George Soros insists that the policies instituted by soft-on-crime prosecutors he has generously financed and supported have nothing do to with soaring crime rates in their jurisdictions.
In a July 31 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Soros claimed that a study “shows no connection between the election of reform-minded prosecutors and local crime rates.”
He did not link to or name the study, and it was unclear where or when it was published. He also said he’d continue supporting candidates whose policy proposals he favors.
Those who rode to election victory fueled largely by Soros cash include George Gascon, the Los Angeles prosecutor who may be recalled; Lawrence Krasner, the district attorney of Philadelphia; Alvin Bragg, the top prosecutor in New York City; top Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx; and Kimberly Gardner, the circuit attorney for St. Louis, Missouri.
They all have implemented policies which include halting or curbing the prosecution of lower-level crimes and moving for some type of bail reform, either eliminating bail or adjusting the bail system.
While the DAs backed by Soros oversee 20 percent of Americans, more than 40 percent of U.S. homicides in 2021 occurred in their jurisdictions, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
“Most of these prosecutors pursue radical justice policies upon assuming office including eliminating bail, dismissing felony cases, and seeking lenient sentences while creating antagonistic relationships with their public safety partners, especially the police,” the group said in its report, released in June.
Soros insisted that the prosecutors he backs are implementing “an agenda that promises to be more effective and just,” including “prioritizing the resources of the criminal-justice system to protect people against violent crime,” treating drug addiction as a disease rather than a crime, and seeking an end to “the criminalization of poverty and mental illness.”
“This agenda, aiming at both safety and justice, is based on both common sense and evidence. It’s popular. It’s effective. The goal is not defunding the police but restoring trust between the police and the policed, a partnership that fosters the solving of crimes,” Soros wrote.
Rafael Mangual, head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute, challenged Soros's assertions.
Soros, Mangual wrote in the City Journal, “offered a shallow, essentially data-free collection of platitudes—’If people trust the justice system, it will work’—and incomplete observations,” taking issue with Soros's note about black people being more likely to be locked up than white people.
“Such a contention is meant to persuade the reader that these incarcerations are mostly (if not overwhelmingly) illegitimate — the product of racial animus more than anything else. What else could it be? Well, how about disparate rates of criminal offending? A Bureau of Justice Statistics study of homicides between 1980 and 2008 found that blacks commit homicide offenses at a rate ‘almost eight times higher than the rate for whites,' ” Mangual wrote.
The Washington Examiner editorial board, meanwhile, wrote that Soros’s op-ed “was supposed to defend and justify his backing of prosecutors who are extraordinary for being soft on crime. But time and again, such prosecutors have shown that their philosophy is inconsistent with justice. Again and again, they release violent career criminals who victimize ordinary citizens going about their business,” the board said, noting examples from Virginia and Illinois.”
The New York Post editorial board wrote: "Soros claims his 'goal is not defunding the police,' yet he’d shift funds away from them and toward youth-job programs and “education behind bars.” Then again, if perps never get put behind bars, what good would prison education do them?
Another Soros 'goal': 'restoring trust between the police and the policed.' Again, polls have shown minorities want as much, if not more, policing, and with real consequences. Defunding police and failing to lock up perps only erodes trust."
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