BUCK: I want to talk about criminal justice for a moment here. Well, the huge spike in crime, first and foremost, that’s happened — as we’ve been discussing — as a result of the defund the police movement, of the rise of BLM and the riots around it and all that we saw starting around June of 2020. The undermining of police, but also the prosecutors’ offices that are taking a more “social justice,” left-wing, Soros-approved approach to prosecuting serious crimes.

What is the result of all of that? Well, we’re seeing it play out in major cities, places like Austin, Texas, for example. Great city. Clay and I both fans of Austin. Lot of fun to go visit but has an all-time high for murder this year, and defunded last year police by over a hundred million dollars. Almost like there’s a cause and effect at work. And here’s just a reminder. This is an ad that’s been put out by the RNC about what Democrats were saying on this issue.

(Playing Ad)

BUCK: So many prominent Democrats saying it. Nancy Pelosi, many very prominent Democrats. Really the Democrat Party was behind the defund the police movement from that time. Joe Biden specifically stood back from it a little bit but never called it out never said that this was crazy, which is what any reasonable person would do.

But we also see the decisions that are being made by the criminal justice system and have to wonder what’s going on. I had mentioned to you earlier in the week, Clay and I talked about a shoot-out with multiple people in Chicago. Kim Foxx, the prosecutor’s office, “mutual combat.” By the way, I worked for the NYPD.

CLAY: Game of Thrones.

BUCK: I never heard of the “mutual combat” clause before for not prosecuting anybody. So, by the way, as I understand it there still hasn’t been anybody charged with attempted murder over that one. And now we have the school shooting that we started the show with yesterday, Clay. There was a school shooting, as we know.

Four people shot, one of them fighting for his life still. An 18-year-old, a legal adult in all 50 states goes into a school with a gun: Timothy George Simpkins, 18 years old this is in Arlington, Texas. He is already out. This is a mass shooting, folks, at a school! He has been released on $75,000 bail. I texted a friend of mine who’s a criminal defense attorney last night, Clay. I said, “What does it look like to you?” She responded, “Politics.” What do you think?

CLAY: It’s unbelievable. Let me just give you some facts here. This 18-year-old in high school brought a .45 caliber handgun to school, shot Zacchaeus Selby, 15-year-old, four times, all right? Four times he shot him, and let me hit with some of the details here in terms of where he was shot. He was shot. He’s had two surgeries already, this 15-year-old. He was shot in his arm, leg, chest, and stomach.

He’s on a ventilator and is going to need more surgeries, the 15-year-old who is in severe condition right now. Also, this 18-year-old shot a teacher who was trying to break up the fight, okay? Shot a teacher. I want to give the teacher’s name here because this part of the story is also crazy. Calvin Pettit, I believe, is how you pronounce his name.

A teacher who tried to break up the fight was also wounded, and another student was hit by a bullet, all right? So all of these people are shot at school by an 18-year-old, and there’s only a $75,000 bond and this guy is already out? Buck, this is crazy! When you look at a $75,000 bond, first of all, you only have to put up a lot of time 10% of a bond to get out of jail. So you can shoot four people at school, including a teacher, and get out of jail for $7,500?

BUCK: Clay, let’s understand this: The attorney representing the shooter is claiming —

CLAY: He’s saying it’s self-defense.

BUCK: “No,” he’s saying, “it’s not a standard-issue school shooting,” end quote. I’m pretty sure when you go grab a gun and you’re not under threat; you’re not defending — you go grab a gun because you don’t like someone or some people and you go try to murder them in school, multiple people — that is a school shooting.

I know that the left says women can get pregnant. (laughing) I’m sorry, women can get pregnant. Sorry about that. Men can get pregnant. I know there’s some areas where they completely divert from reality. But I’m still gonna fight on this one. It is a school shooting when you shoot four people in school!

CLAY: Also, it’s a big deal to have a gun on a school campus. And it’s not as if we’re talking even about an accidental discharge shooting, which would still be pretty serious ’cause again it’s at school. He shot one of his classmates four times, Buck!

BUCK: Clay —

CLAY: Four times!

BUCK: — part of this was that I think the left hasn’t really gotten as outraged about, this guy brought a gun into a gun-free zone. Did he not know? Did he not see the rules that this was prohibited? This is why so much of the discourse around how we stop violence like this is rooted in the lack of liberal logic, the lack of understanding of human nature, the fact that criminals do not care when you add yet another rule or regulation. All schools are gun-free zones, as if any school shooter in history has been like, “Whoa, I don’t know.”

CLAY: Violate that law.

BUCK: “There’s a sign that says, ‘No guns allowed.'” And the fact that this guy’s out on bail but I just think it’s so interesting, because of the profile of the shooter and because of the backstory there was a fight, they are treating this… Let’s say he was a quiet kid, Clay. He was a quiet kid and they’re having this fight. He just went in and shot four people. They’d have him in like a super max facility awaiting trial right now. They’d have him in solitary.

CLAY: He’s also 18, Buck. He’s not even a “kid.”

BUCK: He’s an adult, yeah.

CLAY: He’s an adult for purposes of being charged with a crime. And he shot not only one of his classmates, who was 15, four different times. He also shot a teacher. Accidental or not, it’s kind of a big deal to shoot a teacher.

BUCK: Yeah. I haven’t really seen much of an explanation, but he hit four people. So is he was so reckless that he was trying to obviously kill the one person that he claims bullied him and hit three other innocent people in the process? That alone is grounds, you would think… This kid is… “Kid.” He’s an adult. He is reckless beyond words. But did he try to kill more than one person? What does it take for you to be held until trial if not something like this? You wonder.

CLAY: Or just think about it in the context of the, quote-unquote, “insurrection,” Buck. We got people in solitary confinement for walking into the Capitol. We got a school kid who’s 18-year-old that shot one guy four times as well as a teacher and nothing happens to him?

BUCK: Exactly right. That’s a perfect example of how the political narrative here is driving criminal justice prosecutions in ways that are clearly unjust and politicized. It’s about narrative, and that’s an excellent example. It’s also why I thought it’s so interesting that Kim Foxx, the prosecutor in Chicago… Her family has ties, she likes Jussie Smollett, and so he was able to get away with that whole hoax.

Now, obviously that’s a much less serious than these issues we’re talking about here. But she lets him get away with that, and then when it comes time to prosecute here who are shooting each other like they’re at the OK Corral in broad daylight, it’s, “Oh, we’re not gonna bring any charges ’cause we don’t know who started it”?

These are the people who are in charge of dispensing justice. They’re entrusted by the public to do this. These are the district attorneys, whether it’s Chesa Boudain in San Francisco or Krasner in Philadelphia or, obviously, Foxx in Chicago, you can’t trust these people to be making these decisions.

CLAY: And also, who even let this get past, $7,500 for a school shooter and he’s back on the streets? It’s crazy.