Crime
St. Louis Prosecutor, Kim Gardner, campaigned as a “progressive prosecutor” and won her election in 2017. Upon taking office, Gardner began consulting with the VERA Institute, a non-profit dedicated to criminal justice reform. Gardner implemented many of the VERA Institute’s suggestions. She dismissed 25,000 pending cases. She implemented a policy of not filing gun charges or enhancements, as well as not filing charges on many drug and property crimes. She issued summonses instead of warrants in many cases. She expanded diversion programs and problem-solving courts.
In February, 2023, seventeen-year old Janae Edmondson was in St. Louis for a volleyball tournament. She was walking down the street when a car driven by Daniel Riley came roaring recklessly through striking her. Janea lived but lost both of her legs. Once the facts about Riley came out, outrage ensued. Riley, who had an extensive criminal history, had recently committed an armed robbery but was given pre-trial release. He had violated the terms of his pre-trial release multiple times, yet was never held accountable. Prosecutor Gardner never requested his release be revoked, so he was free to get in his car, drive like a maniac and irreparably alter Janae’s life.
Janae’s case prompted the Missouri Attorney General to begin proceedings to remove Gardner from office under a Missouri law that allows that. He began an investigation, the results of which were released last week. The lack of accountability that allowed Riley to remain on the street was typical for Gardner’s office, the investigation found. In addition to the cases the prosecutor dismissed, and the ones she did not file, an additional 2,735 cases were dismissed by judges due to a failure to prosecute. The AG also documented countless violations of the Missouri’s Crime Victims Act where victims were not notified of court proceedings or case outcomes.
Under pressure from the investigation, Gardner resigned in May of this year. While she may be gone, the ideology that drives the dangerous policies she implemented is alive and well all across the country. The VERA Institute is still working. They have made similar suggestions right here in Indiana. Hopefully, the Missouri AG’s findings will serve as a lesson to the public and to criminal justice policymakers to reject such misguided notions.
More crime
Three years ago, Oregon voters legalized drugs through a referendum. This included not just marijuana, but heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. Predictably, drug overdose deaths have increased by 300% since the law passed. So far this year, 955 Oregonians have died from drug overdose. A majority of Oregon citizens now support re-criminalizing drugs. Sometimes people must learn the hard way.
Still more crime
Last week, Indianapolis had its 200th homicide, marking four consecutive years of record-breaking homicides for the city. Crime is the highest it has been in the last 200 years, making Indy one of the most violent cities in America per capita.
A thread runs through all three of the segments today. Last Wednesday I wrote about Wokism’s corrosive effect on our institutions. It is the soft-on-crime, woke-driven policies that drove Prosecutor Kim Gardner’s office into the ground unleashing chaos in her city, that led Oregonians to legalize hard drugs killing hundreds of people by overdose this year, and that enabled Indianapolis to, yet again, have record high homicides. It does not have to be this way.