‘This has been put in motion by our politicians that have allowed the criminal element to feel as if there’s no consequences for any crime…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) As riots engulf cities across the country, new bail reform laws are allowing alleged criminals to return to the streets shortly after they’re arrested.
Law enforcement officials say the criminal catch-and-release policies are a significant contributing factor to the widespread civil unrest — and it’s getting worse.
“This has been put in motion by our politicians that have allowed the criminal element to feel as if there’s no consequences for any crime that you do and now you’ve seen this coming out,” Louis Turco, head of the NYPD Lieutenants Benevolent Association, told The Washington Post.
“Now they go home and tell all their friends, ‘Listen, I got out the next day and nothing’s going to happen to me,’” he said.
Hundreds of looters and rioters were arrested and released almost immediately in New York City over the past few days, causing untold property damage and violence.
Former NYPD Detective Oscar Odom said he believes “99.9 percent” of them went right back to looting.
Halfway across the county in St. Louis, Missouri, scores of rioters were arrested and released this week even as four police officers were shot in a single night of violence and destruction.
Retired police captain David Dorn, a 77-year-old African American, was also killed when he tried to defend a friend’s small business.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt blamed St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who was elected with the help of a George Soros funded PAC.
In a stunning development, our office has learned that every single one of the St. Louis looters and rioters arrested were released back onto the streets by local prosecutor Kim Gardner. pic.twitter.com/tMZVAyHssw
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) June 3, 2020
Soros has funded left-wing city attorneys, state prosecutors and district attorneys in recent years in a strategic attempt to take over the criminal-justice systems in key cities across the country.
Soros funded the election of Cook County, Illinois, prosecutor Kim Foxx, who notably dropped criminal charges against the disgraced “race hoax” actor Jussie Smollett last year. Soros also spent millions helping Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.
Krasner, who sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times before becoming the city’s top law enforcement official, ushered in bail reform last year.
California was the first state to ban cash bail entirely. New Jersey soon followed, then New York last year.
According to an NYPD report released in March, about 90 percent of New York state’s arrests are eligible for bail reform, meaning alleged criminals are free to go after being processed.
In the first 58 days of 2020, 482 people who had been arrested on charges where a cash bail was prohibited went on to commit 846 new crimes.
“Thirty-five percent of the new crimes were for arrests in seven major crime categories—murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto—that is nearly triple the amount of those crimes committed in the same 58 days in 2019.”
For decades, a group of public safety volunteers known as the “Guardian Angels” has put their lives on the line to defend New Yorkers from crime. The group’s famed leader, Curtis Silwa, now 66, says the bail reform law is something criminals are bragging about in the streets.
“It has almost become a badge of courage for [the looters],” said Sliwa.
“They get out in a few hours and get to tell their friends they got written up. It’s like earning their stripes,” he continued. “But we don’t back down, and we don’t surrender or retreat.”