The state of Illinois will soon implement a new bail reform law that will instantly release—with no bond—people arrested for crimes including second-degree murder, drug dealing, and drunken driving.
This from westernjournal.com.
A customer shops for a handgun at Freddie Bear Sports sporting goods store in Tinley Park, Illinois.
The woefully misnamed “SAFE-T Act” that will take effect on Jan. 1 will eliminate cash bail for a long list of offenses in the Land of Lincoln.
The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, passed in 2021, is styled as a “reform” of policing, pretrial practices, and jails and prisons in the state.
One of the most immediate dangers this legislation imposes on the state’s law-abiding citizens is the elimination of cash bail for dangerous criminals.
Illinois State Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R, 118th District) recently told KFVS News:
[T]here are a whole list of violent crimes, burglary, robbery, arson, kidnapping, almost all drug offenses even drug distribution, DUI offenses, even DUI offenses that are involving a fatality, that do not qualify for detention under the Illinois Safety Act.
To me, that’s going to mean a lot of individuals are committing crimes and being released immediately, if not within a couple of days.
At least Illinois finally has a concealed carry law—a provision that appears to be the last safety measure standing between innocent civilians and dangerous criminals.
That right may get a serious workout now that criminals will be instantly released back into their element after arrest
Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, for one, called the law
[L]iterally the end of days for the safety of Illinois citizens and police officers.
Glasgow added:
The SAFE-T Act will destroy the city and the state of Illinois. I don’t even understand—the people that supported it—why they can’t realize that.
Glasgow also warned his constituents that more than 600 criminals will be released in a massive wave on Jan. 1, as a result of the new law.
He said that 640 people being held in the Will County Jail will have their bonds ended on Jan. 1:
[I]ncluding 60 people charged with murder.
Glasgow also said:
[H]e will not be able to hold anyone for more than 90 days if they demand a trial, after which they’ll get out, no matter what crime they committed.
Glasgow blasted the progressive state legislature for pushing through an 800-page bill in only two days.
He said:
You’ve got legislators who aren’t lawyers, you’ve got legislators who weren’t criminal lawyers … trying to read all that in two days. It was impossible.
Grundy County Sheriff Ken Briley pointed out to WLS-TV:
[T]oday he can arrest someone for trespassing on a resident’s property. But after Jan. 1, he will only be allowed to write [the trespasser] a ticket and leave.
That means that the trespasser will be left right there where he was found, leaving the confrontation still ongoing and raising the possibility that a property owner may take matters into his own hands, he told the news outlet.
This clearly will embolden criminals to up the ante and become more dangerous.
This bill puts both the police—who will likely curtail their activities that keep people safe—and the people themselves in danger.
Worse, New York has already shown what a bad idea this sort of bail “reform” is after it encountered a slew of problems when its state legislature issued similar new rules.
Stories of outrages committed by career criminals let out on no bail or minimal bail are growing by the day in the Empire State.
In another case, crowing that “I can’t be stopped,” a criminal with 139 arrests on his record gleefully thanked New York’s bail “reform” law for letting him out only hours after being arrested in 2020 on theft charges.
With the knowledge that they will be quickly let go thanks to the new law, crime has exploded in the Big Apple to its bloodiest phase in recent history.
The bail reform law is so confusing in New York that one judge noted he needs an eight-page cheat sheet in court to help him navigate who he is allowed to punish these days.
These disastrously soft-on-crime laws bring home how important self-defense is in America today.
Final thought: Progressive (Read: communist) lawmakers in Illinois are stripping law enforcement out of the hands of law enforcement officials. Such an act is, in fact, criminal—it is the further tearing of the cultural fabric of our once-great nation.
Come January 1, 2023, when this law takes effect, the final remaining measure for personal security will be the ability to defend oneself. Will the courts remain as apathetic toward gun-related deaths?
