The Manhattan grand jury indictment of former President Donald Trump says far more about the state of America’s justice system than it does about a former U.S. president.

For months, media outlets in Georgia and New York have published breathless coverage on the two cities’ grand jury investigations into Trump with predictable leaks, courthouse stakeouts, glowing coverage of prosecutors, and panicky op-eds on “threats to democracy.”

Meanwhile, in the real world, Americans are working to pay massively inflated prices, tutoring their children to help them catch up after school lockdowns set them back academically, and taking daily precautions against rising crime.

Atlanta, for example, finished 2022 with its highest number of homicides in more than two decades. The city ranked No. 1 in per-capita murders , and the police department is understaffed by about 450 officers — roughly a quarter of the force. Likewise, crime in New York City was up 22% last year , including a 40% increase in transit-related crimes such as the terrifying trend of subway attacks.

These upticks correlate directly with the wave of progressive district attorneys elected across America over the past few years — attorneys who have vowed to end cash bail, refuse to prosecute criminal activity, and provide safe haven for violent offenders. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is one such official.

With case backlogs in the thousands, victims and their families slip through the cracks. Justice delayed is justice denied, and too often, it’s denied intentionally. Instead of enforcing the law, the new prosecutorial order means limited resources are funneled into a few headline-grabbing cases, such as Bragg’s case against Trump. Meanwhile, criminals are back on the street, undeterred or absolved by soft-on-crime policies, burdening understaffed police departments.

Bragg and Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis have been racing one another to secure an indictment against Trump instead of racing to reduce their case backlogs. In Atlanta, Willis faces a 10,000-plus case backlog estimated to take 18 months to prosecute . In Manhattan, Bragg has downgraded more than half of all felony charges in his office but infamously charged NYC store clerk Jose Alba with murder when he acted in self-defense during an armed robbery.

The records of these new district attorneys are alarming, whether in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, or Manhattan. The progressive pro-criminal Left is running a race to the bottom by prioritizing political activism over the safety of law-abiding citizens.

Lawmakers in Georgia responded last week by passing legislation to create an oversight committee to discipline and remove district attorneys who routinely flout the law. And although voters will also have an opportunity to stand up for public safety in the 2024 election cycle — as they did recently by ousting Mayor Lori Lightfoot in Chicago — for many, rampant crime has already caused irreversible harm.

The hard leftward turn against justice in local court systems should trouble every law-abiding citizen. But what should trouble us even more is the Left’s embrace of outright political persecution. Our social fabric is fraying at the hands of criminal enterprises that are empowered by partisan prosecutors who would rather pursue political vendettas than violent criminals.

Unchecked crime is weakening the foundation of civil society. And the growing weaponization of American justice, which has been hijacked to take down political opponents, is no longer confined to Washington. So, the next time you see headlines from liberal media about “threats to democracy,” remember the real threat: partisan district attorneys who sacrifice your family’s safety to score political points.

Kelly Loeffler is a former U.S. senator for Georgia and the founder and chairwoman of Greater Georgia.