This is as disingenuous as it gets. The soft on crime narrative is fake and everyone on the right jumps on the tough on crime bandwagon whenever the media gives them a chance. Although it has nothing to do with the real statistics of crime because if it did, this would have never been written. Politicians are looking for any opportunity the media gives them to scream white freight. It is rooted in white fragility and it's shameful. It's not enough to hijack politics for white fear, you have to present a fake narrative as you scream into the void. Enough is enough.
Agree. I’m currently listening to a book called The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and it goes into great detail about how often “tough on crime” translates to locking up a disproportionate number of black men. And that includes the presidencies of Clinton and Obama.
It doesn't change under Presidents, it just gets worse under some. We have got to get past this and we have to talk about it. Nothing should stop us from talking to each other, nothing.
That's the problem. White folks and their emotions creates white fragility and white fear and they vote emotions instead of facts and it's those facts that affect all of us, that's pathetic.
Interesting assessment. When will this nation take mental health seriously? This is not an excuse, but a fact that cannot be ignored. Had he been kept in a facility which could help him with the mental health issues, this murder would not have happened! Also, until you address how easily guns can be obtained, murders will continue! It will take level heads who are genuinely interested in helping the public to create wise laws. I am not sure we have that anywhere in out nation today as we make political fodder out of everything!
Indeed. It's demeaning and does not help us cope with the realities of crime and mental illness. Politicians don't want to help, they want to keep screaming because it gets them elected and that's the pathetic part.
Thomas, as fellow political commentator and strategist, this take is very unserious. 1) NCDP cannot force nor should join legislative anything in the NC General Assembly until the 2-year budget is written and passed. Two words, FISCAL CLIFF. That is coming because of the NCGOP-led North Carolina General Assembly. 2) You are not in Charlotte, so you shouldn't join the nutbag crowd of lowkey aversively bias/racist, white moderate aka faux progressive wing of NC Democrats demonizing urban areas because they have become majority black like Charlotte has become while attempting to appease or comfort idiotic white racists in rural areas. You want scorched earth with the black and brown demographics in this state, then keep pushing these types of narratives. We got this in Charlotte because the referendum on the ballot in Mecklenburg County would create a mass transit authority with its own law enforcement. 3) Mental health resources and its seriousness is more way more important than criminalizing the mentally ill and criminally insane. I.e., the State of North Carolina should've never closed the Dorothea Dix Hospital rather reformed, distributed the mental health resources to all of the urban areas especially the Metro Charlotte area, and provide the law enforcement agencies and county court magistrate systems with mental health assistance to help those are mentally unwell to be mandated to be institutionalized via court orders.
The only way I would support re-starting the death penalty in North Carolina, as the GOP proposes, is if the Governor, the Lt. Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House are required to witness any execution in person and the execution is carried out live via streaming video, fully available for public viewing.
The death penalty used to be very real to citizens when executions were public events. The last public execution in North Carolina, by hanging, was Caroline Shipp on January 22, 1892, after she was convicted of killing her son. Executions have not been public since then.
It's easy to be "tough on crime" when the ultimate penalty is something abstract and distant. I don't think the public would have the blood-lust the GOP thinks they have if they were brought into the open again.
I believe, even though it took 20 years, Bill Clinton apologized for much of the consequences of his "Tough on Crime" efforts. Let the Republicans own "Tough on Crime" the Democrats need to carve out some space that recognizes that Tough may not be the answer in the long term. Woody Guthrie said "Some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen." Stop looking like a wholly owned subsidiary of the "Fountain Pen class" and do things which decrease inequality. Of course since we are commenting on the musings of a political consultant, we're not really taling about being tough on crime, we're talking about looking tough on crime. Trump has that market cornered. He has even mused about the fact that domestic violence is considered crime and since he can't station the National Guard in every home, he'll never get a 100% reduction in crime.
Thanks Thomas. In a discussion with my self- identified left-leaning, wonderful sister last week, I talked about being a moderate. She said there’s no such thing anymore. I joked that the three of us were meeting soon as we can.
Do you know how rare your column is, in which you refer to people with differing opinions from your own, as Not the Devil? Much less as thoughtful human beings.
I don’t read as much as I’d like to say i did. So maybe there’s more of this reasonable talk out there than I know.
But bless you. Proud to know you. Your father would be proud, I know.
Your old neighbor,
Charles
P.S. on this issue, I agree. I blame the term “defund the police” for us having a conman in the White House now.
In response to some comments: Improving access to mental health care is a wonderful goal for our society as a whole. However it will Not prevent this type of violence. Most mentally ill people are Not violent. Those that are, are best managed within the justice system. I say this with over 30 years of testifying in involuntary commitment hearings as a psychiatrist.
Thanks again for offering a voice of reason.
PSS:
Goethe quote of the day, paraphrased:
Every day: read a poem, look at a pretty picture listen to a song, and say a few reasonable words
“People must be able to do what they want, say what they want, and go where they want without fear of violence” from criminals or their own government.
Agree with you a lot on this. It's especially gross that the mainstream media barely covered the killing of Irina Zarutska, even worse when you realize she was a refugee from Ukraine. Democrats have long had a justified reputation for being weak on crime, with the exception of the Clinton years, and their association with woke identity politics has only made it worse. If both Democrats and Republicans, but especially Democrats adopt the old slogan "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" they could make something happen.
Bravo Thomas. Note that 17 democratic NC House Members voted for the proposed legislation Tuesday giving Gov Josh Stein no choice but to sign it or allow it to become law without his signature. I agree with you assessment of Bryan Anderson too.
This is as disingenuous as it gets. The soft on crime narrative is fake and everyone on the right jumps on the tough on crime bandwagon whenever the media gives them a chance. Although it has nothing to do with the real statistics of crime because if it did, this would have never been written. Politicians are looking for any opportunity the media gives them to scream white freight. It is rooted in white fragility and it's shameful. It's not enough to hijack politics for white fear, you have to present a fake narrative as you scream into the void. Enough is enough.
Agree. I’m currently listening to a book called The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and it goes into great detail about how often “tough on crime” translates to locking up a disproportionate number of black men. And that includes the presidencies of Clinton and Obama.
It doesn't change under Presidents, it just gets worse under some. We have got to get past this and we have to talk about it. Nothing should stop us from talking to each other, nothing.
Facts don’t win elections. Emotions do.
That's the problem. White folks and their emotions creates white fragility and white fear and they vote emotions instead of facts and it's those facts that affect all of us, that's pathetic.
Interesting assessment. When will this nation take mental health seriously? This is not an excuse, but a fact that cannot be ignored. Had he been kept in a facility which could help him with the mental health issues, this murder would not have happened! Also, until you address how easily guns can be obtained, murders will continue! It will take level heads who are genuinely interested in helping the public to create wise laws. I am not sure we have that anywhere in out nation today as we make political fodder out of everything!
Indeed. It's demeaning and does not help us cope with the realities of crime and mental illness. Politicians don't want to help, they want to keep screaming because it gets them elected and that's the pathetic part.
They should start with Tom Homan and Steve Miller. I could get onside with that.
Thomas, as fellow political commentator and strategist, this take is very unserious. 1) NCDP cannot force nor should join legislative anything in the NC General Assembly until the 2-year budget is written and passed. Two words, FISCAL CLIFF. That is coming because of the NCGOP-led North Carolina General Assembly. 2) You are not in Charlotte, so you shouldn't join the nutbag crowd of lowkey aversively bias/racist, white moderate aka faux progressive wing of NC Democrats demonizing urban areas because they have become majority black like Charlotte has become while attempting to appease or comfort idiotic white racists in rural areas. You want scorched earth with the black and brown demographics in this state, then keep pushing these types of narratives. We got this in Charlotte because the referendum on the ballot in Mecklenburg County would create a mass transit authority with its own law enforcement. 3) Mental health resources and its seriousness is more way more important than criminalizing the mentally ill and criminally insane. I.e., the State of North Carolina should've never closed the Dorothea Dix Hospital rather reformed, distributed the mental health resources to all of the urban areas especially the Metro Charlotte area, and provide the law enforcement agencies and county court magistrate systems with mental health assistance to help those are mentally unwell to be mandated to be institutionalized via court orders.
Exactly. Well said.
The only way I would support re-starting the death penalty in North Carolina, as the GOP proposes, is if the Governor, the Lt. Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House are required to witness any execution in person and the execution is carried out live via streaming video, fully available for public viewing.
The death penalty used to be very real to citizens when executions were public events. The last public execution in North Carolina, by hanging, was Caroline Shipp on January 22, 1892, after she was convicted of killing her son. Executions have not been public since then.
It's easy to be "tough on crime" when the ultimate penalty is something abstract and distant. I don't think the public would have the blood-lust the GOP thinks they have if they were brought into the open again.
I believe, even though it took 20 years, Bill Clinton apologized for much of the consequences of his "Tough on Crime" efforts. Let the Republicans own "Tough on Crime" the Democrats need to carve out some space that recognizes that Tough may not be the answer in the long term. Woody Guthrie said "Some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen." Stop looking like a wholly owned subsidiary of the "Fountain Pen class" and do things which decrease inequality. Of course since we are commenting on the musings of a political consultant, we're not really taling about being tough on crime, we're talking about looking tough on crime. Trump has that market cornered. He has even mused about the fact that domestic violence is considered crime and since he can't station the National Guard in every home, he'll never get a 100% reduction in crime.
Psst. Try gun control and adequately funding mental health programs. Besides, Democrats helped convict Trump of 34 felonies. Look where he is.
If that murderer had only killed a few thousand more Ukrainians, Trump would have rolled out a red carpet for him.
Thanks Thomas. In a discussion with my self- identified left-leaning, wonderful sister last week, I talked about being a moderate. She said there’s no such thing anymore. I joked that the three of us were meeting soon as we can.
Do you know how rare your column is, in which you refer to people with differing opinions from your own, as Not the Devil? Much less as thoughtful human beings.
I don’t read as much as I’d like to say i did. So maybe there’s more of this reasonable talk out there than I know.
But bless you. Proud to know you. Your father would be proud, I know.
Your old neighbor,
Charles
P.S. on this issue, I agree. I blame the term “defund the police” for us having a conman in the White House now.
In response to some comments: Improving access to mental health care is a wonderful goal for our society as a whole. However it will Not prevent this type of violence. Most mentally ill people are Not violent. Those that are, are best managed within the justice system. I say this with over 30 years of testifying in involuntary commitment hearings as a psychiatrist.
Thanks again for offering a voice of reason.
PSS:
Goethe quote of the day, paraphrased:
Every day: read a poem, look at a pretty picture listen to a song, and say a few reasonable words
“People must be able to do what they want, say what they want, and go where they want without fear of violence” from criminals or their own government.
Agree with you a lot on this. It's especially gross that the mainstream media barely covered the killing of Irina Zarutska, even worse when you realize she was a refugee from Ukraine. Democrats have long had a justified reputation for being weak on crime, with the exception of the Clinton years, and their association with woke identity politics has only made it worse. If both Democrats and Republicans, but especially Democrats adopt the old slogan "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" they could make something happen.
Bravo Thomas. Note that 17 democratic NC House Members voted for the proposed legislation Tuesday giving Gov Josh Stein no choice but to sign it or allow it to become law without his signature. I agree with you assessment of Bryan Anderson too.