In terms of crime and punishment, the progressive left is bat poop crazy, and it is killing people — including some of them.
Case One
In case you missed the story. Progressive activist Ryan Carson was stabbed to death on the street of New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He was walking home from a wedding with his girlfriend when a young black man named Brian Dowling assaulted him – chased him down and stabbed him to death as he lay on the pavement. The killer then spit on the girlfriend and kicked Carson’s bleeding body. The entire brutal incident was graphically captured on a security camera.
In many ways, Carson was just another of a growing number of innocent people victimized by the crime wave that is plaguing American cities – a crime wave that is being caused by insane progressive and woke policies.
While this was a random act of violence that is becoming iconic in our major cities, I mentioned that he was a progressive activist because there is a cultural element of the murder. It is not about him directly. He is a victim … period.
It is about his roommate, who refused to give his name. In eulogizing Carson, the roommate said he had not thought about the guy who murdered his friend. He called the murderer “the least important part of this conversation.”
The roommate added that he has “no feelings of vengeance and I don’t think that’s healthy. I’m not angry about that.” WHAT? He is not even angry that some scumbag psychotic killed his roommate? Dowling was reported as having “mental issues” – and the roommate is not angry that the killer was allowed to walk the streets? In my view, the roommate’s implied pity for the killer is … pitiful.
There is another facet to this story and reflects on the woke leftwing tolerance of crime and criminals. The killer of Carson was employed as … a school worker.
Case Two
AnaYelsi Velasco Sanchez, a Washington, D.C. artist, had two of her paintings stolen during a solo exhibition at the Festival Center in Adams Morgan. She saw the theft as a personal violation as well as a “political statement” – although it is unclear what that political statement was.
Sanchez did not call the police. That is because she is a “justice and liberation” artist. Instead, she went online to ask the thief to return her paintings – no questions asked. She suggested a dialogue between her and the culprit. She assured the reprobate she does “not do police.” (If you bother to look her up the Mama Cass-sized artist online, I doubt any cop would do her.)
Not calling the police is part of her general anti-cop beliefs. She believes that police do more harm than good. She describes herself as an “abolitionist” – meaning that she supports abolishing police and prisons.
It never occurred to Sanchez that perhaps – just perhaps – if we had better policing, her thief might not have been out and about with an eye on her paintings. Ironically, at the time of the theft Sanchez was giving a speech on the evils of policing and incarceration. You just cannot make this stuff up.
Sanchez said that she did not know whether the thief was an art lover, a desperate person, or a provocateur. If you check out her paintings online, you can discount “art lover” as a motive.
Case Three
Daniel Lee was founder and director of Justice Now – a New York City- based group that advocates for reduced incarceration, abolishing bail and defunding policing by reallocating money to social services. He was a vocal critic of Mayor Eric Adams’ tough-on-crime measures.
He was stabbed to death by an intruder who entered his Manhattan apartment around 10 p.m. Lee’s girlfriend and cofounder of Justice Now, Jessica Chen, was in the apartment at the time but was unharmed. She called police, but the killer had already escaped. He was described as a young black male in his 20s. Police could not ascertain a motive other than an intended robbery.
They found no indication that it was related to Lee’s activism – although Chen said Lee had been subject to threats, especially after coming out against the Mayor’s crime fighting program. What is known so far points away from a politically motivated attack.
Summary
Arguably, these three victims were on the wrong side of the crime debate – sympathizing more with criminals than police. That does not mean that they deserved to be victims. It only adds an element of irony.
We should all be united in our horror over the crimes against these three people – and the millions of others being victimized by the surge in crimes undermining the safety of our major cities. A major part of the crime epidemic in America has been the result of a range of soft on crime and criminals policies that has been a major components of leftwing Democrat ideology that has infected the culture. The situation will not get better until we return to an approach that if you do the crime, you do the time. And that only happens when the police, the prosecutors, the courts and the legislators get tough on crime.
So, there ‘tis.