Soros backed prosecutors failed to bring perps to justice

 Washington Examiner:

Despite seeing her city transform into the most violent in the nation, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner says she won't be changing any of her office's policies.

"It's about the will of the people. And the people of St. Louis overwhelmingly voted me in to do my job to reform a system that we all know is beyond repair. It needs to be dismantled and rebuilt," she told 60 Minutes earlier this month.

MURDER RATE JUMPS BACK TO 1990S LEVELS, DATA SHOW

Newly available data from the FBI revealed that the U.S. murder rate in 2020 was at its highest since 1998, reversing a trend of declining crime and improved standards of living in urban areas over more than two decades.

Not since the federal government began collecting data in the middle of the 20th century has the United States seen such a one-year spike (at an estimated 20%-35%) in homicides.

Some experts believe that the murder rate in St. Louis, at 87 homicides were 100,000 residents, is the highest murder rate ever recorded in a U.S. city.

Gardner isn't alone in her quest to reimagine the country's criminal justice system altogether. Left-wing prosecutors around the country, including many who saw their campaigns bankrolled by billionaire George Soros, are plowing forward with policies that some believe will only exacerbate the rising violence in cities.

POLICE DEMONIZATION HURTING RECRUITMENT AS HOMICIDES SPIKE

Those reforms, dubbed "restorative justice," include opting not to charge lawbreakers for a variety of low-level offenses, negotiating prison deferment agreements, and eliminating cash bail.

Under Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, homicides increased by roughly 49% since he took office in 2018. Last year, the city saw a 30-year record in homicides, with nearly 500 killed.

As a proud progressive prosecutor, Krasner failed to prosecute or lost 26% of all felony cases. On illegal firearm cases, the numbers are even more dramatic, with Krasner's office dropping or losing 47% of all those related cases.

Krasner has brushed away blame for the city's homicides, saying much of the violence can be attributable to COVID-19 and police failing to make arrests in many shootings.

"Let's look at July. There were 215 shootings in July. The police made 30 arrests. And we brought 30 cases. Look at August. So far, there are 209 shootings. The police have made 20 arrests. And we've brought 18 cases, right?" Krasner said in August of last year. "They are making arrests, but let us be honest: When you have a solve rate, when you have what they call a clearance rate, meaning the police have identified the one who they believe is guilty, of 14% in July and 9% in August, there's more that we can do together."

An estimate from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund found that in six jurisdictions with progressive prosecutors, district attorney offices there dropped 20% more felony cases than others.

In St. Louis, Gardner's office has seen a double-digit drop in prosecutions altogether. The city's conviction rate has dropped from 72% to 53%, with only 23% of all criminal cases referred from police going to court.

Activists around the country share the same opposition to bail as prosecutors such as San Francisco's Chesa Boudin — which, in some cases, has led to disastrous results.

In April 2018, New York University Law School's Washington Square Legal Services Fund bailed out Randy Santos, 24, for obstruction and resisting arrest charges.

Santos, a homeless man, could not pay the $500 bail without outside help. He was eventually arrested again in August 2019 for allegedly groping a woman, only to be bailed out again in October by a group called the Bronx Freedom Fund.

Just mere weeks after his court hearing, Santos was indicted after beating five homeless men with a metal pole, killing four in New York City's Chinatown.

Despite the progressive prosecutor's opposition to harsh penalties for most offenders, many have pursued maximum charges against law enforcement accused of wrongdoing.

"Traditional prosecutors tend to abandon their zealous investigation and prosecution tendencies when the perpetrator of a crime is a police officer," an article in the Harvard Law Review notes. "Progressive prosecutors, however, commonly call for police accountability."

This increased scrutiny comes at a time when many police departments face recruiting issues due to what they say is a hostile political climate.

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This story exposes the serious problem of the failure of prosecutors to pursue criminal complaints against serial criminals.  As I noted in the post below it is a mistake to overcharge a case, but it is also a mistake to not charge obvious criminal activity.  The Soros-backed DA's have made many major US cities more dangerous especially for minorities and the poor.