The National Interest
By Pedro Gonzalez
Example: In St. Louis, prosecutors in the office of Attorney Kim Gardner failed to appear at a series of pretrial hearings for accused murderer Brandon Campbell. Consequently, a judge dropped the murder charges against him.
The Democratic Party has spent months retreating from its progressive incantations about defunding the police after discovering, to their surprise, that most Americans are yet fond of their unmolested person and property. Unfortunately for Democrats, Missouri Rep. Cori Bush has ruined their egress from a messaging disaster.
In an interview with CBS, Bush defended spending $70,000 on a private security detail amid her calls for eliminating the boys in blue. “So suck it up and defunding the police has to happen,” she huffed, “we need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets.” In other words, protection for me but not for thee.
Her comments occurred in the shadow of a crime wave so big that it has become impossible to ignore. Citing police data, the Washington Post reported 462 homicides in New York City last year, up from 319 the previous year. Phoenix counted 200 homicides last year, up from 139 in 2019. In Philadelphia, there were 499 homicides last year, up from 356 a year earlier. These trends are everywhere.
Bush’s honesty understandably caused a stir, even within the Democratic Party, because she has handed Republicans fodder for campaign messaging. But the truth is, one need not defund the police to impair their ability to fight crime.
In St. Louis, prosecutors in the office of Attorney Kim Gardner failed to appear at a series of pretrial hearings for accused murderer Brandon Campbell. Consequently, a judge dropped the murder charges against him.
The St. Louis attorney has made a name for herself as a progressive activist. Gardner doggedly pursued Mark and Patricia McCloskey after they confronted left-wing agitators outside their home with firearms. After the McCloskeys successfully argued Gardner’s personal politics had infected the proceedings, she was removed from the case. The local NBC news affiliate reported she had used the case in campaign fundraising emails before and after the charges were issued.
Gardner’s office missed multiple hearings related to the Campbell case; Gardner herself failed to respond to an email from the accused murderer’s attorney. “Kim Gardner is a poor excuse for a prosecutor,” said Brandy Veasley, one of the victim’s sisters. “It’s not fair.”
It’s not fair, but Gardner is, in fact, playing her part in the politicized legal regime. For now, police are still allowed, though certainly discouraged, from policing violent crime, especially when the suspect is a minority. But increasingly, the people they pick off the streets travel through a revolving door tended to by so-called “reform” bureaucrats like Kim Gardner.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund is one of …
