Because that's what happens in periods of unrest and economic turmoil like we've had for the last few years. That's why it's happening all over the country, not just in Oregon.
You're having trouble reconciling why an Oregon law can't solve a national problem? I'm not sure what to tell you if you thought an Oregon law which limits the arrest of people for nonviolent crimes was going to have an impact on violent crime trends. Especially when the same trends are being seen nation wide...
You stated and I quote "This allows more room in prisons for violent offenders." Do you think the prison population for violent offenders is growing? I do not. But hey, I could be wrong.
I don't think there are enough violent people that the prison population needs to grow. We just need enough room that violent people aren't being matrixed out early. Because letting violent people out is obviously not a good thing. Having a larger prison population does not correlate with lower crime rates. Otherwise the US (5% of the world population, yet 25% of the world prison population) would have the lowest crime rates in the world.
That Oregon law covers our cities as much as it covers Portland. No police in Oregon can arrest people for possession of small amounts of drugs. The problem in Portland can be fixed in a very straightforward manner, without throwing nonviolent people in jail. We are choosing to allow Portland to be that way because we are either too ignorant and/or too stubborn and vindictive to solve the problem. And increasing the prison population isn't the solution. I'll say this, advocating to lock sick people up isn't a very Christian thing to do. In fact, no religion I know of advocates treating sick people that way.
Absolutely. Maya Moore and Raphael Warnock are good people. Jerry Falwell and Patrick Robertson are evil people. All claim Christianity as motivation.
Here is the difference between Jesus and the law: The law tells you what to do, but it can’t give you the power to do it. Jesus tells you what to do, and he gives you the power to do it. That is where strength, hope, and faith begin. It begins because the Son of God has come. It does not begin in us. It begins in him. Listen to how the apostle Paul puts it: “God has done what the law…could not do” (Romans 8:3). What could the law not do? The law could not forgive past sins, and it could not empower future obedience. So, how did God do what the law could not do? He did it “by sending his own Son…” What did the Son of God do, that would forgive past sins and empower future obedience? “He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). By dying on the cross, where his flesh was torn and his blood was shed, Jesus Christ made provision for all of our past sins. But it does not end there. He rose from the dead, and as the living Lord and the ascended Savior, he works by his Holy Spirit to give strength, hope, and faith. He did all this “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). I was reading this week about a woman who endured a long period of darkness and depression. When, by God’s grace, she finally got relief, this was her testimony: “I realized after all these years that I was looking to find in myself what I needed to find in him.” The good news for the person without strength, without hope, and without faith today is that it does not lie in you. It lies in Jesus. There is a Savior who can be trusted, and in him there is hope and there is strength for you. “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). There is a Savior whose Word brings strength to the powerless, hope to the hopeless, and faith to the faithless. May his Word bring new strength, new hope, and new faith to all of us today. https://openthebible.org/article/the-difference-between-jesus-and-the-law/
You don't get the right to push that off on people as law. Doing so at their peril makes it evil. The last few years have taken me from being accepting of religion to the realization that religion is in fact evil.
