Only a few short years ago, bail reform for the incarcerated was all the rage in progressive circles. It’s a matter of equity and justice, we were told. And, no, it won’t lead to an increase in crime, we were assured. The results are in today on yet another reckless social experiment, and there is nothing for leftists to do but dust off their hands and quietly walk away from yet another blood-and-twisted metal crash scene of their making.
The senseless March 25 shooting death of New York City Police Department officer Jonathan Diller while he was checking out an illegally parked SUV shocked the nation. Former President Donald Trump attended Diller’s wake, drawing even more attention to the slaying. The most frustrating and anger-inducing part of the tragedy was how easily it could have been avoided.
“The alleged perpetrator, Guy Rivera – who has been charged with first-degree murder of the police officer, attempted murder, and criminal possession of a weapon – is a career criminal with 21 prior arrests,” Just the News reported April 6.
Rivera is far from an extreme example of progressive criminal justice “reform” in the Big Apple. He could even be called routine.
One-Man Crime Wave
“A Bronx gangbanger who has racked up nine arrests this year on a bevy of wild charges is free on the streets of New York City after being repeatedly sprung without bail,” according to a New York Post report on April 8.
“Alleged Latin Kings member Emmanuel Santiago, 32, keeps ending up in cuffs even as he faces seven open cases in the Bronx on charges ranging from intent to sell dangerous drugs, grand larceny of cars, possession of weapons, and allegations of domestic violence, according to law enforcement sources,” the paper relates.
Amazingly, Santiago even robbed the NYPD and was still easily able to waltz out of prison.
(Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“The brazen gangster was most recently arrested after a December heist in the Bronx where he broke into a police officer’s car and made off with an arsenal of gear including gun belts and ammunition, bullet proof vests, a riot shield and baton, mace, handcuffs, and a radio, the law enforcement sources said,” The Post added.
Is it inaccurate to state that the Democrat elected officials who aggressively pushed bail reform were being deliberately deceptive about what it would lead to? “NYC Comptroller Brad Lander claimed in a report that only 1% of people released on bail under bail reform are rearrested for a violent felony while their case is pending,” Jim Quinn, a former executive district attorney in the Queens DA’s Office, wrote in a March 3 op-ed for The Post. “State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said the number was 2%.”
As Liberty Nation documented in 2022, Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul spouted similar empty phrases. “I’ve yet to see data that shows a correlation with a net increase in crime and the bail laws. Because it doesn’t exist in any other city,” Hochul asserted.
To say they were all horribly wrong is the generous interpretation of these highly irresponsible statements. After all, is good policy/bad policy even part of the equation when dealing with the blind pursuit of a committed radical agenda?
“[A] new study of bail reform outside New York City – suburbs and upstate – prepared by John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Data Collaborative for Justice shows that 66% of the people released under bail reform who had a recent prior arrest were re-arrested within two years of their release,” former DA Quinn writes.
“The DCJ study also showed that 67% of defendants who had a recent prior violent felony arrest in the past year who were released under bail reform were re-arrested within two years of their arraignment.”
It’s not just happening in New York. An Easter Sunday shooting at a restaurant near Nashville, Tennessee, “left one person dead and at least five others wounded,” Just the News detailed.
“Authorities revealed [arrested suspect Anton] Rucker is a convicted felon with aggravated assault convictions in Nashville, an arrest in Murfreesboro, as well as arrests for felony drug charges and assault and gun charges last year. Court records show Rucker was out of jail on a combined $50,000 bond for these charges at the time of the shooting, according to local news.”
President Joe Biden’s “newcomers” are also getting in on the action. The revolving door criminal justice treatment is equally afforded to illegal aliens who successfully make their way into the nation’s interior.
“An illegal immigrant who had been deported seven times and arrested 11 times was charged with aggravated murder after an unidentified body was found in Ohio, according to local authorities,” The Epoch Times reported April 6.
Fermin Garcia-Gutierrez, a 46-year-old Mexican national, “had previously been deported and arrested multiple times using seven different names and three different birth dates,” the news site notes.
“Who knows how many people this guy has been involved in and has killed? Here in the United States, in our jail, he’s had two or three weapons charges, he’s had domestic violence [charges]... driving while intoxicated. We don’t know how many he’s killed in Mexico,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said of the suspect.
Bailing Out on Bail Reform?
New Jersey state Senate lawmakers wrestled over the issue in March as Democrats scrambled to untangle themselves from their creation of a lethal threat to the citizens they are supposed to represent.
“I have to figure out, at least for my constituents, before going into the summer, how I can assure them that when somebody is arrested, they will not be back in their neighborhood literally a week later,” Democrat state Sen. Vin Gopal said at a committee hearing,” The New Jersey Monitor reported March 7.
In a sad testament to just how much sway the “criminal justice reform” mantra still holds today, a Republican senator was reduced to begging that suspects charged with serious crimes at least be kept behind bars after they commit more offenses upon being released from custody before trial.
“If we’re not going to seriously incarcerate people prior to the trial, then there must be a deterrent effect when someone steals a second car,” state Sen. Jon Bramnick implored.
That says it all, doesn’t it?
Is it any wonder career criminals have no respect for American law and order? Is there any reason they should? When the criminal justice system abdicates its authority to preserve the civil peace, it positively invites the violence and anarchy that inevitably follow in its hollow wake.
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