Two things to note here. First, now that we’re a whole bunch of column inches down into the article, the Post feels like it can open up that it’s not about “balancing” anything, it’s a one-way street to “make the criminal justice system less punitive,” i.e., to have less accountability for criminals (which we know from decades of experience means more crime victims). There’s a reason this is not at the top of the story.

Second, as noted above, getting more punitive works. The Left wants to make like the enormous reduction in crime we had only just recently never happened, or if it did happen, the reasons for it are A Great Big Mystery.

Baloney. The reasons are well understood. Some of it was the aging out of crime of the Baby Boom generation and the big increase in private surveillance and security. But getting tougher — longer sentences, more incarceration, more cops and more aggressive policing — played a major role in making us so much safer. The Left knows this but is just too dishonest to say so, because it would drastically undermine their efforts to hoodwink the public about vaguely-described criminals-are-cool “reform.”