Prairie State Wire

Darren Bailey, candidate for Governor of Illinois blasts incumbent Governor J.B. Pritzker for his no cash bail policies.

Paid for by Bailey for Illinois, a recent video was released questioning the governor's goals for Illinois.

"JB Pritzker, Lori Lightfoot and Kim Foxx are the three musketeers of crime, chaos and tragedy in Chicago," Bailey said on Facebook as he posted a link to the video. "As shootouts and mayhem terrorize the city, the trio has more than turned their backs on our police officers, they have actively attacked them, threatened their careers, and endangered their lives. When I’m governor, this is how we will turn a city in crisis into the world-class, SAFE, and prosperous city it should be."

The video, which is just over a minute, presents crime rates which were seen to have increased compared to a few years ago. The clip presented that from 2019 there has been a 55% increase in the number of homicides in Cook County this year. 

“What did Pritzker do? Ended cash bail for all criminals,” the narrator for the video says. The video cuts to a shot of Pritzker signing a giant stack of bills. “What did Pritzker do? Pritzker released dangerous criminals,” the narrator says.

People who have been accused of crimes like robbery, kidnapping, arson, second-degree murder, intimidation, aggravated battery, aggravated DUI, aggravated flight, drug-related homicide, and threatening a public official will be able to be released as soon as the SAFE-T Act is put into action Jan. 1, 2023, Prairie State Wire reported. It has been suggested that criminals use the law as a shield to avoid punishment and carry on committing crimes.

Former Foxx office manager James Murphy III, who oversaw grand jury and criminal bail proceedings, criticized the rush of the passage of the SAFE-T Act which will put a burden on the prosecution if they think a suspect in a crime needs to be jailed. Law only permits detention if it is established the defendant"poses a specific, real and present threat to a person or has a high likelihood of willful flight." 

The SAFE-T Act also caught the attention of the Political Action Committee People Who Play By the Rules.

"This January, if nothing is done, mayhem will ensue across Illinois as alleged perpetrators held in pre-trial confinement for crimes from petty theft all the way up to murder will be let out of jail everywhere," Mike Koolidge, a spokesman for the Political Action Committee People Who Play By the Rules, said. "Any respectable legislator and state's attorneys who don't do something about this before then will have blood on their hands, the least of which being the man who signed this catastrophic bill into law, Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker.”

The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police has backed Bailey in his efforts to overturn the severely criticized SAFE-T Act. Bailey claimed that his administration would “stop trying to make police the enemy,” according to KHQA.

Over the July 4th weekend there were 68 other shootings, eight of which resulted in fatalities, in the Chicago metropolitan region. Such outbreaks of gun violence appear to be common in Chicago, CNN reported.