Law and Disorder
My new article for Bari Weiss
Update:
Here’s a quick glimpse into the barbershop scene I describe in the piece. These voices are different (and more insightful) than what you typically hear from pundits in the mainstream media. They’re voices well worth listening to.
—LW
Just a heads up that I just published this article for my good friend Bari Weiss’ Substack. It’s the culmination of several months of reporting on what residents of my city’s most high-crime areas think of the calls to “defund the police” in the midst of a violent crime surge.
There will be more to come on this beat. I’ll drop a link here when the next piece is out, but you might want to consider signing up for Bari’s newsletter as well. It’s outstanding.
—LW
I am unpaid subscriber to Weiss's Substack and I caught your article. A great look at the other side of the argument with people who are close to the situation. I'm also glad you got the exposure. I wish more people would follow you because your opinions are nuanced and balanced.
Great piece, Leighton. The mainstream coverage of criminal justice and police issues since Ferguson and most dramatically since Floyd has turned my whole worldview upside down and illuminated a dark Orwellian PsyOps universe to which I had previously been blind. For anyone familiar with the world that Towers describes in your article, which I am as a result of having worked in the courts for the past decade primarily on the criminal defense side, the mainstream coverage and discussion of these issues has not even been making contact with reality. These out of touch (or opportunistic) academics, pundits, and politicians, like Cori Bush, have developed a narrative around these issues that is completely delusional and hostile to the interests of the most vulnerable people in our society, while purporting to be their champions.
I am sympathetic to the criminals who come out of these crime-ridden communities because, if you are surrounded by violence since childhood and do not have a stable home environment, criminality is a likely outcome. While I don't deny their agency and responsibility, and I recognize that many products of these environments rise up above the criminal element, I often think that I could easily have been a criminal if I had the life experiences of my clients.
At the same time, I am horrified by the acts they commit and the harm it causes not just to the victims but to the entire communities. I am also horrified by the extent to which such acts are normalized within these communities. I cannot imagine living in a neighborhood where I have to worry about random violence and gunfire, even while inside my own home. How can anyone be expected to learn, grow, and thrive in such an environment? Life is hard enough for people like me who don't face that reality.
To deny that reality, and to shout down and vilify anyone who mentions it, in the name of "social justice," "equity," "Black Lives Matter," and "anti-racism" is psychological warfare of the most pernicious variety. We need to recognize and grapple with the reality Towers describes in an innovative and evidence-based way for the sake of the people who live in these communities. It sounds like Towers is trying to do just that. Pretending the problem does not exist doesn't accomplish anything except creating space for left-wing demagogues like Cori Bush, Kendi, Charles Blow, etc., to become rich and powerful by riding a wave of white guilt. It also gives the likes of Antifa a pretext for burning and looting while declaring themselves to be brave warriors for justice.
Having seen this propaganda campaign for what it is, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of questioning everything from establishment sources, which is not my general disposition. I want to believe the New York Times. I want to believe peer-reviewed journals. I want to believe the CDC. But I can't anymore, at least without solid supporting evidence.
During trials, jurors are often instructed something like, "a witness false in one part of his or her testimony is to be distrusted in others." Applying this instruction, I can no longer trust mainstream media, left-wing academia (which is to say 90+% of academia), and government bureaucracies who have peddled these false narratives around crime and policing. I am grateful for reporters like you, Taibbi, Weiss, Greenwald, Kirn, and others who are calling establishment sources on their bullshit. May your audiences continue to grow.