.
A new report shows that major crime in Chicago is up almost 60% over 2019, a post-COVID record.
While those number are concerning, it even more troubling to contemplate how much worse it may get in 2024 as the legal system continues to align with Illinois’ SAFE-T Act implemented two months ago.
The Gateway Pundit reported that Illinois became the first state in the U.S. to entirely eliminate the cash bail system.
Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker signed HB 3653 THE SAFE-T (Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity- Today) ACT into law saying, “Transforming the pretrial detention system so low-income people aren’t thrown behind bars while only the wealthy walk free, diverting low-level drug crimes into substance-treatment programs and reducing excessive stays in prison.”
The result is the release, on no bail, of those awaiting a court date accused of certain felonies including, “second-degree murder, aggravated battery, and arson without bail, as well as drug-induced homicide, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, intimidation, aggravated DUI, aggravated fleeing and eluding, drug offenses and threatening a public official.”
The elimination of cash bail was set to go into effect on Sunday, January 1, 2023, but the state’s highest court halted the reform, delaying implementation until September 18, 2023.
Chicagoans will be victims of nearly 80,000 major crimes in 2023. That’s about 29,000 more crimes than in 2019 – an increase of nearly 60 percent. And it’s an 18 percent increase over last year.
Motor vehicle thefts and robberies are driving much of the increase in crime numbers.
Additionally, the number of inmates in Cook County jails has decreased dramatically in the last ten years before the Safe-T Act kicks in.
2013 marked a near-peak in the number of inmates in Cook County jails. Since then, the number of inmates has collapsed by more than half, reaching just 4,800 on 11/13/23. That’s the lowest number of people in jail in 40 years (excluding covid-impacted 2020). That drop reflects the ongoing push for decarceration and a reduction in efforts to deter crime. Included in that movement is Chief Judge Tim Evan’s 2017 low-bail reforms and, of course, the SAFE-T Act.
Since no-cash-bail went into effect on September 17th, the jail population has fallen 10 percent, to 4,817 from 5,419.
The Gateway Pundit reported on the brutal attack of 23-year-old flight attendant in Chicago a few days ago who was left unresponsive in a coma by a man who has already been arrested more than a dozen times in Illinois alone.
Is it any wonder that the city’s far left mayor Brandon Johnson has been in office for barely six months and yet already earned a historically low approval rating of 28%?
2023 #Chicago crimes set to hit post-covid record, up nearly 60% and 18% over 2019 and 2022, respectively.
And #CookCounty jail population falls to lowest level in 40 years. Down 10% since no-cash bail. Via @Wirepointshttps://t.co/3YP9iyQpTO #twill @GovPritzker @ChicagosMayor pic.twitter.com/WzcGMPo36q
— Wirepoints (@Wirepoints) November 14, 2023
