The debate is settled! More than 130 police chiefs say that we are safer with criminals roaming the streets rather than in jails.

Asserting that “too many people are behind bars that don’t belong there,” the officials plan to announce on Wednesday that they have formed a group to push for alternatives to arrests, reducing the number of criminal laws and ending mandatory minimum prison sentences.

This is correct. Too many criminals don't belong in jail. Criminals belong on the streets, in our businesses, in our parked cars, even in bed with our wives while we are working late at the office.

The law enforcement leaders now say reducing incarceration will improve public safety because people who need treatment for drug and alcohol problems or mental health issues will be more likely to improve and reintegrate into society if they receive consistent care, something relatively few jails or prisons offer.

Don't people in jail automatically get drug treatment? That is, they no longer have access to the drugs they are taking. In a short time they no longer have dependence on it. As for the insane (sorry, I mean those with "mental health issues"), couldn't a facility with padded walls help them work out their issues better than walking around on Main Street?

Mr. Bratton said that New York State and city law enforcement agencies “were well ahead of the curve in understanding that you can’t arrest your way out of the problem.”

That's just what liberals say about the impracticality of enforcing our immigration laws: "What are you going to do, round them all up?" It's the same thing with criminals. We can't round them all up. We should stop trying. I think all police who feel this way should retire. They're no longer needed. They should do something more productive like becoming florists or hairdressers.

The organization will release a report on Wednesday. “With momentum for criminal justice reform accelerating, we want to leave no doubt where the law enforcement community stands: We need less incarceration, not more, to keep all Americans safe,” the group said.

 In fact, the fewer criminals in jail, the safer we will be. We are actually in great danger now because of all the people locked up in prison.

The policies have disproportionately affected African-American men. A 2013 study by the Sentencing Project found that police strategies that target black men and judges’ harsher sentences for minorities meant that one in three African-Americans born that year could expect to spend time in prison, compared with one in 17 white men.

Mark Levin made a great point the other day. In order for our justice system to be racist, the liberal judges in the big city must be racist, and the local juries, made up of blacks, hispanics, and other liberals who vote to convict, must be racist too.

“After all the years I’ve been doing this work, I ask myself, ‘What is a crime, and what does the community want?’ ” Superintendent McCarthy, a chairman of the group, said. “When we’re arresting people for low-level offenses — narcotics — I’m not sure we’re achieving what we’ve set out to do. The system of criminal justice is not supporting what the community wants.

I wonder if this guy is related to Kevin McCarthy. He really doesn't know why he's arresting drug dealers? Has he ever lived in a neighborhood with drug dealers roaming the streets?

“We’re talking about using a scarce resource — beds in jails and prisons — in the most effective way,” said Benjamin David, a member of the group and the district attorney for New Hanover and Pender Counties in North Carolina. “I would say to people, ‘Who would you rather have in there — a bank robber or an addict who is aggressively panhandling downtown?’"

You see, it's a choice--either, or. You can't arrest both, according to Benjamin David. I would bet that Ben David doesn't live in a town with "aggressive panhandling downtown" that he has to walk through every day.

I think all these police who say this should resign. Police who won't fight crime. What's next, firefighters who won't fight fires?

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.