Bipartisan solutions to crime should at least target problems like the fentanyl crisis
Philadelphia Police Commissioner calls looters criminals: 'Everyone should be angry'
Interim Commissioner John Stanford called the looters who ravaged stores in Center City, Philadelphia on Tuesday night "criminals."
Over the past decade most of America’s largest cities have engaged in a grand experiment to ease policing and soften criminal justice, now the results are in, it has been a deadly and abject failure.
Take the city of Philadelphia, birthplace of America, today it is home to hordes of looters storming Lulu Lemons and Apple stores.
And what does George-Soros-backed district attorney and friend of the criminal class, Larry Krasner have to say about it?
He told reporters of those arrested, about 50 people, "We'll look carefully to see whether this is a one-off situation and they're fundamentally law-abiding people."
Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner spoke to a local Fox affiliate recently about his plans to prosecutors those involved in widespread looting of the city. (Philadelphia Police)
Here’s a hint, Larry, fundamentally law-abiding people don’t suddenly wind up ransacking liquor stores on the spur of the moment, it's absurd.
Then we have the viral video of a motorcycle gang, in which a thug stomps in the back windshield of a woman’s car, with kids in the back seat, and then pulls a gun on the outraged driver.
These rolling gangs in and of themselves are a menace to the City of Brotherly Love.
Every Philadelphian who dines at a sidewalk cafe has seen and heard this, it begins as a low rumbling and in moments the roar of 40 motorcycle engines thunders at impossible decibel levels that shake the tabletop, the menacing gang preening on their bikes.
It is every sense equivalent to outlaws riding into town guns blazing in a Western film. Even if they commit no crime, their hooting and hollering make clear to the citizens that they own the town and will do whatever they please.
One-year-olds are being shot on the street, Kensington looks like something out of a horror movie with barely moving strung-out bodies, lining the streets below the elevated train.
And then there was the tragic murder of journalist Josh Kruger, himself a strong advocate of leftist policing policies. He was killed in his home, mirroring the death of Ryan Carson, another activist, murdered in the streets of Brooklyn.
No decent person can find anything but empty sorrow at these killings emotionally, but they do force us to ask, is there any common ground to be found between the left and the right in fixing our cities’ crime problems and keeping Americans safe?
Philadelphia Police sit outside the Lululemon store on Wednesday morning, Sept. 27, 2023, in Philadelphia. A flash mob-style ransacking and vandalism to downtown stores Tuesday night came after a peaceful protest over a judge’s decision to dismiss murder and other charges against a Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a driver, Eddie Irizarry. (Alejandro A. Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Conservatives have a simple and straightforward solution to the problem: go back to the policing and criminal justice policies of the 1990s and early 21st Century that kept most of our cities safe as houses, end bail reform, re-fund the police, bring back stop, question, and frisk.
The left, however, says that results of these policies, which are hard to argue with, came at the price of a racist system that leads to minorities being incarcerated at high levels, and police brutality that can even lead to death.
That is the standoff, it has been for years now. But could there be a third way, a compromise that can at least diminish crime, if not restore the relative tranquility of the recent past?
Perhaps a focus on serial repeat offenders, who time and again are responsible for murders and carjackings, is an area where even today’s left can give some ground. That alone would save lives.
Fentanyl penalties are also a space where compromise might be found. Last month a toddler was killed in The Bronx, and two others hospitalized just from residue of the deadly narcotic in the air of their daycare center.
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Surely, those engaged in mass distribution of fentanyl must be treated more harshly than those selling other drugs, because its capacity to kill is unique, and it is finding its way into other illegal drugs like cocaine, and even fake prescriptions like Xanax, used by teens.
Another possibility is to incentivize good, strong candidates to join our police forces with increased pay and benefits. Not only would this fill the bleeding ranks of law enforcement, it could also deter abuse by choosing only the best of the best to protect and serve.
One-year-olds are being shot on the street, Kensington looks like something out of a horror movie with barely moving strung-out bodies, lining the streets below the elevated train.
The point is that people are dying, people are scared, businesses are closing, downtowns are destroyed and rather than stand on our ideological high horses, both sides need to find common-ground solutions.
Like any problem in life, the more we ignore crime infesting our cities the worse it gets, and the harder it becomes to address.
Now is the time to act, assuming people of good faith can put aside their political animosities and work together for the betterment of our nation.
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David Marcus is a columnist living in West Virginia and the author of "Charade: The COVID Lies That Crushed A Nation."
