In an op-ed in the Washington Post Stephen J. K. Walters takes a look at what’s happening in Baltimore:
Any objective review of Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby’s recent news conference explaining her approach to the city’s crime problem would be equally pithy: “Baltimore’s crime policy stinks. Marilyn Mosby is the stinkee.â€
Mosby’s statement came amid another bloody week in a long parade of such weeks in the United States’ second-most-deadly big city (behind St. Louis). There had been seven murders in the previous six days; in the last month, there have been 33. The 2021 body count of 86 has the city ahead of last year’s pace and even its record 2019 rate. Not a good time to announce that, though elected as a prosecutor, she would not prosecute what she labeled “low-level crimes,†making permanent her policy of dismissing all criminal charges for the possession of drugs and attempted drug distribution, prostitution, trespassing and other “minor†offenses.
What goes unmentioned in his piece is that Ms. Mosby is one of a number of “rogue” prosecutors, sponsored and financed by George Soros, around the country. Here in Cook County was have one of our own: Kim Foxx who was narrowly and to my mind inexplicably re-elected. She, like Ms. Mosby is manifestly incompetent and has abandoned her statutory responsibilities in favor of another political agenda.
Whatever Mr. Soros’s political motivations, he is, among other things, a currency trader and currency traders benefit from chaos and misery. Perhaps he sees those consequences as just a coincidence fortunate to him.
Mr. Walters concludes:
Mosby’s strategy is, then, a roll of the dice — with lives at stake. How many Baltimoreans will continue to tolerate this experiment, and how many will say “goodbye†to their increasingly disorderly, dangerous city?
Add that to the centrifugal forces pushing people out of cities and, indeed, states.
I will argue that focusing on Mr Soros is besides the point. Yes, money was a necessary condition for the candidates to gain office to execute these policies — but if Mr Soros was not donating, there are many willing to donate substantial sums to these same candidates.
My only view is the electorate and officeholders have to look hard at themselves. The electorate is sovereign and they have real choices; even if one candidate had disproportionate amount of resources and media coverage. What is a republican democracy if the people aren’t seen as primarily responsible for the office holders they select?
For office holders, they are still responsible for their decisions; no matter who donated to them. A fair warning is that just as there is real push at stripping qualified immunity from police officers… it wouldn’t shock me if there is a push at stripping absolute immunity from prosecutors.
“What goes unmentioned in his piece is that Ms. Mosby is one of a number of “rogue†prosecutors, sponsored and financed by George Soros, around the country.”
Hold on there, buster. Steve has informed this is a myth.
I would make a gentlemen’s bet with curious that Soros money is in fact necessary, on its own and as the lead investor. That’s the nature of fundraising.
He’s here. He’s there. He’s everywhere. George Soros!
Steve
I have mentioned George Soros perhaps two, three times in the twenty years I have maintained this blog. That he is providing financial support for individuals running for states attorney in various places around the country is a fact. That those individuals share certain objectives which are outside the portfolio of states attorney is an observation but it’s not a particularly controversial one. That he is the bête noire for some of those on the right does not refute any of that.