Letter to the editor: The definition of insanity

Editor:

Albert Einstein once said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Voting the status quo this election is insanity.

Our nation is at a critical crossroads concerning public safety. It seems like criminals are being treated more like they are the victims. Is the goal of those in charge of our criminal justice system – prosecuting attorneys — to make us all victims? The prosecutor’s office talks about “equity and equality” in its prosecution of criminals. Do they want to make us, the victims of crime, equally miserable, equally dead, equally stabbed, equally robbed, equally raped? Is the goal to blur the lines between law abiding citizens and criminals, where we all pay an “equal and equitable” price? Really? Who’s in charge of the asylum?

Our children and neighbors can no longer visit their neighborhood parks without encountering needles and other drug paraphernalia, and fear of being attacked.

We see it, hear it, read it everyday in the news. Criminals committing yet more crime only to be released within hours of arrest. Their “free get out of jail card” rewards them with yet more opportunity to commit more crime. There is no price to pay for their crimes so the perpetuation, the escalation of more lawlessness continues. And let’s be clear, this isn’t about race. Blacks. Latinos. Asians, Whites are all victims, and also all part of the criminal element of society. It’s an equal opportunity situation folks.

The existing “catch and release policy” by our Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office must end. It is the “definition of insanity.”

Brett Rogers is running for Snohomish County Prosecutor. Victim protection, restoring justice, and stopping “catch and release” is on his list of priorities.

Vote thoughtfully. Be part of the solution. Stop The Insanity.

Theresa Campa Hutchison (Ret) R.N., M.Ed
Edmonds

  1. I think it’s kind of funny that you were a nurse and should know better than to go about dispensing a clinical diagnosis like “insanity” and using it like charged rhetoric.

    Also, can you tell us on which playground you found needles?

    1. I see that irony is lost in your statement. We have been putting people in jail, executing criminals for 100 years. Has crime stopped? Have these policies been successful? By your own admission they have not. But somehow you think doing the same thing is the solution. By your own words that is insanity. The majority of crimes are due to poverty and addiction. Without addressing the root cause (Public Health and Safety) the crime rates will never change. Don’t forget our police barely solve 50 percent of violent crimes and Republican run states have the highest crime rates in the nation. Do the same thing over and over is insanity. When are we going to wake up. From the response to this post we will stick with insanity.

      1. Scott, I’m sorry you must be a little confused, that republican run states have the most crime. Democrat run states have most crime of any republican run state. You must have not seen the news, let’s start with Washington, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Michigan and New York to name a few.

    2. I am simply responding to the question about needles. I regular find them at Mathay Ballinger Park, in addition to burnt foil used to smoke fentanyl. So, yes, it is a real problem from Edmonds.

  2. Thank you Theresa. This is a very important election for the people of Snohomish County. Brett Rogers is, by far, the best choice for prosecutor.

    NOTE: to the people of Edmonds. Earlier this week Mayor Nelson sent out a brochure titled 2023 Budget Message. On page two, top paragraph he announced the following: “We must ensure we not only have the proper police coverage but are prosecuting crimes in a FAIR AND EQUITABLE manner”. He goes on; “To ensure we are prosecuting crimes fairly” “WE (Edmonds) will have our own in house prosecutor”. This is the blueprint of how the left has ruined our criminal justice systems in cities across our country. By appointing and enabling ‘woke’ prosecutors and city attorney like Dan Satterberg, Peter Holmes, George Gascon they have turned our cities over to the criminals. This is why Seattle, Portland, S.F., L.A., Chicago and several other cities are in the mess they are in. I urge all citizens and the Edmonds City Council to keep an eye on this recent announcement. It’s Halloween and this is a very scary surprise.

  3. I am sorry, Theresa, but I have trouble voting for a former Seattle Police Officer who advocates for overthrowing the entire Washington State Supreme Court (as Mr. Rogers did when he ran, unsuccessfully, for attorney general). How is this different from defunding and disbanding the police department? We agree that safety is paramount. But trading one extremist strategy for another is not my idea of representation.

  4. Its highly unlikely that Brett Rogers will be any more successful than anyone else in this role. The jails and prisons are already full. He can’t stem the flow of illegal drugs, guns and obscene amounts of ammunition with multi shot delivery systems available. Blaming all our social problems on Liberals and Liberalism is a Republican pipe dream of gargantuan proportions.

    1. The Snohomish County Jail is currently only at 50% capacity. They have closed entire units at the prison in Monroe because Governor Inslee has released so many prisoners. We can stand up for crime victims without placing blame for all of our social problems.

      1. I agree. I personally would like to see the prison in Monroe opened up and used to house and try to help those with drug issues as lock down rehabilitation facilities. I also would like to see this as a facility where it won’t be necessary to saddle criminals that often rob and pillage and openly use drugs hence the needles etc, due to their need for these drugs. Addiction is a very difficult thing to control for any addict. SO I say no charges or expungement after a successful rehab so those same people have a chance to get a job and have no criminal record. Now HIGH violence offenses like murder and such is a whole different thing. So let’s compromise if we can. I do agree with letting people out of prisons for DUI, Bad checks, petty theft after some time…as then we have room to help and keep the ones who cannot be mixed with society. It would be helpful to also expand our mental hospital in this state too. We have hurt many both users and citizens, both victims in a sense, lets correct that.

      2. If the County Jail is only at 50% capacity as you claim then I concede that I was incorrect in my statement above. I have no reason to doubt the truth of your statement. That said, if you are going to pack the jail to capacity you will have to provide more personnel to guard them, more food to feed them, and more health care to meet their basic requirements to stay alive while being confined. Also if you are going to do all this additional arresting, adjudicating and incarcerating you are going to need more help in the office as well as more police agents to get the job done and probably more court workers to handle all the additional legal work. All this will cost money which the people who vote for you will be paying in their property taxes. Personally, I would rather my taxes went for social workers and mental health professionals to try to get to these people on the front end, rather than locking them up. I doubt I vote for you, but I won’t be upset if you win either. I just doubt much will change.

        1. Thank you for your thoughtful reply…we need more of that. Keep in mind that positions in the jail and for road deputies are already budgeted, we just have a staffing shortage. I too would prefer that people get the help they need on the front end before they commit crime. The prosecutor’s office is a needed backstop when our mental health and education systems fail (and they are failing) and there’s not enough people opting for drug treatment. Until those other areas are fixed, which the prosecutor has no control over, we need a mechanism to protect crime victims. Crime victims shouldn’t be penalized for social ills or the failures of other parts of government.

  5. We didn’t get here overnight. We were warned every step of the way, typically followed up with canned responses of futility and blame. If one candidate can’t completely solve the problem, the incumbent is good enough? One tired excuse after another for policies that have never and will never work. As far as completely solving crime, that’s not a realistic goal of any justice system. Keeping some of those who have proven themselves incapable of following the laws we have created as a society and are a danger to others, most certainly is.

  6. Well, thanks to the article I just spend a good ten minutes researching Mr. Rogers and have read enough to know that I will not be voting for him. He offers nothing but the kind of mass incarceration policies that have been tried in the past and have failed. The best way to stop crime is to stop someone from becoming a criminal in the first place, not setting their bail higher. Seems like Mr. Cummings gets this and Mr. Rogers does not.

    1. “Mass incarceration” was never a thing. Until you are able to stop someone from becoming a criminal in the first place, are we to do nothing? What about justice for victims? You are proposing to making victims pay the price for any and all of society’s ills.

  7. Thank you Theresa for pointing out the obvious. Unfortunately people would rather bury their head in the sand and pretend everything is fine. Look at the person questioning that there are needles in the parks, they may want to get out of the house and take a look around. Needles and drug paraphernalia are found in our local parks, playgrounds and sports fields.
    Why anyone would vote for Cummings who has been the prosecutor for almost 15, he is the one that has implemented and supported soft on crime policies. He created the problem and now says he is going to fix it, that is insanity. Ask any local police officer how light the sentences and bail amounts are for criminals, they are frustrated with repeat offenders.
    The top 10 cities for overall violent crime, which includes major urban areas New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are all run by Democrats.
    We need to elect a prosecutor who will work to protect law abiding citizens, and that is Brett Rogers!

    1. I’m curious where you found your information about violent crime. It is not the same information I am finding.

      1. Betsy, here is the source of the information.
        Washington Post fact-check article on crime in cities.
        That article uses Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime data from the first half of 2019 – the most recent official data source on US cities with populations over 100,000.

  8. The need for a strong anti-crime Prosecutor in Snohomish County has never been more evident. Brett Rogers fills the bill. Rising crime rates are directly related to misguided soft on crime and early release policies, along with rampant drug peddling of fentanyl and other narcotics. Strong policing only works if the criminals are prosecuted and convicted. That requires a strong Prosecutor. Brett Rogers is the man dedicated to making us safer.

  9. This is representative of most lists I have reviewed showing US cities with highest murder rates. There can be some variations in the order but this is a good representation. What is most glaring is the political party in charge.

    Cities with highest murder rate as of 6/30/22:

    City Party in Control R or D

    New Orleans LA D
    Detroit. D
    Baltimore MD D
    Birmingham AL D
    St Louis. D
    Milwaukee D
    Cleveland D
    Rochester NY. D
    Philadelphia D
    Atlanta D
    Kansas City D
    Washington DC. D
    Richmond VA. D
    Oakland CA. D
    Chicago. D

    Others Cities w/high and growing crime rates
    New York D
    San Francisco. D
    Los Angeles. D
    Minneapolis. D
    Seattle D
    Portland OR. D
    Austin TX. D

  10. Crime has increased all over Snohomish County, including everywhere in Edmonds. Our safety will continue to decrease unless we elect those who are tough on crime. Also, keep a close eye on our Snohomish County judges, including Edmonds Municipal Judge, Whitney Rivera. We need our judicial system to actually punish criminals instead of grant them more rights than their victims.

  11. Sounds like you all better be prepared to up your property tax fair share, if you elect this man, because more police, jails, judges, court appointed attorneys and juries are going to cost us lots more money. If Mr. Rogers is going to give you all this success on stopping crime that he is promising, he will have to hire more deputies in his office as well and you all pay for them too. Does Mr. Rogers have some magic answers as to how he will stop the proliferation of guns, gun violence, availability of street drugs and people living in public spaces with mental illness and drug addiction? I don’t really have a horse in this race, so if he wins, more power to him, but I suspect he will fail unless we start facing and solving the real problems behind all this crime. As a Republican, I can assure you Mr. Rogers will not do much of anything about too many guns being too easy to get. Remember, only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. Sure worked in Texas.

  12. My dream is to have State funds help us transform prisons into rehab centers. My idea is to bring in Drs, Nurses, Psychologists and Out reach workers and volunteers (like us) to get this going. We pay the Drs and all mentioned by paying off their student loan debt. They will live on premises and receive a modest salary. After 5 years they will move on and into private practice. IF we incarcerate without charges or expunge after there will be no need for extra judicators. Yes we will need more police enforcement to reach the ones we want to help but our property taxes are going up 18-19% and our accessed values are going down! I would rather pay taxes to help and give people a chance myself. We are spending now and all we are doing is enabling and causing more psychological and physical damage to these offenders and innocent citizens. We will have less OD and Suicide if we help. We tried this catch and release and it isn’t working. Of course it isn’t, addiction is too strong. Gun violence you can buy a ghost gun on the internet or on the street. People make weapons.

    1. You cannot incarcerate anyone without charges for any length of time without violating the Constitution. I would agree with you about expunging records to prevent incarceration being a life long sentence of being unable to get viable employment and living conditions, etc. Court ordered counseling and rehab. generally don’t work and judges mostly don’t buy that as a viable option when sentencing. The option for participating in substance abuse rehab. and mental health counseling in lieu of jail time can work and should be tried more often in my opinion. (Diversion programs). That’s where the willingness to spend public funds for the professionals you talk about would come in. Blaming Liberal governors, mayors, and legislators for the proliferation of substance addiction, gun violence and people living on the streets feels good, but won’t help fix anything until root causes of the problems are addressed and solved as well as possible under legal restrictions for protecting personal rights.

  13. I’m sure we all fondly remember how the government stopped prosecuting crimes and returned all of our tax money they were spending on law and order? I had so much extra money I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Oh, if only our tax money were handled that way? And since we have been hellbent on destroying all of our institutions that taught some sort of morality, I’ll stick to the old-fashioned method of locking up lawbreakers. It’s simple-minded and doesn’t correct human nature, but it’s the safest method for the general population. All of our institutions should be seeking improvement, always.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Real first and last names — as well as city of residence — are required for all commenters.
This is so we can verify your identity before approving your comment.

By commenting here you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read our code at the bottom of this page before commenting.