Northeast News
April 26, 2017

Well, this dog called it yet again. We’ve long suspected that the Mayor’s so called task force on violent crime was largely a waste of time and last week they proved it in spades with the release of the recommendations on how to quell the upward spiraling spate of violent crime that plague the city’s urban environs.
In a document that reads like the apologetic manifesto that it is, the committee laments the existence of legal firearms, stating that firearms, both legal and illegal poise a “significant community crisis.” Apparently this group thinks if you carry a legal weapon for protection, you’re a threat to the community. It goes on to urge the Mayor to support “sensible gun regulation at the state and national level.” As we’ve noted before, the last part of that is worded very carefully so that anyone in disagreement is branded a whackadoo right wing extremist.
The panel also advocates for a “fair and equitable criminal justice system” and suggests “legislative changes that will lead to smart criminal law enforcement and a decrease in the mass incarceration of our citizens.” This dog is relatively certain the officers in blue are having a good laugh over this one, especially given the joke of a prosecutorial paradigm that exists in Jackson County that allows violent criminals to walk free on a regular basis.
The one thing starkly missing from the 1,800 plus word document is the recommendation, and we’ve said this on repeated occasions, to charge bad people accordingly and keep them in jail. Period. It’s a pretty simple concept really and it doesn’t take a panel of so called egg-heads 11 months to figure it out. Sponsoring community clean-ups in the middle of a work day and talking tough for the cameras makes things better for about as long as the dumpsters are on the street that day.
The bottom line is this. Nothing, and this dog means nothing is going to change until the people in the Prosecutor’s office start doing their job, utilizing all of the state and federal statutes already in place to make sure violent criminals are dealt with effectively. Until that happens, any recommendation made by any “blue ribbon committee” isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.