I fixed the Democrats' messaging problem on crime.
President Joe Biden literally chanted “Fund fund fund the police” at a press conference in August. Oddly, that message did not cause Republicans to stop painting Democrats as soft-on-crime. In the run-up to the midterms, Republicans have tried to pin every crime that has occurred outside of Jan. 6th on Democrats. The media has largely helped.
This week, Darrell Edward Brooks Jr. was found guilty of intentional homicide for plowing his car into parade-goers in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last November, killing six people.
Local and national media swiftly honed in on his criminal record. Brooks Jr. had been arrested before for domestic abuse after running a woman over in his car. His bail following that incident was set at $1,000 based on the recommendation of the DA’s office.
Media critics focused on DA John Chisolm’s alleged progressivism. “Meet the Progressive DA Behind the Waukesha Bail Catastrophe,” the conservative Daily Caller declared. Other, less partisan outlets followed, wondering if criminal justice reform had gone too far. “There's a backlash brewing against bail reform after the parade tragedy in Waukesha,” NPR noted.
But Brooks’ relatively low bail had nothing to do with reform. If you match up the initial charges in the domestic violence case with the Wisconsin bail schedule (the bail amount attached to each charge—which Chisolm did not alter), the bail amount is standard. Prosecutors calculate bail based on the most legally serious charge. Because he didn't have a firearm, all but one of the domestic violence charges against Brooks were deemed misdemeanors, rather than felonies. The sole felony domestic violence charge counts as a less serious felony than the most legally serious charge, which is bail jumping. That’s how he got $1,000 bail, not because prosecutors were extremely sympathetic to his case because of reform.
If anything, the story is a cautionary tale about a dangerous person falling through the cracks of an overburdened court system clogged with minor, low-level cases.
What can Democrats do?
Human lizard brain responds to fear. “My opponents’ policies will get your daughter murdered” is a more potent message than “Actually, if you look at crime trends over time, it appears that, while we can’t draw concrete conclusions because the data is complex and varies by geographic region among other complicating factors … “
I’ll try to come up with a few ideas.
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