XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, mn.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: he-failed-to-repatriate-niggers@reparations.org   
      
   MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Voters in Minnesota’s largest county elected Mary   
   Moriarty as their top prosecutor after she promised to deliver change in a   
   community where George Floyd was murdered and a nationwide reckoning on   
   racism in the criminal justice system was born.   
      
   After Moriarty, a former public defender, became the Hennepin County   
   Attorney in January 2023, she vowed to make police more accountable and   
   change the culture of an office she believes had long overemphasized   
   punishment without addressing the root causes of crime.   
      
   Her election came as the Minneapolis area was still reeling from the 2020   
   murder of Floyd by a police officer and the resulting protests and   
   prosecutions of police. Moriarty’s two immediate predecessors had been in   
   office for a combined 31 years, and her promises of dramatic changes had the   
   backing of the state Democratic party, community leaders and voters hungry   
   for a new approach.   
      
   But only 18 months after beginning her four-year term, Moriarty faces fierce   
   backlash, even among some former supporters. Her critics have questioned her   
   decisions to seek lighter sentences for violent crimes in some cases and to   
   divert more people to programs rather than jail.   
      
   Moriarty has had public spats with the state’s Democratic governor, and in   
   some cases, she has been caught between groups with divergent political   
   views.   
      
   She bore heavy criticism from police officers, local officials and some   
   progressive activists after she charged a white state trooper for the   
   killing of a Black man last summer, only to later reverse course and drop   
   the charges.   
      
   Leaders with the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association had waged a   
   high-profile campaign urging Tim Walz, the state’s Democratic governor, to   
   reassign the prosecution away from Moriarty. This month, the association   
   filed an ethics complaint against Moriarty, alleging she knowingly made   
   false statements about the case, a claim she has denied.   
      
   Even as Moriarty remains committed to her approach, she acknowledged that   
   some of her initial support has dwindled.   
      
   “There have been times I’ve asked myself, is this the city where George   
   Floyd was murdered? But at the same time, if I look historically, any time   
   there’s been progress, there’s always backlash,” Moriarty said.   
   “There’s   
   nothing different about this than when people in the past have tried to   
   change systems that have been in place for decades.”   
      
   Moriarty was elected among of a wave of progressive district attorneys who   
   took office following the murder of Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter   
   protests. In Oregon, voters in May replaced a progressive district attorney   
   with a centrist candidate backed by police groups who vowed to be tough on   
   crime in the Portland area amid frustrations over violence tied to   
   homelessness and drug use. That same month in California’s Bay Area, Alameda   
   County supervisors set a recall election for a district attorney who ran on   
   a platform of offender rehabilitation and police accountability.   
      
   The crop of progressive prosecutors promised a more thoughtful approach to   
   holding people accountable, but for many it has been a challenge that has   
   left them vulnerable to complaints that they have endangered public safety.   
      
   Moriarty, a former chief public defender for the county, was elected over a   
   former judge with nearly 58% of the vote.   
      
   Some of her former supporters now say her approach has gone too far. Matt   
   Pelikan, a former Democratic candidate for attorney general who donated to   
   Moriarty’s campaign, said the office under Moriarty has taken a permissive   
   approach, resulting in some criminals getting released from custody, only to   
   quickly reoffend.   
      
   “I supported Mary because I believed, and I still believe that the old   
   formula wasn’t working,” Pelikan said. “But I think Mary has gone further   
   and not abided by the goals of that office, which are safety and justice.”   
      
   Under Moriarty’s leadership, more cases have been subject to “diversion,”   
   which often involves referring someone who has committed a crime to a   
   program they must complete so they can avoid jail time.   
      
   Jared Mollenkof, who worked with Moriarty as a public defender, said she has   
   made juvenile prosecutions fairer by restructuring the county’s approach to   
   prosecuting juveniles, emphasizing alternatives to incarceration.   
      
   “I think that there has been a real refocusing to allow prosecutors to make   
      
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