Americans too often believe that violent crime almost always happens to other people. Most people never expect crime will happen to them. Until it does.
People don’t realize that we have a 1 on 30 chance of becoming the victim of a violent crime every year.
While most folks have been raising their families and working at their jobs, the political elites in Springfield have busied themselves transforming our state. In a nutshell, Illinois has embraced California-style criminal justice policies. As a result, just like California, the Land of Lincoln’s residents have started experiencing California-style crime.
There’s the new “affordable bail” that Illinois adopted a couple of years ago. Judges are told to keep cash bail to a minimum in criminal cases. Heaven forbid bad guys not be able to afford bail before trial.
All too often these affordable bail recipients go on to become one-man crime waves before some judge finally holds them in custody. At times, those released with “affordable bail” even go on to kill people.
Deep down, the legislators behind this measure don’t care. They live in nice neighborhoods. They work in buildings with armed guards. Lots of armed guards. They remain largely unaffected by these criminals released on their “own recognizance.”
And under Governor Jay Robert Pritzker (may we call you Jay Bob?), Illinois prisons continue to aggressively release prisoners early to save money. One of these people, released even before serving half of his sentence for armed robbery committed yet another armed robbery at the University of Illinois Chicago.
He picked out an attractive coed, followed her into a UIC parking garage. Police say he raped her repeatedly, then strangled her to death, leaving her body in the car (along with a used condom) for her family to find over the Thanksgiving weekend holiday.
You can hear all the gruesome details from a prosecutor in this video.
Another armed robber, released after three years of a pair of 9-year sentences for armed robberies, started robbing people within days of his prison release. Police tied him to five armed robberies in ten days. Who knows how many more people he victimized that cops don’t know about.
But these early release inmates aren’t raping or robbing the governor, his wife or his kids. After all, they have Illinois State Police’s finest dignitary protection troopers guarding them 24/7. Even Jay Bob’s teenage kids have armed and trained ISP dignitary protection specialists guarding them 24/7.
And when Pritzker’s daughter Teddi goes off to college in California next school year, she’ll not have to worry about being followed by a hulking armed robber and would-be rapist in a parking garage. She’ll have a State Trooper close by to protect her. Will your kids enjoy the same? I didn’t think so.
Before that, JB didn’t need those icky guns then either. With all his billions could afford to hire the finest private executive protection people to look after him and his wife and kids.
Meanwhile, the little people like you and me have none of that. We have to protect our own families.
Not only that, but some county prosecutors simply have declined to prosecute shoplifting cases for under $1000 in merchandise. So drug addicts and miscellaneous other criminals are stealing staggering amounts of merchandise to support their habits.
And desperate people in need of a fix do desperate things. They have no compunction about shooting or stabbing anyone that gets in their way. And while you may not be the person getting in their way, you or your loved ones may find yourselves acting as a backstop for an errant gunshot.
Nationally, retailers are reporting $51 billion in annual “shrinkage.” The problem has grown to the point that Home Depot just announced rampant thefts from their stores will significantly impact their bottom line.
But when stores like Home Depot don’t confront shoplifters and prosecutors don’t prosecute them, why should thieves stop stealing Home Depot’s stuff for a living?
Let’s face it: soft-on-crime liberals have adopted “kinder, gentler” criminal justice policies that are failing to put criminals in prison where they can’t victimize law-abiding, productive citizens and their families.
Sadly, today we have many bad people on the streets that in past years would remain in custody. And these violent criminals are looking for victims.
Prudent people will maintain their situational awareness as their first line of defense against victimization. Furthermore, they will nurture defensive skill sets to help protect themselves and their loved ones should situational awareness and avoidance fail.
Don’t pretend that you live in a bubble where you can’t become a victim of crime. And don’t rely on modern medicine to save your life after a criminal bursts your bubble.
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