Illinois eager to join Democrats’ pro-crime experiment
In New York, so-called “bail reform” is having tragic consequences. More accurately called the “get out of jail no matter what” law, it has helped some of the worst predators throughout the state commit violent crimes over and over again as they repeatedly pass through the jail’s revolving door. The problem is so bad that polls show Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) is in serious jeopardy of losing her election two months from now. Hochul is in denial, refusing to act to fix the problem and instead blaming her state’s problem on guns.
In San Francisco, former District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced shortly after he took office that he would no longer seek to detain criminal suspects. He went even further in choosing not to prosecute “quality of life” offenses and turning a blind eye to shoplifting and related property crimes. The violent and property crime situation in his city quickly got so bad that he was overwhelmingly thrown out of office by the voters this summer.
In Washington state, Democrats in the state legislature attempted to neuter police throughout their state by making it illegal to pursue suspects faster than the speed limit. Criminals driving stolen cars figured out that they could flee crime scenes by simply driving up a few miles above the speed limit. More than a thousand people have thus evaded state troopers just this calendar year, to say nothing of local police. Democrats have not been punished yet for doing this, but they may be soon.
When Justice Louis Brandeis described the 50 states as “laboratories of democracy,” he probably didn’t mean to say they were walled off from one another, such that none could learn any lessons from the others. But this seems to be the case on the crime issue today. Liberals and Democrats are getting smacked by voters at every opportunity for adopting extremely stupid pro-crime policies. But Democrats in other states aren’t catching on.
Another shoe is about to drop in Illinois, thanks to Democrats’ 2021 passage of the SAFE-T Act, many provisions of which go into effect this coming January. Unless this law is fixed, the bill will abolish cash bail for nearly all defendants, bar police from removing trespassers from homes and businesses, and give bail-jumpers a 48-hour head start before the police can even start trying to track them down.
Criminal-coddling policies are having serious political consequences for Democrats in other states. Much more importantly, they are having tragic, life-altering, and life-ending consequences for the innocent victims of the criminals whom these policies seem almost designed to enable.
Chicago, always a dangerous city but in 2022 quite possibly the Mecca of murder, could yet become much worse than it is now, believe it or not. Thanks to Illinois Democrats, we might soon find out just how bad.
Meanwhile, since 2010, Illinois has lost almost as many residents (160,000) as live in its second-largest city, Aurora. We can’t imagine why.
bar police from removing trespassers from homes and businesses! In Texas you will be shot if you trespass into someone’s home uninvited!