(The Center Square) – Houston has long had a crime problem as the state’s largest city, but it’s worsened because of several incumbent Democratic judges who continue to release criminals onto the streets, numerous groups including the Houston Police Officer’s Union, Houston Crime Stoppers, Stop Houston Murders Now, family members of crime victims, and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg argue.
Ogg, a lifelong Democrat, has endorsed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as well as other Republicans who are committed to tough-on-crime policies.
At a Cruz campaign event Monday night in the Houston area, she said that over the last eight years, the 350 attorneys in her office have filed nearly 900,000 criminal cases.
“That is way too many cases for a few lawyers and we’re kept understaffed because there’s a real push by my party not to incarcerate violent people,” she said, referring to Democratic county officials not fully funding law enforcement, prompting the state to get involved.
“I’m from a different party endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz because he gets it right when it comes to crime,” she said. “That is the number one issue in Harris County. People care about crime.”
“I don’t want you to wait to be one of the victims of a drunk driver or a murderer out on bond or a rapist who’s been released without any restrictions against his victim. And that’s what we’re seeing,” she said to hundreds in a packed crowd, referring to judges who continue to release criminals onto the streets. “Locally crime is a problem because unfortunately, many of my colleagues seem to favor defendants over crime victims.”
Ogg said she cares so much about crime victims because her mother survived being kidnapped by a serial rapist and murderer in 1962. Her mother jumped out of a car moving 40 miles an hour because she “made the decision that she would rather die than be killed … and she lived.
“How desperate and afraid do you have to be to reach that conclusion? There’s people on the streets of Houston having to make decisions like that. Whether it’s domestic violence, whether it’s human trafficking, whether it’s a serial rapist, whether it is an aggravated robber, or whether it’s just somebody with malice in their heart that’s going to kill somebody. Our people are having to make life and death decisions every day.”
She also said hundreds have been murdered by defendants out on bond, which “did not have to happen.” Increased crime and murders “began with our judges, yes, elected in my party,” she said.
“I am sorry that they have taken this approach. It’s not everybody, but it’s enough of them that I put up a big fight. And you know what? That made my party mad. And my thought is let ’em be mad. I’m mad. Aren’t you mad?”
Ogg was primaried and lost to a candidate backed by billionaire George Soros’ Justice and Safety PAC, which prioritizes getting district attorneys elected to implement policies that abolish bail, release criminals, and defund the police, The Center Square reported.
She’s encouraged voters to cast their ballots for judges and politicians who support tough-on-crime policies. She also thanked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for prioritizing legislative reforms next year to increase penalties for violent crimes. These include bail reform and penalties for child capital murder charges, The Center Square reported.
One bipartisan group, Stop Houston Murders, is also urging residents to vote out incumbent judges who they argue are responsible for people being killed. In short videos, family members of victims share their stories.
In one, Jazmen Steele says her sister’s boyfriend had 7 felony charges when he pistol whipped her. “He was charged and a bad judge let him go. And then he killed her,” she said. “I never knew a judge could ruin our lives. I never voted before but my sister’s blood is on the judge’s hands. Don’t let soft on crime judges ruin another family like they ruined mine.”
StopHoustonMurders.com lists cases, victims, crime descriptions, the suspect, charges, and the judge who released the suspect.
The victims include police officers, those trying to escape domestic violence, people eating breakfast at McDonald’s, people asleep when their home was set on fire, pregnant women beaten and stabbed to death, children and adults shot execution style, teenagers shot multiple times, grandmothers stabbed to death, drive-by shootings, among many others. The suspects, with long rap sheets and multiple felony charges, were released by judges.
The HPOU has published a list of endorsements. Fox 26 Houston’s “Breaking Bond” series with Houston Crime Stoppers regularly reports on Houstonians murdered by criminals with multiple felonies released on bond by judges who “do little to nothing to defendants who repeatedly violate bond conditions.”
Ogg said her mother had a “huge scar on the back of her head, a scar the size of my hand, like a splatted tomato. … She always had that scar. She just didn’t talk about it, and it didn’t show. But that’s what every crime victim in America, in Texas and in Houston, faces. Some of them raised kids to change the world and I’m one of them.”
