Low/No Bail UPDATE

We have been sent an article by a couple of sharp-eyed readers. It seems the Tribune actually did publish a piece on the body count attached to low/no bail the other day:

• Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans for months has defended the bail reform he ordered by citing an analysis produced by the office he runs.
  
  His report, released in May, noted that Chicago saw no increase in violent crime after judges began implementing those reforms by reducing or eliminating monetary bail for many pretrial defendants. Far more of these defendants were released from custody, yet only “a very small fraction” were charged afterward with a new violent offense, the report states.
  
  But a Tribune investigation has found flaws in both the data underlying Evans’ report and the techniques he used to analyze it — issues that minimize the number of defendants charged with murder and other violent crimes after being released from custody under bail reform.

But the Tribune seems to have memory-holed the article (removed it from the main page) in a rather expedient fashion since it reflects rather badly on the Machine and pretty much proves Judge Evans a bald-faced liar:

• One central conclusion of Evans’ analysis was that only 147 felony defendants released from custody in the 15 months after bail reform went on to be charged with new violent crimes, or 0.6% of the total. He has called this a “rare” occurrence.
  
  But Evans’ definition of violent crime, while acceptable to criminologists under some circumstances, was limited to six offenses and excluded numerous others, including domestic battery, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, battery, armed violence and reckless homicide.
  
  Hundreds of these charges were filed against people released after bail reform took effect, according to data Evans provided after the Tribune filed a public records petition to the Illinois Supreme Court. If those charges were included in the analysis, the total would be at least four times higher, the Tribune found.

Gee, a Chicago politico using manipulated data to draw the completely wrong conclusion. Who wouldn't have thunk it?

And get a load of this bullshit:

• In an earlier interview with the Tribune, Evans said: "My heart goes out to the families who’ve been victimized by crime.”
  
  But, he added, “The only way you can guarantee that no one will commit a crime while their case is pending, and that no one will miss a court date while their case is pending, is to keep them all in jail. … That’s not the solution.”

Um, that's EXACTLY the solution dumbass. And you're victimizing the most vulnerable members of the community all over again with your crap.

And we were contacted by one of the authors of a study that seems to show that crime actually goes up after more offenders are released on low/no bail provisions. Here's their article - with links to their scientific studies:

• In a study posted on SSRN today, my colleague Professor Richard Fowles and I explore the public safety implications of recent Cook County bail reforms. We review the Cook County Chief Judge's study of these reforms, which sanguinely asserted that as more defendants were released pretrial no additional crimes resulted. We believe that, properly assessed, the study's own data suggests a significant increase in crimes as a result of the changes. Our conclusions may have broader implications about the public safety dangers of bail reform.

Remember, these are professors, so they're way smarter than Cook County politicians and judges.

Cash Bail Ending

Releasing criminals willy-nilly has worked so well across Illinois that the Illinois Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of nearly 100 county States Attorneys and decided the voters deserve to get what they voted for - good and hard:

• The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld a state law ending cash bail across the state, giving courts two more months before they must implement the change.

  Illinois will now be the first state to fully abolish cash bail.

  In a 5-2 ruling Tuesday morning, the state's highest court overturned a ruling by a Kankakee County judge that the law ending cash bail was unconstitutional. The end to cash bail will now go into effect across the entire state on Sept. 18, according to the Illinois Supreme Court ruling.

  "The Illinois Constitution of 1970 does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure criminal defendants appear for trials or the only means to protect the public. Our constitution creates a balance between the individual rights of defendants and the individual rights of crime victims. The Act's pretrial release provisions set forth procedures commensurate with that balance," Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote in the ruling.

In this entire case, the legislature, Crimesha and that other asshole from Lake County, claim that offenders are also victims, and therefore have equal rights as those upon whom they committed crimes:

• "It means no disruptions with your job or education, no disruptions with your health," said Illinois state Rep. Justin Slaughter (D-Chicago). "If you're a mother or a father, it means no disruptions with your parenting situation."

Maybe if you have responsibilities like those of a parent, you should think beyond the insulated bubble of selfishness and maybe not commit crimes that might land you in jail awaiting trial? 

Sometimes, the only thing keeping a particular asshole in line was the threat of bail revocation. If it was that big of a deal, how about advocating bail reform instead of bail abolition?

Strap in for more mayhem.

Um, Northwestern? You Are Morons

How about these eggheads leave well enough alone?

• As video bond court is set to be scrapped, a new study claims that the decades-old practice in Cook County resulted in higher bail amounts for defendants.
  
  The Northwestern University study, released Thursday, found that bail amounts for most felony crimes increased by 65 percent since closed-circuit hearings began in Bond Court in June 1999. By contrast, bail set in homicide or serious sex crimes—where defendants continued to appear in person before judge—remained relatively static, the study found.

Thanks to Northwestern University, bail amounts for most felonies will be reduced. That means more jagoffs walking the streets, more opportunities for the criminal to locate and convince witnesses not to testify, maybe even permanently "remove" witnesses from ever testifying.

High bail is a good thing. Having predators in cages is a proven method for reducing crime. Judges holding bail hearings via video removed the human element (i.e. defendants playing on the sympathies of bleeding heart liberal judges) from bond hearings and forced judges to apply the bail rules equitably across the board.

Perhaps the Northwestern study should have looked at why bails were set 65% too low most of the time. It might help to explain the burgeoning crime rate.

UPDATE: Last line corrected to reflect the 65% figure meaning bail amounts, not occurrences. We were half asleep typing this one. Apologies.

CWB Stories

Just a sample of the exceptional reporting going on over at CWB.

Cook County incompetence:

• Charged in August with felony shoplifting while on bail for another felony shoplifting case, 43-year-old James Tolbert sat in the Cook County jail, unable to afford the $1,600 bail deposit he needed to get released on an ankle monitor. Barely three weeks later, Illinois eliminated the cash bail system. Tolbert’s attorney filed a motion asking Judge Kenneth Wadas to remove the cash bail requirement. Wadas agreed, and Tolbert went home with an order to stay in the house from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

  Since then, officials now say, Tolbert has shoplifted or robbed Sunglass Hut and Ulta Beauty locations in the Loop and on the Magnificent Mile a dozen times. He’s in jail again, at least for now, awaiting trial.

No cash bail, so he goes out and commits twelve more crimes.

Illegals want out of Chicago:

• Two migrants, recently arrested at different locations for allegedly committing completely different crimes, told Chicago police officers they have turned to lives of crime because they want to be sent back to Venezuela, according to their CPD arrest reports.

  In fact, police say Dhian Gomez-Mendoza told them that he is so desperate to go back to his native country that he “will do whatever it takes if that is beating up a police officer or hurting a civilian, he will do it.”

These are what democrats are importing.

And this one just amazed us:

• A West Side man has pleaded guilty to unintentionally killing his back seat passenger while trying to shoot another driver in December 2020, according to court records.

  Quincy Cole, 29, was on bail for a pending arson case when he unintentionally shot 19-year-old Roderick James in the chest four times, officials said. He was found guilty in the arson case last April and received a six-year sentence. Chicago police records show detectives wanted to charge him with murder in the arson matter, but prosecutors rejected their request.

Out on bail, under investigation for an arson that killed someone, manages to shoot an accomplice four times....while trying to kill someone else.

Anyone know if Cuck Goudie and the I(diot)Team are investigating any of this?

Released How Many Times?

Why do democratic judges hate women?

• A man charged in three pending rape cases was released on electronic monitoring Thursday after a Cook County judge reduced his bail.
  
  Robert Walters, 44, first made headlines in 2016 when DNA evidence linked him to the 2013 kidnapping and rape of a drunken woman who'd been trying to hail a cab outside Castle nightclub in River North.
  
  Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. set bail at $5 million in August 2016. Trial Judge Carol M. Howard later reduced that amount to $200,000. Walters posted the requisite 10 percent and soon went free on electronic monitoring.

That's one arrest and a bail reduction:

• He was arrested again in November after DNA evidence linked him to a 2014 rape that occurred after an OkCupid date. Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil set bail in that matter at $75,000. Walters posted an additional $7,500 to be released — again on electronic monitoring.

That's two arrests and a low bail for a repeat offender:

• In July of this year, he was brought before Judge Peggy Chiampas on allegations he raped a married woman he met in a bar in July 2016. Walters' DNA recently proven to be a match to that woman's rape kit.
  
  Chiampas denied Walters bail, calling him "a danger to women."
  
  At the request of Walters' defense attorney, Howard this week agreed to let Walters go free pending trial so long as he qualifies for electronic monitoring. Walters was released from Cook County Jail, 2700 S. California Ave., on Thursday, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office.

Three arrests. And he's walking around with an ankle bracelet, just like over 500 other inmates that Dart can't keep track of.

The system is broken, probably beyond repair.

Judges Don't Follow the Rules?

Gee whiz Batman, who would have guessed this happens in Cook County?

• Cook County judges routinely make bail decisions for crime suspects contrary to what the judges’ new risk-assessment system calls for, according to a review of more than 1,500 cases this year obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  A review by the Cook County sheriff’s office showed judges’ bail decisions differed from the guidelines about 85 percent of the time. The review tracked cases in 30 weekday sessions — between Feb. 10 and March 29 — in Central Bond Court at the main Leighton Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California.
  
  The sheriff’s study found bail decisions were “inconsistent,” even when defendants’ backgrounds and the charges they faced were factored in.
  
  The 90-page study, the results of which Chief Cook County Judge Timothy Evans disputes, also found that the amount and conditions of bail varied widely depending on which judge was presiding on a given day.

Toni is insisting there are too many black and brown defendants in the jail, Dart is releasing them as fast as he can process them out (and demoralizing his workforce), and judges are fucking up bail requirements 85% of the time. And Evans "disputes" the study? How about he has the judges follow the bail recommendations for say...the rest of summer? And we'll see if crime drops significantly as the "risk factors" dictate certain assholes stay in jail until trial.

Someone Had to Say It

And it wasn't going to be Crimesha:

• A full year into the state’s end of cash bail, a suburban county state’s attorney says the law has been “an abject failure” for his county.

  Illinois ended cash bail statewide in September 2023 after litigation against the law was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court. The Pretrial Fairness Act is part of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity Today, or SAFE-T, Act.

  McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said the data in his county doesn’t show what proponents promised.

  “There was a 30% increase in crime by those on pretrial release compared to those on cash bail,” Kenneally told The Center Square.

  Last month, CWBChicago found that nearly 20% of people arrested and charged with felonies in Chicago were already on pretrial release for another pending criminal case.

Even the jail population went up in McHanry County, something advocates said wouldn't happen.

CWB also did a deep dive into the numbers here and guess what? They're lying!

• However, CWB found that the office of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, apparently using the same methodology as the Illinois Network for Pretrial Fairness, has been artificially understating failures to appear under cashless bail.

  Evans’ office publishes a weekly data dashboard that currently shows 87% of defendants have “not been issued a warrant for a failure to appear while on pretrial release.” It states the number means “87% [are] Compliant with Scheduled Court Dates.”

  By comparison, when cash bail ended last year, the felony compliance rate was just under 80%. So, on the surface, it appears that compliance is higher without cash bail.

  However, the numbers are not apples-to-apples.

  Under the current system, judges often must notify defendants who miss court dates by mail before a warrant can be issued.

  As a result, the number of people who fail to appear is substantially higher than the 88% that end up in warrant status. But because—like these people—they got a postcard instead of a warrant, the chief judge considers them “compliant with scheduled court dates,” even though they were not.

Which means Clerk Iris Martinez was probably telling the truth a few weeks ago.

$300 Rule Back in Effect

Years ago, Crimesha unilaterally decided she would decline to prosecute shoplifting charges unless the total monetary loss was in excess of $1,000. This was in direct contradiction of the law passed in Springfield that set the felony charge at anything over $300.

Illinois legislators, being gutless cowards who couldn't confront a fellow democrat, even if she was a totally incompetent lawyer violating the standards in place, stood by and watched as shoplifting and assorted retail crimes skyrocketed, making not only Chicago, but many suburban mall-scapes suddenly "business unfriendly" and shrinking the tax base by hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue and lost tourism.

O'Neill-Burke is (allegedly) changing that starting immediately:

• At the same time, published reports indicated O'Neill Burke had also moved immediately to rescind policies established under former Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to essentially decriminalize most cases of shoplifting in Chicago and elsewhere in the county.

  According to reports, O'Neill Burke would move to prosecute as felonies all cases of shoplifting involving the theft of at least $300 in merchandise or if committed by someone with a prior conviction. Those prosecution standards would comply with state law, as written.

  Previously, Foxx had directed her team of prosecutors to not charge shoplifters with felonies unless the accused thieves stole at least $1,000 worth of merchandise.

Again, this was illegal - Crimesha had ZERO authority to create law. We said at the time (and still say today) that she should be disbarred for this. Because crap like what she was doing led directly to shit like this:

• A serial shoplifter accused of stealing merchandise 12 times after being released from jail when Illinois eliminated cash bail last year has been given a nine-year prison sentence.

  Charged in August 2023 with felony shoplifting while on bail for another felony shoplifting case, 44-year-old James Tolbert sat in the Cook County jail, unable to afford the $1,600 bail deposit he needed to get released on an ankle monitor.

  Barely three weeks later, Illinois eliminated the cash bail system. Tolbert’s attorney filed a motion asking Judge Kenneth Wadas to remove the cash bail requirement. Wadas agreed, and Tolbert went home with an order to stay in the house from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

  After that, officials claimed, Tolbert shoplifted or robbed Sunglass Hut and Ulta Beauty locations in the Loop and on the Magnificent Mile a dozen times.

"a dozen times" that they can pin on him. The actual number is closer to three dozen we've been told.

There's plenty of blame to go around - all at the feet of democrats, who love criminals more than they like or tolerate citizens and successful businesses. But Crimesha, more than anyone, deserves every bit of contempt we all can muster toward her arrogant bullshit.

Another Great Bail

Yet another reason that we never recommend voting to retain judges:

• A West Side man is charged with possessing a loaded handgun in a car recently while free on bail as he awaits trial for a 2017 armed carjacking in the Loop.
  
  CWBChicago first told you about Savion Canty after prosecutors charged him for his alleged role in an armed carjacking of a Hilton Chicago Hotel employee in April 2017. In bond court for the carjacking, a pretrial analysis recommended that Canty be placed under “maximum conditions” if the judge decided to release him on bail.
  
  Instead, Judge Stephanie Miller ordered him held without bail. Less than a week later, Canty appeared before now-retired Judge Marvin Luckman, who earned the nickname “Let ‘em Go Luckman” due to his defendant-friendly rulings. Luckman reduced Canty’s bail and allowed him to go home the same day by posting a $2,000 bond.
  
  Now, prosecutors have charged Canty with having a handgun in a car during a traffic stop in West Garfield Park. Police said Canty, 21, was in the back seat of a vehicle that fled the scene of an accident. When they removed Canty from the back seat, officers allegedly found a loaded handgun with an extended ammunition magazine under the back of the driver’s seat at Canty’s feet.

And once again, CWB blog doing all of the heavy lifting here.

Cop Shooter Makes Bail

This isn't just judicial incompetence - we're pretty sure it's a deliberate "fuck you" to the CPD officers who put their lives on the line:

• Interim Chicago police Supt. Charlie Beck says he’s furious that a man accused of shooting an officer in 2018 was allowed to go free on bail.
  
  “To release somebody that is suspected and charged with attempted murder on a police officer for a low amount of bail is outrageous,” Beck told the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  Officer Fernando Soto saw Bryce Jones-Lanum holding what looked like a gun while crossing 87th Street and Ashland Avenue on Nov. 20, 2018, police say. As he ran, Jones-Lanum pointed a .38-caliber revolver at Soto, and they exchanged fire, police say.
  
  Soto escaped with a bruise after being shot in the back of his protective vest. Jones-Lanum, who’s now 22, was wounded.
  
  Jones-Lanum initially was held without bail. But at a hearing in October Cook County Circuit Judge Diana Kenworthy granted him bail of $50,000, and he posted the required 10% bond to be released until trial.
  
  “This is what my job is, to some — to make these hard calls,” the judge said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Again, for the record, there is not a single judge in Cook County worthy of a retention vote. None. Zero. Until we start seeing some push back by their peers (which, by the way, is what libtards demand of every cop) then every single judge should be voted out. We don't care if they get reappointed later to cover shortages. Replace 80 or 100 judges every election cycle, and in two or four years, replace those 80 or 100 again.

A-Fucking-Mazing

Remember this asshole back in February?

• A Chicago man with only a misdemeanor supervision in his past was ordered held without bail Tuesday after Cook County prosecutors said he shattered a window at a judge’s home a day after he had cursed her out from his car.
  
  Michael Laureto, 36, of the Logan Square neighborhood, faces felony charges of criminal damage to property and threatening a public official for the incident Sunday at the home of Judge Stephanie Miller.
  
  Judge David Navarro, who was hearing the regular bond court call Tuesday, recused himself from deciding Laureto’s bail because Miller is his colleague in the Pretrial Division. Instead, Judge Ursula Walowski, who regularly sits in the Criminal Division, stepped in and ordered Laureto held without bail, saying he poses “a real and present danger” to the public.

Miller? Didn't we just hear that name? Oh yeah:

• When Daryl Williams stepped in front of Cook County Judge Stephanie Miller on Wednesday, it wasn’t the first time the two had seen each other. Back in November, Miller—a champion of the county’s “affordable bail” movement—let Williams go free on a recognizance bond after he was charged with possessing a stolen handgun on the South Side.
  
  While free awaiting trial on the handgun charge, Williams obtained another gun and fatally shot a man in the back of the head, police say. Arrested this week, Williams just happened to find himself in front of Judge Miller again.

So a judge's window is more important than a felony weapon charge, so much so that other judges will hold an (allegedly) mentally ill dumbass without bail and stand by while she releases people with a penchant for acquiring and using guns.

When is the media going to pick up on this judge who lost a primary, yet still managed to get an associate appointment to loose a killer on the community?

(to the unpublished moron: loose - verb: set free; release. Try to learn the language before you attempt to criticize something as obvious as "loose / lose" Asshat.)

How Low Can You Go?

Good thing the election is over because this dumbass judge would have attracted a lot of attention:

• A 70-year-old man is facing charges of selling a kilogram of heroin to undercover officers — and of possessing over $1 million of the drug — in the Portage Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
  
  Manuel Mejia Rojas, who lives in the Little Village neighborhood, was charged with class X felonies of delivering and possessing a controlled substance, according to Cook County states attorneys. He was held on $300 bail.

$300 bail?

For over $1 million in heroin. A drug that's been called a "humanitarian" crisis andis tearing apart not only the inner cities, but the suburbs and rural parts of America as well.

Surely that's a misprint and the reporter meant $300,000, right?

• “That’s a lot of drugs, son,” Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. said at a bail hearing Saturday in the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on the Southwest Side.
  
  Judge Lyke asked what bail he could afford to pay, and Rojas replied $300. Lyke set his bail to $300 and order him to be placed on electronic monitoring.

Oh. Well. Electronic Monitoring. That's a relief. No chance he'll manage to do bad things while he's on Dart's World Famous Electronic Monitoring Program. A program renowned far and wide for it's ability to tell EXACTLY where every prisoner is at all times.

Cook County as Bail Bondsman

Why do we think this has problems written all over it?

• A Cook County commissioner wants to alleviate crowding at the Cook County jail by lending bail money to some nonviolent offenders charged with minor crimes.
  
  If adopted, the “revolving bail-bond fund” would require tax dollars to get up and running. But the program should pay for itself by reducing the number of prisoners housed at the jail at an estimated cost of $143 per day per inmate, said Commissioner Larry Suffredin, a Democrat who represents parts of northern Cook County.

We're sure they've looked at every option for reducing that $143 per day, right? Maybe get it down to under $100 somehow? There are limits being proposed for who gets a bond:

• There are several stipulations about who could get a bail bond loan under the proposal, which was first heard by the County Board on Wednesday.
  
  For example, only nonviolent offenders who do not pose a flight risk could be eligible. And only inmates who were given small bail amounts would be allowed to participate.
  
  Also, loans could not be issued to those facing additional charges that may land them right back in jail.

Ok, we can see that....but then there's this:

• Another requirement would mandate that those who are released have health insurance or sign up for subsidized coverage offered through the county, according to the resolution.

Huh? Health insurance? Is this another scheme to drive up Obamacare numbers? Someone want to explain?

No Bail?

But we thought that Judge Evans said everyone gets a bail they can afford?

• A Chicago man with only a misdemeanor supervision in his past was ordered held without bail Tuesday after Cook County prosecutors said he shattered a window at a judge’s home a day after he had cursed her out from his car.
  
  Michael Laureto, 36, of the Logan Square neighborhood, faces felony charges of criminal damage to property and threatening a public official for the incident Sunday at the home of Judge Stephanie Miller.
  
  Judge David Navarro, who was hearing the regular bond court call Tuesday, recused himself from deciding Laureto’s bail because Miller is his colleague in the Pretrial Division. Instead, Judge Ursula Walowski, who regularly sits in the Criminal Division, stepped in and ordered Laureto held without bail, saying he poses “a real and present danger” to the public.

It certainly would be nice to see some consistency across the board in Cook County Courts and not simply based on who the victim happens to be.

National Issue Comes to Chicago

As a rule, we don't do social media. However, AceofSpades blog has an extensive Twitter conversation that demonstrates the damage the previous Administration has done (and continues to do) to the nation, specifically Washington DC. We've condensed it for space considerations, but you can read the whole thing at the link up top:

• Boy oh boy. Remember we said that after Obama left office, we'd find out the damage he did? Under Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, the Department of Justice pushed the states to pass new laws. The goal was to make it impossible to hold repeat offenders in jail before trial. Why? Because so many repeat offenders are black.
  
  The first step was to reclassify violent felonies as nonviolent misdemeanors. Look at California. Assault with a deadly weapon, harming a crime victim or witness, resisting arrest that injures a police officer...Violent elder or child abuse, arson with injury, and manslaughter are now nonviolent felonies. Proposition 47--passed in 2014--reclassified certain "nonviolent felonies" as misdemeanors. Therefore prisoners convicted of violent elder abuse were released because now their former violent felony was a misdemeanor.
  
  So the Democrats first changed violent felonies to misdemeanors. Then they changed the laws for bail. Washington DC Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier resigned because criminals were being arrested, released, and arrested again the same day. Federal authorities decide who stays in jail in DC. Under pressure from Holder and Lynch, they were releasing everyone.

We don't know what you think, but that last paragraph seems to be EXACTLY what Kim Foxxx is doing by downgrading every felony she can, EXACTLY what Dart is doing emptying the jail and EXACTLY what Evans is doing by reducing/eliminating bail for supposedly "non violent" offenders. By the way, our respect for Lanier went up a notch for resigning when her Department was hamstrung by the DOJ - she cites nearly every criticism we've made the past few years. (EDIT - She's still a gun grabbing leftist tool):

• The crime rate spiked dramatically. The Democrats are pushing for "community rehabilitation programs" instead of prison. The most repulsive member of congress--@tedlieu, the guy who trolls Trump--has introduced a doozy of a bill. Lieu wants to ELIMINATE bail in the entire country. They point to the "success" of New Jersey, which eliminated bail earlier this year. In New Jersey, a person is evaluated with an eight-question form. Prior offenses are not taken into consideration. As a result almost nobody is held over until trial. Almost everyone is released. The state had to hire new staff and create new computer systems to manage the new system. Releasing everybody has so far cost New Jersey $400 million, and the crime rate is skyrocketing.
  
  Washington DC eliminated bail, and now the city pays $50 million a year to oversee almost no prisoners. Duane and Beth Chapman--He's better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter--testified in Sacramento about the new laws coming. The Chapmans pointed out every loophole they could: a guy who never shows up for trial, for example. They said that the Democrats then TWEAKED the laws to EXCLUDE any possible offender. The DC Police arrested a total of 219 violent protestors on Inauguration Day. Only 17 showed up for their trials. The Chapmans said that the Democratic party has made it a priority in 2017 to pass laws that make holding anyone in jail impossible.
  
  What I realized a long time ago is that Democrats' sole motivation is to piss off conservatives. So I'm not surprised that one of our two major parties now wants us to die at the hands of violent criminals. The end result of Democratic "reform" is that criminals now commit crimes with impunity, and people are too afraid to call the cops. There are no penalties for threatening witnesses and skipping your trial. Nobody comes looking for you. And if you get arrested, they immediately release you. You may have heard that more an more celebrities are having their mansions broken into. Alanis Morissette was robbed of $2 million worth of jewelry. This is a new crime, being committed by old gangs such and the Bloods and Crips. It's because there are no penalties. This is just one of the things Obama did to us. And the CURRENT Democrats want to make it even worse. The end.

The damage wrought by Obummer and his half-assed "social engineering" will be felt by generations of cops and victims.

Nice Bail and Charging Procedures

Did your cell phone Amber Alert feature go off this weekend? CWB tells us all why and guess who's to blame (again)?

• A suspected double-murderer who sparked an Amber Alert across Chicagoland on Friday evening is on bail for allegedly killing a woman while fleeing police and for two separate Class X felony armed habitual criminal gun crimes.

  Clarence Hebron, 32, had been held without bail on those cases for over a year until a Cook County judge agreed to release him on just $15,000 bond in July.

  Hebron has not been charged with Friday’s murder of 26-year-old Jessica Beal and her brother in Riverdale, but police identified him as the suspect in an Amber Alert after Beal’s 1-year-old boy went missing following the homicides. The boy has since been located.

And....you know what's coming: 

• Incredibly, Hebron was also on bail for the two armed habitual criminal cases when he allegedly killed a woman while fleeing police in April last year.

  Hebron is awaiting trial for two separate major gun cases in which he is charged with a total of two counts of Class X armed habitual criminal, five counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and four counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office.

The number of dead bodies directly attributable to Crimesha's refusal to prosecute, Timmy insane bail procedures and Tommy's quick release policies is staggering. And they all belong to the Prickwrinkle Machine.

Interesting Bail Observation

A sharp-eyed reader send these articles to us.  The first armed robbery:

• Bail was set at $350,000 today for a Northwest Side man who is accused of robbing a man by making him withdraw $100 from a Gold Coast ATM this week.
  
  Patrick J. Palumbo, 47, of 2800 block of West Diversey Avenue, was charged late Friday night with one count of armed robbery, police said.
  
  Palumbo was ordered held today in lieu of $350,000 bail, officials said.

He showed the victim a knife and got $100.

Now the second armed robbery:

• A judge set bail today at $100,000 each for three teen-age girls charged as adults with the armed robbery of two University of Chicago students this week near the South Side campus, authorities said.
  
  A gun brandished by a fourth suspect, a 14-year-old girl facing juvenile charges, discharged while the girl was pistol-whipping a 28-year-old female student early Monday, but no one was shot, police said. The woman was accompanied by another student, a 22-year-old man.

A pistol whipping and a weapon discharge, yet bail is just $100,000?  And the guy with the knife gets $350,000?

This just feeds into our opinion about the broken system we have here in Cook County.  See below for our judicial endorsements and tell us we're wrong to think this way after half a century of living here.

Tom Dart Hates Women

From the crew over at "Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown," yet another Dart fuck up:

• Already accused of two rapes, a Lakeview man is now charged with a third sexual assault. The good news, if there is any, is that a judge has finally decided that the guy shouldn’t be on electronic monitoring anymore.
  
  Robert W. Walters, 44, was arrested last week at his apartment in the 600 block of West Diversey after investigators connected him to a rape that he allegedly committed last summer while he was already under investigation for two other sexual assaults.
  
  Walters is now charged with one more count of criminal sexual assault and he's been ordered held without bail. He had been on electronic monitoring, even after being charged with his second sexual attack last winter.

And guess who abetted the rapes?

• Walters was initially held on $5 million bail, but Judge Carol M. Howard would later cut that to $200,000.
• When Walters showed up in court for his second rape case, Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil set bail at just $75,000. Walters went free on electronic monitoring.

Female judges set bail so low for forcible rapes that Dart was able to justify Electronic Monitoring, leaving this piece of shit free to rape again. And this Judge Howard is the one who signed off on four years probation for the baby tosser in the post directly above.

If we understand the rules now, the first two rapes in Cook County are close to free - probably part of Foxxx's "no felony charges" plan. And does anyone at County know if this was one of the almost 500 people in EM that Dart has no idea of their whereabouts?

This "Affordable Bail" Thing

It isn't really working as the CrimeInWrigleyvilleAndBoystown blog is reporting:

• Just under a month ago, 20-year-old David Phipps starred in our weekly “Monday Gunday” feature. Now, he’s back in jail. When last we heard from Phipps, he had been released on a recognizance bond after cops arrested him in Uptown. He had stolen credit cards in his possession and a 9-millimeter handgun and ammunition in his car, police said. Prosecutors charged him with possession of ammunition without a Firearms Owner ID card, felony identity theft of two or more persons, two felony counts of unlawful possession of a credit card, and burglary.
  
  Judge Sophia Atcherson, carrying the torch of "affordable bail" in Cook County, released him on a recognizance bond.
  
  So, what’s the Hazel Crest resident been up to since his CWBChicago debut? Well, it looks like he got his hair done. Everything else is pretty much the same. Police arrested him on Sunday after a Lincoln Park resident reported seeing Phipps breaking into a car in the 1400 block of West Shakespeare.

And this guy:

• It’s probably just a coincidence, but three days after a man charged with possessing a stack of skimmed debit cards skipped bail, police today recovered a skimming device from an ATM in Lincoln Square.
  
  According to police records, today’s was the first skimming device recovered by police on the North Side since suspected skimming guru Marius Manolache was arrested February 11.
  
  The skimmer was found around 1 o’clock this afternoon on an ATM at Walgreens, 4801 North Lincoln, police said. An evidence technician was seen retrieving the device a couple of hours later.

This particular individual was caught with 17 fraudulent debit cars and over $3,000 in new twenties. He paid his $500 bail with the cash and subsequently disappeared - imagine that.

And just for kicks, here's their annual report on the St Patrick's Day parade mayhem in their neck of the words. Always entertaining.

How Much?

This boggles the mind (story from the CWB blog):

• An armored car driver has been charged with stealing more than a half-million dollars from his North Side employer. In coins.
  
  Managers at Thillens Cagistics called police to the company warehouse at 4242 North Elston on Monday afternoon when an audit revealed that $537,088.22 had gone missing between May 10 and Aug. 18.

Three months and over half-a-million? It makes that recently convicted idiot selling accident info to lawyers for $10 grand over the years look like an even bigger idiot.

It also makes us wonder about Thillens security measures = half-a-million in coins has to weigh many hundreds of pounds at the very least.

This isn't the end of the stupid though:

• Company representatives told investigators that 28-year-old Cameron Bowman of Riverdale stole the money by putting incorrect totals into a computer. While Bowman did not admit to any wrongdoing, police said, he did ask if he could leave and return with the money.
  
  Bowman left for about an hour and came back with a Ziploc bag containing $25,300 in $100 bills, police said.

They let him leave? Alone? And he comes back with 5% of the stolen total and expects a walk? Is this when the police were finally called?

Guess what his bail was?

• Prosecutors charged Bowman with one count of felony theft of more than $500,000. Judge Charles Beach set bail at $30,000, and Bowman went free by posting a 10% deposit bond of $3,000. He is due back in court Monday.

Less than 1% of the total stolen as bail? This guy must have had the biggest shit-eating grin standing in front of the judge.

Rumor is he paid the bail in rolls of dimes and nickels, and Dart was only too happy to accept it.