George Soros says he will continue to back woke DAs and blames urban crime wave on COVID!
Left-wing billionaire George Soros has said that he will continue to support soft-on-crime district attorneys that he has backed to the tune of millions of dollars. He claimed that they are only making the criminal justice system “more effective and just”. The 91-year-old has insisted that the agenda pushed by top prosecutors like Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was both “popular” and “effective".
“This agenda includes prioritizing the resources of the criminal justice system to protect people against violent crime. It urges that we treat drug addiction as a disease, not a crime. And it seeks to end the criminalization of poverty and mental illness,” Hungary-born Soros wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled 'Why I Support Reform Prosecutors'. “The goal is not defunding the police but restoring trust between the police and the policed, a partnership that fosters the solving of crimes.”
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The op-ed was published at a time when lax district attorneys who led San Francisco voters to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin are facing criticism. When Boudin ruled, there were constant spikes in shoplifting, open-air drug dealing, and broad daylight assaults, often against Asian-Americans.
Another recall effort is targeting DA George Gascon, who got almost $3 million in campaign funds from Soros. Meanwhile, Bragg was blasted for letting habitual criminals out of jail and prosecuting ordinary New Yorkers for defending themselves.
Extending his support for them, Soros blamed the rise in crime across the nation on “a disturbing rise in mental illness among young people due to the isolation imposed by Covid lockdowns, a pullback in policing in the wake of public criminal-justice reform protests, and increases in gun trafficking."
“Many of the same people who call for more-punitive criminal-justice policies also support looser gun laws,” he added. It was reported by the Capital Research Center in January that Soros gave more than $29 million to left-wing district attorney candidates through a network of political action committees.
“The idea that we need to choose between justice and safety is false. They reinforce each other: If people trust the justice system, it will work. And if the system works, public safety will improve,” Soros wrote. He argued that instead of investing huge sums of money to keep people locked up in jails, "we need to invest more in preventing crime with strategies that work — deploying mental-health professionals in crisis situations, investing in youth job programs, and creating opportunities for education behind bars. This reduces the likelihood that those prisoners will commit new crimes after release.”
“This is why I have supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform. I have done it transparently, and I have no intention of stopping,” Soros added. “The funds I provide enable sensible reform-minded candidates to receive a hearing from the public. Judging by the results, the public likes what it’s hearing.”