Prison saves lives

At some point, you have to channel Joseph Welch, the white-shoe Boston lawyer who upbraided Joe McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954.

“At long last,  have you no no sense of decency?”

Haven’t you done enough damage, liberals, progressives, and socialists? We write this as the third teenager was arrested today (08-20-2020) in the shooting death of 11-year-old Anisa Maria Scott. Three teenagers in custody aged 16, 17, and 19. All three with extensive criminal records and more “diversion” than a desert river.

But there is The Capital Times (“Dane County’s Progressive Voice”) out with an indictment of District Attorney Ismael Ozanne (a Democrat) for … (wait for it) … being too tough on crime! 

‘In his 10th year on the job … Ozanne faces criticism over worsening racial disparities.’

Who is criticizing? Progressive defense attorneys who hold up  as their ideal prosecutors Kim Gardner in St. Louis, who charged that man and wife defending their homes from an angry BLM mob until the Missouri attorney general stepped in.

The preposterous imputation of The Capital Times’ analysis of “worsening” racial disparities in criminal prosecution is that Dane County’s first district attorney of color is racist. 

The Capital Times cries racism because Black people comprise 7% of Madison’s population but 66% of all juvenile arrests, 46% of the inmates in the county jail. A classic case of confusing correlation with causation. It is the fallacy that fuels the Derail the Jail crowd, Cops Out of Schools, and Free the 350 Bail Fund: That a racist criminal justice system is still catching runaway slaves.

In Madison’s public high schools, boys represent 49% of the student body but 59% of the disciplinary procedures. Does that mean the school district discriminates against boys or does it mean boys act up more than girls?

Poor Ozanne pleads he’s spinning the revolving door can spin but not fast enough for The Capital Times, which quotes one defense lawyer’s pretzel logic: If you didn’t put them in [the system] in the first place, you wouldn’t have to divert them out.” Inquiring minds want to know:

⇒ Did Ismael Ozanne put Perion Carreon (age 19), André Brown (16) and Jerry Ward (17) into the system or did the three Black teenagers put themselves there by (it is charged) shooting and killing 11-year-old Anisa Scott? 

“Unfortunately,” says another defense lawyer, “A lot of my clients of color have priors — a lot of priors — and that kind of ruins any chance that why would have [of diversion.]” 

Carreon, Ward, Brown — not old enough to legally drink

Unfortunately?

Including first-degree murder, Carreon now faces eight felony charges — including jumping bail four separate times. Three weeks before the shooting, Carreon had been released on $1,500 bail by a Dane County Judge Julie Genovese. 

Brown turned off his GPS ankle monitor prior to the murder of Anisa. His juvie record is sealed but throughout middle school, parents were pleading “Please protect my daughter from Andrew Brown. The lad has now graduated to adult court at age 16.

Jerry Ward was out on a signature bond from a March case for possession with intent to distribute THC and possession of drug paraphernalia. When arrested he was armed with a gun, which being out on felony bail, is very much illegal. The folks at We Support Madison Police make a great case for the Broken Windows theory of policing:

Are we really doing offenders a favor by not punishing them for lower level offenses? This man escalated his level of criminality, and depending on his involvement in this murder, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Madison has become a shooting gallery — largely by Black teens commandeering stolen cars. Shootings are up 88% over last year at this time. The real question — unfathomable to the progressives —is whether the district attorney is doing too much diverting and not enough prosecuting?” 

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Let’s remember this: Police did not kill Anisa Scott. White privilege did not kill the 11-year-old girl. She would be alive today if Dane County Progressives would, at long last, develop a sense of decency.

Has 10 years of diversion made us safer?