Is the Progressive Prosecutor Movement Falling Apart?

Note to readers: I’m on vacation at the beach for the next three weeks and will be posting less frequently than I usually do. The advantage, however, is that I’m more out of the news loop, and therefore know less about what the administration is doing to ruin the country. The ocean never looked better.

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Starting maybe six or seven years ago, when the national murder rate was at its lowest in decades, the Left saw the consequent complacency as its opening. It also saw oodles of George Soros money. It began electing what are called “progressive” prosecutors. Among those winning office were George Gascon, Kim Foxx, Larry Krasner, Marilyn Mosby, Alvin Bragg, Kimberly Gardner, and Keith Ellison. What has actually made “progress” in the ensuing years, though, is (1) the murder rate and (2) the incidence of addiction to morbid illegal drugs, fentanyl in particular. As a result, last year we had a record number of overdose deaths (about 107,000) and a spike in the murder rate to a point where it has not been in a generation.

Think about that. Because we lost our concentration and our nerve, we forfeited 25 years of hard-won progress against the most devastating and irremediable of crimes. I don’t think I need to tell you which demographic group suffered the most. We are now at the point where the leading cause of death among young black men isn’t illness or accidents. It’s murder.

The thing about complacency is that it can be changed by reality. And there’s evidence that change is on the way. Hence this story from primary day last week:

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby lost her reelection bid to defense attorney Ivan Bates in the Democratic primary after she was indicted by a grand jury on federal charges alleging that she used coronavirus hardship as a reason [fraudulently] to take money out of her city retirement account.

Mosby actually finished third.

The Associated Press called the race in favor of Ivan Bates, a defense attorney, on Friday night. Bates is a former prosecutor in Baltimore who served from 1996 to 2002 before becoming a defense attorney.

Mosby, a Democrat, directed her office to stop prosecuting offenses such as drug possession, prostitution, urinating in public, and more during the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading in jails and prisons.

But merely turning the city into a dump was not the driving problem. An overactive morgue was and is, as illustrated in this local story:

Data from Open Baltimore shows that the city recorded 177 homicides in the first six months of this year -- putting it on pace for its deadliest year in more than a decade.

Gun violence has exploded in cities across the country post pandemic. However, Baltimore was seeing a serious uptick in its homicide numbers years earlier.

Accessing data further back, The Baltimore Banner called the first six months of 2022 the deadliest in Baltimore history. The news organization said Baltimore only came close to this year's number twice in its history: 270 in both 2017 and 1993.

With a record like that, what was Ms. Mosby expecting?

But wait, there’s more! Mosby initially came to prominence for her role in prosecuting the Freddie Gray case. She indicted six Baltimore police officers on multiple charges ranging from homicide on down, but could not secure a conviction on even a single count against a single officer. And all this was before a black judge.

Still, even though the courtroom results weren’t much to speak of, at least Mosby appeared at a raucous, pre-trial Prince rally designed to assure that the defendants got a fair trial in a calm atmosphere. Hence this CNN story from the days shortly before the trial was to begin:

The applause she received for charging the six Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray seemed short-lived. Since then, Marilyn Mosby has been a lightning rod.

The latest wave of criticism comes after the state’s attorney for Baltimore took the stage Sunday with Prince during a “Rally4Peace” concert in honor of Gray, who died of spinal injuries following his arrest on a knife charge last month….

As you’d imagine, the appearance sparked a range of reactions, from the much-ado-about-nothing sort to those questioning how she could possibly prosecute the officers after she attended the concert in honor of the victim.

Yes, well, that is a bit of a question, isn’t it? If I had done such a thing when I was an Assistant US Attorney, I would have been fired on the spot, if I hadn’t resigned first in shame.

The most encouraging item, however, is that Ms. Mosby’s fate may not stand alone. Earlier this month, Chesa Boudin of that right-wing bastion San Francisco was recalled by a landslide, and just two weeks ago, the forces seeking to recall George Gascon in Los Angeles gathered the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to get the recall on the ballot, as noted in this CBS story:

A large-scale effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón submitted roughly 717,000 petition signatures to election officials…in hopes of putting the fate of the county's top law enforcement officer in the hands of voters….

Gascon has repeatedly been under fire in recent months, especially after 'I blame Gascón for all this,' says mother of slain El Monte officer of the criminal case of the man who went on to fatally shoot a pair of El Monte police officers in June. The man, Justin Flores, was provided with a plea deal in 2021 that allowed him to avoid jail time, despite a history of arrests. 

He has since gone on to rebut that criticism, saying at the time of the plea it was a logical and appropriate decision under the circumstances.

Again in February he made headlines after admitting that the sentence handed down to convicted sex abuser Hannah Tubbs was not adequate. 

He has consistently denounced the recall effort, calling it a "partisan power grab," and that he has maintained that his stance, which critics refer to as soft on crime, has not changed since he was elected in 2019. 

In all, 37 different cities across the Southland have issued "no-confidence" votes in Gascón's policies, which include a rule against the death penalty, a ban on transferring juvenile defendants to adult court and prohibitions on filing sentencing-enhancements in most cases.

In early January, the Beverly Hills City Council voted unanimously to join the recall effort, while former LAPD chief Charlie Beck rescinded former support he had endorsed back in 2020.

When Beverly Hills bails out on a Lefty, ladies and gentlemen, the Lefties are in a world of hurt. Good things might be on the way for the rest of us.