There is no such thing as a 'victimless' crime, nor is there 'non-violent' crime.
Regardless of what the Office of the President may think, for every action there is a reaction. So-called 'white-collar' crime, in which an actor seizes control of property belonging to another through means of the manipulation of intellectual or financial information, is in itself non-violent; however the losses inflicted have very devastating effects for the victims. Driving someone to suicide because they lost everything they have is an indirect consequence of white-collar crime in some cases and, believe me, suicide can be very violent.
Likewise with convicted narcotics traffickers, only in their cases the results are much more visible. Not only is the blood of overdose deaths on their hands, so too is the blood of every murder committed by addicts in the act of robbing a victim in order to feed their addiction, of every murder victim killed in a drug turf war, of every person who loses their life in a traffic crash caused by someone under the influence of drugs.
The list is endless.
The predominance of crime in the United States is driven by illegal drugs and acts associated with addiction; the aforementioned nurders and robberies, the break-ins, thefts, credit card misuse, bad checks...again, the list is endless. Drug trafficking and drug addiction have taxed police and fire resources to the limit; the health care system, from hospital emergency rooms to addiction treatment centers, are stretched to their breaking points.
Yet the current President sees fit to release from prison these purveyors of death and crime, crime that directly affects each one of us at the very least through skyrocketing insurance rates, by way of his powers of commutation and pardon. According to a study completed by the respected Pew Research Center, almost one-third of federally-sentenced drug traffickers commit new crimes related to trafficking after release, some while still on post-release supervision.
It is a pattern that must change.
It will be a monumental task, hard labor on the part of law enforcement, the court and corrections systems. It must go hand-in-hand with educating the public on drug addiction, an increase in the numbers of federally-funded addiction treatment centers and real sanctions against those countries whose criminal elements continually flood drugs into our nation. It will not be easy, it will not be cost-effective but it must be done; it must be done before we lose an entire generation to addiction and its consequences.
Because, after that generation is lost, so will we lose our nation.
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