by Ethan Huff, Natural News:
The state of Illinois just got a whole lot more dangerous now that the new “no-cash bail” provision of the SAFE-T Act has gone into effect.
As of September 18, the most extreme cash bail abolition in the country has become the law of the land in the Land of Lincoln. The culmination of more than two years of legislative and judicial conflicts over the SAFE-T Act, which was originally passed in February 2021, the no-cash bail provision means that even more defendants will be released before trial, which means an even greater risk to public safety.
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The city of Chicago, which is already well on its way to hitting and even exceeding a post-2019 high in major crimes, will become an even more dangerous place as the no-cash bail provision will open up the door to more lawlessness in the form of rampant shoplifting, robberies, mob actions, low arrest rates, and unanswered 911 calls.
(Related: Check out our earlier coverage about how Illinois is leading the country in implementing the purge.)
No-cash bail creates LESS equity, not more of it
Prior to the no-cash bail provision being implemented, all felonies in Illinois were potentially detainable by a judge. Now, low-level “Class 4” felonies such as criminal damage to property are non-detainable.
Proponents of no-cash bail say that their only goal is to keep “nonviolent” offenders out of jail before trial, but as explained by Wirepoints, this is a myth.
“[There’s an] important reality that progressives working to ease up on supposedly nonviolent crimes don’t seem to appreciate: even ‘minor’ offenses like retail theft, open-air drug use, and smoking on subway platforms are frequently backed by a threat of violence,” explains City Journal‘s Rafael Mangual about what he calls the myth of “nonviolent crime.”
“[W]hat progressives seem not to understand is that ‘minor offenses’ are often manifestations of the broadly antisocial dispositions of individuals who likely have a much greater propensity for violence than the law-abiding.”
While this is certainly based on Mangual’s opinion and personal assessment of the situation, he does make a great point about the general disposition of people who are willing to steal, though his statements about someone smoking on a subway platform could be seen as a bit of a stretch.
Another problem with no-cash bail is that judges in Illinois will now have less discretion than they previously did.
“Before the end of cash bail, Illinois had a three-pronged pre-trial hearing system where a judge could (1) detain a defendant due to a ‘threat to the community,’ (2) release the defendant on his own recognizance, or (3) a middle ground option requiring a defendant to post cash bail,” Wirepoints explains.
