Does anyone remember Project Safe Neighborhoods, a dubious DOJ effort first implemented by the Bush administration in 2002 to reduce gun violence by federalizing gun crimes?

The same DOJ officials who engineered the US Attorney scandal (Mercer, Elston, et al) hypothesized that violence could be eradicated by requiring US Attorneys to randomly prosecute gun crimes, including misdemeanors, as federal offenses. They imposed harsh sentencing guidelines on first offenders and serial felons alike.

Hell, I had forgotten about the topic, and I researched it extensively!

At least, I had almost forgotten it until I heard this NPR piece, attributing a sudden increase in inner city mortgage fraud, and the subsequent erosion of impacted neighborhoods, to the consistent federal prosecution of offenses involving guns. It appears that, like other not-so-aptly named Bush projects (Clear Skies, Healthy Forests, the PATRIOT Act, Operation Iraqi Freedom); Project Safe Neighborhoods performs in a manner diametrically opposed to its moniker.

It destroys communities.