An obscure municipal judge in Ohio made national headlines last week in sentencing an offender to work at a fast-food joint in lieu of prison.
This type of clueless, out-of-touch “enlightenment” points up why Democrats are struggling to maintain any shred of their working-class voting base against Donald J. Trump.
The judge’s ruling stemmed from a September misdemeanor assault in a Cleveland suburb: 39-year-old Rosemary Hayne, displeased with her Chipotle order’s quality, flung a bowl of hot food at a counter worker.
She pleaded guilty and faced a 180-day jail sentence, with half suspended — a reasonable penalty.
But the judge, Democrat Tim Gilligan, wanted to show how creative he is in teaching “a sense of empathy.”
So he told Hayne she could serve 60 days of her sentence not in jail but in a fast-food restaurant, working 20 hours a week.
This “sentence” sends a message to the 4.7 million Americans who work in fast food: Your job is no better than being in jail.
People don’t work in fast food to learn how not to throw bowls of food at other people; they work in fast food to earn a living, whether as an end in itself or to save money for trade school or college.
Many work their way up within their companies.
What makes Gilligan think fast-food employees want to work with someone who can’t control her temper?
Companies should give applicants with criminal histories a chance, if they demonstrate that they’ve learned from their mistakes.
People recently released from jail or prison need jobs.
But even at her sentencing, Hayne was still lamenting the quality of her Chipotle food, calling it “disgusting.”
Nobody wants to work with someone who could turn violent — including toward the customers! — at the slightest provocation.
Gilligan seems to have no clue that even entry-level employers have some rationality in their hiring processes: They don’t have to take all comers.
Most employers aren’t even going to hire someone who intends to work only for two months.
He likely wouldn’t sentence a bank robber to work at a bank or a patient who attacked a doctor to start performing surgeries.
Why does he think the fast-food industry is naturally part of the criminal justice system?
Gilligan claims his innovative sentencing will “deter others from this type of behavior.”
Why would it? Is the assaultive portion of the American population suddenly going to be petrified that they’ll have to work at Chipotle?
What does deter people from committing assault — at least if they’re not severely mentally ill — is knowing they’ll face predictable, consistent punishment.
Since American cities began pulling back from enforcing laws against small crimes in the wake of the #BlackLivesMatter movement that began in the mid-2010s, workers who interact with the public, in fast-food outlets and retail stores, have become terrified.
As Bloomberg reports, retail employees are quitting at record levels, in large part because public-facing workers fear for their safety.
Just last week, a shoplifter fatally stabbed a Macy’s security guard in Philadelphia.
The last thing fast-food and retail workers need is enlightened judges who think the cure for the public disorder that spills over into restaurant and retail space is for these restaurants and stores to become pro-bono halfway houses for the people committing the disorder.
Fast-food restaurants and stores need the government to protect them and their workers from crime; Gilligan is saying we’ll put the burden right back on you.
Gilligan’s sentencing came the same week yet another poll, this one from the Wall Street Journal, shows Trump beating President Biden in the polls in 11 months.
Biden is losing “groups who would consistently vote Democratic — young voters and black and Latino voters.”
Might that be because so many young, black and Latino voters work in restaurant and retail jobs and can see for themselves how Democratic policies toward crime and disorder harm them and their colleagues?
Only 30% of potential voters think Biden is the better candidate on crime (compared with 47% for Trump).
Learning that a Democratic judge thinks their workplaces are interchangeable with jails is hardly going to send these voters back to the polls to vote for Biden again next fall.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.
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