 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.

Mr. Soros is founder of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Foundations.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44947533)

>>> "What? No, I'm not antisemitic!"

>>> "OK, I guess if that makes me 'antisemitic,' so be it. You people are ridiculous with your name-calling..."

>>> "Fuck yeah I'm antisemitic, fuck kikes."

Crazy how quick this progression can go, btw. But don't worry Dupa, it's all just jokes we still love Jews :)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44947573)

(Shitlib activist about to blast the justice system)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44947577)

>>>If people trust the justice system, it will work. And if the system works, public safety will improve.

This logic does not follow

>>>We need to acknowledge that black people in the U.S. are five times as likely to be sent to jail as white people.

Why do they go at 5x the rate?

>>>We need to invest more in preventing crime with strategies that work—deploying mental-health professionals in crisis situations, investing in youth job programs, and creating opportunities for education behind bars.

Begs the question regarding these strategies working

>>>This agenda, aiming at both safety and justice, is based on both common sense and evidence. It’s popular. It’s effective.

States popularity and effectiveness without evidence

>>>The goal is not defunding the police but restoring trust between the police and the policed, a partnership that fosters the solving of crimes.

This is simply Minitru levels of Orwellian

>>>The research I’ve seen says otherwise. The most rigorous academic study, analyzing data across 35 jurisdictions, shows no connection between the election of reform-minded prosecutors and local crime rates.

Single study with data that ends in early 2021

>>>Murder rates have been rising fastest in some Republican states led by tough-on-crime politicians.

Start from 1/100K going to 2/100K and your murder rate is rising faster than 100/100K going to 150/100K

>>>Serious scholars

True Scotsman

>>>Many of the same people who call for more-punitive criminal-justice policies also support looser gun laws.

Many of the same people who call for less-punitive policies call for stricter gun laws. What kind of fucking argument is this?

—-

Fundamentally, we know Soros is dangerously intelligent, and him writing some shallow drivel like this highlights his evilness

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44947604)

>>> Soros is a billionaire with a security detail. He has no need to be concerned about crime in low income areas. This is all idle social engineering for him.

One of government’s most important roles is to ensure public safety. I have been involved in efforts to reform the criminal-justice system for the more than 30 years I have been a philanthropist.

>>> His "reform" efforts are of the sort that have seen an explosion in violent crime.

Yet our system is rife with injustices that make us all less safe.

>>> This is a lie. Overly harsh sentences and the like don't make us all less safe, but lenient sentences and catch and release criminal justice imperils us all — well, except people like Soros, who can afford to insulate themselves from poor policy with money.

The idea that we need to choose between justice and safety is false.

>>> He never defines these terms, but the reality is that any system of criminal justice is subject to tradeoffs. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and the signal detection theory applies — if we want to maximally deter crime, we'll probably need to, rarely, suffer some false positives.

They reinforce each other: If people trust the justice system, it will work. And if the system works, public safety will improve.

>>> This is dream logic. In reality, people trust things because they work, but things don't work just because people trust them.

We need to acknowledge that black people in the U.S. are five times as likely to be sent to jail as white people. That is an injustice that undermines our democracy.

>>> One can't just look at a disparity and declare "injustice." It could be that blacks aren't imprisoned enough relative to how much they commit crimes.

We spend $81 billion every year keeping around two million people in prisons and jails. We need to invest more in preventing crime with strategies that work—deploying mental-health professionals in crisis situations, investing in youth job programs, and creating opportunities for education behind bars. This reduces the likelihood that those prisoners will commit new crimes after release.

>>> The amount spent on incarceration bears no logical relation to these alternatives, none of which work at keeping criminals off the streets.

In recent years, reform-minded prosecutors and other law-enforcement officials around the country have been coalescing around an agenda that promises to be more effective and just. This agenda includes prioritizing the resources of the criminal-justice system to protect people against violent crime. It urges that we treat drug addiction as a disease, not a crime. And it seeks to end the criminalization of poverty and mental illness.

>>> This is bullshit rhetoric and the forces he is describing have laid waste to America's formerly glittering cities.

This agenda, aiming at both safety and justice, is based on both common sense and evidence. It’s popular. It’s effective. The goal is not defunding the police but restoring trust between the police and the policed, a partnership that fosters the solving of crimes.

>>> All lies. The agenda is based on a perverted secular religion of Progs — Holocaustianty. It's not common sense it's not evidence based, it isn't popular, and it "solves" crimes only in that it declares them to not exist.

Some politicians and pundits have tried to blame recent spikes in crime on the policies of reform-minded prosecutors. The research I’ve seen says otherwise. The most rigorous academic study, analyzing data across 35 jurisdictions, shows no connection between the election of reform-minded prosecutors and local crime rates. In fact, violent crime in recent years has generally been increasing more quickly in jurisdictions without reform-minded prosecutors. Murder rates have been rising fastest in some Republican states led by tough-on-crime politicians.

>>> Cherry picking and he ignores that reform prosecutors tend to be elected by high income places that have enjoyed the fruits of our secular decline in crime since the 90, i.e., the long hangover from the last time this jailbreak bullshit was tried and our cities exploded in an orgy of filth and violence.

Serious scholars researching causes behind the recent increase in crime have pointed to other factors: a disturbing rise in mental illness among young people due to the isolation imposed by Covid lockdowns, a pullback in policing in the wake of public criminal-justice reform protests, and increases in gun trafficking. Many of the same people who call for more-punitive criminal-justice policies also support looser gun laws.

>>> Red herrings, but it is notable that lockdowns, another bs prog policy, are now being cited as the reason we need to accept catch and release policing.

This is why I have supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform. I have done it transparently, and I have 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.

>>> Mr. Soros is playing with fire by endangering the public's safety with his money. He should have a care as to how much the public actually likes what it is hearing. His wealth can easily be expropriated and he and his family brought to account with a turn of the screw.

Mr. Soros is founder of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Foundations.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44947853)

OUR DEMOCRACY?!!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44947608)

And you have to sit there and you have no means of responding or challenging any of this shit. Just rage inside while they go on destroying the world

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44947713)

Meanwhile Chesa Boudin was refusing to prosecute heroin and fentanyl dealers because they might get deported

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44948680)

1d ago

The only thing you need to take away from this piece is that nowhere does it contain the phrase “victims of crime “.

Full stop.

Reply

583

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44948940)

1d ago

> We need to acknowledge that black people in the U.S. are five times as likely to be sent to jail as white people.

We need to acknowledge that if people commit crimes, it shouldn't matter what color their skin is when we throw the book at them. Why is this framed as a race issue rather than, say, a poverty issue? Poverty is a much stronger determinant of criminality than race.

Reply

567

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44948942)

7 minutes ago

What's next? The journal running an essay from Putin on why he's reforming the European security structure?

Reply

386

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44948943)

1d ago

The "reform minded judges" in the Houston area have given bonds (including PR bonds and low bonds) to repeat felony offenders which has resulted in over 170 murders of innocent citizens. Is this what you mean by reform and what you call promoting safety?

Reply

316

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44948947)

1d ago

Soros’ meddling in local prosecutorial elections about which he knows nothing is responsible for untold misery happening in communities throughout the country.

Reply

90

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44948966)

1d ago

Relying on academic research as the fundamental justification for soft on crime policies, prosecutors and cops is a false canard. Academia is morally and mentally corrupt and bereft of honest inquiry. Arguing you are a philanthropist is a false sop. You are sir, a malign actor seeking to destroy the United States from within, using the tax code to effect an insurrection and undermine the rule of law, from Black Lives Matter through soft on crime prosecutors to woke faculty. In a just legal system you would be tried for sedition and duly hung!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44949001)

Ok but what about those of us who think the mental health aspect deserves attention? None of the progressive reforms have even tried to remedy that. Why are there no public resources being put into mental health?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44949234)

ie one of their demands in these "protests" ?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44949245)

he's got everyone on the right corralled back in the 'I Back the Blue, the Prosecutors, and the Prison Industrial Complex Carceral (((state)))' corner.

if you think living in a police state administered by the regime is going to PWN THE BLACKS AND THE JEWS, ask Qanon Shaman about that. or ask the incredible number of downwardly mobile white people whom the police/prosecutors harass preferentially over dangerous blacks every day.

the smart position is choice C. recognizing that white separatism -- not mindlessly 'backing the blue' and maxing out the globohomo surveillance/prosecutorial state -- is the answer, and saying so out loud.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5165164&forum_id=2#44949282)