The Illinois Supreme Court halted the state’s new law eliminating cash bail pending further litigation. Good. Maybe sanity will prevail in the end. Here’s what no-cash bail laws do: A New York man was arrested for beating his wife. He was released on no bail. Less than 24 hours later, he shot her dead in front of her three children. The no-bail situation in New York City has gotten so bad, Mayor Eric Adams now calls it ‘catch and release’ and said, “We have to stop passing laws that protect the guilty.”
Eric Adams might finally be telling the truth, but other Democrats who brought you insane ideas like no-bail are now trying to cover up the consequences of their insanity. In Chicago, the mayor – who condones riots – wants to switch from police scanners to encrypted radio frequencies. This will prevent journalists from reporting breaking crime stories and the public from learning about threats to their safety. In Colorado, a Democrat senator’s wife is urging lawmakers to defund the police the sneaky way by reallocating funds to social services. In case you don’t know, several cities got mugged by the reality of what happens when you defund the police and moved to re-fund their police departments. But not in Seattle, which has found another sneaky way to defund the police. The tolerance for riots and disparagement of police professionals caused a number of vacant positions in the police department and the city council voted last month to eliminate 80 of them.
But try as they might, the stupid Democrats can’t cover up the fact that large cities like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles are now more dangerous than war zones like Iraq or Afghanistan for young males. The most dangerous city is actually St. Louis where the progressive prosecutor won’t accept arrests by 300 officers and the mayor won’t authorize pay increases for officers, causing the police department to operate at less than half strength. Staffing shortages and progressive prosecutors are being blamed for the rise in violent crime in many cities across the country last year.
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And Democrats can’t cover up the fact that Target lost $400 million last year to organized retail theft. Overall, retail theft is up more than 26 percent and is closing in on $100 billion a year. Houston – and elsewhere – we got a problem. Walmart is warning it will have to raise prices and close stores, if this keeps up. The CEO specifically blamed progressive prosecutors and their soft-on-crime policies. The violence is so bad in North Philly, a gas station owner hired armed security. Police don’t respond and nobody feels safe, he said. A restaurant in D.C. is closing down because employees are being attacked and their cars are being broken into. The insane Democrats who run the city voted late last year to reduce penalties for illegal gun possession, carjacking, robbery, and other crimes.
Another business closed, this one in Portland, another Democrat city that loves riots. The owner cited “unrelenting criminal behavior” and “escalating safety issues” for employees. “We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished,” an open letter posted on the front door said. Here’s the interesting part: You hear these progressive prosecutors and other apologists for high crime say, ‘don’t worry about it, insurance will cover any losses.’ Not true. The owner went on to write: “Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins … we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd.”
Think about all this the next time the Democrats are flashing you a big smile and asking you to keep them in power. Better yet, take action now. The city council in Roanoke recently asked state lawmakers to undo the Democrats’ woke criminal justice reforms and bring back no-knock warrants, traffic stops for broken tail lights and other minor infractions, and holding suspects without bond for violent offenses. Voters in Democrat-controlled Kansas City, Missouri voted up a constitutional amendment requiring the city to spend more on police.
This is not a situation where reforms swing between competing values on a pendulum. The Democrats threw the pendulum out the window with their woke criminal justice reforms. But this is still America and citizens like you can take action so they can’t turn your life into a war zone.
