Image via Chicago Police Twitter.
Playing politics with peoples’ lives, Illinois passed an “affordable bail” law in 2017. It stood as the first step to ending cash bail. Just as other cites and states have seen, the results of this experiments have been a disaster for everyone except violent criminals. In Chicago alone in 2020, almost three dozen individuals who were released under affordable bail provisions who had been charged with serious crimes were charged with murder, attempted murder or aggravated battery with a firearm in the Land of Lincoln.
Incredibly, the radicals behind this new initiative have had the audacity to gaslight the public, claiming no bad outcomes have resulted from prioritizing social justice over law and order. Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans claimed in a public hearing that “nothing horrible” had occurred since the bail reform law took effect.
Two years into an “affordable bail” initiative that is allowing most accused gun offenders and even accused murderers to be released from jail to await trial, Cook County’s chief judge says the program is working fabulously.
“It’s not by magic that we haven’t had any horrible incidents occur using this new [bail] system,” Chief Judge Timothy Evans said during county budget hearings on Nov. 4.
Obviously those killed and maimed under this ‘new bail system’ would likely disagree with Chief Judge Evans. But none of the dead or injured were available to testify at that hearing.
Furthermore, law enforcement in Chicago has only identified murder suspects in 81 of almost 800 homicides in the year 2020. HeyJackass reports that CPD has no suspect information in 693 homicides. Yes, a big part of the 81 murder suspects arrested were likely free under the affordable bail law provisions. And you can speculate how many of the killers of the other nearly 700 victims were free for the same reason.
It gets worse. Given how Chicago Police have identified suspects in only 2.7% (not a typo…2.7%) the true number of “not horrible” incidents is likely massive.
CWBChicago has the story.
Welcome to the first 2021 installment of “Not Horrible,” our ongoing series of reports about people who have been charged with committing serious and violent crimes while on bail for other serious and violent crimes.
We borrowed the name “Not Horrible” from a statement Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans made during budget hearings on November 4, 2019: “It’s not by magic that we haven’t had any horrible incidents occur using this new [affordable bail] system.”
Evans’ claim was false at the time and has been repeatedly shown to be false since — unless his definition of “horrible” is different from most Chicagoans’.
So far, CWB reporters have identified 32 people who were charged with committing murder, attempted murder, or aggravated battery with a firearm while free on bail for serious felonies in 2020. Four of the accused men are charged with shooting, and sometimes killing, more than one person.
But the actual number of killings and shootings committed by persons on bail is almost certainly much higher. As of the new year, arrests have been made in just 27% of Chicago’s 2020 murders and 2.7% (Yes. Two point seven percent) of non-fatal shootings, according to CPD data.
And now, for this upcoming Illinois legislative session, Governor J.B. Pritzker and his fellow Democrats have more criminal justice reform ideas in mind. In fact, now they want to eliminate cash bail altogether.
The Center Square has the story.
After a tumultuous 2020 that forced issues of race, criminal justice and policing to the forefront, justice reforms in Illinois will no doubt be at the center of discussion in 2021.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has proposed seven principles that he said will reform and modernize Illinois’ criminal justice system. The proposals include ending cash bail, reducing prison sentences, and increasing police accountability.
It’s almost as if black and brown lives don’t really matter to them. Because if they want to keep African-Americans and other minorities oppressed, victimized and hopelessly demoralized, it’s hard to think of what they would do differently than how they presently run the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois.
Illinois lost a net 79,847 people last year. Is it any wonder why?
