Liberal Solution to Crime: Pay the Criminals

No doubt you’ve heard the idiom that ‘crime doesn’t pay. The Democrat-controlled city council of the District of Columbia is about to change that. In order to combat the rising crime rate, the council has decided that they will start paying criminals to not commit crimes. Paying criminals. With tax dollars.

Breitbart – Early this week, the city council unanimously passed a bill that would pay residents a stipend not to break the law. The council insisted the plan is a worthy expenditure of $4.9 million of
the taxpayer’s dollars.The bill’s author, Democratic D.C. Councilman Kenyan McDuffie, claims the plan would curb violent crime and reverse last year’s 54 percent increase in murders.

Under the plan, each year, officials would pick 200 residents who are deemed to be at the greatest risk for committing or becoming victims of violent crime and put them in behavioral therapy and
other programs. Once they complete the programs, they will be paid their stipend.

McDuffie insisted the $9,000 a year in stipends would “pale” in comparison to the cost of citizens being victimized, not to mention the costs associated with incarcerating offenders. “I want to prevent violent crime–particularly gun violence–by addressing the root causes and creating opportunities for people, particularly those individuals who are at the highest risks of offending,” McDuffie told constituents last week.

Whatever the merits of the bill, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser has not announced whether she would allow the program to be funded out of the city’s existing budget. If she does not do so, the council
will have to figure out a way to fund the program with new taxes or make budget cuts equal to the expenditure.

This ridiculous program is based on one in Richmond, California that even some liberals say has never been proven to be effective.

WREG Memphis – In Richmond, 79 percent of “fellows” participating in the program have not been suspected of involvement in any gun crimes since joining the program, and 84 percent have not been injured by gunfire, the program’s executive director, DeVone Boggan, said in a report to the Council.

Richmond experienced a 77 percent drop in homicides between 2007, when the program was launched, and 2014, although how much can be specifically attributed to the stipends is unclear.

Longtime civic activist Dorothy Brizill was the only person to testify against the stipend program at a lengthy hearing last fall, saying it would waste taxpayer dollars.“These incentive programs don’t work,” Brizill said Tuesday.

Paying criminals to not commit crimes sounds an awful lot like businesses that pay ‘fire insurance’ to the local mobsters. Is that really how the council thinks tax dollars should be spent?

Even if this program is deemed to be successful, this sets a horrible precedent. Once you start down the road of paying criminals to not commit crimes, where will it end? Anyone with an honest view of history knows that liberal programs like this always get larger and larger with more money needed and threats of doom and destruction if the program is not ‘properly’ funded.

Leave it to the liberals to come up with the outlandish notion that rewarding criminals with stipends is a great idea. The only thing they should be rwarded with for obeying the law is their continued freedom. Millions and millions of people manage to make it through their days without committing felonies. These people can, too. They shouldn’t be paid to do it.