Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Today is December the 14th, 2021, and I'm excited to be bringing you another episode of the podcast. And I appreciate that no matter where you're listening, whatever your favorite podcast platform is, I'm glad you're tuning in, and I think you'll like the program today. And I'm going to go ahead and get started talking about lawlessness. Now, to say that we've all had a unusual last couple of years would be the understatement of a lifetime. We've gone through a pandemic. We've witnessed lawlessness to a degree that many of us have never seen before, that went on simultaneously throughout the country. And we've witnessed some crazy, wacky political shenanigans that have taken place. Well, that's taken place most of my life, but certainly the last couple of years has been no exception. And in fact, it's probably been on the steroids, if I was to be honest about it. All of that to say that we have witnessed a lot of different things in our society that frankly I don't know that any of us were really prepared to see it on such a large scale like it was. And to me, it's very troubling. I hope it's troubling to you too, because if it's not troubling to you, then we have a real problem. But I think it's troubling to most law-abiding citizens who want to be able to be free to do whatever they want to do within the confines of the law and not hurt other people and allow other people to do the same things that each of us want to be able to do on a regular basis, just to live. The bottom line here is that we are a nation of laws. And if we are a nation of laws, then there are certain expectations that each one of us should have for our fellow citizens. It's not that difficult. And you can't blame your problems or your challenges in life on society, or say that because I have this handed to me, that I somehow have to go out and steal, rob, murder, cause mayhem because my life sucks. No, that's not how it works. Mutual respect goes a long way and it's not a one-way street. Now I want to talk about what it means to commit a misdemeanor as opposed to a felony. And again, I am not a lawyer, I don't practice law, I'm a concerned citizen, I'm a podcaster. I believe in liberty and freedom for everybody. I don't care who you are, what you look like, what your skin tone is. I don't care about any of that. What I care about is I want to know that I can go out into society and not have to worry about someone breaking into a store or me being part of some robbery or some other heinous act. So a misdemeanor is or can be defined as a misdeed. It's less serious than a felony. Some examples of a misdemeanor are disturbing the peace, petty theft, maybe drunk driving when no one else is injured or there's no harm to someone else, a simple assault and battery, a traffic violation, and of course, with all of these different types of misdemeanors, jurisdiction plays a role in what may be defined in that particular jurisdiction as a misdemeanor. A felony, on the other hand, is a grave crime. So we're talking about murder, rape, large-scale theft and fraud, arson. And again, of course, jurisdiction is going to factor into what may or may not be defined as a felony, as well as what may or may not be the punishment for an alleged felonious act. Okay, so there we are. Now, it's unfortunate, but we've all had plenty of examples to look at over the last couple of years regarding both misdemeanors and felonies, most particularly felonies. Any of us in society ought to be reasonably confident that when a felony is committed and a trial is held and the defendant has every right to be defended and to be tried by a jury of his or her peers, that's the way it should be. We've gotten into a situation where there are plea deals and plea bargains that have in effect taken the jury decision out of the equation. Personally, as a non-legal person, as a non-lawyer, I think that's a bad idea. I think the founders set up the Constitution in such a way that due process and being tried by a jury of your peers was the way it was supposed to be done, based on evidence presented in every case. And of course, every case is different. But every case is decided by those same parameters, by the same foundation, and that's important to understand and remember. Will any of us ever forget the very dangerous defund, the police fad that seemed to be all the rage last year? I know I won't forget it. But where has that gotten us? You be the judge, personally, it's one ginormous step backward as far as I'm concerned. Recently, the district attorney in Philadelphia said that there has not been a spike in crime. Neither has there been a big spike in violent crime. He actually said that neither one of those things is true. He said at some kind of press conference or whatever that they don't have a crisis of lawlessness, violence, or crime. To me, the evidence would suggest otherwise. I believe it was the Wall Street Journal editorial report that reported that Philadelphia has witnessed a thirteen percent jump in homicides in twenty twenty one compared to twenty twenty. Now, if you're like me, any increase in the percentage of homicides committed is a crisis of lawlessness. I don't care if it's two or three or four, but it's thirteen percent over last year. Come on. Furthermore, it's been reported that 12 cities in the United States have broken homicide records for 2021 compared to 2020. I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, that's not any kind of record that I want to see broken. We want to see records broken in the sporting world or something like that. We don't want to see violent crime records being broken, but that's indeed what's happening in our country. And it may even be more cities than just the 12 that I found that had been reported on. But certainly in Philadelphia, the district attorney seems to have a how can we say this, a disdain for factual information? I don't know. What would you call it? We certainly can't really pin the increase in homicides or any other violent crime increase to the defund the police movement. That's unclear. But one thing does seem pretty certain with regards to criminal acts or alleged criminal acts, that reducing the punishment for these acts is likely not going to reduce the frequency of these types of crimes. For instance, California's Proposition 47 reduced the charge for theft of $950 or less from a felony to a misdemeanor. Let that sink in for a minute. Here's another way to look at that. A perpetrator of this kind of theft knows that if they get caught, and as long as they have less than $950 of stolen goods on their person, they'll be charged with a misdemeanor and be released probably the same day or the next day. And of course, you guessed it, they'll be right back out on the streets right after that to do it all over again, knowing that all that's going to happen to them is a mere slap on the wrist, and they'll be right back at it again and again. That's ridiculous, people. Come on, how do we fight crime with these kinds of pathetic weak punishments? It's unbelievable. How about this one? A man in Chicago was killed, I believe, over the weekend, when he was outside hanging Christmas lights at his home. Very harmless act, if you ask me. Well, two guys apparently attacked the man and beat him in the head with blunt objects. He was rushed to a hospital, I believe, but he eventually succumbed to his injuries. This is just barbaric. You're gonna beat somebody in the head until he's dead? Now we have no idea, or I have no idea, what the relationship was between the victim and the perpetrators, but suffice it to say, how can you beat someone in the head with a blunt object, two against one, of course, and this person dies from these injuries. Over what? It's just senseless violence and lawlessness. But no, no, according to the district attorney in Philadelphia, their city doesn't have any any sort of increase in violent crime. No, no. Maybe Chicago, but definitely not Philadelphia. Ridiculous. To be sure, I could go on citing example after example of instances of violent crime, but I won't. Nor will I make excuses for why this kind of violent crime takes place, like political leaders do, as well as others in the media or elsewhere often do. It seems clear that in spite of what the Philadelphia DA says, violent crime and what we do about it most definitely needs to be addressed, whether we like it or not. We need to face it head on and do something about it. Living in a civilized society demands adherence to law and order, personal responsibility, as well as leadership to address it to ensure that we have laws in place to curtail the commission of crimes moving forward, particularly violent crime. A society such as ours is only as good as the citizens who comprise it. If we're willing to accept lawless behavior, then we'd best be ready to accept the consequences that go along with that. It's not that hard, yeah, it's brutal. But what are the alternatives? We can't live in a lawless society. It's not possible. Well, it is possible because we do it every day. We have pockets of lawlessness throughout the country and we get by. But think of it, if these types of crimes continue to go unpunished or the punishment is a mere slap on the wrist, then guess what's going to happen? These kinds of crimes are going to be proliferated throughout the country. There's no doubt in my mind. Listen, we need leaders at every level, from the federal down to the most minute of jurisdictions who are unafraid to make laws that punish criminals. And we also need people, leaders in place in the political realm, from election to election, who ensure that these laws are upheld and then at the enforcement level, that those who are in law enforcement aren't afraid of the repercussions that might come to them because they're upholding what's written in the law. Now, we can talk about petty theft and petty crime all day long, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about violent crime, that is assault, murder, rape, robbery, and all sorts of other violent types of crime and criminals. That's what we're talking about. Petty theft and things that are done that don't it really impact the lives of other people, only the perpetrator, let that take care of itself. We need to nip it in the bud, of course, because who knows, that petty theft or that petty criminal may end up doing something even worse if they know that the punishment for those crimes is nearly non existent. I get it. It's not always true that just because of a knowledge of the repercussions of the consequences of a crime, it doesn't always deter the crime. I get it. It's you're talking about crimes of passion. And you can't legislate morality, you can't legislate passion. But things need to be done in order to preserve a civilized and lawful society. Because if we don't, we're gonna get what we deserve, and that's total lawlessness and chaos and anarchy. And I don't know about you, but I don't want that. After all of this, ladies and gentlemen, we still live, in my opinion, in the best and the most free country in the world where liberty is still a thing, but it's not on autopilot. We have to continually be vigilant about it, making sure that the liberties that we enjoy are preserved for not only our generation, but the generations that will follow. Because if we don't do those things that are necessary to preserve that liberty and that freedom, then heaven help us. Well, thanks for listening, as always, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to end this episode with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, who said this, the good citizen will demand liberty for himself, and as a matter of pride, he will see to it that others receive the liberty which he thus claims as his own. Probably the best test of true love of liberty in any country is the way in which minorities are treated in that country. Not only should there be complete liberty in matters of religion and opinion, but complete liberty for each person to lead his life as he desires, provided only that in so doing he does not wrong his neighbor. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope, I pray, my wish for all of us in this society, in this great land that we call America, is that we will make sure that we are doing nothing to wrong any of our neighbors ever. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, but to strive to not wrong anyone, I think, is a very worthy goal, one in which we should all pursue each and every day. And with that, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.