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Joanne Jaffe
Mike Reynolds is Kimber Reynolds’s father. In the aftermath of Kimber’s shooting and subsequent death, Mike Reynolds gathers all the influential people he knows and brainstorms ways of addressing California’s high crime rate. He’s especially angry because Douglas Walker—one of the men involved in Kimber’s death—was temporarily released from prison to visit his pregnant wife and simply never returned. Worse, both Walker and his accomplice, Joe Davis, have long criminal records, which is why Reynolds comes up with the Three Strikes Law—a law that sends third-time offenders to prison for 25 years to life, no matter how small or insignificant their third crime is. Reynolds is extremely proud of the effect this law had on California, but Gladwell is unconvinced that Three Strikes did any good, since the crime rate had already begun to fall when Three Strikes was instituted, meaning that the decrease in crime can’t be attributed solely to the new policy. What’s more, there are numerous studies that suggest that Three Strikes actually had a negative impact on crime, but Reynolds remains proud of what he’s done—an example of how strongly people often hold to their convictions, even when their beliefs don’t necessarily align with reality.
Mike Reynolds Quotes in David and Goliath
The David and Goliath quotes below are all either spoken by Mike Reynolds or refer to Mike Reynolds. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8: Wilma Derksen Quotes
Is Wilma Derksen more—or less—of a hero than Mike Reynolds? It is tempting to ask that question. But it is not right: Each acted out of the best of intentions and chose a deeply courageous path.
The difference between the two was that they felt differently about what could be accomplished through the use of power. The Derksens fought every instinct they had as parents to strike back because they were unsure of what that could accomplish. They were not convinced of the power of giants.
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Mike Reynolds Character Timeline in David and Goliath
The timeline below shows where the character Mike Reynolds appears in David and Goliath. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 8: Wilma Derksen
In June of 1992, Kimber Reynolds comes home from college to attend a wedding. Afterward, she goes with a friend to...
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Before Kimber dies, Mike holds her hand and promises to do everything he can to “prevent this from happening...
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The conversation Mike Reynolds stages leads to the Three Strikes Law, which dictates that serious second-time offenders must...
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When Reynolds helps to institute the Three Strikes Law, he operates on the assumption that more severe...
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One of Reynolds’s arguments for the Three Strikes Law is that putting criminals in prison and keeping them...
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...percent of [a] neighborhood goes to prison, the effect on crime starts to reverse.” Although Mike Reynolds believes that the Three Strikes Law ended up saving lives by decreasing California’s overall...
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Gladwell highlights the difference between the Derksens’ and Mike Reynolds’s reactions to tragedy. While Mike Reynolds believed he could wield power to make things...
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