Too often, political discussions occur only in the abstract. Politicians and political pundits will argue over ideas and ideologies, leaving many onlookers wondering how any of those ideas apply to them.
Well, one prominent YouTuber — and his over three million subscribers — saw first-hand exactly what soft-on-crime progressive ideology does to a city when it informs that city’s policy prescriptions.
That YouTuber, Peter Santenello, described his videos as “showing you a world that the media fails to capture. No BS polarization or political angle — just pure authentic interactions with the locals.”
After pointing that “no BS” insight directly at his own hometown of Burlington, Vermont, Santenello discovered first-hand how liberal policies can upend entire communities.
Santenello aptly titled his video “They Ruined My Hometown – Don’t Let This Happen to Yours.”
Early on in the video, Santenello spoke to a local business owner.
The entrepreneur told Santenello that he was accused of hating homeless people simply for wanting some “meaningful consequences for misbehavior.”
Before beefing up security, his store was losing roughly $75,000 to theft every year.
Threats of calling the police no longer seem to dissuade petty thieves, according to him.
Another Burlington citizen Santenello talked to felt that the current approach to the homeless — essentially letting them live however they want — isn’t helping anyone.
“Somebody’s got to help them. What’s going to happen every day you take drugs, every day, every day, every day?” he said. “What’s going to happen at the end? Two things, either you’re going to die, right? Or you’re going to overdose …”
Another citizen recalled witnessing exactly that.
“I’ve had people in my alleyway, right here in Burlington, OD-ing, dying in front of me,” he said. “Are we trying to scare people out of Burlington …?”
Santenello summed up his thoughts on the problems faced by the city at the end of his video.
“Policies equal realities. … What currently exists doesn’t work in the long run,” he said.
“Dig into the policies, dig into the people behind those policies, dig into where the money comes from, and usually you’ll find an interesting story.”
Digging into the policies behind Burlington’s criminal justice system certainly does paint an interesting picture.
Burlington is one of many American cities victim to what The Heritage Foundation calls the “rogue prosecutor movement,” a group of George Soros-funded district attorneys across the country that push soft-on-crime policies.
“[Soros-funded prosecutors] brazenly usurp the constitutional role of the legislative branch by refusing to prosecute entire categories of crime, abuse the role of the county prosecutor, fail to protect victims of crime, and ignore the rising crime rates that flow from their radical policies,” Heritage Foundation authors wrote of the movement.
Sarah George, State’s Attorney of Chittenden County, Vermont, (the county Burlington is located in) is one such prosecutor.
George works with Fair and Just Prosecution, a group sponsored by The Tides Center, a progressive group that has received significant funding from Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
Fair and Just Prosecution is a group of prosecutors committed to promoting “equity” in prosecution and a “more equitable justice system” that goes “beyond incarceration-driven approaches.” Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, perhaps the foremost example of a Soros-funded “rogue prosecutor,” is also a member.
George described her approach to criminal justice quite succinctly at Harvard Law School during an event featuring Fair and Just Prosecution.
“I went to law school because I wanted to dismantle the criminal legal system …” she said.
As long as these State Attorneys prioritize progressivism and “equity” over criminal justice, the communities they oversee will continue to fall into chaos.
There’s a reason Lady Justice is depicted as blind.
Justice shouldn’t concern itself with how someone looks or what their background is. When it comes to crime and punishment, “equity” should be the last thing on one’s mind.
True justice should only concern itself with punishing wrongdoers and protecting the innocent, no matter what those involved look like.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
