Baltimore’s homicide rate has risen since 2014. Over 200 people have been killed in Baltimore in just the first seven months of this year, about as many as died in all of the year 2014, even though Baltimore’s population has shrunk a lot since 2014.
Murders have risen there because prosecutors haven’t been seeking long sentences for people who commit serious crimes. As a result, criminals are soon back on the street, where many of them go on to murder innocent people. Most murders in Baltimore are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but didn’t serve a lengthy sentence for that crime.
As City Journal notes, “serious crimes” are being “handled gently” by the city’s district attorney, Marilyn Mosby:
Maryland Public Policy Institute researcher Sean Kennedy, who studied 110 homicide cases arising from January 2019 to July 2020, found that suspects in 77 of these had been previously convicted of a serious crime by Mosby’s office. Sixty-one of them (79 percent) faced statutory jail terms that should have kept them in prison beyond the date on which they allegedly committed the homicide.
If these criminals had been kept in jail longer, that would have kept them from killing anyone.
Unnecessary killings are also occurring in Virginia, in places where progressive prosecutors now refuse to seek longer sentences. Criminals have repeatedly killed people after being quickly released in Fairfax County due to the lenient sentences sought by left-wing commonwealth’s attorney Steve Descano.
This March, a man was charged with two killing homeless men in Washington, DC, after he was released from jail in Fairfax County after serving “just a few months.” Fairfax County prosecutors dropped felony charges against the man over a violent assault he committed on a woman, resulting in him only being convicted of a misdemeanor. As NBC notes, “Gerald Brevard III already had a long criminal record that stretched across the D.C. area before he was arrested this week and accused of shooting five men who were homeless, two fatally.” Descano had told prosecutors to seek only misdemeanor charges for many act that constitute felonies under state law.
The Free Beacon reports that “Two months before, another gunman, whom Descano had pleaded out on misdemeanors in 2020, killed an 18-year-old at a bus stop.” And in October, Descano allowed a violent criminal to be released on recognizance, “slapping him with just a $212 fine and one-year period of supervised probation. Police on Monday arrested Jones for beating 63-year-old Michelle Huntley to death at a bus stop where she had taken shelter.”
Longer sentences don’t just keep criminals in jail where they can’t commit crimes. They also deter people outside of prison from committing crimes. For example, a study found that giving repeat offenders longer sentences deterred people who had earlier been released from prison from committing new crimes. It found that sentence enhancements for repeat offenders reduced the rate at which people committed murder, robbery, and rape. (See Daniel Kessler & Steven J. Levitt, Using Sentence Enhancements to Distinguish Between Deterrence and Incapacitation, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper #6484 (1998))
Yet many left-wing prosecutors have recently refused to seek sentence enhancements mandated by state law, such as three-strikes laws. For example, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano refuses to seek felony enhancements for three-time offenders committing petty larceny. That refusal is likely to increase the crime rate. A 2008 Santa Clara University study found that longer sentences for three-time offenders led to “significantly faster rates of decline in robbery, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft,” even after controlling for pre-existing crime trends and economic, demographic, and policy factors.
Descano also refuses to seek mandatory minimum sentences.Maryland and Virginia are alike in many ways. But Maryland has shorter sentences for criminals than Virginia. It also has a violent crime rate more than double Virginia’s. In 2018, Maryland had a violent crime rate of 468.7 per 100,000 people, according to USA Today, compared to a violent crime rate of only 200 per 100,000 in Virginia. As ABC’s channel 7 has noted “the Maryland Judiciary is, generally speaking, more lenient on criminal defendants” and “Virginia has stricter laws on the books” and “harsh sentences,” which are “a huge deterrent” to crime, according to law enforcement sources, who said, “Criminals know if you commit crime in Virginia you might get whacked, while in Maryland, you might just get slapped on the wrist.”
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[…] Studies have found that most violent crimes are due to repeat offenders, who often are released over and over again to commit more crimes. In a Swedish study, 291 individuals were each convicted of at least 25 violent crimes. The highest observed was 80 violent crime convictions for one man. Offenders are able to commit these crimes because of a revolving-door justice system that lets many offenders out quickly to commit more crimes. Killings have increased in Baltimore, where most killings are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. […]
[…] Studies have found that most violent crimes are due to repeat offenders, who often are released over and over again to commit more crimes. In a Swedish study, 291 individuals were each convicted of at least 25 violent crimes. The highest observed was 80 violent crime convictions for one man. Offenders are able to commit these crimes because of a revolving-door justice system that lets many offenders out quickly to commit more crimes. Killings have increased in Baltimore, where most killings are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. […]
[…] Studies have found that most violent crimes are due to repeat offenders, who often are released over and over again to commit more crimes. In a Swedish study, 291 individuals were each convicted of at least 25 violent crimes. The highest observed was 80 violent crime convictions for one man. Offenders are able to commit these crimes because of a revolving-door justice system that lets many offenders out quickly to commit more crimes. Killings have increased in Baltimore, where most killings are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. […]
[…] Studies have found that most violent crimes are due to repeat offenders, who often are released over and over again to commit more crimes. In a Swedish study, 291 individuals were each convicted of at least 25 violent crimes. The highest observed was 80 violent crime convictions for one man. Offenders are able to commit these crimes because of a revolving-door justice system that lets many offenders out quickly to commit more crimes. Killings have increased in Baltimore, where most killings are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. […]
[…] Studies have found that most violent crimes are due to repeat offenders, who often are released over and over again to commit more crimes. In a Swedish study, 291 individuals were each convicted of at least 25 violent crimes. The highest observed was 80 violent crime convictions for one man. Offenders are able to commit these crimes because of a revolving-door justice system that lets many offenders out quickly to commit more crimes. Killings have increased in Baltimore, where most killings are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. […]
[…] Studies have found that most violent crimes are due to repeat offenders, who often are released over and over again to commit more crimes. In a Swedish study, 291 individuals were each convicted of at least 25 violent crimes. The highest observed was 80 violent crime convictions for one man. Offenders are able to commit these crimes because of a revolving-door justice system that lets many offenders out quickly to commit more crimes. Killings have increased in Baltimore, where most killings are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. […]
[…] In addition to deterring crimes by people outside of prison, longer sentences also keep dangerous people locked up so they can’t harm law-abiding people. Killings have increased in Baltimore, where most killings are committed by people who previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. […]
[…] previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. Progressive prosecutors have stopped prosecuting many violent juveniles as adults. As a […]
[…] previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. Progressive prosecutors have stopped prosecuting many violent juveniles as adults. As a […]
[…] previously were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. Progressive prosecutors have stopped prosecuting many violent juveniles as adults. As a […]
[…] were convicted of a serious crime, but who are no longer in jail due to their past lenient sentence. Progressive prosecutors have stopped prosecuting many violent juveniles […]
LaRock in action
https://twitter.com/i/status/1553155073630502912
While this does not rise to the level of murder, it is still criminal activity.
Far-right Delegate Dave LaRock of Loudoun County, has been harassing a neighbor for at least four years. The harassment includes trespassing and destroying the neighbor’s property. A judge ordered LaRock to cease and desist. Meanwhile, turns out, the Loudoun County Sheriff sent a message to his deputies to ignore all calls from the neighbor reporting harassment and trespassing by LaRock.
If LaRock were to mow the lawn along his property boundary and cut 1/2 inch over the border you would accuse him of stealing his neighbor’s grass. Maybe deputies ignore the neighbor because the neighbor is a little cuckoo? Maybe? Are you? Why do you mention LaRock while ignoring murders? Are you an insane or just a stupid Democrat?
Sanctuary cities and states encourage illegals and crime.
They created their own problems, but yet they blame and complain to others for their troubles.
It’s their ideology that stinks. The only place this works is in the college classroom and in the
hallucinogenic fog of a dorm room.
And at DNC meetings. This is what happens after chooming (like Obama) and taking hallucinogens.
when democrat run hellhole cities start losing businesses and working people because they are unlivable, there might be a change that favors work over welfare, law over illegality and decency over perversion. However, as it stands, just walking down the street is risky even when armed.