Results: CNN analyst admits far-left criminal justice reform is not working

Philadelphia police arrested dozens of people last month after large, organized groups of rioters — whom interim police Commissioner John Stanford called "criminal opportunists" — terrorized the city's downtown area. A second night of mass looting erupted on the following morning. Do you get tired of opportunistic criminals using "rioting" and/or "protesting" as an excuse to destroy and steal?

According to CNN chief law enforcement analyst John Miller, the situation in Philadelphia is endemic of a larger problem striking Democrat-controlled cities. Have you noticed the soft-on-crime policies of the Democrat Party seem to encourage criminal behavior - as should be no surprise?

That problem, Miller said, is that looters exploit protests using "sophisticated communications networks" to organize mass crime sprees. They are emboldened by progressive criminal justice reform that seeks to decrease the penalty for property crimes, he explained, suggesting that "the litmus test" for such reform is to see where organized property crime is occurring. "You are seeing this kind of looting happening — I mean shoplifting and organized retail theft happen — in places like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia," he observed. Do you agree that easing penalties for property crimes helps contribute to more crime overall?

"If you look at where Target closed nine stores yesterday — four stores in San Francisco, stores in Seattle, stores in Portland, stores in New York — these are places where bail reform laws, criminal justice reforms have taken the inside of a jail cell out of the equation," Miller explained. "So shoplifting is a crime where a judge can't set bail." Do you see a problem with relaxing criminal prosecution so much that there is no deterrent for criminal behavior left?

To prove his point, Miller cited data from New York City. "Think about this: In New York City there are just over 300 people who have between them 4,000 arrests; 70% of them are not in jail, and they account for 30% of all shoplifting in New York. This is actually their job. They go out to steal every day," he said. "And that has gone up significantly because they know getting put in jail is not in the equation any longer because of the laws that say 'it's a no-bail offense' and DA's policies are they don't want people in custody for what they call nonviolent crimes," he explained. The end result of such criminal justice reform policies, Miller said, is that criminals realize it "is just like shopping without money." Do you see the general relaxing of prosecution and penalties for criminal behavior as a problem?