Thread by @emeriticus

The story of the abduction and brutal murder of Eliza Fletcher, a woman who dedicated her life helping children, should be *the* story right now

It isn't because Eliza was white and her killer is black

Like George Floyd, Fletcher's killer is a career criminal. Someone whose existence is a net negative on society, unlike Fletcher. He did 20 years behind bars for a previous kidnapping.

When he was 16, Cleotha Abston abducted and "shoved Kemper Durand into the trunk of his own car at gunpoint. After several hours, Abston took Durand out and forced him to drive to a Mapco gas station to withdraw money from an ATM." fox10phoenix.com/news/eliza-fle…

Before that, Abston had been charged with theft, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, and rape, according to Kemper Durand.

In Durand's case, Abston pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery and received a 24-year sentence.

Two years after he was released in November 2020, Abston abducted and murdered Eliza Fletcher.

Americans have been told that actually people like Abston are the "real" victims of The System™️. That trick only works when you can't see the flesh and blood victims.

So here is Abston's latest victim. A teacher, a mother, and a better human being than him.

A lot of people are understandably blaming Democrat policies for people like Abston. That's true. But don't forget that the GOP is also guilty. Remember that they prayed for Jacob Blake during the Republican National Convention as Kenosha went crazy. thehill.com/homenews/admin…

Tim Scott, who has been heralded as the future of the GOP, sympathized with Blake and his family.

Scott omitted that Blake had an open warrant for felony sexual assault at the time he broke into his victim's home.

foxnews.com/politics/sen-t…

Here is who Republicans said a prayer for during day two of the RNC: Blake's victim told the police that he broke into her home used his finger to sexually assault her, sniffed it and said, "Smells like you’ve been with other men."
nypost.com/2020/08/28/thi…

There isn't much difference between Jacob Blake, George Floyd, and Abston. But that hasn't stopped Republicans from pushing moderate Democrat crime policies founded on flawed studies about recidivism. See the First Step Act, a gift to people like Abston.

Pushed by Brooke Rollins and people who went on to form @A1Policy, it was predicted on the idea that hardened criminals can be rehabilitated through anti-recidivism programs. We can change people like Abston by having them wash dogs in prison!

But a first-of-its-kind, decade-long study by the U.S. Sentencing Commission released in June 2022 exploded the argument used by Republicans and Democrats to promote jailbreak policies.

It found "no statistically significant difference in the likelihood of recidivism among offenders who participated in Occupational Education Programs or Federal Prison Industries compared to offenders who did not participate in the programs." chroniclesmagazine.org/columns/theory…

The state of the U.S. right now is that both parties to some degree or another sympathize more with Eliza Fletcher's killer than they do all the future Eliza Fletchers, because we have decided that certain groups are Sacred People, beyond reproach and discussion.

Eliza Fletcher is in the news right now because she was also a billionaire heiress. The media will try to forget her soon, in a way that it never did and never will with George Floyd.

Again, it's not just Democrats. Here's Brooke Rollins bragging in a Fox News op-ed about "closing eight prisons in Texas (and 10 juvenile facilities)" through her efforts in Texas before she helped push the First Step Act in the Trump WH. foxnews.com/opinion/brooke…

No idea if this is true but it's irrelevant. It's also why I reiterate the point about GOP guilt in creating Abstons: You vote Republican and they'll also help people like this, while telling you that Democrats are the real racists for not doing it themselves.

Going to add another example to this thread that is similar to the Fletcher case: Reagan Delaney Tokes.

In 2017, Tokes was a 21-year-old student at Ohio State when she was abducted by convicted sex offender Brian Golsby while leaving work in downtown Columbus.

You've probably never heard of the Tokes case. I wrote about it for @ChroniclesMag and it is one of the saddest examples of these crimes I've come across.
chroniclesmagazine.org/correspondence…

The last text Tokes sent to her father read, "Dad, I can't talk right now, but I will call you when I leave tonight."

She never called him, because Golsby would abduct, rape, and kill her.

First, Golsby made Tokes stop at an ATM to try to withdraw $500. He later stopped again to rape her. Then he made her withdraw some more money at a different ATM.

Tokes complied with all Golsby's demands, as horrible and degrading as they were.

But once Golsby was done with Tokes, he went with her to Scioto Grove Metro Park, where he marched her out into a field and shot her in the head twice.

Golsby later told investigators that Tokes begged for her life, telling him: "all I want to do is live."

At the time Golsby killed Tokes, he was wearing a GPS monitor issued to him by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction while he lived in state-contracted housing. He didn't even bother taking it off.

Why would he? Neither the housing program nor his parole officer monitored him properly. He violated his parole several times weeks before Tokes death. thelantern.com/2018/03/reagan…

After he was arrested for murdering Tokes, investigators checked his ankle monitor and used it to connect him to *six robberies* in the German Village area. web.archive.org/web/2017092718…

But it actually gets worse. Tokes death resulted in the creation of the Reagan Tokes Act. Ostensibly, it was conceived to stiffen up some penalties. But a prosecutor I interviewed named John Litle said it was *initially* a farce.

The Tokes Act allowed prisons to release "anyone up to 15 percent early," Litle said, "for whatever they determine to be 'exceptionally good behavior.'" In other words, bureaucrats tried tucking a jailbreak provision to make it easier to release criminals early.

Fortunately, Litle said they successfully fought it out of the Tokes Act--but the fact that they had to do that is insane.

Remember that Darrell Brooks killed six people and wounded more than 60 in Waukesha because of soft-on-crime prosecutors and jailbreak policies. He shot his nephew in July 2020 over an old cell phone and had his bail set to $500. chroniclesmagazine.org/columns/theory…

Three weeks before the Waukesha killings, Brooks was scheduled for a plea and sentencing hearing related to the July 2020 incident. On the day of that hearing he had posted bail for *a different* violent crime despite being flagged as a high risk. foxnews.com/us/waukesha-pa…

The top prosecutor in Milwaukee County admitted Brooks' bail had been set "inappropriately low," which is partly why he was able to kill in Waukesha. He also is on the record saying he *knew* somebody might die because of this. The price of progress! washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/m…

All this is to say: none of this is inevitable. People like Fletcher and Tokes are getting killed all the time as a direct result of a system defined by anarcho-tyranny. It survives on a diet of white guilt, uniparty complicity, and money from people like George Soros.

Right On Crime is a Koch-backed "conservative" criminal justice reform org. In a deleted tweet, it touted today its reform efforts in TN. Ja'Ron Smith, who worked on the First Step Act and with America First Policy, is tagged. I guess the Ezekiel Kelly shootings was bad timing.

Kelly pled to aggravated battery after being charged with attempted first degree murder. He served one year after being sentenced to three. He had a warrant for first degree murder before his shooting spree. The day after the spree, conservatives are still talking prisom reform.

Last year, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee "celebrated what he called a 'monumental' day for the state and his term, signing two bills tied to his signature cause of criminal justice reform."

I wonder if Kelly benefitted from conservative reforms in TN?tennessean.com/story/news/cri…

Re Kelly's warrant: the language of reports is a bit confusing, suggests that he had a warrant out before the spree but it seems related to the spree. The DM: "Kelly had a warrant out for his arrest for first-degree murder before the shooting spree began." dailymemphian.com/section/metro/…