The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 40: The End of Cash Bail in Illinois

How Faux News depicts Chicago

Many provisions of The Illinois Safe-T Act has already been in effect for two years, but today marks the End of Cash Bail.

The D-Bond (and I-Bond / C-Bond) system is over, although Warrants which predate 09/18/23 will still be subject to the Bond amount issued for them.

The end of cash bail was marked with a huge degree of caterwauling and lies by those who benefit from the current system and never, ever, have to worry about not being able to make bail for a minor offense and being stuck in Cook County lock-up for months facing misdemeanor charges.

What the cash bail system always did, and was designed to do, was help restrain the poor and working class.  Rich people who commit a homicide and get a $1,000,000 bail to bond out?  No problem.  Poor folk who can't make $5000 or even scrape together $500 well tough, you're being bussed to 26th and California. 

In reality, the new system still affords Judges, ASA's (Assistant State's Attorneys), and even the arresting officer the ability to detain a person based on a large variety of factors which are not difficult to obtain.  It still holds those arrested for Domestic Violence related crimes and higher level felonies in custody before being transported to Court for an initial hearing.   

All the rightwing fear mongering that the arrested person will go out and commit more crime is nothing less than a call for everyone arrested to be NEVER released from prison.  Which understand doesn't apply to Rightwing Domestic Terrorists from January 6th or from the 4 arrests of Donald John Traitor Trump, but really only to black and brown persons (and white people who have abrogated their innocence by advocating for the poor, the huddled masses, the downtrodden) who in the parlance of the Cook County court system are "mooks" or "mopes"

As Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve noted in her book, Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court (2017),

In the vernacular of court culture, defendants are identified by vulgarities: "scum," "piece of shit," "bad guys" - even "banana suits" (which refers to the jail jumper that defendants in custody must wear in court).  One term predominates among these epithets.  That term is "mopes," used mostly to refer to defendants but sometimes used to describe professionals as well.  The meaning inscribed in this term is central to the moral rubric applied to defendants by courtroom professionals.

"Mope" is shorthand for a person who violates these values.  Professionals find it difficult to regard a defendant as anything but a mope.   

What this is about is white society, especially rightwing society, believes a certain segment of America are a priori guilty and have, most likely, gotten away with some crime, so jailing them and holding them until they pay a monetary fee is just and right.   

Most of America doesn't want to believe the legal system writ large is unjust and unfair, so for years they told themselves the Cops are the good guys, the courts are fair, and Justice is blind in America.  The War on Drugs really shattered this belief system, but couldn't break it because Republicans continued to tell Americans drug abusers have a moral failing and anyone accused of a crime is ipso facto guilty.  And since the system was Fair & Balanced before now, that means Trump and the Republicans are absolutely right that Trump being charged with 91 Felonies is Weaponized Department of Justice and now we have a Two-Tiered Legal System, which just so happens to be exactly like Reverse-Racism and targeting totally innocent conservatives! 

The new No Bail system in Illinois is going to be a work in progress for a while and is going to be tweaked going forward.  But, if bad actors in the Prosecutor's Office, Sheriffs, and Municipal Police Departments are going to sabotage the effort it won't be because of the Law but, because of their own biased ideas of Justice in America.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 29: Trespass not against Me! I Trespass against You!

Police Officers are usually poor lawyers. Now, this isn't a question of smarts, but of the lack of attention to details and general belief in their own superior understanding of laws even if they haven't read them. Back in the Marines I used to call this thinking "Barracks Lawyering", it's an ardent belief in something you once heard or some guy once heard in reference to a rule or procedure.

To wit: The Illinois SAFE-T Act has changed trespassing to a ticket! Poor people are going to set up campsites on your front lawn! Even, a cursory reading of the law indicates there are several provisions in the body of the reworked language which gives the officer a significant amount of latitude to arrest the person and remove them from the "Real Property" instead of ticketing them and leaving. Not to mention other laws like Obstruction of Peace Officer, in which a Peace Officer can lawfully order a person to leave a property.

But! But... that gets to the crux of the issue. A significant number of police officers chafe and become petulant when faced with direction, supervision, and accountability. The exact things the SAFE-T act was designed to address. And underlying this is a lack of self-awareness, reflection, and an absolute inability to place themselves in the shoes of another.

Reading various additions to the ILCS, Officers scoff and proclaim well I would never do this or that, and refuse to believe this or that is happening elsewhere.

For instance, this addition was made to the Use of Force,

(c) The authority to use physical force conferred on peace officer by this Article is a serious responsibility that shall be exercised judiciously and with respect for human rights and dignity and for the sanity of every human life. 

Of course, grumble the almost all white Officers policing almost all black communities. But, I read that addition not as superfluous but as the I was just following Orders addendum. You see no Officer wants to believe they could possibly be the bad guys, that they would act as storm troopers, that they would simply follow inhumane orders. That events would overwhelm their natural instincts and moral code as the engage in indiscriminate unlawful use of force.  That they, would be the Nazis.

Yet, what did we see in Philadelphia during the 2020 protests? Officers indiscriminately using force on everyone they saw.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 27: BLM? Ha! The Police also kill lotsa Whites too!

Don't worry Cottonmouth, after Trump goes to jail You and Your Ilk is next...

White America, especially the rabid reactionary trolls who infest comment sections, will never, ever, ever question the seizure of a black man in America.  In rightwing America, every black person is a priori guilty of something and hence every contact with Police is an opportunity to determine if that black person should be arrested or killed.

Of course, one of the major problems of the internet age has been the replacement of shoe-leather reporting for on-line browsing.  Rightwing liars fervently believe their own bullshit that by opening a Faux News link or listening to some rightwing radio provocateurs rant, that they know what happened.  This is how we ended up with the 'I did my own Covid Research' which led to more than a million deaths.

But, even more hypocritical is that conservatives who proclaim you can never trust the government indubitably always believe Police briefings and reports which wholly exonerate the Officer, every time.

One of the things which was supposed to address the inappropriate escalation of force by Police Officers and curb violence and extrajudicial killings of minorities was the adoption of Body Cameras.  But, much like squad car mounted cameras years ago all the Body Cameras are doing is showing Police Officers violence and unlawful uses of force and unequal application of law.

But, again white righting America doesn't care.  When President Obama correctly stated the Cambridge Police acted stupidly for arresting Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates outside his own home in Harvard, rightwing media pounced and white America howled, beat their breasts, and rent their hair.  President Obama tried to minimize the white fury by calling it a "teachable moment" but, Faux News knew they had a winner because racist conservatives love lies and hate when their bigotry is pointed out.

So, there are no teachable moments when Police interact with persons of color.  As the Childersburg Alabama Police demonstrated by arresting black Pastor Michael Jennings for the crime of... well for the crime of being an unforgivable black person, calling his infraction, "obstructing government operations.

Disingenuous racist assholes invariably descend upon comment sections rabidly stating, don't resist, just comply, or don't run as they always blame the person of color for their mistreatment by Police and of course, this is asserted in bad faith by white men who give shit to Cops all the time (e.g. when they are drunk driving, beating up their wives, acting like drunk ripe assholes at bars or beaten Capitol Police Officer while trying to overthrow the US Government) it's just whites feel absolute impunity to act like jag-offs because Police should be rousting minorities somewhere and not hassling white dudes for just smacking their mouthy girlfriends around.

So... the pattern continues...

Jayland Walker in Akron, Ohio

Rob Adams in San Bernardino, California.

Nykon Brandon in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Watching the overweight Nykon Brandon "running" around in large white boxers the first question which comes to mind is; why are you running up to him and grabbing at him?  Follow him, see what he does, walk up to him, see how he reacts.  Instead of charging him and going hands on for crime of him "stealing" a beer from a Brewery.  It's also no doubt Brandon was trying to get beer to self-medicate and even the 911 caller could tell this was a mental health crisis and requested they send someone specifically to handle it as such.  But, instead the Officer induced escalation immediately led to a wrestling match, wherein additional Officers piled on Brandon holding him face down, controlling his head, and restricting his breathing, leading directly to his death.

On Ausgust 30th, in Columbus, Ohio Police executed a 0230 hour arrest warrant which ended in the death of the black man, Donovan Lewis in his bed.  Lewis was wanted for domestic violence and some sort of Ohio UUW, and being black white conservatives absolutely unequivocally support his summary execution because of the subjective fear the Officer experienced upon breaching the door and locating Lewis.  Listen to Alonzo Bodden dismantle this white woman's claim the shooting was reasonable because of the reasonable fear the Officer had being reasonable and reasonably being wrong about his reasonableness. 

Conservative America absolutely supports every extrajudicial killing of a person of color.  George Floyd's death din't change this.  Previous deaths of black men didn't change this.

Here in Illinois alleged Pig Fvcker Darren Bailey is using racist fear mongering about the Safe-T Act to attack Governor J.B. Pritizker because Bailey and his racist rightwing devotee Dan Proft know white America can be roused to support fascism by scare tactics about crime