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The Year of the Criminal
Written by
Delegate Pat McDonough
Every session of the Maryland General Assembly features the good, the bad and the ugly. This year, the ugly has come in the form of more than 40 pieces of legislation dedicated to providing benefits for criminals. I have knocked on more than 10,000 doors during my political career and no one has ever asked me the question, "Delegate McDonough, what can you do to help our poor criminals in this state?" It seems that a majority of the state legislators have become "lawmakers supporting law breakers" by consistently sponsoring criminal-friendly bills.
Allow me to provide you with some outrageous examples. The abolition of capital punishment was achieved by proponents claiming that life without parole was an adequate punishment for murderers. Now, there is a bill that would permit murderers serving life without parole to actually have a parole hearing under certain conditions. We were fed two big lies: one, about the need to repeal the death penalty and, the other, to use life without parole as a substitute. Who benefitted from the big lie? The murderers.
With the epidemic of heroin attacking our state and resulting in numerous deaths by users, a normal person would conclude that no politician in their right mind would promote legislation benefitting drug dealers. Of course, we are dealing with the "Maryland General Asylum" where insane proposals become reality. One such measure will remove mandatory sentencing from low level drug dealers. The mandatory sentencing rule was used as a powerful tool by the prosecutors to plea bargain and create access to higher level drug dealers, the guys who import the heroin. Now, that powerful tool has been eliminated by the bill already mentioned. That legislation was introduced by a delegate who is an attorney that defends drug dealers.
Another pro-drug dealer piece of legislation would dramatically reduce the rights of federal and state prosecutors to confiscate the big boats, vehicles, houses, and other assets that drug kingpins have accumulated with the ill-gotten money from conducting chemical warfare in our neighborhoods. In Annapolis, the politicians have the power to choose winners and losers. It is clear that these criminal advocates, who are supposed to represent the citizens, are making the criminals the winners. Public safety, crime victims, crime victim families, survivors, and law enforcement professionals are not even on the radar screen. There have been no bills introduced in the 2015 session of the General Assembly that protect the interests and rights of these groups.
There are too many pro-criminal legislative proposals to mention, but one more needs exposure. A few years ago, a law passed that permits convicted felons, including murderers, to be allowed to vote when their sentence was complete, which includes parole. There is a new bill moving through the system that will allow convicted felons to vote even though they have not completed their sentence and are still on parole. The next step will be to roll the voting machines into the prisons and encourage them to vote while still incarcerated. I refer to this unfortunate series of events as "The Year of the Criminal." A colleague mentioned to me that we might want to refer to it as the "Decade of the Criminal." The future looks bleak. There is an overwhelming majority of politicians who are motivated to make Maryland the most criminal-friendly state in the nation. The tragedy of this dilemma is that there is no real organized opposition in the General Assembly or the general public. Those of us who sincerely believe that this run-away train is on the wrong track and will result in innocent blood shed and more crime are outnumbered. The media and press have virtually ignored this crisis and only report on the end result which is a picture of crime tape and a body outline on the street in some neighborhood.
For more information, please contact Del. Pat McDonough at 410-238-0025 or PatMcDee@comcast.net.
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