Cashless bail for criminals has to be one of the dumbest ideas that blue-state justice systems have ever come up with, and as you probably know, that's setting the bar so low that you'd need James Cameron and his deep-sea vehicle to go find it. It's turbo-boosting those jurisdictions' already revolving-door systems. It frustrates cops who are sick of seeing perps back on the streets before the ink on their booking sheet is dry, and it is outraging citizens who are the targets of the goblins that prosecutors and judges are patting the goblins on the heads and setting them free.
In August, President Trump signed an executive order intended to crack down on jurisdictions that implement this lunacy.
Now, Congress is acting to slam the door harder.
Federal funding, and the ability to withhold it, is being used as an incentive within two proposals tied to violent crime and the judicial system.
Each was introduced last week in the U.S. Senate and on Monday came forward in the House of Representatives. District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act and Keep Violent Criminals Off Our Streets Act were each filed by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., with cosponsorship from a North Carolina congressman whose district is adjacent to where a woman was murdered Aug. 22 in Charlotte.
The cashless bail measure would not only end it in Washington but also across the nation through the strip of federal funding where policies and officials result in violent criminals getting back on the streets, Stefanik says. She said a suspect from Guatemala is free without bail following an Aug. 14 arrest and charged with four felonies and two misdemeanors.
This bill may well make it through the House of Representatives, where the Republicans hold a small majority. There are, of course, the usual squishy holdouts on a lot of Republican-introduced legislation, but this one seems a no-brainer. In the Senate, though, it will require some Democrat crossovers (I'm looking at you, Senator Fetterman) to pass the 60-vote filibuster margin.
That doesn't seem impossible. Just unlikely. There seems to be no idea so idiotic, these days, that left-wing Democrats won't get behind it. You have to give them credit for one thing: They do stick together.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., filed both bills in her chamber on Thursday.
Stefanik’s bill is backed by the National Association of Bail Agents.
“The National Association of Bail Agents & the NYS Bail Association are proud to stand with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's bill to end cashless bail policies in DC and across the nation!” said President Michelle Esquenazi. “We applaud Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's bold initiatives and leadership, and we are certain that this legislation will serve to protect the public safety of law-abiding citizens everywhere!”
Granted, the bail agents have a financial stake in this, but they have every right to look out for their financial interests. More to the point, the people who live in the increasingly crime-ridden portions of our disintegrating major cities have a much larger stake in it.
Read More: Trump to Baltimore, Chicago: 'We're Going In'
I will not mention the notorious recent North Carolina incident except to point out that it is a prime example of how so many local justice systems are failing the taxpayers. The perp in that case was in and out of jail so many times that it's dizzying, and yet he was free to attack a perfectly harmless, innocent young woman on a light rail train.
This isn't tenable. It can't continue. This bill, should it become law, will add statutory force to the measures already taken by President Trump. And it says a great deal about national Democrats that they will almost certainly oppose it.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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