In the Old Testament, the Israelites had places they called “cities of refuge.” The idea was that certain cities were designated as refuges for people who had committed manslaughter. The Mosaic Law demanded the blood of the person who committed murder be shed as an atonement. In the case of manslaughter, when a death resulted from a crime less than murder, a place was given where the perpetrator could flee and remain the rest of his life, safe from the “avenger of blood.” There, the killer would remain until the death of the high priest, whereupon he could return to his home city and resume his life.
Perhaps we need a system like that today. Let’s say certain crimes, like manslaughter, or a cop who kills an unarmed person resisting arrest inadvertently, should live out his life in a designated city, away from the loved ones or community that might seek revenge. It seems fair. We might even extend it to include other crimes. Let’s say that a person commits a series of nonviolent crimes, like passing bad checks or other financial crimes. Prison really isn’t the best place for such a person. Let them live out their lives in a place with others who are also dishonest. After all, isn’t the worst part of hell for the sinner having to spend eternity with others who lie, cheat, steal, commit violence, and kill?
An acquaintance of mine was working on a science-fiction novel where the society on an alien planet set up cities of refuge of an electronic sort. The people designated a geographical area surrounded by electronic sensors. Some were in deserts, others on islands, and others near the polar regions. The places were uninhabited. Offenders were tried and, when found guilty, they were tagged electronically like a moose or a bear, with a trackable device that could not be removed. Then the convicts were sentenced to live in one of the areas of refuge. They were safe inside those areas, but if they were ever caught outside the boundaries, immediate summary execution was the penalty.
In the novel, the first convicts in these areas were like pioneers of sorts. They had to struggle. In some areas, they formed up gangs or some other kind of social organization and began to organize for survival. If they behaved criminally, nobody cared, because their whole society was nothing but criminals. If they killed one another, it was no big deal. After all, if they were good, decent people, they wouldn't be there. Eventually, out of the anarchy, some of the communities survived and became cities. Some of them were hellish nightmares of violence and mayhem. One of them turned into a city like Las Vegas, where it actually became a place non-convicts went to legally participate in vices like gambling and prostitution that were illegal elsewhere. Because of the money that the outsiders brought in, the mobsters that ran the place, much like Vegas, protected tourist from excessive exploitation. The criminals didn’t leave, but they turned a handsome profit.
That’s the kind of situation we need here. Let the Antifa and BLM revolutionaries have a piece of a state, like Nevada or some island. Make it so they can have their CHAZ/CHOP area that they govern completely independent of the rest of the nation. Let it become whatever they wish it to be. If their socialist ideals turns it into a paradise, we will see if their ideology truly merits duplication elsewhere. If they crash and burn, then they live with the consequences. If they kill one another or tolerate rape and substance abuse, then the consequences are theirs to live with. We don’t provide them with any support. We just give them a place and say, if you ever step outside the boundaries, you are dead meat.
We don’t need to give them Seattle, Portland, or Chicago, but if you did, those cities are already well on their way to becoming socialistic “paradises.” It might be cheaper to put an electronic barrier around it and say to the good people, leave now or remain forever here. If you want to live in peace with the rest of us, let’s go now. If not, enjoy your life in your autonomous zone. Sure, it will cause some temporary dislocations and some idiot criminal will think he can challenge the system and leave his city of refuge, only to be found and have the death penalty on him instantly executed.
It’s a biblical solution to a problem that is as old as humanity? What do the good people do with the evil who defy God and won’t obey his laws? You can’t build enough prisons and most prisons are inhumane. Instead, give them cities of refuge and exile them permanently. Let their earthly reward teach them what to expect in the afterlife. Those who are bound for a hell tend to make their mortal lives one as well. Such a principle honors agency and costs society little.
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