One Damn Thing After Another by Tom Reynolds
In his book “One Damn Thing After Another”, twice former Attorney General William Barr wrote about violent crime increasing dramatically because of, “…the prevailing liberal dogma that criminals were society’s victims rather than the victimizers. During this time, as violent crime soared, the incarceration rate dropped…This surge in violent crime posed as serious a problem as we have faced as a nation.”
Pretty good analysis of our current situation. Except…Barr was referring to the period from the 1960’s to the 1990’s!
“Those that do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
In the early 1990’s while serving as Assistant Attorney General, Barr analyzed the situation and concluded, “…the problem of predatory violent crime was the problem of the chronic violent offender…a tiny fraction of the population were habitual violent offenders who committed most of the predatory violence in our society.”
He continued, “The identity of these career offenders was not a mystery. They started committing crimes as juveniles – for which they were never held accountable – and kept on committing crimes as adults. They continued committing crimes whenever they were let out of prison on bail, parole or probation.”
Barr concluded, “The government’s highest duty…is to protect its citizens from the predations of violent aggressors…A government that can’t or won’t spend sufficient resources to prevent habitual violent criminals from continuously preying on peaceful citizens breaches its most fundamental obligation.”
The way to do this was to, “…identify, target and incapacitate this hard-core group of offenders by making them serve adequate sentences dictated by the imperative of public safety…” In other words, put them in jail where they cannot harm the law-abiding public.
As Barr’s then boss Attorney General Richard Thornburgh put it, “Before we can be kinder and gentler, we need to be rougher and tougher on crime.” Before the government could create “enterprise zones” and other economic, social and educational opportunities, it had to stop crime.
As Attorney General, Barr began some tough on crime initiatives that were successful. And as he describes, “… the predictable naysayers became louder…spend more on social programs to address the ‘root causes’ of crime…We don’t need more police, we need more social workers.”
Sound eerily familiar?
Barr answers, “…while strong law enforcement may not be enough on its own to solve all of society’s problems, it is the necessary prerequisite for any social progress…safe neighborhoods – must be the foundation upon which all else is built.”
Unfortunately for all of us, our current governments waste money on economic, social and educational programs before they weed out crime, and then wonder why their programs fail. (In fairness, success was never their goal. These programs met the government’s real purpose of buying votes from those who are most victimized but only see the liberals “good intentions” and not the inevitable result.)
Almost 40 years since Barr was first Attorney General, the lessons he learned and implemented are being ignored and crime is surging.
Today’s liberals undermine and defund law enforcement. They are soft on crime and refuse to hold criminals accountable for their actions and they treat criminals as victims of society. Their bail reform lets criminals free to commit more crimes, often before the paperwork from their original crime is processed. Prisons are being closed, which also is happening to law abiding businesses in cities where those that should be in prison roam free to burglarize and terrorize businesses. And let’s not forget immigration policies that create an open door to criminals, drug smugglers and terrorists.
Liberals will say they are addressing the criminals with their “Red Flag” laws. But like most liberal laws, their real purpose is to create a broadly defined law that can be used and abused against their opposition. Broad “Red Flag” laws give liberals the opportunity to deny people their constitutional rights before that person has committed a crime. And it’s not just the 2nd Amendment they are going after; the right of Free Speech is on their radar.
The left never dies. Their policies and programs are eventually shown to not work, but they only go into hibernation and eventually reemerge from their dens. In 1994, an Assault Weapons back was passed. In 2022, like The Terminator - it’s back. Bad timing makes it our turn to fight the left, again. We must not shirk our duty.
