Cities Paying Criminals Not To Kill

Cities Paying Criminals Not To Kill

Are you ready for this? When was the last time you heard someone say to a repeat offender, "I'll pay you to not kill."  Bizarre, right? Sadly, that’s the world we live in today. Cities across the country, beginning with the District of Columbia, are moving to copy Richmond, California controversial approach because early indications show it has helped reduce homicide rates and are paying criminals at least $1000.00 to not kill.

In Richmond California, they hired ex-convicts to mentor dozens of its most violent offenders and allows them to take unconventional steps if it means preventing the next homicide. For example, the mentors have coaxed inebriated teenagers threatening violence into city cars, not for a ride to jail but home to sleep it off — sometimes with loaded firearms still in their waistbands. The mentors have funded trips to South Africa, London and Mexico City for rival gang members in the hope that shared experiences and time away from the city streets would ease tensions and forge new connections.

When the elaborate efforts at engagement fail, the mentors still pay those who pledge to improve, even when, l they are caught with a gun, or worse suspected of murder. The city-paid mentors operate at a distance from police. To maintain the trust of the young men they’re guiding, mentors do not inform police of what they know about crimes committed. At least twice, that may have allowed suspected killers in the stipend program to evade responsibility for homicides.

And yet, interest in the program is surging among urban politicians. Officials in Miami, Toledo, Baltimore and more than a dozen cities in between are studying how to replicate Richmond’s program.

It is said, "Money is the root of ALL evil."  In this case, it certainly is! If the government has to pay criminals not to kill, then society has become even worse than before.

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