Prairie State Wire

Gov. J.B. Pritzker made a mistake when he signed into law House Bill 3653, according to a Republican candidate who is running to unseat the incumbent governor.

“I vehemently disagree with the policy behind this legislation but also, as your governor, I will not be signing any legislation that is not passed in a transparent manner,” said Paul Schimpf, a former state senator from the 58th District. “That is a huge difference between the way I would act as governor and the way that Gov. Pritzker is acting right now.”

HB 3653 ends cash bail in Illinois and implements accountability practices for law enforcement, according to media reports.

“We have to get back to good government in Illinois,” Schimpf said. “The process by and which HB 3653 was amended up until the very last minute and passed in the Illinois Senate at 4 a.m. with senators not even knowing what was in it is a failure of our process. It should have led to a veto just because it was so poorly drafted and the process was so bad alone.”

Schimpf is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. 

Illinois is the first state to eliminate cash bail, which activists allege discriminates against the impoverished and critics say puts violent criminals back on the street.

“Neither the Sheriff's Association or the Chief of Police Association or the Fraternal Order of Police had any input in this and it's really going to affect citizen’s lives in a negative way,” said Monroe County Sheriff Neal Rohlfing in an online statement.

NBC reported that Pritzker praised the new law as transformative for black and brown communities that allegedly have been disproportionately impacted by police brutality.

"These lawmakers fought to address the pandemic of systemic racism in the wake of national protests over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Quintonio LeGrier, Laquan McDonald and so many others,” Pritzker said.