Attorney General William Barr believes that violent crime could be significantly decreased with only one small change to the criminal justice system, Breitbart reports.
Barr discussed America’s rising violence, how it is being addressed, and additional ways to address it, during a press conference concerning Operation Legend on Wednesday. Operation Legend is the anti-violence initiative that the Trump administration launched roughly six weeks ago.
Barr revealed during the press conference that under Operation Legend, which is active in nine U.S. cities – Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and St. Louis – 1,485 arrests have been made and 220 individuals are currently facing federal charges.
The problem
This, of course, is good news. But, according to Barr, things could be even better. Violent crime could be significantly reduced by addressing just one problem: what Barr referred to as “revolving-door justice.”
“One of the problems we have in the criminal justice system now is revolving-door justice,” Barr said.
The attorney general went on to explain this problem, which he said has nothing to do with police officers.
“During my exposure to the law enforcement community, which goes back over 30 years, there’s one constant, which is that the police do their job,” Barr said. “The police do — get the suspect and get the evidence.”
The problem, according to Barr, is with the next part of the process.
“The system falls apart in the prosecution and trial and the sentencing stage,” Barr said. “And what’s happening these days in the country is we’re going back to some of the old practices we followed in the ’60s and ’70s where there’s revolving-door justice and people are not being held. They’re not being held before trial when they’re dangerous.”
The solution
Barr, thus, would like an end to be put to this revolving-door justice, and he believes it is possible to do so.
“I think if you go to most of these big cities that are experiencing an increase in violent crime, and you go to the police departments, they will know who the shooters are,” Barr said. “They will know exactly who the shooters are. And they’re not that many of them, relatively speaking. Two, three hundred, that if you took off the streets, you would more than half violent crime.”
A more than 50 percent reduction in violent crime! All from something that should already be happening: not releasing violent offenders after their arrest. This sounds like a no brainer to us.
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