Annie E. Casey Foundation, Broward County, Bart Lubow and Nicolas Cruz
Annie E. Casey Foundation, Broward County, Bart Lubow and Nicolas Cruz–“Chaos in the streets is what socialists have always wanted.”
by Bill Lockwood
What is going on in Broward County, Florida? The story is deeper and wider than most might imagine. After the horrific shooting by suspect Nikolas Cruz, a troubled teenager who had been expelled from school for “disciplinary reasons,” national attention is focused upon gun control. An easy “target” for the thoughtless. Much more sinister, however, and much more to the point is the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) program that was put in place several years ago in Broward County by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and its leader, a former SDS member (Students for Democratic Society), Bart Lubow.
In an article posted January 5, 2017, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which began in 1948 and is headquartered in Baltimore, MD, showcases one of its successful “detention alternative” pilot programs — Broward County, Florida. The specific project, JDAI, has as its goal is to reduce “incarceration rates” among juveniles—especially kids of color and ethnic minorities.
Lubow, officially the “Senior Associate and Initiative Manager” of The Annie E. Casey Foundation, touts that the JDAI program in Broward County saves taxpayers $5 million by reducing “detention population” sixty-five per cent. This, it is said, “without any sacrifice of public safety.”
Lubow’s JDAI program began in 1992 “to reduce he number of children inappropriately incarcerated; to minimize the number of youth who fail to appear in court or commit delinquent acts; to redirect public funds towards successful alternatives; and to improve the conditions of confinement.”
How to achieve these goals? Bottom line: Law enforcement is pressured to stop incarcerating teenagers of color by de-classifying their offenses or ignoring them. Student arrests therefore drop and juvenile delinquency is decreased. Who can argue with statistics?
However, like the quota system in hiring, the JDAI program that Broward County Schools has been involved in only changes statistics—not real behavior—as the Nicolas Cruz shooting amply demonstrates. Now you know why the Sheriff’s office in Broward County refused to arrest a young man who had publicly threatened so many that even his fellow students at school speculated that he would become a school shooter. Let’s back up for an overview.
Bart Lubow and Social Justice
Bart Lubow has been a left-wing radical for many years. Once a member of Students for Democratic Society (SDS), a front-group for communism which terrorist Bill Ayers helped to found, Lubow was even at one time deported from the Philippines for attempting to distribute communist anti-government literature. However, like the ascendency of other Marxist-oriented agitators during the Obama Administration, Lubow became influential in various states, even conservative ones such as Texas.
The JDAI program specifically states that it is to “require states to work to reduce the disproportionate representation of minority juveniles in secured facilities.” The goal of the JDAI is the revamp the detention and incarceration procedures in the United States along “social justice” lines.
Social Justice
Social Justice has little to do with actual “justice” but focuses attention upon “outcomes.” Decrying disparities in society, social justice advocates cry continually about unequal distribution of properties, of monies, of college degrees, and even jail sentences in America.
As Walter Williams puts it, “Outcomes of human relationships are often seen as criteria for the presence or absence of justice or fairness. Outcomes frequently used as barometers of justice and fairness are: race and sex statistics on income and unemployment, income distribution in general, occupational distribution, wealth ownership, and other measures of socio-economic status.” In other words, no attention at all is paid to any underlying reason for differences, it is simply assumed that different outcomes among people is the result of crass prejudices or favoritism.
If, for example, wealth distribution is uneven among various races of people, “social justice” demands the assumption that foul play must be involved. So also, if as is the case, a greater percentage of a minority population is incarcerated than is the case with white America, the automatic conclusion among socialists is that injustices have been committed by “white society” against people of color.
Differences among people or subcultures as a possible cause is never considered as that would be the “politically incorrect” thing to do. The underlying assumption by Lubow is that the American system of justice is “profoundly racist” given the statistics. And for socialists on the rise, that is all that is required—show disparity in statistics. No examination of personal choices, no study of various cultural differences between races, no time wasted pondering divergent habits or pressures among minority populations—simply announce that America continues to be a “racist” state.
For obvious reasons Lubow does not seek to show that disparities between races in other areas are also caused by “white racism.” For example, the out-of-wedlock birth rates for different racial and ethnic groups in 2008 was just over 40%. The breakdown of that statistic shows that among white non-Hispanic women, the out-of-wedlock birth rate was 28.6 percent while among Hispanics it was 52.5 percent and among blacks the figure jumps to a startling 72.3 percent.
Consider abortion. In 2005 the abortion rate for blacks in the United States is almost 5 times that for white women. Similar “disparities” are found in almost every measurable statistic. It is clearly evident that minority cultures are fostering immoral lifestyles to an alarming degree. Yet, when it comes to discrepancies among incarceration rates, Lubow wishes us to believe that sub-culture has nothing to do with it, but that it is the result of “white racist attitudes.” That is what a good communist would do. Drive that “racist” wedge.
Lubow on “Structural Racism”
In a 2007 speech before the Chicago Council on Urban Affairs, Lubow laments the “grossly disproportionate representation of people of color” in the criminal or juvenile justice system. That 30% of African American males born “into this society will spend part of their lives in prison” should be reason enough to infuriate Americans, says he. “More than two-thirds of youth confined in secure detention nationally are youth of color” is demonstration to Lubow that our nation “mocks our claims to freedom and justice for all and, therefore, undermine[s] the very fabric upon which this society is supposedly founded.” “White people,” Lubow pontificates, “have been and still are the purveyors of racial injustice.” The blanket indictment against white society is that “white people accrue and rely upon” privileges “by virtue of skin color.”
To remedy racist America, JDAI has begun to implement core strategies “through racial equity lens.” In other words, force diverse population representation in incarceration facilities. Further, like the communist strategy of manipulating American citizens to their own demise, Lubow preaches that it is “white responsibility” to take on the issue with great fervor to change the system. We must create a “level playing field.”
So, for the citizen who thought that racial hiring quotas were an assault on real fairness and individual responsibility, not to mention a vast overreach of federal government, much more seems in store regarding incarceration rates, if Lubow and the Annie E. Casey foundation have their way.
And if Americans thought that the financial market fiasco, caused in part by federal officials leaning on lending institutions to provide loans to low-income persons who would not otherwise qualify, was a total disaster to the Housing Market, wait until our streets become more populated with criminal elements because of “racial quotas” that govern incarceration. Chaos in the streets is what socialists have always wanted. Old SDS members have not changed their stripes.
This is exactly what has occurred in Broward County, Florida. Nikolas Cruz was a threat to society. Instead of local law enforcement handling their own problems as it deems necessary, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office bought into the JDAI lie.
More frightening still is the fact that the JDAI program will not likely go away quietly. With continual Justice Department backing and financial grants flowing to various counties, the Casey Foundation now boasts that its JDAI program is already followed by over 300 counties nationwide. Neither is it likely to go away easily. It is hard-wired into George Soros’ Tides Foundation as well as scores of other ultra-liberal policy-changing clubs, and thus has deep pockets.