Murder in Beverly Hills
Thirty-six years ago, José and Kitty Menendez sat down with their sons, Erik and Lyle, who walked into the room with evil intentions. They didn't come with the thought of conversation; they came armed.
With shotguns.
The fury they released was so violent that investigators initially believed it was a mob hit. As she tried in vain to crawl away, Kitty was hit many times, and José was shot point-blank in the back of the head.
That night's brutality became an infamous act that Californians living through it will never forget.
That's what the brothers did: annihilate their family—their parents—in a cacophony of shotgun fire.
And yet, in the world that public defender Madeleine Lippey lives in, there's no cautionary tale of cold-blooded murder in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez. Instead, in her telling, the brothers fell victim to California's failure to embrace progressive justice. Erik and Lyle, she writes, deserved to be paroled.
With their freshly litigated youth offender status, staggering public and family support, long-term faith and family commitments while incarcerated, and with new evidence corroborating their claims that José Menendez was sexually abusive, it should have been an easy decision to grant the Menendez brothers parole.
Yet despite over a dozen relatives’ reading letters of support at the hearings (letters given weight as “victim impact statements” given the authors’ familial relationships to the deceased), the board declared Erik and Lyle still a “moderate risk to society.”
According to Lippey, it was a no-brainer to grant the brothers parole, a view that exists only within the upside-down logic of today's activist class.
Comedy Masquerading as Legal Analysis
Lippey's reasoning is farcical. She pointed to the "freshly litigated youth offender status," as if premeditation could be brushed aside. She cited their faith and family commitments while in jail because, in her world, visiting the chapel erases the fatal wounds their shotguns made while ripping apart their parents. In her world, gang affiliation and smuggling illicit cellphones aren’t misconduct — they’re survival tactics.
In what bloody world does a gang tie merit a survival badge. When dos smuggling a cellphone become an act of tender connection? And when did murder evolve into something to "situate within the context" of abuse allegations? Murder. As in killing somebody.
Instead of accepting every reason the parole board gave for keeping them behind bars, Lippey twists them into reasons why they should walk.
This isn't legal analysis; it's comedy, disguised as compassion.
MSNBC’s Real Worry
Like deep-fried cheese curds before a bar burger, the Menendez brothers are simply the appetizer for Lippey's genuine concern. What's really the burr under her saddle is the entire American approach to incarceration. She argues that California forfeited an opportunity to break away from its draconian sentencing.
What she is really sad about is that the United States makes up 4% of the world's population, yet is home to 40% of people serving life sentences. It's a system, she writes, driven by fear, not compassion.
Notice the segue: Like a slowly transitioning movie scene, the Menendez murders fade away, replaced by sweeping indictments of American justice.
Erik and Lyle are now props, symbols to move a progressive thesis forward, not killers. José and Kitty Menendez —remember them? The victims? They barely warrant a mention.
A brutal shotgun slaying is no longer the focus; Lippey transitioned to a policy seminar on U.S. incarceration rates.
California: The Progressive Utopia?
Madeleine Lippey presents California as progressive in everything except the justice system. Like playing cards on bicycle spokes, she rattles off causes: abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, and the environment. Yet she criticizes the state for refusing to parole two men who murdered their parents.
Need some contrast? California banned plastic straws and promised net-zero carbon, but suddenly her breaking point was that it didn't release patricidal brothers with gang ties.
We're witnessing a world where a MSM channel sees everything differently than everybody else; where each progressive cause becomes a sacred cow, every criminal is the victim, and punishments are medieval.
However, it's crickets when it comes to protecting the public or honoring the memory of the murdered.
Rehabilitation vs. Justice
Arguing that rehabilitation should be seen as an "ever-evolving journey rarely reflected by performance in prison," Lippey suggests that how people behave behind bars shouldn't be a determining factor.
Forget the contraband, the fraud lies, or the fact that their mother clawed for her life on the floor.
What matters to people like Lippey is the abstract idea of redemption.
It's here where we find the fundamental divide.
Understanding that justice can't be divorced from the crime itself, conservatives believe that rehab doesn't mean wiping away accountability. Over 35 years doesn't clean the slate.
Any society that treats rehabilitation as something independent from real conduct, past and present, replaces justice with sentimentality.
Fear of the Wrong Enemy
Lippey conflates denied parole from the state with an attempt to avoid fueling the MAGA nation.
Ultimately, the Menendez parole hearing was an opportunity that the Newsom administration forfeited in favor of still waters and — just maybe — limiting the ammunition of MAGA political opponents currying old-guard “tough on crime” rhetoric and fearmongering tactics.
She believes the real risk isn't releasing two convicted murderers, but supporters of President Donald Trump gaining rhetorical ammo.
That is breathtaking logic.
The safety of the public falls behind partisan calculation, where dead parents matter less than political optics.
When yapping MSNOW (MSNBC) heads describe these situations as "fear over compassion," the point, like a rock, passes by their heads, ending up ricocheting in the corner.
The primary duty of any society is to protect the innocent. When compassion is divorced from truth, then it's nothing more than indulgence.
Final Thoughts
One thing that will never change: The Menendez brothers murdered their parents with shocking brutality.
No matter what people want to do or say, that crime never changes. It doesn't matter how many prison chapel services they attend or the number of letters of support from their relatives. José and Kitty Menendez are still dead because of the actions of their sons.
The opinion piece written by Madeleine Lippey turns reality on its head: Crimes need context, misconduct becomes survival, and parole becomes "an easy decision." She's not writing about the brothers, despite what she wants us to believe. Lippey wants to see the sentencing system of America dismantled in the name of progressive compassion.
Her reasoning isn't merely wrong; it's dangerous.
In the shadow and bloodstains from José and Kitty Menendez, it reads like a damn dark comedy.
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