Latest news with #Democrat-connected
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Left-wing DA forcing prosecutors to consider 'racial identity' in plea deals
Prosecutors in a left-wing Minnesota county attorney's office will be required to consider defendants' race when crafting plea deals, according to a local report citing internal documents. The office of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, which recently let a Democrat-connected alleged Tesla vandal off with a slap on the wrist, issued the internal document "Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants." It directs prosecutors to consider "racial identity and age" as they negotiate plea deals, local Minnestota outlet KARE 11 first reported last week. "While racial identity and age are not appropriate grounds for departures [from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines], proposed resolutions should consider the person charged as a whole person, including their racial identity and age," the internal document states, according to the outlet. "While these factors should not be controlling, they should be part of the overall analysis. Racial disparities harm our community, lead to distrust, and have a negative impact on community safety. Prosecutors should be identifying and addressing racial disparities at decision points, as appropriate," it continues. String Of Plea Deals From Minneapolis Da Outrages Families Of Victims, Draws Concern From Legal Experts The policy changes are set to take effect on April 28, according to the outlet. Hennepin County encompasses the city of Minneapolis and is the most populous county in the Democrat-run state. Read On The Fox News App The "Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants" began circulating in the county attorney's office last week, KARE 11 reported. Fox News Digital reached out to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office on Sunday morning regarding the policy update, motivation behind the internal document and whether there are any concerns over the constitutionality of the changes, and is awaiting a response. The reported plea deal policy comes with constitutionality issues, according to KARE 11, which spoke to local attorneys to weigh in on the change. Soros Prosecutor Ripped For Failing To Charge Walz Staffer Over Tesla Vandalism: 'Two-tiered Justice System' "It both says, 'Don't take race into account,' presumably because of the constitutional problems with taking race into account in addition to potentially political objections, but it simultaneously says this is something you should consider," Jill Hasday, a University of Minnesota law professor, told the outlet. "And the problem for the drafters of this policy is, once you take race into account, it doesn't really matter what else you say. The policy is going to be struck down." Another local attorney brushed off constitutionality concerns, saying that county prosecutors are directed to steer clear of racial disparities, not create them. "I definitely think that some people will get worked up about the issue, but I don't see a constitutional problem, and that's specifically because the policy tells prosecutors to avoid racial disparities. Not to create them," University of St. Thomas law professor Rachel Moran told the outlet. The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution requires states to govern impartially, meaning that states and official government actions cannot discriminate or treat individuals differently based on characteristics such as race. Walz Staffer Accused Of Vandalizing Teslas Might Not Face Charges: Report "Our sentencing guidelines that criminal justice professionals use every single day in court say that race should not be used in that calculus. This seems to contradict our sentencing guidelines," former Washington County, Minnesota, prosecutor Imran Ali told the outlet. "It's inconsistent not only with our sentencing guidelines, but the policy in and of itself is inconsistent." The county attorney's office told KARE 11 that race is an important factor to consider during plea deal negotiations "because we know unaddressed unconscious biases lead to racial disparities." "This policy acknowledges that there are many factors to be considered in negotiations. Each case – and defendant – is unique. Someone's age may change the likelihood of growth and change. A defendant's race matters because we know unaddressed unconscious biases lead to racial disparities, which is an unacceptable outcome," the office told the outlet. Number Of Tesla Attacks Soars Past 50 As Violence Targeting Musk's Company Escalates "Our goal with this policy matches the goal of all our work: to achieve safe, equitable, and just outcomes that center the healing of victims while improving public safety," the office continued. Fox News Digital previously reported that Moriarty has been backed by groups tied to money from liberal mega-donor George Soros, who has helped to install scores of soft-on-crime local prosecutors around the nation. She was first elected to the role in 2022 after working for more than two decades as a public defender in the county. Moriarty most recently made national headlines last week when her office bucked criminally charging a Minnesota state employee suspected of vandalizing six Tesla vehicles and causing $20,000 in damages. Instead, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said it would seek "diversion" over charges against Minnesota Department of Human Services data analyst Dylan Bryan Adams. The diversion approach "helps to ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution," according to the office. Teslas around the country have been targeted for vandalism as its CEO Elon Musk heads up President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which has been auditing various federal agencies for government overspending, fraud and mismanagement. Moriarty and her office also came under fire in October of 2023, when families of murder victims slammed a string of plea deals that had been offered to murder defendants, sparing them time behind bars, Fox News Digital previously reported. Fox News Digital's Deirdre Heavey and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report. Original article source: Left-wing DA forcing prosecutors to consider 'racial identity' in plea deals
Fox News
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Left-wing DA forcing prosecutors to consider 'racial identity' in plea deals
Prosecutors in a left-wing Minnesota county attorney's office will be required to consider defendants' race when crafting plea deals, according to a local report citing internal documents. The office of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, which recently let a Democrat-connected alleged Tesla vandal off with a slap on the wrist, issued the internal document "Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants." It directs prosecutors to consider "racial identity and age" as they negotiate plea deals, local Minnestota outlet KARE 11 first reported last week. "While racial identity and age are not appropriate grounds for departures [from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines], proposed resolutions should consider the person charged as a whole person, including their racial identity and age," the internal document states, according to the outlet. "While these factors should not be controlling, they should be part of the overall analysis. Racial disparities harm our community, lead to distrust, and have a negative impact on community safety. Prosecutors should be identifying and addressing racial disparities at decision points, as appropriate," it continues. The policy changes are set to take effect on April 28, according to the outlet. Hennepin County encompasses the city of Minneapolis and is the most populous county in the Democrat-run state. The "Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants" began circulating in the county attorney's office last week, KARE 11 reported. Fox News Digital reached out to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office on Sunday morning regarding the policy update, motivation behind the internal document and whether there are any concerns over the constitutionality of the changes, and is awaiting a response. The reported plea deal policy comes with constitutionality issues, according to KARE 11, which spoke to local attorneys to weigh in on the change. "It both says, 'Don't take race into account,' presumably because of the constitutional problems with taking race into account in addition to potentially political objections, but it simultaneously says this is something you should consider," Jill Hasday, a University of Minnesota law professor, told the outlet. "And the problem for the drafters of this policy is, once you take race into account, it doesn't really matter what else you say. The policy is going to be struck down." Another local attorney brushed off constitutionality concerns, saying that county prosecutors are directed to steer clear of racial disparities, not create them. "I definitely think that some people will get worked up about the issue, but I don't see a constitutional problem, and that's specifically because the policy tells prosecutors to avoid racial disparities. Not to create them," University of St. Thomas law professor Rachel Moran told the outlet. The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution requires states to govern impartially, meaning that states and official government actions cannot discriminate or treat individuals differently based on characteristics such as race. "Our sentencing guidelines that criminal justice professionals use every single day in court say that race should not be used in that calculus. This seems to contradict our sentencing guidelines," former Washington County, Minnesota, prosecutor Imran Ali told the outlet. "It's inconsistent not only with our sentencing guidelines, but the policy in and of itself is inconsistent." The county attorney's office told KARE 11 that race is an important factor to consider during plea deal negotiations "because we know unaddressed unconscious biases lead to racial disparities." "This policy acknowledges that there are many factors to be considered in negotiations. Each case – and defendant – is unique. Someone's age may change the likelihood of growth and change. A defendant's race matters because we know unaddressed unconscious biases lead to racial disparities, which is an unacceptable outcome," the office told the outlet. "Our goal with this policy matches the goal of all our work: to achieve safe, equitable, and just outcomes that center the healing of victims while improving public safety," the office continued. Fox News Digital previously reported that Moriarty has been backed by groups tied to money from liberal mega-donor George Soros, who has helped to install scores of soft-on-crime local prosecutors around the nation. She was first elected to the role in 2022 after working for more than two decades as a public defender in the county. Moriarty most recently made national headlines last week when her office bucked criminally charging a Minnesota state employee suspected of vandalizing six Tesla vehicles and causing $20,000 in damages. Instead, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said it would seek "diversion" over charges against Minnesota Department of Human Services data analyst Dylan Bryan Adams. The diversion approach "helps to ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution," according to the office. Teslas around the country have been targeted for vandalism as its CEO Elon Musk heads up President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which has been auditing various federal agencies for government overspending, fraud and mismanagement. Moriarty and her office also came under fire in October of 2023, when families of murder victims slammed a string of plea deals that had been offered to murder defendants, sparing them time behind bars, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Beware Progressive Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
The cravenness of intellectual elites is one of Americas saving graces. They may self-righteously advance incendiary ideas about race, gender, politics, and culture, but they are always just a pushback away from retreating into crocodile tears. President Trumps recent actions against leading universities, Democrat-connected law firms, and left-leaning mediaoutlets have exposed his liberal critics lack of spine. The crowd that just yesterday was denouncing our country as a racist cesspool, weaponizing the justice system, and endorsing censorship - as matters of principle - is now scrambling to memory-hole their egregious actions and words. NPR CEO Katherine Maher illustrated this kowtowing capitulation during her congressional testimony last week as she sought to fend off efforts to cut federal aid to her organization. Confronted with a series of tweets she sent in January 2020 declaring that "America is addicted to white supremacy" and "America believes in black plunder and white democracy," Maher stated that "much of my thinking has evolved over the last half-decade." This claim is hard, but not impossible, to believe. People do change their minds, but it is usually about small issues around the margins. Rethinking the big stuff, the broad conceptual frameworks and assumptions we use to process facts and perceptions, is rare because it is hard - especially when our careers and identities hinge on those beliefs. This is why confirmation bias is rampant, echo chambers abound, and the physicist Max Planck observed that science proceeds one funeral at a time. Mahers Tweets were not small beer but big picture. They reflected fundamental views about our nation, clearly siding with those who see America as a deeply flawed, even failed experiment rather than a shining city on a hill. She was not a college student trying on ideas when she hit send, but an accomplished woman in her mid-30s operating near the nations center of powers, including as executive director of the Wikipedia Foundation, who boasted about turning the famous online encyclopedia into a mechanism to further a progressive agenda. Yet, Maher testified under oath that in the five years since her revealing tweetstorm - a period during which the views she espoused were ascendant in those elite circles - her thought evolved in the opposite direction. Perhaps that happened, though one would never guess that from listening to NPR. All things considered, Mahers awakening from woke would be a counterintuitive conversion. Unfortunately, congressional hearings have largely become vehicles for creating social media gotcha moments rather than forums for true understanding, so Maher was never pressed to explain her remarkable transformation. Heres hoping an NPR journalist puts her behind the mic to hold that courageous conversation. Even as Mahers personal thoughts remain beyond our reach, her example suggests two scenarios, both rife with implications. The basic question: Is she a true believer or a sheep? If shes a true believer, Mahers testimony reflects the lefts strategic retreat in response to Trumps efforts to punish them for their excesses. Whatever they do or say, the forces that saw the eruption of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd as opportunities to weaponize the law and impose government mandates while pushing for trans rights and DEI programs have not seen the light. There is no road to Damascus for these committed ideologues, who are cravenly seeking to distance themselves from, rather than defend, their deeply held beliefs. They are hunkering down until the coast is clear so they can rise again. But maybe Maher is actually a sheep who really did experience an epiphany. Though this seems unlikely in her case, it appears to be the case for millions of Americans who surrendered to the moral panic generated by progressives during the last decade. Even as they recoil from Trump, many led-astray liberals are now asking themselves, what were we thinking? Much of this reconsideration is occurring in private because our deeply partisan politics make it hard to discuss such matters in public. Republicans would use such honesty as a cudgel to punish their opponents; progressives are loath to confess anything that might give the other side an edge. The result is a culture of silence: The only thing more astonishing than the momentous events of the last five years is the concerted effort to pretend they never happened. The price we pay for refusing to confront and process such traumatic history is hard to measure, though a classic American novel, "The Catcher in the Rye," offers some clues. The refusal of Holden Caulfields family to discuss his brothers death is a metaphor for what J.D. Salinger saw as Americas unwillingness to grapple with the wounds inflicted on our hearts and minds by World War II. This obliviousness in the name of moving on is a source of Holdens anger and alienation, and his famous claim that everyone is "phony." Wishing away reality is a fools errand that usually creates dysfunction in individuals and society. While Trumps allies may cheer his efforts to punish the left, retribution alone will not defang his ideological opponents. It may, instead, harden them in their beliefs. While recognizing that true believers are probably beyond hope, we must offer a generous and understanding spirit - especially in our conversations and daily encounters - with the many sheep who were led astray by those wolves. Otherwise, they will bite even harder the next time they are in power. J. Peder Zane is an editor for RealClearInvestigations and a columnist for RealClearPolitics. Follow him on X @jpederzane.
