Who could have seen this coming?
Just think of leftist policies as fires and activists as arsonists who keep claiming that they’re trying to put out the fires by pouring more gasoline on them. Or think of them as human beings completely lacking in common sense and any concept of consequences. And that’s how you end up with the same old story told and retold again.
The Wednesday in January 2017 when Steven Hawthorne walked out of Stateville Correctional Center, criminal justice advocates hailed it as an ultimate triumph: He was a free man for the first time in 33 years after being sentenced as a teenager to life in prison for the double murder of an alleged neighborhood bully and a bystander.
This would not have been a triumph to any sane person.
At 16, Hawthorne shot and killed two men and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was released in 2017, after serving 33 years, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such sentences for juveniles was unconstitutional.
That was Montgomery v. Louisiana, one of a string of unconstitutional nonsense decisions which wrongly claimed that certain kinds of imprisonment violated cruel and unusual punishment. The ‘Montgomery’ in question was a 17-year-old cop killer.
You can thank Roberts for that decision. It was partly rolled back by the new conservative court majority.
Back to Hawthorne though…
Over the next three years, Hawthorne was seen as a successful example of integrating former prisoners into society. He earned a certification for fixing heating and cooling systems. He volunteered at the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University, where law students worked to help free him. He was also a big brother figure managing a transitional housing for formerly incarcerated men, a role featured in a Tribune article in 2019.
And you’ll never guess what the double murderer did next.
In February 2020, he was arrested for gun possession. In January, he was arrested after police found five firearms, including an AR-15 rifle, during a traffic stop, according to court records.
Now his run-ins with the law have taken a violent turn. Cook County prosecutors accuse Hawthorne — a former shining example of successful inmate reentry into society — of committing a grisly new double homicide of an ex-girlfriend and her new beau.
Part of the violent attack on April 16, that ended with the woman’s head being crushed with a large rock, was witnessed by the woman’s children, a 3-year-old girl and 5-year-old twins.
What the already politically incorrect story has to tread gently on because it would trip all the woke meters, is that Hawthorne converted to Islam and changed his name to Mustafa.
The imposing 6-foot-3 Hawthorne, who had taken the first name Mustafa, was well respected by the former inmates he helped reintegrate into society and the staff of the charity where he worked.
In fact, he’d made such an impression with his hard work and willingness to pitch in, officials at the Inner City Muslim Action Network, a charity and advocacy group, had begun shifting him toward more community organizing and policy work instead of the more grueling reentry work.
The allegations left his former boss, recently elected 5th Ward Ald. Desmon Yancy, who supervised Hawthorne last year as a former administrator with the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, “shocked and devastated.”
Shocking. Did he learn nothing from the peaceful teachings of the Koran?
Now at age 55, Hawthorne faces a possibility of returning to prison for the remainder of his life for an alleged attack so violent, he was covered in blood when a Chicago police officer tackled and arrested him.
Time to campaign to free him again. Think of what a role model he could be when he’s released after committing two double murders, turns his life around and then kills two other people.
Truly, it would be peak social justice.
Kaffir says
Converted is such a strange word to use for this fellow becoming a Muslim like so many do in prison. As if he used to be a cuddly christian? C’mon man.
Jayell1 says
Doesn’t this just prove that islam is the ‘religion’ of criminals – founded, of course, by a 7th century gang of criminals.
Michael Copeland says
“The essence of his doctrine was violence and lust: to exalt the brutal over the spiritual part of human nature.”
— John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States
https://gatesofvienna.net/2020/04/quiz-who-is-being-referred-to/
Linde B. says
I am firmly convinced that Islam makes people wicked, as well as narcissistic. In my opinion, this Muslim convert deserves to be shot by a firing squad after getting a fair trial.
Thomas Hulting says
AMEN!
James Lincoln says
Linde B,
I’ve got a fresh box of .30-30 Winchester Ammo I’d be willing to donate.
Huapakechi says
Skip the ceremony, toss him to pigs.
Jim says
This case seems like one that would be used as a plot for episodes of Law and Order, Special Victims Unit. There is a bipolar character in some people that may be extreme with psychopaths and less so in sociopaths. They may be the nices people in the world most of the time, and then break out in sudden violence over trivial annlyances. Remember the criminal that Norman Mailer helped to get paroled. A few months later he murdered a waiter, because the restaurant had no customer toilet. We should not just assume that people can reform themselves a hundred percent if they have these tendencies to violent outbreaks. The leftists with their bleeding hearts want to believe that all illegal immigrants are basically good, all shoplifters and violent criminals are reformable. Or if the police were replaced with psychologists and sociologists, they could reform.Realistically it is not easy to go straight if one is prone to crime..
Omer Causey says
You only have to kill a bad guy once. It may or may not be a deterrent, but the recidivism rate is zero.
somehistory says
There is a saying, and many do not know that it comes from the Bible, It has to do with a person making changes to their inner character.
“The prophet Jeremiah explained to the king: “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23)”
The Apostle Paul wrote about “putting on the new personality”. But this has to be voluntary; the person must really want to change, and become a better person, doing good..
This creepy murderer, didn’t make any real changes; he just adopted a belief system that told him he was allowed to murder others.
and these slime buckets murder the mom in the presence of her children. Murder is bad, evil enough; murdering a woman in the presence of her little kids is demonism.
He should be put to death for what he has done.
Keith O says
Well, I guess that little social experiment didn’t go as planned.
Keith Back says
If had been put to death for the first murder the second could not have taken place. It really is that simple.
Make the punishment fit the crimr
OLD GUY says
Looks to me that “an eye fo an eye” an a tooth for a tooth” is still a good idea.
Hoi Polloi says
Other reports don’t mention the conversion, so thank you for actual, real reporting.
We need laws that allow citizens to sue individuals for damages when activists free criminals, or push for open borders that draw criminals, or institute frivolous lawsuits. We also need legal pursuit of taxpayer-financed employees for dereliction of duty, including those at NGOs who get grants that they use against us.
ncrdbl1 says
SCOTUS used international law to reach their decision in Montgomery v Louisiana.
We need to have the case reheard based entirely on US law.
Hoi Polloi says
Do you have a link, so I can read about international law and that particular case? Thanks.
Kepha says
I imagine that there are many fashionable hostesses in American cities who would be thrilled to have this character as a dinner guest, allowing other fashionable people the voyeuristic thrill of peeking at the ways of the underclass.