Denver Gazette: Blame “justice reform” for our crime wave | Opinion

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The hard data is in there; it is alarming and sinister. The price Colorado has paid for giving in to crime is surprising, as a Gazette banner headline made clear Thursday. It’s all in a landmark study released this week by Colorado’s Common Sense Institute, which reveals:

Violent crime in our state has skyrocketed 35% from 2011 to last year, while it increased only 3% nationally. The state’s crime rate for 2021 is on track to be the highest since 1994. Colorado’s murder rate in 2020 was 106% higher than in 2011. Assaults increased by 40% during from the same period. Rape was 9% higher.

The data has questionable distinctions:

Colorado is # 1 in auto theft – the highest rate in the country in 2020. The rate of auto theft has climbed 135% in the past decade. Colorado’s overall property crime rate has also increased more than any other state over the past decade.

Along with its human toll, the Colorado crime wave – indeed, a tsunami – has taken a huge toll in dollars and cents. Common Sense Institute research estimates material and immaterial costs for 2020 at $ 27 billion. It averages $ 4,762 per year per Coloradan, or 77% of the state’s annual budget.

To say the least, it’s a red flag – and not just to lock your cars, secure your homes, and watch your back. It is also a warning to our state’s elected policy makers at all levels of government to improve.

First of all, it is time for the ruling Democrats in the legislature to throw the so-called “justice reform” agenda in the trash of discredited ideas. They must stop asking our justice system to coddle criminals. As the research points out:

The number of people sentenced behind bars in Colorado jails has fallen 23% from 2008 to this year, while the total number of crimes per year has skyrocketed by 47%. jumped 61% in the past two years and increased even for the most serious crimes. Meanwhile, Colorado’s repeat offender rate ranks among the top five in the country.

Attempts by politicians to lower or end the cash bond; release suspects despite mile-long rap sheets; requalify crimes and criminals in the name of “fairness”; to remove cops from K-12 school campuses – must stop immediately. When they are now implemented, they should be repealed.

Such “reforms” were already on the back burner by a few smarter Democrats who realized the template was in place. They know that a public besieged by a festering criminal culture has run out of patience with increasingly far-fetched attempts to turn criminals into victims – and to cast aside the real victims of crime.

Everyone seems to know someone these days whose car has been stolen; whose house has been broken into; who was too close to be comforted by the latest incident of teen violence.

Today, the Common Sense Institute study – led by respected former prosecutors George Brauchler of Arapahoe County and Mitch Morrissey of Denver – is a game-changer. His figures confirm our fears.

Justice reform? For a change, how about simple old-fashioned justice – for Colorado’s many crime victims?

Denver Gazette Editorial Board

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