Chicago’s police superintendent on Monday blamed the court system and progressive soft-on-crime policies for the city’s current crime wave, which saw another blood-soaked weekend during which 70 people were shot and 12 killed.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown argued that judges need to stop releasing accused violent offenders before their trial to help stem the dramatic rise of violent criminal activity.
“We are arresting violent offenders, the courts are releasing these people back into the community,” he said.
A frustrated Brown said the city needed to “challenge the courts to render Chicago safe” by “holding offenders in jail longer, not releasing murderers back into our community.”
NEARLY 100 ACCUSED KILLERS IN CHICAGO ARE OUT OF JAIL ON ANKLE MONITORS
Electronic monitoring has been a hot-button issue in liberal cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Law enforcement authorities have repeatedly singled out the program as a dangerous initiative that puts too many criminals back on the streets and endangers the public.
On average, 3,400 accused offenders in Cook County are out in the community on electronic monitoring at any given time, NBC5 reported.
In Chicago, more than 100 murder suspects have been roaming the streets with ankle bracelets.
In April, a 7-year-old girl was killed after being shot multiple times at a McDonald’s drive-thru by someone authorities said had been let out of jail on electronic monitoring.
Police have also pointed to other homicides, stabbings, and carjackings allegedly committed by people wearing electronic monitors.
Chicago police have also expressed concern about retaliatory shootings and the danger they pose for those caught in the crossfire.
Earlier this month, Chicago rapper Londre Sylvester, who went by the stage name KTS Dre and had been charged with multiple violent felonies, was ambushed and shot 64 times as he was coming out of a Cook County jail on electronic monitoring. The 60-year-old woman he was with was shot in one of her knees. A second woman in her 30s suffered a graze wound to her mouth, authorities said.
Critics like Brown have pointed to a 2017 change of policy in Cook County Circuit Court that has lowered some bails and allowed alleged offenders to wait out their trial date away from lockup. Brown has called it “madness” and said the policy is “making us all less safe.”
Chicago isn’t alone.
In cities such as Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, and Philadelphia, prosecutors have campaigned and been elected on liberal agendas, which include promises to incarcerate fewer people, tackle the root causes of crime, and eliminate racial inequalities in the justice system.
The problem, though, is that prosecutors in those cities have been hammered by police officials who said their agenda directly contributes to out-of-control crime surges.
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Adding to the problem is that several states in recent years have passed laws that make it easier for suspects to be released from jail. Illinois, for example, passed a law that will do away with cash bail entirely by 2023.
New York, which initially heralded its landmark 2020 bail reform law, was forced to roll back parts of it after an onslaught of stories emerged about violent crimes being committed by suspects that had been released.
The backlash, led by conservative lawmakers as well as law enforcement, was so intense that it forced Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to call his law just “a work in progress.”
