Jonathan Alter: Let's Honor Mandela by Releasing Hundreds of Thousands of Criminals from Prison

Another leftist lets the mask slip. Jonathan Alter believes that violent criminals imprisoned for their crimes are political prisoners. He and Al Sharpton talked to themselves on MSNBC today. Sharpton asked Alter what America might learn from the example of Nelson Mandela.

Reasonable answers to this question include but are not limited to: Don’t abuse political power to punish your enemies; don’t hold on to political power forever; choose your wife or husband a bit more carefully; don’t seek to divide when unity serves the nation better.

Alter wants America to learn a different lesson. None of the above.

Alter said, “Well, today we’re hearing even very conservative senators and other figures talking about the spirit of forgiveness that he embodied in truth and reconciliation in South Africa. So my question tonight, Rev, is can we import that spirit of forgiveness and apply it to the hundreds of thousands of people incarcerated, who for the rest of their lives, you know, will be stigmatized by this? Could we figure out a way to forgive them, maybe expunge some of those records, release some prisoners who’ve been — with three strikes and you’re out, you have some people who have been there for so many years – ”

Mandela had engaged in violent objection to his government’s heinous policies. He was a political prisoner. Is Alter suggesting that every thug imprisoned on every “three strikes” count is the same as Mandela?

What a horrible and repulsive insult that is, to Mandela and his legacy.

Three strikes came about because liberal judges took to the habit of being too lenient on violent criminals. Three strikes ties their hands and puts violent criminals in jail. It’s not perfect, as no system is, but it’s no accident that violent crime has gone down during the years that a) gun rights has beaten gun control and b) more violent criminals have to remain in prison longer.

If Alter got his way, there would be hundreds of thousands of hardened criminals released on an innocent populace, and if their criminal records were expunged as Alter suggests, the system would lose those criminals. It’s a prescription for blood to run in America’s streets.