“Voi Voice” is the title of an article I’ve written about George Soros’ efforts to recall Arizona’s Sheriff Joe P. Arpaio. Sheriff Joe was named recently to head the new Arizona Police Department after two of his officers were found guilty of criminal acts during their investigation of a mayor who happened to be friends with the late Cuban Consulate General Castro. Despite the fact that the convictions were found by a grand jury, the Republican-led Arizona legislature has voted to remove the convictions. In essence, they are asking the courts for a new trial because they believe the jury got it wrong. This is simply an outrageous abuse of the constitution and an attempt by a majority of citizens to re-write the law in their favor.
One must ask, when did citizens of the United States begin believing that they could rewrite the law in their favor? When did citizens forget their constitutional rights, and start believing they could pick and choose which portions of the constitution they wanted enforced? When did citizens believe they had a right to demand a political judge or U.S. Supreme Court justice to do their thinking for them? It seems the citizens of California just want other people to make decisions for them, rather than being left to the wheels of free markets where the rules are made by entrepreneurs, not by ruled by laws that were passed by legislators.
The recall effort in Arizona is part of a broader nationwide movement to get district attorneys more politically independent, and to force prosecutors to seek the consent of judges before charging people with crimes. There was a statement issued by Michael Beckel, the district attorney of Santa Barbara County, California, on election night. He said, quote, “In my opinion, the most important thing that a district attorney can do in this election is to stick to the statutory sentencing guidelines.” Well, perhaps there are many issues in that particular statement, but I would submit to you that it is probably not what most voters believe they are voting for when they cast their ballot.
What is the statutory guideline? The California state legislature passed a proposition on election day called the Protecting Individuals’ Rights after citizens became upset with the San Francisco Police Department’s handling of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. The new law requires that all felony charges involving an arrest or use of excessive force must be tried by the district attorney’s office with the help of a jury.
This sounds good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is also bad from a public-relations standpoint, because now those who are upset at the prosecutor’s charging decisions will be telling everyone they know that they ought to vote for these folks so they don’t have to deal with a prosecutor who is too soft on criminals. Unfortunately, some of those California voters will end up voting against the recall campaign. Many won’t even bother to vote because they will realize that their Voices Against Recall petition was already on the November ballot.
If this sounds familiar, you might want to remember Juries in the United States are humans too. Some will vote for the defendant, while others will look at the evidence presented and decide whether they believe the prosecutor presented enough evidence in support of the case. I hope you’ll consider this issue further in 2021. Please consider all this and think on it. Best wishes to all, including the Voices Against Recall!…
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