CHICAGO – Black Lives Matter – Chicago is pleased with the massive law enforcement overhaul bill that passed during the last hours of the Illinois General Assembly's 101st Session last week. "Historic win for the people!!!!" the group's Facebook page posted hours after its passage.
BLM-Chi posted the Coalition to End Money Bond's explanation, "Since 2016, communities across Illinois have been rigorously organizing to end the racist and classist use of money bond. Today, after years of work by the Coalition to End Money Bond and the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, and following a nationwide uprising demanding racial justice last summer, the state legislature has just passed the Pretrial Fairness Act as part of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’ criminal justice reform bill, HB 3653 SFA2. Among other things, this bill will overhaul the state’s pretrial justice system and end the use of money bond in its entirety. It also makes many people ineligible for pretrial incarceration. Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign the bill into law."
But for those concerned about law enforcement and public safety, the assessment of HB 3653 Amendment 2 is very different.
“Without hyperbole, [HB 3653] seems to all but mandate the immediate pretrial release of drug-dealers, arsonists, and drunk drivers irrespective of their likelihood of re-offending, the danger they pose generally to the public, or their willingness to comply with conditions of their release,” McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said in a statement. “That is absurd and out of step with the expectations that victims and Illinoisans have for their justice system.”
HB 3653 passed the Illinois General Assembly with no Republican votes. Democrats, which hold super-majorities in both chambers, celebrated their victory.
GOP state Senator Dave Syverson was outraged with the bill and the way the bill was presented to the lawmakers.
"January 13th at 3:30 a.m., after all the press had left the Capitol, the sponsors of this legislation dropped their 700-page bill and it was voted on one hour later at 4:30 a.m. In addition, they changed the bill number before the vote to confuse the public, then they only allowed two Senators to ask questions. No matter how you look at it, it was wrong. No legislation should ever be passed without an open public process," Syverson said in a letter to his Rockford area constituents.
He went on to list other dramatic changes to law enforcement included in HB 3653, Amendment 2. The bill:
- Removes due process protections for Police Officers, including eliminating sworn affidavits and punishing them based on anonymous, unverified complaints.
- Eliminates cash bail; everyone is eligible for pre-trial release unless petition is filed for denial.
- Severely limits accountability for accomplices to murder by dramatically amending the Felony Murder Rule.
- Makes it harder to prosecute those resisting or obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, or correctional employee.
- Significantly limits offenders being detained, which will pose a significant risk to victims, witnesses to crime and the community at-large.
- Restricts use of tear gas and rubber bullets during protests and riots.
- Defensive chokeholds would be banned.
- Requires all law enforcement agencies to phase in body cameras without any resources to help fund the cost.
Senator Jason Plummer (R-Maryville) condemned the measure as "a dangerous criminal justice proposal that would endanger our law enforcement personnel, families and communities while also essentially defunding the police."
During the heat of 2020 summer riots – many organized by Black Lives Matter – Illinois US Senator Dick Durbin met with Black Lives Matter representatives in Springfield. The group was calling for the defunding of police nationwide. Durbin told the representatives he had signed onto legislation called the Justice in Policing Act, sponsored by Democrat Senators Corey Booker and Kamala Harris (now vice-president elect).
“The likelihood that we will pass something in Congress and be signed by this president that could change things across America dramatically is a long, long shot,” Durbin said in a June 2020 story by NPR. “We need to try to do it on a bipartisan basis.”
