Raleigh’s Social Justice Republicans

Raise the age! Raise the age!

What is this about that has John Hood and the ACLU arm in arm singing kumbaya and in 100% agreement?  Changing the age of consent?  The drinking age?  The age to obtain a driver license?  The age to vote? 

Nope.  In a victory for “social justice” and “racial justice”, the GOP majority in the legislature has joined with all of the Democrats to keep 16 and 17 year olds who commit crime out of adult court.  THAT, apparently, is something we’re supposed to be happy about.   The “conservative revolution” in Raleigh has been unusually eager to flock to an issue that has been praised with the same language Barack Obama and William Barber and so many other Marxists have used so often to praise so many of their pet projects.  Who needs to win elections when you have Republicans ready to roll over and show their bellies all ‘fer tha’ lil’ chil’ren’?

The measure passed the House 104-8.  (The eight with common sense were: Boles, Brody, Cleveland, Collins, Ford,Elmore, Pittman and Stevens.) 

It’s nice to be able to go back home and say “Ahm fer’ tha’ lil’ chil’ren.”  But IS that what we’re really talking about here? 

Back in the early 90s, I was the first driveby to interview Daniel Green — one of the two young men convicted of murdering Michael Jordan’s father.  Green, when the Jordan murder had occurred, had recently been paroled from a state juvenile facility.  What had he been serving time for in said juvenile facility?  PUTTING AN AXE IN ANOTHER KID’S SKULL. TRYING TO SPLIT THE KID’S HEAD LIKE A WOODEN LOG.

He got juvie time for that.  His victim, who I met and whose family I interviewed, survived.  (His life consisted of sitting emotionlessly, almost lifeless in a wheelchair.)   In a jailhouse interview, while awaiting trial for the Jordan murder, I asked Green if he had any regrets about putting the axe in that kid’s skull. Green’s answer? 

“No, not really.  I didn’t really hurt him.  I just made him a little passive.  That’s all.”

And HE got paroled. (That was a post-parole statement.)  I think it it safe to say THAT qualifies as a heinous crime.  One has to wonder, if Daniel Green had been tried as an adult for that axe attack, and got meaningful prison time, whether James Jordan would be alive today. 

As the social welfare state has grown, the bureaucracy has lessened the amount of responsibility parents have for their offspring.  Teachers and police have their hands tied as far as disciplining the little darlings.   Law enforcement is so much on the reactive side these days — waiting for something bad to happen.

The legal profession — from Mark Martin down to your local bar association — are all about scratching their colleagues’s backs and doing a solid for each other’s clients than for society as a whole.

Something is wrong when an axe to another person’s head gets you a slap on the wrist in juvenile court, a short confinement, and then parole.  “Raise the Age” is great political PR.  It gets you some cushy headlines.  Scores you a few more points in the polls, and maybe some PAC money.  But in the end, it doesn’t do a thing to stem the continuing decay of our societal fabric.