Bill Lockwood: Restorative Justice
by Bill Lockwood
“Restorative Justice” is the modern American socialist methodology whereby we refuse to deal with criminal or misbehavior in society. While “social justice” is the government disallowing us to enjoy the fruits of our own labor because of forcible confiscation and redistribution, “restorative justice” is a quasi-legal philosophy that allows perpetrators of criminal behavior to avoid the consequences of that behavior. Social justice spreads the earned benefits of society to the undeserving; restorative justice spreads the resulting misery to law-abiding citizens.
See how it works in Philadelphia for a case-study.
Philadelphia
During the “George Floyd riots” in May and June of 2021, over 900 businesses were damaged or burglarized in the city of brotherly love. Business owners and big corporate chains sustained millions of dollars of damage during the mayhem. Some of the lawless violence included blowing up ATM’s, burglarizing stores with U-Hauls, carrying entire bags of merchandise from stores such as Rite Aid or passing merchandise out of a Walgreens in a “human assembly line.”
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, seven Foot Lockers were absolutely cleared out, the loss estimated at over $800,000. Clothing retailers such as Live in Color, and numerous other stores never re-opened because the loss was so tremendous.
But these criminal looters and rioters who were arrested, numbering more than 500, will not face the consequences of their misdeeds. The new innovative plan is called “Restorative Justice,” which is designed to keep the “poor” blacks out of the justice system, regardless of their criminal activity.
The city’s district attorney’s charging supervisor, Lyandra Retacco, said that the city is offering a new program called “Civil Unrest Restorative Response.” It is designed as a “restorative model” that allows the perpetrators to avoid prosecution. District Attorney Larry Krasner said it was a “creative” response because of the “unique motivation of the crimes”—after all, the damages occurred during “a historic moment of protest against the police killing of George Floyd.”
Instead, these ruthless hordes who ransacked the city of Philadelphia, will be offered “counseling sessions,” referrals to job opportunities and/or education. Troy Wilson, a defense attorney with Up Against the Law, said he was “tired and angry” after years of “watching poor marginalized people get dragged ever deeper into the legal system.”
“Let’s come up with a system that’s never been done before. We can take the cases back in some respect to the community so the community can itself resolve some of these cases through education, mediation, confrontation, reconciliation, and most of all healing.” This socialist philosophy is called Restorative Justice.
Wilson is assisted by the “Rev. Donna Jones of the Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia” who runs a “restorative-justice network in Philadelphia called the Restorative Cities Initiative.” She will run the “restorative-education session for all participants. Those who opt in will in will join restorative circles, where defendants, businesspeople, and community members will be able to voice the harm they experienced and what is needed to repair it.”
Jones went on to say that her “restorative-circles” have already been quietly rerouting incidents away from the legal system.”
What About Restorative Justice?
First, restorative justice is not justice at all. This is all about not holding grown people accountable for their criminal activity. And when there is no accountability, crime will grow. This is precisely why crime is exploding across America. Our legal system is fraught with naïve do-gooding socialists who wish to keep lawbreakers out of legal trouble and shift the burden of punishment onto the innocent.
As the article in the Inquirer states: “Philadelphia prosecutors … challenge the basic ideas about how justice is served.”
In other words, we have become so “educated” that we are re-tooling the concept of “justice” to allow criminal activity to flourish without punishment. Meanwhile, the store owners who suffered damage can simply lump it. Some business owners interviewed refused to give their names for fear of retaliation from the same rioters that destroyed their businesses to begin with. The city, however, is more concerned with protecting the offenders.
When the poor black neighborhoods witness the fleeing of businesses the intrusive government will have the solution. Pay potential business owners to open stores there; after all, the American taxpayer can bear the brunt of the those costs as well.
Second, the consequences of lawless activity is forcibly shifted by the city to the business-owners. Just as social justice disallows one to enjoy the fruits of his labor because the long arm of government confiscates and redistributes those fruits, so restorative justice forces the rest of the population to endure the consequences of misbehavior by the few.
Assistant defender for the city, Jonathan Strange said, “a lot of people are really relieved that there is a pathway for them to exit out of the criminal justice system and avoid a conviction.” Loot with impunity. Let other people pay for their crimes.
Those business-owners who were run out of business after losing their entire life-savings and work will just have to understand the “historic nature of George Floyd protests.” They will certainly appreciate that, at least.
What about deterrence from future rioting? Will not the poor black communities be emboldened to once again to take to the streets to create chaos? Maybe a law-school educated whiz kid will be able to “justify” other “historic moments” of rioting. Foolish Americans.
We thought a DA’s job was to administer the law. No, it is to dream-up possible motivations for crime and sympathize with the criminals. America has left the realm of common sense which teaches that punishment and consequences is what dissuades people from committing illegal activities.
Can “lack of education” the root cause of rioting? Taxpayers have been footing the bill for free education in the inner cities for decades. The social justice warriors just refuse to see that a basic lack of morality will not be resolved with more education.
Instead of looking at the socialistic welfare system that has created these inner city jungles where most black children grow up without a father in the home, our bright lights that manage the cities are conjuring up deeper socialistic schemes called “restorative justice” which neither “restores” property or communities and is no justice at all.