It is a difficult time in America. Crippling inflation, foreign policy failures, and drugs flowing over an open border are threatening our way of life. Crime is rising in our neighborhoods thanks to liberal policies and politicians. In many ways the threat of crime is the worst threat of all because it destroys our safety and security right where we should feel the safest. Ohio provides a front-row seat to the dangerous, destructive policies pushed by liberals. In a 4-3 decision, with the conservatives dissenting, the liberal majority on the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that judges cannot consider public safety when setting bail.
It is easy to feel helpless about the issues impacting the country. But in Ohio, citizens are fighting back with a ballot measure called Issue One. In putting this issue on the ballot, the state legislature is asking Ohioans to answer a simple question: Should public safety be a factor for judges when setting bail? It should not have taken a statewide ballot measure to answer that simple question, but here we are.
It should be the number one priority of politicians to keep our communities and nation safe. This means a secure border to stop deadly drugs like fentanyl from pouring in. It also means supporting local law enforcement and helping them to get the resources they need to succeed. Law enforcement’s job doesn’t get any easier when deadly drugs pour in, and politicians find ways to defund the police. These are the same motivations behind Issue One.
Cleveland became a war zone in 2020 with 193 homicides. Last year the city saw that number “dip” to 170 murders, but this year it is on pace to exceed 2021. According to the Department of Justice, a city the size of Cleveland, with its crime rate, should have 38 detectives in its homicide-investigating unit. Instead, the department has 18 detectives—less than 50 percent of the Justice Department recommendation. Due to the unit being understaffed, detectives are playing catch-up while bodies pile up. And it’s not just the detective units. Cleveland PD is down over 200 police officers.
As someone who served in the Marine Corps Infantry Reserve, I know morale plays a significant role in the success of any mission. What is a Cleveland Police Detective supposed to think when a known gang member, who was arrested and charged with murder and felonious assault, is released on $5,000 cash bail? Liberal activist judges, including on Ohio’s Supreme Court, are endangering the lives of witnesses, victims’ families, and the general public.
Civil society is based on the principle that government, at any level, should strive to protect its citizens. What does it say for us as a society when crime rampages through our communities with little to no plan to stop it in sight?
The last thing we need to be doing is kowtowing to the woke mobs on bail reform or anything else. Conservatives have always believed in giving law enforcement the tools they need, holding criminals accountable with swift rule of law, and ensuring that those who are true threats to our society remain behind bars.
We need to remember when we allow dangerous criminals to return to the streets, they go right back to the neighborhoods and people they victimized in the first place. Our country is too great to allow our cities to continue being unsafe. It is too great to bend the knee to criminals, drug dealers, and the social justice warriors that want to put their interests first.
If Republicans can regain the majority in Congress this November, it will be important for them to focus each day on ensuring Americans have security and safety in their daily lives. To fail the American people on that is an unacceptable outcome. This can only happen, however, if voters insist on electing representatives and sticking to measures that will hold criminals accountable, keep our streets safe, and secure our borders.