Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has a better grasp on reality than almost all Los Angeles Democrats.
Witness the hip-hop legend’s Instagram post on a judge’s recent order to reinstate LA’s no-bail policy, i.e., “Get out of jail free” cards for all misdemeanors and non-violent felonies: “LA is finished … Watch how bad it gets out there.”
He’s dead right. The rule, which expired in July 2022, was put in place during COVID to ease jail crowding, with predictable results.
The city saw a massive upsurge in crime over pre-pandemic levels — 60 crimes reported per 1,000 residents in 2022, up 11% over 2019.
In downtown LA, a crime epicenter like San Francisco’s Tenderloin, the overall rate was more than six times higher. For violent crimes alone, it was 45 per 1,000; for property crime, 167.
The response of the woke left?
Nonsense like the move from LA City Council member Nithya Raman, who voted against a measure to criminalize unauthorized possession of catalytic converters and blamed the car manufacturers instead of the crooks who rip off the devices and strip them for parts.
And in May came Judge Lawrence Riff’s order to bring back the no-bail rule, on the bizarre grounds that the age-old practice of requiring bail is somehow unconstitutional.
No wonder the city is facing — atop to its massive crime, homelessness and drug problems — a police exodus, with staffing down below 2019 levels despite the elevated crime. Or that about 120 prosecutors have left the DA’s Office under Soros-backed George Gascón (who’s sitting on a mind-boggling 10,000-case backlog).
And 50 Cent is no fire-breathing right-winger; he endorsed Donald Trump for prez in 2020 but caved to public pressure and recanted.
No, the man’s using basic reasoning skills: If you reduce consequences for crooks and hamper law enforcement, crime goes up.
If only other LA bigshots could follow that same simple logic.