Know What We are Facing: What Are The Advocates Arguments for Criminal Justice Reform?

A recent article from the New York Times is a good illustration of the arguments being made by advocates for criminal justice reform.  Here are the key points from the article:

You should make a commitment never to call the police no matter what happens:

• After the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, Ms. Albers, who is white, and many of her progressive neighbors vowed to avoid calling law enforcement into their community. 
• Doing so, they believed, would add to the pain that black residents of Minneapolis were feeling and could put them in danger.

Your commitment will be a magnet for lawbreakers including people who suffer from mental illness and drug addiction:  

• Two weeks ago, dozens of multicolored tents appeared in the neighborhood park. The multiracial group of roughly 300 new residents seems to grow larger and more entrenched every day. 
• Some are hampered by mental illness, addiction or both.
• They do laundry, listen to music and strategize about how to find permanent housing. 
• Their presence has drawn heavy car traffic into the neighborhood, some from drug dealers. At least two residents have overdosed in the encampment and had to be taken away in ambulances.
• The influx of outsiders has kept Ms. Albers awake at night. She imagines using a baseball bat to defend herself.

You will be pressured to ignore violations of the law: 

• They persuaded officials to back off an eviction notice served shortly after the campers arrived.
• The women agreed to let any property damage, including to their own homes, go ignored and to request a block party permit from the city to limit car traffic. 

Providing "Services" to the lawbreakers will not solve the problem:

• Since the camp appeared, the community has organized shifts for delivering warm meals, medical care and counseling to people living in the park. 

You will feel helpless and want lawbreakers to move on but you have made a commitment to not call the police:

• Residents are eager for the campers to move on to stable housing away from the park.
• “It’s not personal. It’s just not safe.”
• The women agreed to let any property damage, including to their own homes, go ignored and to request a block party permit from the city to limit car traffic. 

You will end up looking for "alternatives" to law enforcement:

• Rather than turn to law enforcement if they saw anyone in physical danger, they resolved to call the American Indian Movement — a national organization created in 1968 to address Native American grievances such as police brutality — which had been policing its own community locally for years.
• Last Thursday night, Joseph Menkevich found a black man wearing a hospital bracelet passed out in the elevator of his apartment building two blocks away from the park. Mr. Menkevich quickly phoned a community activist but she did not pick up. He felt he had no choice but to call 911, so he did, but requested an ambulance only, not the police.
• “It didn’t resolve in a way that I had hoped,” Mr. Menkevich said. “All they did was offer to bring him back to the hospital. He refused, so they kicked him out on a rainy night.”

But any violations of the law are not the fault of law breakers:

• To the extent that illegal activity is going on in the park, Ms. Miller does not blame the tent residents. “My feeling around it is those are symptoms of systemic oppression,” she said. “And that’s not on them.”

Even If you are held up at gun point, you still should not call the police:

• Mitchell Erickson’s fingers began dialing 911 last week before he had a chance to even consider alternatives, when two black teenagers who looked to be 15, at most, cornered him outside his home a block away from the park.  One of the boys pointed a gun at Mr. Erickson’s chest, demanding his car keys.  Flustered, Mr. Erickson handed over a set, but it turned out to be house keys. The teenagers got frustrated and ran off, then stole a different car down the street. 
• Two days after an initial conversation, his position had evolved. “Been thinking more about it,” he wrote in a text message. “I regret calling the police. It was my instinct but I wish it hadn’t been. I put those boys in danger of death by calling the cops.”
• What about the fact that the boys had put his life in danger?  “Yeah I know and yeah it was scary but the cops didn’t really have much to add after I called them,” he replied. “I haven’t been forced to think like this before. So I would have lost my car. So what? At least no one would have been killed.”

Commentary-

This article summarizes the arguments that are being faced nationwide in the criminal justice reform movement.  

This is a recipe for chaos.  What else can you a call a system where there is no accountability.  The criminal is elevated over the victim.    It is a system where even if you want to help, you cannot force mentally ill or people addicted to drugs to do anything because you have no authority.  So lawless increases.  Drug dealers come in and pray on the mentally ill and those already addicted to drugs and we are told that to do anything would be racist.  The police are told to backoff.  Crime increases.  You are told to ignore it and do not call the police.  Even if you are the victim of a crime, you are told that it's not on them because it is a symptom of systemic oppression.

A country without laws is not a country.  A criminal justice system without accountability cannot survive.  

Our criminal justice system has lost its path.  We need to right the ship.  We need a system based upon laws.  If violated, then we need to apply the punishment that will get the defendant back on track.  

A system that says that everything is relative is not a criminal justice system.  It is a system of chaos.  This is not criminal justice reform; this is criminal justice surrender.