John Dorso: Feds Should Stop Meddling In Local Law Enforcement Matters

That President Obama and his AG Eric Holder are adding to the racial tensions in this country is a point some may argue with.  What isn’t being discussed is the insertion of the Federal government into issues that are best dealt with at the local and state level.  The undermining of our state judicial systems whether in New York or Missouri is a travesty.

We have to have a grand jury system and prosecutors we can have faith in.  It is one of the basics of this civil society.  The folks who have publically trashed the findings of people who give of their time to review the evidence and give their opinion whether a crime has been committed are the real racists in my opinion.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#000000″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]”I myself would rather trust North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who is elected, than some political appointee of a President that seems to have an agenda.”[/mks_pullquote]

Years ago I appeared in front of Senator Fred Thompson’s committee decrying the federalization of crimes.  Most crime I still believe is best left to local and state officials to handle.  It used to be the only time the Feds got involved was when the crime crossed state borders.  Things like mail fraud, abductions where the person was transported across a state border, interstate smuggling of goods, or drug and alcohol violations of Federal laws.

I myself would rather trust North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who is elected, than some political appointee of a President that seems to have an agenda.

What really bothers me now is that the President is condoning and AG Holder is using federal law to continue investigations of individuals who were deemed innocent of any crime by their respective local grand juries.  In some form this becomes double jeopardy.  Found innocent the suspect still must spend months or years worrying that the Feds are going to come with a charge that will cost thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend against.

The racists such as Sharpton and Jackson would like you to believe that we are still persecuting blacks much the same as 50 years ago.  The facts and statistics just don’t bear that out.

Fifty years ago I drove semis delivering freight to Chicago.  We did not go below Dearborn St. on the south side because law enforcement told us to stay out of certain African-American areas because of the rampant crime in those areas.   Today the murder rate in Chicago is astounding.

Who is getting killed and where do the murders most occur?  The same areas we were told to stay out of fifty years ago.  If anything has changed, things have gotten worse in Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and other big cities.  Is it that law enforcement has gotten more racist?  If the leaders of these communities and the President with his AG don’t want to address the root causes of the problems in these communities but continue to scapegoat the rest of society and law enforcement I’m afraid the civil unrest we are seeing may escalate into something most of us don’t want to see.

Just using the threat of the Federal judicial system isn’t helping.  If anything they are undermining the efforts of state and local officials.  What is worse is they are sending the equipment to local law enforcement that is meant to quell the disturbances they are indirectly inciting, which then becomes another issue in the whole law enforcement picture surrounding these tragedies.

I hope Congress and our next President are more willing to talk about the real problems in the black communities.  Sweeping the social ills of this segment of our population under the rug isn’t solving anything.