"A new generation of progressive prosecutors are tearing the foundations of the American justice system; the ideology and agenda they espouse is contrary to the traditional conception of criminal justice and they want its destruction." experts tell The Epoch Times. According to research by Sean Kennedy, a criminal justice expert at the Maryland Public Policy Institute:
Prosecutors believe that the criminal justice system is overly punitive, racially biased and irredeemable. So they are trying to undermine it from within.
The so-called "corrupt prosecutors," "defecutors" or "Soros prosecutors." came to light in 2014 and became a major power group thanks to - among other things - the funding they acquired in their campaigns from tycoon George Soros. These "defiscals" currently control at least 75 district offices out of 93 in the country.
"Dishonest prosecutors' movement".
These prosecutors believe that too many people are incarcerated. According to Zack Smith, a former federal prosecutor, "the rogue prosecutor movement has its roots in the Marxist movement, they believe we should abolish prisons in the United States."
The creation of new policies for failure to prosecute certain crimessuch as thefts below a certain threshold, avoiding mandatory minimum sentences, preventing judges from setting bail, are the favorite state legislations for prosecutors to start imposing their ideology that make it difficult to put an offender behind bars.
Many members of this movement...have accepted the idea that we have a mass incarceration problem, that we arrest and incarcerate too many people. And so, they want to reduce the prison population and basically they want a lot of things that have traditionally been crimes to not be crimes or to have much less punishment, like a speeding ticket, a civil infraction....
Experts point to the fact that the detainees "they are not drug offenders, non-violent, low-level offenders. They are violent repeat offenders." Therefore, by wanting to reduce the prison population "that means releasing people who have committed very violent crimes; crimes such as rape, robbery, burglary, even murder in some cases".
Meanwhile, victims are ignored and neglected by these offices.
Soros' influence
A report of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) reveals that Soros and the organizations he finances more than $40 million in direct campaign expenditures in the United States. district attorneys. Soros didn't just fund the campaigns, he also wrote checks to progressive non-profit organizations, which then provided comprehensive support to the prosecutors.
The LELDF study notes that more than 500 political action committees (PACs), social welfare nonprofits and charities linked to or funded by Soros are engaged in his criminal justice agenda.
Sean Kennedy notes that"giving a million dollars to a local DA candidate, it 's happened in Northern Virginia, and millions of dollars to Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles...that's unprecedented and almost incomprehensible." Prosecutors include Dan Satterberg (Seattle), Larry Krasner (Philadelphia), Beth McCann (Denver), Marilyn Mosby (Baltimore), Kim Gardner (St. Louis) and George Gascon (Los Angeles).
Increase in crime
The implementation of prosecutorial policies almost always causes a increase in crime, although, according to Smith, it takes time for criminals to change the way in which They are not only the ones who commit the crimes, but also the ones who adapt to the new system where they know there will be no consequences for their actions:
The message these individuals receive is that there will be no consequences for their actions. If they are not going to be held on bail, if they are not going to be prosecuted, then what is the incentive for them not to keep repeating the same actions over and over again?
Other experts point to a strong demoralization of the police: Officers come to see their work as "useless" because, after the arrest, the suspect quickly returns to the street. "Some departments have simply stopped arresting people for crimes they know they won't be prosecuted anyway," added Sean Kennedy.
The causes of arrests are a cause for concern when taking into account the reduction in convictions. According to data of the Department of Justice and the Sentencing Commission, about 4% of inmates in the U.S. Department of Justice and the are behind bars for possession of drugs as its most serious offense. In state prison systems, which house nearly 9 out of every 10 offenders, 60% were serving time for a violent crime and another 12% for a theft, at the end of 2019. In federal prisons, about 45% of inmates are currently serving time for a drug offense, mostly trafficking.
Counteracting prosecutors
Countering progressive district attorneys is no easy task. According to Kennedy:
In many of the jurisdictions where these prosecutors won, they are very difficult to dislodge because they are in large liberal cities..... If you have a lot of money and a strong ideology, convincing that small subset of voters that your policies are fair or work, or that you just need more time to accomplish your goals, is very easy.
However, in recent years, there has been some resistance to progressive prosecutors. All these cases have in common a strong opponent who attracts the attention of voters:
- In Suffolk, Massachusetts, a district attorney with better pro-law and order speeches won against the Soros-backed candidate in the Democratic primary, guaranteeing her election in its entirety.
- In Baltimore, a "tough on crime" Democrat defeated a Soros-backed prosecutor.
- In Little Rock, Arkansas, a Republican defeated the Soros-backed Democrat for the Pulaski County District Attorney's office.
"When there is an organized opposition, and a good, honest candidate, to oppose the Soros prosecutor, then we are seeing success," Kennedy noted.
