In 3/7/23 email, Sen Mike Braun (R-IN) says: “There’s a war on cops” & “soft-on-crime policies are at the root..” Last year Braun courageously tried to walk back approval of criminal penalties for mixed-race marriages. To blame “soft-on-crime policies” displays similar ignorance. 1/7

As the Brennan Center (9/27/21) notes, “‘brute force’ responses” to violent crime fail for three reasons. (1) There’s no evidence draconian sentences reduce crime; (2) Calling a crime “violent” is vague & places it outside the proper sphere of mercy or redemption; (3) This neglects...2/7

“powerful social drivers of violence: from poverty and racism to the wide availability of guns in the United States.” For people like Braun it’s easier to propose to throw more poor, non-white people into prison than it is to tackle poverty and racism. There’s also an odd confluence. 3/7

Studies by Donohue and Levitt found “crime fell roughly 20% between 1997 and 2014 due to legalized abortion....and roughly 45%, ... of the roughly 50-55% overall decline from the peak of crime in the early 1990s." Abortion not only is a woman’s right to decide, but curbs crime. 4/7

Since the Civil War & arms makers’ taste of real profits, we have been militarized & supply well over half the arms to the rest of the World. Congress ignores requirements for declaration of war. U.S. Const., Art. I, sec. 8) & we send people to fight. Back home they’re lucky to find jobs. 5/7

War on crime fails because it ignores cause & substitutes violence for complicated solutions. A 2020 analysis of 911 calls in 8 cities found 21%-38% involved homelessness, behav health, subst use, quality-of-life concerns & other community conflicts. (Ctr for American Progress.) 6/7

We need to train people in disciplines that will address the problems & we need far fewer guns on the streets and in homes. Did Braun miss the criminals he saw brazenly enter The Capitol on January 6, 2021? I’m Mark Small, pro-environment, pro-choice, anti-gun candidate in the GOP primary for City-Council District 2. I approve of this message. Hell, I wrote it. 7/7