Tag: Justice Reform
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EDITORIAL: The death of justice — by a thousand cuts
Just how obsessed is the legislature’s “justice reform” wing with emptying Colorado’s prisons? Let’s just say if they could get away with it, they’d stage a fire drill and open the gates at every corrections facility in the state — then pretend not to notice when no one returned. The extremists among ruling legislative Democrats…
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EDITORIAL: Mayor rightly raps ‘out of touch’ justice reformers
Has the pendulum swung too far in the name of justice reform? Most Denverites would say yes. What’s noteworthy is when a leader of the progressive political establishment agrees. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston did just that last week on KOA radio. He even called for more cops on the streets. “I think, frankly, there are…
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EDITORIAL: Murder lite? It could become Colorado law
Let’s hope political pragmatism, if nothing else, prevails over the political fringe and its latest attempt at the Capitol to decriminalize crime. Notably, its pending legislation, narrowly approved by a House committee last week, to effectively eliminate “murder one.” Granted, it’s too much to expect the dogma-driven disciples of “justice reform” in the legislature to…
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EDITORIAL: Guv finally gets it on prisons — but will lawmakers?
For a change, Gov. Jared Polis is all in on making room for more inmates in Colorado’s correctional institutions. It’s an encouraging turnabout following his years of support for “decarceration.” That unwieldy word sounds like some kind of disease — and might as well be — though it refers to systematically emptying prisons to the…
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EDITORIAL: Downgrading murder equals justice deformed
It might sound like an overstatement to say Colorado’s offender-friendly legislature is hellbent on decriminalizing crime itself. But, really, what else could you make of House Bill 26-1281, introduced just the other day at the state Capitol? Get ready to blink in disbelief. Members of the “justice reform” fringe among ruling Democrats at the legislature…
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EDITORIAL: Don’t lower standards for schoolteachers
Not only are most of Colorado’s public schoolteachers committed to the highest standards of conduct in the classroom, but almost all of them also are undoubtedly law-abiding when off duty. For the relative handful who have “made mistakes” earlier in their lives, current state law requires them to disclose any misdemeanor convictions except for traffic…
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EDITORIAL: State Supreme Court abets local lawbreakers
Our state’s highest court not only undermined Colorado’s crime fight in a ruling handed down Monday, but it also flouted the will of our governor. It was Jared Polis, after all, who stood in the way of an attempt by the legislature last May to do what the Colorado Supreme Court wound up doing this…
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EDITORIAL: Another failure of justice, another Colorado tragedy
Just what does it take to keep a violent career criminal behind bars — and the public out of harm’s way — in the state of Colorado? Apparently, Walter Huling’s dozen-year record of violent and other serious crimes, including parole violations, wasn’t enough. Not enough to keep him from being paroled again. Nor to keep…
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EDITORIAL: Incompetency — a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card?
The Gazette reported last week that Gov. Jared Polis and some lawmakers are proposing to spend up to $12 million to confine and treat more of the lawbreakers who are found mentally incompetent to face criminal proceedings — but pose a threat to society. The extra accommodations are needed. Suspects deemed incompetent to grasp the…
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EDITORIAL: Colorado crime soars when criminals go free
It was encouraging to see a news report in The Gazette this week about a recent rise in car chases by police in Colorado’s third-largest city. A needed shift in policy by the Aurora City Council last March gave the city’s police more latitude in pursuing suspected car thieves and other lawbreakers. It’s part of…