Law Enforcement is a three-part sequence:

1) Catch criminals

2) Try criminals

3) Punish criminals

If any of these three steps is neglected, crime increases and the law-abiding public is put in danger. This seems easy enough to understand, but three liberal shibboleths have insinuated themselves into our prosecutorial and judicial systems over the past several decades, although police officers, who do the work of trying to protect us, are still largely immune to these bits of blathering nonsense:

4) Catching criminals is unfair

5) Trying criminals is unfair

6) Punishing criminals is unfair

It can, of course, be argued that the victims of robberies, rapes, murders, assaults, carjackings, and burglaries are being treated unfairly, but this viewpoint does not seem to persuade liberals, who prefer to believe that criminal behavior is an inevitable outcome of an American socio-economic system that is irredeemably unjust, so criminals deserve both our sympathy and the benefit of the doubt. The result is that plea bargains are plentiful, jail sentences are less severe, and petty crimes go largely unpunished. Unsurprisingly, a general sense of disorder pervades America today, and efforts to crack down on crime result in an wild outcry from those whose lives are generally insulated from the consequences of allowing lawbreakers to roam our neighborhoods with impunity.

We certainly see this dynamic in now play as Chicago’s liberal Mayor, backed to the hilt by Illinois’ equally liberal Governor, furiously pushes back against federal efforts to deport the city’s hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens—who are, of course, all breaking the law—and surge National Guard troops to assist local law enforcement in our country’s long-running murder hot spot. The dichotomy of the Governor and Mayor insisting that additional help is both unnecessary and unwelcome—this after 54 Chicagoans were shot over the recent Labor Day weekend—and the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police issuing a public statement that “federal help is welcomed and appreciated” could not be more telling. Those who are on the streets fighting crime know the truth; Illinois’ leading politicians prefer to peddle the lie.

Why is this so?

The theory that criminals are inevitable outcomes of systems that are both bigoted and cruel magically converts them into victims who are largely blameless—and perhaps even vaguely heroic. The notion that criminals could be causing their own problems because they are stupid, immoral, lazy (or a toxic combination of all three) is simply impermissible in the victimology of modern-day liberalism, which is very different from its antecedents of decades past when personal responsibility and accountability were still part of the equation of personal success. As I once pointed out to one of my high school students who refused to do the work necessary to read and write, there are very few job opportunities available for cavemen in the world today, so putting in the effort to improve himself for the workplace might be in his best interest.

It would be shortsighted to fail to acknowledge that broken homes, the routine dosing of children and adolescents with powerful psycho-active pharmaceuticals in an effort to “help” them, the horribly destructive Covid-19 school shutdowns, and hours wasted peering at cell phones have made the process of growing into healthy and productive adulthood a lot tougher than it once was for many. The lack of reliable mentors and appropriate role models in our often dysfunctional culture leaves many young people both rootless and afraid, which shows up in the data that charts the explosion of mental health problems crushing so many lives before they have even begun—and which too often morphs into violent or self-destructive behaviors further down the line.

Crime will never be eliminated by either erasing the boundaries between what is acceptable and what is not or deciding that certain crimes will not be prosecuted for ideological or political reasons. Not liking a law is not an excuse for failing to enforce it, and courts and prosecutors who use their discretion to twist justice into a pretzel because they believe it is “fair” to let some lawbreakers escape punishment are to blame for encouraging a general disrespect for the laws they have sworn to uphold. Moreover, in those cases where criminals might still be capable of turning their lives around if they are forced to face the consequences of their actions, allowing them to skate scot-free simply reinforces the maladaptive attitudes that are harming them—while making our communities just that much more unsafe.

Good behavior and respect for others are learned behaviors, and the continuing efforts of our leaders in Chicago, Illinois, and across our nation to teach that bad behavior and disrespect will be tolerated—if they fit a narrative of victimhood—punishes our citizens and encourages the spread of criminality. “Progressive” law enforcement only speeds our progress toward a nation that is more troubled and traumatized while revealing a smug and unwarranted contempt for societal norms that have allowed Americans to build a prosperous and powerful nation that is the envy of the world. 

We need to speak out against those who are failing to protect us because of their own myopic and misguided political and cultural imperatives. If we are bullied into silence by those who do not—or simply cannot—understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong, we and our children will pay a painful price for our terrible cowardice and complicity.