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It must have come as a shock to Philadelphia Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon when, in the middle of a sunny Wednesday afternoon, two armed men ordered her out of her Acura and drove off, taking her purse and government-issued phone with them.

Scanlon was the second Democratic lawmaker carjacked in 24 hours. The evening before, Illinois state Sen. Kimberly Lightfords car was stolen in a Chicago suburb.

Scanlon and Lightford are surely surprised. But the real surprise is that it has taken so long for a high-profile Democrat to have her car stolen. Grand theft auto surged nationwide in 2020, according to FBI statistics. Its continued to rise in major cities like New York, where thefts are up 14% relative to this time last year; Philadelphia, 15%; and Chicago, 7%.

It was only a matter of time before the surge part of a massive increase in certain serious crimes affected lawmakers who have pushed to weaken, or even cripple, the criminal-justice system tasked with addressing it. (Scanlon cosponsored a proposal to replace cops with mental-health professionals; Lightford played a pivotal role in abolishing cash bail in Illinois.) The question now is if these same lawmakers will moderate their support for criminal-justice reform or charge ahead with radical changes.

The rise in carjackings has paralleled surging gun violence and homicide the latter was up 30 percent last year and likely increased further this year. With more than 500 murders, 2021 was Philadelphias deadliest year on record, a dubious honor shared by dozens of cities across the country.

As with rising violence, the increase in GTAs could initially be explained as a byproduct of pandemic restrictions. As more people stayed home, streets emptied out and cars became an easier target, especially relative to other property. But as lockdowns have lifted and cities have returned to a semblance of normal, the mayhem has continued unabated.

Slowly, tepidly, leaders in cities like San Francisco and Chicago are recognizing the problem and trying to mobilize the public-safety system against it. Unfortunately, to do so, theyll need to undo the damage they themselves did to police, courts and jails over the past year.

That means turning around cratering employment numbers in many big-city departments. In Philadelphia, the City Council voted to slash $33 million from the Police Departments budget; whether to defund the department remained an active debate.

Doubtless because of this hostility, Philadelphia had 225 fewer sworn officers in 2020, the lowest annual total (with one exception) since 1994. The problem has persisted this year, as retirements swell and recruiting numbers fall short.

It will also mean resuscitating court systems, many of which remain below operational capacity under pandemic restrictions. And it will entail returning to prepandemic levels of pretrial detention jail populations fell 25 percent in 2020, a massive one-year drop following a decade of no change.

In Phillys case, even if there were more cops on the beat and more prisoners behind bars, theyd still have to contend with Larry Krasner, the citys progressive district attorney. Krasner, who has presided over a record spike in homicides, has dramatically increased his offices dismissal of charges. So far this year, for example, Krasner has dismissed 62 percent of carjacking charges brought to his office, up dramatically from 38 percent under his predecessor. (Krasners office blames this disparity on slow court processing during the pandemic, but even in 2019, he dismissed 58 percent of carjacking charges.)

Krasners policy of frequently refusing to prosecute or request bail has real public-safety consequences. In November, 17-year-old Latif Williams allegedly shot and killed Samuel Collington, a Temple College student, during a robbery. Williams, it turned out, had been arrested months earlier and charged with eight offenses, including carjacking. But Krasners office dropped the charges, and Williams walked free.

Perhaps their experiences will awaken Scanlon, Lightford and their peers to the dangers of Krasner-style criminal-justice reform. There are consequences to refusing to use, or dismantling altogether, large parts of the criminal-justice system. Until lawmakers recognize this, the madness will continue.

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.

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Victims of crime and their own policies: Liberals learn the hard way - New York Post

Unabashed hypocrisy has become a defining feature of the Indian left intelligentsia. The liberals often subject others to higher standards of noble beliefs and virtues while refraining from holding their own to the same rigorous standards. They have a bloated sense of entitlement, stemming from the mistaken belief that they are a cut above the world, with a false sense of the notion that they are exempted from being evaluated by the same token as they use to judge others.

For instance, the left-leaning liberals have gone into overdrive to condemn Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati for the contentious remarks he made at the Haridwar Conclave. Ever prowling for issues to vilify Hindus, the liberals sensed it as a lucrative opportunity to build on their propaganda of vilifying Hindus and reinforcing minority victimhood. By contrast, they have studiously ignored actual hate crimes, like the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari and the Punjab lynching incidents.

The left-leaning brigade has accused Yati and others who attended the Haridwar Conclave of making hate speech designed to whip up genocide against Muslims. Calls for police action have also been made against the attendees. An FIR was also filed in connection with the case. However, the larger aim of the liberals seems to be somehow linking the Centre with the remarks made at the Haridwar Conclave. Several left ideologues have blamed the central government for indulging the leaders, who they claimed have felt emboldened to make the tendentious comments that they did during the Haridwar Conclave.

It is worth noting here that Yati Narsighanand Saraswati has himself been at the centre of a hate campaign directed at him by a section of society. Call for sar tan se juda or his decapitation have steadily grown, with even elected MLAs such as AAP leader Amanatullah Khan making a clarion call for his beheading. But none of the liberals who are today falling over themselves to condemn his speech cared to unequivocally denounce the death threats braved by the Dasna Devi Temple head priest in the past. Instead, they are using Dharma Sansad as yet another opportunity to besmirch the Centre.

Just like the liberals have been muted against the death threats faced by Yati Narsighanand Saraswati, they were also silent about the calls for the decapitation of Hindu Samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari. No credible effort was taken by the Left intelligentsia to address the hate that was marshalled towards Tiwari, who years later was murdered in cold blood by followers of the murderous Islamist ideology that justified and called for his beheading.

And after Tiwari was ruthlessly murdered by Islamists, many of the liberals who are beating their chest today, demanding action for hate speech at the Haridwar Conclave, showed little concern to condemn his murder or call out the ideology that was responsible for his killing. In fact, an overwhelming number of liberals, including one of the left luminaries, who is the Wests latest damsel in distress in the Indian subcontinent, did not even bother to acknowledge his death, let alone issue an unequivocal condemnation.

Even in recent times, the hypocrisy exhibited by liberals cant be more pronounced. Even as they are outraging over the comments made by Yati Narsighanand Saraswati, they have maintained a stoic silence on the vitriolic speech made by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, a video of which has gone viral on social media.

In the speech, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said, I want to tell the police. Remember this. Yogi will not be the Chief Minister forever. Modi will not remain the Prime Minister forever. We Muslims are silent because of the times, but remember we will not forget the injustice. We will remember your injustice. Allah, by his powers, will destroy you, Inshallah. We will remember. Times will change. Then who will come to save you? When Yogi will go back to his mutta, when Modi will go to the mountains, then who will come to save you. Remember, we will not forget.

Despite the brazenly communal undertones of Owaisis speech, it did not attract the same intensity of criticism as garnered by the Dharma Sansad in Haridwar. A day after speeches of leaders like Yati Narsinghanand and other Hindu leaders went viral, an FIR wasfiledin Uttarakhand over the speeches that called upon Hindus to collect arms. But in Owaisis case, some liberals even went to the extent of defending the incendiary remarks made by the AIMIM chief, arguing that his speech should not be seen in the same light as the comments made during the Dharma Sansad in Haridwar.

Another instance where the hypocrisy of liberals has been stark is the Punjab lynchings related to sacrilege cases. The country was recently roiled with two horrifying cases of mob lynching that took place in Punjab over allegations of sacrilege. Angry mobs took law into their own hands and lynched two individuals to death on the suspicion of sacrilege, underscoring the abject state of law and order situation in Punjab.

The first incident ofmob lynchinglinked to sacrilege took place inside the sanctum sanctorum of Darbar Sahib on Saturday evening when regular prayers were going on while the other one was related to a Gurdwara in Nizampur village in the Kapurthala district of Punjab where a man was killed on suspicion of committing sacrilege. Punjab CM today said there has been no evidence of sacrilege against the Kapurthala victim. It was also reported that the man was mentally challenged and was seeking food at the Gurudwara when he was lynched to death by a bloodthirsty mob.

These incidents should have shaken the liberal conscience to the core, prompting an unreserved condemnation of the ghastly murders committed in the name of sacrilege. However, as warped as it has become, the moral compass of the liberals did not push them towards condemning the sacrilege incident, instead, they remained tight-lipped about the deaths while decrying sacrilege. Many liberals, Punjab politicians, others were quick to denounce sacrilege but they did not find mobs taking the law into their hands scandalising and alarming enough to call for impartial and thorough probes into the two incidents.

While an FIR against Dharma Sansad took less than 24 hours to be filed, it has been over 5 days since the horrifying lynchings in Punjab and yet no FIR has been registered against the culprits. Apparently, an alleged hate speech has drawn more condemnation than the actual hate crime where two men were lynched to death by mobs on the mere suspicion of sacrilege, of which one case has been dismissed by Punjab CM himself stating that there has been no evidence of the victim committing sacrilege.

Yet, the liberals dont consider lynchings of two men worthy enough of their attention and outrage. There is a deafening silence on the Punjab lynching incidents even as new revelations are being almost on a daily basis, pointing towards a deeper conspiracy to hide what appears as an orchestrated incident of violence carried out under the pretext of sacrilege. However, even then, liberals have not felt the need to direct their ire on hate crime as they remain preoccupied with their campaign against Dharma Sansad.

Earlier yesterday, a high-intensity blast took place in Ludhiana, resulting in the death of two persons. The blast highlighted the precarious condition of security in the state that has been on the boil for over 12 months now since the start of farmers protest in November 2020 that saw the participation of anti-social elements, including Khalistani proponents, and witnessed routine incidents of riots, vandalism, murder, arson, rapes etc. But liberals had then thrown their weight behind the protests even though various criminal activities were reported to have been committed in the name of protests.

As it has been evident now, for liberals, hate speech is more important to outrage upon than the actual instances of hate crimes, insurrection, anarchy and terror incidents. The deaths, the rapes, the murders, the concomitant violence are probably nothing more than casualties suffered in the larger ideological war against the enemies they sorely despise, which in this case, are the Hindus. So they dont mind being hypocritical by placing outsize focus on condemnable comments made during the Dharma Sansad while paying no heed to the much more dangerous hate crime incidents happening across the country.

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The ultimate liberal hypocrisy: How the Left outrages over hate speech but turns a blind eye to hate crimes and violence - OpIndia

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Does the phrase Canadas back have any meaning left to it anymore? Justin Trudeau and his supporters used the phrase excessively during the 2015 election and the months following it to claim that Canada was back on the world stage.

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I want to say this to this countrys friends around the world, Trudeau said on election night 2015. Many of you have worried that Canada has lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world over the past 10 years. Well, I have a simple message for you on behalf of 35 million Canadians. Were back.

Back to what?

While Trudeau talked as if Canada had abandoned any role on the world stage during Stephen Harpers term as PM, that was never true. What is true is that under Trudeau, peacekeeping has never recovered and our forces in multi-lateral missions with NATO or other allies is much lower.

We currently have nine forces members deployed to the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 10 with the UN mission in South Sudan. Thats hardly taking the world by storm.

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We are shut out of new alliances by countries we have stood shoulder to shoulder with for over a century the British, Americans and Aussies formed a new cyber alliance without Canada earlier this year. Even on trade with a Democrat in the White House, the Trudeau government cant get taken seriously in Washington.

So, in what way are we back?

Its certainly not in being an ethical guiding light in stamping out global problems like forced labour, a form of modern-day slavery. As I pointed out the other day, the Trudeau government has been dragging its feet on a supplier of medical gloves used in the pandemic response.

The Americans have banned Supermax, a Malaysian-based glove maker with a Montreal area Canadian presence, over what they call ample evidence of forced labour at their plants. The British have launched an independent investigation and Canada is still waiting on a report to be filed by the company itself two months after the Americans and Brits acted and six weeks after the Trudeau government promised action.

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Like on so many issues, the Trudeau Liberals talk a lot but deliver little.

This is a government where there is a huge gap between their rhetoric and reality, Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Michael Ching said during an interview Tuesday.

Chong called forced or slave labour a major problem worldwide noting there are 160 million child labourers around the world and millions of adults who are forced into slave labour.

Last January he said, the Trudeau government announced new measures they said would block products made with forced labour from entering Canada but it didnt work. China is a major problem when it comes to forced labour and despite roughly $300 million of daily imports from that country, only a handful of shipments were ever stopped after media reports this fall.

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It shouldnt take investigative journalists to stop the importation of forced or slave labour, thats the governments job, Chong said. Theyve had a year now to put in effective measures to stop the import of these products and have failed to act.

The Conservatives have been calling on the government to introduce new and effective measures to block forced labour imports including putting the onus in the importer to prove it wasnt made with forced labour. They want CBSA officers to be given new tools to identify and intercept shipments and for the government to adopt supply chain legislation similar to the U.K.

For now, all the Trudeau Liberals have done is said they are against forced labour, talked about studying the issue and asked importers to promise they arent bringing in goods made with forced labour. Other countries are acting while once again, Canada is dragging its heels.

Is that what Trudeau meant when he said Canada is back?

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LILLEY: Trudeau Liberals tell the world Canada is back while failing to act on forced labour - Toronto Sun

The Liberal Party in NSW is confident its push to get more women into federal Parliament will succeed after reaching its target for the proportion of female councillors elected in recent local government polls.

Final results of the December 4 council elections released on Thursday show of the 120 Liberals voted in, 48 were women, with significant swings towards the party in many areas where a woman headed the ticket.

Georgia Ryburn, pictured with her five-week-old baby Harvey, is among a wave of women elected to local councils for the Liberals.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone

This almost doubles the percentage of Liberal women elected to 40 per cent, from 21 per cent in 2017, meeting the goal the state division set for local government in 2019.

Its part of a wave of women of all political stripes elected to local governments across the state. Councils including Parramatta, Randwick and Woollahra now have a majority of female councillors.

NSW Liberal Womens Council president Mary-Lou Jarvis, who is also the state divisions vice-president, said achieving the 40 per cent target was the result of four years of methodical and committed work to identify women interested in running, and actively mentoring and supporting them.

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Its the collaborative work of the NSW division and womens council, with men recognising the need for change, she said. Where weve had women standing and leading tickets, weve had swings towards us. It shows ... that where weve got women, we win.

These swings were as high as 10 points in the Hornsby local government area while in Sutherland Shire, a two-point swing in the ward where the ticket was led by Louise Sullivan meant the Liberals got a second candidate elected and gained control of the council.

And in blue-ribbon Woollahra, where Ms Jarvis led the ticket in the Vaucluse ward, the party won a three-point swing to get 63 per cent of the overall vote.

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Where weve got women, we win: NSW Liberals aim to replicate local government success at federal level - Sydney Morning Herald

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil. Charles Krauthammer

Even liberals who've accomplished a lot in their lives and have high IQs often say things on a regular basis that are stunningly, profoundly stupid and at odds with the way the world works. Modern liberalism has become so bereft of common sense and instinctually suicidal that America can only survive over the long haul by thwarting the liberal agenda. In fact, liberalism has become such a toxic and poisonous philosophy that most liberals wouldn't behave differently if their goal were to deliberately destroy the country. So, how does liberalism cause well-meaning, intelligent liberals to get this way? Well, it starts with...

1) Liberalism creates a feedback loop. It is usually impossible for a non-liberal to change a liberal's mind about political issues because liberalism works like so: only liberals are credible sources of information. How do you know someone's liberal? He espouses liberal doctrine. So, no matter how plausible what you say may be, it will be ignored if you're not a liberal and if you are a liberal, of course, you probably agree with liberal views. This sort of close-mindedness makes liberals nearly impervious to any information that might undermine their beliefs.

2) Liberals sources of information are ever present. Conservatives are regularly exposed to the liberal viewpoint whether they want to be or not. That's not necessarily so for liberals. Imagine the average day for liberals. They get up and read their local newspaper. It has a liberal viewpoint. They take their kids to school, where the teachers are liberal. Then they go to work, listen to NPR which has a liberal viewpoint on the way home, and then turn on the nightly news which also skews leftward. From there, they turn on TV and watch shows created by liberals that lean to the left, if they have any political viewpoint at all. Unless liberals actively seek out conservative viewpoints, which is unlikely, the only conservative arguments they're probably going to hear are going to be through the heavily distorted, poorly translated, deeply skeptical lens of other liberals.

3) Liberals emphasize feeling superior, not superior results. Liberalism is all about appearances, not outcomes. What matters to liberals is how a program makes them FEEL about themselves, not whether it works or not. Thus a program like Headstart, which sounds good because it's designed to help children read, makes liberals feel good about themselves, even though the program doesn't work and wastes billions. A ban on DDT makes liberals feel good about themselves because they're "protecting the environment" even though millions of people have died as a result. For liberals, it's not what a program does in the real world; it's about whether they feel better about themselves for supporting it.

4) Liberals are big believers in moral relativism. This spins them round and round because if the only thing that's wrong is saying that there's an absolute moral code, then you lose your ability to tell cause from effect, good from bad, and right from wrong. Taking being non-judgmental to the level that liberals do leaves them paralyzed, pondering "why they hate us" because they feel incapable of saying, That's wrong," and doing something about it. If you're against firm standards and condemning immoral behavior, then your moral compass wont work and youll also be for immorality, as well as societal and cultural decay by default.

5) Liberals tend to view people as parts of groups, not individuals. One of the prejudices of liberalism is that they see everyone as part of a group, not as an individual. This can lead to rather bizarre disparities when say, a man from a group that they consider to be powerless, impoverished victims becomes the leader of the free world -- and he's challenged by a group of lower middle class white people who've banded together because individually they're powerless. If you listen to the liberal rhetoric, you might think Barack Obama was a black Republican being surrounded by a KKK lynching party 100 years ago -- as opposed to the single most powerful man in America abusing the authority of his office to attack ordinary Tea Partiers who have the audacity to speak the truth to power for the good of their country.

6) Liberals take a dim view of personal responsibility. Who's at fault if a criminal commits a crime? The criminal or society? If someone creates a business and becomes a millionaire, is that the result of hard work and talent or luck? If you're dirt poor, starving, and haven't worked in 5 years, is that a personal failing or a failure of the state? Conservatives would tend to say the former in each case, while liberals would tend to say the latter. But when you disconnect what an individual does from the results that happen in his life, it's very difficult to understand cause and effect in people's lives.

7) Liberals give themselves far too much credit just for being liberal. To many liberals, all one needs to do to be wise, intelligent, compassionate, open minded, and sensitive is to BE LIBERAL. In other words, many of the good things about a person spring not from his actions, but from the ideology he holds. This has an obvious appeal. You can be a diehard misogynist, but plausibly call yourself a feminist, hate blacks, but accuse others of racism, have a subpar IQ and be an intellectual, give nothing to charity and be compassionate, etc., etc., and all you have to do is call yourself a liberal. It's a shortcut to virtue much like the corrupt old idea of religious indulgences. Why live a life of virtue when you could live a sinful life and buy your way into heaven? If you're a liberal, why actually live a life of virtue when you can merely call yourself a liberal and get credit for being virtuous, even when you've done nothing to earn it?

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7 Reasons Why Liberals Are Incapable of Understanding The ...