After a Year of Record Crime, Illinois Democrats Still Defending Disastrous Criminal Justice “Reforms”

AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott

In January of 2021, the Democrat-controlled state legislature of Illinois passed one of the most radical pieces of criminal justice “reform” legislation anywhere in the country. The bill, which was straight out of the “Defund the Police” handbook, paved the way for a massive spike in murders, carjackings, and robberies, particularly in Chicago and the surrounding areas. But now, with the end of the legislative session quickly approaching, Illinois Democrats are dragging their feet about doing anything to address rampant crime – and may even be looking to double down on their failed policies.

Following the 2020 death of George Floyd and the riots which followed, progressives in Illinois aggressively pushed for new criminal justice legislation to address what they referred to as “disparities” in policing. The result of that effort was the passage of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act. Democrats and activists celebrated the bill as “big, bold, complex, and transformational.”

Among other things, the bill changed a rule that allowed prosecutors to charge felons with murder if their felony act led to the death of another person; contained a provision that would end all cash bail by 2023; and aggressively constrained who could be held in pretrial detention.

The pretrial detention provision is particularly notable for how radical of a change it represents from the previous system. Under the new requirements, only those charged with a handful of the worst felonies can be detained before their trial, and only when there is a “specific physical threat to someone.” Proponents of the bill celebrated that it had the potential not to actually reduce crime, but rather reduce the number of criminals who are incarcerated, thereby artificially shrinking the state’s prison population.

Republicans criticized the law for being passed “without having any public or Republican involvement in those discussions.” Much of the bill wasn’t made available to the public until it had already been signed, enraging law enforcement advocates and victims of violent crime.

Republicans, community leaders, and police also criticized the bill for several alarming restrictions it now placed on law enforcement. The Illinois Sheriffs’ Association pointed out that, under the new law, police cannot remove unwanted strangers from a person’s outdoor property, prevent bystanders from walking through active crime scenes, forcibly remove suspects screaming obscenities in commercial establishments, or, most unsettlingly, use force against an active shooter once he or she flees the scene.

Following Illinois Governor J.B. Prtizker’s signing of the bill into law, Chicago saw its deadliest year in a quarter of a century. There were more homicides in the Windy City than in any other American city and a statewide rise in murders, carjackings, and thefts.

A few specific cases from the past year capture just how devastating the bill has been to law and order in the state. Last month, a man engaged in a gun battle with another induvial that left an innocent bystander dead. Later that same week, another man initiated a gun battle at a birthday party that left another innocent bystander dead. Typically, both of these individuals would be facing first-degree murder charges. As a result of the SAFE-T Act, however, no murder charges will be filed. Instead, both men will only face charges related to the illegal discharge of a weapon.

The law is also having a tremendously negative effect on law enforcement. This month, a Clark County police department was entirely shuttered, disbanded, and dissolved. A spokesman for the department blamed the closure on “unfunded mandates passed by the state.” He was referring to the slew of new regulations imposed by the SAFE-T Act – none of which were actually funded by the bill. This has become a favorite tactic of Defund the Police activists, who can gut police departments without having to deal with the bad optics of actually reducing police funding by simply imposing onerous regulations on law enforcement that departments have no way of meeting. There has also been a sharp uptick in police officers leaving the state, retiring from the force, or outright quitting, some specifically citing the law as their reason for doing so.

Amid the rampant lawlessness, severe public backlash has caused Democrats in the state legislature to backtrack on some of the most egregious provisions of the legislation, but Republicans and law enforcement groups argue that a so-called “trailer bill” did not go far enough to address their concerns. Even after reforms to the SAFE-T Act, people arrested for crimes like burglary, robbery without a weapon, and aggravated DUI that leads to a death must be released pending trial.

Nonetheless, Illinois Democrats have continued to bar Republicans from even participating in discussion over more legislation to address the issue, leading to fears from some GOP officials that another similarly radical piece of legislation could be on the way. While Democrats continue to insist they will do something to address crime, legislation has yet to materialize.

That leaves Illinois residents in an unenviable position. With Democrats enjoying large majorities in the state legislature and control of nearly every major elected office in the state, the disciples of Defund the Police who penned this legislation may be in power for some time. However, Republicans can still work to chip away at Democrats’ stranglehold on the state by communicating the disastrous consequences of liberal policies. Under the right conditions, voters may finally decide they’ve had enough.

Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.