Decriminalize Everything

This was brought to out attention by our good friend Todd Vandermyde. He writes:

• you might want to go look at SB1980 house amendment 1.looks like the black caucus is trying to decrim[inalize] just about everything they can

Here's a link to the bill itself.

Here's a tiny portion of House Amendment 1:

• (b) Sentence.
  
  (1) Theft of property not from the person and not exceeding $2,000 $500 in value is a Class A misdemeanor.
  
  (1.1) Theft of property not from the person and not exceeding $2,000 $500 in value is a Class 4 felony if the theft was committed in a school or place of worship or if the theft was of governmental property.
  
  (2) A person who has been convicted of theft of property not from the person and not exceeding $2,000 $500 in value who has been previously convicted of felony any type of theft, robbery, armed robbery, burglary, residential burglary, possession of burglary tools, home invasion, forgery, a violation of Section 4-103, 4-103.1, 4-103.2, or 4-103.3 of the Illinois Vehicle Code relating to the possession of a stolen or converted motor vehicle, or a violation of Section 17-36 of the Criminal Code of 1961 or the Criminal Code of 2012, or Section 8 of the Illinois Credit Card and Debit Card Act is guilty of a Class 4 felony.
  
  (3) (Blank).
  
  (4) Theft of property from the person not exceeding $500 in value, or theft of property exceeding $2,000 $500 and not exceeding $10,000 in value, is a Class 3 felony.
  
  (4.1) Theft of property from the person not exceeding $500 in value, or theft of property exceeding $2,000 $500 and not exceeding $10,000 in value, is a Class 2 felony if the theft was committed in a school or place of worship or if the theft was of governmental property.

As you can see from all the underlines and strike-throughs, the proposer (Rep Camille Y. Lilly of the west side) is attempting to codify into law what Kim Foxxx has been telling all of her subordinates to do via memo - raise the felony charging parameters in order to make more crimes misdemeanors.

While this is the proper direction that Foxxx should have done in the first place, we question the wisdom of raising the floor four-times the current numbers. You are rewarding criminals by removing the established penalties and punishments. It's a bad idea.