Horowitz: As murder skyrockets and criminals are released in Chicago, mayor threatens political dissenters with arrest

This juxtaposition of perversion is probably the most powerful display of the America we knew and loved being turned upside down beyond the worst nightmares of our early founders.

"We will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we need to, we will arrest you," announced Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a public address on Saturday. "Don't make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and you refuse to do what is necessary to save lives in the city in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail. Period."

How many of us have longed for the moment when big-city mayors would finally get tough on crime again and restore ordered liberty in our communities! But this errant mayor is finally discovering her "law and order" moxie to support unconstitutional edicts that violate the Bill of Rights and interstate commerce.

As you review the unprecedented words of this wayward mayor, now ponder the following reality. Illinois has released 4,000 prisoners, including 64 murderers and child sex offenders, under the faulty science of stopping a viral spread. Chicago is also notorious for releasing the worst criminal aliens imaginable and infamous for releasing gang-bangers and gun felons who violate their parole. Yet that same faulty science is leading to policies of arresting political dissenters who are fighting unconstitutional house arrest edicts.

Murderers released, everyday Americans placed under house arrest and threatened with jail time!

What are the results? In one of the most unreported stories in the country right now, murders have skyrocketed in Chicago even though everything is shut down. While some places are experiencing almost no crime (as one would expect with a panicked lockdown), Chicago murders are tracking ahead of this time last year, and there have been 73 more shooting victims than last year. Again, that is simply astounding given that almost a quarter of the year so far has been spent on lockdown.

So, what it is going to be, Mayor Lightfoot? If you rob someone with a mask, you are free to go, but if you take off the mask, then it's OK to arrest the dangerous criminal? Perhaps he is not a danger to the community so long as he pulls his gun out six feet away from the victim?

It's funny how these same blue-city politicians are justifying violating the Constitution under the premise of "if it only saves one life," it's worth it. For example, the police department of Elizabeth, New Jersey, comically produced drone footage of spying on the city while at the same time saying they are not spying on the city, yet ultimately justifying it as being worthwhile "if this plan saves one life."

Well, what about the lives lost because of coronavirus jailbreak, which in itself was supposedly orchestrated to save lives? In Boston, the police commissioner believes these criminal releases are sending the message to criminals that it's open season on our streets.

"Just last week, a known gang member, carrying a firearm, firing a firearm, home invasion — released. When you do things like that, it sets a mentality on these streets that people can do what they want," said Boston Police Commissioner William Gross after a weekend of violence. "This is unacceptable. People who have been locked up for violent offenses and carrying a firearm should not be released on personals, and I could care less if they get sick in jail or not."

In Cincinnati, murder is up 115% and robbery is up 31% relative to this time last year. That's a lot of lives lost due to the jailbreak and misallocation of police resources to "save lives" from coronavirus.

The criminals know that the politicians are only focused on clamping down on peaceful, law-abiding Americans and their civil rights. As such, just how nonexistent is the deterrent?

• Last Tuesday, one career criminal in Orange County, California, was arrested three times for theft and was released each time … all within 12 hours!
• Last month, Orange County Court Commissioner Joseph Dane released seven high-risk sex offenders, including Rudy William Grajeda Magdaleno, 39. According to Breitbart, he had been previously convicted for sexually assaulting a special-needs woman, masturbating in public at a Santa Ana law firm, and breaking into the home of an 11-year-old girl while he was naked. Just three weeks later, he was arrested again for indecent exposure.
• In March, Matthew Parris, a teaching assistant in Raynham, Massachusetts, was charged with raping two children in the schools where he worked. He was deemed so dangerous by the judge that he was held without bond. He has since been released under coronavirus jailbreak, even though, at age 29, he is more likely to be struck by lightening than to die of the virus.
• In Philadelphia, after city officials publicly announced they wouldn't arrest burglars during the shutdown, merchants who are crushed by the shutdown are dealing with a rash of shoplifting. "People are coming in the store, they're loading their bag and they're actually telling us the law, that they're not gonna get locked up," said one merchant to ABC6. "It's a lawless city, it's the Wild West. That's what's happening here," said another.

The message has gone out loud and clear to criminals that the only "high-level" crime in the eyes of our government at this point is defying illegal orders restricting civil liberty and opening a business. If you loot the business, you are good to go, especially if you were wearing a mask during the act.

Governments are instituted to protect the rights of the citizens through ordered liberty. Protecting us against criminals is the core reason we have government. Now that government has released these people and turned their guns on us, this is no longer a legitimate government. The inmates are running the asylum; the criminals are running the government.

Perhaps it's time to end the lockdown of our society, lock up the real criminals, and throw out the criminal politicians.