Democrats know what’s destroying inner-city communities: Systemic racism (including in prison sentences), the lack of reparations, police violence, the lack of organic groceries, and AR-15s. None of this is true, of course, but it’s the snake oil they’re peddling and, sadly, a lot of people within these inner-city communities seem to buy it because they keep voting for the same old Democrats. (Maxine Waters, anyone?)

Will Scharf, an Assistant U.S. Attorney who works in the violent crimes unit in St. Louis, Missouri, America’s most dangerous city, has a different take on what’s going on. It won’t surprise you, of course, to learn that the Democrats are wrong in every respect. The problem is drugs (just as it was in the 1980s), only it’s a whole lot worse now thanks to our broken border and refusal to confront China:

Police officers in dangerous cities deal with challenges that the rest of us can only imagine.

A detective I worked with missed taking a bullet to his head by literally an inch.

Every stop, every interaction can turn deadly in an instant.

2/11

— Will Scharf (@willscharf) November 23, 2022

I’ve seen officers assaulted for no reason, had guns drawn on them, had calm situations blow up in an instant.

Society should be on bended knee that, after all the criticism they’ve taken over the last few years, police officers are still out there keeping us safe.

4/11

— Will Scharf (@willscharf) November 23, 2022

Have you taken ecstasy recently? Guess again. It was meth. There is no ecstasy anymore. It’s all just meth cut with other stuff.

Meth destroys lives. It used to be cooked in small batches. Now it’s trucked in by the ton from megalabs in Mexico.

Close the border now.

6/11

— Will Scharf (@willscharf) November 23, 2022

If you’re getting a long sentence in this day and age, it’s very, very likely for one of three reasons:

A) violent crime
B) you moved a lot of drugs
C) you’re a career offender with an extensive criminal history.

Nobody is serving 20 just for selling dime bags of weed.

8/11

— Will Scharf (@willscharf) November 23, 2022

Police, prosecutors, and the courts all need to be working effectively to beat back crime

If your police aren’t making quality arrests—failure

If your prosecutors are blowing cases—failure

If your judges are bonding out and then giving soft sentences to killers—failure

10/11

— Will Scharf (@willscharf) November 23, 2022

I could go on in this vein for a while. I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work in an outstanding US Attorney’s Office, and to support the efforts of truly outstanding law enforcement officers.

Go thank a cop. Seriously.

Any questions?

11/11

— Will Scharf (@willscharf) November 23, 2022

Rather than telling hard truths and tackling real problems, Democrats are demanding reparations. As we know from almost six decades of welfare, along with thousands of programs steering resources to minority communities, (1) these programs don’t work, and (2) just as in any corrupt country, a significant part of the funds ends up in bureaucrats’ and politicians’ offices and pockets. In other words, based on past performance, it’s reasonable to believe that the push for reparations has less to do with saving communities from collapse and a lot more to do with old-fashioned graft.

By the way, speaking of out-of-control drug-related crime and human suffering in the 1980s, what stopped it was strict sentencing laws. Indeed, that was one of the few useful things Joe Biden did during his almost 50 years in federal politics.

The Talmud says, “If you are kind to the cruel, you will end up being cruel to the kind.” Leftist policies vis-à-vis criminals and the communities on which they prey perfectly illustrate the truth of this timeless saying.

Image: St. Louis (YouTube screen grab).