What happens when you fail to punish crimes?

Well, the Left is right that the “school to jail” pipeline gets clogged up, because we just quit putting predators in jail. Instead, they turn into superpredators who feel invulnerable to punishment and go on rampages that destroy civilization and leave dead bodies in their wake.

Vegas teen told cops ‘I’ll be out in 30 days’ after he was nabbed in killing of retired top cop chief in hit-and-run: report https://t.co/Vffi9o9gjT pic.twitter.com/q4rkANpLji

— New York Post (@nypost) September 22, 2023

That is the story of the Las Vegas teens who shared their murderous rampage on social media that left a retired police chief dead. You may have seen the video, in which the teens viciously and intentionally ran down Andy Probst as he was riding a bike.

Jesus Ayala and Jzamir Keys were proud of their crime spree because that is how predators roll. Perhaps more importantly, they are convinced that society has no defense against them.

Ayala, who just turned 18, was arrested hours after Probst was killed and told the police while in custody that he wouldn’t be locked up for long.

“You think this juvenile [expletive] is gonna do some [expletive]? I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you,” Ayala told the cops, according to KLAS.

“It’s just ah, [expletive] ah, hit-and-run — slap on the wrist.”

I am not sure if that is true in Las Vegas. It certainly would be the case in many cities, where prosecutors and politicians have gone out of their way to embrace criminals and even label them victims of a cruel society.

Civilization is a choice. It is something painfully constructed and requires people to accept that they should repress their worst impulses in return for a measure of peace and safety. If you have even the most passing knowledge of history it is clear that violence is not an aberration in human behavior, but a norm.

The United States saw a massive decline in crime when people got serious about punishing it. Liberals bemoan how many Americans are in jail–and it is indeed lamentable–but the decrease in the crime rate and the increase in imprisonment are not unrelated. When you punish people and remove them from society they can’t commit crimes on innocent people, and fewer people want to commit crimes.

It’s pretty simple. Simple enough that a liberal could understand if they cared to.

Instead we live in a world where Jesus Ayala can seriously believe that intentionally running down a person with a stolen car will go unpunished. It isn’t an absurd thought, and chances are that if he hadn’t streamed his evil out to the world he would have skated. Now, I hope, not so much.

But nobody should get away with this evil, yet thousands do. How often do you see a criminal charged with a violent crime who turns out to be out on bail, released from prison early, or simply unprosecuted for earlier crimes?

One is too many. Thousands is the answer.