"Compassion" for criminals is hatred for victims
There are people in this world who are just plain evil. To protect the innocent, those people must be locked up, and in some cases executed.
There were two headlines on the front page of the Herald-Times website last week that offered a sharp contrast and illustrated when "compassion" is actually hatred and oppression. Those two headlines illustrate that some of our so-called "leaders" are totally wicked and irresponsible people who care more about advancing a radical agenda than protecting law-abiding citizens.
First, a woman reports she was yanked off the street, threatened with a box cutter and raped in a ditch. It was a horrifying story.
Second, ex-Mayor John Hamilton writes in a guest column that "every person arrested and sitting in jail represents a failure of our community." Every person, Mr. Hamilton? Every one? Yes, Hamilton does mention people who must be incarcerated, but that is in direct conflict with his closing argument.
This, obviously, is utterly ridiculous claptrap. Putting violent criminals in jail protects the innocent. What are we supposed to do, let him run free so he can rape more women? Arresting and imprisoning people is a failure, right? This so-called "compassion" is actually hatred and oppression, especially of women and children.
Yes, we should have a conversation about mass incarcerations and what solutions can be implemented to reduce the need for jails and prisons. Our jails have become warehouses for mentally ill people who generations ago would have been involuntarily committed in a psychiatric facility. Yes, there was abuse in those facilities, but is the current system really more humane? Does it make our cities safer than they were decades ago? Are mentally ill people better off in a homeless encampment surrounded by drugs and crime than in an asylum?
The underlying societal problems contributing to violent crime are not things government can solve, but they are things that government can make worse and has made worse by pushing the breakup of the family. Fathers have been made irrelevant through government welfare programs and no-fault divorce has led to innumerable broken homes and shattered lives.
But what fools like Hamilton do not understand is that we absolutely must have a harsh criminal justice system. No matter what programs and safety nets and interventions are in place, there are people in this world who are just plain evil. The reason government exists is to keep the innocent people safe by punishing, locking up and sometimes killing the guilty. A government that refuses to punish evil and protect the good has no reason to exist at all, and no "leader" who promotes this kind of foolishness should ever be trusted with public office.