On Saturday, Mike Gill, the chief operating officer of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) during the Donald Trump administration, died from gunshot wounds he suffered during a vicious carjacking spree in Washington, D.C., on Monday night. He left behind a wife and three children. The assailant, 28-year-old Artell Cunningham, was killed by the police in Maryland early Tuesday morning.
In 2021, Mr. Cunningham had been arrested for domestic violence and making threats to murder all the police officers if they did not release him. On the day of his arrest, his charges were downgraded to misdemeanor threats to do bodily harm, and a short time later, interim U.S. attorney Michael R. Sherwin dropped all charges and closed the case against Mr. Cunningham, making him a free man.
Any judge who drops the charges of a felon and sets him free, and that felon goes out and kills someone, must be held accountable both professionally and civilly. If Donald Trump was ordered to pay E Jean Carroll $83 million because he merely called her a “liar” and “ugly”, shouldn’t the family members of Mike Gill be able to sue Michael Sherwin because he released their loved one’s murderer back into society? He put a man who threatened to murder all the police officers back on the streets, and that man ended up murdering a public official and there is no accountability for that.
What were the mitigating factors that Judge Sherwin used to drop all charges against a man who committed domestic violence and then threatened to murder police officers? Apparently, there was only one, the color of his skin. Judge Sherwin did not once think about Artell Cunningham’s family who he endangered by letting a domestic abuser go, or the police officers he threatened, or some future victim like Mike Gill who he would eventually kill. He only saw the color of Artell’s skin and he dropped the charges.
Now, Artell Cunningham is dead. How did Judge Sherwin actually help Mr. Cunningham by not holding him accountable for his actions, and allowing him with his murderous nature back on the streets? He didn’t. The result is that he is dead. Not only did Judge Sherwin’s reckless decision to free Mr. Cunningham lead to the death of Mike Gill, it also led to the death of Mr. Cunningham himself, the very person he thought he was helping by letting him go. Even if the police had not shot and killed Artell Cunningham Tuesday morning, and they simply arrested him, he would be facing life in prison.
Both people are dead now, because the judge failed to do his job and make a criminal face serious consequences for his criminal actions. By not holding a criminal accountable, by letting him walk free, the judge not only endangered the lives of the public, he also pushed the man further down an already self-destructive path which led to his death. There’s an old saying, ‘you get more of what you tolerate’. We are tolerating more and more crime, especially violent crime, and we are getting more and more violent crime.
Last week, four illegal immigrants savagely beat up two police officers in Times Square. They were arrested and immediately released on no bail. As they were walking out of the court house free men, one of them had the audacity to flip off the camera man videoing him. That tells us everything we need to know about how effective these soft on crime policies are in these sanctuary cities. We are telling illegal immigrants that not only is it okay for them to break our federal immigration laws, but it is okay for them to break all of our laws. These men have no respect for our laws, our country and human life. The judge who let these men who beat up two police officers off, have signed the death warrant of their future victims.
All four of these illegal immigrants, jumped on a bus at taxpayer expense and headed to California where they will most likely assault more cops and law-abiding citizens. Joe Biden and the Democrats are doing to America what the illegal immigrant leaving the court house did to the camera man, flipping us off, telling us to go ‘f-ourselves’. It is fitting that the illegal immigrant who flipped off America while leaving the courthouse was wearing an LA Lakers, LeBron James shirt. He was wearing the shirt of a celebrity who routinely tells America to ‘f-off’. And that is where these inane policies are promulgated, from a self-righteous elite who are so insolated from violent crime, living behind their walls and gates and security guards that they can afford to side with the criminals over the law-abiding citizens because violent crime will never touch them.
The criminals, whose criminal behavior we are tolerating are not magically turning their lives around because they were let off the hook. Artell Cunningham did not go to business school or the seminary as a result of the judge dropping all charges against him in 2021. He merely slunk back into his criminal element and lifestyle. God only knows how many violent crimes he committed and got away with between 2021 and last Tuesday. How many victims were left in his wake until he committed such a heinous crime that he ended up dead?
Our judicial system is no longer about trying to enact justice, no longer about holding people accountable for crimes they commit, no longer about preserving our society. It has been politicized and weaponized to such an extent that both our political system, and our society in general is on the verge of collapse. Donald Trump is facing 91 indictments and 4 separate trials from several hyper-partisan and politically motivated prosecutors, and even if these were actual crimes and not politically manufactured charges, they are minuscule of a threat to society compared to the threat posed by Artell Cunningham or the four illegal immigrants who were never indicted and tried for their violent crimes. Our judicial system is being used to settle political and social scores, as well as trying to right past racial injustices. Everything that they are doing is creating more injustices that will need to righted in the future, thus creating future injustices which will have to be righted in an even more distant future.
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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.