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This Criminal Reform Bill Trump is Endorsing……I Just Don’t Get it.

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This Criminal Reform Bill Trump is Endorsing……I Just Don’t Get it.

In, I suppose what what you would call a leak from a GOP staffer, a list of 20 violent crimes that would be eligible for early release in the criminal justice reform bill Donald Trump has spoken favorably about is given. To be honest, they simply don’t make any sense. These seem like serious crimes to me. Why would they qualify the perpetrator for an early release? How does this help to reform our criminal justice system I wonder?

The ‘First Step Act’ is a new criminal justice reform bill being considered which allows inmates to earn early release for up to one-third of their sentences.

Twenty violent crimes and serious drug crimes are included in the program. Some of these are crimes like trafficking in cocaine and methamphetamine, strangling a spouse or intimate partner, street-gang felonies, assault with intent to commit rape or sexual abuse, and more. Early release? Really?

The Questionable Van Jones Seal of Approval

I guess, the other factor that makes me question this bills helpfulness to our citizenry is that CNN’s Communist commentator Van Jones endorsed it. Anything a leftist like Van Jones

Green Czar Found Red

endorses makes me immediately skeptical as to how it could help our nation.

In case you have forgotten, CNN’s commentator Van Jones (who called Trump’s victory a white lash) was kicked out of Obama’s Green Czar spot when his Communist background surfaced. Interestingly, the man ends up with a job as a commentator with who? CNN – sardonically called the Communist News Network. Two peas in a pod perhaps?

Breitbart’s List of 20 Crimes

Here’s the list that Breitbart released on the 20 violent crimes that would qualify for early release:

Trafficking cocaine or methamphetamines, even if convicted as a kingpin (18 U.S.C § 841(b)
Strangling a spouse or an intimate partner (18 U.S.C. §113(a)(8)
Trafficking fentanyl, except in rare cases (18 U.S.C. § 841(b))
Providing or possessing contraband, including firearms, in prison (18 U.S.C. § 1791)
Felonies committed while in a criminal street gang (18 U.S.C. § 521)
Escape of prisoners (18 U.S.C. § 751)
Rioting in a correctional facility (18 U.S.C. § 1792)
Importing aliens for prostitution (18 U.S.C. § 1328)
Assault with intent to commit rape or sexual abuse (18 U.S.C. § 3559(c)(2)(F))
Threatening to murder a congressman, senator, or government official (18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)
Drug-related robberies involving assault with a dangerous weapon (18 U.S.C. § 2118(c)(1)
Violent carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury (18 U.S.C. § 2119(2))
Stealing immigration documents for the purpose of keeping an immigrant in slavery (18 U.S.C. § 1592)
Attempt or conspiracy to engage in human smuggling (18 U.S.C. § 1592)
Failing to register as a sex offender (18 U.S.C. § 2250)
Arson (18 U.S.C. § 81)
Blackmail (18 U.S.C. § 873)
Domestic assault by an habitual offender (18 U.S.C. § 117)
Hate crimes (18 U.S.C. § 249)
Assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon (18 U.S.C. § 111(b))

Do these seem like crimes that should allow one to be considered for early release to you? I don’t know enough about the justice system to make a fully informed decision but attempting to engage in human smuggling, assaulting a policeman with a deadly weapon, stealing immigrant documents with the purpose of keeping an immigrant in slavery?

Not serious enough to merit a full sentence? Not the kind of people I would hang out with anyway.

GOP Senate Questions for Bill Proponents

Breitbart then notes that this list is followed by a series of questions from the GOP Senate for bill supporters to answer:

Would you consider these low-level or non-violent crimes?
How can we trust the BOP to correctly categorize who is high vs. low risk?
If the reasons these are not on the list is because they are obscure crimes, why is drug trafficking – the single most common offense – missing?
Why are obscure violations of the Atomic Energy Code on the exclusion list but not these crimes?
If you added provisions to the bill that Senator Booker and Democrats wanted, why won’t you add more violent crimes to the ‘exclusion from early release’ list that Republicans want?
Why have an exclusion list in the first place if these crimes are missing from it?
Can you promise that no offender who commits these crimes will ever be released early?
How many offenders are in prison for each of these crimes and how many will be eligible to be released into my home state?

Fortunately, in my view anyway, the bill is not getting the same kind of endorsement from Donald Trump from all of the GOP. Understandably, there are some who question its efficacy.

I think Donald may want to re-read and re-think this one. The quick endorsement from Van Jones should have raised a red (and golden yellow) flag on this one for him.