Jesse Watters says women’s ‘savior complex’ is partly to blame for repeat criminal offenders

WASHINGTON, DC: Jesse Watters argued Tuesday, May 12, that repeat violent offenders keep ending up back on the streets because the criminal justice system has become too soft and “feminized.”

The Fox host made the comments during the show’s opening segment on repeat offenders and crime in major Democrat-led cities, where the panel discussed several recent cases involving violent suspects receiving short sentences or being released before allegedly committing new crimes.

Co-host Kennedy pointed to the case of Rhamell Burke, who has been charged with murder after allegedly pushing a man down the stairs at a subway station shortly after undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital.

“One of the past victims, a 23-year-old woman, told the New York Post that Burke assaulted her and a friend on the subway just this past month,” Kennedy said. “She declined to cooperate with prosecutors, but now regrets her choice, saying, quote, ‘Maybe a part of me was just like, I don’t want to put another Black man in jail.’” 

Jesse Watters' warning about compassion

Watters kicked off his argument by referencing an old Aesop fable about a farmer who rescues a frozen viper, only to be bitten after the snake thaws out.

He said the farmer’s “compassion couldn't save him from the viper's nature,” before using the story to argue that “some people by their very nature are criminals.”

The Fox host then pivoted to the real-life case of Travis Lewis, who was just 16 when he murdered 75-year-old Sally Snowden.

Snowden’s daughter, Martha McKay, later befriended Lewis while he was in prison and even petitioned for his early release. After Lewis was released in 2018, McKay hired him to work on her property. Two years later, he killed her. After recounting the story, Watters concluded that “you gotta take vengeance, you can't take pity.”

He also compared the issue to an episode of the sitcom Cheers involving Diane Chambers, played by Shelley Long.

“There is an episode of Cheers, and there is an ex-con that is in the bar, and Diane sees him and hears him, and he’s talking about an armed robbery that he’s going to do, and she goes to Sam, ‘Please don’t call the cops,’” Watters said. “‘Don’t do it. This guy is just going to be another victim of the criminal justice system. I can save him.’ And she tries to talk to him. It doesn’t work. And he sticks up the bar.”

‘Women have a savior complex,’ Jesse Watters says

Watters eventually tied the examples back to what he described as a broader cultural problem inside the justice system.

“Women have a savior complex. And I’m not saying the criminal justice system has been feminized, but I kind of am,” he said.

The host continued by arguing that feelings of guilt were driving leniency toward violent offenders.

“There is a deep-seated guilt. A lot of Whites have it, but women especially, where they think they can just change the world and not change these people,” Watters said. “Some of these people you can’t change. They are born bad. And we have to stop trying to save them. How about we save society from the criminals instead?” he added.