Jeff Jackson Is Too Soft on Crime for North Carolina

Jeff Jackson. Image via YouTube.

Jackson has favored criminals over law abiding citizens in his time in government. Now he wants to be North Carolina’s top cop.

For someone running to be North Carolina’s Attorney General and top enforcer of the law, Jeff Jackson’s record demonstrates he is the wrong candidate to fight crime. As a state senator and member of Congress, Jackson has sided with criminals and undermined public safety.

Jackson praised the Mecklenburg District Attorney’s bail reform, on which the office has since backtracked and called for stricter bail laws. Jackson went even further, making statements appearing to support the idea of getting rid of cash bail altogether. 

When he served in the state senate, Jackson said too much is spent on prisons. He supports “broadening” the concept of first responders to include social workers, and marches with anti-police protestors at police stations. He advocates for the well-meaning but flawed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would in effect establish racial quotas for traffic stops and police hiring. Jackson also wants to fund “community-based organizations” to study law enforcement issues that amount to nothing more than handouts to Jackson’s progressive allies like the ACLU.

It isn’t just lip service for out-of-touch progressives—Jackson backs it up with votes. Less than a year after the summer riots of 2020, Jackson voted against a bill in the North Carolina Senate stiffening penalties and laws for riots and related offenses. Two years earlier, Jackson opposed strengthening anti-criminal gang laws. In Congress, Jackson even supported loosening penalties—he voted to let stand Washington, DC’s revised criminal code eliminating most mandatory minimums and decreasing maximum penalties. 

(READ MORE: When Jeff Jackson Denounces Political Violence, Does He Really Mean It?)

Jackson’s Policies Simply Don’t Work

Worsening Jackson’s stances and votes—these policies do not work. In a classic case of good intentions doing more harm than good, increased public scrutiny on police often leads to increased crime rates. The name of this phenomenon, “Ferguson Effect,” came from Ferguson, Missouri where protests following the 2014 officer-involved death of Michael Brown occurred. After that incident, police become less proactive in maintaining law and order for fear of attracting public backlash and protests. Consequently, crime increases. 

North Carolina voters consider public safety a top issue of concern. Jackson has taken positions on crime and law enforcement in vogue with the far-Left, but out of touch with the majority of voters in North Carolina. Attorneys General are jokingly referred to as “Aspiring Governors” and if the politically ambitious Jackson wishes to keep aspiring, he should abandon his soft-on-crime policies for his own sake—even if he refuses to do so in the name of public safety.

(READ MORE: Jeff Jackson & Kamala Harris Will Bring California Gun Confiscation to North Carolina)

Nicholas Goeden is the opposition research manager for Restoration News.

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