The unconditional release on Wednesday of President Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin, John Hinckley Jr., signals an open season on conservatives, Reagan biographer Craig Shirley said.
“The unconditional release of psychopathic madman and murderer of White House press secretary and the attempted murder of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley by leftists proves we have a two-tiered system of justice in America,” Shirley, the author of four books on Reagan, said in a statement.
“One set for murderers, criminals and liberals, and another for conservatives and God-fearing Americans,” he said.
The "not guilty" verdict for Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann by a largely liberal D.C. jury this week is a key example of the two-tiered justice system, Shirley said.
Those who opposed the full release of the 67-year-old Hinckley, who shot Reagan, press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy on March 30, 1981, have said he should have died in prison.
But liberals and prisoner advocates pushed hard for the release, citing reports that Hinckley no longer appears to be a threat, an argument that Shirley isn't buying.
“Hinckley also shot and wounded other brave individuals,” he said, adding, “If he is willing to shoot the president, is any conservative safe?”
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. He claimed that he had an obsession with actress Jodie Foster and thought that the attack outside the Washington Hilton would impress her.
Meanwhile, a poll released Wednesday by the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center found a distressingly high level of support for assassinating politicians whom the respondents believed were “harming the country or our democracy.”
Young Democrat men were the most agreeable to the idea, with 44% saying they could countenance such an assassination. Younger Republican women ranked second, with 40% approving of the idea. Older folks — defined as those 50 and older — were not fans of assassination, no matter their party or gender.
That could explain why 44% of all respondents in the poll said the U.S. “seems headed toward a civil war in the near future.” That included 53% of Republicans and 39% of Democrats.
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