Law and Disorder

Ladies and gentlemen, up next, Law and Disorder. Please welcome, from Michigan, District Attorney Peter Luciteau. From West Virginia, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Senior Fellow at Right on Crime, Jaron K. Smith. And your moderator, former acting United States Attorney General, Matt Whitaker. Hello CPAC. Have a seat. How's everybody doing today? Well, this is a panel that I think I'm really looking forward to. Not only is it three of my friends, but it's also, I think, so important because you, like me and others in this country, are feeling the woke policies, the lack of prosecuting crimes. When you go into a store, it's now locked with a security guard and you have to gain access because of the smash and grab crimes and other nuisance and violent crimes that aren't even being enforced by our prosecutors. These three gentlemen are experts and I think we really cover the local prosecution angle, the state prosecution angle, the state criminal appeal angle, policy on crime and punishment, and then, of course, my experience being a federal prosecutor as well. First, Jaron, why don't you talk a little bit about what's going on with this spike in violent crime in our major cities and why the left doesn't seem to want to actually bring criminals to account? Sure. I think it all really started with this big rally by the left to defund the police. Right after lockdowns and the protests of 2020, you've seen many police departments roll back funding, take funding and focus it on other issues, as well as lockdowns from schools and young kids not being able to go to schools that all contributed to the rise of violent crime. What we've also seen is double downing by DAs not enforcing the law. When you have police officers arrest individuals, you have individuals get let go by the district attorneys. We're a party of law and order and that's why we started a public safety solution. We also back the men and women of law enforcement, don't we? Amen. We started a public safety solutions which brings right-of-center organizations to promote principles around funding the police, around evidence-based policy, around having the police focus on solving violent crime and preventing violent crime and continuing more smart on crime policies, but it's gotten really out of control now. General, following along as the Attorney General of West Virginia, you are obviously also seeing in your communities a rise in violent crime, your fentanyl crisis and the lack of security on the border is definitely affecting your fellow citizens. Why don't you talk a little bit about what you're seeing from your perspective? Absolutely, and it's so great to be back here at CPAC. Over the last few years, we've seen a rapid change in terms of the effects of immigration in the heartlands right in West Virginia. We're, as AGs, fond of saying that every state is a border state because we're seeing massive numbers of people slaughtered in West Virginia due to the fentanyl that originates in China, goes through the Mexican drug cartels, makes its way across the border right into wild and wonderful West Virginia. I think it's a deliberate effort because they could stop it if they just enforce the laws. I think that the concern that I have when I look at what this Biden administration is doing, it's abdicating the rule of law and enforcement in virtually every area because they want to disintegrate the foundations of what dirt up our republic and our constitution, and I think it comes from that kind of very bad perspective. Yeah, Peter, I mean, you're a tough prosecutor. You're a rule of law. You understand that you're, you know, the people in your county want law and order, but how are these policies affecting, you know, the police that you work with and the neighborhoods that, you know, that you're sworn to protect? First of all, you know, Matt, everybody has their ideas, but the idea is this. Either we have a law or we don't. Either we enforce it or we don't. And if you don't enforce it, then what the hell did you take the job for? I took an oath of office to uphold the law, and if you don't uphold the law, then you shouldn't be in the position. The second thing is, it's tough enough to get police officers to hold the fort for all of us. We insure ourselves through our tax dollars and whatnot to have those at the front line when we need them. The fact that you want to defund somebody who's going to save your life or protect you and your family, there's got to be some motivation for what's going on. That's what I see, and I won't allow it if a warrant comes up and it meets the elements of the crime, because we're supposed to be ministers of justice. We're supposed to be, therefore, the insuring of getting the conviction done when there's bad guys and bad people in our society. If not, why are we there? No, I agree, and Jerome, you and I worked in the Trump administration together, and we got some interesting things done, but one of the things that we tried to do is get some data-driven policies in place, because ultimately, you want to put your resources into things that protect communities. You don't just want to burn all your money and not know where it is. We looked at data. We implemented policies that followed that data. Talk a little bit about the work you're doing really nationwide. Sure. We're doing a city's tour with Mayor Suarez, the mayor of Miami. Miami, by the way, is a place where crime has gone down. I think their murder rate is at a 50-year low, but they've cut taxes and they've grown the economy, and so it's a shining beacon of what an American city should look like. We're working with him and going on the road to places like Memphis, to places like Dallas and Columbia, South Carolina, and we're talking about those best practices would work. In the Trump administration, we wrote two executive orders focused on policing, focused on bringing the police and community together, and also holding individuals accountable for being the best-in-class police force. At a time where we need the police the most, we need to not only fund the police, we need to give them all the resources they need to do away with violent crime. We've shown that's been the evidence way of solving some of the violent crime across the nation. General Morrissey, what do you think is the solution? We are facing some serious challenges in law enforcement. We have retention, recruitment, pay. Places like Florida, surprisingly, are pulling good law enforcement from states that don't support law enforcement. As you get around and talk to the men and women that protect and serve us, what are you telling them is the reason for hope? I think one of the most important things everyone in this room could do is to reinstill the notion that serving as a law enforcement officer is a noble job. I think the damage that was done all those years when you saw the riots go on unchecked and people went after law enforcement, it not only made it more difficult to recruit law enforcement to West Virginia because of the financial challenges, but people were being attacked. These are people putting their lives on the line and they're getting ostracized every day. If there's one thing we could all do is we could recognize enforcement of the law is a foundation point of a civil society. Let's do it. Let's encourage more people to join the men in blue. Peter. Accountability. To the General's point, accountability. We have accountability both ways. We have accountability to the public that we serve and that would be to get the conviction when they do wrong. We also have accountability for law enforcement and we have a duty to go ahead and make it fair, balanced, and equal for everyone. Doesn't matter who they are. Holding political or influential people accountable, that's what the justice system is. It's supposed to be just. When I was at the Department of Justice, we spent a lot of time on Chicago. We sent ATF resources to Chicago. Obviously, their violent crime problem has continued to spiral out of control, but to your point, Peter, what was obvious to me is the political accountability was gone. In fact, they were begging to keep the consent decree in place that allowed a federal judge and a monitor to run the police department instead of the politically elected mayor and city council. I want to ask CPAC a question here. Do you believe that there's a two-tiered system of justice in America? Do you think that's fair? Do you think that conservatives are targeted for speech? Do you think liberals get away scot-free? Let's talk about that, Peter, in reverse order now. I want you to comment about that because I know in your district that there's not a two-tiered system of justice. You are an equal opportunity prosecutor, and if you violate the law, you put them in jail. I served, Matt, as a number one probation officer, parole officer back in college when I went on and I got to the defender's office in law school for two years, 30 years as a criminal lawyer, a lawmaker for six up in Lansing in the Senate and the House, making policy, as Jaron said, but also now having to enforce that policy that I made by being a lawmaker, a prosecutor, chief law enforcement official of Macomb County. What does that mean? That means that I have an absolute duty to not only the people that I serve, but also making judges accountable every single day, making sure they do their job, and making sure that there is justice on the bonds that are set as well as distribution of the justice when it comes out as to the fairness of the sentencing. That's exclusively in the judge's hands, but we are going to make sure that justice is done across the board regardless of who you are. Yeah, Patrick, along those same lines, along the same lines, Patrick, what do you think as you look at these rogue prosecutors, the Soros prosecutors that have won in very blue cities, for example, that don't want to enforce the law, what's the solution? Obviously there's not a competitive right-left election and so you're ending up in these primaries and the money's being put into the extreme left candidate. How do we undo that? Each state's unique, but talk about... Look, I think what we all have to do is make sure that we're educating people of one of the traditional roles of law enforcement. It goes back to that, and I don't think that there's a Democrat or Republican crime problem. We see primaries across the country where there are Democrats that want to get protected from criminals coming into their homes in the middle of the night, so I think that there's an appetite to educate across the board. To me, that's the most important part because the problem is once you get a woke prosecutor in there, they're going to do a lot of damage. You could try to write around them, you could try to set all the rules, make it hard for them to disregard it, but it's hard to get away with prosecutorial discretion, so the best thing to do is a lot of education work up front to let people know the law enforcement arm is not there to make the law or to substitute his own discretion for the legislature who decides the penalty. He's there to enforce it evenly, blind to political affiliation and economic status. The more we get that message out, the better off we are. Yeah, just a double down on that. I mean, look, get those guys fired. I mean, we've seen that happen in San Francisco. You saw that the current mayor of Chicago just got fired by her electorate, and look, President Trump tried to work with her. You know, from the beginning of her administration, they said, let us help in Chicago because he has a heart for our inner cities, being a New Yorker, and it's a shame what's happened to our inner cities, and so we have to educate the voters, let them know the irresponsible work that they've done with their elected officials and get people in there that's going to get the job done. Well, and actually just to build on that point, some states actually allow a governor or an HE to really have more oversight on it, so you have to go state by state and making sure that you're putting the mechanisms in place to have that accountability, to have that supervision, to make sure that these woke guys can't get away with it. Right, and we need to recall these folks that aren't enforcing the law. We need to remove them from office. We need to beat them in elections, wherever necessary. We need to make sure that we do have a respect for the rule of law and that law and order prevails in our neighborhoods. Go ahead. We have currently a distrust as it relates to law enforcement, and that's the kind of facade that the other side wants to give. There shouldn't be a distrust. There should be an embracement of the officers that do their job and do it well and go ahead and commend those individuals, and most importantly, to their points here, what about our first amendment, Matt? Why don't we call them all out? And this is the reason. I don't know what consistency is. If I go ahead and I have the attorney general that's not going to enforce the law, but a local politician that is sitting in the county prosecutor's seat enforce it, there is no consistency, uniformity, and no certainty in our justice system, and that fails for everyone. I know. That's right. I mean, you're right. I always say we need to get back to the basic blocking and tackling, the fundamental tenets of law enforcement, of our constitutional republic, of holding people accountable to the law, not necessarily over-criminalizing things, but we know, the police know who the bad actors are. They know who are committing the majority of the crimes. Being smart, being tactical, using data to drive that law enforcement mission is so important. Jerron, as we wrap up here today, what's one thing that you would like our friends here at CPAC can know? Well, look, you hit the nail on the head. One percent of the individuals in any given city is doing 70 percent of the crime, so we know who the individuals are, but we need the resources. One of the things that we should always fund in our society is public safety. That's one of the proper functions of government, is to take care of our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and so funding the police gives you the ability to kind of create that trust with communities. The strategy around focused deterrence brings police and communities together, because unlike the left is trying to spread these lies, 80 percent of minority communities want police. You know, 80 percent of any underserved community want police and want protections, and they can have both. They can have their civil liberties protected, and they can have safe communities. It's the bedrock of the American society. Amen. Amen. Yeah. Patrick, what would you like, one thing that you'd like to share with our fine folks as we conclude? Everyone in law enforcement needs to serve as an example that you're upholding the rule of law, no matter how difficult it is. Sometimes you have to go after issues. You may not be popular enforcing a law. You do it anyway, because that's what upholds our republic and our constitution. When you start substituting your own judgment for others, that's when you run into trouble. So uphold the law, irrespective of politics and economic status. Peter, what's one thing you would like our friends here to remember? Make sure that there's equal justice, and that means in every community from the top to the bottom. Make sure that you're showing that there's fundamental fairness, which means every day that you go ahead and do your job as a prosecutor, a police officer, it's by the book. Don't make the rules up as you go along, because there's no certainty. And lastly, respect those that are in these jobs. You can go ahead and use their first amendment to call them out when they did the wrong thing, but darn it, they've got your backs every day. You should have theirs, and don't forget it. As I'm saying, you know, we need to make sure we do the basic blocking and tackling of law enforcement, that we restore the rule of law, that we have a one-tiered system of justice, where every child can play in their own front yard. But what can you do? What can you do? One thing you can do today, you can do right now after this session, is there's going to be a lot of law enforcement here because Donald Trump's speaking this afternoon. Tell one of those members of law enforcement thank you. And if you know somebody that has a family member that's in law enforcement that every day doesn't know whether they're coming home that night and worries about that, make sure you thank them for their sacrifice, for their service. We need to make sure that these people feel appreciated and valued and honored. So that's the first thing we can do. The second thing that I would encourage you to do is to the points that were made here is where you have a bad prosecutor, get them recalled. Participate in the recall. Participate in the removal. Participate in the election of law and order prosecutors and public servants. Those are two things that you can do that can make a difference in your community, that can make a difference in your children's future, and also encourage people to pursue a career in law enforcement. It is a noble profession. It is the right thing to do. And with that, I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank Jerron. I want to thank General Morrissey. And I want to thank Peter. Thank you. Thank you, CPAC. Have a great day.