I’m looking for input on what has been called the Safe-T Act here in Illinois which takes effect January 1, 2023. The best, fairest description I have found is by Grace Kinnicutt at Capitol News Illinois:
The broad-ranging measure abolishes cash bail beginning in January 2023, reforms police training, certification and use-of-force standards, expands detainee rights, and requires body cameras at all departments by 2025.
Since its passage, the measure has been amended twice to accommodate concerns of law enforcement groups, pushing back certain effective dates and changing some of the initial use-of-force language.
Proponents say the reform is a step toward making the justice system equitable and fair for Black, Latino and minority communities who have been disproportionately harmed by it.
but
One of the more controversial provisions of the bill abolishes cash bail in Illinois and replaces it with a system that will prioritize the severity of an offense, the risk of not appearing for court and the threat and danger the individual poses to another person or the community if they were to be released.
The provision does not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2023, but opponents claim it will allow “dangerous and violent criminals†back on the street, tying the hands of prosecutors who seek to keep the accused individuals incarcerated before a conviction.
It seems to me that this measure will discourage judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers from keeping those arrested for any reason whatever from being kept in custody and possibly discourage LEOs from arresting people in the first place.
Of course, opposition to the SAFE-T Act has been deemed racist, fascist, etc.
Again, I’m looking for input. What should I think?
I don’t know anything about it except the description you quoted. Based on that, it sounds reasonable, but the devil is always in the details.
When bail is set a judgment is made absent a jury of one’s peers.
Not particularly relevant if trial were swift, which it is not.
Speed up the courts, or let them go and find judgment on the street.
The bill will obviously encourage street crime by inhibiting the police and courts. The progressive ideologues do not care and always ignore reality.
Of course, the main perpetrators of street crime are young black males, and really only a small minority of them. I would not be surprised if the total number of black gangbangers in the whole country, the group that commits over half of all gun crime and maybe three-quarters of all rapes, is only around 100,000.
The main victims of the gangbangers are other poor blacks. The main disservice to the black and Latino poor is letting the gangbangers run amok.
Of course, the deep reality is that Progressives don’t give a rat’s fart about poor people or working people of any race, ethnicity or sex. It’s all virtue signaling and misdirection.
“Of course, opposition to the SAFE-T Act has been deemed racist, fascist, etc.”
And supporting it is socialism and communism, etc. I still advocate that while it is easy to argue against the weakest people and arguments on the opposite side it is not the right thing to do.
Steve