Suspects accused of violent felonies, some with extensive criminal records, are now roaming the streets of Illinois as they await trial thanks to a liberal law that ended cash bail in the state, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
After that law went into effect mid-September, an array of violent arrestees who may have otherwise remained behind bars were released from custody without bail. One Illinois man, whose rap sheet includes 15 arrests, was released after he allegedly bit a police officer and squeezed the officer's testicles. Another man, who was already on parole for armed robbery, avoided pretrial detention after allegedly breaking into a high-end boutique. A third woman was released from custody after she appeared to attack four Chicago police officers—the woman's release came on the first day the state's bail reform law went into effect.
The releases provide a window into the impact of the state's SAFE-T Act, which passed in 2021 but faced an array of legal challenges before it went into effect earlier this month. While many liberal cities have enacted policies to scale back cash bail, Illinois is the first state to abolish it. Out of 102 county prosecutors, 100 opposed the law. Many of those prosecutors blasted the state's liberal legislature for imposing measures on localities where law enforcement officials oppose an end to cash bail.
"Unfortunately, the citizens of Illinois who are the sovereign authority were not consulted in this significant matter," Will County prosecutor James Glasgow said after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of the bail reform law's constitutionality. "I will continue to fulfill the oath of office to the best of my ability, and I pray to God that prosecutors and law enforcement will continue to be able to properly address violent crime and maintain the safety of our communities given the serious limitations placed on all our agencies by the act."
Illinois Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker, who hailed the "historic" statute as a critical step toward a "more equitable and just Illinois," did not return a request for comment.
One of the released suspects, Nicholas Koczor, was charged with three counts of aggravated battery to a peace officer. Koczor also faces phone harassment charges after prosecutors said he left his girlfriend a voicemail that implied he could dismember her body. Koczor was arrested for the alleged offenses in 2022 and remained in jail after failing to post bond. Once the SAFE-T Act went into effect, however, Koczor filed a petition for his release.
Terry Johnson, who was already on parole for armed robbery and aggravated battery, was released after allegedly breaking into a high-end boutique. Johnson and six other suspects helped steal $68,000 worth of purses and other merchandise. Esmeralda Aguilar, meanwhile, allegedly battered four police officers in downtown Chicago, two of whom required medical attention. Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx, who has received millions in campaign contributions from liberal billionaire George Soros, failed to file a detention motion in the case, meaning Aguilar was immediately released.
For state lawmaker John Curran (R.), Aguilar's release shows that Illinois Democrats are "prioritizing violent offenders" over law enforcement and victims of crime.
"This highlights the misplaced priorities of Illinois's criminal justice system when the prosecutor prioritizes the freedom of a violent offender over the safety of those police officers dedicated to protecting and serving our communities," Curran said. "Is there any wonder why police recruitment is at an all-time low in this state?"
In addition to Koczor, Johnson, and Aguilar, other Illinois felony defendants were released before trial after being arrested for unlawful weapon possession and sexual abuse, among other crimes.
Under the SAFE-T Act, formally known as the Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity-Today Act, prosecutors must make the case for why a suspect should be held in custody. Only forcible felonies qualify for pre-trial detention, and in those cases, variables such as the defendant’s flight risk, the likelihood they will return to court, and their danger to the community are considered.
Calls to end cash bail gained momentum in Illinois and elsewhere following George Floyd's death in 2020. Illinois Democrats started drafting the SAFE-T Act's provision following Floyd's death, when support for left-wing police reform increased. In much of the country, however, that support has since waned as U.S. cities experience spikes in violent crime. In the spring of 2022, for example, 65 percent of Michigan voters said they oppose legislation to lower or eliminate bail bonds, according to a poll.
The House Judiciary Committee earlier this week held a hearing on Chicago crime, which has spiked in recent months. House Democrats declined to attend the hearing, blasting it as a political stunt, while Pritzker accused the committee's Republicans of engaging in "fearmongering and lies."
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment