Leftist tycoon George Soros defended his support for progressive prosecutors across the country in an article for The Wall Street Journal in late July. In it he justified the actions of prosecutors who are being rejected by voters because of rising crime in their districts and blamed it on Republicans.
Specialists consulted by Fox News gave examples that Soros' prosecutorial reforms are not good for cities. The tycoon wielded a phantom report to claim that violence and homicides have not increased significantly in cities that suffer from his prosecutors. However, the numbers prove otherwise.
Soros-backed prosecutors and rising violence
Manhattan Institute Director of Policing and Public Safety Hannah Meyers commented, "Soros is talking about vagueness rather than data; murder is out of control in several cities where he and his financial network have supported the campaigns of progressive prosecutors.... Larry Krasner broke Philadelphia's homicide record and Kim Gardner broke St. Louis' record."
Philadelphia recorded 562 homicides in 2021, numbers not seen in the city since 1990. This year it looks like it may even surpass that tremendous figure. As of August, 350 homicides have been recorded, according to the Police Department. The district attorney there is Larry Krasner. Soros invested $1.7 million in his election.
St. Louis is another case with a significant increase in violence. The city has a homicide rate of 87.83 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the country. District Attorney Kimberly Gardner was funded by Soros: with more than $190,000 in 2016 and $116,000 in her re-election, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Austin faces a severe shortage of law enforcement personnel after the movement to defund the police ending up making cuts in the 2020 budget. Soros-funded prosecutor Jose Garza has been criticized for rising crime in the city. His reformist measures include ending cash bail and dropping prosecution of certain drug offenses.
Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Retired Police Officers Association, told Fox News:
In Texas, in most of the large counties the prosecutors are Democrats. And they're progressive Democrats, Soros Democrats. So yes, you can go back and directly correlate the increase in crime to the installation of these reformist prosecutors who are not prosecuting crimes as they should.
Judicial Reform
In his article, Soros stated that he has no intention of giving up on his plans to reform the legal and criminal justice system:
I have been involved in efforts to reform the judicial system for the more than 30 years that I have been involved in philanthropy. I have done so transparently, and I have no intention whatsoever of ceasing to do so.
George Mason University professor emerita Joyce Lee Malcolm told Fox News:
I think the word reform can be abused.Reform means to change something, but it doesn't always mean for the better. These changes are not for the better, they lead to more crime..... If you ask people if they are in favor of reform, everyone says, "Oh, yes," assuming that reform is alluding to a better outcome. But the outcome here is disastrous.
