I’m sure these lawmakers—one from Pennsylvania, the other from Illinois—were terrified at the time of the crimes, but apparently, at least one of them is still pitching the defund the police narrative and “decarceration” policies that embolden criminals.
Five people were arrested in Delaware on Wednesday night after U.S. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pennsylvania) was carjacked in broad daylight at a city park in Philadelphia, just one day after an Illinois lawmaker was carjacked in suburban Chicago.The carjacking occurred at about 2:45 p.m. on Dec. 22 in the parking lot of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in the 1900-block of Pattison Avenue after Scanlon and some other members of Congress toured the historic facility, WPVI reported.. . . . Scanlon represents Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District which includes part of South Philadelphia, NBC News reported.
Philadelphia, like so many other Democrat-run cities, has seen a surge in carjackings this year, in no small part due to lawmakers like Scanlon and her fellow carjack victim and defund the police Democrat state lawmaker Kimberley Lightford.
The Police Tribune continues:
Scanlon has not been a supporter of law enforcement in the past, FOX News reported.She was one of the original co-sponsors of the Mental Health Justice Act that sought to replace law enforcement officers with mental health experts.The legislation, sponsored by 125 Democrats, is supposed to make it easier for state and local governments to defund the police by instead funding mental health services to respond to emergency calls instead of armed officers, according to The Hill.Another advocate of defunding the police – Illinois State Senator Kimberley Lightford – and her husband were carjacked at about 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday night in a suburb of Chicago, WLS reported.Police said Lightford’s black Mercedes Benz SUV was taken at gunpoint on Dec. 21 as she was dropping her hairstylist off at her home.“She came in the house and she was saying, ‘they’re hijacking the car, hijacking the car,’” witness Cynthia Boyd told WLS.Three armed carjackers jumped out of a Dodge Durango and surrounded Lightford and her husband in their SUV, according to police.“They had guns at her!” Boyd said “All three of them had a gun and was pointing guns at her and at her husband.”. . . . “She was saying, ‘Don’t shoot my husband, please don’t shoot my husband. Take whatever you want,’” Boyd told WLS. “So they took her purse, and they took the car, and everything that was in the car, and they took off.”. . . . Lightford is also a vocal advocate of defunding the police who proposed slashing the Chicago Police Department’s budget by $80 million last year.
What happens when you demonize and dehumanize police, when you purposefully ensure that they cannot carry out their duties with stand down orders and other tactics that make them unable to fulfill their duty to the public trust, when you let criminals know that they will not be held—much less prosecuted—on the off-chance they are arrested in the first place? Everyone knew the answer before this lunacy took root, but now, it’s undeniable.
When you reward criminal conduct by creating a pro-criminal atmosphere that shields and even makes easier their criminal conduct, you get more criminal conduct. Who knew?
Despite the clear evidence that her crackpot pro-criminal policies are emboldening criminals and increasing crime, carjacking victim Scanlon, who because of her privileged position among the political elite got her car back (you and I wouldn’t have), is apparently doubling-down on leftist pro-crime policies.
Paul Mirengoff over at (one of my daily must-reads) Power Line notes:
Rep. Scanlon spoke about her experience. I was struck by her claim that she will continue to push for policies and resources that will help reduce violence.This is disingenuous. What Scanlon has pushed for is the diversion of resources from the police to mental health professionals. That, and changes in the law that will make it easier successfully to sue cops and hold them criminally liable.But criminals don’t hijack cars, for example, because of poor mental health. They hijack cars because they’re bad people who think they can get away with it.The response should be a beefed up police force that will reduce the likelihood of getting away with crimes and policies that will enable society to keep these kinds of people locked up once they commit them.Diverting resources away from the police and making it easier to sue cops and hold them criminally liable will undercut the first solution. Scanlon apparently has no interest in the second.She has been mugged by reality, yet remains clueless. Let’s hope a Red Wave sweeps her out of office next year.
Democrat anti-police, anti-law and order policies are fueling spikes in crimes ranging from group robberies of retailers to carjacking to murder. Their response, as seen with Scanlon, is unlikely to be a realization that their policies create a clear and present danger to law-abiding citizens; instead, I expect them to begin “under-reporting” such crimes.
We saw this in Germany and across Europe when “migrants” from the Middle East were (often gang-) raping women and children in vast numbers. In some cases, “officials” hid the data, in others, the media did the job, and in still others, the victims themselves didn’t report the rapes right away for fear of stoking Islamo/xenophobia.
I would not be in the least surprised if the Democrat “solution” to their crime wave is to deny it’s happening, fail to report such future crimes to police, and/or try to keep such crimes hidden by any means necessary.
Obfuscate, outright lie, and silence wrongthink/fact is the trifecta foundational principle of the Democrat playbook, after all, and we’ve seen it with the coronavirus pandemic, inflation, the burning, looting, and murder rampages in 2020, and the racist “antiracist” Critical Race training taking place in schools, government, and business.
Democrats really believe that if it’s not in the media or on social media, it didn’t happen. Americans won’t believe their lying eyes, they fantasize, if only radical leftist fanatics can just figure out how to control. the. narrative.
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