by Vince Coyner
The United States literally began with these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (What that actually means, particularly the pursuit of Happiness part, is different for different people. At a minimum, however, we can all agree that Life means, well...life.)
The above quotation, of course, comes from the Declaration of Independence. But that document doesn’t define the structure of our government; the Constitution does. And it’s from the Constitution that we get our federal system, under which (originally) the federal government had a few well-defined and finite powers such as defense, foreign relations, and adjudicating conflicts between the various states. States, on the other hand, reserved all those powers not specifically prohibited to them or delegated to the federal government.
The truth is that the system worked very well for a long time. About 150 years. But starting in the 1910s, with the passage of the 16th and 17th amendments, the line between the states and the federal government started to blur; in the 1930s, it began to fray; and by the 1990s, it was basically gone, which is the situation we find ourselves with today.
This evisceration of our federal system means that, for all intents and purposes, the Constitution’s limited government no longer exists. From welfare to education to employment to consumer products to media to farming to housing, the federal government is involved in virtually every other aspect of American lives. I’d even go so far as to suggest that 70% or more of what the federal government does is unconstitutional.
Nonetheless, you know one place where federal control largely doesn’t extend? The criminal justice system. That doesn’t mean there is no federal involvement, because in reality, there is. However, states exert more control over the criminal justice system than they do over other aspects of life, such as healthcare, automobiles, banking, etc.
But maybe that’s one area where the federal government should take control, or at least some control. Why? Because state and local governments are facilitating the spilling of American blood. Across the country, from Virginia to Maine to California, we are seeing state and or local governments failing to protect that most basic thing upon which America was founded: Life.
The reports and stories we see regularly are heartbreaking. A criminal with 40 arrests murders a young woman during a home invasion. An illegal alien with 30 prior arrests fatally slashes a random woman's neck as she stands at a bus stop. A thug with 17 priors beat a 64-year-old man to death in a subway because he didn’t like the way the victim looked at him.
For far too many criminals, the justice system is a collection of empty threats and not a deterrent to anything, all of it empowered by government employees more focused on leftist agendas than the safety of the citizens they serve.
Stephen Miller pointed out recently that Western civilization only started flourishing after centuries of culling the most violent among them via capital punishment. I’ve often said that it’s impossible to go into a dark movie theater and fully enjoy the show if you’re worried the entire time that the guy behind you might shoot you in the back of the head.
Similarly, it’s difficult to build a functioning, flourishing society, one that advances science and technology and that builds prosperity, if the citizens of said society worry about being killed waiting for the subway or driving home from work or standing in line at some fast food restaurant. All the creativity people might put into inventing new widgets, conducting cancer research, or teaching children to read instead gets focused on how to avoid becoming a crime victim.
These state and local policies are the bleeding edge (literally) of George Soros’s and the swamp’s attempts to destroy the Republic and turn America into the leftist paradise they all dream of controlling. And just as communism in the 20th century did nothing but deliver bloodshed, economic ruin, and tyranny everywhere it showed its ugly head, we see the same thing in blue states and cities across America.
Given the failure of blue state / city judges, prosecutors, and District Attorneys to protect their citizens’ lives (violating the Constitution’s description of government’s function), Washington should step in to do the job. The feds won’t be able to protect everyone, but they will be able to tackle the problem in a way that the states and cities refuse to do.
What kinds of things can be done?
First: Make murder a federal, capital crime and only a limited, streamlined appeal process so that the thing doesn’t drag on for years or decades.
Second: The federal government should begin to indict and imprison said judges, prosecutors, and DAs every single time one of the career criminals they put back on the street kills someone.
But, you might say, all these prosecutors, judges, and DAs have qualified immunity. Maybe from state charges, but not from federal civil rights violations.
Think back to 1992 when a local jury acquitted the police officers of assault and use of excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. What happened then? The feds came in and charged those same officers with violating King’s civil rights, and they won convictions.
Frankly, that was a BS charge then, but the precedent was set. If using a baton on someone who put the lives of countless motorists at risk is a violation of civil rights, then actually empowering the murder of someone is at least as much so. As such, given the role that the various government officials play in putting on the street career criminals who then go on to commit murder, the Justice Department should hold them accountable.
What would the result of such a policy be? One would be that it would force government officials to weigh the potential consequences of releasing criminals into communities against the potential outcome to the community should that criminal murder someone. Another would be that crime would drop precipitously as career criminals find themselves behind bars far more often than they’re accustomed to.
None of this is ideal, and this is not an ideal solution, but as Voltaire said: “Perfect is the enemy of good.” When government officials not only don’t protect citizens but actively put them in harm’s way, they should pay for those decisions. Government without accountability is just another way of saying tyranny, something the Declaration of Independence was specifically written to oppose.
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