An endorsement (or two, if you count me) for Troy King

Feddie at Southern Appeal encourages Alabama voters to re-elect Troy King as Attorney General. Troy King hasn't impressed me as much as his predecessor, Bill Pryor, but his positions on the issues still make him to be a far better choice than John Tyson, Jr., his Democratic opponent. From that Tuscaloosa News report that Feddie linked to:

The attorney general serves as the state’s lawyer, who also appoints private attorneys to state cases, an important and advantageous patronage position.

The attorney general also sets the tone for the approach to law enforcement and criminal justice, said Brad Moody, a political science professor at Auburn University in Montgomery. ...

Moody said King and Tyson’s philosophies couldn’t be more dissimilar.

King is the type of prosecutor who believes in locking them up and throwing away the key.

“King is sort of a three-decades-later Charlie Graddick," Moody said. “But that’s the Republican approach. He kind of personifies the conservative, hard-nose, we-got-to be-tough-on-criminals approach."

Tyson, a 54-year-old Democrat, is a good-natured but tough-sounding bear of a district attorney who says prosecuting criminals isn’t enough. He advocates programs to help prevent crime and rehabilitate criminals, especially drug users.

King calls those “feel-good programs."

“You see over and over when we tilt toward responding to crime with social programs, the crime rate goes up and that’s what’s going up in Mobile," King said. “Three years in a row homicides are up 30 percent. The way to stop crime is to punish people who commit crimes." ...

Tyson said he wants to expand community correction programs he helped start in Mobile County, such as drug court, where certain non-violent addicts can plead guilty to felonies but receive intensive counseling and rehabilitation. If they fail, they’re hauled off to prison.

“He has no appreciation of trying to stop crime before it happens," Tyson said of King.

King’s response is that the attorney general isn’t hired to conduct social experiments.

“The attorney general is hired to make streets safer," he said. “I believe you do that by doing the things we’re doing, making Alabama physically safer by passing tough laws. We’ve passed an incredible child pornography law, meth law, an identify theft law. Our laws are the models for the nation."

I agree with Mr. Tyson that it's best to prevent crime before it is committed. I think that Attorney General King and everyone else with an ounce of common sense would also agree. The question for our next Attorney General is not whether government should try to prevent crime, but rather how it can most effectively act to achieve that objective.

The type of crime prevention that Tyson advocates - a myriad of new taxpayer-financed social programs - relies far to heavily on the power of politicians, bureaucrats, and state-employed social workers to change the hearts and minds of criminals. It's a task that government is quite unsuited to perform, and all the wishful thinking in the world won't change that.

That's not to say that government should be passive or reactive when dealing with criminals. Government can and does have a major role to play in preventing crime - one that flows from the simple fact that it is the only institution in our society which is empowered to isolate those who commit crimes - and especially those who commit violent crimes - from those of us who don't. When it comes to fighting crime, it seems to me that government is most effective when it focuses its attention on that unique and essential responsibility. We should always leave room for alternatives other than "lock 'em up and throw away the key," but we have to also recognize that government is notoriously ineffective in bringing about cultural change among a criminal element that shows no inclination to change. I wish it were different, but unlike John Tyson, Jr., I understand that wishful thinking doesn't make it so. That's one reason I'll be voting for Troy King come November.