America: Home of the Lawless?

Fortunately, I have never had a friend or family member killed by another person (other than in war). As such, I can’t possibly imagine what an emotional roller coaster family members must go through when a loved one is killed.

If that person is a known criminal killed by police while being pursued or arrested, closure for the family is I suppose somewhat quicker.

But what about the family of the son or daughter, the husband or wife, who is killed by some animal in a senseless act of violence? How do they cope when it takes years for the murderer to wind his way through the courts? How do they sense justice when the convicted murderer spends literally decades on death row filing one appeal after another courtesy of anti-death penalty groups who have ZERO regard for the victim, for the family, or even for society?

Two years ago California’s voters voted on two competing initiatives on the death penalty. Proposition 62 would have replaced the death penalty with forced labor, life imprisonment, and increased victim restitution. Proposition 66 would have speeded up executions. The anti-death penalty initiative was solidly rejected. The initiative to speed up executions won decisively.

And by the way, we’re not talking about any run-of-the-mill murders here. I’m talking about murders under the most horrendous circumstances you can imagine. Murders accompanied by rape, torture, terror. Murders in which the killer has acted not just with disregard for life, but with relish in taking life.

As it turns out, however, voter sentiments don’t matter to the governor. Last week, California’s governor ruled that the death penalty will be taken off the table in his state no matter how heinous, vicious or detestable the circumstances.

How dare this liberal hypocrite impose his singular will over the will of the people? Like left wing radicals across our country, he perceives himself as smarter, better, and wiser than anyone else. It’s an insult to those he represents, to the justice system, to 2,000 years of moral and legal precedent, to our nation’s founders founders. It is beyond outrageous.

It’s not the first time a governor of California has thumbed his nose at the people who elected him. Governor Jerry Brown mandated that law enforcement in his state ignore federal law to notify immigration officials when an illegal immigrant is convicted of a felony. You’ll remember this brazen disregard for the safety of his citizens resulted in the murder of a young woman by an illegal immigrant.

If you ever wonder why people are becoming increasingly less law abiding, look no further than the governors of California, New York, Illinois — and everywhere else — who wantonly disregard the safety, well-being, and wishes of those they are sworn to serve.

When the people we elect refuse to abide by law simply because they don’t “like” a particular statue, why in the world should the rest of us not follow their lead?

It was only a few years ago the law was considered nearly sacred in America. We still advocate respect for rule-of-law in other countries where that disrespect has resulted in savagery on a massive scale.

We do that because we know when ALL the people — the governed as well as the governors — are required to live by the same rules; safety, prosperity, and peace result.

Sadly, however, we seem ever more to be following a course on which those most likely to ignore our laws are the same people responsible to make and enforce them. We’ve seen the outcome of that kind of lawlessness by the leaders of countries like Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. It’s chaos and despair. And it has no place in America.

Unfortunately, the left seems intent on editing the moniker that defined America as “home of the brave” to home of the lawless. It will be a shame if we let that happen.