New liberal program to reduce drug crime: We just stop arresting junkies. Seriously

The Democrat-ruled city of Seattle has a huge drug problem.  Parks and homeless encampments are littered with thousands of used syringes.  Opportunistic home and car burglaries fund the huge income for drug sellers and their cartel suppliers. 

But don't worry, citizen: the Democrats who rule the place have a Plan to reduce drug use, and the crime that funds it.  And as you would imagine, being a Plan devised by liberals, it's amazingly imaginative.  Are you ready?

The Democrats have ordered the city's cops to...crack down?   

Hahahahahahaha!  Don't be ridiculous.

 

They've ordered cops who catch junkies with a gram or less of harmless drugs like...well, heroin and meth...to NOT arrest 'em.  The cops don't even give 'em a ticket.

Okay...how does this help?  Hey, are you stupid?   Drug arrests have absolutely plummeted!

See, citizen?  It works!  Democrats have such great ideas!

 

Okay, a few details:  This was a pilot program, funded by "foundation donations" of $435,000.  The theory behind it--advanced by all liberals for years-- is that being a drug addict is NOT a choice but a disease.  Like drunk driving.  No one is at fault, citizen, cuz the, um...victim of the disease...didn't have a choice.

 

So the proper response isn't jail, but treatment.

And I know you'll be surprised to learn that an entire industry has sprung up willing to provide "treatment" for the right price.

 

According to the Mainstream Media this program--cunningly named "Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion" (LEAD) has "piqued the curiosity of lawmakers on Capitol Hill" (hmm, wonder which party is behind the piqued interest?) and has now been expanded to expanded to 25 cities.

The program puts drug users into "community-based care" instead of--as the MSM puts it--"getting snarled up in the system."  Community care varies from city to city and ranges from counseling to...well, in Seattle they're giving junkies apartments.  Wow!

Supporters say the program is an effective way to stop “arresting away” the country’s growing drug problem.  Cuz trying to "arrest away" crime is simply futile--it's why libs are trying to get murderers released, cuz "arresting" just doesn't work!  But knuckle-dragging Rethuglican critics argue that the program essentially makes the use of illegal drugs legal.

This, of course, is a time-honored way Dems ignore laws they don't like--much as their hero Obama did in giving U.S. residency to millions of illegal aliens.

LEAD was started in 2011 and cost $435,000 in its first year.  And that was just to "serve" one neighborhood.  Since then the pols were so excited by the lower drug arrests that they expanded the program to cover most of the city--but now funded by taxpayers in Seattle and King County.

The director of the National Support Bureau, Najja Morris, said participants are 58 percent less likely to be re-arrested than other chronic drug abusers who are sentenced to jail time.  But of course, the entire thrust of the program is simply NOT to arrest--or even ticket--people caught with or actually injecting illegal drugs. 

The Mainstream Media is ecstatic, gushing about Seattle’s "success."  And other Democrat-ruled cities and states are jumping on board.  In Louisville, which implemented the program just this week, police "have the option to allow up to 50 people to opt out of jail time if they’re suspected of committing low-level drug offenses driven by an opioid abuse disorder."

See how well that works, comrade?  Look at how much money we saved!  And the number of drug crimes has dropped like a rock!  Are we great or what?

Greg Fishcer, mayor of Louisville, explained it this way: “In many cases these folks mean no harm. They’re struggling with a disease. Throwing them into jails and courts that are already overcrowded... doesn’t serve their needs or the city’s needs.”

See, you taxpaying citizens think the purpose of the police and jails and courts is to deter crimes like someone cutting a hole in your convertible top to steal the goddamn owner's manual, which they can sell for maybe $20 bucks to get more drugs.  But the real purpose is to make their political bosses look good.  And it's hard to beat ignoring drug use to make everyone look better.

Of course that does nothing to reduce drug use, or the crimes junkies commit to fund their habit.  But see, there ya go again, citizen, thinking the purpose of cops and jail time is to reduce crime.