America's Fundamental Breakdown - Part 2
Illogical Consequences: The Price We Pay
Following up on America’s Fundamental Breakdown - Part 1, let’s look at the city of San Antonio’s ballot Proposition A, the so-called “San Antonio Justice Charter.”
This proposed amendment intertwines unrelated issues such as marijuana, abortion, cite-and-release, police chokeholds, and no-knock warrants. Additionally, it introduces a "Justice Director" position that oversees the implementation of the Justice Policy. The proposition's attempt to connect soft-on-crime policies with controversial topics such as abortion and marijuana legalization is deceptive and distorts the goal of justice.
It is difficult to determine what's worse, the policies themselves or the attempt to bundle them into a single ballot proposition.
Currently, San Antonio police department policy restricts the cite-and-release program to thefts from businesses. Proposition A would expand it, lowering the consequences of vandalism and theft against individuals.
Decriminalizing property crime is a dangerous path to take. Despite the narrative framing, property crimes are not “victimless,” and pretending that the current shoplifting epidemic is a “crime of poverty” is dishonest. These are not people stealing bread to feed their families. Businesses are, in many cases, legally prevented from having on-site security guards physically intervene to stop theft.
In several U.S. cities, rampant theft has resulted in stores locking up their merchandise or simply going out of business. When businesses flee due to crime, it’s part of a downward spiral: higher neighborhood crime rates create less access to businesses and services, fewer available jobs, and far less money in our communities.
The focus should be on helping, enabling, and protecting law-abiding taxpayers, property owners, families, and businesses in our community. Rather than enacting policies meant to keep citable offenses off someone’s record, we should prioritize disincentivizing criminal activity.
The best way to avoid a criminal record is not to commit a crime. Habitual criminals belong in jail. Common sense.
Installing a “Justice Director” merely creates a DEI administrator in charge or minimizing consequences and giving criminals accommodations in a misguided concept of “justice.”
“San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia has said that, with the exception of the Justice Director position, almost all of the ballot proposition goes against state law and is thereby unenforceable. So even if voters were to pass the charter amendment, Segovia says the city would not enforce those parts.” - KSAT
San Antonio’s own City Attorney says the ballot measures are unenforceable, so fundamentally, voters will weigh in on an arbitrary bundle of disparate measures that cannot ultimately be implemented or enforced.
What is the real agenda behind having Prop A on the ballot, then?