(Originally published in CNS News.)
Until liberal judges start convicting criminals and sentencing them to appropriate prison times, the crime problem won’t go away.
While the wrongdoers carry most of the blame for crime in America, overworked police who don’t have the resources to catch offenders, democrat prosecutors who won’t take cases to court, and liberal judges who won’t sentence lawbreakers are also contributing factors to the bigger problem.
One disturbing example of this is Judge Janet Protasiewicz, who is a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As legislators examined her record as a judge, they have found many disturbing rulings.
Jarmell Jamez Bingham was convicted of 12 felonies in 2019, including felony murder, felon possession of a firearm, and keeping a drug vehicle. While in jail, Bingham sent letters to a person in Milwaukee that told where three of the witnesses who testified against him could be found. Bingham also told the person he was writing to “smoke” the witnesses before his appeal was heard. He wrote, “no trial if they dead.”
Luckily, the U.S. Postal Service delivered the letter to the wrong address, and when the people there read it, they turned it over to the police. Bingham was brought before Protasiewicz in 2020, and she only added three more years to his sentence for soliciting three murders. Each single count could have added six years and three months to his sentence for a total of 18 years and nine months. He received only three years.
In another instance, a 25-year old man sexually assaulted and impregnated a 15-year old girl. Protasiewicz used COVID as a reasonto give no jail time.
Protasiewicz told a man who raped his unconscious cousin she didn’t think he was “a danger to the public.” She sentenced him to 14 months in prison and 18 months of supervision.
Quantrell Bounds “assaulted and raped a 13-year-old girl, recorded it, and posted a video of the act to Facebook” off with no jail time, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Protasiewicz sentencedBounds to 5 years for 1st Degree Child Sex Assault with a child under 13, but then she stayed the sentence and placed the defendant on a 5 year probation.
So, do you think the victims of these crimes received justice? Do you think these sentences did anything to discourage them from committing more crimes?
Bingham was already serving a 40 year sentence, but he thought he could get away with soliciting three murders. The gamble didn’t pay off for him, but then, his punishment was barely more than slap on the wrist.
Bounds was later charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. He certainly didn’t learn his lesson. Because he wasn’t taught a lesson. He sexually assaulted a girl who was barely a teenager and got away with it.
Why would anyone consider this judge and others like her for positions of power? If there are no consequences to committing crimes, and there aren’t with judges like Protasiewicz, then crime won’t stop or even slow down because there’s no reason for it to.
If we expect police to catch criminals, then liberal judges and prosecutors can’t keep releasing them with no consequences. At some point, the police will stop worrying about catching them because the criminal will be back on the street before the police even finish the paperwork.
Criminals need to be punished with more than sharp scolding from a judge.
