OPINION:
The following analysis is part of The Washington Times Voter Guide, which outlines the candidates’ policies on the most important policy topics.
Polls show the public is increasingly apprehensive about walking the streets at night. In many jurisdictions, criminals realize they can get away with mischief without fear of being stopped.
Donald Trump has made restoring public order a focus of his bid to return to the White House. Last Friday, he came to Aurora, Colorado, to speak with residents of the blue city he once likened to a war zone from the inflow of illegal migrants from Venezuela. Among those crossing the border illegally have been known members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
The former president says that if elected, he will undermine criminal networks by securing the border and using U.S. military assets to “inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership and operations.” He says his plan would restore funding for police and put career criminals behind bars. When needed to preserve the peace, he says he’d deploy the National Guard to protect cities from being burned down by rioters.
Mr. Trump blasts Democratic-run jurisdictions that refuse to prosecute low-level crimes. California law allows shoplifters to grab whatever they want from a store, as long as it adds up to less than $950 in value.
“We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft,” Mr. Trump said at a recent event in the Golden State. “Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store.”
Gangs exploit weak enforcement by sending groups to empty store shelves. If a store employee intervenes, they know it will be the employee — not the thieves — facing charges.
But Mr. Trump isn’t immune from criticism for letting criminals go. He endorsed criminal justice reform legislation that freed certain categories of prisoners. His first major decision before entering the White House was to stop any prosecution of his former rival Hillary Clinton, even though she was caught destroying evidence.
In an act of mercy, Mr. Trump also commuted the sentence of former Democratic governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who had been caught on tape soliciting bribes. Mr. Trump was sympathetic to the ex-governor’s complaint that he had been prosecuted by a politically motivated Justice Department. Little did he know at the time he was about to get the same treatment.
Despite 235 years of precedent cautioning against doing so, the Biden-Harris administration filed two felony criminal cases against a former president. One of them, involving classified documents, has been thrown out. In the other, the Supreme Court gutted a major element of the charge.
Vice President Kamala Harris is all for prosecuting her rival at the federal and state level. A Manhattan jury recently found Mr. Trump guilty of mislabeling business records, which is ordinarily a misdemeanor. Here, however, the prosecution elevated the alleged offense into a felony by arguing the errant ledger entry was intended to affect the outcome of an election.
The Democratic candidate celebrated the jury’s finding nonetheless, highlighting it as an important distinction between her record and that of her opponent.
“As attorney general of California, I took on the big Wall Street banks and held them accountable for fraud,” she said in a July speech. “Donald Trump was just found guilty of fraud on 34 counts.”
To reduce crime, Ms. Harris proposes to crack down on the tools used by outlaws. Her website explains how she intends to “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”
As part of her presidential campaign, Ms. Harris announced she owns a handgun, in an apparent attempt to assuage the concerns of gun owners that she’ll take away their lawfully owned weapons.
Last year, President Biden put Ms. Harris in charge of a new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Its mission was to develop policies such as allowing activist groups to sue gun manufacturers, imposing limits on magazine capacity and banning private firearm transfers.
Ms. Harris is proud of her record as a prosecutor and her role in law enforcement. Yet she has also praised the “defund the police” movement for “rightly saying we need to take a look at these [police] budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities.”
As rioters burned Minneapolis 1,500 homes and businesses in 2020, Ms. Harris urged people to donate to a fund that bailed out those responsible for lighting fires in the name of racial justice.
Based on their records and policy proposals, it’s up to voters to decide which candidate is more likely to help them sleep better at night.
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