Crime
Illinois eliminated cash bail this week, the first state in the nation to do so. In 2022, the Illinois legislature passed the ironically named SAFE-T act mandating cashless bail. The effective date of the statute was stayed under a lawsuit. The Illinois Supreme Court recently found the statute constitutional and set the effective date for this past Monday. Under the law, only violent offenders committing forcible felonies may be detained pre-trial. This will mean that those committing property crimes and drug offenses will be cited to court instead. Obviously, this will exacerbate the already out of control open-air drug use, homelessness, and shoplifting that is hollowing out cities around the country, including, notably, Chicago.
More Crime
In line with what is happening in Illinois, New York City is experiencing the effects of the failure to penalize property crimes. The city is hemorrhaging retail jobs and establishments due to organized retail theft run amok. New York has lost 60,000 retail jobs and 675 retail outlets compared to pre-pandemic levels. This is not due to the pandemic because cities without lenient property crime policies have seen business rebound. You can read more about this issue here.
Still more crime
Rob Henderson’s substack, which I have previously and continue to recommend, documented some crime data this week. Compared to 2019, the murder rate has increased in NYC by 39%, in Philadelphia by 35%, by 54% in Boston, 58% in Atlanta, 62% in New Orleans, and 72% in Minneapolis. During this same period, murder rates in major cities outside the U.S. have not increased, suggesting the pandemic is not a causal factor. See the items above for the causal factor.
John Steinbeck
This post talks a lot about crime, which is kind of a downer. I was thinking I should end the week on a more positive note, but Judex is not a sappy inspirational blog. It is a newsletter for conservative judicial thought. So, I’m challenged to write something conservative, thoughtful and positive. I turn to John Steinbeck.
I love John Steinbeck’s writing. I began reading Steinbeck when my kids were young. I would read to them at night, and we read a lot of classic novels together. Among their favorites were The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. My favorite Steinbeck novel is East of Eden. It is possibly the greatest novel ever written. It’s about many things, but perhaps most of all it is about choice. It makes the case that one must choose how to live and be responsible for that choice. I think of this when I think of criminal behavior. The left wants to blame crime on everything but the person committing it. Conservatives believe that people are free to make choices. Steinbeck says it better, though:
But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—’Thou Mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou Mayest’—it is also true that Thou Mayest not.