In the past few years alone, California and New York have seen hundreds of thousands of residents move out of state, resulting in the embarrassing loss of Congressional seats which are directly linked to population size.  Not surprisingly, those finite Representative seats are being reallocated to states like FL and TX, states that have actually seen recent population growth. Why is this migration happening? Some have observed that one party rule in many blue states has led to the merciless and relentless torment of citizens from progressive government officials. For decades, free rein leftist policy has created exorbitant taxes, business-strangling regulation and unaffordable housing, making working class Americans yearn for redder pastures, but this is nothing new. It seems like the latest push and the back-snapping straw for the proverbial camel has come from the increasing absence of law and order in these communities in recent years, which has put law-abiding citizens in harm’s way.

Until recently, Massachusetts had enjoyed a few defenses to guard against suffering the same dystopian fate as CA and NY.  First, our climate isn’t exactly tent friendly year-round and as few heroin enthusiasts have the financial means to “Summer in Boston,” we were relatively safe from permanent vagrant enclaves springing up on the Boston Common.  Second, our State prosecutors have historically not been radical criminal-coddling ideologues like the Soros-sponsored DA’s Alvin Bragg and David Soares of NY, or George Gascon and Chesa Boudin of CA. To be fair, for all our limp-wristed, liberal tendencies, Massachusetts has been pretty serious about law and order, including rather ubiquitous support for our police force and once shutting down the entire state for days until we hunted down two terrorists.

That is, of course, until wokeness infected our walls of justice with the election of Rachael Rollins to the Suffolk County DA’s office in 2019. A firm believer in the philosophy that the only way to lessen crime is to not punish it, Rollins won favor with the Cambridge cocktail circuit crowd who temporarily satiated their white guilt by pretending that her tried and failed ideas on criminal justice reform had any merit whatsoever.  Then, after an extensive two years on the job, she was chosen to be the US attorney for the District of Massachusetts by Joe Biden, ostensibly using the same criteria he uses to pick Vice Presidents. 

Rollins, known for her non-prosecution prosecutorial style and obsession with skin color, had her differences with Governor Charlie Baker from the start.  Technically a Republican, Baker initially raised concerns over Rollins’ evident refusal to enforce laws that she had sworn to uphold. This led to an immediate dust-up between the two and Rollins was quick to explain any criticism of her soft-on-crime style as merely sexist racism.  In this new age of experimental criminal empowerment, Baker, for all his shortcomings, was at least an advocate for police, an opposing voice to radical criminal justice reform and has, thus far, helped keep Boston from turning into a lawless third-world hell hole like LA or Chicago.

Now that Baker is stepping down, we face the prospect of Governor Maura Healey.  A Healey election would give Rollins her ideal partner in enabling crime. Healey is the current MA Attorney General and no stranger to the “blame the police first” doctrine. From prosecutorial discretion to vaccine mandates, Healey and Baker have rarely seen eye to eye and one can only presume that the only thing that has prevented Massachusetts from being handed over to the disenfranchised and underrepresented criminal element has been America’s favorite RINO, Charlie Baker. With his exit, the only possibility of retaining a moderately sane level of criminal justice in the Bay State would be balancing the scales with an upset win for Jay McMahon over Andrea Campbell as the new AG, or Geoff Diehl beating Maura Healey for Governor, neither of which look likely at this point.

For those who think I may be overstating the importance of this Gubernatorial race, have a look at the Healey campaign website. It highlights her commitment to reducing systemic racism in law enforcement – translation: not prosecuting offenders with higher melanin levels than her own because her compassionate bigotry of low expectations would disallow it.  Her website further goes on to describe her support for decriminalization of certain offenses, defunding the police, cashless bail, repealing minimum sentencing, raising property theft dollar thresholds and giving convicts the right to vote. These same measures helped skyrocket the crime rate in NYC and turned the streets of San Francisco into a mosaic of syringes and human waste, but hell’s bells, let’s see if they’ll work in the Commonwealth.

Under the Rollins/Campbell/Healey vision we can look forward to wave after wave of repeat offenders committing crimes with virtual impunity as it will be impossible for police to keep them locked up. Raising the property theft threshold from $250 to a figure more sensitive to the needs of thieves will only encourage the dregs of society to walk into stores, load up their duffel bags and walk out knowing Maura and Rachael have their back.  Lastly, defunding and demonizing the police will only lead to the same shortage of quality law enforcement that Seattle and Minneapolis have experienced with similarly abhorrent results.

For many years, high taxes, bureaucratic red-tape and expensive housing has kept Massachusetts in the top ten list of most fled states.  Maura Healey’s advocacy from the State House of criminal-sympathizing, failed criminal justice reform ideas have the potential to bring the Bay State to number one on that list…with a bullet.