Not content to define deviancy down, San Francisco is actually defining outright criminality down.
The situation might be funny, if it weren’t both Orwellian and dangerous.
As Fox News reported this week, “Crime-ridden San Francisco has introduced new sanitized language for criminals, getting rid of words such as ‘offender’ and ‘addict’ while changing ‘convicted felon’ to ‘justice-involved person.’ The Board of Supervisors adopted the changes last month even as the city reels from one of the highest crime rates in the country.”
More of the foolishness: “From now on a convicted felon or an offender released from custody will be known as a ‘formerly incarcerated person,’ or … just a ‘returning resident.’ A juvenile ‘delinquent’” will now be called a “young person with justice system involvement,’ or a ‘young person impacted [sic] by the juvenile justice system.’”
No word yet on what the city will call its infamously large number of public defecators who have made the city by the bay anything but a San Francisco treat to walk in.
In all seriousness, this latest Left Coast foolishness is just another step in a trend with somewhat reasonable beginnings but which has already gone too far. Led by a coalition of leftists, libertarians, and others with common sense and compassion, policymakers nationwide have been passing laws to reduce prison populations and respond to less-serious crimes with less incarceration and more rehabilitation.
That’s fine as far as it goes. Many of us were big supporters of that concept. Now, though, it has grown out of control. Instead of humanely insisting that “love” indeed be a part of the “tough love” approach to crime control, far too many people are forgetting the “tough” part of the equation.
The criminal justice system works best, and has always been understood in this country, as a mix of deterrence and redemption. Deterrence, though, always should come first. The whole point of a criminal justice system is to protect the persons, property, and rights of the innocent. Criminals are people who, yes, break the law, and thus harm other individuals or society as a whole.
The human psyche responds both to carrots and sticks — to reward, and to punishment. Without punishment, though, there rarely is deterrence. And social stigma is a just and proper form of punishment.
Criminals are not victims. Even when offered hope, they never should be coddled. Bad consequences should result from bad actions.
When Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York, he famously cleaned up its streets and cut its crime rate dramatically, not by being a nice guy, but by being tough. It was the right approach. The lives of millions of New Yorkers, not to mention tens of millions of annual visitors, are far better because of it, even if the city is backsliding under the liberal Mayor Bill de Blasio.
San Francisco keeps moving in the other direction. Is it any wonder its civic pathologies are so serious?
