How to reduce crime

The one guaranteed solution

We are witnessing a crime wave across America.  From random attacks on New York City subways and streets to mass shootings in Texas and other states, criminals are committing murders and other heinous crimes with impunity.  Violent individuals are literally getting slaps on the wrist—whether it is having their jail time reduced markedly or being released with no bail after being apprehended. 

One of the most egregious failures of our criminal justice system is evident in Memphis where a career criminal murdered a young teacher who was jogging in the early morning hours the other day.  He never should have been released from prison.  And another violent Memphis criminal never should have been released from prison, either.  What the hell is going on in Memphis?  Will tourists now think twice before visiting Memphis?  To ask the question is to answer it.

Can we protect ourselves from career criminals?  The answer is emphatically yes.

In 1989 I wrote an article about reducing crime and submitted it to the New York Times.  I clearly outlined the case for exiling, banishing individuals who commit acts of aggression such as murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery, carjacking, and violent assaults such as random “punch outs.”  Sex traffickers would suffer the same fate. 

I did not hear from the op-ed editor about my article.  A few weeks later the op-ed page published and article, “The Australian Solution.”  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  The op-ed was rewritten using my theme about sending violent criminals to a faraway land.  And there were passages that were eerily like the article I submitted, such as sending criminals to Alaska.  As NCIS special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs would say, “there are no coincidences.” 

I was angry that the New York Times committed such an unethical act.  I immediately wrote the op-ed editor.  I never received a reply.  I did not pursue any legal action even though I could prove in a court of law that I had submitted an article much earlier with virtually the same phrases.

More than 30 years later I checked my computer to see if the article was uploaded to my Word files.  And I checked my cabinet folders to see if I had a draft of the article or the letter to the op-ed editor.  I found the article I submitted to the Times, “Death Penalty, No:  Banishment, Yes.” 

“The Australian Solution” is the solution to violent criminals.  That would reduce the prison population, save the taxpayers tons of money, and guarantee that recidivism goes to zero. 

The next step would be for states to pass legislation that would eliminate prison sentences for violent individuals and banish them instead.  A massive education campaign would begin immediately throughout each state that passes such legislation.  Instead of the slogan: “Do the crime and you will do the time,” we would replace that failed approach with “Do the time and you’re out of here.”  Never to see your spouse, children, other family members and friends, ever again.

My prediction:  no blue state would enact such as law, and some (many?) red state governors would probably get cold feet advocating the one solution that is guaranteed to reduce violent crimes markedly. 

Violent individuals are “outlaws.”  They thumb their noses at peaceful Americans.  It is time to pushback…and hard, and give them the appropriate punishment for their uncivilized acts.