Army Bob: Will left learn from the history of crime?

by Robert M. Traxler

In Portland, Oregon, peaceful nonviolent protesters set up barricades to keep people in the building housing a police union headquarters, and then set it on fire.

To all you who cheer the current “protests,” ponder that for a few minutes. It was fine because the fire was extinguished, so no news value. If the fire had been in the offices of the Black Lives Matter headquarters, set by people protesting against them and also quickly extinguished, would it have had news value? No question it would.

In a series of statements and Twitter messages, Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty accused the Portland Police Bureau of collaborating with the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS), imagine that, in what she described as an “aggressive clampdown of peaceful protest.” The protesters peacefully slung frozen water bottles at the police, but as we all know, rocks and bottles, even firebombs, can’t hurt the police, just like you can’t get COVID-19 at a Black Lives Matter protest gathering of thousands in Grand Rapids. Say anything against that absurd belief and brace for the cancel culture attack calling you anti-science and anti-intellectual.

Let’s look at this in the light of history. Federal government personnel on federal property are told to leave a city and state, and they do not, so people from the city and state move them by force. That was Charleston, South Carolina, Fort Sumter, 1861; the only thing missing is that Portland Oregon has yet to secede from the Union.

Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf tweeted Friday that federal officers in Portland have been “assaulted with lasers and frozen water bottles” by suspects attempting to damage federal property. The peaceful protesters have proven many times their favorite weapon of choice is fire, but do not concern yourself; fire cannot hurt anyone.

To all the good folks who say we are not defunding the police, we are just redirecting assets, give me access to your bank account and I will redirect it to my bank account; you won’t lose anything, it is merely redirected, right? The socialist left will tell us that if we have a problem with the schools, we need to spend more money; with social justice, more money; with health care, more money; with the police, less money?

Strange how that works. The entire movement is so counterproductive; fewer police, more crime — it has always been that way and always will be that way. The good folks can deny that, while assuming all people are good, it is just a bad social justice system that forces people commit crime.

In bygone years I taught criminal justice courses at a college. A few thing those on the socialist progressive left need to understand: most crimes are committed within a mile of home; 75% of criminals, especially the violent ones, recommit crimes after they are released from confinement, averaging six crimes with six or more victims; and most victims are of the same race and income level as the criminals.

So, all the folks who say “redirect funds” and limit police should be aware they are only hurting the very people they say they want to protect. Protecting the people is less important than making the progressive 5% feel good about themselves and awarding honors to each other for championing social justice.  Tuxedos, gowns, champagne dinners and glowing speeches are the order of the day; however, thousands of victims and ruined lives are forgotten in the rush for self-congratulations.

In the 1960s, criminals were given a break; we had a “revolving door” system of justice, as many are advocating for today. By 1972 the number one issue in the Presidential election was crime; laws were strengthened, police funding increased, and crime was reduced. Laws were again strengthened by President Clinton in the 1994 Criminal Justice Reform law that Senator Biden helped write; more police, increased budgets, more training and longer sentences for criminals, along with recognizing career criminals, the three strike laws, and crime was again reduced.

Will the intellectual left learn from this, will the progressives of this world learn from this? Not a chance; it is not politically correct history, merely true history, and the facts don’t matter much to those riding the defund/redirect fund/disband the police wave.